It'll Be All Right -A May 2012 TR Closing Thought and PTR Link 8/12*

[amazingact21]

I'm glad you get to take your weekend trip! I know you'll have a great time! If you can't get a military rate at one of the values, have you thought about Shades of Green? I think its a pretty nice resort, and if they are sold out, then they will make you a reservation at an alternate Disney resort, also for a reduced rate.

I'm sorry packet pick up was a hassle. I've heard that it is pretty unorganized, but at least you were in an out quickly and got some cute pictures at the base camp.

I also have no idea what the clue is referring too! Is it Kali River Rapids? That has water and wood and a part with fire- but it doesn't make any sense.

I hope things get better when you get to Epcot!

Alex and I always keep Shades of Green in the back of our mind when we plan a Disney trip. We stayed there a year and a half ago, and it was a great resort. The rooms were twice the size of a value, and it was so great being so close to the Poly and the MK. Without a doubt, if we ever go with a large family group (which we are hoping to do) we're going to stay at SoG once again.

I still have no idea what the answer to the clue is.

Finally joining in! Girl, I understand what you're saying about the heat! There were days we were miserable from it. It just wipes you out! Can't wait to hear more!

The heat was pretty bad this year, and it just makes you tired so much more quickly. I couldn't imagine having to deal with it with two children. Kudos to you!

I finally joining in, only 5 pages late.

All Star Sports actually looks pretty cute Especially the surf area.

I still have not tried EOS. One of these days. Your sandwich sounds especially yummy.

I always feel like no one is as excited as I am about being in Disney(of course in my case, it's usually true) From now on I'm not going to worry about everyone else. I'll jump up and down enough for everyone else.

The people at WWOS don't sound at all helpful with the race information.

Congrats on a weekend trip. I tried to convince DH to fly down for a long weekend in July but he doesn't think anything involving a 3 hour flight is a quick getaway

All Star Sports isn't a bad resort, especially for Alex and I. We tend to spend very little time in the resorts, just long enough to sleep and grab a quick bite to eat, so we've never felt the need to stay anywhere else. However, once we do have a family we plan on trying out the moderates and deluxes.

What?! A 3 hour flight sounds like the perfect amount of time to get to a weekend getaway!

HOORAY for a weekend getaway!!

I am not a person who shows excitement much. At Christmas my mom is always convinced that I don't like my gifts because I'm not acting happy. I guess we are opposite in that regard!

The base camp is so cool! I'd definitely want to get my picture there!

Alex has told me flat out that he's always just as excited as me, he just keeps it inside.rotfl So I can see where you two are coming from.

All Star Sports is so cute. I have always wanted to stay there.

I have heard that the pre race pick ups are a little confusing, but that picture spot sure is cute.

Congrats on the mini vacation. That is so awesome. It must be nice to be able to drive to WDW for the weekend. I hope Alex has zero chance of deploying by the 14th and you can book away.

The packet pickups have never been anything to write home about, but they serve their purpose, and I'm glad I can get the bibs and waiver deal out of the way long before the race time arrives.

We are really fortunate enough to be a 7 hour drive away from WDW, and now that we have APs we want to take advantage of the oppurtunity. Aside from our dog, we don't have anything holding us back, and we're the type of people who like to get away and do things on our time off.

Hooray for a weekend trip soon!! that is awesome!

I dont understand the sample clue either

But I love the area for pictures, that is so cool!! Trust me when I went for the marathon the set up was soooo confusing and there were soooo many people there for the different races I wanted to cry I was so frustrated...so I totally understand!!

And I am the same exact way,I show my excitement and theres no hiding whether I am extremley happy or mad or whatever emotion. Tim and I always have conversations where I think he isn't telling me how he really feels and my poor mom the whole trip I thought she was miserable but she was having a great time. I still ask her about it

Oh man, I didn't even think about what marathon weekend expos were like. I can't blame you for getting frustrated; it had to be insane!

Sounds like your mom and my mom were alike. There were several moments that I thought my mom would rather be back at home, but she swears she had a great time.

Finally joining in, and I'm caught up!

I ate at EoS for the first time last week, and I actually loved it--will definitely return.

I hear you about worrying about everyone else's feelings when you're the planner of the trip. It's hard not to over analyze every little thing and worry that someone's not having a good time. It's also super hard not to take every little thing personally.

Can't wait to hear more about your trip!

