Just Back from Disney Sept 1-12, 2009 (a tad long!)

[chimo2u]

Good Evening!

I wanted to stop by and give a quick update on our experiences during our 11days in the world. We just arrived home last night and it was a very busy and exhausting trip! I am glad we went, however...I did not eagerly book bounceback immediately as I was so sure I would do when I was planning this trip!

Reasoning: when my hubby and I where strolling through EPCOT one night near the end of our trip (one of our relaxed/non-stressed/happy/holding-hands moments .... He said to me " You have to give yourself a few years between trips, it makes you want to come back even more and makes it more special. If you just come back year after year, it looses the special appeal and just becomes another place"

OK.... This coming from the guy who already told me this would be his last trip. I latched on to the opportunity to pensively inquire:

ME:
"If I don't book bounceback and come again with our youngest son next fall, you mean you'll come back again?"

HUBBY: " I'd be willing to try something new in a couple years, and would be willing to try a cruise"

ME: (sensing slight optimism and hope at the end of the tunnel ) "OK...in two years it is our 20th anniversary, our oldest son's graduation year, and it will have been a 2 year break from all things Disney....so I want to spend our 20th anniversary in Walt Disney World!! )" ...Thus a new plan is born!!

In a nutshell, this trip was 11 days which we found a little too long.

By day 7 we were all very tired and exhausted from go, go, go early AM to 11pm at night! We spent our first 4 days with friends who had never been before, and hit a park a day for all 4 days.

Sept 2 was our first day of touring, and it was at MK. We made the opening show and it was a magical start to our vacation! That day it ended up pouring rain the whole day. Even the die-hard/poncho hating men ended up buying a poncho and using it!!! Rides where mostly walk-on, and crowds where manageable.

Thursday Sept 3 was another very early day...we did the Sunrise Safari at AK and spent the rest of the day at that park. We rode EE quite a few times, and did KRR. Our men got soaked...they where the ones in the back of the raft!!! so funny I played smart and wore a poncho...I did not fair badly at all!

Friday Sept 4 was our DHS day. Out of all the parks we visited, this had to have been the most busy each time. On this day, however, we did not make rope drope...we came around 9:45 am and managed to walk on Toy Story Mania about 3 times, The wait was posted at 40 minutes, but it was more like a 10 minute wait. we got a fast pass for later too (approx 12:30). The CM's running the ride said it was unheard of to have the low waits we experienced that morning...it was nice as we all were able to ride it without experiencing rope drop mad dash I'd been so worried about from reading about others' experiences with this ride!
Another first for me this day was my "appointment to face my fears of TOT " For 2 years I have drove myself crazy worrying about this ride, what it would be like...how scary it was, would the drop do me in??? etc, etc, etc....

I knew if I had to go, wait, and stew in the lineup...I would never have the nerve to do it. I made sure to do it prior to 11am and the wait time was non-existant...walk right in and on. I made sure to ask the CM for a rear row/by the wall seat.

VERDICT ??:

OMG

What the heck was I worried about for the last 2 years???? The ride was amazing. Not at all scary like I had obbsessed about for so long!!! My 13yo son our friend's daughter and I all did it together and we all loved it!!! The only slight time of uncertainty was waiting for that first drop. And...because the ride vehicle pauses for that slight moment and you know you are waiting for it to drop, you can prepare yourself. After the first drop, and when it shoots back up...then it drops again, you get a little air time and my pouch/ticket holder floated in front of my face!! The drops where so amazingly smooth, I did not feel queazy at all...not one bit. It was just fun, and probably one of my favourite rides in all of WDW now!!

Can't say enough great things about it...and I am definitely my family's ride Queen now, as my 17 yo son and my husband refused to even try it the whole 11 days we were there. It was their loss, because it is really a fun ride. I hope my experience can help another person who is scared to try this ride. I am the biggest ride weenie/scardey cat...and I have now tried EVERY Disney ride. I think Disney makes most of the rides/experiences for everyone to enjoy, and they are really not trying to scare you silly.

I even did The 3d shows I was scared of, like It's Tough to be a Bug and Honey I Shrunk the Audience. The auditorium was not as dark as I was worried it would be, and the cast member was very nice about letting me stand to the side with her at the end of ITTBAB so I would not have to experience the surprising seat effect at the end of the show!

I am glad I came home with no regrets about not trying something due to my fears! and I am so proud/happy I tried everything with an open mind and now know for myself what the experience is like.

FANTASMIC: This was absolute craziness!!!!
We waited in a cattle corrall for about an hour before the show. A sea of People as far as you could see front and back. The crowd was so bad, our "crowd shy" friend who can't stand large crowds left while waiting and said he'd meet us back at the hotel. He couldn't even stand the wait. Good thing he left too, because when the crowds began to be let in....well....OMG....

Complete, utter Chaos. Rude, pushing, shoving sea of people.
The auditorium just kept filling up, and we where being herded further and further to the far left.... the CM's kept saying " don't climb over the benches" and people just ignored them and began streaming over the handicapped viewing benches cutting off everyone else...the line went on forever, endlessly until we finally found an aisle to head down that was not a handicapped bench or full. I would never attempt that show again.

