We ordered in breakfast room service at a quarter till eleven. We got a nice big breakfast with eggs and toast and waffles and a continental bread basket and tea. We sat out on the balcony and ate as the weather wasn’t so muggy today. While we were eating the newlyweds that we met on Sunday evening walked by on the path under our balcony so we got to say hi to them again.

We spent the middle of the day just relaxing on the balcony and drinking tea after we had the room all packed. We checked out at one and gave our luggage to the valet services to keep for us until it was time to leave. They take care of everything for you when you use the Magical Express. You can just leave your luggage in your room and have bell services take it to the valet who have storage for it and will then load it on to your bus going to the airport for you so that you never have to do anything with it at all. Very handy.

We did some shopping for a while and spent a bit of time relaxing on the porch of the lodge where the Silver Creek runs out of the lobby and down towards the waterfall. There were several ducks playing in the creek which was very cute and relaxing to watch.

For dinner we decided to try out the Whispering Canyon Cafe which some people had told us was really good. It is right in the lobby of the Wilderness Lodge so it could not have been any handier for us. It is a full service restaurant but much more family oriented and not fancy like Artist Point.

Lunch was great. Dominica got an enchilada made with quinoa and I got whiskey maple glazed trout. The really cool piece of the meal was the bottomless milkshake that, on this particular day, was available in vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, bubblegum or cotton candy! I, of course, got it in bubblegum which was awesome. The food was really good and, once again, no room for appetizers or dessert. The price was good too. We had several full, sit down meals where we were surprised by how inexpensive it is.

One thing that we definitely learned on this trip is that the Disney Dining Plan doesn’t make any sense for us. We eat fewer meals per day and more “fancy” meals (all sit down – no counter service) than the plans really account for and we don’t tend to use the drinks and often not the appetizers that come with them but often get other things, like the milkshake, that are not included. Had we done this trip on the dining plan we would have paid between slightly more and almost double for each and every meal that we ate, and from watching other people use the dining plan it seems to be a bit more hassle than just charging the room. So our way gives us better flexibility and saves us money. No upside to the dining plan that we could find.

The bus took us at four over to the airport. We were there with about two hours to kill before boarding time. I did some reading in my book while we were waiting to get on the flight. We were just early enough that Continental offered to bump us to an earlier flight but because we had checked one bag we were not able to do so. So we were stuck when we could have been home around six in the evening. We might have even been able to get Oreo if things had gone really well.

The flight went well and because the trip home was longer than the trip heading south they had a movie available for us to watch so we got to see The Spiderwick Chronicles which was pretty cool as it was a movie that we had wanted to see anyway. It was extra cool as the DVD is scheduled to release until June 24th. It was a pretty good movie too and really helped pass the time. Also helping to pass the time was the loads of free ginger ale and Scotch that they kept giving us on the half-empty flight. Dominica and I had a three seat row to ourselves and all that we could drink. They even gave me a couple Scotches to take home with me as they didn’t need anymore. We were very happy with our flight!

It was pretty late when we got home. We took a taxi back to Eleven80, picked up our packages that had arrived while we were gone and headed for bed. While we were gone the rosebush got spider mites and was dead. It had been in pretty rough shape before so that was no surprise. The mandarin and the tree by my desk seem to be doing well and the ivy seems to be okay. Neither palm seems too happy although the one near my desk is probably okay. The one by the loveseat has spider mites now too and is all but dead.

I was awfully tired this morning after having worked until eleven thirty last night and then having the alarm go off at four thirty this morning. I actually woke up three minutes before the alarm all on my own which at least saved me from being jolted awake by the alarm itself.

No matter how much work we do ahead of time to get ready for traveling there is always way too much to be done at the last minute like packing my CPAP, laptop, getting the plants ready, etc.

We got a taxi at six to take us to Newark-Liberty International. The went smoothly and we were at the airport with plenty of time to kill before our flight. We got through security and relaxed until it was time to fly. We grabbed a breakfast at a steak place that did big egg and cheese on sub rolls just before flying.

I starting reading “Dreaming in Code” this morning. That’s the only book that I am taking on the trip with me. That and a few back issues of Baseline that I haven’t had a chance to read yet.

We flew Continental to Orlando which was a nice change as the flight was direct and about an hour shorter overall and less expensive too. The flights went quite well. Dominica has been nervous about flying because she gets motion sickness and can’t take Dramamine anymore but she use SeaBands and they actually worked wonderfully for her (although personally I think that it is a placebo – but hey, whatever works.)

We landed in Orlando and took Disney’s Magical Express to our hotel. The Magical Express is a Disney chartered bus operated by Mears (who does all of the good Orlando area transportation) that takes you directly from the airport to the hotel and deals with everything for you. It is really a nice touch for people staying at a Disney resort and it is free which helps to mitigate the cost of a Disney resort versus staying outside of the park. It also helps to make the experience more integrated so that you feel like you are in Disney World from the moment that you step off of the plane. (From a business perspective it also allows Disney to completely cut you off from any of their competitors in the area keeping you completely focused on Disney activities and curtailing the desire to sample other parks or resorts – which is actually good, I think, because people who do that always dislike the region, in my experience – they ruin it for themselves and then confuse the cheap touristy stuff in the Orlando area with Disney stuff.)