Glad to hear you liked EoS the first time around! I'll definitely be on the lookout in your TR to see what you ordered.
I suppose being the planner is partly the reason why I was so stressed. If someone didn't like something, there was that tiny little voice in your head going, "You shouldn't have picked that, you should've known they would've been bored." The downfalls to be the WDW planner, I guess.

Ahh, cool that you were in building 5! We were in building 3, which was really close to the tennis section. I always thought it looked really cute! Awesome! Although, it's NOT awesome that I somehow completely missed seeing Donald and his nephews! I adore Donald.

We had a really nice room too. I'm fairly certain that the All Stars have been refurbished over the last year or so.

Aww, I completely understand how you were feeling! When you're the planner, it can be tough to try and please everyone! I hope yall ended up having a wonderful night!

Hooray for your upcoming weekend trip!

I thought the Donald statue was really cute, and it was something I hadn't seen at the resort before.

I didn't realize the rooms had undergone a refurb, that would certainly explain why the room this year looked better than last year's. They definitely had that "newer" look to them. The table wasn't really scratched, the bathrooms were a bit cleaner, there was a fridge. Gotta say, having a fridge in the values is now going to make it harder on me to stay in anything else for the time being.

 

[amazingact21]

Hi everyone! I just had to say that I feel very sorry for everyone who's at Disney this week. FL has been getting torrential downpours every single day. Even up in North FL, by me, I haven't seen the sun shine in 3 days. I woke up this morning, and I couldn't help but imagine all those families who have planned and planned their WDW vacation and are now getting drenched their entire trip.
Alex and I have at least had time to steel ourselves for it next weekend. We've got our ponchos ready and are packing rain-ready outfits. I'm seriously considering leaving the good camera behind and just bringing my point and shoot, but I doubt I could resist missing photo opportunities.



May 4th Early Evening:

Sensing that the rest of my travel party was creeping towards levels of annoyance by my pestering, I shut my mouth and sat in the passenger seat, taking in the entrance of Epcot.

Ahhh, our first park!


Finally!


We got a spot in one of the first parking lots (at the opposite end of the row, of course) and began walking towards the ticket windows, using the globe as our guide.




Our first Disney signature building!


More than once I had to slow down my pace and return to my mom and Alex. I was so anxious to get inside Epcot that I kept leaving them in the dust.

Whoops.

The only thing that was crossing my mind in that moment was that it had been 7 long, grueling months since my shoes had last step foot inside Disney.

And that was 6 months, 3 weeks, and 5 days too long, if you ask me.







I made it to the ticket window first. What's new?

They only had two kiosks open, which sort of made sense; it was 5:30 and the park was only open for about 3 more hours.

But as some cruel punishment to us poor saps wanting to activate our tickets so late in the game, Disney stuck the slowest moving CMs at the windows. To be fair, it was probably only 40% their fault. The other 60% of blame lands on the other guests.

Dear goodness!

There were two families in front of us and two at the windows, and all four of them had clearly not done their research on what tickets they wanted to purchase. One group had a huge cluster of teenagers that kept running off on them, causing the adults to turn around and yell for them.

Keep all party members present and accounted for!

One of the other family members was halfway through buying their 4 day magic your way tickets when they saw the sign for the Wild for Three FL passes and wanted to change to that.

And all of them wanted to complain about the price.

C'mon folks!

I am THIS close to getting into the parks! THIS close.

It was mean. Having to stand there, seeing the ticket turnstiles, and being kept from going through them.

Normally, I'm a really patient person. I am. Lines don't really bother me, and I stay courteous to other people, but on this day I wanted to ring my hair out.

There was a military family behind us who was on their first WDW vacation, so Alex and I talked to them a bit, gave them some tips. I told the mother about Extra Magic Hours and told her how they go about it (checking room keys) and why it's beneficial.


After what felt like an hour, but was in reality 10 minutes, my mom was able to activate her military tickets, and Alex and I went through the insanely fast process of switching our Annual Pass vouchers for actual tickets. The CM literally took our vouchers, grabbed two passes, swiped them through his computer and handed them to us.

Alex got Goofy.

I got Pluto.

I could handle Pluto. He looked happy. And there’s not much better than a happy Disney character smiling up at you from your ticket.


And this one was wagging his tail.


Even better.




The three of us gleefully walked inside the park.

We were in!

We were officially in Walt Disney World!

A huge smile broke out on my face, and I instantly felt like a kid again.

It's hot out?

So what? I'm in Disney.

I have to run a 5K tomorrow?

Who cares? I'm in Disney.

