The next morning, everyone met in the Doctor's and River's room. The Doctor said he had something important to tell everyone. When Amy and Rory walked in, he jumped up and beamed at them.
"Alright then! I hope the luau dinner show was nice last night?" he asked the couple.
"Yeah, it was a lot of fun!" Amy replied with a smile. "Did you two go anywhere last night? Was it any good?"
River smiled. "We went to the California Grille at the Contemporary hotel, and it was very good."
The Doctor beamed proudly.
"Yes, for once, he picked somewhere normal and decent for dinner."
The Doctor's expression changed from proud to puppy-dog face in an instant. "What's wrong with the restaurants I usually pick?"
"Oh, nothing Sweetie... as long as you want to be eating and not eaten. But anyway, why did you gather us all here?"
"Well, I figured since we're going to be staying here for a few more days, we should try some of the other hotels! So, Ponds, just go pack up your things and take them to the TARDIS, and I'll help River pack, then we'll all go to another hotel! There are so many cool looking ones here, I just want to try them all!"
"You're serious?" Amy asked incredulously. "But this place is so nice! And besides that..."
The conversation soon turned into an argument, and the Doctor won. Soon, they all had their things packed and were walking through the lobby, then towards the side garden where they'd parked the TARDIS.
When they walked outside, they were greeted by the friendly old man again, and he asked, "You folks leaving already? You've only been here, what... a day or two?"
"Yes, we have, and we are leaving, but we aren't leaving Disney World. Just the hotel. It's not that we didn't like it (in fact, we loved it!), but there are so many other cool hotels... I want to try them all!" the Doctor rambled in response. River put her hand on his arm to slow him down enough for the other man to get a word in.
"Well, I'm glad to know that you've enjoyed your stay so far, and I hope that whichever hotel you try next, you like it as much as you liked this one! But, I am pretty sure that you won't be able to try all of the hotels," he said with a chuckle. "There are quite a few of them here on property, and you'd be here for a very long time if you tried to stay at all of them! But safe travels to you, and we hope to see you here again soon!" The man waved to them as they walked away towards the TARDIS.
It was still in the garden, and the four of them walked in and set down their luggage. The Doctor bounded up the stairs to the console and began to set coordinates, but River hurried after him and began to fly the ship herself.
"River! What are you doing? I wasn't done putting in the coordinates yet!"
"Sweetie, I think it would be best if we let the Old Girl decide where she wants to take us, and if I'm flying her, at least I can know that we will arrive on the same day as we left, and not a few days or months later."
The Doctor grumbled as he pulled one last lever and then went to sulk in the console chair. After only a few moments, the TARDIS came to a halt.
"You didn't let it make the sound!"
"How many times have I told you, she's not supposed to make that sound! And we don't know where we've landed, so it's best not to draw attention to ourselves... as if I blue box materializing out of nowhere isn't enough of an unusual sight..."
Instead of doing an environment scan, the Doctor bounded back down the steps and pulled open the doors. What he saw made his whole face light up.
"River... you promise you'll let us stay wherever the she landed us?"
"Yes, my Love, we'll stay wherever she landed us."
"Good." He stroked the doorframe and whispered, "Thanks, Old Girl," with a smile to the TARDIS.
"So where are we?" Amy asked, as she poked her head around the Doctor to see where they were.
Rory came over and tried to see around Amy. "It looks like a carnival... an old carnival."
Finally River came down the stairs to the doors. They all stepped outside the TARDIS, and looked around. They were underneath a curving white arch that was completely lined with white lights around the edges. Old fashioned carnival calliope music filled the air.
"Are you sure we're still in Disney? This looks more like Coney Island..." River observed. "late 19th, early 20th century Coney Island."
The Doctor stepped out from the overhanging arch to see what it said on the front and read out, "Boardwalk. This must be the Boardwalk hotel! Perfect! Let's go inside!"
They walked into the lobby, which was large, although nowhere near as large as the lobby of the Grand Floridian had been. There was a large fireplace with a sculpture of an elephant over it. On one side, there was a small model of an old wooden roller coaster, and right when you walked in, there was a circular set of couches that hid a pedestal that held up a gorgeous, 1910 toy carousel.
The Doctor was beaming from ear to ear as he looked around. "Oh, we are definitely staying here!" With that, he walked over to the receptionist and proceeded to get them two rooms through the use of psychic paper.
"It's pretty nice," Rory conceded as he, Amy, and River continued to look around.
"Let's look outside!" Amy exclaimed upon noticing the large balcony attached to the back of the building. She grabbed Rory by one hand and River by the other and led them outside. "Wow..."
All three were a bit stunned. "It actually is an entire boardwalk..." Rory said with some disbelief.
"Well, it looks like this area might be a little more lively! I like it so far..." River agreed.
Just then, the Doctor came outside. "We have rooms! Let's go get our luggage, and then we can either explore, or go right to one of the parks. From here, we can walk or take a boat over to both the Hollywood Studios park and Epcot, so pick which one you want to go to today!"
"Hollywood Studios sounds good," River said.
"Cool! We'll take the boat over after we get our room! Geronimo!" he cried as he sprinted back towards the TARDIS to get the luggage.
All three of the Ponds just smiled and shook their heads.
This chapter was mostly just a transition for them to go to the Hollywood Studios park. I wanted them to be able to take the boat over. :)
Sorry for the wait. Hopefully, I'll have the next chapter up much sooner than this one was.
Como siempre, (as always) reviews are encouraged and appreciated!