The Magical Express dropped us at our hotel, Disney’s Wilderness Lodge, which is located in the Magic Kingdom resort area but is not on the monorail. The Wilderness Lodge is located on Bay Lake very near the Contemporary Resort but its principle access to the Magic Kingdom is via a water ferry that takes you right up to the main gates very quickly. We decided to take care of our own bags rather than to have the Magical Express check them through for us. That is a nice service that allows you to go straight to the parks without even thinking twice about your hotel stay, but most of the time we prefer to have our bags and access to them right away. If the Magical Express deals with them then they take an additional three hours to get to your room because they come on a separate bus and you don’t have access to them right away.

We got checked in and were into our room, a pool view room on the inside of the courtyard on the second floor, around one in the afternoon. We relaxed for a little while. We decided that because it is so hot today that we were going to skip going into the parks today and just take it easy and do some resort activities instead. We come to Disney more than often enough to have little drive to get in and do things in the parks themselves.

Around three we took the water ferry over to the Magic Kingdom and from there took the Animal Kingdom Lodge bus to the AKL as we had five thirty dinner reservations at Boma – which since we have started promoting it has become an insanely busy restaurant which is nearly impossible to get into anymore. Reservations are a must and if you want any choice of times you need to think about it weeks in advance even during moderately slow times of year! What used to be a niche restaurant in a niche resort is now one of the Disney hottest commodities.

As always, the bus service to the AKL took forever. Disney hasn’t figured out how to deal with the far-flung resorts that are accessible only by bus yet and it can easily take an hour to go from the Magic Kingdom to the lodge which is a major problem. Disney has started putting tons of great restaurants and activities out in their resorts – which is great – but because of this the transportation system is strained beyond capacity and getting around the parks can be a major hassle even for Disney resort guests at deluxe resorts who never leave WDW!

We weren’t too early getting to the Animal Kingdom Lodge – our timing was quite good, in fact. Dinner was awesome, as always, although several of our favourite items were not on tonight’s menu so there were several things that we were left wanting. But everything that they had was awesome. Our server was Lindsay, from Buffalo, who was also our server last May when we ate at Boma! You know that you eat at a restaurant at Disney a lot when you start knowing people.

After dinner we went outside to look at the savanna for a few minutes but it was incredibly hot and we decided not to stay for any length of time.

We took the bus over to the Disney Hollywood Studios because, again a major problem with Disney transportation, there is no direct route from the AKL to the Epcot Resort area with the Boardwalk where we wanted to go. So we went first to Hollywood Studios and then down to its boat docks where we could catch the ferry that runs between the Swan, Dolphin, Beach, Yacht, Boardwalk, Epcot and Hollywood Studios. Sounds incredibly indirect but it is the best means of which we are aware of traveling between the AKL and the Boardwalk.

On the bus ride over people were starting to talk about the large fire that could be seen not too far away. No one seemed to know what it was but there was a massive smoke cloud beginning to rise above the trees making the sky fairly dark even though it was not overcast.

We just missed the boat for the Boardwalk so we had about twenty minutes to sit and wait at the docks. From the Hollywood Studios boat launch looking due east the fire was huge and appeared to be not too far past the woods there. There was a helicopter or two circling the fire as well. The fire was so intense that even where we were the whole area was getting covered in ash as it started to fall from the sky. It was really weird. We could only barely smell smoke as the smoke itself was going far above us but the debris was coming down and was all over the ground and our clothes. Really large pieces of ash were coming down and it was constant. I have never seen anything like it. No one ever figured out where the fire was, though.

I took a careful look on Google Maps from where we were standing and the direction that we were facing it had to be somewhere around Disney’s Caribbean Beach resort, Typhoon Lagoon or Disney Downtown. The distance didn’t seem to be that far so I think that that is about as far as it could have been but it is impossible to gauge. There are many resorts right after Disney Downtown and then outside of the park that is a heavily populated area so there is a lot out there that could have been burning. We have been unable to find any news sources confirming this massive fire which is really, really strange.

The boat ride was nice and pretty quick. The captain informed us that if we rode all the way to the Boardwalk that it would take an extra ten to fifteen minutes but if we disembarked at the very first stop, the Swan and Dolphin Resorts, that the footbridge lead right onto the Boardwalk and that it would only take two to three minutes. So we chose to do that instead. In reality it appears that the Boardwalk dock should just be combined with the Swan and Dolphin as it is incredibly close. I have no idea why they bother to have the separate one unless it just isn’t clear enough how to get to this “hidden” one that lies deceptively behind the Boardwalk rather than in front of it.

We took a walk down the length of the Boardwalk. This was Dominica’s first time ever actually on the Boardwalk although she had seen it from the Yacht and Beach Club resorts across the lake in 2005 when we had taken a bus to those resorts and then walked into Epcot from the world showcase entrance. We stopped at the Boardwalk Bakery and picked up some food for tomorrow morning and then we got some ice cream at the creamery there and sat out enjoying it on the Boardwalk itself.

