A Mishap a Day Keeps Disaster Away! August 2011 TR

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

So we've been back from Disney for a full week now and I am just now slowly coming out of a severe post-Disney depression! It was so bad that I couldn't even start a TR because I was too sad that it was over! I think I'm getting better now and am excited to relive the memories!

Here are the trip details in a nutshell:

August 24-August 31st at Pop Century Resort, regular dining plan, 8 day park passes with Water Parks and More option (no park hopper)

Me (31), DH (32), DD (7), DS (5)

Everyone says you can't see everything but we came darn close to seeing/doing everything we had planned (see PTR)! We were exhausted when we came home!

I will start a chronological, detailed description of the trip soon (with pics if I can find the time to load them onto Photobucket...I find it takes forever!)

Here's some quick observations in the meantime (and little teasers)...
Oh! Disclaimer time: please note that these are my opinions based on our family trip, everyone's situation is different

-Garden Grocer = pretty good, luggage services = not as good (but redeemed themselves on departing day)
- Stroller-free is the way to go! So much freedom with just a backpack (especially for me cause DH carried it most of the time)
- Running shoes are crappy rain-shoes, flip flops all the way!
- Ponchos are a must in August, and the Fantasmic theater stays full in a downpour (how did 8000 people beat us there in the rain??? Are you kidding me??)
- Losing things (wallet, phone, earring, sunglasses and a bag of souvenirs) sometimes ends well, sometimes not
- It's good when your kids forget there are three pools at your resort. (But even 7 year olds can hurt themselves in a kiddie pool!)
- The bus system is great but not super great. We rarely took afternoon breaks! It would have taken hours out of our day in transportation alone! Too much to see and do!
- The dining plan includes too much dessert! (Did I actually just say that?) But really, did I need those 6 extra pounds? Nope!
- Even if you convince your kids that they'll see plenty of characters at the character dining experiences, you'll still have to wait 20 minutes to meet Eeyore!
- Now forgive me for this one...the rides at Disney (with a few exceptions) are VERY tame, and some even lame. Disney is amazing for atmosphere, service and shows! (Don't get me wrong, we had a blast!) But we're ride warriors and are glad that we didn't have any long waits for rides. We would have been disappointed!
- My kids ranked the parks as follows: #1 Blizzard Beach, #2 Animal Kingdom, #3 Epcot, tied for # 4 Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Typhoon Lagoon (TL didn't get a fair shot though, we were stuck in a storm there for 2 1/2 hours). Yes, they might be weird kids! (As an example, they LOVED the movie in the France pavilion at Epcot! )
- I could also name this TR "Why do I always have to be the ketchupy one?", "It's not good to travel with chicken in your hat", or "Is Gnomeo and Juliet even a Disney movie?", or "Another BOAT?!?!", or "That's why it's a happy place!" I guess I'll have to use those as chapter titles or something!

 

[lbuzz52]

joining in!

 

[Riverhill]

Ready to hear all about your trip

 

[luvdisney00]

I am excited to hear all about it. I was there (at BC ) for the same dates so Im wondering if we were at the same parks any of the days....waiting to hear the whole story.......

 

[justakrazymom]

Soo in.. our trips overlapped

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

Thanks for joining in everyone! WELCOME!!!

Our trip started with a shopping trip in Michigan. We headed for the border via Sarnia/Port Huron on Tuesday, August 23 and it took us 3 tries to get on the highway due to construction. We left town around lunch time with happy kids and Happy Meals. Luke (DS, 5) swears he "lost" his cheeseburger too. (He either ate it but forgot he ate it or it somehow vaporized....it can't still be in the car, we'd have smelled it by now!)

Border crossing was smooth, finding the outlet mall we wanted west of Detroit was easy, shopping went as well as can be expected with kids geared up for a Disney World trip, and dinner at the Olive Garden was nice. Getting lost in/around/through the Detroit airport looking for our hotel was not so good! What is with the one-way streets?

We were all in bed in good time (once we found the hotel and got settled) but of course couldn't sleep! I was worst of all! Finally we must have all drifted off and I was wide awake and ready to go before the alarm I set even went off!

Mishap summary: Closed highway ramps, lost burger, lost US in Detroit! Great day overall!

Wednesday, August 24 - fly to Orlando day!!!! Stay tuned!

