Complete! Our 1st Grand Gathering!! finished 10/19

[kaw1218]

Where did you get all the cool "add-in's", I don't know what else to call them.

I searched the web.... I put free smilies or free emicons in the search. Quite a few sites popped up. The one I use the most is smiley central.

Thanks for sharing, how was your aunts foot

It was better after a few days. By the end of the week she was doing pretty good. Thanks for asking

 

[kaw1218]

We get that in CA, too, from geese. The park rangers said we should shower after we swim, then rub all of our skin briskly with a towel. The parasites are like little worms that crawl under your skin, and rubbing them with a towel crushes them and then they don't cause a rash. Pretty gross, though.

All I have to say is ................. Ewwww.

 

[kaw1218]

Al and Kate's Mom, mousebit, OhMari, thank you! I will try to post more sometime this weekend. I have about 600 pictures to download and go through.... we bought an extra memory card, so we went crazy with the camera

 

[kaw1218]

Monday.
Our one and only goal on this trip (well aside from making this the best trip ever)was to try different things.
So one of our ‘new things’ was to not set any alarms, so it was pretty surprising that we were all awake by 8:30 am.
Epcot was our choice for today. Off to the buses. As soon as we got there we headed to Soarin. My DD10 can ride RnRc, she does Space Mountain, she can do the Teacups at full speed, 10 seconds into Soarin....and she needs that nice little paper bag the airlines give you. So we used the child swap for the first time ever. The person who thought of that is a genius! The rest of the group got in line(5 minute wait) as my DD and I went to go see what kind of cookie

we are.
There is an area where the have kids help bake cookies-I never knew about that. Well over by that are two computers where you answer 4 questions and they give you your cookie personality. It was cute, and it kept us occupied for about 15 minutes.
After the rest of the group was done, my DD7 and I went on together and no waiting! This was the first time I actually got to experience Soarin. I loved it!

After Soarin, we had cakes and crossaints , you know, a nice healthy breakfast. (but we are trying new things!

Then we headed over to see the menu for Coral Reef. We had Adr’s for later in the week, but I had heard the menu was changed, so I wanted everyone to make the decision after seeing the menu themselves. (we cancelled BTW-we would have had to pay OOP and it didn’t interest us enough.)
Now it was time to explore the countries in World Showcase. We took the Friendship ferry over to Morocco and started to head towards Mexico.

My DD7's radar was apparently working quite well that day, because she steered us directly to Belle and Princess Auroa who were behind us.

After a few pictures we walked through the countries, checking out the shops and trading pins(my kids are now experts and I am now broke!)


Do you think this would be better for the buffets?

We settled up with DD7 by purchasing a nice hot, fresh Turkey Leg.

We sat in front of American Adventure while she enjoyed her bribery payment.

We ran into a few more characters(well besides the ones in our group.)

Quick Note: I made the tye dye mickey head t-shirts that we are all wearing, I had so many people ask where we got them. A few people even asked if they could pay me to make them!! Uncle Bob was ready to take orders. (of course it wouldn't be HIS fingers that would turn lime green or red for a week! Darn those disposable gloves!)
By the time we got halfway around, I was ready to purchase those child leashes. There were only eight of us, and the youngest was the EASIEST to keep tabs on!
As we would leave a store I kept having to ask Aunt Carol if had everything. Usually she didn’t, so we would have to walk back in and get Steven!! She kept saying that she wouldn’t really forget him. Although I am not so sure

We even found a hidden mickey outside of Japan

We rode the boat rides in Norway and Mexico.

My Uncle Bob surprised me and bought me a necklace I said I liked in Norway! He told me it was for all the planning I did for this trip. I was sooooo surprised(and yes, I teared up!)


We are in Mexico, can you tell?

We finally made our way around and found ourselves in front of test track . We picked up fast passes since the standby time was 30 minutes. We crossed over to Soarin-had a five minute wait, but we didn’t do child swap this time, DH opted to sit out with Alyssa. Then we did Figment. I have never done Figment, and I don’t know why! It was a really cute ride!
We crossed back to test track to use the fast passes, and no one was there!! We walked right in!! Whoo Hoo Gotta Love that!

After our ride was over the line was still empty, so they let us stay right on. That was cool......except...........(here is another example of ‘ we should just keep our mouths shut’)
I mentioned that the last time we rode test track right in a row was when it broke down, so they let us stay on........ yup, you guessed it, right in front of the truck, in the dark, we stayed for about 5-10 minutes!!!

