by John Bowers
Guest Blogger

I wanted to take a spin on Snow White’s Scary Adventures, since it’s going to be closing soon because of the renovation in Fantasyland. So on Saturday, January 22, I went out to see how easy that would be to accomplish.

I like to explore different ways of getting around the ‘World’ when I’m out there, so I took the bus to the Magic Kingdom. It’s fun to watch the families who are on the bus — the kids are always pretty charged up. Plus there’s nothing like not having to drive, you can sit back and chillax (as the kids say).

The bus got me to the Magic Kingdom at about 10 a.m. Kind of crowded at the ‘bag search’ lines, which I guess we’ll have to deal with forever. It was kind of chilly, so people had extra coats and bags, and that probably contributed to the slowdown. Some people you see going into a park look like they’re prepared to be there for a week. All I had was my camera, so I cruised through the ‘guests with no bags’ line, and got ahead of about 500 people.

Once inside the park, it was a little crowded on Main Street, but by the time I got to Cinderella Castle, it wasn’t crowded at all. The wait for Snow White was only about 5 minutes. My camera can take video footage, which I did so I could keep it as a memory of the ride (attraction, sorry), but it’s so dark in there that it was pretty useless. Black screen, but the sound track came out nice!

After Snow White, I walked around toward the venerable Grand Prix Raceway, and then headed back to the front of the Castle. By now, it was nearly 11 a.m., and Main Street was a zoo. I bolted.

Back to the bus stop, got on a bus that was headed to the Epcot resorts. I was the only one on the bus, so I got to chat with Charlie, the bus driver. Great guy. Once he found out I was a local, we talked about goings-on around Orlando.

We stopped at the Swan, the Dolphin, the Yacht Club and the Beach Club, picking up people who were headed to the Magic Kingdom. Lots of excited kids. I disembarked at the Boardwalk and drove over to Olivia’s Cafe at the Old Key West Resort.

When I told the guard at the gate that I was there to eat at Olivia’s, he said, “How do you know about Olivia’s?” I said, “Dude, I live here!” He said, “This is the best kept secret in town!”

Olivia’s was nearly empty about this time (noon), and I had a fried shrimp po’ boy. It was OK, nothing really special. (I had seen Emeril Lagasse make a po’ boy somewhere in New Orleans on TV last week, that’s why I wanted one. Not as good as getting one in the Big Easy, trust me.)

One thing I didn’t pay attention to, and I should have, was the gratuity. When the server first brought my check, I pulled out my Tables in Wonderland card, and he went back to take the 20% off. An 18% gratuity was added to the check when he brought it back. I didn’t notice that, I should have. I added another 20% tip myself. I’m sure there was not a gratuity added initially, only after the TiW discount. Probably an oversight on their part, but little things like that can leave a bit of a bad taste in your mouth.

Especially when your mouth is a local mouth, and you’ve driven 30 miles out there to eat lunch and support Disney. And you’re also a member of TiW. And a passholder.

But Olivia’s is certainly a lovely little place to eat. Jimmy Buffett on the sound system. Quite peaceful, far from the madding crowd, as they say.

That was it for the Snow White adventure. Short and sweet. Except for feeling like they sneaked one by me on the gratuity. Gotta be more vigilant. I think that’s the first time I have seen an automatic gratuity for a party of one.