 

[spartankid34]

I'm here!!! Can't wait to read all about your trip! I hear you about being depressed, it's almost been one full month since I left for my trip and I just started the other day. Oh boy...guess we gotta plan the next vacation, lol!

 

[reelmom]

Joining in. That is hilarious about the disappearing cheeseburger.

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

I just re-read my last post and realized that I might have sounded negative or sarcastic with that "mishap" summary but I really did mean it actually WAS a great day overall. The mishaps are totally funny now and we never really got too bent out of shape about any of them while they were happening either! Good thing we didn't because they kept coming! But I really think a bunch of minor things going "wrong" kept us from having any major problems. And I'm glad we have interesting stories to tell now...

Our first "mishap" of Wednesday August 24th was driving the wrong way down a one-way street trying to get to the correct parking lot for the stay-park-fly deal our hotel offered. A really nice shuttle driver stopped for us to turn around and we had to (once again!) circle that darn airport to figure out where we needed to be! Hilariously enough, the lot was RIGHT across the street from our hotel. Needless to say, we took the long way.

The shuttle service once we parked was impeccable. And the airport (check-in, security, etc) was great! Oh, well nearly! The part where my carry on was checked for explosives got my heart racing. I had picked up some baby powder at the last minute and thrown it in my carry on and when my bag went through the xray thing it came up as suspicious apparently. We were still through security quickly but the kids had lots of questions. Specifically, "Why did we have to take off our shoes?"

The flight wasn't uneventful. Shortly after take off there was a commotion behind us. All the flight attendants were attending to a man with chest pain. They actually came on the speaker asking if there were any medical personnel on board. I thought they only did that in the movies! Thankfully, he was fine. A nurse switched seats with his seat-mate and monitored him the whole way but there were no further problems on the plane. Even the kids' ears were ok!

It was a long walk through the Orlando airport to find DME but I was very impressed with their efficiency. The kids thought the Donald Duck video they played for the last few minutes of the bus ride was hilarious and laughed and laughed so hard! It made their meeting with Donald a few days later so much more meaningful!

After a quick stop at CBR, we arrived at Pop Century! It was surreal to say the least. None of the pictures (and believe me, I viewed hundreds) prepared me for the look and feel of that place. It's just WOW! That's the only way to describe it! The line up for regular check in was short (beauty of arriving on a Wednesday afternoon I guess cause it was sooooo busy there when we walked past on the Saturday morning!) The customer service was great! (She was a fellow Canadian!) We had to make one stop at luggage services to pick up our Garden Grocer order before heading to our room. It would be quick, right?

To be continued...

 

[spartankid34]

I'm glad that your kids' ears were ok on the flight! My ears can never regulate the pressure and I get ear infections...never a good way to start or even end a trip!! I'm glad your first view of POP was awesome, I was also amazed by it when we pulled up!! So cool!

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

I'm glad that your kids' ears were ok on the flight! My ears can never regulate the pressure and I get ear infections...never a good way to start or even end a trip!! I'm glad your first view of POP was awesome, I was also amazed by it when we pulled up!! So cool!

Ear infections are the worst! Sorry you get them! The kids' ears were a bit worse on the way back (maybe because their moods were also worse!) But nothing serious! Thank goodness!
If you could go back right now, would you go back to POP or try a different resort? I loved POP but am undecided.

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

We got our Photopass CD tonight! Very exciting then depressing. We all want to be back there soooo badly!! I'm going to try to post a pic of our first evening since that's what I'm about to write about. Here goes...

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It worked!! Sorry about that white line through the first one. It looks like many photos got altered as I uploaded them to Photobucket because they are perfect on the CD from Disney Photopass. Oh well, it will have to do because I've got some writing to do!

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

So I should start by saying that while we were still at the airport, DH got a text from Garden Grocer that said something pretty close to, "Your grocery order has been delivered to POP Century Luggage Services, cold items in refrigerator."