We didn’t stay for very long as there isn’t very much to do on the Boardwalk if you don’t feel like drinking and even then you really need to be prepared to stay out pretty late, and staying out late on the Boardwalk leaves you with the issue of how to get back home as this is a large area with no late running transportation back to the Disney resorts even though it is a prime spot for Disney nightlife. Again, a major transportation oversight with the potential to leave deluxe resort guests stranded while still on Disney property!

We hopped the boat back to the Hollywood Studios and from there caught the bus back to the Wilderness Lodge. It was quite early for going back to the hotel but our day started very early and we needed to catch up on some sleep desperately. So we just hung around the resort for the evening. We took a walk down by the geyser and along the Silver Creek that flows through the resort. There isn’t a lot to see but it is worth a walk around. We did a little window shopping at the Mercantile as well. Then off to an early bed. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.

This morning I finished reading “Agile Java Development with Spring, Hibernate and Eclipse” by Anil Hemrajani.

Today is my work from home with Oreo day. Oreo has been really exhausted and is really happy about being home today. He and I both slept in this morning making for a ten hour night or so! We both needed the rest. Then he moved to the living room and slept while I worked not asking for his breakfast until after two in the afternoon.

I ordered some new books from Amazon last night: “Java Persistence with Hibernate” (aka Hibernate in Action, Second Edition), “POJOs in Action: Developing Enterprise Applications with Lightweight Frameworks” and “Spring in Action, 2nd Edition“.

It is a really nice, bright and sunny day so I took Oreo for a nice walk in the park.  Today is my last day with Oreo until Wednesday night – a whole week without my little dog – so I want to spend as much quality time with him as possible.  It is very sad to have to go so long without him.  The original plan was to have him stay at Dominica’s parents’ house with Dexter for the weekend.  But then we realized that we wouldn’t be able to pick Oreo up until next weekend making us go about eight or nine days without him plus once we worked out the mileage and cost it is far cheaper to send Oreo to daycare.  The cost of transferring him involve twelve people hours of drive time and 880 total miles which, when factoring in gas and wear and tear, is quite a bit more expensive than four or five nights at daycare.  And at daycare the money is going to nice people rather than up in exhaust fumes.

Dominica got all of our dinner reservations for Walt Disney World made today.  We have reservations for Boma in the Animal Kingdom Lodge, Artist Pointe at the Wilderness Lodge and the Brown Derby in Disney Studios.  Boma used to be slow and you could just walk in on most days but since we have been telling everyone about it it has become one of the most popular eating destinations in Disney and is nearly impossible to get into these days.

I ended up having a really busy work night tonight so Min and I didn’t get to spend much time together.  We watched a little AppleTV and ate a quick dinner together but I was paged out during dinner and several times after we ate.  As it was I had worked solid until around seven thirty.

My “free time” ended when my networking team got done with a production issue and were able to help me with a networking problem that we had been waiting on all day.  So I got stuck working late into the night trying to get a machine fixed.  So I lost a lot of my last night with Oreo too. 

I worked until one thirty and then gave up for the night.  Tomorrow is Friday and it is going to be an exceptionally long one for me as I have quite a bit of weekend work that needs to be completed and since I am gone for the weekend it has to be done tomorrow evening.  So my night is really going to go late.  Plus it is Friday so it always goes late.

Dominica and I fly out of Newark early Saturday morning so we have to be up around five thirty in order to make it to the airport on time.  I am going to be pretty tired by the time that we reach Florida.  We are guessing that we are not even going to bother going into the parks on Saturday.  We will arrive in Orlando at 11:30 in the morning and should be in the resort around 12:30 via Disney Transportation from the airport.  It will take us a little while to settle in and then we have dinner reservations at Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge at 5:30.  It could easily take an hour to go from the Wilderness Lodge to the Animal Kingdom Lodge so it leaves a rather small window to go to the parks.

After dinner it will be rather late for burning a day pass to the parks and so we will be most likely to just go to the Boardwalk and relax for a little while and then will likely spend the evening relaxing at the Wilderness Lodge.  It is a nice resort that you should, in theory, want to hang out at so we will give that a try.  The Animal Kingdom Lodge definitely came through in that department last year.

Saturday we are planning to be up early and to hit the Magic Kingdom first thing, I think.  Dominica has a pretty rigorous schedule planned for most of the time that we are there.  We have dinner reservations back at the Wilderness Lodge’s Artist Pointe on Saturday night so the Magic Kingdom makes a lot of sense since it is so close to the lodge.

Monday morning we are planning on going to Disney Studios which opens early that day.  We want to be among the first to ride on Toy Story Mania which opens this weekend there.  That is the only actual new ride for us this year.  We will have to do the Great Movie Ride while we are there – it is the one truly amazing attraction in Disney Studios.  Then at eleven in the morning we have early lunch reservations at the Brown Derby restaurant in the studios which is the best restaurant in that park.  The menu looks awesome and neither of us has ever tried it.