Ooh, the monorail DOES smell funny... (almost finished!) [11/30-12/17, 2010]

[bumbershoot]

It sounds really good to me too. But, I am so craving a pineapple upside down cake shooter from Uva.

holy moly, I think I'm going to be catching a flight in about 8 days! Meet ya there!

 

[kaoden39]

holy moly, I think I'm going to be catching a flight in about 8 days! Meet ya there!

Sure!! Come on down the more the merrier!!

 

[kaoden39]

Molly, I have always wanted to stay at AKL. It just speaks to me. I cannot believe that CM, if I were that woman I would be uptight too. And I have had them express check me out too and I did not like it. I would rather actually physically check out.

I am sad to see your trip coming to an end. When is the next trip?

 

[bumbershoot]

Last day continued​

We arrived at MK in due time and headed on in. For this day I'd taken a cue from my Universal record-keeping, and took short notes *on the map*. I'll be doing this on future trips, that's for sure!


This, day, without the stress of the family (fun stress, but still...stress) and the comparisons to Disneyland, and with so much time between MK days...I really FELT the magic of MK. And as soon as that feeling hit, I really deeply regretted not having scheduled more time there. And that just made me flat out sad. Dagnabit.

First up was Peter Pan, especially since R&I hadn't gone on it that first day. It was just fine. Then we hopped across to iasw (they are right across the walkway from each other).

It's just so weird to have it all inside.

This time, the wait was 5 minutes, and we had our own row. And the ride was MUCH better! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Also, here is the video of the Korean dolls in the ride before they disappear at the end.




And this video shows what sort of makes up for the Korean dolls disappearing at WDW (there's nothing that makes it up at DL, at least not by the time of our last visit!).



(it's a formal way of saying "goodbye")


After that...

I've read that the area of Critter Country is closed right now at DL. And I can't help but wonder if they are going to re-do the line for Pooh there, like they did at WDW. There's interactive play stuff in line. Which would be very fun if the line were very long! But when your kid has to be rushed right by...not as fun. But I see the benefits, most definitely!


Some sort of ball popup type game thing.

Percussion fruits and gourds.

Big long push-the-ball-along-the-track toy.

This is towards the end of the line, and it's a touch-screen that looks like honey is melting down. Seemed to be vast amounts of fun for *everyone*.

Also seems like the whole line now is just a little land of harbor for superbugs...that area might make me start using antibacterial gunk!


The ride was fun, but I most definitely like DL's much much better. I just didn't get the joy from this version.


From there, the teacups! DL wins here for sheer beauty of the area. The lamps hanging overhead, the plants, etc etc... But WDW can run in the rain, and that's worth something!

WDW's version also gets bonus points because I didn't get dizzy/ill on it! Usually it's a ride I ride for the fun of the guys, because it amuses them that I get a bit green around the gills. But on this ride, they started off jokingly turning the wheel, I didn't react, so they actually turned the wheel, I didn't react, they turned the wheel as fast as they could...I didn't react! I smiled! It just did not bug me this time.

I can't tell you why, I can't guarantee it will ever happen again...but for that moment, I was golden!

I'm approaching the image limit...I'll be back in a moment!

 

[bumbershoot]

Molly, I have always wanted to stay at AKL. It just speaks to me. I cannot believe that CM, if I were that woman I would be uptight too. And I have had them express check me out too and I did not like it. I would rather actually physically check out.

I am sad to see your trip coming to an end. When is the next trip?

That CM really peeved me. I was trying to help the guest, come up with ideas...and the CM simply could not understand why I would possibly care about a stranger's experience. I don't know what was wrong with her, but she was just about the most un-empathetic person I've ever dealt with. Like dealing with a 2 year old who hasn't learned that others have feelings too.

We wanted to LOVE AKL, we really did. But it was the perfect storm of *aughhhhhhhh* for us, and I think we'll have to leave it for others to enjoy. It's why they have so many resorts, because tastes and experiences vary!

