welovedis
Disneyland here we come!
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2000
- Messages
- 3,440
Ok, I forgot to take all those terrific notes I said I would during my trip! So here goes, I'll try to remember as much as possible 
Cast of characters:
Me-Karen, (31)-planner extraordinaire! (2nd trip to WDW)
DH-Tom (35)-happy he didn't have to plan anything (2nd trip to WDW)
DS-Jacob (4 1/2)-happiest when riding anything scary (2nd trip to WDW)
DM-Dee (Karen's mom)-happy to even be going (1st trip to WDW ever!)
We started out bright & early at 5AM on Friday 9/21. We had spent the night at my DMs house to be closer to the Buffalo airport. Flew out USAirways after an uneventful trip thru security. The flight was fine, although it has been years since my DM has flown & she was quite scared. Jacob did a good job at telling her it was ok since he is an old pro at flying-lol!
After catching our connecting flight from Charlotte, we landed in Orlando shortly after 12PM. We were met by our driver from TTC (cannot remember his name-sorry!) and stopped for a supermarket visit at Publix for some bottled water, etc... We arrived at ASMo by about 1:15PM. Plenty of baggage to be unloaded & tagged & we headed inside. The small movie area was already filled and there was line of about 10 parties in front of me. Dee & Jacob headed over to sit down & wait while Tom & I waited in line. Took about 10 minutes to reach the front of the line.
Check-in was not particularily smooth, they were unsure what my "special needs request" was for & that involved a few phone calls. Since Tom is hearing impaired we needed some special equipment for the room. The person who checked us in was not familiar with that at all. Eventually that was cleared up & we moved onto purchasing the passes. Again, more confusion-3 people at the front desk insisted I could not use my DC membership to get a discount on our UPH passes (or whatever they are called now). Finally I told them I was not purchasing the passes for the higher price until they got a member of management to verify the discount was not available. She came over & indeed found the discount area on the screen, so we paid & headed off to our rooms.
When I made the ressie I had a little list of my requests and since they were on my initial ressie, I was pretty hopeful. We arrived at our rooms (702 & 703) in the TS building (#10). My requests were for non-smoking, connecting rooms, on the first floor, close to the food court and in the TS section. We were so pleased to be in the rooms right in "Andy's Room". When you opened the door from 702, you were looking directly at the giant sitting Woody. If you took 2 steps out the door you would see the giant standing Buzz Lightyear. Jacob was so THRILLED! It was less than a 2 minute walk to the food court (for me at least!)
After settling in for a minute & checking to see if all the bags were accounted for, we headed off the food court. We decided to split a pizza & Jacob had some chicken fingers & fries. We purchased our refillable mugs & enjoyed our late lunch. The pizza was actually pretty good & Jacob enjoyed the chicken. We headed back to the room to unpack while Tom took Jacob for a swim in the Fantasia pool. He got a life vest (foam) from the Arcade, they just said to return it when we left. They enjoyed the pool & I got the unpacking taken care of. They headed back & Jacob had a short nap before we all got dressed for dinner.
We had PS for Chef Mickey's for 7:30 & decided to leave our resort around 6 or so to see how long it would take. Dee has a mobility problem & normally walks with a cane (slowly) around home. At WDW she was planning on renting ECVs in the parks. We realized quickly that she was probably going to need one for the resort as well. We finally boarded a bus to MK & headed over there while at the same time listening to many unhappy people at the bus stop & on the bus. It seems that the parade & fireworks that was supposed to take place that night were cancelled & MK was closing at 7PM. Lots of mad people on that bus!
We got off the bus & headed for the monorail-we planned to ride it for a circle around, then get off at the Contemporary for dinner. Dee enjoyed seeing some glimpses of the castle and the other resorts as well. We got off at the Cont & headed down to the gift shop to purchase a new autograph book for Jacob and a fat pen (of course I forgot mine!) for the CMIckey dinner.
