I Want to Sell Tee-Tee to Other People!!! - July 2013 TR *UPDATE 4/29 pg. 73*

[cruisingteacher]

oh wow! I am sorry that you had that kind of treatment from the CMs!

It is extra disappointing when you receive negative treatment from a company you are used to receiving excellent service/treatment from!

Glad you all didn't let it ruin your holiday though, I know people who would!!

Love the underwater pics!!!

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

You know, what more can you say about about the rose photos other than... Papadon was clearly a flamenco dancer in another life. Ole.

My God Dani, just one ordeal after another. Glad you finally got the upgrade despite it taking so long to get squared away. Honestly, if this had been an average family on their first Disney vacation, I'd be willing to bet they'd not come back. Just not the way to treat a guest at all.

 

[NancyLuvsMickey]

WOW!!! In total shock about them treating DVC owners as 2nd class citizens... I always thought of DVC being at the top of the food chain and the paying people at the bottom... Thank goodness you had a great CM that told the front desk what to do and how to treat you... She needs a raise and promotion into management!!!

 

[RachelNinja]

Bummer that the room smelled so strongly of smoke! I'm glad that Disney will fine the people who did it; it's just so wrong! The hesitation to upgrade you is ridiculous though! I mean, Disney does all they can to pull people into DVC; in reality, you'd think DVC members would be treated better! My parents who own a timeshare in Kissimmee get better treatment because they are owners rather than guests. That's how it always should be!

 

[CarolynK]

In all this time, the "person" that the front desk said they would send up? Never arrived.

Ohhh, not good!! At this point in your story, MY blood pressure was rising!! Been there....

Basically, over the phone, they couldn't get anything figured out and told us that we had to come up front. The Bell Services CM (who was AMAZING, and I didn't take her name down!), said that she was going to get this figured out and took us up front with her.

SO cool that you had her there to help!

You want to know what they told us?

"Because you're DVC we can't do that. We have to put you in the exact same room."

Oh, NO! Even if they think it, they shouldn't say it out loud Seriously??

...I was curious about Mousekeeping not noticing too. It just surprised me that no one smelled it? It was strange.

I'm pretty sure they smelled it too. Nearly every time we stay, we have to call engineering or housekeeping about issues.

We made sure to get good use out of that pool.

I love your pool pictures!! It sounds like it helped your mood improve

Hopefully smooth sailing from now on.

 

[DisneyJo]

OMG the treatment you got was shocking, good on that CM for making sure you were all OK!!!

As always I love your underwater photos, you can see you all had so much fun! You've probably said before but what camera do you have as I'm going to buy DH one for his Birthday

 

[courtneybelle]

Popadon's killing me with the rose in his mouth

That's absolutely ridiculous how they dealt with the room situation. I'm glad the Bell Services CM had your back, but the front desk CMs were totally disrespectful.

The room looks beautiful, though! I love the Lion King sunrise in the shower.

Pool movies look sooooo fun. I love all your water pictures. It's so obvious how much fun you are having!

 

[PopArtGal]

Wow that day sucked!

I'm sorry you guys had to go through that.

 

[katt789]

Oh my god that debacle over at AKL sounds just absolutely horrible. I'm so sorry it was so insane and SO glad that that bell services cm was so great, man, without her, ugh. I don't get it…

Boma looks delish as per usual! Love that place!! Went with Susie last month, so much yum!!

Glad the pool was at least fun and awesome! I read about it when i was over at akl last month and really wished I had gone to at least see it, it sounded totally awesome!!!

Awe man, little jedi's coming up?!?! EEeeeekk. There's some darth maul & vaders training up for that TONIGHT! (got some sneak peaks of that last night lol!)

 

[ElenaJane]

I found myself getting all worked up just reading about the Kidani debacle! I am not a DVC member but looked into the cost, and holy moly! They should be throwing rose petals at your feet while you walk around the parks!! I am glad your mom got a phone call back after she emailed at least. Whew. Deep breath.

 

[IheartDDuck]

So did they not want to move you out of the room or were they just insistent that you move to a standard room? Either way - why the heck would someone smoke in that room and why would they not want to move you immediately? I'm glad you got it worked out but it took a lot of time and frustration.

