We arrive well before normal check-in time as our plan is to spend the day at one of the pools before our much-anticipated dinner at Victoria & Albert's. We are greeted by a gentlemen who takes us up to the concierge level and does all the check-in arrangements on an Ipad while we sit and relax. He gives us our MagicBands, which will act as our room key and we can also charge everything we buy at any Disney property directly to the credit card on file just by tapping the band; and not just for the duration of our stay in the hotel - for the duration of our trip here. Our Fastpasses are saved here too, so this is basically the only thing we really need to take into the parks. What a great system.
OK but here is one system that is NOT great; they will text you when your room is ready. Seems simple, right? Problem is it just never works. Not here, not at the Grand Californian.... it just doesn't work for Canadian numbers even though they swear it should. Anyway, no huge deal, since I'm aware it's not going to work I just check in every once in a while to see if our room is ready. It doesn't really matter much since we are going to the pool.
And what a pool. Lots of comfortable chairs, a huge pool, huge hot tub (I'm going to try to resist going on a rant about the temperature of the hot tub though...because it is filled with toddlers, and if a hot tub is a comfortable temperature for toddlers, it's not hot enough!!), and a restaurant/bar. Everything you need for a lovely day at the pool.
Tracey loves the sun, and I do not. Generally an hour at a pool is about all I can stand. Today is an exception though, it's just so damn nice and the weather is as close to perfect as it could be. Literally not a cloud in the sky. Hot but not humid, and the pool is the perfect temperature. Tracey is in Heaven.
3:00 PM - It's check-in time so our room is pretty likely ready, so I head to the front desk to find out. Yes it is ready, the cast member tells me as he seems to get very excited to tell me where our room is. I paid for a small upgrade; for a view. Nothing much, there were lots of more expensive rooms. He goes on to tell me we have a very special view and our room is in a "secret" hallway. We are on the 2nd floor but you can't get there from the 2nd floor, you have to go up to 3 and take a hidden hallway down to another elevator to get to our room. The bellman gets our bags and while he is showing me to the room, tells me that this is how they get VIP's in and out of the building without being seen. LOL. In fact, it turns out that there is a certain SNL-Sarah Palin impersonator in the hotel right now. We didn't run into her.
We get the bags into the room and I can't believe the view. Here it is.
So yeah, that's Cinderella's castle in the background.
I go back to the pool to tell Tracey about the view and she is giddy. We are going to be able to watch the fireworks from our room after dinner tonight.
4:30 PM - Up in the room and "The Process (TM)" is well underway for dinner. I realize that I left most of my suit hanging in the back seat of the car like a moron. I have to call down and get someone to go to my car, which is in valet, and get it for me.
There seems to be ONE problem with this day, and it's that I seem to be getting a cold. You may remember I mentioned that I started the vacation with a cold; well, that one wasn't even totally gone yet. Can you even GET a cold on top of a cold?? Is it like stacking wilds on a slot machine in Vegas?!?!?
Thankfully we had some nose spray that I can use to keep my sinuses clear so that I can enjoy the food and wine at dinner. Hopefully things don't get any worse.
6:00 PM - We arrive at Victoria & Albert's. Stunning as we remember it is. We have "upgraded" this time from the regular dining room to the Queen Victoria room, which contains only 4 tables. We have two waiters designated for us all evening. It's quite an experience as we knew it would be.
I will do a full food/wine post on everything we enjoyed here later but for now, just a few pics from the evening:
And just one more:
10:00 PM - Four hours after dinner began we are back in the room just in time to see the start of the fireworks show. We have the perfect view. We are too far away to hear the audio accompanying it of course (the park is all the way across a huge lake), but it's still a nice treat.
Tracey (who I may have to start referring to as a mermaid given how much time she spends in the water) is off to another long bath in the huge jet tub we have and I am exhausted and going to bed. I'm out like a light before she is done her bath.
Tomorrow: more Grand Floridian fun, and the Magic Kingdom.
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