Belated Trip Report from September '05 - "Ariel and the 'rents do Disney"

[ArielDreams]

So this is a belated report from my last trip to WDW over Labor Day weekend 2005. I started writing all my notes down as soon as I returned in hopes to write the report but I forgot about it for awhile. Now I am itching to look back at the memories relive my experience. So inspired by the latest batch of trip reports that are on this board from over a year ago, I figured “why not?” Also my best friend just arrived in WDW with her family so I’m way jealous and missing the place. So without further ado, here it is!

Cast of Characters:
Dad – sometimes called Goofy, sometimes called Eeyore depending on the situation. He’s Goofy all the time but the Eeyore name came from our 1996 trip when he got a cold halfway through our trip and was miserable. This led to him going back early to the hotel one day and Mom and I went shopping at MGM (yes!). He’s an overall fun kind of guy, a little on the corny side but aren’t all dads? He enjoys the princesses – probably because of their ahem “melons” as (MomofMnM would call them). Ya know that commercial a few years back with the average American dad who makes eyes with Cinderella and he just looks ridiculous? That would be my Dad. (It’s not really him but it very well could have been!)
Mom – I guess we could call her Minnie Mouse? Mom was the former neurotic planner of all our trips until I stepped into her place as Disney nut. We’re known throughout the extended family for planning a pretty tight and effective Disney trip. But on this one, she just wants to relax and take it easy. Sure Mom – you trained me, you know that’s not gunna happen!
Me – almost 21 (at the time), the princess of the family (Ariel of course!). I’ll admit it, I’m spoiled rotten – only child, it comes with the deal. I had been to WDW in March 2005 on spring break and because of my addiction to these boards, I was dying to get back.


Background:
My family had a fairly busy summer. I worked an internship and part-time nights and weekends while mom and dad worked 9-5 each day. Plus we had a family wedding to go to and Mom doesn’t get too much vacation time off. Unlike Dad who works for the government and has more vacation days than he can possibly take in one year and never uses them cuz he’s a hard worker God love him (phrase overused by my DGramma so now it’s overused by the rest of us).

Well anyway, in September I would be flying across the Atlantic to spend a year studying in Scotland (just finished and I want to go back almost as much as I want to go back to WDW!) and with my 21st birthday about to occur the very first week I was there, I could almost get my parents to feel bad for me and to spoil me even rottener. Basically, I just wanted to go to Disney…again. I had been dropping “subtle” hints all summer long. Like “Lauren and I had sooooo much fun at Disney on Spring Break this year” and “You’ve never been on Mickey’s Philharmagic! It’s phenomenal, best 3D show ever!” Then I just got desperate and when my mom would suggest “We should go somewhere over Labor Day for a weekend trip” I would say “How about Disney World?” Which at first, Mom thought was out of the question – we’d been too many times, I’d just gone in March, she wanted a relaxing vacation etc. But honestly, where else would we have gone? So that’s when I had to do my research. I looked up flights and found that the very cheapest flight was available if we booked now for Sunday thru Wednesday. That pretty much sold Mom. And Dad may put up a good fight, but he’ll always give in. So there we were planning our next trip to Disney!

Now as for the accommodations, Mom and I were pushing for a deluxe resort. Our dream is to stay at the Boardwalk – we try to get Dad to spring for it every time but he just won’t do it. So, we’ll have to save it for a mother/daughter trip. This time was no different. “But we’re only going 4 days!” Nope, it’s moderate again for us. I wanted to try something new since we’ve stayed at POR twice, POFQ once, and CBR three times. So I suggested Coronado Springs. I’d always wanted to stay there because of the Mayan temple pool – still a kid at heart, basing my hotels off of whether they have a cool pool or not. This is why we stayed at POFQ in 1996. I liked the serpent. So we booked that and I did a little research on the Dis so I knew what to expect – and I knew I did not want to be in the Ranchos! Also I was concerned about the Tom Joyner reunion since all the guests would be staying at CSR – I did not want my Mayan pool to be crowded! However, when we got down there, they were all pretty much leaving so the resort was practically empty by Tuesday. Ahhh… relaxation!

