Aren’t You a Little Frazzled to be Writing a Trip Report? Yes I Am. (FINAL 5/6))

[osprey6]

Firstly, it's my first try at a trip report, so please be patient if I screw up the technical stuff....

Well, I’m reasonably confident this report won’t generate a whole lot of interest, but I appreciate whoever does take the effort to read it. This is going to be somewhat unusual in that there will be almost no food pictures in this report. Actually, it’s kind of light on pictures anyway, and it’s taken me awhile to upload what pictures we did have.

I wasn’t even going to bother with a TR, but then I was more or less challenged on one of the boards to do so, so I decided to go for it. I am, after all, a contrarian at heart…

You are warned in advance that not everything went right on this trip, and those items will be discussed in this report. That may be TMI for some people, as I have learned the hard way on this board that not everyone wants to hear about Disney problems. On the other hand, a lot went right as well, and those items will also be discussed, with special thanks thrown in when appropriate.

We’ll move on to the cast of characters:

First, there is me. I’m 44 and a sort of technical troubleshooter for a company providing support to the charter and cyber school educational sector. I’ve been to WDW twice before (and Orlando twice more before those trips) with less than stellar experiences. Our last trip was in March 2001. My favorite characters are Ludwig von Drake and Ranger Audubon. I also served 14 years in the Army Reserve.

Next is DW, who is 45 and a stay-at-home mom for the time being. She had worked for about 20 years in social services in the mental health field, before she quit to stay with our DD before school starts in the fall. She has been there twice as well, once with me, and once with her family. Favorite character: Eeyore.

Lastly is DD (5), our bundle of energy. We are amazed by her everyday, and thankful merely to have her, as we endured 3 miscarriages (the last one being at 36 weeks), before she came along. Which was a surprise in itself as we had given up on fertility treatments that we had invested several thousand dollars on, and as soon as we stopped – VOILA! She likes Cinderella, whom she usually refers to as “one princess” due to the patterns appearing on her training pants (these came in 2 designs, one had two princesses [Aurora and Snow White, I think], whereas Cinderella was by herself, ergo “one princess”).


And away we go……

 

[osprey6]

Part 1: Are we nuts???

Our usual annual vacation is to go to the beach at Hilton Head at MIL’s time share (and no, it’s not DVC). We still plan to do that this year, but we had the chance to try for another trip this year since I had some extra time off available.

DD loves Disney Channel, and is into all things princess. She had seen commercials and promos about WDW and had started asking about visiting “Mickey’s House”.

That wasn’t at all possible at the time, but in late January, we realized that our tax refund would be of an amount that might allow us to do something special. We considered that we might be able to go to WDW, but the question was how. We considered the possibility of tacking a day on to our normal vacation and flying into say, Jacksonville and then driving between Orlando and Hilton Head, but we eventually decided that would be too much hard driving and we would be better off trying to do WDW as a separate trip, even though it would be far more expensive.

Our local grocery store had a deal where they were offering double rebates on fuel when purchasing Disney gift cards, so we started picking them up $50 at a time, until we finally accumulated $500 worth. As you’ll soon see, that caused some issues down the road.

Well then, when to go? We definitely wanted to go before DD began school in September. The busy season for my job is mid-July to Labor Day. We were already going away in June to the beach. We had a slew of graduations (including my nephew from West Point!), a Communion to attend in May, and Easter was out because of family traditions and crowds. We also didn’t want any part of the spring break crowds, so late March or early April seemed to work best.

Now to snagging an airfare: We knew we preferred a nonstop and only Southwest and Airtran do that from Pittsburgh. Southwest is out for us because I and DW would run afoul of the Passengers of Size policy, so Airtran was preferred. We could also try Allegiant from Youngstown, or even Spirit from Latrobe, which goes in to Fort Lauderdale, but is super cheap.. For a long time, Allegiant was the top choice, but then one day one of my internet fare alerts went off: PIT to MCO for $179! Lots of dates! Lots of nonstops!

We couldn’t book it right there and then; we had to wait for our new credit card to arrive. Five days later, there wasn’t a whole lot of availability, but one period within our desired time frame was available, April 3-6, so we jumped on it. I didn’t have much more time off available than that, and doing it this way meant all of our nights would be weeknights and presumably cheaper.

 

[osprey6]

Well, so we’re ready to start dealing with lodging. I gathered some information from our cousins, the real DISnuts in the family, and a travel agent at AAA (where I found I knew more about WDW than she did!).

I mentioned I been to WDW twice before. I stayed on site both times (’94 DL and ’01 CBR) and was disappointed with the conditions of the accommodations both times. For example, the CBR room had a hole in the baseboard and noticeable stains on the curtains. But a coworker had just come back from POP and raved about it. I was still somewhat reluctant to stay on site, but figured I had to at least check the prices online. For a value room on a weekday, the price was $139. That’s considerably more than I was willing to pay.

I figured I better make a call to Disney itself, and find out about any specials. Lo and behold, I’m told about the Stay ‘n Play package. Wow, I’d get DDs ticket free? That sounded considerably better. Is there a deadline? “For your dates, the deadline is Feb 28th.”

Now, that’s a date I won’t forget, because it’s DM's birthday (and yes, she came within 15 minutes of being a leap baby). I thought that was a good deal, but why not book it through AAA and get the package through them, get the Diamond parking etc.? So, it was too late to go to their office that day, so I’d put it off until the 28th.

So, on the 28th, I made a trip back to AAA and got the same agent I’d dealt with before. I mentioned Stay ‘n Play, and she said she would book right away. She starts tapping away on her keyboard, and keeps tapping, and finally there’s a frown. “I don’t know why, but it won’t let me book it. I can see your dates are part of the promotion, but it won’t go through.” After making a call, she finds out why: The deadline was actually on the 26th! Even though I found out about a AAA room-only discount, that would only take it down to about $119. GRRRRR.