 

[kaw1218]

After we got off the test track, we rode spaceship earth to kill time, because our dinner was at 7:30 and it was only 5:30. After that, we just got coffee and tea, and sat at the Electric Umbrella.
Quick note: we had reservations for the Grand Gathering International Storybook and Illuminations Dessert Dinner. This is held at the Odessey Restuarant. We asked 5 people and called Disney Dining.....no one knew exactly where the Odessey restaurant was. We had an idea, so I wasn’t too worried.
Ok off we go in the direction we hope is right. Thank goodness it is! We found it, and waited to be called.


WARNING


Now this is the part of my TR that turns ugly.

THIS WAS THE WORST DINING EXPERIENCE WE HAVE EVER HAD AT DISNEY Actually, I think this was the worst experience we have ever had on ANY vacation. Our server was Okie. We did not know this until 25 minutes into the dinner, you know when she finally decided to come to our table. We had never been here before, so we didn’t know if we were supposed to wait to give our drink orders or if we should get up and help ourselves. When Okie finally showed up her first sentence to us was ‘good thing that there is water on the table’. Well, maybe it was us, maybe we were just tired and cranky, but I found that to be really rude. I understand that most of the waitstaff had large tables to deal with. But as the night progressed, we saw that Okie only had 2 families. ours and a party of about 15. Yes 15 is alot of people, but it was a buffet, all she needed to get were drinks, and we saw a few waitresses, actually bringing drinks to thier guests. Okie was no where to be found.
20 minutes after she finally took our drink order she brought them out. Now most families were already done eating. We had pretty much just gotten our food. Another person walked by saying something about wearing the pins. Pins???? What Pins???? Oh, there on the table was a pin for each of us. Apparently that was our admission into the Special Illuminations viewing area. Thanks Okie for telling us that one. Now Okie decided to show up and demand our room keys so she can charge the dining plan for dinner. She actually said’ give me you room keys, I want them now instead of after you eat’ Ok, just give her them, maybe we will actually see the milk for the kids..........25 minutes go by... no Okie. Now we need those back so we can go see Illuminations, oh and I don’t know, maybe get admission into the parks for the rest of the week. I flag down someone that looks important. Nope she’s not, but she will get someone who is. Ok.
Out comes Nina. Now let me tell you here is a great manager. I asked if Okie, will still get the flat 18% tip. I don’t think she deserves it. Nina tells me she is sorry I feel that way. Then I ask if my children can ever have their chocolate milk. (Okie was supposed to be bringing that) Nina wasn’t sure. I then ask when we will be given our room keys back, nope, Nina can’t answer that either. (Nina is batting a 1000 here)
Then I ask about the pins. Nina then tells me she was standing right behind us as Okie told us about them. Now I know I am blonde and I have my moments....but between my 2 kids, they don’t miss anything. (oh, yeah, the other 5 sitting at our table didn’t hear anything either)
I then told Nina she needs to tell me exactly what she heard and when because, we were not sitting at the table at the time. Once again she tells me ‘I am sorry you feel that way’. She then said she would find Okie and come back to make sure everything is corrected. Nina dissappears........ Okie finally shows up 10 minutes later. and tells us about the pins(thanks again Okie!!) I decide I want to go above Nina, because I just want it known that I think they need to maybe organize this a littel better. I turn around and see Nina duck behind the wall. She is hiding from me!!!! Oh now my temper starts to show(not a good thing once I am started, I am ashamed to say. ) I find the first person I can get ahold of, and ask them to fetch Nina. Nina comes out and asks if there is a problem(where was she 15 minutes ago, or did I imagine repeatedly being told ‘I’m sorry you feel that way’ ????) I asked for her full name and I wanted the name of her boss. She gives me a business card. Ok, I would like a number or email for her boss. She tells me to call Disney dining, that they are her boss. Fine. I will. I go back to the table fuming..... she has no superior???? My DH asked what happened....I tell him and Nina comes running over.....’is there still a problem?’ WHAT?!?!??!?!?!
Is it me???(Ok, maybe it is) but come on. She knew we were not happy.
I told her ‘I will be contacting someone above you, because you feel what you did was enough. That is fine, you feel you have done enough, so I will talk to someone else.’
Nina ‘ Well its not like I have the authority to comp your meals.’(very nasty)
Me ‘I wasn’t looking for a comp, just some service, and milk for the kids but you feel you have done enough so that is fine.’
Nina ‘ well I gave you my card’
DH ‘ I don’t want your card, we want your {insert bad word here} boss’s name’
Now I will admit that DH did not need the extra adjective. And I told him.
ME to DH ‘ there is no need for that......watch your language’
DH then says ‘fine’ and proceeds to start walking away.