I prefer Jambo too, after staying at both of them. Jambo is a bit more intimate, although I do like that Kidani has 3 bathrooms.

I'm glad you were able to blow off some steam in the pool that evening.

They were insistent that we had to move to the same level of room that we had booked, which they didn't have available. I found it kind of hard to believe in a resort as big as AKL that they had no standard view 2 bedrooms available, but they said they didn't.

That's exactly the same reason I like Jambo! It just feels....warmer.

I would have been FURIOUS!!!!! HOW CAN THEY NOT IMMEDIATELY UPGRADE YOU! the upgrade was necessary and the $100 dollars was definitely nice but I would expect more (maybe i just expect too much of Disney) but seriously, I would have been like I want Boma on the house tonight! Zebra Domes for Life!

Really that's just unacceptable after all that happened but I'm glad it didn't ruin your trip or your opinion of Disney World!

The more I thought about it after the fact, the more irritated I got. Thankfully, we are laid back people, and it doesn't change my opinion of Disney as a whole. But it was still frustrating to say the least. I should have demanded Boma on the house!

oh wow! I am sorry that you had that kind of treatment from the CMs!

It is extra disappointing when you receive negative treatment from a company you are used to receiving excellent service/treatment from!

Glad you all didn't let it ruin your holiday though, I know people who would!!

Love the underwater pics!!!

It was just frustrating. Like, with the kind of service they provide, they acted like their hands were completely tied, which I KNOW is not the case.

 

[IheartDDuck]

You know, what more can you say about about the rose photos other than... Papadon was clearly a flamenco dancer in another life. Ole.

My God Dani, just one ordeal after another. Glad you finally got the upgrade despite it taking so long to get squared away. Honestly, if this had been an average family on their first Disney vacation, I'd be willing to bet they'd not come back. Just not the way to treat a guest at all.

Dude, I'm going to have to tell him that! Because the man has absolutely NO dancing ability. Like none.

It really felt like that. And the thing was, we weren't looking for an upgrade! We just wanted a room to stay in that didn't smell like smoke! They made it so much more difficult than it needed to be.

I agree with your assessment. My love of Disney as a whole will always keep me going back. But that for a first time guest may have been the last straw.

WOW!!! In total shock about them treating DVC owners as 2nd class citizens... I always thought of DVC being at the top of the food chain and the paying people at the bottom... Thank goodness you had a great CM that told the front desk what to do and how to treat you... She needs a raise and promotion into management!!!

It was the most bizarre thing I've ever seen in my life. Like "really? You don't have an understanding of the investment that has been made?!"

She really was amazing and my Mom made sure to give her a ton of praise when we talked to the CM that called us.

Bummer that the room smelled so strongly of smoke! I'm glad that Disney will fine the people who did it; it's just so wrong! The hesitation to upgrade you is ridiculous though! I mean, Disney does all they can to pull people into DVC; in reality, you'd think DVC members would be treated better! My parents who own a timeshare in Kissimmee get better treatment because they are owners rather than guests. That's how it always should be!

It is wrong! People are just unbelievably rude! You shouldn't do that in a place that you don't own! It's ridiculous.

You hit the nail right on the head in regards to DVC. My parents chose to make the investment. They have LOTS of points. And to be treated as if we weren't on the same level as paying guests and that's why it was so hard for them to help us was just ridiculous. You can't tell me it's that difficult to just change the reservation in the system. We don't expect any different treatment than any other guests, so it was so frustrating. Paying guests get upgraded often. As DVC, we actually never get upgraded, and we're down with that. But come on! Smoking in the room? Just no.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Ohhh, not good!! At this point in your story, MY blood pressure was rising!! Been there....

As a whole, our trips are normally so smooth and nice, so this was an anomaly for us. But it did put a slight damper on things.

SO cool that you had her there to help!



Oh, NO! Even if they think it, they shouldn't say it out loud Seriously??

Right?! Like, go ahead and think about how difficult it is, but don't SAY IT!

I'm pretty sure they smelled it too. Nearly every time we stay, we have to call engineering or housekeeping about issues.