I then remembered hearing about discounts offered by Shades of Green to vets. I got through to them and they offered $115/night. That’s still too much for me. So much for staying onsite, ad it’s back to the drawing board.

On to our next option, which was Priceline. I’m normally quite the Priceline operator and can work magic with it under the right circumstances. After investigating, we found out we really only wanted to bid in the “Resort” category. My “normal” Priceline bids went nowhere at $50 – 65. I then used the automated Priceline tool at biddingtraveller.com and produced bids from 70-85, which also went nowhere. I was afraid to go any higher than that for fear of getting Marriott, which charges for their park shuttle and has a resort fee. Hotwire had nothing interesting, and none of the mousesavers.com deals appealed to us either. But after reading Disboards (THANKS!), I was reminded of lastminutetravel.com, so I checked out their deals and got the DTD Hilton for $86, $13 a night less than the best rate I could otherwise find. A great rate, a great location AND frequent stay/airline points! (We actually did consider the Holiday Inn next door as I have status with their program and they had a big bonus point offer, but I couldn't justify the extra $30/night.)

How about a car? The car prices weren’t impressive, so I started entering some entering discounts, and still wasn’t impressed. Let’s go over to Dollar, and try their specials. Aha! Lock Low & Go (a guaranteed midsize, possibly bigger) for $31.95/day. I still thought I might do better, but the prices just kept skyrocketing. As we’ll see, that was definitely on of my better deals.

OK, so let’s book those ADR’s (at 30 days out!!!). We had previously eaten in Liberty Tree and really loved that (even though it was character dining last time, and I nearly fell out of my chair after Chip snuck up behind me!), so we got a 12:50 time on the 4th. Our princess lover wanted to go to CRT or 1900, but the available times (after 8:00 pm!) would never have worked, so we booked Akershus instead for 3:25 on the 5th. Our park choices were thus set.

Next, we move on to the Great Ticket Purchase Saga. We didn’t want to wait until arrival to buy the tickets, so we looked at avenues to buy them, using the giftcards I mentioned earlier. First, one more trip to AAA. Well, they only take Disney cards for lodging packages, but not for tickets.

How about the Disney store? There is one in our area, and it is on the way to my sister’s place, so we made a stop one day, giftcards in hand. But it seems they only sell 3 day or longer tickets, and they didn’t have any adult tickets in stock anyway, and no way of knowing when more would be in.

How about the Disney website? I didn’t see a way to put in giftcard numbers.

Well, I guess we need to go straight to the horse’s , er, mouse’s mouth. One fine Saturday, I call up Disney ticketing, giftcards in hand. The friendly CM says no problem, and starts setting up the order. She stops tapping, and says, “Oh dear. It will only let me take two giftcards.” That wasn’t going to work, but then we realized after a few days they could break up the purchase into 3 orders, one for each of us.

So we tried again, and got another friendly CM. I explained the situation, and the fellow said, “Sure, we can do that.” So I got out the cards and he said “You know, we can only take one gift card and one credit card if the giftcard doesn’t cover the full amount. We can’t take two cards plus a credit card.” ARGHHHHH!

So, we thought about it and decided to give another call. I explained what happened and asked if she could put it through with two cards and a credit card, and she stated she could not. I politely asked if she might check with her supervisor, or suggest an alternative. She said, “SURE!”, and proceeded to put me on hold. Which is exactly where I stayed for the next 35 minutes (no exaggeration) before giving up. Not once did she apologize for the delay, or for that matter talk to me at all. All I can say, is that when I did call center work, it was a fireable offense to keep somebody on hold for five minutes. Keeping somebody on hold for more than one minute resulted in an unsatisfactory grade for the call.

Now in desperation, I posted my plight to Disboards. I also sent an e-mail to WDW guest services. I got an automated response the next day, saying I would get a real response with 7 days. On the 13th day, I got a response saying they couldn’t find a working phone number for me. I replied to that saying I had included my cell phone number, and I was in the phone book anyway, and I waited for a call or reply. But none ever came.

I got suggestions on Disboards (THANKS AGAIN!!!) to call the gift card line and get them to combine the cards. The first time I tried, the fellow said they couldn’t do it, but the stores could. I called the store I had previously gone to, and was informed that no, they do not perform that function.

I called again, and was told it this time it couldn’t be done at all. The Disboards folks said to keep trying. One more time I called and this time got Cheryl. Cheryl said it would be no problem. So after a lot of scratching codes from the cards and reading numbers, finally I had a single $500 card!!!

I thanked her profusely and insisted on speaking to her supervisor to give kudos and found out the previous folks I had been dealing with were almost assuredly NOT CMs, as it seems Disney outsources this line in the evenings. Cheryl’s supervisor also said they “weren’t really supposed to do this” (combine the cards), but it was permitted when the call volume allowed!

I made one more call to ticketing with my new card, and the transaction went through like clockwork, and the tickets showed up 2 weeks before the trip.

Personally, I thought one of them should have been Goofy under the circumstances. But we have them, and that's what counts.

 

[osprey6]

We told DD about the trip about 2 weeks out, and she got a look of pure joy. Now, how to keep ourselves productive and not stressed in the meantime? I know I spent a LOT of time looking at tips, reading guidebooks, and researching routes and logistics. But, finally, the big day did indeed arrive, after many days of being asked, “When is it time to go to Dizzy Whirl?”

First, it’s time for some breakfast, and a trip to our Church for 11:30 Mass. When we came back from that, it was time to go over with DD the rules of the trip: Always stay with Mommy or Daddy, do what the people at the airport and the parks tell you to do, no whining, and tell Mommy or Daddy if you get hot, need a drink, or get hurt. We ensured she knew the consequences of not following the rules. We also made sure she knew she could pick out one thing for a souvenir each day. In retrospect, I must say I was surprised with some of her eventual choices.