All will be revealed soon enough, oh grasshopper...

 

[kaoden39]

I wonder if you didn't get dizzy because of the differences?

I think the line for the Pooh ride definitely looks much cuter than the one at DLR. I heard that the reason that they closed Pooh is because they are just not getting the foot traffic they normally do with Splash being closed. I tend to believe it because I have an app on my phone that tells what the times of the rides are and they were averaging 5 minutes at most wait for the Pooh ride. I am sorry to hear that Pooh's Corner will be closed I love that store.

 

[kaoden39]

I think that she sounds like someone that slipped through the bars as far as CM's go. And how dare she get on her high horse because you want to be helpful. People like that should not work with the public.

I am kind of sad that you didn't like AKL. I also like the Poly, actually I would stay at any of them.

 

[bumbershoot]

More of the Last Day​

I did not know this:

How fun is it that each of the resorts has something like the speedway/autopia? Very fun!

(and of course WDW's)


We didn't have FPs for this so we got to wait in line. It was SUNNY and WARM this day. We actually put sunscreen on while standing in line.

It was fun! But we like Autopia, too.

Did I mention I'd bought a bunch of silly bandz while school shopping in September? He got 'em on the trip.

Time was starting to creep up on us, and we had been very careful about timing our departure. We didn't want a repeat of the run for the gate that we dealt with in Dec '08 at LAX, so we padded our travel time tremendously.

As the clock ticked away, I was getting more and more anxious, more and more depressed, and perhaps a tad bit testy. I wanted to add more time to the trip but I knew I couldn't (though actually I could, since it was FRIDAY, and Robert had taken off Monday...but that wasn't the plan), and I was just sad.


We decided to go on Stitch's Great Escape, because we tend to like things that other people dislike.

Yeah, um, no. We'll skip it in the future.


We made our way over to Adventureland, slowly.

On the way, we caught the Castle Show, which is a big huge LONG long long long song and dance routine that involves nearly every character in the park. It also includes daytime fireworks. Not a lot of fireworks, but a couple spritzes of them. I was having some extreme battery problems with my camera (I ran out of "juice" three separate times...not sure what my mental block was, but it kept happening) and I was having to close up my camera repeatedly to save power, then I would miss the fireworks spritz again.

There was a storyline, but frankly it went on so long I lost track. We stayed until the end, but by that time no one really *wanted* to. We walked through the Liberty Square bridge and hung a left, which caused us to walk by Tiana and, um...her Prince. I don't remember seeing her at Disneyland, so it was fun! We didn't stop or anything, just walked by.

Toodled around to POTC, which we happily rode! Yay for pirates!

And then chose to go on Jungle Cruise again. The guide was hilarious. I was taking notes. Let's see if I can read them.

OK, at one point on WDW's version, you go into a creepy tunnel with monkey god statues and such (if I recall correctly). Just as you enter, it's nearly pitch black. The guide started singing, just like Gene Wilder (I haven't seen the Depp version) "there's no earthly way of knowing....which directly we are going...."

Going through the *back* side of water..."don't try that at home-you'll hit your head on the faucet."

Pointing out the big huge butterflies..."insectus plasticus".

I was taking these notes, remember, and he noticed it, and said I could put the map away, he knew where we were going. I normally do NOT like being part of that sort of thing, but he had such good delivery that even I giggled. A minute later he saw another woman with a map, and commented again.


Dang, there are others, but I can't remember the context. Hate when that happens!

After we came back from the jungle, R went for a bathroom break and E&I sprinted up to the Swiss Family Treehouse. For some reason, this bugged Robert, and then that bugged me...our time was just about up, we were soon to have to make our way to the front, and it was just making us crazy.

When we got down from the treehouse, R was there with egg rolls and chips from the Egg Roll Wagon. And for some reason that bugged me, too! I refused to eat it then, just held it. Yeah, that'll show him. More, that'll show the universe for letting our time run out like that, and it'll show me in the past for not planning more MK. Yeah, it'll do allll that, to just hold the egg roll and not eat it....good job, Molly...


