TigerKat and Johnny, our first DISmeet and another surprise!

We woke up early after having had an early night the day before and a little after 6am I realized that I still had one more day to wait until we could make our Dining Reservations for our summer trip. Well, our breakfast reservation at the Polynesian Resort was for 9.10am, so we went back to bed and watched a little TV, while sipping some coffee that was provided by the resort.

By 8.30 we were ready to leave and head over to the Polynesian for our breakfast. Once we arrived and checked in it only took about 5 minutes until we were led inside the restaurant and handed our menu. Our server was really quick to appear, we did not even have time to glance at the menu when she asked if we were ready to order. Well, we were not, but at least we ordered some Coffee for Tom and some Tea for me.

While she went to pick up the drinks we had some time to check the menu and decide on what we wanted to have. I actually was impressed they had a good selection of Hot Teas and I remembered that I wanted to try the Lilikoi Juice - passion fruit, orange and guava blend. Tom ordered the Big Kahuna - French toast, Macadamia-Pineapple pancakes, eggs, home fried potatoes, ham, bacon, and sausage. A HUGE breakfast, but very tasty. I tried the The Somoan - poached eggs with Hollandaise served over smoked pulled pork hash. It was not what I expected but nevertheless very tasty. Once we had finished our breakfast we hopped on the Monorail and went over to the Magic Kingdom. We were surprised to find the lines to be short at both the security check and the turnstiles.

Even though it was not as warm as we had expected it, it was wonderful to see the clear blue skies, especially above the castle. We took our time walking through the Emporium, looking for new merchandize and finally found ourselves in front of the castle. We then decided to hit Tomorrowland first and since the Peoplemover was a walk on this is what we chose as our first ride. We always love to ride the Peoplemover, such a relaxing ride and perfect for taking in the sights and people watching.

Once we got off we walked over to Space Mountain, but the standby line had a 90 minute wait and and Fastpasses were only available after 2pm, too late for us. So we headed towards Fantasyland, but all the rides had kind of quite a wait, so we went into the Haunted Mansion, which had a 10 minute wait posted, but was actually a walk on. Once we left the Haunted Mansion the crowds had picked up considerably and we slowly walked over to Big Thunder Mountain.

No way, people were lining up outside already, so we walked towards the Pirates of the Caribbean and both lines were open, so while most people went to the line on the right and we chose the one on the left. Well, our boat was a walk on, the other side had a little wait. We enjoyed the ride and once we got off we slowly walked towards the hub again and as it was past noon already we decided to leave the park and go back to the Polynesian for lunch at Captain Cooks.

We have often walked by Captain Cooks and even had a Dole Whip there, but we have never had lunch there. Inspired by MickeyNicki we chose the Aloha Pork Sandwich - pulled pork and lots of it in a really nice bun, cucumber, tomatoes and pineapple! It was messy to eat, but SOOOOOOOOOOOO good! The chips were so yummy too! They are a mix of tortilla chips, sweet potatoe chips and potato chips! Our other choice was the Hawaiian Flatbread.

Krispy base, ham, pineapple and lots of cheese. Large enough to share and really tasty! It was fun to order at the kiosks there, then being handed a buzzer and pick up the freshly prepared food a little later. It was really relaxing especially since the restaurant was practically empty, even around lunchtime. After we had finished our lunch we picked up our car and went back to the resort.

Once it was parked we headed up to our room, opened the door and the room had been done and ……. something was wrong there! I had placed the cooler we had gotten from Mary Ellen and Joe on the floor, now it was back up on the dresser. Tom noticed it too and while walking in we both joked about the fact that Mousekeeping must have moved it. Then I noticed that it had different ribbons and ………. wait ………..

I had removed the little note and put in a drawer! It was only then that it dawned on both of us – this was NOT the cooler we had received from Mary Ellen and Joe – this was a new one! We looked at the note and yip, it WAS a new cooler. Kathy and Mark, Nicki and Todd had sent us another cooler. It was full of more goodies, pretzels, Goldfish, Rice Krispy treats and much more! We got online and thanked our friends from the bottom of our hearts!

Then we retreated to our beds and nibbled on the new found goodies. By mid afternoon we got ready to go out again. We dug up the presents we had bought for Kat and Johnny, two friends, we had chatted with on the Disboards. By 4pm we were out the door and drove over to the Boardwalk to meet them at the BelleVue Lounge. We parked the car, walked up to the resort and were lost. After asking for the way to the BelleVue Lounge twice, we finally found it and were nervous! Would we recognize them, we had never met before or exchanged photos? Well, it actually was very easy as the lounge was still closed and they were the only people there. We were so happy to find out that they were such nice and sweet people. As we did not want to sit and wait for the lounge to open we went to the ESPN club for drinks.

We found four bar stools and climbed on, then started chatting and having fun. They are from New Orleans and it was so nice to see their enthusiasm for their city and the healing that took place since Hurricane Katrina. After chatting for about an hour we exchanged gifts. They had gotten us some speciality coffee from New Orleans. We then asked the bartender to take our photos with our various cameras. We could not stop laughing when he continuously took Kat’s camera, then turned it the wrong way around and took “snapshots” of his red shirt. It took him quite some time to figure out why we were laughing so hard and kept handing him the camera. A little while later it was time to say goodbye. Kat and Johnny had to get ready for their dinner at the Flying Fish Café and Tom and I had to get over to the Dolphin for our dinner at Todd English’s BlueZoo.

We arrived at the restaurant about 5 minutes early and were seated right on time, at a large round table. The server was very attentive and started telling us all about the cocktails, wine list and soft drinks. We both decided to get a ZooBerry, their signature cocktail, blueberry-infused Ketel One vodka with a splash of fresh lemon juice and rock-candy syrup. Very nice! We both ordered Diet Cokes. Soon after we were served a Breadbasket, with Onion Focaccia, Sourdough bread and a wafer thin Cheese Bread. They also served some Butter with it. A short while later our starter, which we shared came out. We had ordered The Yellowfin Tuna Tartare - from the "Olive's" table, twisted cucumber salad, crispy rock shrimp, orange glaze, scallion cream, which not only looked stunning, but tasted out of this world.