A Commando Trip Report 6 Days Almost 100 On The Move Hours!

[Disney Commando]

First a Intro, My name is Ron (aka Disney Commando) proud member of The Dis Dads Club & WDW Commando Club, my wife Rachel, And 5yr old son Hunter (this was his 6th trip to WDW) almost forgot a double wide stroller

Just to clear it up, I go with the old school military definition of Commando, not the no underwear one
I do not have every second planned and timed
We do not run from one thing to another knocking people down or anything crazy like that

We do try to be out of our room and at the bus stop by 7:30 am for EMH park of the day, and will not return untill at least Midnight

I base what we are doing for the day around ADR's and hard timed shows or events, and then the time inbetween I have a list of things we want to get done that day, if it doesn't get done, no biggie we will be at that park afew more times during the week
I try to make ADR's outside of park, this way after dinner it's off to a different park (got to keep it exciting)

With almost 1yr of planning and 100 on the go hours for the week, we did run into alot of unusual and rarer things (will talk about them as they happened)

One thing that I can say is you would have a better chance of finding Waldo in the parks, we do not stay in one section very long, we could be at the TT and 10mins later be in Japan A few fellow Dis Dads will most likely dime in on this since alot of us were there at the same time and meeting up.

So sit back grab a cocktail and enjoy,

 

[FreezinRafiki]

Front Row!

 

[Goofy + 3]

Second row! (Why does it smell like cheese balls in here?)

 

[Disney Commando]

Front Row!

Welcome Barry We have plenty of cheeseballs in the bowl ontop of the bar I'm going to try to get it rolling when I get home from work tonite

 

[Disney Commando]

Second row! (Why does it smell like cheese balls in here?)

Welcome Chris You can make your way to the front row, plenty of seats

 

[Emma's Dad]

Third row I get to throw some popcorn up front... hehe.

 

[Wherem I Now]

Fourth ro... Ah forget it, I'll just sit on the floor up front.

 

[Disney Commando]

We left our house in NJ around 8:30 on Sat Dec 4, Next stop Lorton VA, I was surprised that we had no traffic delays We arrive in Lorton around 12:30 and hit the McDonald's nearby.

After lunch we check our van in at the AutoTrain and grab all the stuff we are bringing on the train
I check in to get our tickets (this is where they assign seats) I give the guy at the desk my slip from last trip and ask if I can get the same seats (now the seats I want are the least asked for) They are the middle seats across from the stairs, alot of people don't like those seats but the pros outway the cons big time.

- Cons people going up and down stairs
-Pros no one sitting across from you
- Emergencey stuff across from you, I would really hate it if someone sitting in these seats did not know how to use a ax, hammer, crow bar etc. if needed
- Since it is in the middle it is the smoothest ride
- if you have a odd number of people in party they don't sit someone next to you
- and of course the best reason to sit in these seats is the show, when the train is flying down the track even the best in shape have trouble with the stairs

Anyway I got the seats, NO PROBLEM, We boarded at 3pm for a 4pm departure, by 4:05 I was a happy camper a familiar voice over the PA one with a heavy actcent, yes every time I hear this voice it is a early arrivial

Seems like half way through VA the tin roofs are more and more common, checking out all the small rail towns is really neat some were holding Christmas Parades as we were passing by
One thing I noted was the further south you go the more crap people have in there backyards (I guess American Pickers is #1 in this area)

Alot of the trip I was texting Dave, hearing how cold it was (I work in a freezer all year long, 1 week in Fla and I still can't get away from the cold)

Going through NC it's snowing OMG, it wasn't sticking to the road but the grass had a good inch or 2

6am breakfast anouncement, we will be arriveing in Stanford Fla approx 90 mins early (YES) Arrive at Stanford around 8am, by the time we had the van and were on our way it was 9am with light rain

Less than a hour we will be at WDW

 

[Disney Commando]

Third row I get to throw some popcorn up front... hehe.

Fourth ro... Ah forget it, I'll just sit on the floor up front.

We have enough room for everyone , fill in all available seats

 

[MK2010]

I'm subbing! I am def. a planner too! I love TGM and follow his advice to a tee! Last year I took my family and we were at the Bus stops by 7:30 and hit the parks hard. My friend was so impressed she asked me to plan hers. I did and she rewarded me by taking me along on this next trip!

 

[diasymathew]

nice time you had...

 

[jmm476]

subbing of course! I wouldn't miss the #1 commando's trip report...

