Minnie&Mickey
I want to live at the Fort!
- Joined
- May 15, 2000
- Messages
- 1,456
April 7th
As the week went on, we started having transportation issues. Tuesday was the worse! We got up and did our usual morning routine ate breakfast, took Jazz for a walk, went by the Meadow Trading Post for my morning coffee. We decided to go to Hollywood Studios again today. The weather had gotten very chilly and we were hoping that everyone was avoiding the parks due to the cold! No such luck! We got to our bus stop at 9:45 much later than we had planned. We waited forever for the Outpost bus (well, over 30 minutes). We finally got to the Outpost, and there were tons of people waiting. We saw many buses go by for Epcot, Animal Kingdom/Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon/Downtown Disney, two empty VIP Cast Member buses but no Hollywood Studios buses! After about 30 minutes, we started talking to a woman who was also going to HS she had been waiting for over 45 minutes at this point and had already seen seven EPCOT buses go by. After about 15 more minutes, another Animal Kingdom bus came and while it was loading another AK bus pulled up two buses behind it. So Toby and a few other people went to talk to the driver to see if he could take everyone to HS instead since there was another AK bus in front of him. He said yes, and that he would let us all get on as soon as he could move up. The AK bus in the front pulled away, and as he was getting ready to let us all in, some people wanting to go to AK walked up. They were not happy that he was about to change the buss destination to HS, so he had to make it an AK bus again! By now, there are probably 75 upset people waiting. The bus driver was nice enough to call for a HS bus to come for all of us, and it arrived about 5 minutes later. The driver opened the back and loaded a wheelchair, but before he could pull up the ramp, people started trying to enter through the back. He told them that they couldnt do that, but none of them would get off. So the rest of us entered through the front and the bus was packed to capacity. We were about ¾ of a mile from the entrance to HS and all of a sudden the traffic came to a stop. There were so many cars trying to get into the park that we ended up crawling at a snails pace for the rest of the ride.
On all of the other days that we went to the parks, I hadnt carried a purse, but on this day I did, so that meant that I had to go through the Guests with Bags line, which of course was very long. I got in the shortest line, but as we all know, that means it is probably really the longest. There was no way to change lines, and for some reason the majority of the people in my line didnt seem to notice that everyone was being asked to unzip all of the compartments in their bags. So they would get up there and the security guy had to ask them to open everything up, and then he was checking their bags more thoroughly than I had ever seen a security guard do before it was bad! I finally got through that line and met back up with Toby. The lines to get into the park were all the way back beyond the area where you purchase tickets! I had to use the rest room, so Toby got in line and I ran to the closest ladies room. When I got out, Toby was nowhere to be seen. I must have looked for 10 minutes before I finally spotted him already inside the turnstile. The problem was, he had my pass! So I had to get it from him and get back in the long line again!!! By the time we both got into Hollywood Studios, it was after noon well over two hours since we had left the RV.
Notice how happy Mickey looks in this picture...it's because he wasn't standing in line with the rest of us!
We went to Toy Story Mania, but they were out of Fast Passes for the day, and the standby line was over a two hour wait. Then we ran over to American Idol, but the wait there was almost an hour and a half. You could barely move around the park, so we decided to take the boat to Epcot and grab some lunch. We got to the boat ramp, and within minutes, a boat was coming around the corner! We were so happy until the boat unloaded and some maintenance guys showed up and opened up the engine compartment. The boat was only running on one engine, so it was being taken out of service! Noooooo! I was completely frustrated by then and just wanted to go back to the Fort. Luckily there was another boat right around the corner, so once they moved the broken boat, we were finally able to get onboard. We stopped at the Beach Club for ice cream and then walked the rest of the way to Epcot.
When we got in EPCOT, we decided to check out some of the rides, but the wait times were unreal!!! Soarin was over two hours, Journey to Imagination was 30 minutes, I think the Land was 40 minutes. So, we decided to check out Mousegears and then grab a bite at the Electric Umbrella. Well, the restaurant was already at capacity and so they werent letting anyone else in. I give up! We decided to grab some popcorn and then head to the bus stop. We were told that the closest popcorn stand was over by Soarin but when we got over there, there were probably 30 people in line in front of us. The line for Honey I Shrunk the Audience was way outside the building and ended past the big Journey to Imagination sign. We waited, and the minute we placed our order popcorn and a Diet Coke, a supervisor person came over and told the cashier to stop selling popcorn because they were almost out! No way!!! We didnt say anything and kept moving down the line to pick up our popcorn. We very happy that we probably got the last box of popcorn, but as luck would have it, there was a lot of partially burnt popcorn and unpopped kernels in it. So we walked back to the bus stop and the bus showed up in about 15 or 20 minutes (the return trip being considerably shorter that the trip there).
We got back to the RV and Jazz was very happy that we were back!
After a short nap, we decided to stop by Cheryl and Jeffs. Their four Bichons and Jazz all played while Cheryl and I chatted.
I had a cute picture of Cheryl with the dogs here, but I decided I should probably ask her permission first before I put her picture on the boards. So here is a picture of one of her cute puppies!
The guys spent most of the time played around with our satellite dish and then theirs, trying to make them work. Eventually they got theirs working. After that, Toby and I decided that we wanted something different for dinner (I was sick of hamburgers and chicken by now), so we walked down to the Settlement and picked up a pizza. Cheryl and Jeff showed up a little bit later and Jeff started playing around with our satellite and got it working! Thanks Jeff!!! We chatted for a little bit longer and then they went back to their RV.
This was probably the worst day that we had due to the transportation problems and the massive crowds, but luckily the next day was much better.
