Wednesday was designed to have a slow start. Margie had a half-day session. I was footsore, and Kitten was tired. She and I dawdled over breakfast, took a walk around the resort, and then hopped on the boat for Downtown Disney, where we were to meet Margie later on.
We got there, wandered a bit, then Katherine spotted a face painting booth. She opined that she Really, Truly, Absolutely Wanted To Do That — and I thought, what the heck, why not? So she did, a beautiful princess eye make up, cheeks, crown, lips. Very fun, and she was excellent at holding still and keeping her eyes closed.
We met up with Margie a few minutes after that, and visited Santa. The pics weren’t bad, but not worth the inflated picture package (especially since I had my camera). Segue over to the Lego store and play space, full of great fun (it’s really getting to be about time for Kitten to get some Standard Size Lego at home) (and they have a really cool Advent Calendar set, by the way). Then lunch at (of all places) McDonalds. Then …
Shop until we drop. DD has the best collection of Disney stores at the park, and we’ve often had good luck at finding stuff for people. We still had a fair number of “DW stuff” and “DW ornaments” on the list, but, about four hours, an ice cream stop, and several shops thereafter, most (if not all) of that was cleaned off. And we were, for the moment, exhausted.
But only for the moment, for tonight was to be — Margie and Dave Night!
First, a swing past the hotel to freshen up. Then off to the Wilderness Resort — a lovely Ahwanee-like lodge just south of the Contemporary. It has on-site babysitting (4 hrs max), and we dropped Kitten off there.
Then hustle bunnies down to Downtown Disney once more. We really didn’t want to chew up all our time (so to speak) eating dinner, so we ended up trying for a quick bite at Planet Hollywood. It was my first time there, and it was — um, interesting. Wildly overpriced burgers and sloppy service, coupled with zillions of interesting Hollywood tchochkes up on the walls. High point for me was spotting (and identifying from beneath) an actual Jupiter II model.
But, in the end, it wasn’t an experience I plan to repeat any time soon.
Dinner left a bad taste in our mouths (somewhat figuratively), but it was the evening’s entertainment that we were looking forward to (aside from must plain ol’ looking forward to spending time with just each other): the Adventurers Club on Pleasure Island.
Too. Much. Fun.
A multi-room comedy/skit club, modeled after a 1937 travel/adventure club (holding an open house for new members). It’s a fine, fine time, which we’d enjoyed tremendously last time out.
Some of the skits were the same, of course (though that adds to the fun). And, alas, the yakoose mugs for the signature Kungaloosh drink had been replaced by monkeynut mugs (coconuts carved as monkeys) — though our having brought our old mugs marked us as special alums to the cast there.
But it was, all in all, a ripping good time, full of laughter and merriment. I recommend a night there (plan on at least three hours) to any visitor.
We had a scosh less than that, all told, and we raced back up to pick up Katherine — who’d had an okay time, but had become worried (when she was the last one there) that we were going to leave her overnight. We gave her lots of love and affection and reassurance that we wouldn’t do that without telling her first, and we headed home.
WDW Tip: Do not schedule an early morning Princess Breakfast the day after a late night Adventurers Club soiree.