We got everything packed into a small suitcase, one small duffel and a backpack, all of which were care fully measured to ensure compliance with the airline’s carry-on baggage policy. We loaded up the car, double-checked we had the important stuff, and that nothing had been left off the checklist, and took off for the airport parking place.

The trip to the parking place was no problem, and on the shuttle we could even see what we thought was our plane, far across the tarmac, but I thought it unlikely as we were 3 hours before takeoff which was scheduled for 6. Why we were there that early? Well, late afternoon is one of the busiest times at Pittsburgh International, because the Delta flight to Paris leaves around 6:30, and the 757 that runs that route is the largest scheduled plane at the airport. So, we were allowing serious extra time, and if there’s one thing I can do is kill time at an airport. I never get bored watching planes and people.

Security was surprisingly easy, and we were quickly taking a our people mover (“fake monorail”) to the airside terminal. The first order of business was dinner, so we headed off to the central food court. McDonald’s for the ladies, and Sbarro for me. Roasted potatoes and pizza!!!

DW moseyed to Gate C58 (this confused the dickens out of us, as that is clearly marked as gate for JetBlue), which did indeed contain our chariot, but DD had some energy to burn, so we headed off for the “Kidsburgh” playspot at the head of the C Concourse. This is one of the best features of the airport in my opinion, as it is a large airport themed play area with a huge window overlooking several gates, as well as its own set of bathrooms. DD played, and I kept an eye both on her and on the planes, and spotted a special plane from Southwest for the first time: Triple Crown One!

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Southwest-Airlines/Boeing-737-3H4/1808521/M/

After a while, with DD still raring to go, but Daddy feeling pretty tired, it has time to head back to the gate. Along the way, we passed a display dedicated to that Pittsburgh icon, Mr. Rogers. I had passed this many times before, but had never really taken the time to look closely at it. But a sort of poster on the side of the display kind of says it all.

We stopped at the other AirTran gate to get a gate check tag for our stroller, and waited for the agent to show for our flight, which occurred in about 15 minutes.

AirTran Flight 1748
PIT-MCO
Boeing 737-700
Scheduled: 1800-2013
Actual: 1800 - 2009

We had set up shop very close to the gate podium so we could see all the coming and goings. We knew it would be a while as we had Boarding Zone 4, so we could relax. The gate agent then announced that the flight was full and carryon space would likely be at a premium, so if anybody was interested in having their bags ride in the cargo hold at no charge, she would give those passengers special tags and the passenger’s whole party could board in zone 2. We jumped on that offer, and waited until all the paperwork was finished. A ramp agent was helping to load the flight and she had a little extra time and talked with DD about the trip, and mentioned the plane was sitting so long because it has come in from Punta Cana earlier in the day.

Soon it was our turn to board and we plopped in our seats, got the belts on, and waited. At which point DW realized she had forgot the paperback she was reading at the gate. She was thinking about getting up for it but decided it wasn’t worth the effort. Just as the last passengers are being seated, I look up and see Jamie, the ramp agent we had been talking with, and she has DW’s book! We thanked her profusely, and after the trip made sure to mention her in the survey I got from AirTran.

We taxied out, zoomed into the sky and headed south. I wanted to grab a flight attendant to get some earphones for the XM radio, but since none was around, I decided to wait until the drink service. When that came around, I got them and plugged them in, only to find that the XM wasn’t working…

The minutes passed quickly, and the captain eventually pointed out the Atlantic coastline when we were about 60 miles out. We soon lines up to land, and it seemed like it was a LONG landing (I think the plane caught a head on wind gust). But we taxied up to our concourse, in the process seeing a Virgin Atlantic 747 (talk about ginormous!!!), and pulled into our gate. We waited for the madness to clear, and took our turn to walk up the aisle. I picked up the stroller, and we headed off to the second fake monorail ride of the evening.

In the main terminal, DD was a little overwhelmed by the huge atrium, the “Earport” store and the Disney/Universal ads everywhere. Down the elevator we go to baggage claim, and got our bags in excellent time. Then we sauntered over to the rental desk. There was only one person in front of me, and 7 agents, so in no time Alex was taking my information, warning me about the super-expensive gas stations on Semoran Blvd. (which I already knew about, again thanks to Disboards!) and subsequently sending me over to the garage.

The Dollar area was just a short stroll away, and I handed my papers to the agent. I felt certain he was going to direct me to a midsize stall, but all that Diego said was “Go all the way down to the specialty area, and pick whatever you like!”

You know those old cartoons where a character suddenly has his eyes roll like slot machine reels? That’s what I felt like! We made it down to the area and found we had a choice of a Mercury Grand Marquis, or a Jeep Liberty, until another agent walked over and said, “Hey, you a big guy. I think you want this one.” He was grinning and pointing at a Ford Explorer with a couple hundred miles and satellite radio. I was hilariously happy, but I gave it a good once over anyway, just to make sure it was OK. I didn’t see anything wrong, so we piled in and navigated the airport maze to the Beach Line, making sure we had enough money handy for the tolls.

This was no problem for us, but the second toll barrier requires a payment of $.75, and this apparently threw somebody for a loop, as the car in front of us was taking a long time to go through the toll station. Not having anything better to do at the moment, we noticed that the message board at the booth read “Change due: $99.25”! When it was our turn, I asked the toll taker if the guy had really given him $100 for a $.75 toll. Indeed, that’s exactly what happened.

By this time, DD was asleep and, thus she missed our drive onto the property on Hotel Plaza Blvd., so she also missed the Mickey/Minnie sign that night, but it was only a short drive to the Hilton. We pulled in, unloaded our gear, and checked in. Making our way to the room, we pass a Disney owned gift shop that is open until 11 every day! Plus, they sell park tickets! So my giftcard saga would have worked out OK after all…

When we opened the door we were a little surprised to see an air cleaner humming away in the middle of the floor. Apparently, the last guest had smoked repeatedly in the non-smoking room. A quick mention of it to the front desk, and the cleaner was promptly removed. We were otherwise OK with the condition of the room, and I left DD and DW in the room to make my way to the Wal-Mart on FL 535 for drinks and breakfast stuff.