I love your pool pictures!! It sounds like it helped your mood improve

Hopefully smooth sailing from now on.

We've typically not had any problems, so it was just strange. And frustrating.

The pool was perfect. It helped to wash the frustration away and start fresh.

OMG the treatment you got was shocking, good on that CM for making sure you were all OK!!!

As always I love your underwater photos, you can see you all had so much fun! You've probably said before but what camera do you have as I'm going to buy DH one for his Birthday

We always have tons of fun!

It's a Nikon, I believe an AW100. They probably have a new model already, you know how they are with that. But basically, whatever waterproof camera Nikon has I recommend.

Popadon's killing me with the rose in his mouth

That's absolutely ridiculous how they dealt with the room situation. I'm glad the Bell Services CM had your back, but the front desk CMs were totally disrespectful.

The room looks beautiful, though! I love the Lion King sunrise in the shower.

Pool movies look sooooo fun. I love all your water pictures. It's so obvious how much fun you are having!

OMG I know! The man is ridiculous.

The front desk CM's just behaved like "what? I can't do anything." Yes you can. You can get your manager from the back and figure it out.

The rooms are beautiful. I love the AKL as a whole, it's one of my favorite resorts.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Wow that day sucked!

I'm sorry you guys had to go through that.

It kind of did. It was just frustrating too, because I was still wet from Kali River Rapids and I just wanted to change!

Oh my god that debacle over at AKL sounds just absolutely horrible. I'm so sorry it was so insane and SO glad that that bell services cm was so great, man, without her, ugh. I don't get it…

Boma looks delish as per usual! Love that place!! Went with Susie last month, so much yum!!

Glad the pool was at least fun and awesome! I read about it when i was over at akl last month and really wished I had gone to at least see it, it sounded totally awesome!!!

Awe man, little jedi's coming up?!?! EEeeeekk. There's some darth maul & vaders training up for that TONIGHT! (got some sneak peaks of that last night lol!)

Debacle is exactly the word for it! I was just confused the whole time.

It's so good isn't it! Ugh.

You need to start having pool time girl! I've become a true pool convert! Back in the day, I was always like "ain't nobody got time for the pool!" Now, I just love the time.

Oh yes. Little Jedi's.

I found myself getting all worked up just reading about the Kidani debacle! I am not a DVC member but looked into the cost, and holy moly! They should be throwing rose petals at your feet while you walk around the parks!! I am glad your mom got a phone call back after she emailed at least. Whew. Deep breath.

Hahaha, maybe not quite rose petals, but at least acknowledge to an extent that we made an investment.

Woo sah!

 

[DVCWDWMEMBER]

Saying I was frustrated is for sure an understatement..... But after we got the new room and got settled in I was not going to have this dampen our vacation. What was really fantastic is how DVC right away got in touch with me after I emailed them. It made me feel like we were important members, and that they would make sure that Kidani village cast members were retrained so this would not happen to the next DVC member that encountered a problem. Yes we did invest a lot of money and at the time we were experiencing all of this I was very frustrated but in the end it all worked out.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Saying I was frustrated is for sure an understatement..... But after we got the new room and got settled in I was not going to have this dampen our vacation. What was really fantastic is how DVC right away got in touch with me after I emailed them. It made me feel like we were important members, and that they would make sure that Kidani village cast members were retrained so this would not happen to the next DVC member that encountered a problem. Yes we did invest a lot of money and at the time we were experiencing all of this I was very frustrated but in the end it all worked out.

Completely agree. I think that the fact that we're pretty laid back and not difficult to please really played in to us just dealing with it and moving on. Nothing was going to ruin my trip!

 

[IheartDDuck]

Day 7 - Wednesday July 10, 2013

All right friends, I'm trying to update all of my TR's more often, because I would like to be like a normal person and work on 1 TR at a time. Seriously. Procrastination, it does not pay!

We got up bright and early on this day, because we needed to get the boys signed up for Jedi Training. From reading prior TR's and more information on it, I knew it was important to get there right away and get them a slot in a show. We all ate in the room that day and were out the door by 8:30am. We made it to DHS and were through the gate by 9am. Perfect timing! We actually lucked out this time and got good parking! That never happens. Rob, unfortunately, I didn't get your parking spot this time.

