Harry Potter, a bit of MNSSHP, Shades of Green - Fall 2017 Pre-Trip AND TRIP Report!

[Travelgrrl]

Our trip is now less than 30 days away. O frabjous day, calloo, callay!

I had to call Disney (for the first time this trip) because I wanted to be all set for FP on My Disney Experience, and our numbers were all wonky - there were tons of numbers for each person, many from 2014, and there were 2017 numbers on there that did not match the physical cards I was holding in my hand... just a mess! The gal I spoke to was super friendly, and I was waited on immediately; didn't have to wait on hold.

That was the good news. Also she was able to remove the confusing 2014 numbers.

On the down side, she was never able to reconcile the fact that the MNSSHP cards I had before me were not reflected in my account, and she urged me not to worry about it, as "the passes are on there, and it will be fine", which worried me. Seems that if you buy a 2nd set of MNSSHP tickets, all of your virtual tickets are on the FIRST ticket, rendering the 2nd one useful only for scrapbooking. Fine. I plan to bring both sets plus the sales receipt, just in case.

Then somehow she managed to delete my Mom's magic band from the account (the only one I was interested in still using!) and when she could not recover it, she said "Well, it was 3 years old so the battery was probably dead" which was news to me but I guess all battery operated things die eventually. Funny she didn't mention that until after she deleted it from the account, LOL.

So I got of the phone, took anothe gander at my account, and wouldn't you know, she had DELETED MY NEPHEW (AND his 2nd MNSSHP ticket!) from my reservations. Since I was the purchaser of those tickets (via Ebay sales!), they show up on my account and I need the people to be on my account to make FP. I called Disney AGAIN, and the CM was once again quite nice and managed to get my nephew and his ticket back on my account.

But what a hassle!

I also sent a long email to everyone in our large party, spread across many states, explaining Fast Pass, with a link to the DIS FP thread and another link to a date calculator, so everyone could make their own FP. Seems like it went off without a hitch yesterday and today! My FP window for our 1st MNSSHP is tomorrow, so wish me luck!

I can't have a whole long post without a little fun illustration, so here goes:

 

[Travelgrrl]

Honestly, the whole FP drama at Disney made me even more excited for our trip to Universal, where we'll be unfettered by the Disney FP system! I was able to eventually get 2 FP per party day (that's all the people in my immediate party were going to - Two Halloween parties), so at least I'm done with FP for this trip!

We leave two weeks from tomorrow! There has been one hurricane after another (Harvey last week, Irma bearing down now, Joey right behind and I think there's a "K" one gearing up too). Can't help but hope everyone in FL and along all coasts is OK. And also that the one-after-the-other hurricanes knock it off for awhile.

99% packed, and had to go back through my suitcase and pull out heavy things for the carry on totes. My charter only allows FORTY pounds per checked suitcase, rather than fifty, and you have to pay a premium to check a bag at all. But at least I have portioned out the zillions of gifts I'm bringing, and I'll be traveling much lighter on the way home. Or, I'll have room for tons of MNSSHP candy!

Two weeks and a day, and we'll be Mouseketeers! Here's to the original club members!

 

[Ladyfish77]

Enjoying your PTR! I'm also a Shades of Green fan! My DH served for 26 years, so we have definitely earned the ability to book SoG. You forgot to mention that every room has a balcony or patio. We had a ground floor room on our last stay and enjoyed eating or having coctail on our patio! So peaceful as you mentioned. And the rooms are definitely huge. Larger than any WDW room I've ever seen (but I haven't stayed at a deluxe yet, though I know thay are still smaller).

Hope you have an amazing trip. We're headed to Universal and WDW at the end of October. I have to wrap it around a business convention, but I plan on skipping out early when I can to spend more time at the parks!

 

[Travelgrrl]

YES, balconies! So restful to sit on your shaded balcony or patio and look out at the flora and fauna! I had a mini candle in a fire safe tin packed, but decided to bring a string of battery powered string lights instead.

I haven't posted in awhile - things have been hectic here and the THE HURRICANES. My heart breaks for everyone affected by Harvey and Irma. I was glued to the "Ride It Out" thread on DIS, and was super impressed at how organized Disney was in the face of a major disaster, and how magical things seemed to be at their resorts. I'm not sure what went on at Shades of Green (no characters, that's for sure!) but I'm sure everyone was fed and kept dry. I'm anxious for the weather for our trip (6 days away), worried about hurricane victims, and feeling guilty that I'm still planning a vacation when others have worse problems.