My mom looks exhausted from her long drive...

Meh, she can last an hour. I'm in Disney.



Immediately, we spotted this year's Flower and Garden Festival entrance topiaries.






The Fantasia theme was cute, but I've never been a huge Fantasia fan (have yet to see it from beginning to end) and it reminded me a little of Hollywood Studios. I think last year's Toy Story set up was better, especially with the smell of Lotso's strawberries floating around.

Luckily, that was my only complaint with the Flower and Garden Festival. Everything else was beautiful, and I know there were tons of WDW guests that adored the Fantasia scene.


Like me, my mom and Alex weren't super impressed, so we breezed by and came upon an unobstructed view of:


The globe!


And it hit me again...

I was in Epcot!!!!!


It wasn't a dream. It wasn't a conversation with Alex over dinner. It wasn't a planning meeting over the phone with my mom. It was actually real. I could go up and put my hand on the globe and feel the heat from the sun shining on it.

But I wasn't going to do that. Germs and all.


I got misty-eyed for a whole 20 seconds; my group was swarming forward with the swell of other guests entering the park, and I had to decide what we were going to do.

I wasn't ready to eat yet, and I didn't want to ride anything rough, so I needed to find something slow and relaxing to pass the time.

Hmmm...

What to do, what to do?


Hello!


It's right in front of our faces!
f1 by Alicia Wolchick, on Flickr


"Let's go on Spaceship Earth!"

That sounded just right to me. A perfect choice for the first ride of our trip.

The line was moving extremely quickly, but right as we got in the queue, a huge crowd of kids appeared in front of us.

There were dozens!

I guess there were a bunch of kid groups visiting WDW during the same time as us, because we saw them everywhere. It was crazy how many were around us.

I ignored them for the time being and made the up and down walk through the chain barriers. At one point I turned around to Alex and asked, "Hey, go to your App and see how long Soarin' is."

And some random guy from another part of the line said, "30 minutes!"

Thanks Random Guy!

It was an instant reminder that I was in Walt Disney World. The people around me were being so friendly!



Alex and I got into our Spaceship Earth car and my mom got in the one behind us and we trundled off into the globe. We didn't catch much of a break from the heat inside the attraction; it was uncomfortably warm, but at least it was dark and quiet.

Until the school age kids began screaming.

Every time the ride got dark or we came to something ominous, they screamed at the top of their lungs.

Really?

I don't know if I tuned them out or if they hushed up, but by the time we reached the Age of the Renaissance they lowered their voices to "talking loudly."

Still distracting, but much better than the screaming.


Alex and I saw our future:



Which still had our puppy dog in it. (He must've come in contact with some growing pills.)



And as we exited the ride we spotted all three of our faces up on the big screen:



When I came out of the building, I asked Mom how she liked the attraction since she last saw it (14 years ago) and the first thing she said was:

"They gave me a new husband!"




I busted out laughing. I walked back out into the daylight holding my stomach, bending over from amusement as my mom explained that because the seat next to her was empty, the computer placed a fake cartoon man with her in all of her future story line.

Sorry, Dad, Spaceship Earth just booted you to the curb.



The three of us had arrived at the rear of the globe and saw:


The coolest topiary in Epcot!

I'm sure it had to do with Fantasia, because I'm almost positive there's a dancing bird scene in the film, but I didn't care where the inspiration came from- it was awesome. Don't ask me why, but I loved it. I ended up taking a picture of the topiary every time I was in Epcot.


When I could finally turn my head away from the peacock(?) and to the left, I caught sight of the Fountain of Nations.



"Remember Dad loved that fountain when he was here," I said to my mom.

It was nice to be able to have someone with me who shared old Disney memories with me, and it made me look forward to the day when Alex and I can look back on these recent trips and remember them with that same excitement and nostalgia.

For the moment, as I looked on at the water shooting up into the sky, I forgot about how worried I was about everyone else's happiness and concentrated on how great it felt to be back home.



Up Next: You Should Try This.

 

[marDgreen88]

Your ticket window experience does not sound fun. Ugh. Some people, I tell ya!

I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN. It always feels extremely surreal to finally be at a park for the first time on a trip!

Those kids sound ridiculous. But the new husband is hilarious!

That bird topiary IS really cool. Wow!

 

[MHTeacher]

That's so funny about your mom saying they gave her a new husband.

YAY for annual passes!

 

[Joyciemc]

Yay! You finally got in the park!

I loved that peacock, too. It was so cool!