I was pleased with the efficiency of it and was told ahead of time not to worry about a thing, they do this kind of this all the time and everyone knows the deal. I think that it's true but we were unlucky. After a smooth and easy check in we were anxious to see our room but needed to pick up the above mentioned groceries. The very nice gentlemen at luggage services found our box of cereal and bananas and cases of water but could not locate our refrigerated items. They absolutely insisted they weren't there. We had no choice but to trust them. They told us to call Garden Grocer to tell them that they messed up our order. When we arrived at our room, we first had to call front desk for our room fridge as we had asked the TA to book us one, but apparently she didn't. That came super quick and the man was really nice about it. After the fridge call I called luggage services again and asked them to double check in the fridge for our stuff. They did. "Not there." So I called Garden Grocer. The lady who answered said she would call the driver of my order and ask him about it and get back to us. Well it turns out that the GG driver was so sure that our groceries were in the POP Century fridge that he drove all the way back to POP to show them where! He found them and luggage services brought them to our room immediately. Literally four different people insisted the groceries were not there...but they were all along! Sorting out that whole mess was obviously not how we wanted to start our stay at the resort but the kids liked hanging out in the room and all's well that ends well!

By that time, we had to hightail it to the buses to get to our first ADR at Kona Cafe. We never really waited too long at POP for a bus the whole trip - they are pretty efficient. Ten minutes tops! When we got to MK though, we didn't have much time to soak in the ambiance by the water as I was militantly directing everyone straight to the monorail to get to they Polynesian. We took it a bit slower when we returned to MK after dinner, which was good. We missed so much on the way to dinner!

Dinner at the Kona Cafe was wonderful. I was impressed with the service and the food. The only critique I could possibly have was one that I've heard before...it's loud. Mostly from the echo-y foyer and waiting area for Ohana. It didn't bother us much because we like action and noise. It was happy noise! We were also close to the entrance and people waiting by the front desk. I had noodles, DH a steak and the kids had burgers. The only regret from that dinner was not ordering Kona cones for dessert. We saw them at a nearby table too late. Next time, next time!

We headed back to MK and I loved the evening atmosphere. DD had Space Mountain on the brain (she had done her research) and insisted we head to Tomorrowland. We got FPs for Space then did nearly everything else in Tomorrowland before going back to ride it. There were little to no waits for everything else. We loved Monsters Inc Laugh Floor...hilarious and enjoyed Buzz. (That wait was a bit longer though.) We skipped Stitch on purpose but didn't miss anything else I think. We even had time for the Speedway and the Astro Orbiter. We also really enjoyed the PeopleMover! Space Mountain was a definite hit with the kids! For DH and I, we were surprised at how tame it was. But I guess we shouldn't have expected more of something our 5 year old could accompany us on. We're used to bigger coasters but quickly resigned ourselves to the fact that Disney is different and it was so great that the whole family could go on nearly everything together. When we go to our closest theme park (Canada's Wonderland in Toronto), one of us gets to ride the adult coasters while the other stays in "KiddieLand" with the kids then we swap. Disney definitely offers more quality family-time opportunities! That's why it's so unique!

We really did have a magical evening. We were all happy and energized...we were in Disney World!!! I was the only one who was hoping to see the Electrical Parade and I think the kids would have liked it but they were enjoying Tomorrowland so much that we didn't make it. They made a fairly informed decision to skip it and never mentioned it again.

We were standing on the Tomorrowland Bridge for Wishes right at 10pm and, as anticipated, Tinkerbell flew RIGHT over our heads! We were happy! The fireworks show was amazing. Something about fireworks set to music really gets me. I loved it! I think (gasp) I liked Wishes better than Illuminations and Fantasmic. It could be that the latter two were so raved about that my expectations were too high. But whatever it was, either the magical evening or the fact that it was our first night - I was in heaven as I stood on that bridge! DH held DS and DD cuddled against me and I was just sooooo content with life for those 20 minutes. It's really sort of indescribable. Only those of you who have been there can really understand.

The magic ended as the music faded and the smoke and dust settled to the ground. I have never ever in my entire life been in the middle of a crowd that I literally could not move in! We weren't crowded on the bridge during the show but then thousands of people simultaneously headed toward the tiny little exits caused a bottleneck right up to the castle and beyond. I'd been on the Disboards enough to expect it to be busy, but once again, you can't really believe it till you see it. Somehow, we managed to veer left away from the mob of tired (crazy!) people for a bathroom break. We didn't rush away from that area and instead held back and people-watched till the crowd thinned out. That made for a much nicer exit but oh boy we were shocked to see the line up for the bus back to POP. It was by far the longest. We waited in that line up for about 45 minutes and DD had meltdowns and DS fell asleep as soon as we were on a bus. We stepped foot in our room at 12:02 am! Oh my! So much for the plan of 8 am EMH the next day!

