Is this a vacation or a fun boot camp? ~ Our 1st time at Disney ~ June 2011 TR

[mrssmith06]

DAY 2 continued....
So, we left MK and took a break at our resort. Then we decided to go back to HS since we didn't have much time there the day before and F! didn't show on our 1st night either. So we wanted to try and catch it on this night. This would be our last visit to HS. Originally, this was supposed to be a full MK day and then our last day was supposed to be split between AK and HS but since we were finishing up HS now, we could go back to MK on our last day. Ok, here we go!

It was around 6pm when we got there so we went straight to a CS place for some dinner! We decided on going to the abc commissary!

The kids had nuggets and fries...

I had the fish with apples...

And I think DH had a grilled chicken sandwich? The food was pretty good. Nothing great, but not bad at all.

We checked on TSM to see if we would have a chance of riding it again but the wait was at 110 minutes so we decided once was enough!

We hurried to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground but we got there just a few minutes too late, it had just closed at 7. Oh well, maybe next time...

We wanted to do the meet and greet with the TS characters but the wait was over and hour and the kids didn't want to stand in line that long.

We then stopped by One Man's Dream and went inside there to look around.
The kids actually got into some of the things in there, and it was an easy place to cool off and rest. We probably spent about 20+ minutes in here.

We heard some music playing on stage so we walked over to check that out. It was "Mulch, Sweat & Shears" playing! We sat and enjoyed this for a little while, it made for some fun in the HS night life.

It was almost 8pm now so we got in line at a snack cart and got the kids one of those big collector cups filled with popcorn and some drinks and headed towards the F! area. We got down there and seen that the line was already pretty insane. I felt defeated at this point and the kids were getting tired. It was only a few minutes later that they came on the speaker and announced that the 9:00 F! show was full to capacity and the next showing would be at 10:30. BOOO!!! That was not what I wanted to hear. We went over to one of the bakery's outside dining area's (don't remember which one) and sat, ate our popcorn, and thought about whether to stay for the 10:30 show or not. I wanted to see it SO bad, but I knew the kids wouldn't make it. After about 10-15 minutes, we made the choice to go back to the resort. So, out we go... Boy, that was a short visit...

I was pretty bummed at this point. I knew that was my last chance to see F! And after missing our exit and wasting our break time put me in a rotten mood earlier, I needed something to go right. Could the night get any worse?


UP NEXT: We can't let a leaky room put a damper on our vacation!

 

[TanzUnited99]

Am glad you thought the food at Commissary was good - have heard so many negative things about the DHS CS places.

One Man's dream seems like a cool place to look around.

Oh no on missing out of F! - that's a shame. From your 'up next' comment it seems like this night is going to get worse. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Becc1]

So more on Day 2! We had just left Magic Kingdom to take a break. We were parked at the Contemporary and I had a heck of a time trying to find my way out of there and back onto the main road out of the MK area. We somehow ended up at Ft. Wilderness and then turned around and got lost. Oh my!!! I was not in a good mood. I had to pull over and let DH drive and see if he could figure it out. BIG mistake. LOL. Well, not totally, because he did get us out of the MK area by following the sign for the Poly and then it easily led us to the exit... but after that... I should have gotten back in the driver seat!!! I think I told him at least 5 or 6 times to follow the signs for Animal Kingdom and then for the Animal Kingdom Resorts. Apparently he didn't understand. I thought the signs on the main road were pretty clear...

I was reading over some park maps and time guides and trying to decide what we would do that night after our break. Then DH says "Was I supposed to turn there? I think I missed our exit." I look up and see the exit and sign for the AK resort area passing by. REALLY??!!
"What do you mean you missed our exit?! How many times did I say ANIMAL KINGDOM RESORT AREA?!?!?!"
He gets frustrated and says "I can't keep up with all of these KINGDOMS! I don't know which is which!!!!"
Well, that was the last exit in WDW, so it made us exit and we had to take the interstate to loop back around. I was so afraid this would take hours and we would get lost but thankfully it didn't take too long and we were back...