As for ADRs, I kept telling Mom to make them. And she kept saying “No one’s gunna be there! We won’t need them.” Right Mom. I was almost to the point where I was going to make them myself but she didn’t want the whole trip planned out like that so I respected her wishes. However, I did make her make reservations for the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue – this is one of my favorite things in all of WDW and this trip would amazing since it was almost my birthday and they could sing to me!

So since this trip was pretty much slapped together at the last minute, we barely had time to breathe before it was actually here!


Next Up: Departure and Arrival - "From Goofy to Eeyore in 60 Seconds"

 

[ArielDreams]

Interestingly, I just found my rough itinerary for this trip in my notes and it is so not what we ended up doing! This is what I originally had planned for Sunday September 4: “Arrive, lunch at hotel, mosey over to MGM (no rush!), eat dinner, do rides during Fantasmic stay for little bit of EMH then leave if too crowded.” Sounds like a plan right?

Ok, so Day 1 begins at 5AM when I wake up in my nice comfortable bed. We all shower and finish last minute packing and are off to the airport at 5:30. It’s a nice traffic-less early morning drive into Providence’s TF Green airport considering it’s the Sunday of a holiday weekend. We check in, most likely grab something for breakfast at Dunkins (gotta love it!) and our 7:30 Southwest flight to Orlando boards quickly. I’m assuming we were one of the first groups in A. We’re always in group A. And we always sit in the queue the second we get there and don’t budge. Anyhow, the plane pulls out a few minutes ahead of schedule even and we are on our way to Disney!!!! Mom and I decided to watch “The Ugly Dauchsund” on her portable DVD player on the way down. I love that movie. Can’t beat the old Disney non-animated movies, so silly and wonderful! Especially when dogs are involved. They just don’t make ‘em like they used to. The movie finishes, Mom puts away the DVD player and we just get our magazines out and they’re already announcing our decent! Boy, time flies when you’re watching a crazy great dane think he’s a dauchsund! We arrive well before our 10:25 scheduled arrival time (could this get any better or more perfect I’m thinkin???) And the magic keeps on comin when our bags come out right away. I hate waiting for baggage. So frustrating. It always seems like everyone else’s bags are coming out first and not your family’s. Then there’s that moment of panic when you think “uh oh! They lost my bags! That’s why they’re not coming out!” Anyone else think of this or am I the only crazy one? Anyway, I just can’t stand waiting in airports. I just wanna go, go, go! Lucky for me, everything was coming together.

We cross the street to National Car Rental and get our shiny silver Malibu and we’re off to WDW!!! However, the parentals decide that a detour is necessary. We need to pick up some bottled water…and beer. It’s always about the alcohol with these two, haha. And I’m afraid they’ve passed it down to me. I can’t wait to go to Jellyrolls or take on the challenge of drinking around the world at Epcot or the Monorail Drink-a-thon. Unfortunately, I’m a lightweight so I may be a bit ambitious in my goals. But anyway, remember I was not yet 21 on this trip so we’ll have to wait till next time for those. So, Dad thinks he knows where a Publix is. Dad gets off at the wrong exit. We cannot find a supermarket at all but we know we need to get on 192 (I think it is, that’s what’s in my notes!). So instead of taking the marked exit for 192 like Mom and I are telling him to, he decides to take us to Celebration. Now, we’ve taken the little drive by tour of Celebration before – Dad’s even golfed there on his manly once a year golf trips – so this was not anything new or like a highlight for us. Quite frankly I think the town is a bit creepy. We studied planned communities vs. the suburbs in a sociology class I took my freshman year of college and I was on the side of the suburbs in a class debate. It swayed my views very much and I cannot look at Celebration the same way again as it’s one of the planned communities we studied. However, given the chance to live there for free I would move there in a heartbeat! So anyway, after circling the area and losing valuable park time, we finally get to a Publix, buy our supplies and head to WDW. For some reason I recall getting kinda lost getting onto property too and we ended up going in by Downtown Disney (and passing that tacky Nickelodeon hotel – yuck!) instead of over by MGM which would have been more convenient since we were going to CSR and it has the cute signs but oh well, we were there anyway so I wasn’t complaining (too much!)