We had a little extra time, so we rushed over to the Splash area railroad entrance, making the decision to take it around to the entrance railroad station. We had sort of wanted to take it all the way around, but the backtracking would have pushed me over the edge (not a fan of backtracking).

So we backtracked, LOL, to the station, and got on board. I held that egg roll the whole trip. That'll show 'em..


Got off the train at Main Street, and that's when the tears started.

I was the crying 40+ year old under the train station, trying to control herself.

Took a bite of egg roll...oh that's good. Good egg roll. Why did I wait until now to eat it? Well, at least it was still very warm. Wow how did it hold its heat for more than 20 minutes? Amazing.

Oh hey...

Got myself basically together, and the three of us headed back on out to the monorail. I kept tearing up, the guys kept on "there there"ing me, giving hugs when needed. Sniffle. Got to the Poly, got to the car, got our bags, got on the road. Got to the airport (chose not to bother with gas, just paid $4/gallon for two gallons (heck, it's 3.19 here, there's not much difference!), cleared out the car, tossed our car garbage, got some carts, dealt with idiocy on the part of the Alaska agent (idiocy and bad security on her part...looking in Eamon's account while telling Robert that Robert isn't at the higher level of FF member so he had to pay for his checked bag...he got that refunded), got through security (easy), got to the gate, got a Starbucks, redid my carryons, watched the sun slowly start to set, sat around, got on the plane, towncar guy met us (I'd arranged it through Shuttle Express at some point the day or so before), got home, slept.....


And now the main part of the trip report is done, so I can tell you that tomorrow I'll be calling Member Services at 6am my time to see if I can arrange a 2 bedroom for a few nights at OKW for September 13, for the start of another big family then just the three of us trip!

This time, though, we might START with Universal.

 

[kaoden39]

Very cool on the next trip!!


I love that they have the different tracks up like they do. I am sorry you cried. I get like that too.

 

[bumbershoot]

I wonder if you didn't get dizzy because of the differences?

Possible! Might be because of the limited sightline from having the enclosed area...

I think that she sounds like someone that slipped through the bars as far as CM's go. And how dare she get on her high horse because you want to be helpful. People like that should not work with the public.

I am kind of sad that you didn't like AKL. I also like the Poly, actually I would stay at any of them.

I was sad, too.

We were just watching the Samantha Brown show (that was my time limit for finishing it up tonight, so we could sit and have cupcakes and watch the show LOL) and she LOVES AKL and makes it look so nice and special. So I know there are good things about the place...just don't know why we didn't see many of them. Then again, like I alluded to, I didn't go seeking out those things, either, because we were already down in the dumps and cold and all of that.

The CM was bizarre that's for sure!



Having another trip is pretty weird, though of course since we upgraded to APs we kinda *had to* do it... We don't have anywhere near as many points, Robert will have less than a year's worth of vacation instead of 1.5 years worth, etc etc... But at least we have a more limited list of "Ok we really gotta do THAT" this time.

 

[nancy drew]

I've so enjoyed reading this! And I really appreciate the info on Universal. My kids would FLIP to meet super heroes right now. Seriously. And HP, well, they would flip for that as well. But none of us is big on roller coasters or anything, so I haven't wanted to spend $$$ on tickets (and take time away from WDW!) to visit. So I'm guessing Universal isn't really for us. Not right now. Right?

Oh, the molten honey wall in Pooh... we discovered a secret about it when we were there. See, we had a loooooooooooooooong line (we arrived 2 days after you left) so we had time to explore the fun play stuff. There are Pooh characters hidden behind the honey. You "clean" the honey away to find them. My kids really enjoyed this, as did the kids behind this who saw us uncovering characters and joined in on the fun.

How exciting that you have another trip planned! I'm jealous. My kids have different spring breaks this year so we can't go visit my mom and hop over to WDW until December again (unless we want to brave the heat and humidity in August, and we do not!!). Maybe DLR in August for us, though.