Needless to say, DH didn't drive us around WDW anymore after that! How hard is it to learn the difference and Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom? Geez.

So that was the 1 time during our trip that I got in a really stinky mood. We had wasted a good portion of our "break time" because of this. As you can see, DD wasn't very amused either, LOL.

But we were happy to finally see our Resort!

I had thought about letting the kids swim quickly while we were back at the resort but this had taken up about 30 minutes of that time so swimming wasn't happening. We just let the kids rest in the room and play with the toys they got from The Emporium for a little bit. And I had to take some time to doctor my poor toe. I had an ingrown toenail and it was getting infected. I know it didn't help that I was walking around on it all day everyday but DANG IT, I was at Disney and nothing was going to stop me!! Even if that meant I was limping around all funny!!!

After a little rest and cooling off, we decided to go back to HS for the night. I really wanted to see F! since it wasn't scheduled when we were there the night before, and we would have another day at MK to go back to see the night stuff there.

UP NEXT: Our night at Hollywood Studio's!

I can so sympathize with you and DH getting turned around. We had a similar experience in the MK lot trying to get to the Poly!

A little tip that I read about here and did for our last trip was to get a pedicure the week before you go. That way any ingrown nail or issues are taken care of. Also your toes will look nice and pretty in sandels or flip flops I took my DD and they did both her nail and toes for like $15!

 

[Lidian]

Sorry to hear that you missed out on F! I understand how little events go wrong and it really puts a damper on things - especially moods. Hope everything goes better!!!!

 

[mrssmith06]

Thanks to everyone who has been reading along!! I hope I haven't lost any readers!!

The end of Day 2...

We left HS after missing out on seeing F! and went back to our resort. We were pretty tired and just wanted to go straight to bed when we got back. As soon as we got in our room, I started getting the kids ready for bed and then let them play for a minute while I started to get ready. DH went over and sat on our bed and then said "Uhh, WHY is our bed so wet?" I walked over and felt the comforter and sure enough, wet. Hmmm. We had been gone from our room for since we had taken our break around 4-5pm and we never messed with our bed. Why would it be wet?

DRIP. DRIP. DRIP. I looked up and OMG!

Our ceiling had water dripping through it and very steadily. The bed was wet all the way through to the sheets, the carpet next to the bed was soaked.
GREAT. Will we have to move rooms in the middle of the night?

DH called the front desk and told them what was going on, she said she would contact maintenance and housekeeping.

We waited. And waited. It seemed like forever, but it was probably only about 30-40 minutes. That is a long time when it's late at night though and your waiting on 2 different people to come to your room and the kids won't go to sleep.

DH calls the front desk back asking how long it will take for them to get to our room. She says it could take up to 2 hours. TWO HOURS?! It would be after midnight by then!!!

SO glad it didn't take 2 hours. About 10 minutes after DH got off the phone, the maintenance guy showed up and housekeeping was just a few minutes behind him. He said that a pipe had busted in the room above us and the entire room was flooded. YIKES. He had shut off the water and was going to try and stop the leaking ASAP.
We went ahead and moved our beds over out of the way of the dripping and stripped our bed and had the wet comforter and sheets ready for housekeeping to take. Then she comes in... She had a pile of bed stuff and sits it down, looks over at the bed with a disgusted look on her face and says "You want ME to fix that?"
I tried to keep me cool at her rudeness and said "No, No, that's ok, I can make the bed, just leave it..." I mean, not that I minded making our bed but did she have to come in with the attitude?
The maintenance guy tells her we need towels to put down on the floor. She's like "What? Why?" and acts like that makes her mad. It takes DH several minutes to explain to her that the ceiling is leaking water and the floor is soaked. She finally goes and gets our towels and then leaves.
It's just sad that you should ever have to deal with someone like that at Disney.

None of us made it to bed until after 11:30pm and we were wanting to hit Epcot at EMH the next morning. Not cool.