One of the funniest things of the entire day happened this early on. We were walking through the parking lot, because we were too close to take the tram in my opinion. So Joaquin is walking with Jeni and I and it's super bright outside, so our shadows are all very obvious on the ground. He looks at Jeni and I and asks the very enlightening question:

"Does Jesus make shadows?"



That was the equivalent of Jeni's and my face when we looked at each other. Talk about a random question out of nowhere! Leave it to littles. My explanation to him: "Well sweetie, when he was alive and on earth, yes, he did cast a shadow."

Seriously, how do you answer a question like that? LOL. No words.

Joaquin accepted my answer and we all headed into the park. You know kids. Something pops up in their head and then two seconds later.....gone.

The plan was for Jason and Dad to head over to get FP's for TSM while Jeni, Mom and I took Gavin and Joaquin to sign up for Jedi Training.

Our timing was perfect, we arrived at the building at 9:15am (seriously, 15 minutes after opening) and the boys were already placed in the 1:50pm training! They were only allowing 15 per class, so they were filling up fast. That was okay, because time wise, it actually ended up working perfectly for structuring the entire day.

We headed over to meet the boys at TSM after we got the kiddos signed up. On the way back, we were diverted by Chip and Dale waiting by the Sorcerer's hat for autographs! However, they left right when we got up there and was replaced by Goofy. To which the boys said "we already have Goofy's autograph!" Suck it up kiddos, you're meeting movie star Goofy! He's not the same.

Amazing parenting with us.

The line was virtually non-existent and soon the boys were meeting Goofy.



Joaquin tongue out. Not surprising.







From my camera, his crazy faces are much more evident.





You guys should be used to his level of ridiculous by now, aren't you? It never gets old though, does it? Hahaha!

We finally made it to TSM to meet up with the big boys. They had gotten us a pretty decent FP return time that coincided nicely with our lunch reservation. The wait time was posted at 40 minutes at this point. I knew it wasn't going to be that long, so I suggested we get in line. Joaquin had been talking about this ride endlessly. It was the one that stuck out the most in his head from his trip two years prior, and constantly talked about the "cannon" ride.



Remember. Look high and low for your targets. And shoot at anything you can see!



I tried to get a quick picture of the boys in front of the Mr. Potato Head, but it didn't turn out so well. Oh well. I hate pausing at this point and being obnoxious, especially if the line is moving! Considering how obnoxious I am in every day life, you would think I would have no problem with this. Go figure.



Momma was my riding partner, Jason was with Joaquin, Jeni was with Gavin, and Pop was flying solo. I also shared with Mom the tricks to the easter eggs, so I could score higher. Because I refuse to score less than Jason.

Competition between siblings at it's best. I do not lose. Ever.



Joaquin was apparently SUPER focused on his targets.



That would be my score on the left.



Highest of the car and highest of the hour. IN YOUR FACE JASON!!!! MWA HA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. (Sorry....did I mention I'm competitive?)



This is my I WIN face.



Jason cried and I laughed in his face. Sibling love.

On the way out, we lucked out and ran across the green army men! Awesome! Of course the boys wanted to stop and say yo.



And Joaquin's insistence on ridiculous caused him to be cut out of the shot. I don't feel bad kid. You're the one who was being dumb.



This was after he was told to stop acting like a dang fool and take a stinking picture!





I also decided at this point that I needed a frozen coke. I love those. However, I no longer drink them, as I no longer drink any soda at all. I haven't actually had a lick of soda of any kind (diet or regular) since this particular trip. So 7 months and going strong!



Oh hey Pop in the background of that picture! I have no idea what he was bending over to do. LOL.

We all decided at this point that Tower of Terror was the next ride of choice. The wait time on the app was listed at 40 minutes, but we figured it wouldn't be that long, since it was still pretty early.

Gavin's face in this picture already shows his trepidation.