 

[teekathepony]

More often than not, Epcot has been my first park on Disney trips! I love it so much, absolutely my favourite park. And no better way to start it off than with Spaceship Earth!

 

[Nermel9]

Yay for finally getting into a park! There is nothing better than walking into the first park of your Disney trip! And I agree, 7 months is WAY too long between trips!

I loved the Fantasia topiaries, but I also really love the movie Fantasia! I wasn't happy to hear the Fantasia music playing in the entrance area, though, I missed the Epcot entrance loop. Still, it's a minor complaint!

That peacock topiary is so cute! I wish it was there all year!

 

[Moodyzblu]

I get that surreal feeling ! "I'm IN Disney" sounds through my head the whole time we are there. It's so weird. But I love it.

Great start to Epcot !

 

[Queenofallthings]

I felt the same way about that peacock topiary! I made Shanleigh take a picture of me on the first day, I thought it was gorgeous We clearly have exceptional taste you and I

 

[Elleshoodat]

LOL @ "they gave me a new husband!" That is too funny.

I do the same thing as you, practically running toward the park gates. I constantly have to stop and wait for everyone to catch up with me. Grrr.

I thought of you and your TR this weekend. We were at International Plaza in Tampa around lunchtime, trying to decide where to eat, and I suggested Earl of Sandwich. I got the Full Montagu, but sadly I didn't care for it. I guess EoS just isn't my cup of tea. Oh, well ... at least I gave it another go!

 

[amazingact21]

Your ticket window experience does not sound fun. Ugh. Some people, I tell ya!

I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN. It always feels extremely surreal to finally be at a park for the first time on a trip!

Those kids sound ridiculous. But the new husband is hilarious!

That bird topiary IS really cool. Wow!

It definitely takes a few minutes for the realization to sink in that you're in Disney. There's just something so special and exciting about entering the park for the first time on that trip. I always love reading about those moments on TRs.

That's so funny about your mom saying they gave her a new husband.

YAY for annual passes!

I have to admit...I love having annual passes. It's going to be hard to see it expire next May, because it's now given Alex and I the excuse to take short trips down there.

Yay! You finally got in the park!

I loved that peacock, too. It was so cool!

It felt like it took forever, but I was "officially" on vacation, in my mind.

More often than not, Epcot has been my first park on Disney trips! I love it so much, absolutely my favourite park. And no better way to start it off than with Spaceship Earth!

It seems to be the first park favorite for me, as well. I guess it's because you can either hit it really hard, ride a bunch of rides, etc or take it nice and slow. Lots of variety.

Yay for finally getting into a park! There is nothing better than walking into the first park of your Disney trip! And I agree, 7 months is WAY too long between trips!

I loved the Fantasia topiaries, but I also really love the movie Fantasia! I wasn't happy to hear the Fantasia music playing in the entrance area, though, I missed the Epcot entrance loop. Still, it's a minor complaint!

That peacock topiary is so cute! I wish it was there all year!

Walking into the first park of the trip is one of my favorites of each vacation. You go in knowing you have so much time ahead of you, and you just know that you're about to make amazing memories and have a ton of fun.

I get that surreal feeling ! "I'm IN Disney" sounds through my head the whole time we are there. It's so weird. But I love it.

Great start to Epcot !

It is a common feeling. Everything around you just seems to extraordinary, that you have a hard time believing you're actually seeing and hearing and experiencing it.

I felt the same way about that peacock topiary! I made Shanleigh take a picture of me on the first day, I thought it was gorgeous We clearly have exceptional taste you and I

Agreed! It was a beautiful topiary, and I felt like it really showed the talent involved in creating the Flower and Garden Festival.

LOL @ "they gave me a new husband!" That is too funny.

I do the same thing as you, practically running toward the park gates. I constantly have to stop and wait for everyone to catch up with me. Grrr.

I thought of you and your TR this weekend. We were at International Plaza in Tampa around lunchtime, trying to decide where to eat, and I suggested Earl of Sandwich. I got the Full Montagu, but sadly I didn't care for it. I guess EoS just isn't my cup of tea. Oh, well ... at least I gave it another go!

I don't get why everyone has to be so slow near the entrance. We're going to Disney for pete's sake!

Ahh, sorry about the Early of Sandwich letdown. At least now you know not to waste your energy there while in Disney, more time for things you do like!

 

[wakica]

yay! I was so excited to hear your heading down this weekend!!! You must be so excited!!! i'm jealous lol.

