Jill and Steve left for their cruise to Alaska early this morning. When Mom woke me up, we had to strip the beds and pack up all of our stuff to leave because around ten, Jill and Steve's friend John and his wife Stacie picked us up to bring us to our hotel in Disney, the Saratoga Springs Resort. Aunt Terry belongs to the Disney Vacation Club and got us rooms there for the next four nights as part of some sort of timeshare deal. When we found out where we are staying, I looked it up online and it looked like a nice place and when we got there it did not disappoint. Saratoga Springs is named after a nineteenth century racetrack resort and has Victorian/horse themed decor. As a fan of most things Victorian it was right up my alley. We checked in at the main building, which is called the Carriage House, and got our "magic bands" which work as our room keys and park passes. Since our rooms were not yet ready, Mom and I decided to take the ferry across the lake to Disney Springs. We had to wait at the dock as several ferries passed us until one finally came to take us across. Disney Springs is a very large shopping area which has a lot of the stores one would find at an upscale mall such as Alex and Ani, Ghirardelli Chocolate, and The Art of Shaving, but they also have a bunch of specialty Disney shops. They also have a House of Blues, which had a restaurant where I had originally wanted to go for lunch but Mom insisted that we get something fast and simple. But first we had to go the AMC theater where we got our tickets for the five o'clock "dine-in" showing of the new live action version of The Jungle Book. The place we finally decided to go to for lunch was the cheaper cafeteria part of the Wolfgang Puck restaurant. I had the macaroni and cheese which was very delicious but sat heavily in my stomach on such a hot day. The combination of the heat and my rich and heavy lunch made me feel a bit unwell and I had to sit down again and have some water after only looking in a few shops. When I was feeling a little less wilted, we continued exploring Disney Springs.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Shop by shop, I crossed off each of the places I had wanted to see, The DisneyQuest Emporium, the Candy Cauldron, the Star Wars Galactic Trading Post, Shop for Ireland, The Boat Shop, The World of Disney (where I got a Mickey Mouse ice cream pop squeaky toy and some Pirates of the Caribbean bandanas for my dog Tyson), Build a Dino (where I made a stuffed triceratops with the very original name of Dino), the pin trading post and Disney's Days of Christmas.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
A little after 3:30, we took another ferry across the lake to the other end of Disney Springs where we had started; this was where the AMC theater was. We still had about a half hour till we had to go to the theater by the time we got there, so we rested in the shade and slowly made our way there. I've never been to an AMC "dine-in" but it was something I have wanted to do since I read that they had it here. I had to do it because it combines two of my favorite things which are watching movies and eating. The rows of seats in the auditorium are wider and have tables in front of them. Waiters bring you food throughout the movie; I ordered a chicken caesar salad and some popcorn which I shared with Mom. We both enjoyed the movie. I do not think I have ever watched the original animated version of The Jungle Book but now I would like to. After the show, we took the ferry back to Saratoga Springs. In line, we talked with this nice family from England and on the ship, I sat in front of this adorable baby boy named Neal which smiled when I made faces at him. Our room had been ready for a couple of hours by the time we returned. It is in a part of the resort called "The Grand Stand" and we were brought there by golf cart. I changed into my bathing suit after we settled in and Mom and I went to the nearest pool area, which has a sprinkler that looks like the starting box of a race course. We did not stay at the pool long because it was getting dark and late. Back in the room when I was trying to settle down and watch a movie, Mom noticed that she had lost her magic band and we had to tear the room apart until we found it. Thankfully that crisis was averted.