A friendly word of advice: Don’t go to that Wal-Mart on a Sunday night if you can help it. By the lack of items on some of the shelves, you would have thought a blizzard was coming! Finally, I managed to make my way through that rugby scrum with a few necessities, plus one British treat I happened upon:

And yes, it was yummy!

By the time I got everything back to the room and parked the SUV, it was 11:30, and of course the next day was a huge one, so I got whatever sleep I could.

 

[osprey6]

The Grand and Glorious Plan:

• Make rope drop
• Make sure to get Fastpasses for princess meet ‘n greet
• Hit our ADR
• Hit all Fantasyland rides
• Have CS dinner somewhere
• Hit major rides : HM, PoC, SM, BLSS

The reality: Not quite, but good enough.

The day was bright, and the weatherguy said it should be a beautiful day. We showered, got dressed, and scarfed some muffins, donuts, granola and juice. We made sure we had our backup drink supplies and snacks.

I had been encouraging my girls to be ready to leave early. When we booked the trio, hours for MK were listed as 9-11. The week before the trip, it changed to 8-12!!! But we didn’t get out of the room until 7:30. So we scurried over to the elevator and made our way to the bus stop. To our surprise it really wasn’t that crowded, and a bus came along at about 7:40. By the time we made it through the other parking lots and got on the road, it was about 7:55. After a peaceful ride, we were dropped at the TTC.

There was no ferry boarding at the time, and the monorail line looked like we would be able to get on the next one, so up the ramp we went and waited for 5 minutes or so. We boarded Monorail Red (Do they still refer to them like that?) and passed through the CR (a fact that confused DD to no end, especially where you can look down into Chef Mickey’s), but finally we arrived at the gates. The doors whooshed open, and headed down the ramps to find a bag check station. The security CM called DW “Princess”, causing me to wonder “If she’s a princess, why do you have to assume she’s bringing in contraband. And why did we have to pay $85 to get in and"…STOP! I will not get cynical, I will not get cynical, I will not get cynical.

We made our through the gates at about 8:25, and it seemed very quiet and not at all crowded. Firstly, to obtain a 1st visit button for DD, which a wonderful CM got for us at the stroller rental place. Well, we’re going to make our way down Main Stree…AGGHHH!!! What the heck did I trip over? Ah yes, the trolley tracks. As you will no doubt later see, that’s a recurring theme in today’s activities.

OK, as I was saying, down Main S…WATCH OUT FOR THAT PHOTOPASS GUY!!! Finally, we reached the end and were rewarded with this view:

Time to scoot over to Tomorrowland. First stop: Buzz Lightyear, which had NO waiting. It kinda freaked out DD, especially the huge Zurg, but it was fun enough. A quick stroll brings us to the Laugh Factory. No, I wasn’t “that guy”. I was, however, the churro guy. And no, I wasn’t even considering buying them.

Next stop, Astro Orbiters. There was a brief line here, but not nearly as bad as I had heard it sometimes gets. Here’s a shot taken of DW and DD in flight!

At this point, I was sent over to get the aforementioned Princess Fastpasses, while DD and DW went hunting for characters. Lo and behold, they found them.

I apologize for how washed out that was. We actually had a Photopass CM take that!

I have to say, it was a bit of struggle to find the Fastpass machine; it’s really stuck off to the side on its own.

Well, it wasn’t long before it was our Fastpass time, so the girls snuck a ride at the Speedway. I was sent to scout out locations for characters, but I managed to get back just as they came off the ride.

We had just a little more time, so we went over to a character spot, and spotted our first character, so DD went right up after a brief wait.

Unfortunately, the White Rabbit took a break right before DD made it up. Oh dear, indeed!

Since we were in the area, we decided to do the tea party as well. DD loved the spinning, and both DW and I did surprisingly well with it.

Well finally, it’s time to stroll down to the princesses. So, off we go to the Theatre, passing the delicious smells of the shops and down the AAAGGHHH…Ah yes, another encounter with the tracks.

The standby line for the princesses had to be 45 minutes, but we flew right by with no waiting, and first we have Aurora (or is it Rose? I could never keep that straight)

Then on to Belle; I would have preferred her in the blue dress, but nobody asked me...

And lastly, one prince…. er, Cinderella (is it me, or is her makeup a little overdone?)

DD got a pair of sunglasses in the shop, and then it was bathroom time for the girls. While waiting for them, I was approached by a research CM. Would I be willing to take part in a survey? Oh, you would? What’s your e-mail address? I gave it to her and thought about the tale of giftcards I would spin.

Eventually, they emerged and we proceeded over to the train. As we made it to top of the ramp, a film crew was apparently shooting some sort of promo, but didn’t interview us like some other guests. A relaxing ride…

...brought us over to Frontierland, and we grabbed Fastpasses for Splash Mountain. Next ride, PoC, which DD found a little scary, and frankly, so did I.

It was about time for lunch, so down we go to Liberty Tree. I had to marvel at the difference from the last time we were there, in March 2001. We had just walked up and got a table with no problem. Can you imagine it? Character dining without an ADR? That obviously wasn’t happening anytime soon today. We, of course, had an ADR, but again, the difference was stark.

Anyway, the food was both tasty and filling (lamb stew, yum!) and the service by “Geo” (short for George, apparently) was efficient if not overly enthusiastic. Here’s a picture mainly intended for DW’s mother who is quite insistent on the use of hand sanitizer…

OK, so now over to the Haunted Mansion, easily the longest line of the day. It would have been even longer, but we skipped the Interactive queue, and went through in about 45 minutes. My ghost pied me, if you’re interested.