I'm sure in a few days, I'll be more excited. In fact, a week from now I'll be saying:

 

[Travelgrrl]

Tomorrow is the start of our Universal / MNSSHP vacation! The excitement starts tonight when little sister (54) and niece (13) travel to our house to get ready to head out tomorrow early AM!

All packed and ready to go, just a few things on my list today and last minute things tonight and tomorrow AM. I work a few hours this evening to pick up some extra time before I'm off work for more than a week.

I hope to have lots of interesting photos and observations from our trip - when this Pre-Trip Report becomes a full fledged Trip Report!

Until then, One Day More!

 

[macraven]

Soon !!!!!!!

 

[Travelgrrl]

At work tonight I made up Hogwarts acceptance letters for my sister and niece, who are due any moment. (I found any easy template just by googling "Hogwarts acceptance letter template" and the first one that popped up was great.) There was even a template for the supply list!

I addressed my niece's to "Axxxxxx, The Smallest Bedroom, (their town), WI" and my sister's to "Lxxxx, The Largest Bedroom", (their town), WI".

I didn't have a stuffed owl handy but my mom had a stuffed cat that looked like Crookshanks, so I parked it near the letters so they see them.

Next post: Shades of Green! Gift Bags! Palm Trees! Swimming Pools! Movie Stars!
(Well, perhaps not that last one.)

 

[firstwdw]

Looking forward to following along! After years of staying at Disney resorts we tried Shades of Green this past spring and fell in love! It is such a lovely resort and a wonderful option for those that qualify. My teen chose Shades over Port Orleans for our 2018 trip. The pool at Shades is so fun for kiddos- splash area that is not limited to only very young kids, basketball in the pool, an awesome slide! Even the playground on land had cool things for bigger kids to do!

 

[Travelgrrl]

Looking forward to following along! After years of staying at Disney resorts we tried Shades of Green this past spring and fell in love! It is such a lovely resort and a wonderful option for those that qualify. My teen chose Shades over Port Orleans for our 2018 trip. The pool at Shades is so fun for kiddos- splash area that is not limited to only very young kids, basketball in the pool, an awesome slide! Even the playground on land had cool things for bigger kids to do!

Yes, Shades of Green is the BEST! We had a wonderful trip!

 

[Travelgrrl]

OK! On with the trip report!

The day before we left, I called our shuttle company (name withheld for reasons apparent later) to go ahead and pay for the shuttle on the credit card on which we had reserved the ride. The man who answered was so incredibly abrasive it beggared belief! Right away, following my inquiry about the credit card, he said that if we had four people and four suitcases, we couldn't use the 4 person shuttle we had reserved, and would have to pay $130 to upgrade.

Now, that steamed me, but I'm always polite to customer service people, so I just stated that I wasn't about to pay more than another 50% on our reserved shuttle, that we had paid the exact same amount and rode in a 4 person shuttle the last time we came, and if four people and their luggage couldn't fit into a 4 person shuttle, why does their system allow it? Also, if I hadn't called, when were they going to let me know about the upcharge - at Sanford Airport?

However, it took me ages to get any of these questions out because the guy just immediately began screaming at me that I did not 'respect' him. ? He also kept saying "my business", so it crossed my mind that the actual OWNER of this large business was answering the phone and providing 'customer service'. You know the old saying about a lawyer that represents himself, has a fool for a client? I'm thinking this business would be far better served hiring a good phone agent to answer calls.

Eventually, I managed to get all my questions out (in answer the the final one, he said "I was just going to call you about the upcharge"). He pointed out that on the home page, where you book your vehicle, there's a teensy graphic that shows only two suitcases and two carry ons allowed for four people, on the 4 person shuttle. The graphic was small enough to fit under a nickel, and who travels to Florida without a suitcase? He had no answer for why the system still allowed four people to book it.

