Does this monorail go to...

[rgf207]

Everybody knows that the last monorail stop is AKL

 

[budafam]

lol... that gave me a good laugh for today

On our very first trip (last May), we were taking the monorail to MK from the Grand Floridian and there was a family sitting by us. The grandma was talking to me about how much she loves Fantasyland and Mickey/Minnie's house. She was so excited to go straight there when we got there. They visit every year and that's her favorite.

Obviously she had no idea that Fantasyland was under construction... I didn't say anything because she seemed like one that would argue. I just nodded and agreed. lol...

 

[areno79]

I too am always amazed at the mis-information or general lack of planning people do before going to Disney. Then I have to remember that not everyone is as Type A as me.

OTOH, if everyone at Disney was practicing the awesome tips I've learned from the DIS, well, they wouldn't be such great tips, would they? (Kidding.....kind of. )

 

[julirina]

I was a nerdy researcher even before the interwebz...I'd be the girl leaving the bookstore or library with armloads of Frommers & Fodors, stopping on the way home at AAA for brochures & Triptiks. Now that we do have the benefit of technology, there's just no excuse for being ill-informed. And while I agree that WDW's website leaves much to be desired, anyone can google "WDW vacation" and use a myriad of resources to prepare for their trip. We all found the DIS somehow!

 

[Makayna]

I get being startled that people go equipped with so little information but.....have you been to the Disney site? Tried to navigate it and extract (real) information from it? Ever try a search?

It has to be the worst out there...pretty pictures and not much substance. If I were new to Disney and used their site to research my trip, I would assume that I was getting the best information that there is....when in fact it's one of the worst.

My first trip, I had only done a cursory research ( before the web ) and it was enough; subsequent trips were extensively research but mostly because I was excited about the trip and needed something to occupy me until it began.

Now after at least a dozen trips I still research primarily for the fun of it, but also because I know how ever changing Disney is and I don't want to miss out on something new.

Hi Rosie!


I am a PLANNER!!! And if it weren't for these boards, I wouldn't have a CLUE about ANYTHING!!! I grew up going to Disneyland all my life, but have never been to WDW, or even Florida for that matter. So for me, these boards are essential! But not everyone knows about the DIS, and like Rosie said, the Disney sites aren't very useful a lot of the time.

I still feel soooooooo unprepared for our trip (thank goodness it's a long ways off!) even though I read here EVERY single day! And not a day goes by that I'm not looking up some abbreviation that people are using by googling, for instance, "MVMCP Disney" to find out what it means! Hopefully, by the time our trip comes around, I'll be a pro at all of this Disney stuff, but somehow, I feel like I will STILL not really know what I'm doing, and might possibly even be one of the guests who is the subject of one of the stories that you guys are writing about in this very thread!

Not everyone's a Disney fanatic who goes to WDW every year or several times a year. And not everyone's a planner. So, while everyone here is writing funny stories about people they saw at the parks, for some, they just don't know and don't know where to GET the information. But, I also know that you can't please everyone. When I was planning our honeymoon cruise last year, there was this girl on the cruise section of this forum who wrote a long post about things not to do, and one of them was plan what you want to do on your trip. HUH?!?! I mean, WTH are we here for if not to do that?!?! So while everyone here is SHOCKED that there are people who don't do any research, there are others on this very forum who are critical of those who do! Again, you can't please everyone!

But, I'm immensely grateful for all of the threads, questions and posts that everyone writes on this forum, and even the questions that get asked 1,820,765,903,482 times a day, I appreciate them for writing those posts because then I don't have to be the one that gets chastised for starting a thread on a subject where there are 2 or 3 others just like it on the front page! And a lot of times, the information that's given might be a LITTLE bit different, or the question might have a little bit of a spin from the other questions that were asked recently. So, I appreciate ALL of the posts and threads I see here.

And, I do enjoy reading all of the funny stories of things that some of the lesser planners out there have done. Reminds me of when I worked at a theme park (not Disney) and there was a lady looking at a map, and said to her family, "xxx ride is this way ----->." I smiled and said, "nope. Follow me!" and led them to the ride (which happened to be the ride I worked at and was going to anyways). Sometimes, it's a lot better if you DO help someone out instead of just ignoring them, especially if they're going the wrong way or whatever. Now, if someone's talking to their family about DHS and they really mean Universal, no. I wouldn't interject then. But if someone's lost and is asking you directions to "Disney World" when they really mean MK, I wouldn't give a smart alec response or send them to the wrong place! That's just mean! Golden rule - what would you want someone to do to you if you were in that situation?

