Rain, Rain Go Away

Today started out as a downpour that never let up. To top things off, I caught a cold and was sicker than a dog.

Mom and I had booked a reservation at the Crystal Palace for a Winnie the Pooh and Friends breakfast. The idea of children screaming along with being waterlogged with rain was not an appealing thought. But we muddled through the rain and wind and finally to our table at Crystal Palace.

We had the first booking which is ideal. The food was ready to go and Pooh came out immediately.. almost too quick. Mom went up to the buffet and completely missed Pooh.

Travel Tip: Book the earliest seating for a character breakfast. The little ones are still sleepy (i.e. quiet) and the dining area is just starting to roll out the characters. Great for photos.

The food was good but not great. Think typical buffet quality items with Mickey waffles (love that). It still was great to get a nice, big glass of orange juice. And our waitress was from Illinois, another plus to meet a fellow statie.

The characters here really made an effort to see every table. We have plenty of chances to take photos. The Pooh and Friends parade through the dining room was especially cute, even for us big kids.

The deluge that began left us with some big problems. Brave the parks or stay at the resort? We halved it. We took the monorail from the Magic Kingdom to the Contemporary Resort, hoping the rains would subside. The Contemporary was a place we stayed at back in the day. All I remember was metal tins filled with Donald Duck branded orange juice and the monorail. The resort didn’t “wow” me. It seemed cutting edge in 1992, today not so much.

We decided to brave the elements and head to Hollywood Studios for the rest of our day. This might have been a bad mistake because everything was waterlogged. The Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular was closed because of the high winds. But the crew didn’t announce this until after we waited in the seats for 45 minutes. The Backlot Tour was also closed due to the rain. That left only a few shows to see.

We did find that Beauty and the Beast was still performing. We sat through that and it almost looked like the rain was going to stop. But no it kept coming. The stage was so wet, stage hands had to mop down the floor after each scene. That didn’t affect the performances; they were outstanding.

Our choices were limited in what to see next. We chose The Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Cute but the effects were a little dated. One Man’s Dream was something we never would have went into if it wasn’t for the rain. Thank God we did. It had a lot of fascinating history of Walt Disney and his Disney empire. Too bad many people pass this up because it’s a must see.

We finally had enough of the rain and went back to Riverside. Before we turned in, Mom and I wanted to grab dinner at French Quarter. I kept hearing that the jambalaya was a not miss. Well apparently we missed it. Dinner didn’t start to 5:00 and we were here at 4:15. I settled on a shrimp po’boy, beignets and a free cup of gumbo (the cashier forgot to charge me for that). The food was good but I couldn’t help thinking how the jambalaya tasted. That concluded our day and we soggily made our way back to the Alligator Bayou.