Despite the later than expected night, I was very satisfied with the way the evening went. We saw/did a good chunk of MK between 7 and 10 pm! Our plan was to head straight for Frontierland the next day (not by 8am anymore, of course!)...but we still had two more mountains to tackle!

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

I thought I would add a couple of dinner pics from our first ADR to spice up the TR! I don't know if I can keep this photo thing up, though! I'm pretty sure my computer doesn't get along with Photobucket.

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[teekathepony]

I missed so much already! I didn't know you had started! Well I'm here now and I'm caught up. I can't wait to hear about everything!
Wishes is really magical isn't it? I go back and forth from that to Illuminations as my favourite depending on which one I'm watching!

 

[spartankid34]

Ear infections are the worst! Sorry you get them! The kids' ears were a bit worse on the way back (maybe because their moods were also worse!) But nothing serious! Thank goodness!
If you could go back right now, would you go back to POP or try a different resort? I loved POP but am undecided.

As far as values go..we really enjoyed POP, the rooms were big enough for what we needed and it seemed spread out enough that it wasn't busy around the pool and stuff. Although I will say the food and shopping did get pretty packed at the peak eating times, but that's to be expected. I'd go back, but given a choice I'd probably try differnet hotels...just for the experience.

I would love to try a different resort...moderate/deluxe! It would just be a matter of money, it just seems so expensive compared to other non-Disney hotels. I would definitely like to save up and chip in for a mod/deluxe at least one trip, just to say we did it, but mostly our thinking is that we're there just to sleep and use the pool sometimes, so a value worked for us.

P.S. - Your family picture is too sweet, you look like you were enjoying your first night!

 

[Deemarch]

Keep it coming!!

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

Thanks for the responses everyone! So nice!

spartankid...you are right, the resort totally depends on $$$! I'm still hoping to go back in 2013 and if we stay at a value, there would be no reason why it wouldn't be POP. But if we could swing a moderate, I'd love to! For deluxes, I thought my favourite would be the Polynesian but I absolutely fell in love with the Grand Floridian when we ate there. So if I ever (in my dreams probably) could afford it, I would stay at GF for sure!!

So I don't have much time to write tonight but here are a couple pics of our day 2 at MK - details coming soon!

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[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

Not sure why the pics didn't work. I will try again tomorrow...too sleepy now!

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

This installment's title comes from the first thing DD said on our first morning in Disney World. I had been up for awhile writing in my journal waiting oh so patiently for everyone else to get up. The original plan for this day, Thursday August 25th, was to try to make it to MK for some of the 8-9am EMH. When we got back to the room so late the night before, I resigned myself to the fact that it wouldn't happen so even though I woke up at 7 am without an alarm, I had to let the rest of the family sleep.

Maybe, just maybe, I started making more noise as 8:30 am approached. Subconsciously though, I'm sure! DD woke up next and the "throw me a bag" quote comes from the fact that while we were packing I had explained to the kids that all of their outfits were packaged, socks, underwear and all, in individual ziploc bags (a hint I learned on DIS). This meant no thinking, arguing or searching at dressing time every morning. It worked well for us! We have never had so much compliance from DD at morning dressing time!

The boys woke up soon after DD and we got ready cheerfully that morning! We also stopped at the food court to buy a mug so DH could have his morning coffee. We shared that one mug all week. Coffee for DH every morning and then we get back to the resort, a quick rinse and pop for me! We got our money's worth from one mug but would have never if we each got one!

Believe it or not, I refrained from checking the time the whole morning until we were on the train from the front gates on the way to Frontierland. How did it get to be 10:24 am! So we didn't follow the number one DIS advice - get to the park before everyone else. Apparently, we are everyone else! But we did follow the advice of getting FPs for Splash first thing then going on BTMRR while we waited for our Splash Mountain time. BTMRR had a posted wait time of 20 minutes but it was less than that for sure. Probably 10-15 ish max. This occurred often! I'm glad they always seem to overestimate the waits! We didn't actually return to Splash Mountain till 1 pm and I'm not sure of the order but I know that in between the two mountains we got some photopass pics taken, rode Jungle Cruise (I really enjoyed that - funny guide!!!), me and DS rode Aladdin while DH and DD rode PotC, then me and DD met Rosetta and Tinkerbell while DH and DS rode PotC (no I'm not sad I missed that ride) and we all split a Dole Whip and a Rootbeer float 4 ways! Yummy!

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