A Different Kind of Trip

[JCandKT]

Although DH and I had a great time away from work, school, church and other commitments on our vacation at Disney, this was a different kind of trip for us. We usually go in middle-to-late September, when the crowds aren’t as bad and we’re able to hit a lot of attractions with little-to-no wait time – we’re just able to go to the parks at our pace and it’s relaxing. This time, however, was not relaxing.

We arrived on New Years Eve (our first mistake). After having a slight delay in our connecting city, we arrived to the warm, humid climate that is Central Florida – quite different then the cold, damp, dreariness that is Indianapolis. Our bus driver on the Magical Express made us feel very welcome by telling jokes and letting us know what was up with the parks – the Magic Kingdom was already at capacity and it was only 11 a.m. Check-in to the ASMo took a little longer than desired, but we checked our carry-ons at the front desk and headed off to Epcot. We headed straight over to the World Showcase to get something to eat at our favorite little Cantina in Mexico and it was packed. I swarmed like a vulture for 20 minutes while DH waited in line to order our food. Finally I saw a two-seater table along the lagoon and took my seat. A four-seater opened up next to us and a large family came over. The man in that family looked at me sitting alone at the two-seater and told me to find another table, since they had 8 in their family and they would need the table I was sitting at as well. If he had asked nicely, I probably would have obliged, but he –demanded!- that I leave and find another seat. Thankfully, DH came back and sat down. We were glared at the whole time by this family and they made it very difficult to eat. (was I wrong for not moving?)

Epcot was so congested it was hard to even walk from country to country. We ran into some characters in America, so that was nice. We stopped in Germany so DH could get a brew and a pretzel, and I sat along the lagoon to people-watch. People were being just so vicious to each other ---- something I am not used to seeing at Disney!! Snow White and Dopey were taking pictures and I just couldn’t believe all the pushing and shoving and swearing... it was like being at a kid’s soccer game! We had had just about enough by about 4 p.m. and had to leave Epcot because we were just so upset and frustrated by the whole mob scene. We went back and took a nap for a couple hours – had a light dinner at the ASMo Food Court – and headed over to MGM. The crowds were a lot lighter over at MGM as compared to Epcot. Some teenagers messing around with a wheelchair (pushing each other and running through the dense crowds) ended up running right into the back of DH and scarring his legs and ankles. Needless to say it made us think we had made a mistake by going to Disney on New Years. 3-2-1 Happy New Year and we ran onto Aerosmith’s Roller Coaster (our first time) and loved it. Then we ran onto Tower of Terror (my first time) and eich – I hate the feeling of dropping, but it was still fun.

We headed back to our rooms to try and get some sleep. We hoped our vacation would be better tomorrow.

(more later)

 

[dvcmbr94]

Thanks for an interesting read. I can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip. I prefer the off season, September like your past trips. I'm not sure I'll ever go on NYE. Bring on the rest of the trip!

 

[pearland1]

We went Dec. 31- Jan. 6
I can't agree more that we will never go again during that time.
The crowds were worse than I have ever seen them...and we usually go during the summer!
It was horrible. We also just had a ton of problems with 'computers going down' at the ASMu. UGH. It took us half a day to actually get into the park!!
I will do serious research before ever going again. We usually have stayed at Ft Wilderness and absolutely loved it.
This time at ASMu I can say I was more stressed after the trip than before. Whew!

 

[OhMari]

In my opinion, I think people didn't plan trips to the Carribean because they thought they needed Passports. So everyone went to Florida (WDW) for Christmas Break. I hope things got better on your trip.

 

[pearland1]

Yes, the Florida schools were out that week. I believe that had a lot to do with the crowds.

Note to self: Never go while Florida children are out of school!

 

[Gregory]

Hope the rest of your trip goes better. My wife and I like to go in May in order to miss all the long lines. Can't wait to read more.

 

[Tinkerbell's Mom]

Subscribing . . . can't wait to read if it got better, we've never went during a busy time, we always go in September . . .

 

[JCandKT]

OH – I forgot to say this! When we checked into ASMo, our ticket package was wrong! Although we had discussed at great length on the phone when I had booked it back in November, the CM did not put the Water Parks and More option on our package (we use it for Disney Quest/Pleasure Island). Thankfully, I had asked the question before we tried to use the tickets! So, after standing in the front desk line, I had to go over to the concierge line and wait there for about 30 minutes to get that all straightened up. Not the way I want to start out a trip, but the concierge was nice and added it to our package at no cost. So, although it was a pain in the butt, the CM was really cool by doing that for us.



