Back in gloomy Britain - Highs and Lows

[2Tiggies]

We arrived back on Monday afternoon after nearly 3 weeks in glorious Florida.

Not many lows and to be honest, none of them are directly Disney related, so I'll start with those to get them out of the way.

Lows

British Airways! Seriously guys, after refusing to touch them with a ten foot barge pole for over 10 years, I was optimistic about giving them a chance but we got off to a bad start right from EDI. I had done OLCI and selected seats. I don't really mind too much where we sit but did NOT want to be in the back of the plane as DD gets sick flying and the further forward you can sit, the better.

Arrived at EDI airport at about 4 am and went to check in. I spotted a very surley "I don't wanna be here" member of staff and actually let the couple behind us go in front of me to avoid her. Unfortunately as they stepped forward, another desk came available and called and they headed right there so we were stuck with Little Miss Sunshine and her Amy Winehouse hairdo and sulky presentation. My cheery "Good morning" was ignored. So we proceeded to check in. Single word or short phrases only from this woman.
"Your seats have changed"
ME: "Oh okay, no matter, where are we now?"
"At the back"
Me: "Right at the back"
"YES!" [snippy] "Last row"
I explained politely that this was not practical for us and asked if she could see if there was anywhere else as I had no window/aisle preference and we'd just go with whatever she could do to help.
The response:
"There's nothing. Plane's full and it's not my problem Just be thankful you aren't one of the 79 people bumped off the flight. Aircraft change to a smaller plane so perhaps your seats don't look so bad now ...."

No worries. Thanks for your help (and please feel free to bend over and apply your friendly demeanour as a suppository)

I immediately went to Customer Services and made a complaint. Good grief!

Similar cold reception at Gatwick but the in flight crew were great.

British Airways? Just wait til I get onto that Facebook page!

Scooters! Not in the parks but on the flaming buses seriously, 2 scooters take up 6 seats, plus the people have to transfer (2 more seats gone) and then their family/friends board with them. They really need to come up with an alternative solution or limit them to one per bus at busy times like park closing

Slow season - not exactly a low but I prefer the parks just a little busier. It adds atmosphere and the shorter park hours meant more rushing from one place to another. On an up side, we did discover how easy it is to do 3 parks in one day (we actually returned to our first park for the evening so had it been a different park, we could have done 4 in a day). It was a fun challenge on our second last full day as we finished up a few last things in the parks that we wanted to do.

Highs

MNSSHP
We ended up doing 3 parties out of the 4 that were on while we were there. We had a blast, both dressed up and got so much attention. We were given a "VIP" greeting with Cruella after the Mix n Mingle before she came out to meet the guests and got a string of photopass photos from our few minutes there

We got off Space Mountain and were called out by some CM's and complimented on our costumes and asked if we wanted to riide again and walked us through to re-board several times in succession until we thanked them and moved on.

The people we met! We made friends with some people at the resort as usual and one of the most memorable evenings we had was when the whole group of us took over the tables on the patio outside the foodcourt and sat up into the small hours screeching with laughter. I'm surprised they never asked us to shush or move

Photopass Plus was great. The only thing we would have struggled with if we had done a really short trip was there were numerous occasions where we would do a ride and the cameras were down - I mean all day! So one evening at DHS for example we rode RnR at least 12-15 times but there were no pics.

Nonetheless, with 648 photos on the card (I wont add borders to the ones I'm not over the moon about as there are just too many) it was great value. The CM who activated my card also gave it to us valid for the full 19 days as opposed to the 14 in the name of "Magic"

POFQ - as lovely as always and the most outstanding CM's and great atmosphere. We really love this resort.

Little 'extras' we were given - just little things that made us smile. Like DD trying to choose a bag of chips and a CM helped her choose by picking one and telling her it was hers to have
Being given a 5x7 photo of Mickey and Minnie in a card/frame
Getting our necklaces taken "to Mickey" and coming back twisted into stars

There were so many little things that stood out to me on this trip and made it awesome as always.