 

[bumbershoot]

I've so enjoyed reading this! And I really appreciate the info on Universal. My kids would FLIP to meet super heroes right now. Seriously. And HP, well, they would flip for that as well. But none of us is big on roller coasters or anything, so I haven't wanted to spend $$$ on tickets (and take time away from WDW!) to visit. So I'm guessing Universal isn't really for us. Not right now. Right?

Oh, the molten honey wall in Pooh... we discovered a secret about it when we were there. See, we had a loooooooooooooooong line (we arrived 2 days after you left) so we had time to explore the fun play stuff. There are Pooh characters hidden behind the honey. You "clean" the honey away to find them. My kids really enjoyed this, as did the kids behind this who saw us uncovering characters and joined in on the fun.

How exciting that you have another trip planned! I'm jealous. My kids have different spring breaks this year so we can't go visit my mom and hop over to WDW until December again (unless we want to brave the heat and humidity in August, and we do not!!). Maybe DLR in August for us, though.

That's some good info about the Pooh honey wall! Excellent!


We didn't go on Hulk, Dragon Challenge, The Mummy, Doctor Doom's Fearfall, or Rip Ride Rockit, not one of the BIG ones, and we still loved it. Forbidden Journey and Spiderman were the biggest rides we went on, and of course only I did FJ. But we still felt it was super-fun enough that it was worth it, and worth going again (so so so wishing we'd upgraded to APs for Universal, too)! Of course, not everyone enjoys it as much as we did.

One of the things that is allowing this trip is the fact that Eamon and his 8 year old cousin are both homeschooled. That's a recent happening for the cousin; they'd only started a month or so before the trip. His school basically said "we can't meet his needs, he's outta here". If my cousin were interested in having diagnoses for him, which she could totally get in a heartbeat, then he would be protected with an IEP and have that 504 or 405 or whatever plan..but without such labels, he's just a disruptive kid who won't pay attention and isn't doing well in class. He's doing MUCH better now that he's home, though, and they are all very very very slowly learning about various things, different ways that different kids learn and need to deal with the world, and even without diagnosis, they are ALL doing better with helping him. Biggest change for him, IMO, is that my aunt has been doing some soul-searching/self-diagnosis/realizations about herself, and by seeing herself she can see him...and she's realizing that when she's trying to get him to Just Be Normal and insisting that he look into her eyes, she's actually causing him extreme discomfort and he's tuning her out...

Anyway, the fact that we have no school schedules to follow makes it a bit easier for trips.

And I'm sure this trip will be horribly hot and humid and uncomfortable...but we're OK with that. We're already planning how we'll fill our mornings and relax during the afternoons...

Now, how we're going to actually budget for it is the interesting part...with Robert's certificate classes and needing to replace my computer (actually we're going to fix mine...cheaper than even a netbook would be it seems) and various other things, it'll be interesting to see how and when the money shows up!

 

[bumbershoot]

I think I mentioned before that we didn't get a whole lot of photopass pictures. It was kind of a bust for us. Boo at that. And the shots we did get were the ONLY shots of those moments, so I was a total sucker, and didn't cancel the pre-order. thhppptht at myself.


But anyway, the few we got and are worthy of sharing are here.


Aurora asked the boys if they had slain any dragons, and if so, how many. Then she asked them to show how strong they were. This is E's pose.

Grand Floridian tree...

His tooth that you can see there came out less than an hour later.

Here's me and E, all bundled up at Epcot (oh wait, did we ride Test Track before meeting my other cousin and little W? that's probably when this pic was taken!)

And the second ride in a row...

 

[bumbershoot]

nancy drew, I just read your '09 trip report, sounds like a great time! You reminded me that I haven't done my "lessons" list yet, LOL. Gotta get to that very soon!