All right, so we check into CSR and get cabana room 8506 which was quite lovely with a water view (Mom’s always gotta have her water view!) right around the corner from the quiet pool and not too far from my Mayan temple pool. It was a bit of a walk from the main building but not too bad. The resort was lovely so it was a nice leisurely walk. We get our luggage out of the car and into our room and then decide to head over to the Pepper Market for some food. Now the Pepper Market is not your traditional resort food court – we knew that coming in – but I still found it odd that you get seated and they bring your drinks to you. No opportunity for the refillable mug. Not sure if they even sold them there which is fine since this would be our last (well, sort of last) visit to Pepper Market of the trip. It seems at all the other resorts we practically lived in the food court. But Pepper Market was weird. Don’t get me wrong, the food was excellent! I think I had Kung-Pao chicken at the Asian cuisine stand (I know! Asian in a Mexican market!) and Mom had the cashew chicken from the same stand while Dad got chicken quesadillas. It was weird because even though you had a server and were seated, you still had to pay at a cashier before the exit. The whole drink server/being seated thing was quite unnecessary in my opinion. Plus it was quite expensive. But we tried it and that’s that.

Time to head back to the room and go to MGM – everyone’s favorite park (well, at least Mom and I absolutely love it, I don’t think we ever asked Dad his opinion on the matter). We change, put sunscreen on, get our park bags together, and are ready to roll just before 2:00. But…Dad suddenly can’t find the car keys. We search every surface of the room, look under the beds, absolutely everywhere and cannot find them. We checked and double checked everything but we hadn’t been in the room for that long so it was pretty impossible that they were hidden under something. Mom and I decide to go back to Pepper Market and see if they fell out of his pocket while we were there, also while venting about the inconvenience. Meanwhile, Dad has checked out by the car and they’re not there. Pepper Market came up empty. I’m pretty mad at this point. How can he lose the keys in this short period of time? So at this point, we think Dad dropped them in the trunk while he was getting the luggage out. Dad calls National and they say that they’ll send a Pop and Lock van out to break into the trunk for us. The van comes, trunk is opened, no keys!!! This is just way too frustrating for me. I have no patience for things like this and I just wanted to go to MGM! Dad is very angry with himself and felt really bad that this was ruining our vacation (our Goofy morphed into Eeyore) so he tells me and Mom to go ahead onto MGM and he’d figure something out. So the two of us jump on a bus to MGM – still venting – and head to our favorite park. It just wasn’t the same. We weren’t smiling or excited, just going through the motions. This wasn’t the way the trip was supposed to go!


Next up: What Really Happened to the Keys

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoying reading ~ looking forward to more.

 

[jaycns]

aww..poor "Eeyore". I am looking forward to reading the rest of your trip report!!

 

[ArielDreams]

So Mom and I arrive at MGM fairly unhappy and un-Disney-like while Dad paces around our lovely cabana room wondering where those keys ran off to. The two of us head straight to our favorite attractions (mine’s ToT and Mom’s is RnRC) and plan to do both. ToT was a blur, we didn’t enjoy it as much even though it’s my fav! So we headed to RnRC which didn’t have too long a wait, around 20 minutes I think. Just as we’re getting into the pre-show area waiting for Steven Tyler’s assistant to tell us the limo’s in the alley, my cell phone goes off. I choose not to answer because we’re almost on the ride and I didn’t want to be like one of those people who are annoying with the cell phones. We’ll just call Dad back once we’re off the ride. Well, in the limo loading area Dad calls again – gosh he’s being quite persistent! Better answer this time so he’ll stop calling. Dad has found the keys and has just arrived at MGM so we told him to meet us at the ride exit. Now that that has been resolved, Mom and I can enjoy RnRC!