We arrived at the podium at about 7:10 & we told that since we were early it would probably take 15-20 minutes for an available table. We got our pager & took the usual dinner plate picture (came out so good we bought them!). The pager went off at 7:25 & we were seated in the room that is separate from the buffet (on the other side of the dessert area near the windows). The characters were terrific as usual, we got some awesome shots of Dee & Mickey, Chip, Dale & Minnie.
The food was good, our server was VERY busy, but still adequate. He seemed to have way too many tables to take care of & forgot a couple of things but was find otherwise. The food was good as usual, I ate some peel & eat shrimp that were better than the norm, Jacob, however, decided he was not hungry & ate very little. Except dessert, of course! Total bill was $96.35.
After dinner we headed out & everyone but me made a pit stop at the restrooms. I decided to check with someone in the gift shops to see what would be the best bet to get back to ASMo since MK was closed (by now it was about 9PM). This was my first encounter with rudeness with a CM--I stood in line at the shop that sells the pantry items and gourmet candy or something like that. The CM finished taking care of the guest in front me, then answered the phone & carried on a personal conversation for about a minute. Then, after looking right at me, turned away & asked someone who was shopping behind her if she needed help, then completely ignored me while I said I needed help. Perhaps she was having a bad day!
After we asked up at the monorail & was told to head to the TTC, then get on the Epcot monorail & then take the bus from Epcot to the ASMo. No problem--except Dee is walking realllllllly slow at this point & I am remembering that Illuminations was starting soon. We got the the TTC & met up with Julie who was manning the gates at the Epcot monorail. She was soooooo nice & talked alot with Jacob who was flirting with her! Then she asked if we wanted to ride up front with the monorail driver. Turns out that she was going to drive the monorail herself! It was terrific, we have a great picture of her & Jacob sitting in the driver's seat. Already wrote a letter commending her for the great job she did. While we were looping around Epcot we saw the crowds hoofing it to the exits so we knew that we were in for some long waits.
When we got off the monorail Julie showed us how to the take the elevator down the lower level instead of walking down the ramps & that is where Tom got the most amazing picture of Spaceship Earth--it looks like a postcard! We slowly headed down & out to the bus stop. The line was long but not too bad, & soon we were on our way back to the hotel. As soon as we got back we all turned in since we had a busy day ahead of us in AK!
Cast of characters:
Me-Karen, (31)-planner extraordinaire! (2nd trip to WDW)
DH-Tom (35)-happy he didn't have to plan anything (2nd trip to WDW)
DS-Jacob (4 1/2)-happiest when riding anything scary (2nd trip to WDW)
DM-Dee (Karen's mom)-happy to even be going (1st trip to WDW ever!)
We started out bright & early at 5AM on Friday 9/21. We had spent the night at my DMs house to be closer to the Buffalo airport. Flew out USAirways after an uneventful trip thru security. The flight was fine, although it has been years since my DM has flown & she was quite scared. Jacob did a good job at telling her it was ok since he is an old pro at flying-lol!
After catching our connecting flight from Charlotte, we landed in Orlando shortly after 12PM. We were met by our driver from TTC (cannot remember his name-sorry!) and stopped for a supermarket visit at Publix for some bottled water, etc... We arrived at ASMo by about 1:15PM. Plenty of baggage to be unloaded & tagged & we headed inside. The small movie area was already filled and there was line of about 10 parties in front of me. Dee & Jacob headed over to sit down & wait while Tom & I waited in line. Took about 10 minutes to reach the front of the line.
Check-in was not particularily smooth, they were unsure what my "special needs request" was for & that involved a few phone calls. Since Tom is hearing impaired we needed some special equipment for the room. The person who checked us in was not familiar with that at all. Eventually that was cleared up & we moved onto purchasing the passes. Again, more confusion-3 people at the front desk insisted I could not use my DC membership to get a discount on our UPH passes (or whatever they are called now). Finally I told them I was not purchasing the passes for the higher price until they got a member of management to verify the discount was not available. She came over & indeed found the discount area on the screen, so we paid & headed off to our rooms.
