A Whirrrrrrrlwind Columbus Day Weekend Trip Report - Part One

[agnes!]

Can we do it? (In the immortal words of Bob the Builder) Yes we CAN!!!

This will just be a summary trip report, with mini-reviews of various attractions, CMs, our resort, etc.

My DH is wonderful. He says things along the lines of how he's found some good airfares and gee, how would I like to go to WDW for Columbus Day weekend? Ummmm, yeah! Packed up, made sure all three of us had our APs in hand, made only *one* ADR/PS(Saturday night at '50s Prime Time), arranged for the cat to be catsat and....
in no particular order, here we GOOOOOOOO!

Plane ride, security and gee-I-dislike-Washington/Dulles
Hate the trek from covered parking to the main terminal (hated it even more on the way home, more on that later...yuck).
For once security went fairly quickly, no thanks to the fellow passenger who complained (LOUDLY and to EVERY agent she saw and even "WANTED A SUPERVISOR") about not being able to take her shampoo in her carry-on.
Folks, it was in a LARGE bottle(8 oz size?) and had about 1" of shamppo in it. This woman was an embarassment. The TSA agents are just doing their jobs, cut them some slack! They don't get to make the rules. Most passengers had "gotten the memo" & put their 3 oz. or less liquid/gel toiletries in the alloted one-per-passenger quart-size Ziploc bag.
Do be aware that if you like use any kind of body powder (like Shower to Shower), the plastic bottle might necessitate getting extra screening. Apparently it looks too much like a bottle for liquids. Happened to my DH here but not on way back though.
Snacking/food rating(after security): VERY good, much better than MCO/Orlando. I love being able to pick up some Starbucks or other decent food after security
Plane ride: United/Ted was fine. Took off on time, actually arrived early . Sat in Preferred because of DH status, that was *nice* (extra legroom). Liked Early Online Check-In. Because of that, found out there was a problem with our supposedly assigned seating. Called up United, they fixed it as best they could and everything was fine. (Seating 1...yay!) DH did have to sit back in row 24, but that was ok...we were going to Disney.

Got to MCO, had a National rental for Friday-Monday, grand total of...$9. Yeah, that's right, with the free rental days for National we had accumulated, our total was *under* $10 for three days.
Anyway, there was hardly *anything* in the Emerald Aisle/Emerald Reserve...maybe three or four cars. There were some families there who were not happy. (They had four or more passengers.) We picked out a Pontiac Grand Am...leather interior, pretty nice. I was just glad we found something that was driveable, an employee drove it up as we were standing there aimlessly looking for invisisble cars .

Will finish up with impressions of Food & Wine Festival, where we ate Saturday night, pintrading, new things for us (including the re-done Pirates, our first-time resort) and anything else I can think of.

Oh and about the rude/clueless MCO/Disney Store CMs and pintrading?...yeah, we found one ...she'll get her very own sentence or two.

agnes!

 

[agnes!]

So...let's see...
Got through Dulles Security...check!
Got on plane....check!
Got to MCO....check!
Got dissed by snarky Disney Store CM...check!
Got National car at great rate....check!
Resort and other news coming up...check!

First, the snarky CM...
I had heard about the rude pintrading attitude exhibited by at least one of the MCO-CMs. Well, it is true. We had the little cream & silver Disneyland commemorative pins that Disney Auctions was selling and DisneyShopping had a sale on. We traded with one CM...no problem. Another CM (name escapes me) I traded with made a snarky remark about how "Gee these look cheap".
I said "Well, they're authorized by Disney".
My DH said "Nothing around Disney's *cheap*." (Gee, I love that man.)

On our way to WDW, we stopped at the Albertson's on Orange Blossom. Prices are good, selection decent. They had some travel-sized toiletries (in the coveted 3 oz or less size) plus beer (yay!) and snacks.

Our resort this trip was All-Star Movies. I had tried to change this many, many, many times, but had no luck. WDW was almost completely sold-out for Columbus Day weekend...yikes! What *were* we letting ourselves in for? We checked in, mostly because we wanted to get our resort parking slip. Even though we have APs, sometimes we run into snarky parking booth attendants who insist on poring over whichever AP we present to them. The resort parking slip seems to make things go faster.
So, we check in and get...the Toy Story section! Building 9, first floor, looking out onto Andy's Room. It was a prime location, easy to walk to any facilities, easy to walk to our car.
This is where I think All-Stars has some of the deluxes beat...it was SO easy to get to our car! No long hikes like at some of the moderates or the deluxes. (Ah-hem, Wilderness Lodge or Animal Kingdom Lodge come to mind...self-parking is waaay far awaaaay.)

First night we decided to go to Epcot (had just enough time) and take in some of the Food & Wine booths. Following is a sampling of our impressions from the entire weekend.

*Our favorite from years past did not disappoint...escargot, yummmm.

*There is, however, a MAJOR beef for you beer-lovers out there. Rose & Crown has raised their prices for beer refills , they're even higher than they were in June ! Not a good deal anymore.
Oh, these are refills of what I call the 'yard o' beer' (glass/cups/whatever). The Oktoberfest beer stein at the Germany pavilion is good & seems to be a better deal.

*The Twining's Tea Tastings are only held on Fri/Sat/Sunday, even on holiday weekends, somehow that fact had escaped us, until it was too late (Monday).

*Strangest guest activity we saw
*Man who had too much to drink was ummmm...."dirty-dancing" on the obelisk/statue in the middle of the UK pavilion...Ewwwwwwwwwww.