Eventually, he complained because the reservation showed that we were bringing a small fold up wheelchair (which we also did with the same company and same sized van last time) and he said "You're going to have to pay more for the wheelchair anyway, so you have to upgrade", and I pointed out that he was likely in violation of federal ADA statutes with that policy, and suddenly he said that he'd send a larger van and the price would stay the same. He did continue to harangue me a bit more about 'respect' until I said that I was waiting for email confirmation of the reservation, and that he could spare me the lecture in the meantime.

Whew! NOT what I wanted on the eve of our trip. I honestly wondered when we touched down in FL if the driver would be there. But he was, he was nice, and he got a big tip.

I grew up in the 60's, where the message was to generally defer to adult men in all cases. In the 70's I remember they had "Assertiveness Training" for women so that they could literally learn how to stick up for themselves. In a situation like this, it can be hard to do it, to remain polite but stick to your guns.

 

[Travelgrrl]

I mentioned that the night before we left, I laid out Hogwarts acceptance letters on my sister and niece's bedside table. (They live elsewhere but were at our home that night.) I didn't have a stuffed owl handy but I found an orange and white stuffed cat that looked like Crookshanks and put it next to them.

My niece LOVED it! The letters were supposed to be the gift, but she slept with the cat that night, smuggled it into her suitcase, and slept with it every night afterwards. She's getting to be a grown up 13, but one always needs a lovey, right?

Here she is, snuggled up to her mom and Crookshanks during the trip:



Oh, and they loved the Hogwarts letters, too.

 

[Travelgrrl]

We had good traveling, with no delays and helpful airline personnel to aid us in getting our suitcases and wheelchair through the airports in our home city and Sanford, FL. We kept a few $5 bills handy for tips!

We got a room in the Palm Wing of Shades of Green, which is closer to the lobby, restaurants and buses, but further from the two pools than the Magnolia Wing. The main thing was that all of our rooms were in a row, which has never happened before! My sister usually left her room door propped open so we were all in and out of her suite at all hours.

Here was our view! So great to sit on your balcony and relax in the morning and evening!

 

[schumigirl]

Glad they loved the Hogwarts letters.......and the Crookshanks lookalike.........so cute.

What an awful start with the shuttle company! You did right to stick to your guns and not let him walk over you.....I hate hearing that.

Pleased to hear the driver was nice though and you didn’t have to deal with what did sound like the owner.

Nice view and I’m looking forward to reading more.

 

[Travelgrrl]

As soon as we arrived, we unpacked, and I had SO MANY THINGS. Chiefly were gobs of gifts for the five kids in the party, which my niece helped me sort into their respective gift bags (I filled HER gift bag!). My elder sister and her husband (the chief hosts of the trip, our connection to Shades of Green) had arrived 2 days earlier and were touring the parks.

Bags filled, we headed down to the closest pool, where there's a handy hamburger stand adjacent that serves the golf course. By the time we wheeled my Mom there, got her settled and presented ourselves at the order window, they were closed! (It never occurred to me that if we had just moved to the other pool area, there is Evergreens, a proper restaurant for eat in and take out.) Instead, I nearly wept. Seeing our stricken faces, the gal made us cold ham sandwiches instead of the burgers we were after, and we were so grateful. At this point, it was the first meal I'd had all day, save for a cereal bar in the AM.

A few of the kids from our party of 17 came to the pool and right away, the lifeguards said they couldn't use their blow ups, they all had to wear life vests in the pool, etc. 3 years ago, I don't think there were even life guards there. After the kids put on life vests (even the swimmers), they grudgingly allowed the pool toys.

3 kids, 2 blow ups, and I'm in there somewhere too:





Refreshed after sharing our sandwiches, the four of us (Mom, younger sister and niece) found elder sister home in her next door suite, and moved Mom's things over. I take care of my Mom 24/7. so this gave me a little break for the week, though we spent tons of time with her during our adventures!

Here's a dim photo of two of the kids opening their gift bags. I looked for tiny clearance things related to Disney or Universal for a year or so, and ended up with 20 things for each kid. Many were online purchases from China that cost less than $1, so I probably paid only $20 per kid.



My sister gave me this adorable (?) Dementor key ring, which I used to hold my room key and park passes. It gave me something bulky to grab for in my fanny pack (bum bag!) or tote during the trip.



Just look at his wee mouth, ready to administer the Dementor's Kiss!