So we woke up late on Monday 1/1/07 and ran down to the ASMo Food Court to get a little something for breakfast ---- apparently, everyone slept late because when we got there, we couldn’t find a seat (and that’s saying something, considering the Mo has the biggest food court of the AS)



I don’t remember what we did that day, but I remember we went to the MK in the evening, and again, it was so congested you couldn’t even walk around comfortably! We took the Monorail over to the Polynesian for our favorite meal – Ohana. We arrived earlier than our reservations and sat in the waiting area and had a cocktail --- it was packed (are you beginning to see a pattern here?) We were seated right in front of the windows that faced the Castle (yes!) and were promptly served. The ukulele dude was right in front of us the whole time, so that was fun, to see the little ones run and play. He played us “I Can’t Help (Falling in Love with You)” as we were celebrating our anniversary, and we danced in front of the audience (which was a little intimidating). The food was fabulous as usual – although the menu had changed since our last visit – and we were able to sit and eat our ice cream and watch all of Wishes from the MK... perfect seats.


We took a bus over to PI and I can honestly say I wasn’t expecting what I saw. It was DEAD. Not a soul, and it looks like most of the shops inside of PI are gone – except for a Harley store. The stage at the West End is gone and they don’t do NYE at midnight any more. We thought we’d go into the Adventurer’s Club to start out the night, since we had just missed the seating of the comedy club show (our fav thing to do). So we're heading into the AC when the CM says that our cards are invalid! He swipes them like 4 times and he says they're completely erased! DH had to go down to Guest Relations on the West Side and they gave us temporary tickets for the evening. It was like we just kept running into bad luck!

There were only a handful of people in the AC so we decided to go get in line for the Comedy Club. I've never seen this before, and I don't know if something has changed, but I couldn't get over how many STROLLERS with BABIES there were in the line! I mean, there were infants and toddlers and 6-10 year olds waiting to go in the Comedy Club - FOR THE MIDNIGHT SHOW! Did I miss something here?!!?! Not that I want the comedy show to be dirty (it is Disney, after all) but folks, it's a bar! I was just shocked.

We usually howl at the comedy club, fall out of our chairs laughing, but this time, and I think it had something to do with the children, it wasn't as funny as I'd remembered. (Some of the improv troupe even made a comment about the children) Has anyone else run into that?

So we left after the show and headed back to the ASMo and had to get new tickets from the Front Desk so that we could get into our room. Ugh!

 

[JCandKT]

Tuesday morning came (1/2/07) and we headed off to a park. Epcot was still so packed! After trying to help a young boy (I think he was French) after he lost his parents, we only were able to ride a few rides, simply because of the lines, and all the fast passes were already gone!

In the evening, we headed back to our room to change for the night. We went back over to MGM to see a few things, and then hopped on a boat towards the Epcot resorts. (We’d never been on that side of the World) The first stop was the Swan and Dolphin, resorts I’d always seen on the buses from a distance, but never up close. Then we headed into the Crescent Lake --- emerging from under the bridge so we could see the Yacht and Beach Club and the Boardwalk --- it was like we found a whole other part of the World we didn’t knew existed!

We were dropped off at the YC and looked around the grounds --- what an awesome pool! We headed into the Cape May Café for dinner --- and WOW --- what a fabulous meal. (I’d seen a special on either Food Network or Travel Channel, and saw the restaurant – thankfully!) We really enjoyed the meal and I had one of those special YOAMD Blue-Glow-Tini’s. We were stuffed. That will definitely become a tradition! We walked around a bit more to look at our new discovery and then headed over to the Boardwalk. DH was fascinated with the ESPN Club and we vowed to come back. We bought some things in the candy store for friends back home and then found ourselves at Jellyrolls. What a fun time! We ended up closing the place down and started to feel better about our trip with all the fun we were having!

I stopped at the front desk of ASMo when we got back to ask them how we could transfer to the Beach Club for our last two evenings – since we were so excited about what we had found. The CM told us to call Central Reservations first thing in the morning.