 

[Disney Commando]

Welcome everyone to my Trip Report, I'll be getting to Day 1 right after Christmas So everyone have a MERRY CHRISTMAS! I Hope Santa Goofy is good to everyone

 

[Disney Commando]

We arrive at All Star Movies around 10am, plan was to get our key card and hit the parks, but this is what happened , we did the early checkin on line, we put down that our arrivial time would be at 10:30am our room was actually ready, it was in the Love Bug section, just like my son wanted

So now we decieded that unloading the van , taking a quick shower, and grab some lunch was the new plan, since we were still wearing the clothes from the train

We had lunch at The All Star Cafe, much to our surprise they had a big QS menu. and the food was good

We go to catch the bus for Epcot and my son is whinning that he needs to ride the Momorail, (instead of changing plans, we hop on the bus to MK and head to the Monorail station) Monorail Yellow brings us to Epcot alittle before 1pm. (scored 2 monorail card, so it was worth wild , plus he was happy)

Once in the park we head over to TT (the 1st ride DS wan't to do when we got there, even though it had a line, I promised him that would be the 1st ride nomatter what) the wait time said 40mins buy it was more like 25mins

Since Christmas was the main Priority this year it was time to see what we could get done in The World Showcase, also time was real factor since we had to a ADR at 5 over in Port Orleans.

When we crossed thr bridge I noticed Duffy's spot with a small line (10min wait) While wating in line I get a text from Chris(Goofy +3 ) that he's over in Mexico, So after Duffy we haed over that way and meet up with Chris in Norway Chris was solo, with the rest of his crew resting back at the resort, We watched the Christmas Storyteller in Norway, IMO this was by far the best Storyteller in WS It was Great meeting up with Chris, but we both had to part ways after the storyteller, we had to make our way to dinner & his family was waiting for him at the resort (hopefully we will have a mini Busch Garden or Kings Dominion, Dis Dad meet this summer)

Passing through Mexico the 3 Kings are just coming out, so we watch the storytellers and we are on our way to the Busses.

We had a 5pm ADR for Boatwright Dinning Hall, we get off at Port Orleans FQ, after a few minutes I realize we are in the wrong place so I went up to the front desk to find out where we were, the guy at the desk said we needed to be at Riverside and the best way to get there was to take the boat upriver, so we head to the dock and the boat is just getting ready to leave.

I had no idea that POR was so big with like 5 stops, but if I didn't screw up we would have never been on the boatride (so its all good)
We arrive at Boatwrights we are still a few minutes early We had 5pm 1st seating so we were seated and served quickly ( I had the Prime Rib), although I enjoyed the Boatwright, it took alot of travel time up, so I would have to factor that in, next trip


Day 1 to be Continued

 

[Disney Commando]

After dinner we went to HS we arrived close to 7pm the park was open with EMH's till 11pm.

The 1st thing we wanted to do was the Osbourne lights, on the way we walked past TSM and noticed it only had a wait time of 35 mins, so we got on line (DW beat me by 200pts).

We caught 3 shows of the Osbourne lights from 3 different angles, it was AWESOME

We then walked past TSM again and got on line (it was about a 20 wait, but well into the EMH's) Oh yeah I was beat again

After TSM we headed over to R&RRC but DS was too short, so none of us went on, We went on TOT and after riding it at night, I will never ride it during the daytime ever again, the park overview at night is much better than the day

After we got off TOT my DS wanted to do TSM again, on our way we start to hear music so we go for look on what's going on It was Mulch, Sweat & Shears, these guys ROCK If you can get a chance to see them I highly recommend it

One last time for the night with TSM, we get on line and the end is in front of Mr Potatohead (10min wait) and yes I was beat again (I guess you all can tell that I'm not the one who plays TSM on Wii)

It's now almost 10:45 and we head for the bus back to the Resort for alittle sleep, 6:30am comes quick

 

[jmm476]

Wow - that's a lot of TSM in a short amount of time! Sounds good to me so far.

 

[GaRain]

Sounds like a good trip so far....our trips overlapped a tad - what day was this when you were at EPCOT and then HS?

 

[Goofy + 3]

I still can't believe how much park time your son can take in on so little sleep. My kids needed 10+ hrs of sleep plus a nap!

 

[Disney Commando]

Wow - that's a lot of TSM in a short amount of time! Sounds good to me so far.

One of the main reasons I don't plan every second, you never know when you will catch a great opp, It's a good thing too that we took advatage of the line situation at TS, although we went back to HS later in the week, we were not able to get on (Day 5)

Sounds like a good trip so far....our trips overlapped a tad - what day was this when you were at EPCOT and then HS?

We were at WDW 12/5-12/11 Epcot & HS on 12/5

I still can't believe how much park time your son can take in on so little sleep. My kids needed 10+ hrs of sleep plus a nap!

My little guy is like me can run on little sleep (at home he might fall asleep around 9 or 10pm and will be up around 5 or 6am)
We did have the stroller with us, that he loves to use to the fullest(plus we can move around alot faster) if he bombs out it's shopping time

 

[luckylady]

Ohh I love the way you plan it so me. Can't believe the short wait time on TSM unheard of. Can't wait to read more.