A Buffet With Character at The Magic Kingdom's Crystal Palace

Wednesday 20 April 2016. We are in Disney's Magic Kingdom and are heading for the impressive Crystal Palace restaurant where we have pre-booked a meal.

They describe it as a "Buffet with Character", because various characters from Winnie the Pooh will be coming round the tables as we eat. Well, they won't get any of my scraps...!

Eddie gives in his name as he made the booking and we take a seat on the benches on the tasteful veranda whilst our table is prepared.

This overlooks the central roundabout in front of Cinderella's Castle and this acts as the hub of the Magic Kingdom with paths to the four major sections of the park. Gardens and water features abound and consequently so do bridges. This is an excellent spot for a sit down when the legs get tired or the heat gets too much!

Even without leaving the comfort of the bench, this is the view you have whilst taking your ease. And as a big big plus, you are sitting in the shade and out of the heat of the sun.

Our name is called and we are seated at our table. Grace busies herself with the first priority - getting her autograph book ready in case Pooh or Piglet happen along!

Ah... She's spotted someone! The Crystal Palace has the feel of a large summer house. It was light, airy and cool - the last being quite a relief after the heat of the day outside.

The meal is a buffet so we can go and get whatever we want. But first, whilst we wait to order drinks - a quick round the table set of photos!

Eddie gets a photo all to himself with Tigger seemingly about to bounce into his ear... Okay, you had better prepare yourselves...

Oh, on second thoughts, there's something strangely attractive about these two...

Eeyore has the privilege of being the first character to make it to our table and is given a big welcome from a very excited Grace!

Mummy and Daddy get in on the act as well. Meanwhile our drinks have arrived and we can make our way in our own time to the buffet which has several cold cuts, a carvery section, a beef stew and lots of salad items. After a day spent entirely outside in the full heat of the day, I just picked a few things to nibble. The beef stew though was lovely. I'd have gone back for a bit more, but by the time all the characters had been round, my plate had somehow disappeared as I was distracted... I could easily have picked up another but...

Winnie the Pooh is the next one to come round. We had already met Pooh Bear and Tigger of course, but it didn't seem to spoil Grace's excitement at seeing them again!

Ooh! Piglet! Not seen Piglet, real and live and in the rind before! Incidentally, Gill's dress got many comments during the day. Miss Franny made it.

Piglet signs the autograph book with a clearly delighted Grace looking on. She has a plate of rather cold chips (sorry! - fries!) by now but it doesn't look as though she's bothered much, does it?

Then it is the turn of Tigger, who has a rather attractive security guard escorting him... The little boy behind is clearly impressed with Grace's lighting-up shoes!

We were only two days in and starting to wonder how long the autograph book would take to fill up!

Gill's birthday badge pays dividends as a cup cake with a candle is delivered and a card signed by all of the characters doing the round of the tables.

A joint effort is required to blow out the flame! A short while to sit back and relax and make sure we've seen every fluffy creature that wants to visit us at our table and then we head out back into the park. It is by now starting to cool down a bit and feels fresh with a little breeze.

Just outside Casey's Corner a white upright piano stands. Every now and then this amiable gent comes out to play it honky-tonk style. A favourite of every pianist around Disney seems to be Scott Joplin's piece, Maple Leaf Rag. Even though I never saw two pianists at the same place at the same time, there seemed to be a race as to who could play it the fastest...

The sun starts to get lower in the sky and we decide, having arrived for a breakfast at 8:30am, that it's time to head back to Caribbean Beach Resort. We turn the corner from Casey's and find Main Street U.S.A. already in shadow apart from the upper storey on the right.

Thus ends day two of our holiday. Tomorrow we can have a little lie-in instead of charging out and we'll have breakfast at the resort before heading out to EPCOT.

Disney World Holiday Index

Breakfast With Pooh And Poppins...

19 April 2016. It was our first full day in Orlando and Eddie had booked a breakfast at which we would meet some of the Disney characters at one of the other resorts.