On to Splash Mountain, where the Fastpasses were a godsend. We still waited in line perhaps 15 minutes, but eventually made it to the logs. We definitely got big time wet….

Back over now to the Magic Carpets, where the line was almost as bad as the Haunted Mansion

I think we managed to get the “camel spit” twice…

We thought about the Jungle Cruise, but the line was outrageous, so DD just played in the magic fountains for a while.

At this point, we happened upon the parade, and I was surprised by how few people there were and how good our pictures turned out, given that DW basically took them (she’s 5’1) by sticking her arm straight up and hoping for the best…

And, of course, one prin, er Cinderella:

At this point, DW needed a nap, and DD wanted to swim, so we went down to Main Street again and headed to the exit…OOOOFFF. Yep, it’s the tracks again.

This time we took the Admiral Fowler back. Notice the unintentional “hidden Mickey”

The TTC was nearly empty and our bus came quickly.

TO BE CONTINUED….

 

[osprey6]

Meanwhile, back at the hotel, DW popped into bed and DD and I took the time to change and head down to the pool, or actually the pool complex, since the Hilton has 2 good size adult pools, a wading pool that’s maybe a foot deep, and a grotto themed hot tub, with a pool bar and a good sized gazebo between the large pools.

DD had fun running around and jumping in off the side of a big pool into my arms. In the process she made friends with a boy from Detroit and a girl from the UK. I was little worried about the girl; I didn’t think DD would be able to understand her accent, and although both parents were on the side watching them, neither was in water and I had to catch the girl’s little brother (I’m guessing he was 3) when he was accidentally knocked into the water by his sister!

DD finally broke one too many rules by running ahead of me, and it was time to go to back to the room, over her rather insistent protests. There we had some beverages and kicked around the idea of what to do. We finally decided to go back to MK, since there were a few things we still wanted to experience.

We threw back on our clothes and again made the trip to the bus stop. It took a while for this bus to come, but it was indeed worthwhile as on this trip we were treated to the spectacle of a car trying to go out the side entrance of the parking lot, presumably to avoid paying. The gate is triggered by a light beam that is as high as the top of the bus, so this poses no problems for the bus.

I must say, I was quite surprised when the driver saw this scene unfolding in front of him, acted completely nonplussed about the whole thing and retrieved a yardstick from beside his seat. He set the parking brake, opened the doors, strolled over to the gate and stuck the yardstick in the air. The gate opens, and car is on its way…

Another arrival at the TTC, and another monorail trip (Hey, how often do you get ride a real monorail?). After clearing the gate, we headed straight back to Fantasyland, but first I had to OOOFFFFF. Yes, the trolley tracks bit me AGAIN.

First stop, the carousel.

I don’t think DD enjoyed this quite as much as the one at our home park, but obviously she was still having fun. Time now to stroll over to Peter Pan’s flight, which DD found at once to be both fascinating and odd, having never “flown” like that before.

After a quick look around we went over to It’s a Small World. This was not nearly as annoying as the last time we rode it, and it was our first experience with the red timing tags. The line moved far more quickly than advertised, and we soon parted with our tag. I wonder how many Disneyphiles keep them as souvenirs.

I happened to wonder what time it was as we came out of the tunnel, and got quite a shock when my wish came true, as the cuckoo clock told me in no uncertain terms that it was 8:15. I thought for a moment I would get hit by the “15”!

We still hadn’t had dinner and there didn’t seem to be any real choices around other than Pinocchio’s. Nothing on the menu really appealed to me (and I knew DW and DD wouldn’t finish their meals), so when the CM asked me for my order, I replied “Nothing for me, thanks.” The CM promptly shot back with “I’m sorry sir, but we’re out of nothing.” Without missing a beat, I mentioned that it was OK, I get plenty of it at home anyway!

I have to say this was one of the low points for the day. The first two chairs we tried were broken. It was a struggle to find a clean table, and despite the lack of customers at that hour, they were never cleaned. The trash cans were overflowing, and I wasn’t impressed with the food at all. My Italian DD (In her family, it’s considered blasphemy to even COMTEMPLATE using sauce from a jar) thought the meatballs in her sandwich had WAY too much garlic and the sauce was sickeningly sweet.

When that escapade was over, DW and DD went into Philharmagic while I went off to get Fastpasses for Pooh. Unfortunately, they ran out just as I got there, so I had to wait a while for my crew. It was almost time for Wishes, so when they did come out, we headed over to a less crowded area, the wall for the former Toontown area, which proved to be a surprisingly good viewing spot.

(Sorry for the head in the shot on the last one.)

People in Pittsburgh tend to be big fans of fireworks, but I’m somewhat jaded as I grew up in an area with a clear view of downtown. DW has also seen a lot in her day, as her cousins come from New Castle (which bills itself as the “Fireworks Capital of the World”). These were OK by our standards, but nothing anything special.

Well, it was time for Pooh, so we waited perhaps 10 minutes, (at least 5 of which was spent in the interactive area, as seen below).

That was rather impressive to me. I’ve always loved Pooh, and particularly the “words sliding off the page” aspect of the TV specials. But it will take me a long time to forgive WDW for taking out Mr. Toad….

That was enough for the day, so it was time to head back to the Main Gate. By the way, if you thought the trolley tracks were bad during the day, they’re positively vicious at night!

When we finally made it out and saw the seething throng of humanity at the monorail, it was a no-brainer to go to the resort line, where the line was about ¼ as long. We got on and passed through the CR (where nobody I could see got off) and passed to the TTC.

The bus wait this time was much longer, and while we were waiting, DD managed to cut herself on a burr on the bench, luckily not too badly. DW pulled out a princess bandage, and gave it some TLC. When the bus finally came, DW and DD sat (and BOTH of them went to sleep!) while I stood the entire way. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was 11:15. Straight off to bed, tomorrow is EMH and a Princess dinner. Or so we thought….

