Heat, Headaches but So Much Fun! My June Birthday TR (Trip Wrap-Up 10/12)

[Mndisneygirl]

Whew! Aren't flight delays frustrating? I just fret about weather when we travel, and we drive a lot too! Just be thankful you weren't stuck in the plane for hours on the tarmac! So glad you had a relatively happy ending!
I'm anxious to hear your final thoughts!

 

[princess&her4princes]

OMG.....what a horrible flight delay!!!!!!!!!!!! That's horrible....what a bad way to end a great vacation!!!

LOVE the pics of Madison....congrats on her competition!!!

Can't wait to hear your pros/cons list!!

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

What a nightmare!!! I think I would have been begging them to put me up at a crappy airport hotel at that point! Your poor DD...what a trooper!!!

 

[stacikristine]

Tell Madison congratulations!!!! 2nd place is SO GREAT!


So sorry it took forever and a day for you to get home. That really stinks! That's one really bad thing about connecting flights. I'm glad you made it home safe & sound though!

I'm anxious to hear your wrap-ups! I've loved reading your TR and "following" your family on vacation. Thanks so much for sharing

 

[Disneychix]

ugh! That return sounds awful! Glad you eventually made it home safely.

 

[Dancegrl624]

Wow, you certainly had a rough return -- and I always think of weather delays because of snow, not in the summer!

No wonder you were exhausted...

Maria

I think there had been severe thunderstorms around JFK that day. In all of my traveling, I've been very lucky to never have delays like that. I guess it was just my time!

Whew! Aren't flight delays frustrating? I just fret about weather when we travel, and we drive a lot too! Just be thankful you weren't stuck in the plane for hours on the tarmac! So glad you had a relatively happy ending!
I'm anxious to hear your final thoughts!

I was worried about the weather leaving and coming home back in January. I thought June would have been a piece of cake! I am VERY grateful that we didn't have to board our plane. The pilot, and the entire flight crew, was extremely nice.

OMG.....what a horrible flight delay!!!!!!!!!!!! That's horrible....what a bad way to end a great vacation!!!

LOVE the pics of Madison....congrats on her competition!!!

Can't wait to hear your pros/cons list!!

That was not what I needed at the end of that trip. I didn't feel good and just wanted to be home!

Tell Madison congratulations!!!! 2nd place is SO GREAT!


So sorry it took forever and a day for you to get home. That really stinks! That's one really bad thing about connecting flights. I'm glad you made it home safe & sound though!

I'm anxious to hear your wrap-ups! I've loved reading your TR and "following" your family on vacation. Thanks so much for sharing

I have really loved sharing my trip with all of you. It's so much fun!

What a nightmare!!! I think I would have been begging them to put me up at a crappy airport hotel at that point! Your poor DD...what a trooper!!!

Madison didn't complain at all through all of that mess. She was very happy to just sit and play her Nintendo DS or read her Disney books.

ugh! That return sounds awful! Glad you eventually made it home safely.

I was so happy to be home, but the next day, I was so sad that vacation was over.

 

[ladybugmom]

Awww!! I can't believe your TR is over! Glad you had a great trip! It was fun reading all about it!!

Congrats to Madison!! 2nd place is awesome! And that book set looks amazing!! Thanks for sharing!!

 

[Dancegrl624]

Awww!! I can't believe your TR is over! Glad you had a great trip! It was fun reading all about it!!

Congrats to Madison!! 2nd place is awesome! And that book set looks amazing!! Thanks for sharing!!

Thank you so much for reading Becky! I hope to post my trip wrap-up this week. Madison adores that book set. She's always reading it.

 

[Dancegrl624]

TRIP WRAP-UP

First off, I don't think I'll ever take a trip that short ever again. I felt like we were just trying to cram too much in everyday. We didn't get to utilize PM EMH as much as we would have liked. We were just too tired!!! In June, the parks are open much later and the EMH hours went into the wee hours of the morning. In January, MK closed at 8pm making EMH 8pm-11pm while in June, MK closed at 11pm making EMH 11pm-2am. It just wasn't doable for us. However, when we take a week long trip, we would use PM EMH if we were planning on sleeping in the next morning.