The pix of your boy in his tie-dye made me think of the wool covers, yay! E got a tie-dye from a neighbor last June...he (we) watched their poodle for the day while the poodle's owners went up to a festival near Seattle, and they brought him home a great shirt. he was SO excited about it. I love kids in tie-dye...

Gotta watch Chuck and write out some stuff for tomorrow's phone call...


ETA.

Things NOT to do before getting up at 5:45?

Stay up until 3:30.

 

[kaoden39]

I bought my AP as kind of a lark last year. I don't regret buying but I do know that I am not going to buy another one this year. Maybe next year.

I am looking forward to seeing the changes to DCA and see how far they have gotten on Cars Land and the Ariel ride.

E is getting so big, you can really see it in the picture of him with Lightning McQueen and 'Mator.

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

Loving the last few days of the trip report - especially the pictures of Universal since we haven't been in several years. My older kids didn't like it the last time we went so we haven't spent the money to go back. Looks like there is quite a bit more to do since the last time we were there.

Also, wanted to mention that Darth Maul is at WDW's Jedi Training Academy along with Darth Vader. We took my 2 DSS's for Thanksgiving week and 1 of them fought Vader and 1 fought Darth Maul. I was so glad they each got to fight a different one!

Hooray for a September trip! We may see you there since we are stopping by WDW for a few days after our B2B Dream cruises.

Sorry your stay at Jambo wasn't magical. We have never stayed there but often stay at Kidani and knock on wood have only had great things to say about the resort and staff.

 

[PoohNFriends]

Wow, you have spent quite some time over the last several days updating your TR. Thanks again for sharing!
I've only been to Universal once on New Years day in 2006 so didn't catch a lot there and definitely want to go back some time and will have to stay on site.
Too bad your AKV stay wasn't the best. I've read your other posts on how the CM's should tell you they are putting you in a HA room at check-in and definitely agree. If you and another guest were requesting a change at the same time during a late evening, I'm sure it's happening on a daily basis x all of the resorts on property. Maybe they are just hoping most guests won't care or won't take the time to ask to be switched. On the other hand, it's easier for them to switch a room right at check-in rather than after bags and people have made their trek to the room. Seems like common sense to me .
E seems like a super sweet boy! Hope his love for Disney continues to grow with him! (Hope you don't mind me using E informally, I'm used it after reading thru your TR; do you usually call him E at home or just for TR purposes)?

 

[bumbershoot]

Also, wanted to mention that Darth Maul is at WDW's Jedi Training Academy along with Darth Vader. We took my 2 DSS's for Thanksgiving week and 1 of them fought Vader and 1 fought Darth Maul. I was so glad they each got to fight a different one!

Really? That's really good to know. I'll have to revise what I've been telling him.

*********

P'nf...We call him E at home often...also...picklebug. And by his name. Sometimes we call him Mike b/c that gets his attention when he's ignoring everything else. Funnier b/c he has a great uncle, step great uncle, and uncle all named Mike/Michael! And it's OK that you call him E as well.

And yes, it does seem like common sense to tell people what sort of room they are getting... Who knows, we might have even accepted it at that point, if we'd simply known. Surprises after 10pm are just ugly, though (I don't even like GOOD surprises, let alone bad ones!).

Writing about the whole thing this far out...it's hard to remember how high my emotions were and how exhausted I was. It sounds vaguely silly now, especially writing about how upset I was. But I like to be honest about the bad moments at Disney, so I gotta include it...and as you honed in on, the important thing is that they TELL US when we are checking in.

From now on, though, we'll be asking!


*********

Michele, at least you're getting good use from the AP this year!

 

[kaoden39]

Yeah, I know. And this trip I plan on taking full advantage of the 20% discount in the stores too. I never really buy anything for me and I am going to this trip.

 

[bookgirl]

Hey Molly, my Feb trip got a cold shoulder at Houston Hobby so we had to reschedule to September, so we'll be there around the same time. I'm pretty sure that you won't need to go on a sweatshirt hunt then. In fact I'm hopeing for a cool Fall so we won't be so hot.