This Trip Broke The Bank. Update 11/26 Day 11: Why can't I get in the MK?

[OhioDisneyLover]

I'm so sorry to hear about your kitty. I lost one of my fur babies this week.

 

[annmarieda]

I had really thought that I would have another update by now, but life kinda got in the way. I got some very sad news today about one of our cats, Otis. He's very sick, and it's not the kind of sick that will get better. I have some medications to give him to help him be comfortable, but I feel awful to be stressing him out by giving them to him. We're just trying to enjoy him and love him as much as we can right now.

This is Mr. Oat-man. He is the world's best cat and truly one of a kind.


So I just don't really feel like writing at the moment. But this TR is a way for me to escape the stress of life, so I am sure that I'll have an update soon.

I am so sorry. I know how hard it can be loosing a loved pet.

 

[MarelloDisney]

Sorry to hear about your cat as well. Its never easy.

 

[amyrella]

OMG! i've been MIA for a longwhile! your trip has come and gone... and i just read your whole TR this morning!! lol

i'm so sorry about the disappointing reactions to your celebration... my typical new yorker reaction to that waiter would have been obnoxious and i def would have let it ruin my night!! ugh... i hope the trip ended up being great regardless of the disappoints you had

looking forward to reading the rest!!

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

I had no idea there was a place to ride Segways at Epcot! (Besides the tour, of course). Your trip around WS looks like so much fun!

I can not believe how rude the waiter at LC was! So many people do honeymoons months after their weddings. I would have been so offended I wouldn't have been able to eat!


I'm so, so sorry to hear about Otis.

 

[TheThomsLuvDisney]

So sorry to hear about your Oat-Man!

 

[tankgirl427]

I'm sorry to hear about Otis. Let me know if you need anything ok?

 

[Joyciemc]

I'm so sorry to hear about your kitty. I lost one of my fur babies this week.

I am so sorry! I love having my pets, but losing them is just so hard...

I am so sorry. I know how hard it can be loosing a loved pet.

Sorry to hear about your cat as well. Its never easy.

Thank you all for your kind thoughts for Otis

OMG! i've been MIA for a longwhile! your trip has come and gone... and i just read your whole TR this morning!! lol

i'm so sorry about the disappointing reactions to your celebration... my typical new yorker reaction to that waiter would have been obnoxious and i def would have let it ruin my night!! ugh... i hope the trip ended up being great regardless of the disappoints you had

looking forward to reading the rest!!

I think I had just read too many reports of people getting cupcakes thrown at them everywhere they went... so when we got anti-pixie dust in honor of our celebration it came as a surprise! I would definitely still classify this trip as 'great', though!

I had no idea there was a place to ride Segways at Epcot! (Besides the tour, of course). Your trip around WS looks like so much fun!

I can not believe how rude the waiter at LC was! So many people do honeymoons months after their weddings. I would have been so offended I wouldn't have been able to eat!


I'm so, so sorry to hear about Otis.

So sorry to hear about your Oat-Man!

I'm sorry to hear about Otis. Let me know if you need anything ok?

Thank you guys for thinking of Otis!

He's still doing ok. He actually got a little appetite back today and ate some tuna after not touching anything for two days.
Poor guy is in kidney failure and has pancreatitis

I've spent the day cleaning the house and keeping busy. Look for an update a little later, too!

 

[Joyciemc]

I've got a little time before a friend comes over to make me birthday dinner (to make up for me not feeling up for going out to celebrate and so I can stay home and near Otis)- I have great friends!

So with this bit of time, let's get an update written:
Day 7: You can change the name, but it's still the same place.

This was our official DHS day, so we wanted to get going early to make it for rope drop. Waiting 2 hours for Toy Story Mania earlier in the week was super fun and all rolleyes: ) but I was looking forward to getting a FP and maybe riding with a more normal wait time.

So we woke up at 7:15AM and skipped breakfast (does this ever turn out to be a good idea for us? And will we ever learn not to do it?) to head out to the Poly bus stop for the first time. We got to the stop at about 8:30 and waited for quite a while for a bus. We sat on a bench and lots more people joined us in the wait. By the time we got to DHS, it was a little after 9 and the park had already opened.

