Finding our rooms

We trudge up the long ramps to the Epcot monorail platform. I silently wish that somehow the engineering could be switched, so that on arrival at Epcot, when you’re fresher, you go uphill to exit the station. Then, on departure when you’re tired and sore, you go downhill to get back on the monorail. As it is, it’s all wrong. But we survive.

Actually, I’m doing pretty well right now. Yes, my feet are sore, as they would be any time I spend seven hours in a park. But since our last trip – and especially since joining the Vocal Majority, with hours on our feet in our long rehearsals and shows – I’ve learned that the soreness isn’t fatal or harmful, and I can push through the soreness and “just keep swimming.”

Add to that the lessons learned from the last trip, when I made the mistake of wearing shoes I didn’t normally wear, with an insert I’d not worn at all before. That was dumb! Unlike now, by the end of the first day on that trip I could already tell my feet were developing blisters. I grinned and bore it then, but this time I made sure to wear my walking shoes regularly (and do some walking) in the weeks leading up to this one – and no new inserts!

I’m also keeping hydrated better – another lesson from the last vacation – so all in all I feel great, even though I’m tired and sore. Does that make sense?

Fortunately I don’t have long to think about this as a monorail arrives promptly. We climb aboard and settle in for the ride to the TTC.

Along the way, as we watch the roads and lights in the surrounding World slide by, we discuss whether to switch from this monorail to the resort monorail for the short ride to the Polynesian, or to walk the ten-minute pathway. We decide to walk.

So, off we get at the TTC, down the ramp, across the plaza. There aren’t a lot of signs in the main plaza area directing you to the Polynesian – the better to keep away the masses that don’t belong there, I suppose – but we remember the general direction and are soon rewarded with a small sign indicating the path.

Once away from the TTC, it is dark. I mean, really dark. There are tiki torches burning along the pathways, so we can see the actual paths, but it’s hard to maintain a good sense of direction, especially with the way that the Polynesian pathways twist and turn between the longhouses.

I’m leading the way, but without much success. Let’s take this way – no, that’s the parking lot, okay, back the other direction, and then turn back left. Okay, we’re on our way now. One more turn and we should see the Great House, so then we’ll have our bearings… no, wait, we’re at the parking lot again! Hmm.

The others are losing confidence in my leadership when I call for doubling back again, when we suddenly realize that we are right next to the laundry room – which means that the building to our left is Rarotonga, where our rooms are! We’re here!

We enter into through the automated door at the nearest end of the building and start checking the first-floor room numbers. They are indeed in the 1800’s, like ours – a good sign! We keep walking, and eventually find that our rooms are on the pool side, not the monorail (oh, well), but they are the closest ones on that side to the Great House. Like, we are right next door to the main place we need to be. These rooms are awesome.

I know Disney never guarantees that you’ll get room requests, but it sure helps to know what to ask for, and to ask!