On Wednesday, our friends, Jim and Ann, drove 2 hours from Vero Beach to Disney to spend the day with us.  They used to be our neighbors at our condo in NH before we sold it back in 1996.  They spend their summers in NH and their winters here in their beautiful home in Vero Beach.  It’s funny that we only visit them in Florida each year when we could drive a mere 3 hours to visit them in NH. Maybe we’ll break the habit this summer  – we’ll visit them in NH and they’ll visit us on our boat!

They have been to Disney a number of times over the past few years but being at Fort Wilderness and taking the boats was a new experience for them.  Luckily it was a beautiful day weather wise so we took them over to the Wilderness Lodge, then over to the Grand Floridian where they treated us to lunch at the Grand Floridian Cafe. There aren’t too many places open for lunch at least ones that you don’t need to drive to so that is why we chose to go to the Grand Floridian Cafe. Jim, Rob and I had Reuben sandwiches with cucumber salad or home made potato chips while Ann had the Grand Sandwich (open-faced hot Turkey, Ham, Bacon and Tomato with a rich Boursin Cheese Sauce and Fried Onion Straws). Good food, good service and great ambiance!

After lunch, we roamed around the Grand Floridian some more and then jumped on the monorail. We got off at the first stop, the Polynesian Resort which was one of two resorts at Disney when it opened in 1971. The lobby is located in the Great Ceremonial House which is flanked by 11 2 and 3 story longhouses, built to resemble a royal Tahitian assembly lodge. We wandered through the Ceremonial House which has a lovely tropical garden with a water fall in the center, several restaurants and gift shops. On display at one of the gift shops was this rather strange picture of Steve Jobs.

Outside is the Naneo Volcano Pool which has a 40 foot high volcano with a waterfall and tubular water slide.

After we were through exploring this resort, Rob had left his hat at the Grand Floridian Cafe so we took the monorail back to there. That’s us waiting for him on the balcony. Once he had his hat, it was back on the monorail for a ride to Epcot.

Taking the monorail to Epcot is nice because it actually goes through Epcot so even though you don’t want to get off, you can get the general flavor of Epcot and see a lot of the attractions. More about Epcot in the next post.

Finally it was time to end our grand tour and return back to Fort Wilderness. Jim and Ann stayed until 6:30-ish, then they headed home.  What a fun day!  Perfect weather, great lunch, wonderful friends and the magic of Disney – what more could you ask for?

More photos…