Although they were very tired, the girls were up and ready in plenty of time for our 9am breakfast reservation at Cape May café. This breakfast is Winnie’s favourite, and one we all love not just because we enjoy the food and more chilled out character interactions, but because we get to see our lovely cast member friend, Megan.We debated taking the monorail and walking through Epcot, but decided to just get a Lyft instead. If you’re staying at the DVC part of the Polynesian, you can get picked up in the car park there rather than outside the lobby, which saves a bit of time.
We arrived at the restaurant a bit early but were able to check in and were seated almost immediately. We immediately got a huge hug from Megan, which was so nice. We then sat down and almost immediately met Daisy. If you haven’t eaten here before, the character interaction is always great. The tables are nicely spaced out and rarely full, so the characters get to come around at a nice pace and you never feel rushed. They also often come round more than once, and do a little dance party at times. Plus, the food is always fresh with loads of choice. All the characters today were a lot of fun, especially Donald and Goofy who seemed to have had too much caffeine! Their handlers definitely had their work cut out!
Donald came over to the table and asked the girls for their autographs, which absolutely made their day. They also got to give him and Daisy a little gift, which they’ve been wanting to do forever, so they left the meal very happy. We did have a virtual queue place for Guardians, but as we left the meal it was still showing an approximate 2 hour wait until our turn, and as we did the park yesterday we decided that we’d rather head back to the hotel.
As it turned out, Polly asked to have a nap when we got back which lasted 2 hours (unsurprisingly Steve offered to stay with her and may possibly have rested his eyes for a minute or two!) whilst Winnie and I set off to the pool. Except we never made the pool because we ended up in the shops. Now, as a family, we are definitely not big shoppers. I remember taking the girls to Derby once when they were about 3 and 4 to watch a show at the theatre, and walking into the shopping centre at which point Polly asked why we were at an airport, because that’s the only time they’d been to a place with lots of shops! However, Winnie definitely got the shopping gene! She loves it, and can spend hours in one shop examining everything. And that’s exactly what she did! Who knew one shop could hold so many bucket hats worthy of trying in, so many pins to be examined in microscopic detail, and so many cups that needed testing for how easy they would be for me and my gammy fingers to hold! The only thing that finally got her out of there was the suggestion of a dole whip!
About an hour and a half had passed by this point, so we decided to head back to see if Polly was awake yet. On the way Winnie checked out the activity board and noticed that there was a make your own kukui nut lei activity which she thought Polly would like starting soon. We got back to the room and woke sleeping beauty from their slumber, and woke Polly too, before heading back to do the activity. There were two options, a long one and a shorter one which was slightly cheaper, so they opted for the shorter one (with no adult persuasion, of course!!)
As they were making them Chip, Dale and Daisy came into the lobby so they jumped up for a photo with Dale. The lobby meets are lovely but pretty chaotic, and you kind of have to just jump in for a photo. The girls really aren’t the pushy types so everyone was jumping in ahead of them, until Dale took their hands and walked them off to the statue area away from everyone. It was so nice that he noticed how they’d hung back. He then spent a while telling them he liked to eat the flowers, and they talked about his groovy moves at the Moonlight Magic party. The characters really don’t hang around long, and left very soon after so the girls got back to their leis. Polly kept threading her beads in the wrong order so I think I untied as many knots as I tied, but they loved the finished result.
We then headed to the pool for the girls to play the games there for a few hours. They really enjoy the activities at the Polynesian, and I enjoy the fact that the pool water is actually cold!! We had no plans for tea, but the girls suggested Ohana. Now, I’m always very torn with Ohana. Whilst I know there’s a lot of food, and that it’s usually pretty good, I still think it’s very expensive, and I’d actually said we’d go to Tambu lounge instead this trip. However, we’ve reached that point in the trip where it’s almost home-time, and saying no just feels too mean, and so I checked the app and booked a table for us (well, for us and an extra imaginary person as we could get a table for 5 at pretty much any time but no tables for 4).
It actually turned out to be a really good night. We demolished the food (apart from the steak which was a bit like shoe leather it was that well done, and we were only given two extra pieces when we asked for some cooked medium rare!) and it was so nice not to have to think about getting to and from a reservation.
After the meal we decided on a much needed early night, so the girls settled down to watch the Emporer’s New Groove and just about managed to stay awake for the whole thing. It’s been a lot more relaxed today but very much needed. We’re all feeling the effects of a lot of heavy days so it was nice to rest a little. Although I never want to step foot in the Polynesian shop ever again!
Doodle & Peg Do Disney 