Here are a couple of pictures of the ceiling:

They never offered us another room, but I just assumed they were fully booked. I was surprised however that we didn't even receive an apology or anything at all.
After we got home I did email Disney about all of this and we just got a call from them the other day and the lady was super sweet. She apologized several times and said that it should have been handled better than that. They are going to refund us for 1 nights stay. I'm not usually a complainer but I felt that I needed to contact them about that night and I'm glad I did now. They made up for the bad night and that money will go towards our next trip!



UP NEXT: Photopass pics from Day 2, and then: Our 5 year Anniversary at Epcot!

 

[danceintherain]

Wow. That's really terrible. I'm glad they refunded you for one night at least, and it didn't completely ruin your trip. I hope you noted the housekeeper's name and mentioned her specifically in your complaint. Disney or not, she didn't do her job. It's not as if y'all went to the pool, brought a bucket full of water back, dumped it on your bed, then wanted her to clean it up.

 

[mrssmith06]

Wow. That's really terrible. I'm glad they refunded you for one night at least, and it didn't completely ruin your trip. I hope you noted the housekeeper's name and mentioned her specifically in your complaint. Disney or not, she didn't do her job. It's not as if y'all went to the pool, brought a bucket full of water back, dumped it on your bed, then wanted her to clean it up.

I actually didn't get her name, but the lady from Disney that called us said they would figure out who was working that night and that person would be "coached".

Maybe she is why we never got any of the cute little towel animals?

 

[PixieMama]

Eeek! Sorry to hear about the busted pipe and having to deal with unfriendly Mousekeeping. UGH.

But glad to hear you got a call back from Disney and they were able to send you a refund! Woohoo, start saving for the next trip!

 

[Becc1]

That really stinks about your room, I'm shocked that they didn't offer you another room but sadly not shocked bt the mousekeeping. We had a similar issue one night with them on our trip in 2009, my DD had an accient in our bed and that morning I called, aske them what I should do and they told me just to strip the bed and mousekeeping would take care of it. When we came back at 10pm from the parks our room hadn't even been cleaned that day. When I called down to see about getting new bedding they acted like I was totally putting them out, we got the bedding but it took forever for them to get to our room as well.

 

[lbuzz52]

I would have said something too. In my opinion they should have offered you a dry room or at dried your carpet and changes your bedding for you. Did your rook smell musty the rest of the week?
Sorry you missed fantasmic. Just another reason to go back!

 

[Lidian]

Sorry to hear about the leaking room. When you told them about the leak, they should have MOVED you IMMEDIATELY. If there was no availability at your current resort, they should have upgraded you to a better resort - for your hassle of switching.

The behaviour of the Mousekeeper was totally uncalled for. It was her JOB to fix the bedding since the pipes burst. If she doesn't want to do her job, she should quit and let someone else have her position. There are tons of people out there looking for work, and would have been happy to replace your bedding.

Wow... who keeps leaving this soap box laying around? I think it must be TK or Corrine.

Anyway, so sorry you had to deal with the issues. Glad they gave you a 1 night refund, but honestly, I think they should have done better than that. Especially since you had rude CMs everywhere that night. And being told it may be 2+ hours before anyone shows up? No, that's not okay in my book. Guess its a good thing that I wasn't dealing with it. I wouldn't have been very Disney back to them... I may have dropped a few... "bombs", cried a lot, and demanded to speak to the supervisor's supervisor's supervisor. Yep, I'd keep going up the ladder until the issue was resolved and I was happy.

Anyway, glad that you didn't let it bother you. Sorry you had to deal with it though. And I hope that "coaching" is their term for punishing, as that was unacceptable behaviour.

Yeah, yeah, I'll hush up now.

Can't wait to read more!!

 

[beebeeryan]

Kudos to you for handling it so well and not letting it spoil your mood or the trip, but Disney didn't handle that well at all. You had water dripping all over your bed and room and it was late with kids that needed to get to bed. They should have moved you somewhere else. There had to be a room somewhere available. Glad you at least got the refund after the fact. That's something, but when the room flooded above, they should have thought to look at the room below it too and planned to move you when you got back or try and get a hold of you. And Mousekeeping, well, no excuses for her attitude either. It was not your fault any of this was happening, and regardless, it's her job.

