It was all started by a towel...

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

We are headed out shortly!

Marti, Elin, Terry, Stephanie, Debbie & Richie, Bernadette, Clare & Lee, Maggie & Gabby, and Mike - hope to see all of you soon!!!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

We're home!

The trip was, um, interesting.

Too tired to go into detail tonight, but I will get a report and pics together over the next couple of days!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

The Departure

We left the house Thursday afternoon. We always park at the offsite lot. We got there, and all they had was covered parking. Hmm. Would have preferred uncovered, but covered was OK. So far, so good.

Our plane was departing on time. We got to the terminal, checked our bag, went up to security. The line we were in was shut down due to some drama. We had to get out of the line and hoof it down to the next checkpoint. We got over to the gate without any additional issues.

We boarded the plane, then they announced that the navigation system was broken and we had to wait for the mechanic. That delayed our departure by about 45 minutes.

We landed at MCO at 8:50 instead of 8:15, but still, not THAT bad.

We went down to ME and got on a bus. I was watching them load people on our bus from all different queues. I commented about that to DH. We sat there for a nice long time. We finally leave the airport and the driver says we are going to something-something-something-something Village. We couldn't hear him because the people in the seats next to us were so flippin' LOUD!!!

It turns out what the driver said was this: Coronado, All Star Sports, All Star Movies, AKL Jambo, and Kidani Village. Yes. FIVE stops on the ME bus. Yes, it was almost 10 PM so not that many people coming in, but COME ON!!! FIVE resorts is excessive.

We got to AKL and checked in. We had booked savanna bunk beds, we got savanna bunk beds. I have to say I did NOT care for the location of the room. I never really knew there was a "2nd" floor at AKL. It turns out there IS a 2nd floor. The view from our room included a BIG rock, a BIG post, and an area of savanna that was largely NOT inhabited by anything. We did see a few zebras, a few ankole cattle, a few antelope, but they were pretty far away. For such a short trip I would not book this category again. The only reason I booked it to begin with was because that was all they had with an AP discount.

We dropped our bags in the room and went down to Mara for dinner because they close at 11:30 PM. When we got back to the room our checked bag wasn't there. We didn't think that much about it. We went to bed at midnight, and figured we would call down for the bag as soon as we woke up.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Day 1

We got up about 6:30 AM. The message light on the phone wasn't flashing. The light should have been flashing. I called Bell Services. The girl put me on hold, came back and said the guy couldn't find the bag but he was going to look in another place. She said they would bring the bag up shortly. Hmm.

After 30 minutes I called again. She said "He didn't bring it to you?" Um, no. So she puts me on hold, comes back and says they don't have my bag but they will keep looking.

I took a shower, then I marched down to the desk.

She asked me what time our flight landed, etc. THEN she says the ME desk at the airport doesn't open until NINE O'CLOCK!!! There won't be anyone to look for my bag at MCO until NINE!! NINE!!! The parks OPEN at NINE!!!! We packed all of our shoes, jackets, DH's poncho in that bag and they can't look for it until NINE!!! She said I would need to give her the claim ticket from American and she would send a message to the airport. I had already called American and told them my bag was missing. They told me the bag was scanned onto the plane, so I was pretty sure it was ME that lost it, not the airline. I went back to the room to get the claim check, then BACK to the Bell desk.

A manager gave me a poncho for DH - DS and I had ours because they were in the carry-ons. I took off my shoe and showed it to the Bell Services girl. I told her I could NOT go to the park in the pouring rain wearing leather shoes with a big old heel on them. DH was also in leather shoes, and DS was in sneakers that we bought a week ago. The Bell Services CM told me to get Crocs and we would be reimbursed for them. OK, fine. Except Zawadi didn't have the sizes we needed, and neither did Johari. So we had to go to Epcot in our leather shoes. The Bell Services CM said she would call me if they found my bag. She told me 99% of the time they DO find them. In fact, they ALREADY found the missing bag of another guest!

It wasn't really raining when we got to Epcot about 10 AM. We got our Crocs. Then it started to rain. Steadily. We put the ponchos on and rode Spaceship Earth, Living with the Land, and Figment. The stand-by for Soarin' was an hour, so we got FPs but the return time wasn't until like 3 PM.

We decided to brave the elements and go over to World Showcase. Around noon I called American. The lady couldn't find any additional info on the bag. Hmm. She said she would call me back if she was able to find out anything.

We walked through the shops in the UK, stopped in the shop in France to ask about some tea my boss has been looking for (which they didn't have), then we gave up. We were all 3 soaked from the knees down, and that wet denim was sticking to us. The rain wasn't letting up and we were all miserable. We took the boat back across the lagoon, sloshed back through Future World, and went to the bus stop. There was already one family waiting. We waited for probably 20 minutes before the bus showed up.