Surprises about All-Star Movies
I thought we might get an All-Star Movies mug, bu there is a McDonald's right next-door and they have REAL coffee, not the NesCRUD junk. So every morning we stopped there for a breakfast and real coffee. This McDonald's was never busy/noisy when we stopped by, quite a change from the food court.
It was easy to take the short drive to MGM.
Once you get on Buena Vista, just stay on it...eventually you'll reach ASMovies!
The signage for the entire All-Star resorts is woeful. Make sure you know which "Resort Area" YOUR resort is in, before you get to WDW.

agnes!
*Coming up...our trip back home, ACK...Security LINES and more.

 

[pumba]

thanks for the great weekend review.....sounds like you had an awesome time...we did that a few times usually Labor day weekend......talk about HOT..how was the weather there this past weekend.?
I love escargot.......delicious....was it in a garlic wine sauce?
Thanks again

 

[jakenjess]

I'm enjoying your report. How were the crowds? We're thinking of an October trip next year, and if the school schedule is the same as this year we'll probably go to WDW the Saturday or Sunday of Columbus Day and stay the week, as the kids would only miss three days of school.

Looking forward to the rest of your report!

 

[agnes!]

thanks for the great weekend review.....sounds like you had an awesome time...we did that a few times usually Labor day weekend......talk about HOT..how was the weather there this past weekend.?
I love escargot.......delicious....was it in a garlic wine sauce?
Thanks again

The weather was "Baby Bear" *perfect* (not too hot, not too cold...ahhhhhh, just right!)
The escargot was in a garlic sauce (I think it had some parsley pesto in it?) & came with a small baguette slice. They have the stand in the regular place, on the right of the plaza as you exit the bridge from UK to France.

Wanted to also mention some more of our favorite foods, also from France...the goat cheese tart & the chocloate creme brulee .

agnes!

 

[pumba]

I too hate Dulles too......it reminds me of the zoo.....hahaha....well not a zoo but to crazy......we always have to go out on a bus and delivered back by a bus......and then go thru security again......not my favorite place.....
thanks again

 

[agnes!]

I'm enjoying your report. How were the crowds? We're thinking of an October trip next year, and if the school schedule is the same as this year we'll probably go to WDW the Saturday or Sunday of Columbus Day and stay the week, as the kids would only miss three days of school.

Looking forward to the rest of your report!

Thanks !

Crowd levels...hmmmm....well, it depends. I'll put this in the TR, but will also reply here.
Saturday night at the MK was INSANE. Unbelievable lines everywhere, we stopped in there after a mid-day break & dinner off-property.
Our strategy was simple - we usually stick to Morning Extra Magic Hours & don't bother with the evening ones, and that didn't change this trip. If we get to the parks at opening(EMH or regular), the crowds are almost non-existent the first two hours, until about 10:30 or 11. After we saw the MK crowds Saturday night we changed out plans (mostly so we could go on PotC Sunday morning). We were able to walk on attractions that had hour waits later in the day.
We didn't use the buses(had that cheap National car!), so I don't know about how crowded the buses were. We did take the monorail a couple of times back & forth to the TTC & it was fine.
I think someone posted that Florida schools did NOT have Columbus Day off(unlike our schools here), but some systems did have part or all of the following Thursday and Friday off. That might have some effect on crowd levels.

agnes!

 

[agnes!]

Well, I am doing this all without any notes, so please forgive any jumping around.

Saturday...
Stopped at the McD's near All-Stars, GOOD actually brewed! coffee(no NesCrud for me...yay!)/Egg McMuffins/Mc Griddle...not crowded AT ALL, got waited on immediately AND traded a pin with the nice McD's employee.

Saturday we went to MGM for the morning Extra Magic Hour, walked onto Tower of Terror twice while waiting for our FastPass window to open. Gee, I guess I've already mentioned how much I *love* not waiting in lines? Getting up early was so worth it, especially when we were able to bypass the looooooooong line later with our FastPass.

Bought pins, traded pins....I think we went to DtD(?) after MGM & before going back to the room. (Oh, on Friday we bought/traded pins at Epcot.)

I think this is the day we went back to ASMovies & *all* of us took naps, even the teenager who insisted she never could or would. That night we went out to dinner *gasp* off-property.

Here comes one of my MOST recommended restaurants in the Orlando area.
The Orlando Sushi House, we went there for dinner with some friends Saturday evening. If you love sushi, this is the place to go. Very fair prices, large servings, also is a member of the United Mileage Plus Dining program(Extra frequent flyer miles is a good thing!). Sometimes the service is spotty, also be very careful with the handleless cups the Hot Tea is served in. The cups seem to be too thin to protect your hands, plus they're slippery. One of our party dropped her cup and spilled her tea, splashing it everywhere. Luckily, the tea had cooled down somewhat, but the service afterwards was...oh, I don't know...odd? Nothing was offered to be comp'ed, etc. Will I go back? Oh YEAH, but I don't think any of us will order Hot Tea!

After dinner, we decided to try MK....hahahahahahaha. Can we all say CROWDED boys & girls? The PotC queue was INSANE and I've been to WDW during Christmastime and Spring Break! The line was at least one hour long, all the way out to the Plaza. So we changed our plans for Sunday morning. DD reeeeeeaaaaaallllly likes Expedition Everest, we had been planning on going to AK & riding EE at opening. However, the lure of Captain Jack Sparrow was too strong and MK/Sunday morning was put on the agenda. We figured we could at least get on PotC early without too much of a line. (Plus MK had a late night Saturday night, so we figured most folks stayed Late & wouldn't make it there on Sunday.)

So, do you think we make it? Can a family (including a teenaged DD) get to the MK before opening? Stay tuned, happy DIS'ers, for Part Three.

agnes!

 

[OhMari]

So, do you think we make it? Can a family (including a teenaged DD) get to the MK before opening? Stay tuned, happy DIS'ers, for Part Three.

Enjoying your report.