As the week went on, we started having transportation issues. Tuesday was the worse! We got up and did our usual morning routine ate breakfast, took Jazz for a walk, went by the Meadow Trading Post for my morning coffee. We decided to go to Hollywood Studios again today. The weather had gotten very chilly and we were hoping that everyone was avoiding the parks due to the cold! No such luck! We got to our bus stop at 9:45 much later than we had planned. We waited forever for the Outpost bus (well, over 30 minutes). We finally got to the Outpost, and there were tons of people waiting. We saw many buses go by for Epcot, Animal Kingdom/Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon/Downtown Disney, two empty VIP Cast Member buses but no Hollywood Studios buses! After about 30 minutes, we started talking to a woman who was also going to HS she had been waiting for over 45 minutes at this point and had already seen seven EPCOT buses go by. After about 15 more minutes, another Animal Kingdom bus came and while it was loading another AK bus pulled up two buses behind it. So Toby and a few other people went to talk to the driver to see if he could take everyone to HS instead since there was another AK bus in front of him. He said yes, and that he would let us all get on as soon as he could move up. The AK bus in the front pulled away, and as he was getting ready to let us all in, some people wanting to go to AK walked up. They were not happy that he was about to change the buss destination to HS, so he had to make it an AK bus again! By now, there are probably 75 upset people waiting. The bus driver was nice enough to call for a HS bus to come for all of us, and it arrived about 5 minutes later. The driver opened the back and loaded a wheelchair, but before he could pull up the ramp, people started trying to enter through the back. He told them that they couldnt do that, but none of them would get off. So the rest of us entered through the front and the bus was packed to capacity. We were about ¾ of a mile from the entrance to HS and all of a sudden the traffic came to a stop. There were so many cars trying to get into the park that we ended up crawling at a snails pace for the rest of the ride.
On all of the other days that we went to the parks, I hadnt carried a purse, but on this day I did, so that meant that I had to go through the Guests with Bags line, which of course was very long. I got in the shortest line, but as we all know, that means it is probably really the longest. There was no way to change lines, and for some reason the majority of the people in my line didnt seem to notice that everyone was being asked to unzip all of the compartments in their bags. So they would get up there and the security guy had to ask them to open everything up, and then he was checking their bags more thoroughly than I had ever seen a security guard do before it was bad! I finally got through that line and met back up with Toby. The lines to get into the park were all the way back beyond the area where you purchase tickets! I had to use the rest room, so Toby got in line and I ran to the closest ladies room. When I got out, Toby was nowhere to be seen. I must have looked for 10 minutes before I finally spotted him already inside the turnstile. The problem was, he had my pass! So I had to get it from him and get back in the long line again!!! By the time we both got into Hollywood Studios, it was after noon well over two hours since we had left the RV.
Notice how happy Mickey looks in this picture...it's because he wasn't standing in line with the rest of us!
We went to Toy Story Mania, but they were out of Fast Passes for the day, and the standby line was over a two hour wait. Then we ran over to American Idol, but the wait there was almost an hour and a half. You could barely move around the park, so we decided to take the boat to Epcot and grab some lunch. We got to the boat ramp, and within minutes, a boat was coming around the corner! We were so happy until the boat unloaded and some maintenance guys showed up and opened up the engine compartment. The boat was only running on one engine, so it was being taken out of service! Noooooo! I was completely frustrated by then and just wanted to go back to the Fort. Luckily there was another boat right around the corner, so once they moved the broken boat, we were finally able to get onboard. We stopped at the Beach Club for ice cream and then walked the rest of the way to Epcot.
When we got in EPCOT, we decided to check out some of the rides, but the wait times were unreal!!! Soarin was over two hours, Journey to Imagination was 30 minutes, I think the Land was 40 minutes. So, we decided to check out Mousegears and then grab a bite at the Electric Umbrella. Well, the restaurant was already at capacity and so they werent letting anyone else in. I give up! We decided to grab some popcorn and then head to the bus stop. We were told that the closest popcorn stand was over by Soarin but when we got over there, there were probably 30 people in line in front of us. The line for Honey I Shrunk the Audience was way outside the building and ended past the big Journey to Imagination sign. We waited, and the minute we placed our order popcorn and a Diet Coke, a supervisor person came over and told the cashier to stop selling popcorn because they were almost out! No way!!! We didnt say anything and kept moving down the line to pick up our popcorn. We very happy that we probably got the last box of popcorn, but as luck would have it, there was a lot of partially burnt popcorn and unpopped kernels in it. So we walked back to the bus stop and the bus showed up in about 15 or 20 minutes (the return trip being considerably shorter that the trip there).
We got back to the RV and Jazz was very happy that we were back!
After a short nap, we decided to stop by Cheryl and Jeffs. Their four Bichons and Jazz all played while Cheryl and I chatted.
I had a cute picture of Cheryl with the dogs here, but I decided I should probably ask her permission first before I put her picture on the boards. So here is a picture of one of her cute puppies!
The guys spent most of the time played around with our satellite dish and then theirs, trying to make them work. Eventually they got theirs working. After that, Toby and I decided that we wanted something different for dinner (I was sick of hamburgers and chicken by now), so we walked down to the Settlement and picked up a pizza. Cheryl and Jeff showed up a little bit later and Jeff started playing around with our satellite and got it working! Thanks Jeff!!! We chatted for a little bit longer and then they went back to their RV.
This was probably the worst day that we had due to the transportation problems and the massive crowds, but luckily the next day was much better.
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Glad you enjoyed the Fort! I am sorry that you had so much trouble with the crowds. It has been crazy around WDW lately, and the transportation issues have compounded. I think they have less buses covering the routes, and when it gets busy, it gets bad.
As a newbie myself, it makes me want to go to the Fort even sooner. I think I'm gonna start packing now. 