 

[osprey6]

The Grand and Glorious Plan:

• Make it in time for EMH opening
• Go on all rides except Mission Space
• Hit our ADR at Akershus
• CS lunch somewhere
• Get a soccer jersey in the UK.
• Get FastPasses for Soarin’ and Test Track
• Stake out a seat for Illuminations

The Reality: Um, no.

Tuesday awakened us to another morning in Florida. The memories of yesterday’s fun still fresh in our minds, we prepared for the day’s activities. We got dressed, had more muffins, donuts and juice and threw open to curtains to see…rain. Lots and lots of rain…

Again, neither DD nor DW was in a huge hurry, and we left a good bit past the planned time. Nonetheless, we gathered our gear after a significant delay and made it to the bus stop by 8:40, and a bus quickly pulled up to serve the few of us going Epcot.

We managed to make it to the park at about 9:10, and then the skies REALLY opened up. We took some shelter in the bus loading areas and advanced a little at a time, assault style. Finally, there was a bit of letup, to the point where it was only a normal downpour and not the torrential variety, and we made it into the gates. So much for the EMH.

I was fine with my waterproof windbreaker and ball cap, but DW insisted on ponchos for herself and DD, so she quickly trudged over to the gift shop before the entrance on the far right. We proceeded up past the “big golf ball” as DD insisted on calling it, and set out to attack Future World.

First stop, The Living Seas. We heard lots of great stories about Turtle Talk, so we went straight for that and made it in with no wait. DD was a little scared when the whale showed up, but it all worked out. So we went out past the gift shop, and then back in the rain to ride Nemo, with almost no wait, and then back out through the gift shop. We also decided to see the manatees while we were there and headed upstairs… and back past the gift shop.

While we in the vicinty, we went over to The Land to grab our Soarin’ FastPasses. It was wasn’t 10:00 yet and the return time was already 2:20!!! The standby line was 50 minutes. What must it be like on a crowded day?

So next over to Living With the Land, which turned out to be a 15 minute wait, and that attraction was much better than I remembered it. A long ride with lots to see. We especially enjoyed the desert and experimental areas.

Well, back outside and it’s still raining. The next closest attraction contains Figment, and so we knock the water off the stroller, and walk to the building. Again, literally no line, we jump right into car. The CMs looked mighty bored.

I’m pretty sure I had never been through there for one reason or another. Kind of interesting, and DD had a blast with the kinetic music interfaces at the end. Something that bothered me though: Near the beginning, there were 3 scientists listed, and I thought one of them was Robin Williams, but I didn’t see him anywhere else. Was this attraction changed at some point?

Back out into the rain again, and DW wanted to see Captain EO. There was a brief wait here, maybe 5 minutes, and the theater was maybe 40% full. I can only say that to me, this was clearly a comedy. As an Army officer, to me the idea of Michael Jackson being a leader of men (or even aliens!) was laughable. I’m glad I got to see it once, to know what all the hype was about. That goes straight onto the NEVER AGAIN list.

By this time the rain had let up a bit, and DD frolicked in the chasing fountains, but eventually it was time to head off to World Showcase. During the time we were there, the flower show was in full swing, but I wasn’t really impressed with a lot of the topiaries, but we thought this one was outstanding.

So we start on the left and walk to Mexico and take a spin on the Grand Fiesta Tour, with maybe a 5 minute wait. Good to see Donald, Jose’ and the gang, but there wasn’t anything all that special. But at least when we came out, we found the rain had stopped. Luckily, that was the end of it for the day.

Next stop was Norway, and DW had the idea to go check out the Akershus. Her reasoning was that it’s such a gloomy day that there might be a suitable opening for us to go earlier than planned. I smirked and went to park the stroller with DD, not giving her a snowball’s chance in you-know-where. I figured we would be getting something from the bake shop, maybe a sandwich, so we hung around there. DW came out a minute later and said she got them to switch our ADR, as in to right now!

There was still perhaps a 10 minute wait before we were called, but eventually it happened, and we went straight in to see Belle.

This of course was the third Belle in two days. Does anyone else compare looks between the same princesses in the different locations?

Time for the buffet first, and there were some tasty items indeed. DW insisted on taking this next picture because I never eat cheese, yet I somehow tried this Norwegian goat cheese. I thought it was rather odd tasting, but again it was a new experience, so why not broaden some horizons? Folks, I give you the one food picture in this entire TR!

The princess parade started up, and we got one about one every 5 minutes. First in line was Ariel.

Lastly, we had (now say it with me!) one princess.

This was overall an enjoyable experience, but once again, we had problems with the gift cards. Our bill came to $96.87. I had two gift cards, one for $100, and one with about $25 left on it. I marked the bill for a tip to bring the total to $114.

Our server, Charlotte, took the portfolio up and came back with it. She had completely used the $100 card, but not touched the other! It took a while to get her attention, and when I did, there was the greatest difficulty in explaining to her that she would be cheating herself out of $14 of her tip if she didn’t run the other card. I can understand some issues with language, but this got out of hand.

She frankly seemed annoyed that I had pointed out the issue, and rather grudgingly went to run the other card. I thought a place like that would have been one of the most desirable places in WDW to work, but I really got the vibe that it wasn’t worth her trouble to handle the issue.

DD had to mug for one picture as we left. A princess in training, perhaps?

Afterwards, it was time for the Maelstrom, and a wait of about 25 minutes, but we again got red timing tags. This was much shorter than I remembered it from before, but it was fun, and DD actually laughed at the Troll. We skipped right out of the movie and into the shops.

When we came out, it was time to head back to the Land for our Soarin’ appointment. That was a long haul with a busted stroller (foot rest broke), but eventually made it over. The first thing we noticed was that FastPasses were done for the day, and the Standby line was running about 70. We walked for a LONG time to get to the line merge point, and then we waited another 15 minutes.