This is the lobby of the Grand Floridian Hotel, where we were to have breakfast and meet up with Winnie the Pooh and Alice and a few others. The hotel looked absolutely the business; luxurious sofas, grand piano on the lobby floor and on the first floor balcony at one end, an orchestra stand. We would not have time to explore today with wanting to get into the Magic Kingdom park, but Fran and I thought it would make a good afternoon's venue for a sit down with a book! And that experience, with a look round some of the hotel's grounds will come later in this series.

But now it's time to head for the restaurant and be photographed and primed to meet a few favourite Disney characters. Grace has over the last year or two ensured that we had revised thoroughly for this task, so as to be able to recognise everyone who might come up to us...

Step up, Pooh Bear! Pooh has the privilege of being the first character to experience a fearless hug from Grace. If anyone not dressed as a Disney character spoke to her she went all shy and tried to hide. But a cartoon character or princess and she was off her chair and running towards them, arms outstretched!

Mary Poppins came round whilst Fran and I were coming back with loaded plates from the breakfast buffet. Fran joined in for a photo!

One of Grace's favourite films is Alice in Wonderland. So Alice had no problems with her being shy and refusing a cuddle. Actually Eddie and I would not have refused either, but for some reason we weren't invited...

Even the Mad Hatter with his rather disturbing nose had no problems getting instant friendship either! Ok, move on, let me have another bite of something...!

When Tigger bounced over to our table he decided to include the wrinklies in the celebrations!

He came to Grace, accepted and returned her hugs and signed her autograph book. Then he started to bounce up and down and she did the same which caused her shoes to sparkle and light up. Tigger got down on his knees to watch and point to her feet which she was really pleased about!

The meal had lasted about an hour and the food was very nice apart from the bacon which was as I remembered from a previous visit to Orlando in 1993. For some reason they like it cut so thin that you can literally read through it and the pieces contain twice as much fat as the tiny strip of meat. You never see the large piece of meat, just the fatty strip to the side of it. In any case, being so thin they cook to a crisp anyway. I always imagine Americans coming here and tasting bacon for the first time and being amazed. Or perhaps our way of cooking it revolts them as much as theirs does me... On a more positive note, the fruit juice was mango and it was so lush I could have drunk gallons of it! But I stopped after seven pints and had to excuse myself...

We came back out into the lobby of the Grand Floridian and made our way back to the first floor (the Americans call the ground floor "first" so properly I should have said second floor) to the Monorail station. We are now off to our first entry into Disney's Magic Kingdom which is where we'll be for the next article in the series.

Disney World Holiday Index

Tigger R.I.P.

A sad week. On Monday after a period of looking and acting a bit off Tigger, our female cat seemed to be having problems standing up.

We took her into the vet and they kept her overnight on a drip and for blood tests.

I had to go to Newcastle for 3 days but in one of those did it happen for a reason things I started off with a cold on the first night and shrugged it off for a day but then was feeling absolutely wretched on the second night and when I woke up on Thursday morning. So I came home on an early train and Fran said the vet wanted to see us that night.

Tigger still hadn't eaten and although she had fluids from the drip she was very poorly. The blood tests showed her liver was the problem and if she wouldn't eat she was not going to improve.

The vet felt she may eat at home, but wanted her back in the morning for more medication. We took her home but she was in a state. Normally after a trip to the vets she can't wait to get out of the travel cage, but she would not budge out of it, nor would she eat or drink or do anything other than a faint acknowledgement that she was back with us.

Jess, her brother, took one look and sniff and ran.

Taking her out of the cage was a shock. Her feet folded under her and she struggled to rise, only to crawl straight back into the cage.

In the morning the options were to try a feeding tube for a couple of days but then if she didn't eat after that, there would be nothing else to try and it sounded intrusive and we felt after so long that we didn't want to put her through forced feeding.

So yesterday was a very sad day and we are worried about Jess who, unlike Tigger, has never since a kitten particularly sought out our company except for food and a bedtime stroke, but who loved to cuddle up with her for hours. He's now trying to find hiding places where she hasn't been and we just need to give him time and hope he grieves and then comes round.

We'll miss our Tiggie-poos, she was a beautiful and loving cat right from being a kitten in 2002.

Merry Christmas!