I was able to get 7 a.m. reservations for Chef Mickey’s on Wednesday 1/3/07. We got there early and as DH was standing in line, I ran over to a house phone and called central reservations. A very rude CM told me that I needed to contact the front desk of ASMo. I told her they told me that I had to call central reservations – she told me that was a “lie.” A lie? Maybe a mistake, but a lie? I told her that the CM at the front desk told me there were availabilities at the Beach Club and she again said that “was a lie, because the front desk has no way of checking something like that so I don’t know what he was trying to tell you.” What? I decided to eat my meal before I would try again.

Chef Mickey’s was great – as usual – and our CM was great. She was able to put the Disney spirit back in me! (...and Pluto helped too...)

We headed back to ASMo to talk to the front desk people about switching resorts, which stunk, since it was an early MK day and we were right there. But we wanted to stay at the BC and get that taken care of... we figured we’d be right back.

We were wrong.

We waited in line for what seemed like an hour and finally got up front and told them what we wanted to do. She said we needed to contact central reservations and said she couldn’t help and waved the next person in line over. What the?

So, I went back over to the house phone and called CR again and got the same thing. “We can’t help you, you need to go to your resorts’ front desk, they can help you, have a magical day.” I was so frustrated we just left and went to a park.

It was getting later and we decided to head back to our room for a nap so that we’d be able to stay up late since we had reservations at the House of Blues and wanted to see if Pleasure Island was any better. On the bus ride back to the ASMo we decided that we would try one last time to see if we could transfer for our last night, since it was too late for that day.

I wasn’t even done with the story yet when the CM said “call central reservations” and went to wave the next person over. I’d had enough! I stopped her and said, “look! I’ve done that, and then I’ve done what they’ve asked and no one wants to help me. All I want to do is transfer to the BC for our last night because we’ve always stayed at the AS and we want to try something different!” She must have heard the frustration in my voice and called somebody and asked to speak to their manager – explained our situation – and they said they could help us. She called the BC to see if there was room, there was, she transferred everything in a matter of minutes. I’m still confused why it took me BEGGING to get it done.

(more later)

 

[mlill]

In the evening, we headed back to our room to change for the night. We went back over to MGM to see a few things, and then hopped on a boat towards the Epcot resorts. (We’d never been on that side of the World) The first stop was the Swan and Dolphin, resorts I’d always seen on the buses from a distance, but never up close. Then we headed into the Crescent Lake --- emerging from under the bridge so we could see the Yacht and Beach Club and the Boardwalk --- it was like we found a whole other part of the World we didn’t knew existed!

Hello from NW Indiana! I'm loving your TR so far! We feel the same way about our little part of the World - BWV! The Crescent Lake area is beautiful! I'm so glad that you were able to switch! I can't wait to read all about it!

-Michelle

 

[JCandKT]

So after all of that was taken care of, we headed off to Downtown so that I could walk through the shops and DH could go to DisneyQuest. As we pulled up to the marketplace, the skies opened up and it started to absolutely POUR! And who left her jacket back in the room? (“surely I won’t need it tonight...”) I jumped off the bus and ran for cover; I realized quickly it didn’t matter and just started walking in the rain. In mere moments I was soaked to the bone. It was actually quite funny looking at people’s reactions to my “drowned-rattiness”. I eventually headed over to the West Side and found DH in DisneyQuest. He just hugged me and said he was sorry that I was so wet, but I caught him a few times laughing at me.

We headed over to House of Blues (DH’s favorite) and had a nice meal. We headed back to PI, hoping it would be better than Monday night, and were just as disappointed. It was just dead! And children in the bars... I couldn’t believe it. Like I said before, the Comedy Warehouse is usually one of our most favorite parts of the trip, and it wasn’t the same... when a baby is crying (screaming is more like it) during the show, it just takes some of the humor out of it.

We headed back to our room fairly early because we wanted to get up, checked out and over to the BC.

Check-out went fine on Thursday 1/4/07 morning and we headed over to the BC. And check in was great. The CM’s were sooooo nice to us! She asked us why were there, we explained that we were celebrating our 5th anniversary a few months late... just bought our first house... need a vacation and she just gushed all over us! She gave us these cool “Happy Anniversary” buttons and told us to have a great night! And our room was ready for us to check out (and it was only 10 a.m.!)

The BC sure is different then the AS! We headed up to the 3rd floor and easily found our room. When we opened the door, we were nothing short of absolutely floored. Our room faced the boardwalk and was so calming. We just simply looked around and were marveling at where we were. We’ve never stayed somewhere so nice (except for our cute little B&B we stay at in Southwest Michigan along the lake). I opened the door to the balcony and simply breathed in everything. We knew right then that we were ruined for the AS forever and the BC would become our new place to stay.