We headed directly to TSM and grabbed a couple of FP with a return time of 10:30. The stand by wait was already pretty long, so we turned around and headed to the part of the park that no people seem to go to anymore- to Tower of Terror and Rock N Rollercoaster. We were always able to ride these with no wait. Thanks, Toy Story

On the way over there, we stopped at Starring Rolls for breakfast. I got a very healthy cheese danish, which happened to be really tasty. Ben got a bagel and we tried to find a table that wasn't being baked by the sun. We ended up squishing together at a table that was 10% shaded. Not the most enjoyable breakfast experience, but over pretty quickly and we continued on to our favorite ride.

It wasn't time for our FP yet, but we walked back past Toy Story anyway. The posted wait time was 40min and we stupidly (ok, ok... it was me again. I don't know what my problem was... I blame the heat- the promise of air conditioning made the wait not seem so bad) got in line. We were happy to see that the line was much, much shorter than the other day.

I had even worn my Toy Story shirt for the occasion.

The line was moving along nicely at first, but we suddenly realized that we were no longer moving once we got in front of Potato Head. Listening to him got very annoying- his spiel was very repetitive and if I had to hear that 'One potato, two potato' song again, I might go nuts! But we took some pictures and waited it out.

We finally got on the ride after about an hour of waiting. Oops, sorry Ben!

As we left, we saw that FP were still being distributed. We waited behind one guy to get ours. He was taking forever and kept putting the tickets in wrong. We were just about to use the machine next to us when *poof* all the FP were gone. It was so frustrating! Ben got MAD! There was some un-Disney language used. He didn't even want to use the FPs we already had to ride again because he was mad at the ride. That part didn't make sense to me, but I agreed that we needed to remove ourselves from the situation.
Muppets always makes us happier, so that is where we went. Once the show let out, it was time for our lunch ADR at Sci-Fi Dine In. We loved watching the movie clips and had a good meal. We both got burgers and chocolate peanut butter cake for desert- it was really yummy!
Lunch was so good that Ben was ready to use those TSM FP after all. It was so nice to walk right on! I think we've (I've) finally learned that TSM is not worth waiting for and is only a great ride if you don't wait!

We had to ride ToT once more before heading out for a break back at the Poly. Near our building, we stopped at the resort map because I was excited that I finally knew how to get around the Poly (seriously- I had the hardest time with this... I can be a bit dim sometimes)

We were back in our room around 2:30 and I fell asleep right away. At 4:30 I woke up ready to head to the pool. It was really cloudy out, but still incredibly hot. Despite the lack of sun, the pool was as crowded as always. I have never seen a resort pool as full of people as the volcano pool was all week!
We did manage to find plenty of lounge chairs on the beach, though!

Ben filled our mugs with Coke Zero and we relaxed and got caffeinated.

Before long, it was time to get a drink at the pool bar and high tail it back to the 'Fire' pool (otherwise known as the quiet pool).

I don't remember what this was, but it was good:

Ben tried to get a Longboard beer, but was told that the draft beers were 'broken'. With that tid bit of information, he opted not to get anything and we left for the Fire pool.

I am soooo happy this pool was an option. If we were forced to hang out at the main pool, I would have gone over the edge- it was so chaotic and the Hannah Montana music was blaring! Over here, everything was calm and relaxing.

At 6:15, we headed back to the room and got ready for our dinner at the Wave. It took us no time at all to get over to the Contemporary and travel down, down, down to the Wave. I had no idea this restaurant was in the basement, but we found it!
We checked in and waited for about 45 seconds before our buzzer went off.

We took this picture, and then the hostess offered to take one for us.

Our camera was once again on a wacky setting, so the pics weren't coming out well at all. Another hostess was hovering around giving photographic tips to the first CM. They ended up taking a lot of pictures before I laughed and declared that this had to be the last one, I was hungry! Those ladies were invested in getting us a picture, I'll give them that!