 

[mrssmith06]

Thanks girls. I wondered if maybe I had overreacted at all, but I'm glad to hear that everyone agree's with me. My DH wanted me to throw a fit at checkout but I just couldn't do it. I stood in line way longer than I had expected, just to check out. And we were really short on time trying to make it to our morning ADR at Ohana that day. So by the time I got up to the desk I just wanted to leave and get to our breakfast instead of making a scene and waiting on a manager for how ever long that would take!!

And the leaking did stop the next day so it was good and dry before we went to bed on Day 3. If it hadn't been fixed by then, I would have for sure of been throwing a tantrum!

I would have said something too. In my opinion they should have offered you a dry room or at dried your carpet and changes your bedding for you. Did your rook smell musty the rest of the week?
Sorry you missed fantasmic. Just another reason to go back!

No, thankfully it didn't smell at all. Our biggest fear when we seen it leaking was what if it's sewage, what if that's from a toilet??? THAT would have been bad, but luckily it was not!

 

[TanzUnited99]

Wow on the room drama! Can't believe the way it was dealt with - does not sound Disney like at all.

Am glad you got in contact with Disney on your return and were refunded one night's stay.

 

[ctink23]

I don't know how, but I missed so many updates! Great updates from day 2! Looks like you had some great character meals.

I love this quote by your DH:

"What do you mean you missed our exit?! How many times did I say ANIMAL KINGDOM RESORT AREA?!?!?!"
He gets frustrated and says "I can't keep up with all of these KINGDOMS! I don't know which is which!!!!"

Sorry to hear about the leak in your room! Was the bed wet underneath the sheets? I feel like they should have moved you, but I am glad they refunded you for 1 night!

 

[mrssmith06]

Sorry to hear about the leak in your room! Was the bed wet underneath the sheets? I feel like they should have moved you, but I am glad they refunded you for 1 night!

No luckily the comforter took most of the wetness and the sheets were just a little wet but the mattress seemed dry. If the mattress had been wet then yeah, we would have refused to sleep on it.

 

[mrssmith06]

Finally rapping up on Day 2, and looking forward to writing about Day 3! Me and the kids went out to a local water park that we have season passes for yesterday. We stayed out too long, about 5 hours in the pool and me and DS are a little sunburnt now...even with all of the sunscreen we used! But we had a blast. Now back to business...

Our Photopass pics from Day 2 at MK & HS!

The kids weren't real big on pictures this day so me and DH took some alone. DS tried to avoid camera's during most of our trip, lol! And this was the only PP photographer we came across in our 2 day's at MK!! Kind of disappointing, but we didn't go looking for them either.
,

 

[mrssmith06]

So here we are on Day 3. Friday, June 10th, our 5 year anniversary!

Since we were up late with the leak incident, we ended up sleeping later than I wanted. I had my alarm set on my phone but slept through it. *sad* So when I woke up and seen that it was well after 7am, I was not a happy camper. I really wanted to make it to Epcot at 8 for EMH. There was no way we would make it now.
I got up and jumped in the bath and got ready and when I got out I had to drag DH and the kids out of bed and make them get ready. C'MON TROOPS, WE'RE AT DISNEY AND WE ARE LATE, GET UP!!!
I didn't even want to waste time going to the food court for breakfast, so I reached into our snack bag and pulled out a box of good ole Pop tarts while DH went and refilled our Disney mugs.
It was our anniversary however, so I had to slow down for a minute and give DH his gift. I gave him a new watch and an alarm/docking station for his Iphone. Inside the bag I also had a homemade card for him. He loved it. He gave me a card too and said my gift would come later. Hmmm. Ok. (I knew this meant he was going to make me pick something out. Hahaha!).