It was madness. I could not even enjoy the show because I knew we would have to leave early to beat the crowds back to the buses. I did not want to wait 2 hours to get out of HS and back to the hotel. About 10 minutes prior to the end of F! I told my friend and our kids to start heading out. Thank goodness we left when we did, as we just managed to beat traffic jam /madness of getting out of the park!!! My advice, if you hate crowds and pushing/shoving people, long waits and complete chaos...skip Fantasmic, it is not worth that kind of stress at all!! This was the only horror story of our trip!!

Sat Sept 5 was our EPCOT day...not bad. Rode everything with minimal waits and no real need for Fast Passes.

Sunday Sept 6 was our friends departure day. After Boma Breakfast and seeing them off, we went to Blizzard Beach for the day. It was quite crowded and busy...waits for the slides. We left around 4 pm. and agreed we like Typhoon Lagoon best.

Monday Sept 7th was our Discovery Cove Day. Amazing and memorable, one of our favourite days of our trip! Luxury and relaxation!!!!

Tue Sept 8 - Friday Sept 11.

The parks where quite doable this week, except for HS which always seemed busy no matter when we went. On Thursday we went to SeaWorld from about 11am to 5 pm. It was busy and crowded, but we saw Horizons, the Clyde and Seymour show, my son and hubby did Manta, and we looked at the aquariums and other things that interested us. It was a good day, and 5 hours was definitely long enough for all of us!! The remainder of the week at Disney was good, however, by Thursday, we noticed a definite upswing in the crowds as new people began arriving for their trips!

Overall Crowds:

Overall, they where doable...not large except for Fantasmic on Sept 4th, and DHS always seemed the busiest of all the parks, with the waits sometimes being at the 40 min mark if you had no fast passes. We usually managed all we wanted to do with under 20 minute waits.

Weather: Pretty good most days. It was humid and hot, only one day of rain on our first day (MK Sept 2nd) and then it rained again on our Departure morning (Sat. Sept 12)... the heat was bearable, alot of things are inside so we got a break and kept on going. The free water at Counter service was great, and it tasted fine! Kept me refreshed and was very welcome!

Resort: We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge Club level. The service was wonderful, prompt and friendly! Housekeeping was amazing!!! except for the weekend when our regular houskeeper was on her days off...even then it was fine, just not the extra-special treatment we received from Elizabeth C. our wonderful weekday housekeeper!! She made us many amazing towel animals, among them: rabbits, love swans, chicks in a canoe, a hanging monkey, elephants, a towel man (sitting in a chair with his robe on, my son's hat on his head, my hawaiian leis around his neck from our OHANA dinner the night before, a cup of coffee and remote in his hand watching the TV!! ) It was so cute and funny to walk in the room that day!!

I love AKL so much, it will be hard to stay anywhere else. The buses to the parks where regular, frequent, and prompt...never overly crowded, except sometimes at night returning a few people had to stand.

Overall, we had a great time. I would never go without the Dining Plan, it was wonderful and saved us so much money...I would hate to think what we would have spent on food if we had to pay for all of our meals out of pocket!!!

Final Words: Our family has decided that we will take a 2 year break and return to Disney for our 20th anniversary. We will do a Disney Cruise for our next experience, and hopefully that will be something new and exciting to plan/look forward to!!
We had a lovely time and a Disney Vacation is definitely one that stays in the heart long after it is over!!

To all who are there, planning or just recently returned like us...Enjoy your memories and trips! it is definitely a experience of a lifetime

Marie

[bjakmom]

Thanks for the great trip report! Sounds like you had a wonderful trip. You have me even more worried about Fantasmic! In Oct DGrD wants to go as it is her favorite show - In Dec we are bringing 'newbies' and I hate for them to not see it at all. But in June DNeph and I were also quite overwhelmed with the way people pushed and shoved - I think all of the waiting and the fear of not getting in makes people act worse than ever.
So glad you had a great stay at AKL club level - they really spoil you there - it's our favorite resort, too!!
Your DH sounds like mine - I take the kids/grands every year - he only comes down every couple of years - more than enough for him - never enough for me! You will LOVE the disney cruise - have fun planning your next trip!

[DizFanSLD]

Interesting thing about Fantasmic - That was my family's favorite show too, and we missed on our trip in January, 2007 (can't remember why?) so we were super eager to see it last May, and we were all sort of underwhelmed!

We had great seats - 10 rows back in the center - but we couldn't hear very well - the sound system seems not to be working well. The heavy emphasis on the Pocahontas story seemed stale; that movie is pretty old now. There were some details that had been left out due to budget cuts, and it was noticeably flatter because of it. And like the OP said, the crowds were not at all what I have come to expect at Disney - it seemed so chaotic, and Disney is usually the best at crowd management.

We were all left with the feeling that we almost wished we had skipped it and left our memories of the show intact - and we won't bother with it in the future unless it gets a MAJOR overhaul in story and effects.

On another note, we agree with your husband, and so we only go to WDW every other year. Sometimes it is hard to hold out, but we find it that much more magical. Of course, if I was rich enough to go many times a year, I imagine that would overcome my principles...lol