When I made the ressie I had a little list of my requests and since they were on my initial ressie, I was pretty hopeful. We arrived at our rooms (702 & 703) in the TS building (#10). My requests were for non-smoking, connecting rooms, on the first floor, close to the food court and in the TS section. We were so pleased to be in the rooms right in "Andy's Room". When you opened the door from 702, you were looking directly at the giant sitting Woody. If you took 2 steps out the door you would see the giant standing Buzz Lightyear. Jacob was so THRILLED! It was less than a 2 minute walk to the food court (for me at least!)
After settling in for a minute & checking to see if all the bags were accounted for, we headed off the food court. We decided to split a pizza & Jacob had some chicken fingers & fries. We purchased our refillable mugs & enjoyed our late lunch. The pizza was actually pretty good & Jacob enjoyed the chicken. We headed back to the room to unpack while Tom took Jacob for a swim in the Fantasia pool. He got a life vest (foam) from the Arcade, they just said to return it when we left. They enjoyed the pool & I got the unpacking taken care of. They headed back & Jacob had a short nap before we all got dressed for dinner.
We had PS for Chef Mickey's for 7:30 & decided to leave our resort around 6 or so to see how long it would take. Dee has a mobility problem & normally walks with a cane (slowly) around home. At WDW she was planning on renting ECVs in the parks. We realized quickly that she was probably going to need one for the resort as well. We finally boarded a bus to MK & headed over there while at the same time listening to many unhappy people at the bus stop & on the bus. It seems that the parade & fireworks that was supposed to take place that night were cancelled & MK was closing at 7PM. Lots of mad people on that bus!
We got off the bus & headed for the monorail-we planned to ride it for a circle around, then get off at the Contemporary for dinner. Dee enjoyed seeing some glimpses of the castle and the other resorts as well. We got off at the Cont & headed down to the gift shop to purchase a new autograph book for Jacob and a fat pen (of course I forgot mine!) for the CMIckey dinner.
We arrived at the podium at about 7:10 & we told that since we were early it would probably take 15-20 minutes for an available table. We got our pager & took the usual dinner plate picture (came out so good we bought them!). The pager went off at 7:25 & we were seated in the room that is separate from the buffet (on the other side of the dessert area near the windows). The characters were terrific as usual, we got some awesome shots of Dee & Mickey, Chip, Dale & Minnie.
The food was good, our server was VERY busy, but still adequate. He seemed to have way too many tables to take care of & forgot a couple of things but was find otherwise. The food was good as usual, I ate some peel & eat shrimp that were better than the norm, Jacob, however, decided he was not hungry & ate very little. Except dessert, of course! Total bill was $96.35.
After dinner we headed out & everyone but me made a pit stop at the restrooms. I decided to check with someone in the gift shops to see what would be the best bet to get back to ASMo since MK was closed (by now it was about 9PM). This was my first encounter with rudeness with a CM--I stood in line at the shop that sells the pantry items and gourmet candy or something like that. The CM finished taking care of the guest in front me, then answered the phone & carried on a personal conversation for about a minute. Then, after looking right at me, turned away & asked someone who was shopping behind her if she needed help, then completely ignored me while I said I needed help. Perhaps she was having a bad day!
After we asked up at the monorail & was told to head to the TTC, then get on the Epcot monorail & then take the bus from Epcot to the ASMo. No problem--except Dee is walking realllllllly slow at this point & I am remembering that Illuminations was starting soon. We got the the TTC & met up with Julie who was manning the gates at the Epcot monorail. She was soooooo nice & talked alot with Jacob who was flirting with her! Then she asked if we wanted to ride up front with the monorail driver. Turns out that she was going to drive the monorail herself! It was terrific, we have a great picture of her & Jacob sitting in the driver's seat. Already wrote a letter commending her for the great job she did. While we were looping around Epcot we saw the crowds hoofing it to the exits so we knew that we were in for some long waits.
When we got off the monorail Julie showed us how to the take the elevator down the lower level instead of walking down the ramps & that is where Tom got the most amazing picture of Spaceship Earth--it looks like a postcard! We slowly headed down & out to the bus stop. The line was long but not too bad, & soon we were on our way back to the hotel. As soon as we got back we all turned in since we had a busy day ahead of us in AK!