Oh and here are my celebration buttons that I sported around!!

We made it Epcot just after 9am...regular opening time. Booo!!!

We got in through the crowd and we were having trouble getting to The Land fast enough with the stroller and everyone in our way. So I told DH where to go and park the stroller since I had studied the map already, and I ran ahead and weaved my way through people so that I could get our FPs for...

SOARIN"! And I got them!! The return time was already after Noon. I was happy that we were able to get our FPs though. To make it extra difficult for everyone, one of the FP machines was down, several people would start to wait in line behind the guy that was apparently stuck there. I think it ate his KTTW?!?! He had to wait on a CM to come back.

I got in and out of there as fast as I could and found DH waiting with the kids outside. We parked the stroller and walked over the The Seas.

The kids loved all of the fish tanks inside. First thing we did was the Finding Nemo ride, it was a fun ride, we all enjoyed our journey in the clams!
We seen Turtle Talk and wanted to do that next but the CM said the next show wasn't for another 20 minutes. We decided to let the kids play in the Bruce play area (not sure if there was a name for that area lol) until it was time to line up.

We spotted this guy and thought he was pretty unusual. A frogfish!

The minutes passed quickly and we got in line for Turtle Talk! They let us into the waiting area where there were more tanks and the computers that you take the little quizzes on. It seemed like we waiting in here forever!! The kids got pretty restless and that small area was quickly filling up with people to where we could barely move around. But it was worth it, because we all LOVED it and would do it again for sure!!!

My kids would not sit up front with the other kids. DD ended up regretting this after the show started so hopefully next time she will remember that and sit upfront! It was such a cute little show, I love the interaction!!! It's like, totally awesome... Dude.

It was getting close to 11 and our FPs for Soarin' were for 12:12 so we walked back over to The Land at this point. We wanted to grab lunch soon, we were all getting pretty hungry but nothing was open yet. The Living with The Land boat ride was only a 10 minute wait so we rode that and figured we could eat lunch right after that! When I realized what the boat ride was, I was afraid that the kids would be bored out of their minds but they actually go into it. They were amazed with a lot of it. It was nice, but not something that would be on my "must do" list.

Finally, LUNCH TIME! Where did we go? Well, where else in The Land...

Sunshine Seasons! Yum! I was pretty pleased with this place, we loved the variety! I got the Roasted Chicken, veggies and rice. It was good!

DH got some of the Asian food, can't remember what it was called but it was pretty Yummy!!!

The kids got roasted chicken legs with sides of their choice.

And for dessert, we had to have one of these!

We got done with lunch and still had a few minutes before we had to get in line for Soarin' so we went upstairs to see The Circle of Life film. Sorry, we were kind of bored with that one. But it would be nice when you need to cool off and rest.
When we walked out of the film my clock said it was exactly 12:12! Ha! So back downstairs!! We took the kids to the bathroom first and I got a phone call I had to take so we finally got in line for Soarin' sometime after 12:30.
I LOVED that ride, it became one of my favorites but DS4 was scared on it!! I felt bad for him, he didn't cry but he was shaking like a leaf the entire time! DH and I both kept reassuring him that it was just a TV screen and it wasn't real but he was so nervous! I hope that he will be willing to ride it again, I would like to do it on our next trip!


NEXT UP: Our trip around the World Showcase!

 

[Becc1]

Love the Photopass pics! We only got 1 of just DH and I, I kinda wish I had done more because we don't have many of just the 2 of us.

Glad you all enjoyed Soarin, it's one of our favorites too! My DS was nervous like your DS on his first trip years ago too, but now after riding so much he loves it!

Love Sunshine Seasons, it's a great place to find something for everyone!

 

[PixieMama]

Soarin' is one of my favorites, too! I'm hoping we can talk Mom into going on it... she doesn't like heights, but maybe she'll be ok if we're on the back row.

We skipped Living With the Land on our '07 trip, but the kids all wanted to do it last year. I, too, thought they would be bored out of their minds but surprisingly, they loved it!