THEN NINA says ‘ oh, that’s great, and on 9/11'
- now I did correct DH before Nina said anything else......but please tell me...... what does 9/11 have to do with DH using profane language? He didn’t threaten her, or raise his voice.
Nina then says she is calling security. Why? Because he said a bad word? And after I said it wasn’t called for and he agreed. I can’t imagine that he is the only person is all of WDW to say an inappropriate word.
DH told her to call security, he didn’t do anything to warrant being thrown out(I really don’t think he did either, I mean he wasn’t very nice, but he wasn’t mean or threatening either)
So we left. We didn’t even stay for Illuminations because we were all so upset about the server. (She got an $85 tip out of our dinner - now can some of you imagine why I was so upset! She got that large tip and didn’t even bring the kids their drinks!)
BTW as we were leaving, two women from the other party we complaining about Okie too. (That made me feel a little better.)

This is our one and only picture from that dinner

Ok ugly part is over.

On with the happiness.

 

[dwheatl]

Love the shirts.
Bummer about dinner! It's a shame when you spend so much to make things special, and then some fool has to foul it up. I hope you are following up on your complaints. In our many trips to DL, we had one occasion that was just terrible and left me in tears. After I complained to the top, Bank of America, which was involved in the complaint, gave us two free one-day passes to DL. It wasn't the passes so much, as an acknowledgement that they were in the wrong, that made me feel better. The passes were nice, though.

 

[kaw1218]

. It wasn't the passes so much, as an acknowledgement that they were in the wrong, that made me feel better.

That is exactly what I told my DH. I just wanted the 'manager' to acknowledge that the server was NOT doing her job,I wasn't expecting a refund. Never really thought about that. I just wanted to have everything explained-the pins, where we were to go for illuminations, oh yeah and the kids milk!
I found out later that mickey, minnie and goofy were there. We could have had pictures taken. The server never told us that either
I agreed to pay, we eventually had our meal(minus beverages) but it was very dissapointing to pay a server over $80 for a tip that I really don't think she deserved!

BTW: thank you on the shirts. They were fun to make. I wasn't sure how everyone would be about wearing them, but they loved them! they even washed them and wore it a 2nd time.

 

[kaw1218]

Once again, I am up at 6am. I had a wake up call scheduled for 8am. Apparently I wasn’t going to sleep....even in Disney World. So I decided to pay the balance for the stuff my kids bought already. I walked through the 70's to see if I could see any LGMHPC’s. Nope. None. Nada.
I couldn’t believe that I was the only Disboard member there. (Now that I have been contacted by a few limeys, I realize I WAS not the only one there, just one of the only ones to decorate the room)
After I was done, I picked up our photo from RnRc and headed back to the room. I woke up the girls and gave them their T-shirts for the day’s adventures. I was surprising them with a trip to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique ! We drove to DTD, because I didn’t want to have to waste time with the buses.
We took a few pictures with the princesses out front while we waited for the store to open.

We had the first appointments for the day, so we walked right in.

Aunt Carol had to be special

Our Fairy Godmothers in Training

sat us down and we placed our wishes for our styles. Our Fairy Godmothers in Training

did our hair, makeup, the girls nails and then covered us in pixie dust (glitter-and lots of it-we are still picking it out of our hair!)

The manager there was great. He made sure we were happy with our experience. They have a Photopass Photographer

there, he made sure she got plenty of pictures of our group. He even stopped everything so that we could have a group picture with our fairy god mothers!(We didn’t ask for this, he told us we couldn’t leave until we had our picture)

He then gave all the little girls that were interrupted , free rings. I thought that was sweet. The two little girls that he borrowed the fairy god mothers

from were so excited to be able to pick a glittery ring!
After we were all beautiful, we headed for our glamorous photo shoot. Of course they do this so you spend more money. I mean what mom can walk away from pictures like this?

(If you can, all I can say is that you have WAY more self control then I do!)

When we were done, we went back to meet the guys. (They spent the morning at the arcade) The kids asked to do something new. Well I still had a few tricks up my sleeve. So we all piled into the car and headed over to the Beach Club and met Art at the front door(Isn’t he the guy from Great Hotels?)
We had a mission: to find Beaches and Cream

We ordered 2 Kitchen Sink Sundaes(minus the coffee ice cream). They bring them out with alot of commotion, so EVERYONE in the place knows that you have ordered the largest sundae ever.

There was so much stuff in there. There really is a whole can of whipped cream, plus candies, cookies, brownies, cake, peanut butter, fudge, caramel, and I think a whole jar of cherries. It’s a good thing we didn’t order lunch first.