Another thing about this past trip that I didn't enjoy was the heat. I was miserable! In January, the weather was just perfect and it was a nice escape for us (coming from Buffalo). The parks were less crowded too.The only downside to Value season is there are more refurbs going on and the hours are shorter.

I think that I've turned my DH into a Disney property lover!!! He loved the buses, the DDP, EMH and ME very much. Tony couldn't believe how much stuff we got done during AM EMH. He also loved how we never had to ever leave Disney property all week. Back in January, we had to sadly pass through the Disney arch every single day. We didn't stay very far off of Disney property, but it just wasn't the same. Tony has said that he'd never want to stay offsite again! Woo hoo!!

POP CENTURY

We would definately stay there again and I would pay for the preferred location. We loved being by Classic Hall and the Hippy Dippy Pool. Our room was always very clean and Madison loved that our Mousekeeper arranged her stuffed animals everyday. I still can't believe we never got a towel animal that week. What a bummer! We all really loved the food court at Pop. We never encountered any crowds there no matter what time we decided to eat. We were always in and out very quickly. I only had their pizza and breakfast platter, but I enjoyed them. Madison liked everything that she ate from the food court. Tony said their lo mein was awful, but he only ate it because he was really hungry!

We almost never had to wait for a bus. It seemed like whenever we walked outside, the bus we needed was pulling up. At closing time, I think the longest we ever waited was 10 minutes. I didn't think the location of the bus stops were bad, except Epcot. That Pop bus stop is SO far away from the exit! We always dreaded that walk. MK wasn't too bad even though it's at the end. It doesn't feel like you're walking to the middle of nowhere! DHS had the best location ad I don't remember AK (we were only there once on this trip). The bus rides were always fine even when we had to stand.

CROWDS

The crowds were not that bad in my opinion. We utilized FP when we could and it worked out great for us. Those AM EMH's were phenomenal! That particular park did start to fill up, so I'm glad we had the hoppers. It was nice to relax and then head to a less crowded park in the afternoon. The headliners always got long wait times rather quickly, but if you arrived early, you could get a great FP return time. When we would arrive at a park in the late afternoon/early evening, FP's were almost always gone. That made touring a bit tricky, but we were expecting that.

We were able to find great spots for IllumiNations (due to the rain) and Spectromagic. For Spectro, we picked a spot fairly early for the 9pm parade. I'm glad we did because too many people were trying to cram into prohibited spaces minutes prior to the parade. We would have been better off opting for the 11pm parade beacause as we cut through Liberty Square, it was pretty empty. Oh well! We liked being able to watch Spectro and then grab a spot for Wishes. We only had to wait about 30 min for Wishes to start after we got our spot. We never encountered any rude people or pushing & shoving which was nice. No one tried to cut in front of our space, but we've never really run into that before.

IN CONCLUSION

So, our next Disney trip will most likely be during Value season, but we'll stay on property. Pop was wonderful, but we'd love to try out more resorts. I think we're a bit spoiled though. I don't know how I feel about having to share buses with another resort!!! Anyways....the Beach Club is still my dream resort. Since Tony & Maddie have Epcot at the top of their list, it would be nice to stay at an Epcot resort. The Poly is right up there for me too. I love all things Hawaiian/Polynesian! Plus, it's a monorail resort! You can walk to the TTC to get on the Epcot monorail (I love that monorail ride). As far as Mods go, I'm on the fence. Everyone seems to rave about CBR and it looks nice to me. However, I've been very interested in Port Orleans lately. I like the Mansions at Riverside and POFQ just looks so lovely Pop is the only value I'd stay at. I've stayed at ASMu and I liked Pop much better.