Continued in next post:

 

[IheartDDuck]

Gavin had been telling me the entire time before this trip that the Tower of Terror was his favorite ride ever. Now, let's do a recap of his experiences thus far on this trip:

Cried before the Everest train left the station.
Threw up after riding Everest.
Scared of the Space Mountain part on the Peoplemover.
Freaked out in line for the Maelstrom.
Would have backed out of Dumbo if we didn't push the issue.

Rrrrriiiiiggggghhhhhhtttt kiddo. Tower of Terror is your favorite ride. HOWEVER....the rule on this trip is that we were all required to ride this. That meant Jeni and Mom couldn't back out either, and Gavin was not exempt from this rule.



We only waited in line for about 25 minutes. This picture cracks me up. Joaquin and Gavin were acting like fools. I can't remember the specifics, but Jason ended up having to scold them and I couldn't help but laugh at the dejected looks on their faces.



We made it to the boiler room, and Gavin was pretty freaked out. Jeni was putting on a brave face though.



And then the ride photo. Let's examine this in detail, shall we?



Joaquin seems to be taking it pretty well. Ommi is doing the "oh my gosh, this little might fly out of his seat, but I'm also laughing because I'm scared out of my pants and I don't know what to do with myself", Pop is being Pop, Jason is being very un-Jasonlike.



Jeni is legitimately freaked out. You might not think it, but this is her freaking out. Gavin is crying and I'm sleeping. Yup. And WOAH. That guys hair on the left in that picture is just faboo.



I now present to you a very dark, pretty useless video of our ride on TOT. But hey...there's a crying kid at the end.



Everyone survived the ride. Joaquin told us:

"The only scary part of the Tower of Terror were the white people!"

Translated: The ghosts were scary.

At this point, it was time for our lunch ADR. Where would we be dining on this fine day?



We figured the boys would really enjoy this restaurant. I headed in to the podium to check us in and the hostess was getting a couple checked in with an ECV. She was finding out from them if she could transfer, and she could. So she gets them checked in and does the "okay, we'll call your name when we're ready to seat you", which I always thought was universal speak for "okay, we're done now, scoot over so someone else can check in."

Nope. They didn't moved. They just stayed in front of the podium and stayed there. So they're still there. And the hostess is looking at me. And I'm like:



So I literally shout "I'M HERE TO CHECK IN!", because they so weren't moving. I'm obnoxious, what can I say.

Finally, they get the hint and start to move. But I'm not kidding, they were totally glaring at me like I was up in their way! Nope. Just trying to get checked in for lunch people. You didn't even have to move. I could have handled this whole thing shouting over you if you preferred.

We didn't wait long and they were ready to seat us. At first, they were going to split us up, and we were like "but there is a car with three rows....we have a little that can sit in between two people", so we worked it out.



Our server offered to take a picture of all of us too, which was nice.





I cannot explain why, but Joaquins face here just cracks me up. He looks like such a derp!



Pop was mesmerized by the wonderful offerings on the silver screen!





This is pretty much the extent of all of the adult meals. Angus cheeseburger with fries. But man....their burgers are so good!



Gavin got pasta with chicken and marinara, and Joaquin got macaroni and cheese. That's what that boy always gets.

Joaquin's and Gavin's take on the movie clips? "Oh, this is really old school!" Dorks.

Lunch was lovely and we had no complaints. We even finished with plenty of time to spare to make our Toy Story fastpass window! We all wrapped up quickly, because we wanted to make it to our FP. There is no missing a second ride on Toy Story in this family!





Gavin wanted to ride by himself this time. We were like "okay". Jeni rode with Dad, Jason and Joaquin again, because that boy refuses to ride with anyone else (unless said person is Ommi), so Ommi and I were together once again.

I WIN AGAIN!





But man. Let me tell you. For me to ever reach the high scores, I don't know what else I can do! My arm is literally ready to fall off by the time I get to the score I can. I think it would die if I did any more!

Up next: Oh young Padawan....don't melt in the sun.

 

[jecskc]

All caught up!! I will share that our check in at Kidani was less than stellar as well. We loved out room the we eventually got, though. And they were really nice about everything. It just took FOREVER to get it all worked out.

Susan

 

[jecskc]

Jauquin looks full of dissent in that photo where Jason is scolding them.