I can’t believe we actually finished them(and none of us wore it either, well except for the fact that it was half way up to my elbows-but we all agreed to forget that)

After our ‘lunch’ we checked out Stormalong Bay. I think I convince DH to resort hop next time so we can spend some time at that pool. It looked really awesome!
We wobbled back to the car and piled in again(much more difficult this time-boy that was alot of ice cream)

We went back to POPand found these great towel dolls. Our mousekeeper came to our room to give them to the girls. (she still had 3 rooms before she got to ours, I thought it was really nice, she wanted to make sure each girl got one.)

We decided to go to MK. We had to drag Aunt Carol away from the weather channel(can you see where this is going to head?) and headed to the bus stop. The bus was pulling up as we got there, so no waiting today!
Half way to the MK it started to rain(surprised? I should think not at this point). And of course I left the ponchos hanging on the bathroom door. So as soon as we got in, we headed for the Disney Railroad. We hit Frontier Land and decided to go to the Country Bears and walked in with 14 seconds to spare. I still laugh at little Buford......and who doesn’t love the blood song ?
After that we decided what is a trip to Disney without seeing the annoying Iago? So into the Enchanted Tiki Room we go. That is one bird I would like to see on the dinner table... nicely roasted. We left the Tiki Room and walked right on the Magic Carpets of Aladdin. We spent more time waiting for everyone to buckle then we did on the actual ride.
As we walked over to the Jungle Cruise, a CM was standing there telling everyone “ I am sorry to tell you that the wonderful, entertaining Jungle cruise is now (a long pause) open for your enjoyment ” He really made it sound like he was telling us that it was closed. It said a 15 minute wait.... but we walked right on the next boat. This ride never changes. It is still filled with the same corny jokes. Yet we ride every year, and laugh every year.



Next chapter:dinner at Hoop de doo Revue!

 

[Al and Kate's Mom]

Sorry about the dinner - I would have been right there with you!

Your girls are BEAUTIFUL!!! I understand about having to get the pictures - I always order everything - and DH always points out the fact that WE HAVE NOWHERE ELSE TO HANG PICTURES

Please keep it coming - loving it!

 

[DisneyFan06]

Yep! And that's the place I call home!

 

[kaw1218]

Sorry about the dinner - I would have been right there with you!

Your girls are BEAUTIFUL!!! I understand about having to get the pictures - I always order everything - and DH always points out the fact that WE HAVE NOWHERE ELSE TO HANG PICTURES

Please keep it coming - loving it!

Wellllll...... my problem is the opposite. Oh, I have tons of pictures. But we built our house a year ago, and I painted the walls myself. I have yet to put a single thing on them!!! I don't want to put holes in my pretty walls! My DH keeps telling me that he is going to take a sledgehammer to them if I don't start hanging stuff on them!!
(and thank you, I think my girls are beautiful too! and no I am not biased at all! )

 

[kaw1218]

Yep! And that's the place I call home!

I love the sand there! It is so much different than New Jersey. Much prettier. (I even took a handful and have it in a ziploc container! )

 

[tpayne]

Would it be too rude to ask how much those sundaes cost? They really look yummy!

 

[kaw1218]

Would it be too rude to ask how much those sundaes cost? They really look yummy!

Not rude to me.
I believe they were 21.99 each. and it was more then enough for 4 adults(and as you can tell by the pictures, most of us are pretty big adults ).

P.S. they were GOOD!

 

[tpayne]

We're going right after Thanksgiving ..I definately will try one of those. My DGS is 15 so I'm thinking he will be a big help in devouring one of those

 

[stinkerbelle's mom]

Kelly, I am your tr! Gorgeous girls you have there! I your shirts, you did a great job. Sorry about that nasty restaurant service (note to self avoid that place).

 

[rer1972]

Great TR - The problems at dinner were really bad. I think I might have asked not to be charged for it, and then the $85 tip .

 

[kaw1218]

We're going right after Thanksgiving ..I definately will try one of those. My DGS is 15 so I'm thinking he will be a big help in devouring one of those

We had alot of fun. And of course the ice cream was good too!

 

[kaw1218]

Kelly, I am your tr! Gorgeous girls you have there! I your shirts, you did a great job. Sorry about that nasty restaurant service (note to self avoid that place).

Thank you, thank you. and we will definately not pay for another grand gathering experience again . But you live and learn.

 

[kaw1218]

Great TR - The problems at dinner were really bad. I think I might have asked not to be charged for it, and then the $85 tip .

The tip is what made us all the most upset. We didn't mind paying for dinner. After all we did plan it, show up and eat . We just hated the fact that the waitress got money out of us.