Our waiter came over pretty quickly and we learned that he used to live in our town! We talked about a few local places and he was very nice.
We decided to get the crab cake appetizer for two and it was quite tasty.
For dinner, I ordered the Apple brined Pork tenderloin and Ben got Salmon. I asked for the Pinot Noir flight with my entree, since it included the wine that was paired with my dish.
As nice as our waiter was, service was quite strange for this meal. Our table was never bussed, so we just kept accumulating plates and glasses until we ran out of room! My wine didn't come out so I waited to start eating until I could get it. But it took a while for the waiter to check on us, so it took a while to get the wine! When I did get it, I enjoyed each of the varieties (I don't remember which wines were included with it, and I don't know much about wince, anyway...)
The food itself was very good. At first, Ben didn't want dessert because none of the descriptions appealed to him. But I convinced him to get one so I could try it.
I ordered the Decadent Flavors and he got Creamy Indulgence. The desserts here are served as trios and we were very pleasantly surprised! We ended up loving all of the desserts. By now, the table was so full that we just had to laugh- I've never had that happen before!

After dinner, we poked around the resort a bit. We loved the pool area and Ben was surprised by how much he liked the Contemporary- it was always the hotel he had the least interest in.

We made it back to the Poly just in time for Wishes. I didn't have the SLR, so I only managed a few pretty crappy pictures.

At the time, I wasn't worried- we still had 3 nights left and I would have another chance to see Wishes and get some better pictures. Though it turned out I was forgetting an important fact...

We were back in the room and ready for bed around 9:30

Up next, Day 8: We finally get to the Animal Kingdom and I say good bye to an old friend, but hello to a brand new one!

 

[Marblies]

Happy Birthday and thanks for the report!

 

[TheThomsLuvDisney]

Hope you are having a fabulous Birthday!

 

[amyrella]

happy birthday!

thanks for the update on otis..

looking forward to rading more!

 

[DisneyCrafter]

I am all caught up!

Sorry to hear about your kitty.

I think that the CM's are tired of the "What will you celebrate?" theme. When we went on the Disney part of our honeymoon back in May 2009, we were congratulated left and right-by EVERYBODY. It could be that it has been going on too long and it could be that too many people wear the buttons that it has just gotten old. IMO. I'm sorry that you, who actually WAS celebrating something (who cares if you got married in April or the day before you arrived) didn't get the recognition you deserved.

We only rode TSM once, because the wait times both times we were at DHS were over an hour and I refused to stand in line for anything that long. I'm serious-we would walk ALLLL the way over to an attraction see the wait time was more than an hour and walk away.

 

[annmarieda]

Great updates! I love the beach at the Poly...looks awesome!

I can't believe you stood in line again! You have more stamina than me. I don't think I have ever waited more than 10 minutes top for that ride. (I have to thank ridemax for that) I didn't know that Mr. Potato Head said anything. I guess when you walk right through you miss some of the stuff intended to be seen.

Hope your birthday is a good one!

 

[Missyrose]

We finally got on the ride after about an hour of waiting.

Three hours of waiting for two rides on TSM, ugh! Totally afraid that will be my fate during my trip in a few weeks. The plan is to hit up DHS on arrival day. Plane arrives at 8:55 a.m., we're going to pick up the rental car and go directly to DHS to grap TSM Fastpasses. Hopefully there will still some left Otherwise, we'll be waiting in those ridiculous lines come afternoon.

Cross your fingers for me!

 

[Joyciemc]

Happy Birthday and thanks for the report!

Thank you! And you are very welcome

Hope you are having a fabulous Birthday!

I had a great birthday- my friend made a delicious dinner and a super cute hand-knit stuffed kitty (she is very talented!)

happy birthday!

thanks for the update on otis..

looking forward to rading more!

Thank you!
Otis ate all day today, and even acted more normal- I think it was his birthday present to me.

I am all caught up!

Sorry to hear about your kitty.

I think that the CM's are tired of the "What will you celebrate?" theme. When we went on the Disney part of our honeymoon back in May 2009, we were congratulated left and right-by EVERYBODY. It could be that it has been going on too long and it could be that too many people wear the buttons that it has just gotten old. IMO. I'm sorry that you, who actually WAS celebrating something (who cares if you got married in April or the day before you arrived) didn't get the recognition you deserved.