But that was clearly worthwhile. We got in the front row and we loved it. The illusion of flying is quite cool, and I couldn’t stop thinking, “Hey, Aren’t we in Florida????”

Let’s start in the other direction in World Showcase. First up, Canada. Nothing much we wanted to see here, as we certainly were not going to do the movie, but we happened upon a performance of Off Kilter, and watched that for a few minutes as they launched into a rendition of Slade’s Run Runaway, one of my favorites, but definitely done with a different flavor.

Strolling further brings us to the UK, where Mary Poppins was unfortunately heading back in, no doubt for a spoonful of sugar…

You might recall one of my goals was to score a score jersey in UK, so we made a beeline for the Sportsman’s Shoppe. I had a long list of teams I was interested in, and walked in to the store determined to find one, but they seemed to have none of them.

I must have looked like a man of dying of thirst in a desert who had just been offered powdered milk! A CM saw me in despair and came over to see if she could help. I rattled off my list of teams: Leeds United. Manchester City. Crystal Palace. Nottingham Forest. Blackpool. Sheffield. Bolton. Charlton.

Emma looked at me with great pity and said, “Oh my, we have none of those. I feel for you, though: My favorite is Man City!” So much for that idea, and back to the old drawing board.

Next, over to France, where DW and DD took a break while I looked in the bakery. When I noticed there was line 20 deep just to get in, I turned right around.

Morocco also did little for us, but we walked around a bit and browsed.

Next stop was Japan and we walked into the department store. DW and DD immediately started looking for fans. Some were a little pricey, but DD eventually found one she liked for $5.95. We found one of the cool things about this area is the free personalization service. I paid for the fan and the CM offered to put DD’s name on it, an offer I gratefully accepted

It was obvious that some of the CMs here were distracted, and I’m sure it was because of the tsunami/nuclear disaster that had occurred a short time before that day.

We also watched the Japanese drummers in action for a few minutes, something I loved from a previous visit, but the music hurt DD’s ears, so we moved on to America, and then to Germany.

DW planned to get a Hummel in Germany, but found they no longer sell them in Epcot. SIGH – it looks like another trip to Hummel shop in Ohio for us….

We enjoyed a shared pretzel that took me 15 minutes to order (there were some rather clueless folks ahead of me) and 5 minutes to consume!

At this point, DW and DD were tired, and they were not going to look around anymore. They took the friendship back up to the head of World Showcase, while I continued to walk that way, since I was determined to get my hands on a cloudberry horn.

When I reached Norway, I waited only a minute to order my confection, but it took 20 minutes to pay for it!!! The CM at the register was having the worst time dealing with ringing up multiple items to go on the DDP for the customers ahead of me, and everybody was getting frustrated.

When I actually ate them on the way up to meet the family, I was quite disappointed. I had heard folks RAVE about these things on Disboards, but I thought it to be rather tasteless.

DD and DW finally showed up, and made the decision to abandon the stroller and leave, but first there had to be a stop at Club Cool. Tempted though I was to suggest Beverly, we instead tried the other items. Our winners were the Israeli Lemon soda, and the Costa Rican cherry. This was especially appropriate as DW has relatives in Costa Rica.

We headed out the gate and waited about 25 minutes for the bus. We made it back to the hotel for about 5:45, and DW went straight off to sleep. I took DD over to DTD to bring back some dinner and after a ride on the carousel, and a quick look in the Lego store, we stopped in EoS.

I REALLY liked this place, and my BBQ chicken was outstanding. DW also devoured her Italian when we got back.

I closed off the night by making another trip back to DTD by myself and window shopped a good bit, especially in Sammy Duvall’s, Team Micky, Goofy’s Candy, and World of Disney. I also made sure to pay homage to the Adventurer’s Club, a place where I had great fun on my first visit back in 1994. I really wish that, the Comedy Warehouse and the Fireworks Factory were still open, but hey, that’s progress.

The only thing I bought was some taffy to share with my coworkers, and then I went back to the hotel.

One more installment to come…..

 

[Disney_Jill]

Well, I look forward to reading our trip report. Of course, no trip is perfect but, hey, you're at WDW, so its a lot easier to cope with difficulties.
Your dd is adorable! What a little blessing.

 

[osprey6]

Part 7: Shopping / Travel /Epilogue

Thanks for getting this far, and I hope no one sustained a concussion from banging their head on the keyboard after falling asleep.

This was our day to leave, so naturally the weather was much nicer today. Since we had no parks to hit, we slept in a while and got up around 8. It took us until about 9:30 to get dressed and have breakfast. We spent a little time packing, and then it was time to check out.

We had several hours before we had to be at the airport, so some shopping was in order. Back over to DTD we went, especially to World of Disney and Team Mickey’s, where I bought my one souvenir for the trip. Strangely, I had not seen it the night before.

I’m not a graduate, but one of my undergrad professors was, and I loved hearing his stories about the traditions of A&M.

DD picked this out in the same store. I’m afraid I don’t understand why Star Wars is a good thing to have on a soccer ball, but what the hey, it was less than $10, and she could have wanted something far less practical.

We didn’t find anything else we were interested in (at least not at the asked for prices!), so we just walked around a bit in the complex and took a few photos.

We then decided to hop back in the car and DW had the brilliant idea to try the Disney outlets, since we still had lots of time. This presented a small problem, as I did not know in which outlet center it was located, but I did know where the two on 535 were.

We went to Orlando Premium Outlets first, but merely rode around the place looking for an indication that the Disney store was there, but did not see one, so we moved on. Of course, we found out later this was a huge mistake!

Moving on to the second outlet center, we did find a Disney outlet and thought we had hit the jackpot. This place had a lot of stuff from Disneyland, and a few non-Disney things as well. I found nothing I liked, but DW picked up a couple of shirts for DD for $6 each.