I've also stayed at the CR, but we were in one of the Garden wings. I believe the one we stayed in was torn down and is now BLT. However, I wouldn't mind staying in the Tower with a MK view!!! Also, all of the DVC resorts sound great. I don't know if I'd like AKV though. They seem so far away from it all. I, of course, love the BC and BWV sound great too. I just love the Boardwalk at night! OKW is the original and just looks like relaxation to me. SSR is probably out. I've been to Saratoga Springs before. Well, I'm just rambling now, but the DVC is on our wish list for sure.

I've had so much fun going back through my trip. Except for me being sick, we had a great time. It was way too short though. Next time, I'd love to go for 10 days. Gotta schedule in a day or two to sleep in!!! I still have NOOO idea when we'll get back to WDW and that makes me a little sad. Sorry if this conclusion kinda rambled on and on. I wrote it out a day or two after we got home. I was missing Disney so bad, so I don't know if I talked in circles!!! Thank you all SO SO SO much for reading!

 

[ladybugmom]

Great wrap-up!! I agree about staying on property--it saves you sooo much time!! I'm sad that your TR is ending!! I really enjoyed reading it and getting to know you better, Meghan!!

 

[princess&her4princes]

Hey Meghan!
Great wrap up! I'm bummed to see this end!!! And sad you don't have another trip planned so I can jump on board again! I got spoiled with your two trips this year!! It's been SO much fun getting to know you and your family! I hope to keep in touch!!!!

Best wishes with everything!!!
Take care,
Kristen

 

[beyondblessed]

Great TR, I'm sad it's over and I'll miss following along. Guess that means you need to start planning your next trip so we have a new PTR to read!

 

[vamassey1]

Enjoyed your wrap and I agree with a lot of what you said. We went for 8 nights and I still don't think it was long enough. Due to the fact that it was so hot and we had to take breaks. I would rather have 2 full days in each park. I didn't think it was too crowded either.

We caught Spectro in Liberty Square for the second run and it wasn't crowded at all. I just finished my update with that in there.

 

[Worfiedoodles]

Meghan -- I really enjoyed your entire TR, including the wrap-up! I agree that it's hard to pack everything in when you don't have alot of time. I try to make quick lists of things to do for a shorter trip, but I also miss the "sleep-in" mornings!

Maria

 

[tinkgurl]

Hey girl, great wrap up. I still wish we could've bumped into each other sometime during our trips.

I really hope you make it back to WDW soon enough!

 

[Disneychix]

Thanks for the wrap-up Meghan! I'm so happy to hear that your DH is an onsight guy now! Hopefully you will get to go back in the near future and I'll have fun reading your next PTR and TR!!

 

[Dancegrl624]

Great wrap-up!! I agree about staying on property--it saves you sooo much time!! I'm sad that your TR is ending!! I really enjoyed reading it and getting to know you better, Meghan!!

Thanks Becky! I'm glad that you enjoyed my TR so much. I'm glad that you're still working on yours! I love reading about you and your family too.

Hey Meghan!
Great wrap up! I'm bummed to see this end!!! And sad you don't have another trip planned so I can jump on board again! I got spoiled with your two trips this year!! It's been SO much fun getting to know you and your family! I hope to keep in touch!!!!

Best wishes with everything!!!
Take care,
Kristen

I'm sad that it's all over too. I had so much fun reliving my trip. I was definately spoiled by having 2 trips this year. It was so awesome! I will definately be keeping up with your TR. You can't get rid of me!

Great TR, I'm sad it's over and I'll miss following along. Guess that means you need to start planning your next trip so we have a new PTR to read!

Thank you so much for reading! I really do need to start planning another trip. Maybe all of my readers can send my DH letters to persuade him into another trip real soon! I know we'll get back when we can. We all love Disney too much to stay away.

Enjoyed your wrap and I agree with a lot of what you said. We went for 8 nights and I still don't think it was long enough. Due to the fact that it was so hot and we had to take breaks. I would rather have 2 full days in each park. I didn't think it was too crowded either.

