Box Cutter & A Side-Swipe....trip report overview 4/16-19

[Cplofdisneynutz]

DW & I went for a quick trip April 16-19th for DW birthday. We stayed at CSR and had a wonderful 3 days @ WDW. Our trip began with a 4:30 am arrival at the Philadelphia Int. Airport. As we went through security they asked DW to step aside to look inside her bag. After running it through the scanner several times and taking several things out, the TSA officer asked if she had a utility knife "Of course not" she replied. As they pull out the contents of her bag pice by piece, they pull out an 8 inch utility knife (which DW uses @ work). DW is embarrassed beyond belief, explaining it's for work and must have fallen out of her apron. I wasn't panicking just yet, as the TSA officer was almost laughing. They just took the knife and sent us on our merry way.........moral of the story, check your bags BEFORE you go through security. Great way to start off with a funny story, but wait it gets better

We landed at MCO and boarded our Magical Express bus. We waited about 20 min before departure, but we were 1 of the 1st guests on the bus. There were guests for POP, AKL, & our resort CSR, and the drop off was in that order. We arrive at AKL and are waiting for another ME bus to depart. After about 3-5 min of no activity, someone knocked on our bus driver's door and told him to pull in front of the other bus, he was backing up the flow (we later found out it was a DCL bus driver waiting to drop guests as well). So he did as told and unloaded the AKL guests. The other ME bus decides it wants to move now. DW & I were the only guests on the bus and we watched as the bus drove by at a very close interval. As it began its turn we watched the back end rub our bus, then proceed to take off the driver's side mirror. The funny part was, he just kept going. So now we are stuck, but rather than get angry, we start laughing about the episode. This was already shaping up to be a magical adventure, just not express The DCL bus driver offered to take us to our resort, so thank God we didn't have to wait too long to be moved.

A great begining to this trip..........

quick overview of our thoughts

CSR, to us, was a beautiful resort and lived up to a lot of the hype that the boards display. However, the transportation at this resort was horrible. We waited consistently 30-45 min. for a bus, which we understood it was a peak travel time, but we would see the same bus driver for the other parks, meaning there was 1 bus running. On Tues. morning we were going to MK. We arrived at bus stop #2 at 9:35a, we watched all the other park buses come 2 and sometimes 3 times, but no MK. We ended up waiting over 45 min. and did not get to the park until 10:50a. This to me made no sense, especially for peak time. I would have gladly shared a bus with another resort if it meant more buses dedicated to transporting the guests. Maybe we were hitting the stops at all the wrong times, but since it was consistent I'm having a hard time believing that. We are easy going people and are never in a rush, but we did find this to be an issue that we have never experienced before. Sorry. Off our soap box. Didn't mean to sound ungrateful. Just wanted to get it off the chest.
The room was clean (Casistas 2), we had a great view of the quiet pool, and it was an easy walk to both El Centro and Bus stop # 2. Everything else was wonderful, and we will write a full trip report and restaurant reviews.

places we ate
Brown Derby
Citricos
Grand Floridian Cafe
Coral Reef
Chef Mickey's
Rest. Marrakesh
V&A Chef's Table
Tusker House
Pepper Market

 

[pumba]

those busses have a way of making us wait sometimes.....sorry about the experience. sounds like you had a good birthday though.......thanks for the report

 

[Luckymommyx2]

Glad to hear everything ended up okay going through security. I would have been a nervous wreck!
Sorry to hear about the buses. It's always hit or miss with us. How were the crowds and weather?
Welcome home!!

 

[scrap4u]

I love the picture in your signature of Snow White and all 7 Dwarfs. When and where did you take that picture? I've never seen them all together before. What a great picture!

 

[Cplofdisneynutz]

I love the picture in your signature of Snow White and all 7 Dwarfs. When and where did you take that picture? I've never seen them all together before. What a great picture!

We actually had that picture taken in OCT on our honeymoon during the MNSSHP. However, we saw all of the dwarfs @ MK on Tues morning about 11am in front of the firehouse. Snow white was not with them though.

As for the crowds and the weather....well Wow it was hot, but not 1 drop of rain the whole time. it was high 80's to mid 90's, but there was a nice breeze usually during the afternoon. at night the weather was wonderful mid 60's most nights. The crowds were large, as one would expect for Easter week, Only waited 90 minutes for EE yesterday late morning which we didn't think was too bad considering the FP @ 1045a had a 445-545p return. Most of the rides were less of a wait than posted which is always a plus All in all it was a wonderful spur of the moment trip for us. The dining was superb as usual, which is what we enjoy doing the most on our visits We will be starting the reviews for those soon.

take care everyone, if you have any questions please ask.

 

[Minniespal]

Can't wait to read more.

 

[Cplofdisneynutz]

Tomorrow is moving day so we will be without internet for a few days but we promise our reviews will be up soon....see ya real soon

 

[OhMari]

I'm going to be there next year around Easter time. I plan on using the Magic Express from the airport to our resort, but I think I am going to pick a rental car up the next day. I read several times that peak times are the worst time for Disney Transportation.