I can't offer a trip report in the conventional sense as, for the first time, I didn't keep a journal. However I could do a photo report by park plus MNSSHP if anyone is interested, but I will need to sort through my 4000+ photos and upload any that I would use so no rush but if enough folk would like one I will get that sorted once this crazy week comes to an end

Oh and an extra high (personal achievement) - I finally took my first fireworks photos

 

[madmumof2]

Sounds amazing! And I would love to see your photos!

 

[joolz1910]

Sounds great.
I would like to see the firework photo as I can never take photos in the dark.

 

[2Tiggies]

Sounds great.
I would like to see the firework photo as I can never take photos in the dark.

I made plenty mistakes, but they turned out ok and I enjoyed the learning curve. Every time I tried another night/show, I corrected previous mistakes and made new ones

Here is a link to a few of them posted on the Photography board (Flickr is sooooooo sloooooooow! I thought it was the WDW wifi but it's not)

Posts #1 and #16 I didn't post the Illuminations ones there yet as .... well, Flickr is slow at the mo

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2992897

 

[queendisney]

Glad you had a fab time. We got treated to extra's as well this trip my fav being a funnel cake from Hollywood Studio's. I was trying to use some of my loads of snack credits on this and she gave it to me as a 'gift from Mickey'!

I found the parks much too busy. The MK was just packed everytime we went. The cast members all said it was the most busy they have ever seen for September! We are used to November and compared to that time it was just totally packed.

Your costumes are brilliant. We didn't go to MNSSHP but saw lots of wonderful costumes. The black horse going down main street at the party ridden by the headless horseman was also the horse that was pulling one of the carriages at POR.

 

[2Tiggies]

I found the parks much too busy. The MK was just packed everytime we went. The cast members all said it was the most busy they have ever seen for September! We are used to November and compared to that time it was just totally packed.

Did you really think so? It was Dead! Mind you, MK is the one exception once the party nights start. It's always crowded on the non party days but quiet on party days with the early closing. We were there the week before the parties started and honestly, everything in MK including Space Mountain, was walk on most of the day and even by midday, wait time posted was around 10 minutes yet it more like 5. We had to learn NOT to use FP as we soon discovered that running to use them when you don't need them is a PITA

 

[Wills Mom]

That has to have been the fastest 3 weeks ever! Good to hear you had fun! The Cruella costumes are great!! I would LOVE to see your photos!

 

[UKDEB]

What a shame that BA weren't able to step up and restore your faith in them. You've got to wonder what strange forces were at work in conspiring to land you with Miss Misery Guts, despite your best efforts to avoid her!

I've been struggling to justify the cost of PhotoPass+ over and above the regular service. Your observations mean I don't need to consider it any further. I'm not sure how many ride photos we'd want anyway, but if I'd chosen to pay for the option and they ended up being out of action half the time, I'd be well unimpressed.

queendisney, did you tend to take advantage of EMH? It's surprising how often people report significant differences in their experiences of crowd levels when visiting at the same time. Invariably, that's the key factor.

 

[starrysky]

Glad you had a good time and I loved the MNSSHP cosutmes.

Sorry to hear that BA were bad. We have been put off them because of the bad attitude and the prices as well.

 

[mrtoffee]

Sounds like you had a fab time

You mentioned the on thing im not looking forward to in your lows the scooters they drive me mad how they get priority on all the buses plus there pretty dangerous in the parks to.

 

[chmurf]

how many pounds of sweets did you collect this time ?

 

[2Tiggies]

how many pounds of sweets did you collect this time ?

36 kg according to the luggage scales

Nearly half has already been shared out at the school among ecstatic classmates. The rest is mostly destined for other recipients so we're not that greedy

 

[Sarah28]

Welcome home! sounds like you had such a great trip despite the lows Loved your MNSSHP costumes! would love to see a photo report!!

 

[disney_princess_85]

It sounds like you had an amazing trip. Your MNSSHP outfits are awesome! You definitely deserved your Space Mountain experience.

I would love to see more photos too.

P.S. 36KG??!! You guys are nuts!

 

[2Tiggies]

It sounds like you had an amazing trip. Your MNSSHP outfits are awesome! You definitely deserved your Space Mountain experience.

I would love to see more photos too.

