Moving Day

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To answer questions from my previous Disney post, yes, it did "snow" during the Osborne family Christmas light show. I felt very clean afterwards. =) (In case you didn't know, most fake "snow" is really mild soap suds.) The zepplin is from the original "Journey to Imagination" ride in the Imagination! pavilion. I can't believe nobody got that one! Teresa was close, but she didn't seem to remember the ride...that's where Figment was introduced. Sing with me now..."Eeee-mag-i-nay-shun, ee-mag-i-nay-shun...a dream can be a dream come true, with just that spark...in me and you...."

Back to your regularly scheduled recap...Tuesday of our Disney vacation, we had to change hotels, because there was no one hotel with space available for our entire stay. Luckily, Disney has a service that will transfer your luggage for you...we were envisioning spending a couple hours of the day lugging suitcases onto and off of various buses. As it was, we grabbed a couple cups of tea and headed off to play miniature golf:


We started off at the course nearest us, Winter Summerland, near Blizzard Beach.
The story goes that it was the perfect vacation spot for the North Pole gang, since the freak blizzard that dumped snow in Florida (the backstory of Blizzard Beach) created a comfortable environment for the elves, while Santa got his tan on at the beach (*shudder*...now that's a scary mental picture). As a result, half of the course is beach-themed...

...and half is snow-themed...


...and most all of it is Christmas-themed. This picture is just as I'm making a most disturbing putt landing the ball stuck on the tracks of the train that was traveling around the base of the tree. Several failed bank shots later and my near-course-record score had gone the way of dense and plaster-like fruitcake. When I say, "half the course," I mean, obviously, 18 holes.

After doing the 36 holes, we went to lunch at Beaches 'n' Cream, which was way smaller than I remember, but still had great hamburgers. As a bonus, we got to see a family order the "Kitchen Sink". It is, as the menu says, "scoops of vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, coffee and mint chocolate chip, smothered in every topping we have" (emphasis mine). A red flashing light goes off as the creation is escorted to the table. I jumped up and took a picture of the family with the pile-o-fatty-goodness, since the cast members seemed to harried to suggest such a thing. Michael and I shook our heads sadly as we looked over later to see the amount of ice cream left over. If only they'd invited us to share, we could've saved all that waste...oh, the starving kids in China! (Or wherever they are currently. That's where my folks always said they were when I couldn't choke down my salmon patties.)

After lunch we walked to The Dolphin and checked in, then we had a pleasant stroll to Fantasia Gardens for another 18 holes of mini-gold to round out our day. Sadly, I have no pictures of this fantastic course...since we've played it so many times, it didn't seem "novel" enough to photograph. But if you're only going to do one course at Disney, I recommend this one. The holes are much more challenging than Winter Summerland, but the fantastic themeing is so worth it.

This might sound like a lot of miniature golf, but by my count, our record of 108 holes in 48 hours in Gatlinburg remains unchallenged.


That night, we went to the luau at The Polynesian. I was disappointed to learn that there was no poi on the menu, but the food was fabulous! Our server (who was adorable and reminded me of Hazel) brought us extra pineapple, which we devoured. The ribs were awesome! Take a look at the spread:

Michael decided to order a drink...he really couldn't help himself...

Pele's Fire Punch The Volcano Goddess' (sic) blend of Light Rum, Dark Rum, Banana Liquor, Blackberry Brandy, Pineapple Juice, and Grenadine served in an authentic souvenir hand-carved Monkey Coconut. YOU KEEP THE COCONUT!

I mean, come on. Coconut monkey??? How can you resist that?

I'm not sure if my favorite part of the coconut monkey was that it was stamped "HAVE FUN", had a label telling you it was also a bank and you should "TAKE ME HOME!", or that it was "hand carved" in the great Polynesian locale of China.

What a ham.

JiffNotes
Mini golf and coconut monkeys...now that's a vacation.