Just my $0.02. Take it for what it's worth!

 

[ZephyrHawk]

My secretary is going to WDW for the first time since she was a little girl. I was talking with her about it (me being probably as excited as she is at this point, as I love to take trips vicariously through others!) and she said something like, "Yeah we're gonna go one day to that Harry Potter world and spend two days at Disney, then one day each at the animal place and something else...I think we're skipping Epcot" I had to tell her she'd just committed a cardinal sin by referring to the MK as "Disney". She's also rather excited about visiting "Frontierland", which I imagine can only result from her continued misunderstanding about the relative sizes of different parts of WDW, and the fact that she seems to still think that MK is really the only thing there.

In her defense, she's not planning it at all and her family is handling every aspect.

 

[knitster]

It just saddens me when someone takes their family to WDW and really wants to have a great time, but they don't do any research and end up having a miserable time because they don't have a clue what they're doing and then they feel like they wasted their time and money.

I was just talking to my neighbor about WDW the other day because his 8 year old daughter came over and was pin trading with my daughter. I asked him when they had gone to WDW because I had no clue they'd been. He said they had gone during Spring Break - about 3 weeks ago. I asked him if he'd enjoyed it and he said that by day 3 his daughter and wife were so tired of standing in long, hot lines that they asked him to rent a car so they could drive to Miami and spend the rest of the week there - so that's what they did.

He was really disappointed because he'd wanted this to be a really special trip, but once he got there he was so overwhelmed and he didn't know where anything was or how anything worked. He didn't know what fastpasses were until I explained them to him. I felt really bad for the guy and told him that if he ever wanted to attempt Disney again, that I'd be happy to help him plan.

 

[Carnator]

"Does this monorail go to Universal?"

I was standing just outside of the entrance to Epcot when this family asked me this question. Do people even research Disney AT ALL before they go? I just seem to bump into the most clueless of them all.

But I am a huge Disney fan so instead of ruining their trip with some Jerrasic Park and MIB I say "Yep that's the monorail alright!" I hope they had fun at the MK

- MaterializedHaunt

Same thing happened to me a few years ago..gentleman got quite upset with me when I told him it didn't. So I said sure go ahead!!

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt that says I rode the monorail to Universal..

 

[Bellamouse]

I've spoken to many people who believe that Epcot is just the "big ball". They think all of Epcot is in the ball.

 

[rwdavis2]

As I repeatedly tell people about a trip to Disney. Doing it to maximize one's enjoyment is almost like doing an Everest expidition: It takes planning, stamina, and money.

 

[knitster]

I've spoken to many people who believe that Epcot is just the "big ball". They think all of Epcot is in the ball.

My husband thought that Epcot was all inside the "big ball" until the moment we were riding into Epcot on the monorail and I was pointing out the different rides to my kids and explaining that "the ball" was called Spaceship Earth and that there was a ride inside. He didn't tell me that he'd thought that until weeks after our trip was over and I was floored! How can you honestly think an entire amusement park is inside that ball?!?!

 

[Miss Marie]

I came back from my 2010 WDW B-Day trip and had several people ask me what I thought of Harry Potter park. When I told them that I hadn't gone to Universal, they told me that the Wizarding World was a new park at Disney along with a Jurassic Park area and Universal's new coaster that is somewhat similar to RnRC. I said, "Have you really been there?" and they replied, "Yep. I met Mickey Mouse in front of the giant Lighthouse."

I asked them to bring me pictures and then walked away laughing. They seriously had their facts mixed up. And they were upset when I tried to explain it to them. I don't know how you could get the two places mixed up, especially since Universal had a whole anti-Disney campaign at one point.