We got back to AKL and I went to the Bell Desk to turn in the receipt for the Crocs. The CM said "Oh, we found your bag! It's in your room. It's been in there since about 11 AM. We couldn't call you because the phone wouldn't dial your cell #." Really? There wasn't a manager around who could call a long distance number? OK, whatever. Since I phoned American at noon and they had no info that is a pretty clear indication that ME lost the bag. We went to the room and we were thrilled to find that the bag really was there, it was not damaged, and everything was still inside!! I called American to tell them I had my bag. We changed into dry clothes and went down to Mara for lunch.

We stopped in Zawadi for a minute to trade with King Pin. I also wanted to exchange a pin I bought in August because I accidentally bought 2 of the same one. It was still on the card and I had the receipt. It turns out that pins are subject to a 30 day return policy. It actually says that on the back of the receipt, but I hadn't read the fine print very carefully. OK, so now I have a $10 pin to use as a trader.

After lunch we took a nap, then we took a cab over to Boardwalk for our ADR at Flying Fish.

A couple of pics of our view. We were in room 2411.
View looking left.

View looking straight.

View looking right.

View looking sort of straight to the right.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

When we walked out of AKL it was GRIDLOCK. There were cars everywhere! I spotted 2 taxis in the fray. I was waiting for the people to get out of the first one, then another driver started waving us over. But his cab wasn't under the awning - it was out in the POURING rain. I just looked at him. I was NOT going to get drenched climbing into a cab when there was a perfectly good cab UNDER the awning RIGHT behind me! The driver scooted the cab up a bit and opened the door so I only got partially wet.

We got to Boardwalk and had the same gridlock in the valet area. Glad we were in a cab!

We walked down to Flying Fish. The check-in podium was outside. Not sure why they decided to make the CM stand outside. In the summer they always stand INSIDE. We checked in and I told the CM we had a party of 4 instead of 3. He said he had us listed as 4. Really? Because I never bothered to change it when my friend said she would join us for dinner. Unfortunately, neither of my favorite servers were there. My friend was already waiting for us inside, and we didn't have to wait for a table.

Swordfish

Kid's "Fish sticks"

Shrimp pasta

Calamari

Tuna tartare

Crab cake

Dinner was good. There was some kid SCREAMING intermittently, but other than that, a very enjoyable experience. Every time we have been to Flying Fish in the past we have ordered a cake. This time we did not have a cake, and nothing on the dessert menu sounded that great. We walked down to the Boardwalk Bakery and found some chocolate cake, then we took it up to the lobby and ate our cake in one of the sitting areas. Then we discovered the evil chairs.

I JUST read a thread about the evil chairs last week. I have to say if I was a child and someone threatened to make me sit in those chairs I would NOT be naughty! Perhaps Flying Fish needs to borrow those chairs for the screaming children in the restaurant. I dared DS to go sit in one. He did. But he didn't like it.

From there my friend drove us back to AKL. We only got sort of lost. I am not good with maps. Or signs.

 

[lovesdumbo]

I wouldn't have called the screaming all that "intermitten". I still can't believe I didn't see you there!

We had a wonderful meal there. I got the white chocolate puzzle dessert for Lizzy-she enjoyed it! Ralph got the cheese cake-I tasted it and it was really good. I don't remember what Dorinda got-some sort of chocolate cake or something.

 

[PNO4TE]

We walked down to Flying Fish. The check-in podium was outside. Not sure why they decided to make the CM stand outside. In the summer they always stand INSIDE.

It was inside in October too, Elizabeth.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Our day at Epcot was basically a wash-out. But there are a few pics.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Day 2

Saturday we headed to MGM. (Or whatever they are calling it today.)

We skipped breakfast because it was AM EMH. We like to hit the park and then get breakfast after a few rides.

It was STILL raining. As soon as we got through the turnstiles we bought umbrellas. We already own WDW umbrellas but we didn't BRING them. In the summer we never saw a single umbrella. I wasn't even sure they were still allowed in the parks. Apparently people are just more tolerant of rain in the summer. When it is cold there are LOTS of umbrellas!

We got in the stand-by queue for Toy Story Mania. It was posted 40 minutes, but we were through the line in 25. From there we went on RnRC - it was basically a walk-on. We bought some muffins at Writer's Stop and sat at some mostly dry tables to eat. After that I bought some pins at the Hat, we rode Movie Ride, we walked through the shops. At 11 AM we went to the theater for the 11:30 Beauty & the Beast. We have only seen that show one other time, and it was really fabulous. The very last pic that DH took showed "card error", so that was a bit of a problem. I am not even sure what he did to fix it. I think he swapped cards.

While we were waiting for the show one of our friends called to see where we were. They met us after the show, and we walked over to Star Tours. I won't ride Star Tours, so I waited with the other "opt outs". Another friend called to see where we were, and then another friend called, so by the time everybody got off the ride we had most of our group assembled. We headed to ToT for our group ride and photo.