Whilst Edward and John tried to give some semblance of knowing what was going on,
Tigger had totally failed to grasp the concept of Mario Karting...

A very Merry Christmas to all readers, regulars and passers-by. I think it's fair to say my son-in-law trounced me...

Hope everyone had a good day and don't forget there's a whole Boxing Day to recover!

Traumatic Time at the Vet's

No, not for the cat... For me.

Tigger has had a urinary tract problem. It started last year around this time and she was really bad then - we thought for a while we might lose her, but she recovered and we knew this time to spot the early symptoms and to get her to the vet's for a couple of injections.

Last night we took her for the second one and they were running a bit late with a place full of dogs. Tigger was safe enough (or should that be, the dogs were safe enough?) but she straight away started a continuous growling and yeowling and the dogs started to get nervous...

Which is ok, except that I am slightly allergic to dogs. We were there over half an hour and when I came out my eyes were sore.

By the time I had driven home my eyes looked like this!

I had to spend the night flat on my back with two cotton pads soaked in cold water over my eyes. I put my headphones on and just listened to music. Fran kicked me a couple of times claiming I was snoring but seriously – how could I have been when I was listening to music?!?

Anyway this morning the swelling has gone down a lot but I think I might find some things to do that don't require a lot of staring at the computer screen!

And Tig is so pleased to be home she's cuddling her brother, Jess, which he is suffering without complaint...

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Danger Zone - Sneezing Man, Bunged Up Cat!!!

Yuck! I've got the sneezes. Don't actually think it's a cold as I don't feel ill. Not Swine Flu 'cos there's no grunting... Could be an allergy.

Miss Franny is threatening to fit me with a nose bag. But I'm not that hungry, Fran...!!!

Am nursemaiding Tigger the cat too. Poor thing has got cystitis. Not well at all. She's finding it very hard to go to the loo. Tigger and Jess are seven years old, brother and sister from the same litter. For seven years they have eaten from the same bowl, pooped in the same litter tray and shared everything. Now Jess is learning that means sharing medical diets...

We bought them a new tray so they could have one each and lined it with newspaper. Jess thought it would be excellent to sleep in...

Canon 350D Download Problem

Yippee! At last I've managed to find a solution to a really niggling problem.

When I got the new computer it had Windows Vista and as with any new operating system I expected to find a few things that didn't quite work properly. One of these was the downloading of images from my camera, a Canon EOS 350D. I visited the Canon website and downloaded the driver they have on there and it downloaded, installed and opened up automatically when I connected the camera and switched it on. Lovely!

Except that it totally and utterly refused to do anything from that point onwards. It didn't download any photos from the camera. It didn't give me any error messages. It didn't want to close... I kept having to do a three-finger salute and force the software to close, turn off the camera, remove the flash card and insert that in a card reader.

I muttered and gnashed my teeth at Canon for having such a grotty driver and tried at intervals to download it again only to go through the same frustrating palaver.

Then tonight, having done it all yet again, I did a Google search and came across a blog entry by a chap called Tomek Onyszko from Warsaw in Poland.

He had also had the same problem and found out (I know not how) that you could solve it by going into the camera's menu (tools menu 2) and under the connection setting, change it from PC Connection to Print/PTP.

Tomek, thank you! I hope you see this because your own blog does not accept comments unless you are signed up to whatever it is you have to be signed up to to make comments. And I hope that by proliferating the advice someone else benefits. And I hope Canon pull their bloody finger out and tell people that the driver only works if you do this!!!

Look! New photo of puddy cats from recently re-connected camera!!!

And just to prove that I really did find out just this minute, tonight, sitting all alone in the Jurys Inn in Newcastle... here I am...



Large version of the photos: Well... you can have one of the cats anyway...

More Floods...

I was upstairs, putting all the musical instruments etc away after last night's gig when I heard a sudden anguished cry for help.

Tigger had decided she liked the smell of a vase of flowers enough to eat them. The flowers, not wanting to be eaten, stubbornly refused to rip apart and so the vase fell over, washing the kitchen worksurfaces, then the cupboard doors, and finally the floor.

So a quick reminder of what she and her brother, Jess, have got up to in the past 5 years...

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