 

[ChildAtHeart82]

A similar situation happened to us when waiting for the resort monorail. Two guys behind us asked if the resort monorail would get them to Swan & Dolphin. I felt so bad for them. I just tried to give them the best option to get to there but I could tell they were disappointed.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

A lot of fast pass confusion. We rode Splash and got fast passes to ride a second time. We ended up deciding to go back to resort to swim, so we decided to give away the fast passes. We had 7 for 1-2 pm on a hot day. I'm talking prime fast passes here! We couldn't give those things away. People looked at us like we were crazy! We had to explain the whole fast pass thing to a family and why they really could benefit by taking these off our hands. Crazy, right?

I ran into this issue on our last trip. We had ridden TSM right at park opening and then gotten FPs for a 1:00 return time. DD has a mood disorder and was having a rough day that day. By noon, she just wanted to go back to the hotel and swim. So I planned to give away our TSM fastpasses on the way out of the park. I offered them to either 4 or 5 couples before someone would take them. People treated me like I was trying to pull some kind of scam on them. I couldn't believe it. One couple told me "we're not allowed to use those." Huh? I tried briefly explaining what they were, but they kept insisting they couldn't take them. The couple that finally ended up taking them obviously understood what they were getting. They were overjoyed and thanked me profusely. I was glad to sprinkle a little pixie dust on someone's day.

If I overhear a conversation where someone has bad information, I won't butt in and correct them, but if someone strikes up a conversation with me or asks me a direct question, I'll give them a correct answer. I'd never tell someone the monorail goes to Universal. But I remember a situation I dealt with in Epcot a few years ago where ultimately I did speak up because I felt bad for this mom and kids. It was after Illuminations on an EMH night, and I had placed an order at the CS place in Mexico. You place your order in one line, then step aside and there's a separate "line" where you wait until your order number is called. After I ordered I stepped to the side, and apparently right in front of some guy who thought he was in the line to order. He wasn't. He yelled at me for cutting in front of him. At first, I was confused why it mattered since what order we waited in wouldn't make a difference when our food was ready. But I apologized and moved behind him. His family came up to join him, and it was then I realized they hadn't ordered yet. They were all talking about what they wanted to get. So they stood there, not in an ordering line, for quite some time. The father was being a complete jack*** to his wife and kids. And because he had been a jack*** to me, I let them stand there, not getting any closer to ordering because they weren't in the right line. It was really busy that night and I had to wait a long time for my order. Finally, right as my number was called, I stepped up to the family and told them if they wanted to order food, they'd have to go to another line. Then I got my food and got the heck out of there as the dad started to blow up again at his family. Maybe I should have spoken up sooner, or maybe I should have just not said anything at all. I felt bad for the family but not for the dad.

 

[KellyNY]

Many people simply can't even imagine that they have to explore and plan. Who plans order of rides in Six Flag, nobody. Many do not see Disney any different, and after initial shock, missing most rides and half of MK, people still feel like they had the best time ever. I know, I am one of them.

 

[LovinPooh]

Thats funny stuff.

Funny how alot of people actually think universal and seaworld are tied into WDW.

 

[perdidochas]

I don't think some people even read the map! One time an older child was begging for the dad to get a fastpass and the dad said "I already paid too much for the tickets, I'm not paying for fastpasses too". Really?

If they had gone to Universal, not so silly of a response. Indicates some ignorance, yes.

 

[Carrie772]

Many people simply can't even imagine that they have to explore and plan. Who plans order of rides in Six Flag, nobody. Many do not see Disney any different, and after initial shock, missing most rides and half of MK, people still feel like they had the best time ever. I know, I am one of them.

You know I tried to plan our Six Flag Georgia trip the way I plan our WDW trip, but I could not even find a decent map of the place! And there sure weren't any touring plans. I don't kow how folks manage those long lines!

 

[Mad Hattered]

You know I tried to plan our Six Flag Georgia trip the way I plan our WDW trip, but I could not even find a decent map of the place! And there sure weren't any touring plans. I don't kow how folks manage those long lines!

Seriously? I found this in about 27.3 seconds after reading your post.

http://www.sixflags.com/overGeorgia/assets/pdf/SFOG_PrintableMap.pdf

 

[Carrie772]

Seriously? I found this in about 27.3 seconds after reading your post.

http://www.sixflags.com/overGeorgia/assets/pdf/SFOG_PrintableMap.pdf

Wow. Thank you for your kind words and help. I will certainly use this next time we go.