DS hates ToT. He waffled back and forth on whether he was going to ride. At the last minute he decided "no". But Mrs.Heg was able to convince him to ride. DS loves her, and she can talk him into things that I can't.

The line wasn't bad at all. Our group of 9 was loaded into the elevator. DS was sitting behind DH. This turned out to be a HUGE problem. DH likes to be "daring". He found it necessary to stick his arm up during the photo (he was holding the camera with his other arm, but he HAD to put his free arm up), which COMPLETELY obscured DS's face. I thought DS was going to cry when he saw the picture.

We exited Tower and by then another friend had arrived and it was time for lunch at Mama Melrose.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

These photos are completely out of order. Photobucket annoys me.

Where were we? Oh, lunch. Right.

Lunch was a lot of fun! Our group of friends are all DISers. Some of us have met before, others met for the first time on this trip.

I had the cheese flat bread and I have to say it wasn't very impressive. It was tough, and it was SALTY. I mean REALLY salty.

DH had chicken and DS had a kid's pizza.

For dessert I had a chocolate lava cake thing, DH had cheesecake, and DS had ice cream. The desserts were quite good.

After lunch we decided to go back to AKL to grab scarves and gloves because the temps were dropping. Then we went back to MGM for the Lights. It was CROWDED!

After the Lights we walked by Toy Story. Stand by was 110 minutes. No, thanks!

From there we had a dilemma. Our dinner ADR wasn't until 8:35, and it wasn't even 8 PM yet. We decided to get on the boat to Yacht Club and just see if we could get in early. DH was mad because he claimed that I didn't tell him about dinner and he ate a HUGE lunch so he wasn't hungry. The line for the boat looked like it was going to rival the stand-by for Toy Story. Incredibly, we made it on the second boat! Of course I have never seen that many people crammed on a boat before, but hey, whatever it takes.

We got to Yacht Club and checked in at Yachtsman. The hostess said they were running exactly on the reservation times. It was about 8:10 by then. We got a pager and waited. And waited. And DH fumed and glared at me. I didn't want to leave because we had requested our favorite waiter and I thought it would be rude to leave. At 8:35 the hostess came out and told us we wouldn't have a table with our waiter until 9 PM. Oh, dear.

I decided to wait. DH glared some more.

We were seated shortly after 9 PM, with our waiter, Ricardo. We love Ricardo.
I saw at the bottom of the menu that the chef had changed. Hmm. Apparently the new chef found it necessary to tweak my favorite seafood salad appetizer. It's not my favorite anymore! The steaks also came out not exactly right. My "medium well" was well. DH's "medium well" was the rare side of medium, but some spots were closer to medium well. Not digging the new chef.

Of course we missed IllumiNations at 9:30, and that was my fault, so DH was grumpy. We took a cab back to AKL after dinner and called it a night.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Some pics of the RARE times there were actually animals outside our room.

 

[tinknme]

Nice picture, look forward to seeing you all again!

 

[Sha]

I know this is from your old trip report, but I went to HS with Len =0)

What day did you arrive to WDW?? It was raining bad when I left home to get there and then it caught back up with me there after I had been at BLT for awhile. I talked to my mom while I was at DL and she said it was raining again for a couple days that I talked to her.

I am inspired to do a trip report.... just want to work on the pictures first. Sorry we didnt get a chance to meet up again. We will though!!! Am not going out of the country this year for my bday. Going north though... home in Virginia.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Sha - How fun that you went to school with Len! We are big UG fans, so it was very cool to meet him!

We flew in Thursday night, got rained on all day Friday, got rained on all morning Saturday, then FINALLY had good weather Sunday. Monday we were so disorganized there was no way we could get to AK for AM EMH although that was our original plan.

We will be back June 4-19 next year.

I know we'll be at WDW June 4-16, trying to sort out what to do with those last few nights. We have a room booked at Universal because we are out of points. Thought about cancelling that and doing a bounce-back room at WDW, but the rates are so flippin' high that the discount barely made a difference! So, I thought about renting points from a friend or doing a room on the AP PIN. But the AP PIN is only valid through 6/12, so those nights would have to be in the front instead of the back, and I would have to see if the villa we want is available to add on at the end. Which would cost more points because the rates change int he middle of our trip. Too many choices.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Day 3

Sunday. It FINALLY stopped raining!!
And it wasn't brutally cold, either, so things were looking up! And it was Magic Kingdom day!!

I started looking around at the accumulation of mess in the room. I told DH "You know, I was thinking..." He hates when I think. Which is unfortunate, because I think A LOT. And what I was thinking was that we should call for an Owners Locker.

Hey, Melissa! Guess what? I looked them up in the PHONE BOOK!!! Judging from the coating of dust on the cover, I was the only one who had needed it in a LONG time.