We only rode TSM once, because the wait times both times we were at DHS were over an hour and I refused to stand in line for anything that long. I'm serious-we would walk ALLLL the way over to an attraction see the wait time was more than an hour and walk away.

I definitely think the 'Celebrate' theme has worn out its specialness...
We weren't really looking for any special recognition, I just thought it would be fun to wear the pins and the ears (though we ended up feeling too weird about the pins to even think about wearing the ears!)

TSM is in no way shape or form worth the time we waited! We never wait for stuff- I have no explanation for why I wanted to wait for this... it certainly wasn't Ben's idea!

Great updates! I love the beach at the Poly...looks awesome!

I can't believe you stood in line again! You have more stamina than me. I don't think I have ever waited more than 10 minutes top for that ride. (I have to thank ridemax for that) I didn't know that Mr. Potato Head said anything. I guess when you walk right through you miss some of the stuff intended to be seen.

Hope your birthday is a good one!

All I can think is that I was happy to be out of the heat... even if we were standing in a boring line for an hour! Never again, though!

Three hours of waiting for two rides on TSM, ugh! Totally afraid that will be my fate during my trip in a few weeks. The plan is to hit up DHS on arrival day. Plane arrives at 8:55 a.m., we're going to pick up the rental car and go directly to DHS to grap TSM Fastpasses. Hopefully there will still some left Otherwise, we'll be waiting in those ridiculous lines come afternoon.

Cross your fingers for me!

Don't do it! If there is a wait, don't ride! Get FP (there very well may be some left when you get there!) and use those. Trust me, this ride is very good, but it is not worth a long wait. And the queue is boring!

 

[annmarieda]

Oh yeah!!! the heat!!! That is an excellent reason to stand in line. I don't think there is anything wrong with that at all. I wish I would have taken advantage of AC a bit better.

 

[klacey1]

Joyce, I'm so sorry about Otis. It's the curse of having pets-- loving them so much (and getting so much in return) and them living WAY too short of lives.

If I were you guys, I would have been mad at TSMM, too! Lol, not the ride's fault, but after 3 hours total of waiting and no more Fastpasses, I would have been pretty peeved at it. Glad you were able to cool off with the Muppets! The Wave's menu never really appealed to me, but I'm glad you guys enjoyed it-- and your waiter wasn't a PITA!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Happy belated birthday. Sorry that I missed it.

We had to cancel our ADR at the Wave so it was nice to see your review. I can't believe that they didn't bus the table. Had to be interesting to accumulate a bunch of plates and stuff.

 

[Joyciemc]

Oh yeah!!! the heat!!! That is an excellent reason to stand in line. I don't think there is anything wrong with that at all. I wish I would have taken advantage of AC a bit better.

Haha, if you could sit down while waiting, I wouldn't mind at all- it'd be a nice break from the heat!

Joyce, I'm so sorry about Otis. It's the curse of having pets-- loving them so much (and getting so much in return) and them living WAY too short of lives.

If I were you guys, I would have been mad at TSMM, too! Lol, not the ride's fault, but after 3 hours total of waiting and no more Fastpasses, I would have been pretty peeved at it. Glad you were able to cool off with the Muppets! The Wave's menu never really appealed to me, but I'm glad you guys enjoyed it-- and your waiter wasn't a PITA!

Thank you... Otis is still improving, he started eating cat food again and even played with Blanche a little. The prognosis is still very poor (there's no obvious reason for the kidney failure or the pancreatitis) but at least his quality of life seems better than it was.

The Wave is not on the 'let's go back there' list, but we enjoyed our meals. Dessert was a surprise hit.

Happy belated birthday. Sorry that I missed it.

We had to cancel our ADR at the Wave so it was nice to see your review. I can't believe that they didn't bus the table. Had to be interesting to accumulate a bunch of plates and stuff.

That's ok, my birthday comes and goes with little fanfare, if I can help it!

The lack of busing the table became pretty funny. You'd think the wiater would notice when he brought a new course that there wasn't room to put it down.