By this time, our stomachs were growling, so we set off back down 535 and stopped at the Applebee’s in the Holiday Inn. We have been to many Applebee’s, but this one had something we had never before encountered: A box that sat on the table and allowed you to call your server, play trivia games, order gift cards and see menu specials. It was very helpful indeed, but I wonder what it must be like for the wait staff. In any event, we highly recommend the place. Great service, convenient location, and lots of specials.

Finally, it was time to head back to the airport, and make sure to gas up. We did actually end up heading north on Semoran Blvd. and found the rogue gas stations, but yeah, just keep going another mile or so and you’ll hit the a 7-11 that’s reasonable (or as reasonable as gas gets these days!)

Returning the car was painless, and a quick trip up the elevator brought us to…The CHECK-IN LINE OF DOOM!!! The line for AirTran had to be 120 deep. We thought we were toast at this point, figuring we would never make it through in the 90 minutes or so we had to work with. DW went to get in line, and I went to see if there was a kiosk I could sneak into. But then I looked saw two kiosks way over to the side, away from the check-in area, with no line. Our boarding passes were promptly spat out, and I grabbed DW out of the line.

And then we saw the security line, about 50 deep in each line. This actually moved surprisingly quickly. When it was our turn we got to the podium, and the TSA agent actually made DD say her name! I had never heard of this happening, and I’m still not sure how I feel about it. Is it a security issue because strangers get to hear her name, or is it a security enhancement to know that she is travelling on her own ticket?

Thankfully, none of us were made to go through the nude-o-scope, and the fake monorail brought us quickly to our concourse. We asked, and found that the plane was not even close to full, so no bump again.

AirTran Flight 1747
MCO-PIT
Boeing 717
Scheduled: 1459-1715
Actual: 1500 – 1712

This flight was quickly boarded, but it seemed to take us a long time to taxi out to our runway, and it’s not like there was a line or weather problems. But the takeoff was otherwise uneventful. We got a great view of the Atlantic coast, and had no problems with the XM this time around, so I got to listen to 80s songs all the way home. Yes, it was glorious. The flight was really smooth, with a much better landing than last time. Way to go AirTran!

We took one last fake monorail ride, boarded the bus back to the parking lot, packed in everything and had dinner at Cracker Barrel, just to let the rush hour traffic dissipate.

The Saturday after we got back, I took DD to the spring football game, where it poured so badly, that despite free admission, only about 1,500 people showed up, but the highlight was this picture.

After a few days back, I had some slow times at work, so I replied to the e-mail that I had received from Disney the previous week, expressing my disappointment with the lack of response, the gift card problems and the misinformation. I also attached a transcript of the e-mails I had previously sent out.

The next day, I got a call from Kayla, a Guest Services CM. She asked me to tell my whole story, and particularly asked me to give details about the interactions we had that had caused such frustration. She listened, and apologized profusely for what had happened. She agreed this was not what a Disney experience was supposed to be, and she promised to bring my issues to the attention of the ticketing and gift card areas, telling me she would follow-up if some process got changed as a result.

Then she offered us all 1 day park hopper tickets! I expressed how I didn’t really plan to come back anytime soon, and she told me they won’t expire for 20 years! I said OK, it just might be that long, but I appreciate the gesture. In about a week, these beauties arrived:

Notice that one of them is indeed Goofy. You think the mouse was reading my TR?

Well, so ends the TR. We had some fun, and we had some annoyances. We spent a lot of family time together, something that had been lacking. We finally saw some Disney magic (after a whole lot else had gone wrong). And a big thanks to anyone who bothered to read all the way through.

I’m not a Disney lover, and probably never will be. To me, what Disney does best is its water parks (which naturally, time would not permit us to patronize on this trip) and merchandising. The highlight of any Orlando trip for me will probably be the weather and scenery. Despite all that went wrong, this was still the best of our 3 trips, and we may go back sometime before DD gets out of grade school, but it’s going to require a lot of saving. For our money, we do a lot better at one of the 10 amusement parks within a 5 hour drive from us. But maybe someday, wishing upon a star…..

You might recall that I had earlier said that one of my favorite characters was Ludwig von Drake. I leave you now with the words written by another fellow named Ludwig in DW’s favorite kid’s book:

“That’s all there is. There isn’t any more.”

 

[Disneychix]

Can't wait for you to fill in all your placeholders!

Your DD looks like a doll. I can't wait to see her reactions to getting to WDW!!

 

[heaven2dc]

Sounds like a fun trip in the making!

 

[hotmamac]

I'm along for the ride!
And we're practically neighbors!! I'm in Bridgeville. I've also been buying up the gift cards so I'm anxious to hear about your issues!

 

[osprey6]

Updated with Part 2 complete.

 

[bentos]

God Bless DD! Sorry to hear about the miscarriages

 

[osprey6]

God Bless DD! Sorry to hear about the miscarriages

Thank you for the kind words. That was a rough time indeed....

 

[Queen2PrincessG]

Your daughter is precious! Glad to see there will be chapters!!!!

 

[Sherrypooh]

this sounds like it is going to be fun...

 

[osprey6]

New photo uploaded

 

[osprey6]

I'm along for the ride!
And we're practically neighbors!! I'm in Bridgeville. I've also been buying up the gift cards so I'm anxious to hear about your issues!

Glad to see a neighbor following along. I used to live on the other side of town, and spent many a weekend at Great Southern, especially when Phar-Mor, Zayre's and J. C. Penney were all there. Plus, a little further down the road was Rax and Service Merchandise. Ah, those were the days....

 

[jc040404]

Subbing! Your title got my interest! My boys insist on using that "Yes. Yes, I am" line waaaayyy too much. Drives me nuts! I figured I might as well hop on!

Your dd is adorable! Love the "one princess" thing.

You had quite the battle with all those gift cards! So glad that it finally worked out for you, but wish it hadn't been so much trouble. I can't believe they couldn't just combine the cards from the start!