That was about it for the first day; mostly a travel one. I was able to give out most of my gifts (I had Disney Tsum Tsum lip glosses for the younger thirtysomething girls, a few t-shirts and so on, in addition to the gift bags for the kids) and we were unpacked and ready for our first big park day: Universal and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

 

[Travelgrrl]

Glad they loved the Hogwarts letters.......and the Crookshanks lookalike.........so cute.

What an awful start with the shuttle company! You did right to stick to your guns and not let him walk over you.....I hate hearing that.

Pleased to hear the driver was nice though and you didn’t have to deal with what did sound like the owner.

Nice view and I’m looking forward to reading more.

Thank you kindly, Schumigirl!

 

[Travelgrrl]

Sat 9/23 was our first big park day! We were off to Universal Studios! The party was myself, younger sister, niece, elder sister's husband (BIL), and his grandchild, a boy of about 8 we'll call "A". BIL drove us to US so we didn't have to take the Shades of Green bus, and could return at our leisure.

First thing in the morning, I woke my niece with this, a rubber rat that I found at the bottom of my suitcase (Scabbers?) with a Resurrection Stone ring on his tail.



Ever since I took my small children on trips, I got into the habit of bringing along little gifts, rather than purchasing more expensive ones on vacation. For example, I brought my 11 year old daughter and her friend to London, and later on a transatlantic cruise. I brought 33 gifts for each girl for the 11 day trip (back when one could bring copious amounts of luggage for free). That way, I could cajole the girls out of bed early in the AM with the promise of a gift, and after touring for part of the day, cajole them back to the room for a rest, with the promise of another. Then one before bed, if they promised to go quietly. (I hit a Claire's boutique sale beforehand and got many themed things for 50 cents each.) Same thing for Disney trips - I never had to buy souvenirs.

I've continued that, even now my daughter is grown, as it's a fun tradition, though if you're older than 11 you're getting one gift a day, not several LOL!

So I had gifts for my sister and niece. Sister got a SPEW necklace (Society for the Protection of Elfish Welfare).

The main focus of today was to see that "A" had a magical time at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, as the rest of us (younger sister, niece and I) had multi day tickets and would be back at Universal later in the week. For "A" and his grandpa, this was their one shot and their sole interest was Harry Potter.

We drove, we parked, we whipped through the entertainment district. I snapped the requisite shots of everyone by the Universal globe, including this one of a baby toy of my niece's that I've taken photos of all over the world:



I zipped us all through the park and we made it to Leicester Square in London! We saw Kreacher at #12 Grimmauld Place and met Nigel at the Knight Bus!

We enjoyed this interaction quite a bit. Does the shrunken head have a name in the movies? "A" seemed to believe it was an actual talking shrunken head, which was great.



I made the mistake of calling him "Stan" but he pointed to his name tag: "Nigel". A few days later it was "Nigel" again, but couldn't remember if it was the same guy or not. Maybe all substitute conductors for the Knight Bus are named "Nigel".

 

[Travelgrrl]

One more funny thing happened in the Leicester Square area. I steered the kids towards the quintessential red British phone booth, to have them dial the numbers that correlate to the word "MAGIC" and hear a message from the Ministry of Magic. It was set up differently than I expected: no letters on the rotary dial, but the digits "62442" ARE discreetly displayed in the phone booth. (ie, it would take a pretty astute kid to realize those numbers correlated to the word "MAGIC", since there are no letters on the dial.)

That's not the funny part. Neither kid had ANY idea how to operate a rotary phone! They needed several rounds of prompting to dial the numbers and hear the message, because of the (to them) extremely odd method of dialing.

Here's the kids in the booth, mystified, and not for the reasons J. K. Rowling expected:

 

[schumigirl]

Lol......you never think of kids not knowing how to dial a phone.........

Love the gifts! They must have loved them.........nice start to your Universal time.......

 

[Travelgrrl]

Today, our Mom went with elder sister, the remaining kids (all little girls) and adults to Cinderella's table for breakfast, then the Pirate's League after. Quite a wild first day for a 91 year old! Here's a photo of Mom in her pirate regalia!



And thanks, Schumigirl!

 

[tink1957]

Enjoying your adventures, I love the special gifts ...it's the thoughtful touches that make a trip so much more memorable.