We caught Spectro in Liberty Square for the second run and it wasn't crowded at all. I just finished my update with that in there.

When I was younger, we always took week long trips. I'm pretty sure we always had at least one planned sleep-in day. I'd love to take a 10 day trip and really slow down a bit. There is always so much to explore and you can never seem to fit it all in!

Meghan -- I really enjoyed your entire TR, including the wrap-up! I agree that it's hard to pack everything in when you don't have alot of time. I try to make quick lists of things to do for a shorter trip, but I also miss the "sleep-in" mornings!

Maria

Thank you! It really was tough to fit everything into such a short trip. I knew that we wouldn't get to everything on this trip, but at least we left happy. We all got to do what we wanted, so that was awesome.

Hey girl, great wrap up. I still wish we could've bumped into each other sometime during our trips.

I really hope you make it back to WDW soon enough!

I would have loved to bump into you and your family. I just love meeting other DISers! I'm hoping to make it back sooner than later, but we'll have to wait and see about that. I can't wait for your new PTR! Try to send me a PM when you start it!!!

Thanks for the wrap-up Meghan! I'm so happy to hear that your DH is an onsight guy now! Hopefully you will get to go back in the near future and I'll have fun reading your next PTR and TR!!

I too am very happy my DH enjoys staying on property. He loved everything single thing about it, especially the buses. He loved not having to drive to the parks and we loved that we didn't have to remember where we parked!

 

[jenseib]

I love your wrap up! We just love Pop too. I do want to try CBR sometime though too. Wilderness Lodge is my dream spot to go to.
In 2007 we arrived in the evening on a Sunday, got to MK about 8 and stayed till 1 AM. Then we did as much as we could the next few days and had to leave early on Thursday. We actually skipped DHS that year. We just didn't have enough time and we ran Claire ragged. Shye got sick on the way to the airport. What fun. I would love to go for a full week somday. This past trip was our longest, arriving a Sun afternoon and leaving early AM on Sat, and still not enough time for everything!
I hope things work out for you and you can fit a trip in sometime in the next year..and I hope we do too. LOL!

 

[klacey1]

Excellent wrap up, Meghan! I too converted DBF-- even though my mom works for Marriott and we could get a great off-property rate, he told me he would never go to Disney without staying on property and having the dining plan. Being in the magic 24/7, not to mention not having to park anywhere was just terrific. Sometimes we waited up to 15 minutes for a bus, but we'd take that over driving any day.
I'm with you on AKV/AKL. While they do look beautiful, if you aren't Animal Kingdom person (which we definitely aren't and I think you mentioned your family wasn't either), there's really no point. A 25 minute bus ride to the Magic Kingdom just seems like torture.
We stayed at POR during the summer value season (end of August) and honestly thought this was the best time-- value season prices with fairly late hours! It wasn't THAT hot, either (I know that was a concern of yours. I've never been in June, so I can't compare, but I'm also from NY, and I can tell you that it wasn't unbearable). The beauty of POR can't be beat, either-- at least where the mods are concerned. The grounds are gorgeous and nothing was further than 15 minutes by bus. and 15 minutes is pushing it! If your family liked the Pop food court, though, I think you'd be very disappointed with POR's. No matter what time we walked through-- 8:00 am walking to the bus, 2:00 pm walking back to the room to change/freshen up for dinner, 10 pm returning from the parks, it was SO CROWDED! I don't know what they were thinking having such a small food court for such a large resort. Even at 11 on our last day, waiting for ME, it was crowded! Why aren't you at the parks, people???
I'm so glad you guys had such a lovely trip! I'm sure your next one (whenever it may be!) will be even lovelier

 

[stacikristine]

Hi Meghan! I've loved every minute of your Trip Report! I'm glad you posted this wrap-up. It's neat to see your thoughts on everything. Yay that Tony only wants to stay on property from now on! And you should look into renting BCV points next time. We LOVE renting points!! Anyway, great trip report!! I loved following your family's trip!