Dad is waiting for us right at the RnRC gift shop so now we can find out what really happened to the keys. Apparently, while Dad was being “the strongest man in the world” able to quickly lift all three big suitcases out of the trunk in lightning speed (he always does this, I don’t know why he can’t just take his time) he dropped the keys in the CSR parking lot. Some nice guest picked them up and turned them into guest relations. For some reason, Dad was against calling guest relations to see if they had any keys from the start (possibly this was similar to men never wanting to stop for directions? ) but he finally went down there and the CM said someone just turned a set in. BUT she said that these keys could never belong to a rental car even though they were found in our section at around the time we lost them. Dad was livid. She was trying to get him to describe the keys but of course he had no clue – we had only had the keys for an hour and for almost all of that time they were sitting in the ignition. Anyway, the CM finally told Dad why they definitely couldn’t belong to a rental car – they had a Winn Dixie discount tag on them. Right then Dad knew that was in fact them. For some reason (maybe because I was in the backseat with a clear view of the keys in the ignition) I had picked up this detail because I too thought it was odd and I told Dad about it when the keys were lost. He finally convinced the CM that these were our keys but it was quite the ordeal apparently. So beware – if you lose your keys, you better have an exact description.

So back at MGM with our reunited family, we decide to go to Millionaire and try our luck. I came in third on the leader board at one point. I’m going to miss this show. I always wanted to make the hot seat. Now my dream will never come true! I thought this was Disney – the most magical place on earth! Next we hop over to Star Tours because it’s a short wait. That ride’s always fun. Then Dad decides that we should try and get reservations at 50s Prime Time for later that night since we love that restaurant and I definitely wanted to go there once again on this trip. So we walk in hopeful but get shot down because it’s the Sunday of a holiday weekend and it’s EMH night. I mean, seriously I knew this would happen but there’s always a hope of cancellations. But I am now secretly mad at Mom for not making any ADRs. Now where were we going to eat? Food is always number one priority with us. So at this point, we were all tired from the stress and anger and such that we decided to leave MGM and go back to the hotel. So much for EMH and all that planning huh?

So upon arrival back at CSR Mom and I tell Dad to drop us off at the concierge so we can ask them what places still have openings to eat that evening. Our CM (April) was very helpful and suggested that we try dinner at another resort. We never think to do this. I always just assume eat in the parks so we can go go go and ride till we drop. But as this was likely the only way to get a nice sit down dinner with delicious food, we took it. She suggested Kona Café at the Polynesian which I knew from the Dis has good reviews. We had always wanted to visit the Polynesian anyway. We made reservations for 9:00 that night and also made ressies for the Rose & Crown Pub the next night at Epcot. We went back to the room and got ready to chill in our quiet pool for a while. We were the only ones in there – it was wonderful. We felt like the only ones at the resort! We took our time getting ready afterwards and then headed to the Poly.

Since we were there early, we poked around the gift shop at the Great Ceremonial House and walked around the pool area. It was gorgeous. We could definitely stay at the Poly. That is – if Dad ever lets us go deluxe! Then it was time for dinner. It was FABULOUS!!!! The mix of Polynesian flavors just made everything taste so good. I think I had the filet mignon which was perfect. It’s definitely a place I MUST go back too. Especially now that I’m legal and can get one of those beautiful tropical drinks. Had a sip of Mom’s Mai Tai which was excellent. Here’s the pic of Mom’s Mai Tai – the only pic that was taken that day because none of us were feeling particularly photogenic.

Once we were finished, we headed back to CSR to sleep and get ready for our early morning at AK the next day. So overall, the day was stressful but ended up good and relaxing at the end. Our vacation was saved!

Next up: 3 Parks in One Day

 

[TLinden16]

Sounds like a wonderful time! The drinks at the Poly are very yummy.

Thanks for posting.

 

[GreatBiscuit]

I'm gald the key mystery was solved. Looking forward to seeing how the rest of the trip went.

 

[ArielDreams]

Sorry for the long delay before day 2. I was away for the weekend for my DCousin's Super Sweet 16 party. We've been trying to organize a cousins trip down to WDW but she's a busy busy girl and I'm completely broke. So maybe in 2007...