Anyway, phoned Owners Locker and spoke to Brian. He was awesome. He said he could bring our locker later that afternoon. Perfect! So we could leave the 3 new pairs of Crocs, the new umbrellas, the rain jackets, the ponchos, and whatever else we could live without until we go back in June.

We grabbed some breakfast at Mara and headed out to the bus. As luck would have it, there was a bus at the stop when we walked up! Nice!

We got to MK and discovered our friend Elin was absolutely right when she said parade taping had been shifted to Sunday. Hmm.

Once we got through the crowd on Main St. it wasn't bad at all! DS made a beeline for Space Mtn. (It was closed in August.) He and DH hopped in the stand-by line (posted 10 minutes) and I waited for them in the shop. By about 9:20 they were finished! We rode Buzz, Tea Cups, Pooh, Snow White, Peter Pan, Small World, and Haunted Mansion with hardly any wait at all. We got cookies in Frontierland, rode Pirates, and started to think about lunch. I guess it was about 11:30. We decided it would be easier to go back to AKL for lunch. We cut through the shops up to the Fire Station to avoid the parade crowds - the shops were practically empty so we took our time and browsed a bit. I was very pleased at how little the parade impacted our touring.

Back at AKL I had a turkey ciabatta and couscous. I have decided I am quite fond of that combination.

Our room hadn't been cleaned when we got back, so that was kind of a pain. When the housekeeper knocked we just had her leave clean towels (I have to have towels, you know.) We all took a nice, long nap. When we woke up I called Bell Services to bring our Locker. DH was impressed. I am glad we called. Having the Locker won't eliminate an entire checked bag for us, but the convenience factor will be huge.

I gathered up my hat, scarf, gloves, and jacket for MVMCP and off we went BACK to MK. We had planned to be back there by about 3:30, but it was about 5 PM before we went back to the bus stop. We had a 5:45 ADR for Crystal Palace but we weren't 100% sure if we really wanted a big dinner. We were still kind of full from lunch. That kept happening to us. I asked DS and he said he wanted to go to Crystal Palace, so I figured we would at least go see how close they were to seating on time. In June I have spaced our ADRs better and I have left several days wide open.

The MK bus arrived and we got on. DS found a seat pretty close to the front, and DH and I were standing. As more people got on we ended up moving back, and I sat down next to a family with 2 little girls. The one little girl had a Sleeping Beauty doll that she showed me, and I started chatting with the girl and the mom. A few minutes later the little girl wanted to sit with the dad, so the mom took the younger DD. The girls were SO cute, and the baby was so sweet and so smart! She was talking up a storm, smiling, wriggling. I asked how old she was and her mom said 21 months. Their older DD was 4. The baby had a little feeding tube in her nose but it didn't seem to be bothering her in the least. As we talked the mom told me that beautiful baby has terminal cancer. Their friends sent them on the trip to make some memories while they still had time. They are hoping to get into a clinical trial at St. Jude's that might give her 6-12 more months. I am a pretty tough girl, but I almost started to cry on the spot. I have been keeping them in my thoughts. I absolutely can not imagine how horrible that must be. I hope that a miracle finds them.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Hmm. It appears that we didn't take many pics during the day at MK.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

MVMCP pics.

We eat at CP at least once every trip, so only seeing 2 out of 4 characters wasn't a big deal.

DS got perfect score!!!!

Meeting more DIS friends!!

Carousel

In the queue for Space Mountain

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Dinner at Crystal Palace was about the same as always. Our ADR was 5:45, we were seated at 6:10. Food & service were fine. Never did see Pooh or Tigger.

When we finished dinner they were checking wristbands on Main St. The thing that peeved DH was the people coming OUT of Tomorrowland were circling up to Terrace Noodle Station and helping themselves to hot chocolate, cookies, etc. without anyone checking to see if they paid party admission. When we got on Buzz they were checking. From there we went by Space (which was broken), and then over to Toon Town. We looked in the shop and then we went on the Barnstormer (because it was there) and they did NOT check for wristbands. In fact, they never checked again for the rest of the night and my band was covered by my jacket sleeve.

It was wonderful to finally meet Maggie and Gabby in person! And thanks to them, I found out the MVMCP pins were on sale! I even got the Passholder MVMCP pin for half price!

For us, the party was pretty much just an expensive EMH! We didn't see the parades or the shows and we only caught part of the fireworks from Liberty Square. For the most part the rides were not crowded, so it worked well for us. Space Mountain was broken when the party started, but we went back about 11:30 PM and it was running. I rode with DS. I still don't really like that ride.

At about 11:50 we headed for the exit. But we took a little detour through Uptown Jewelers. Where DH bought the Disney Dooney purse for me. I think he wanted me to feel better about the crummy trip.