Disney '09

Friday morning (Feb 27) I flew with Nauber to Tampa, FL. Smooth travels, we hit Tampa about 30 minutes early. We were staying at his friend Cida's place. She said she lives in Tampa, was at home, and was leaving at that exact moment to come get us. An hour and a half later, she showed up. Got in the car, and over an hour later got back to her house, which is not IN Tampa, but in Brandon. This is YahooMaps version of how to do this, but she drove through downtown instead. On the way, I saw a restaurant called Sweet Tomatoes - The Salad Buffet Restaurant. Nauber LOVES salad, so I pointed it out. Guess where we had dinner! It was very good. They are nowhere near MA, but if you are lucky enough to find one I do recommend it. We ended up going there again Sunday morning to try out their brunch. It was OK, but if you don't feel like salad at 10am, then maybe not worth it.

Saturday we went to the Florida Aquarium. I'd rank it better than the NE Aquarium. We had lunch/dinner at a little plaza nearby that was hosting a Gasparilla festival. They apparently love pirates in Tampa. We then headed to Ybor City, the historic neighborhood of Tampa, which also turns out to be home to the gay district, nicknmaed Gaybor City. Turns out that night they were having an event called Southern Exposure - The Nation's First Gay Carnival. It was a little weak, but a nice attempt. They also had RuPaul performing at a gaybar next-door, and Kat DeLuna at the gay club across from there.

Sunday we went to the Strawberry Festival. Basically a state fair. Carnie rides and fried foods on sticks, 4H kids showing off livestock, and tacky craft items for sale. Oh, and strawberry shortcake EVERYWHERE. And for those who haven't been to a state fair event in a while, they now have Deep Fried Pepsi. I looked it up, and HERE is a quick explanation. From there, Cida dropped us off at Disney's Pop Century resort. We were given a double room; Nauber wanted a king, so the reception clerk said they would have one opening up on Tuesday. I did go back Tuesday, and we changed rooms. That also moved us from the 70's area (no pool) to the 50's (with a pool). Not that he ever used it, but Nauber was happier to be next to a pool. Part of the reason, though, was that we had some cool weather that week. Sunday through Wednesday was in the 60's. Thursday was like 72. Friday hit 77, and Saturday was 79. Now that we've left, this whole week should be in the 80's, according to the Weather Channel. But it kind of didn't matter, because as we were checking in, they informed us that Typhoon Lagoon has been closed for a while for refurbishment, and would not be available the entire week. We did have Friday planned as our waterpark day, so we did spend the whole day at Blizzard Beach.

The Illuminations show at Epcot was cut back. It's about half a long, and much less fire. Kinda borin'. We were at Hollywood Studios (they renamed the old MGM park) part of Monday and Tuesday, which are apparently the two days a week they do not run the Fantasmic shows, so we missed that. The Magic Kingdom fireworks, however, seem to have been maintained - that was still a good show. We spent more time at Epcot than anywhere else. Most of the rides Nauber found boring, but he seemed to like Soarin (wanted to move to CA) and Space Mountain. We had sit downs at Epcot's Coral Reef, France, Morocco, Japan (TeppanEdo), and Germany (a buffet it turns out), MK's Tony's Town Square (much better than our pick last year - Liberty Inn or something like that), and the Wolfgang Puck at Downtown. Somehow, we kept getting stuck with lousy waiters. Nauber liked the food best at Morocco, but that had the worst of the waiters, so we tipped him less than suggested. You would think now that they get tipped independently from the dining plan they would be better servers, but it seemed worse than last time. The "show" aspect at TeppanEdo seems to have been scaled back as well; it was more of a cook the food and move on experience.

It turns out Nauber is a methodical vacationer. Guidemap and time schedule in hand, with a pen, he made sure to hit everything. Maybe next visit there, he would be able to relax and enjoy spontaneously, but this was a mission. And he put Ronny and Cris to shame. He has nearly 1200 pictures, and even deleted around 200 that didn't turn out well. He bought a lot of $3 or $4 souvenirs and was nabbing as many of the free buttons that he could.

As we took the Disney shuttle back to the airport when it was all over, he said he didn't want to leave. When we dropped him off at home he said he would miss sleeping next to me, too. I guess that means he liked it! We caught a lot more of the shows and saw more of the little out-of-the-way touches, so I guess his methodical mania had its up-side. We did sneak kisses whenever possible (Tom Sawyer's Fort and the Haunted Mansion provided some good dark corners)!

When I have a chance to load the pics onto my computer, I'll post a couple. The hard part will be sorting through them all to choose only a couple!