Anyhow, back to the TR! My pre-trip plan for day 2 was as follows: "Monday September 5 – Animal Kingdom in the morning, finish by noon, hop to another park (like Epcot) or relax by the pool" Since none of us are completely nuts about AK, we didn't have much on the agenda. We like the Safari, I LOVE Dinosaur, and Mom had never been on Kali River Rapids (somehow she missed it all those years, don't know how ) and those were pretty much our only reasons for travelling to AK that day. As a matter of fact, in my 2003 trip, we went to AK for all of 1 hour, rode Dinosaur twice and left haha. So we awoke early (7:30ish) to head to AK for rope drop. We made good time and were there with time to spare at 8:30. Then we joined the flood of people, being run over by strollers only to be stopped just before the Tree of Life for the opening show. Now here I will make a side note about vicious stroller drivers: As someone who never needed a stroller at Disney and who doesn't have or travel with small children, strollers are a nuisance and they make me angry. However, reading other people's TRs who do have to manage the strollers, I have a little sympathy. Really, there's no way of being discreet with the strollers - not easy to maneuver, and I'm sure you get cut off by stroller-less people all the time. So really the problem is, as I call it, "the need for stampede" at the parks. People should relax and take their time wandering into and out of the parks. But everyone gets bit by the need to stampede and it's all out the window. Just part of the Disney Magic I guess.

Ok, so after that lengthy aside... we watch the pre-park show which I don't think the parentals have ever seen before. I think this park opening show is the best one of all the parks (not that I've seen Epcots or MGMs, hehe) but this one's really cute and clever. After Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto trundle off in their safari vehicle, we join the herd following the truck to the Safari. We get on right away with no line. Our safari guide Mary Virginia was excellent and we saw a lot of animals, including (drum roll...) a hippo out of water! Now, it may not be that exciting but it quickly became a family joke. As we passed the hippos (one of my favorite animals, I told my biologist friend that I'd like to have one as a pet or perhaps swim with one but he notified me that they are actually terrifying beasts who'll rip your arms off. I didn't believe him - their vegitarians! - until i watched a show on the BBC called Hippos Gone Crazy or something to that extent so my image of cute hippos was tarnished) where was I? Ahh yes, as we passed the hippos, lovely Mary Virginia said "oh look! a hippo out of water, that's rare!" I was all excited. But then I remembered that on the previous trip, I also witnessed this rare event. So when I got home and flipped through our safari photos from previous trips, wouldn't ya know there was a hippo out of water every trip? This makes me laugh. So do they just say "hippo out of water!" to get us excited or am i just fortunate to have witnessed this "rare" event numerous times??? Here's our hippo out of water from this trip (a little blurry, Dad's not the best safari photographer):

The rest of the safari was great. Especially when our safari truck had to stop several times because animals were in the middle of the road. Gotta love extended safaris! I'd love to do that private extra long safari tour someday. Other animals we saw include 3 rhinos, a cheetah, baby elephant, male and female lions, etc. Here is a giraffe that was stalling the safari and an elephant:

After our great early morning safari, we stopped at the Tusker House for breakfast (as usual - someday i'll get there for lunch!) and the chocolate chip muffin was divine! From there we headed over to Asia for the Kali River Rapids which were practically deserted. We rode twice without having to get off. We could have kept going around and around if we wanted too but Mom and Dad got soaked. I had just escaped getting soaked twice and probably wouldn't have been so lucky the next time so we decided to bail out and head over to Dinoland USA with a detour through the new path by Everest (remember, this was September and it was not yet open ) We rode Dinosaur once and had had enough of AK. We're more thrill ride people, not content to just walk around looking at the different jungle trails. Mom and I did the gorilla trek on our '98 trip with DCousin who i mentioned earlier and the following year we did the Maharaja Tiger trail with DGramma so once was enough for both of those. We're not really show people either. I mean, we like them enough but they never seem to fit in our schedule the way we want them to. Anyway, we peaced out of AK well before planned (I'm thinking it was around 11:00) and headed back to CSR so Mom and Dad could change into dry clothes (I didn't have to, haha!) So we figured since we'd be going to Epcot later for our ADRs at Rose and Crown that night, there was no rush to get over there so why not head over to MGM to properly do the park, unlike the previous afternoon's debacle...

Next up: MGM, a Siesta, and Lots of UK action!