Thursday September 14, 2000
Well the day started out nice. Roger and I slept in to take advantage of a relax day. First order of business was to arrange our tours. We decided on the EPCOT “Treasures of the World Showcase” as our Flex pass option for Sat, and we decided to take the “Keys to the Kingdom” Magic Kingdom tour tomorrow. After arranging this, we decided to get lunch at the Dixie Landings food court and then head off to the Disney/MGM Studios to take in some of the shows and to ride the Tower of Terror and Rockin’ Roller Coaster. At the Studios, we picked up a few nick knacks including name badges and a replacement fan for Roger. It was as we were boarding the Coaster that I realized that something was wrong. My prescription glasses were missing from my glasses case. It would be OK if my sunglasses were gone, but my regular glasses are a problem. After riding the coaster, we headed back to the hotel re-tracing our steps. We checked with the bus driver (the same one who took us there) and he said no one spotted them.
Back at the hotel, we searched the Food Court, the hotel room and the bus stops to no avail. I have no idea what happened to them. I think I was being warned in the morning when I couldn’t find several items right away (but eventually did). So I checked with the hotel’s lost and found. They reported a pair of glasses were found the night before but not today. I asked where the nearest place to get replacement glasses in the area was and they directed me to Lenscrafters at the Florida Mall. It would cost 50 bucks roundtrip to get their and back, so we opted to rent a car from National which has several cars available from the Disney Car Care Center. We ended up in a tan Chevrolet Cavalier four door for a mere 50 dollars for a day. After the National bus picked us up, we were on our way to the mall. The car was typical of rental car fleets, but I was happy to be able to drive since my sunglasses also were prescriptions. It also helped to have them because Lenscrafters could read them and make new ones.
After a half hour, we arrived at the mall. I was surprised at the amount of traffic, but by the time we got to this point it was already 5pm, so I guess people were getting off of work. We met up with Lou Gerber and manager Barbara at Lenscrafters, and after picking out new frames, they promptly began my order. Roger and I walked around the mall. It reinforced the idea that the names might be slightly different, but most malls have the same stores. An hour later we were back at Lenscrafters to pick up the glasses. With a few minor adjustments I was ready to go. I still have to get used to the new frames, but they are very stylish. Back in the car, we headed down International Drive to check out what has grown up around Disney. My favorite buildings were the Ripley’s Believe It or Not building which appears to be sinking into the ground, and the Wonderworks building which is upside down. Nothing too special, though I can see it does offer a night or twos worth of entertainment. Oh, and if you are really pressed there is always Sea World.
Back at the hotel, we decided to head out to Downtown Disney to have some fun and try and recoup the day from the glasses experience. I am really surprised that Disney does not have a Lenscrafters or something similar at Downtown Disney. There must be tons of people who lose or break their specs while here at the park, and they could rake in the dough. Also it would be a great convenience to people at the resort. We settled on a club called Mannequin’s at Pleasure Island since it was the biggest club and it had a really cool revolving dance floor. We recognized a few of the people from Dixie Landings as well as one guy from Northern California. It really is a small world. We closed the place down at 2am and headed off to bed to get ready for our early rise and tour at the Magic Kingdom. Tomorrow promises to be another full day, and hopefully I wont lose anything else.