P.S. 36KG??!! You guys are nuts!

I didn't think we had collected that much. Because we did 3 parties I specifically made sure that trick or treat was not too high up on the priority list but then on our last party we were in Adventureland and this CM at a candy trail commented on our costumes and decided that the villain and the doggy had to be 'filled up' and told us to go back to the entrance of the trail and walk back through. When we got to him he had loaded about 5 bags and just gave them to us

 

[disney_princess_85]

I didn't think we had collected that much. Because we did 3 parties I specifically made sure that trick or treat was not too high up on the priority list but then on our last party we were in Adventureland and this CM at a candy trail commented on our costumes and decided that the villain and the doggy had to be 'filled up' and told us to go back to the entrance of the trail and walk back through. When we got to him he had loaded about 5 bags and just gave them to us

What a great story! That was so nice of him.

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

What a wonderful trip - the little things always make the nicest memories or the unexpected

 

[dixonsontour]

What fantastic costumes - and all that candy..we came home with lots but nothing like that amount..workmates loved it.

 

[Cyrano]

Sounds like you had a wonderful trip.

As others have said your costumes are fabulous.

Looking forward to looking at all your photos. I definitely need encouragement to take better firework photos

 

[2Tiggies]

What a shame that BA weren't able to step up and restore your faith in them. You've got to wonder what strange forces were at work in conspiring to land you with Miss Misery Guts, despite your best efforts to avoid her!

I've been struggling to justify the cost of PhotoPass+ over and above the regular service. Your observations mean I don't need to consider it any further. I'm not sure how many ride photos we'd want anyway, but if I'd chosen to pay for the option and they ended up being out of action half the time, I'd be well unimpressed.

queendisney, did you tend to take advantage of EMH? It's surprising how often people report significant differences in their experiences of crowd levels when visiting at the same time. Invariably, that's the key factor.

Debs, I agree, Photopass Plus is not for everyone -in fact most of Disney's optional extras will work for some and not for others. We always do the pre purchase CD and feel it's good value for us; we always purchase ride photos and we do lots of rides. We always did character meals too, this being the first trip we didn't, but we still saved overall with the pre-purchase upgrade based on the fact that we buy at least 3 ride photos. Even using that as grounds for consideration, you still have to ask yourself if you WOULD have bought the photos. If not, then no matter how cheap the deal is, it's costing you money you wouldn't have spent which nullifies the saving entirely.

Your question about park touring methods and habits is also very valid and I fully agree that this is one of the biggest factors leading to two parties on the same trip having different experiences. We do the EMH for the most part. We arrive before 8 am for morning EMH, flatten the park as best we can and leave no later than noon, or earlier if crowds start to build, hopping to another park, preferably one that had evening EMH the night before. If we can't make it for 8 am, we don't do the EMH park that morning. Same goes for evening EMH: we arrive just before the official park closing and only do the magic hours there. It's not uncommon for us to be at 3 parks in a day, depending which ones they are. MK to Epcot is an easy transfer so those two work well together, as do DHS and Epcot. AK is the only spanner in the works so we tend to devote the better part of a day there but do fewer days at that park.

What a wonderful trip - the little things always make the nicest memories or the unexpected

Always! And we had so many special little things that made us smile - I keep remembering more of them!

Sounds like you had a wonderful trip.

As others have said your costumes are fabulous.

Looking forward to looking at all your photos. I definitely need encouragement to take better firework photos

Thank you Reid
I must admit, I have always wanted to try the fireworks photos and this was a first attempt. I tried 3 times. Each time I did something technically wrong, corrected it on the next shoot and made another mistake so it was a huge learning curve. In one of my earlier posts on the first page of this thread I posted a link to some of my photos. I had trouble with uploading at WDW as the wifi was hit and miss at best. Don't expect anything too great - I'm very much a beginner but I absolutely relished the learning experience and honestly learnt more about my camera on this last trip than I have from books and manuals over the last two years. It was great. Even the mistakes I made were fab because I learnt something new for the next time

I can manage a photo trip report, Flickr/Photobucket willing much easier than a written one so that is me taking the easy way out