We were pretty hungry by then and headed over to the ESPN Club --- DH was drooling all over the place as he looked at all the memorabilia. We ordered entirely too much food and loved everything we ate. Then we headed to a park for the afternoon.

And can I just say that it was just AWESOME how the CM’s were when they saw our little anniversary buttons? I wish we’d had them all week!

I love to swim, so I knew that I needed to get into that pool. DH isn’t a big fan of the water, so he decided he would walk around, check things out and then get a cocktail and sit by the pool and relax. That pool is FABULOUS! I was finally beginning to relax (and it felt great on my aching back and poor little feet).

Back to the room to freshen up (even the shower was wonderful) and then off for the evening. We ate the greatest pizza outside of Spoodles and then eventually made it back to our new favorite place, Jellyrolls! We got there early so it wasn’t very packed, and they played all the songs we requested. They saw our anniversary buttons and made us feel very special. When one of the other patrons found out we were from Indiana, he bought us drinks for our anniversary (I’m sure it didn’t hurt that the guy was feeling very “relaxed” if you know what I mean! He was throwing $20’s all over the place!) So we had SO much fun singing along (I even lost my voice) and were upset to have to leave.

We headed back to the BC. DH told me to go up to the room and he’d meet me up there. I changed into my pj’s and about 5 minutes after DH joined me in the room, there was a knock at the door. (who’d be knocking at 2:30 in the morning?!) It was room service bringing us cookies and milk! It was the coolest thing ever!

We slept wonderfully with the balcony door open and the ceiling fan on... the bed was so comfortable... I didn’t want to get up! But, we went all out and had breakfast in bed and hung around for awhile. We checked our luggage and headed over to MK so I could test out Philharmagic and I loved it SO much.

We found ourselves back on the boardwalk to have that wonderful pizza before we left. As we stepped off the boat, there was a man coming out of the ice cream parlor with a waffle cone and then something I don’t think I’ve ever seen (and I grew up real close to the beach!) A flock of seagulls attacked him and stole his ice cream! I mean, just snatched it right out of his hand! As we were sitting eating our pizza, it happened again to a woman! Those seagulls are CRAZY!

Unfortunately our time was over at Disney and we headed back to MCO. There was such a heaviness on our heart, because like this blog’s title suggests, it was just a different kind of trip.

We will never go back for New Years, we much prefer September. And you know that we’ll be staying at Beach Club! I wish so much hadn’t gone wrong this trip, because we always have such a great time....but I still love the World and we’ll be back soon.

 

[AmyBWV99]

We were there over new year's and feel your pain...

If you love the Beach Club, try the Yacht Club. We stayed at the GF for a week 2 yeras ago and thought nothing could beat that (we'd stayed at the BC, too) until we tried the YC. Holy Cow! It's just like the BC only better (we thought). The service was impeccable and everyone was incredibly friendly.

I feel your pain about the ASR, too. We've stayed at the values and seem to have similar issues (long lines, not-so-nice CM's, crowds, etc). I just can't see a CM at the BC telling you that it was, essentially, your problem and act put out about it. I'm sure it happens, but hasn't to us.

Welcome to the world of the 'deluxe snobs'. Once you're one of us, there's no going back.

 

[Cass]

Oh yeah, the Beach Club is lovely

Great report, it was two two reports in one, I'm glad you were able to salvage the trip that was going bad.

 

[MrOakie]

We headed straight over to the World Showcase to get something to eat at our favorite little Cantina in Mexico and it was packed. I swarmed like a vulture for 20 minutes while DH waited in line to order our food. Finally I saw a two-seater table along the lagoon and took my seat. A four-seater opened up next to us and a large family came over. The man in that family looked at me sitting alone at the two-seater and told me to find another table, since they had 8 in their family and they would need the table I was sitting at as well. If he had asked nicely, I probably would have obliged, but he –demanded!- that I leave and find another seat. Thankfully, DH came back and sat down. We were glared at the whole time by this family and they made it very difficult to eat. (was I wrong for not moving?)

Heck no. You did the right thing. Nobody has the right to order you around like that. I would have done the same in your situation. If they would have asked nicely and explained they had a large party, I probably would have given up my seat too. But if they "demand" that I move. ... that's another ball game. ITS ON!