That packet pick up clue SUCKED!!! I don't know ANYONE that figured it out! What was the deal with that?? To get everyone worked up?? lol. Luckily I didn't see it so it didn't bother me in the least bit

I can totally relate on you being steps ahead of everyone else in the park. At home I'm the relaxed laid back one that doesn't want to rush ever if I don't have to but once I hit a park ... well actually to be honest it starts first thing in the morning with getting up! LOL that I'm steps ahead of EVERYONE! The laid back, usually sleeping in gal that I usually am disappears and I'm hounding everyone out of bed, hurry hurry hurrying them through breakfast, pack lunch and bags myself bc I can't wait any longer for them and then always speeding and steps ahead of everyone in the parks leading the way. HAHA. So, I had to giggle when I read how you were steps ahead of them and had to go back.

 

[amazingact21]

yay! I was so excited to hear your heading down this weekend!!! You must be so excited!!! i'm jealous lol.

That packet pick up clue SUCKED!!! I don't know ANYONE that figured it out! What was the deal with that?? To get everyone worked up?? lol. Luckily I didn't see it so it didn't bother me in the least bit

I can totally relate on you being steps ahead of everyone else in the park. At home I'm the relaxed laid back one that doesn't want to rush ever if I don't have to but once I hit a park ... well actually to be honest it starts first thing in the morning with getting up! LOL that I'm steps ahead of EVERYONE! The laid back, usually sleeping in gal that I usually am disappears and I'm hounding everyone out of bed, hurry hurry hurrying them through breakfast, pack lunch and bags myself bc I can't wait any longer for them and then always speeding and steps ahead of everyone in the parks leading the way. HAHA. So, I had to giggle when I read how you were steps ahead of them and had to go back.

It was probably a good thing you missed the sample clue. It made my mom start worrying about the race.


It's so hard to keep calm when you know you're about to enter WDW! There's time for sleeping in and eating later!

 

[amazingact21]

I am going to try and post an update sometime this weekend, but I won't make any promises. My mother's birthday was last week, and I got her tickets to a charity dance event at my college. It's featuring dancers from the show Dancing with the Stars, which my mom, me, and my two aunts watch together as a way to visit and make small talk. So, I'll be busy with all that fun stuff tonight and tomorrow morning, leaving me away from my computer.


Even though I don't have an official update, I just had to say that sometimes, when things feel too good to be true, they probably are.

Tuesday afternoon, Alex and I called and booked our room for this Saturday night. Managed to get our first resort choice, All Star Movies. This was complete luck on our part; we figured 5 days out there'd be nothing available, especially at the values.

The trip was set in stone, but even up until this morning, I couldn't wrap my head around it. I tried to imagine myself in the parks, riding Thunder Mtn, watching Wishes, and it just wasn't happening.


I probably had intuition or something, because Alex called me from work about 30 minutes ago saying he has a meeting next week that he absolutely cannot get out of. (Found out about it yesterday) He spoke with several of his bosses, but they all stood their ground and told him he has to be there.





I'm waiting on him to call me back so we can discuss our next course of action, but what I'll probably do is call Disney and ask them to transfer our dates to sometime in August. When we called to book the room, we asked what would happen if we couldn't make it (yet again, another sign that I was worried) and the CM promised us that we'd be able to move our reservation to another time, and that, at most, we might lose 50 dollars.


It's a huge bummer that we won't be going to Disney this weekend, but seeing as this was supposed to just be a weekend getaway, I'm not losing too much sleep over it. I still have 11 months to use my APs, and Alex's boss is pretty accommodating, so there's a tiny chance we can switch our 3 day weekend to another date. Fingers crossed!

 

[UGAFan0829]

That stinks, Alicia! I'm really sorry that things didn't work out, but very glad to know that you may be able to switch it to August!!

 

[marDgreen88]

Aww, I'm sorry that you can't go this weekend. It's good that you're positive about it and that you can still go sometime this summer though!

 

[MHTeacher]

Sorry your weekend get-away fell through! But, yay for a fun birthday night for your mom!

 

[Moodyzblu]

Sorry about your weekend .. hopefully you'll get there real soon !

 

[wakica]

awe I'm sad you won't be going this weekend but glad you are still able to plan a trip very soon. Maybe you'll have to do something special anyway this weekend to make sure you don't have a "missed Disney trip" funk. LOL. Dinner and a movie or something else special?? I don't have a clue what is special around your area (we have a mineral spa almost an hour drive away so that's where we go for special times) so not sure what's available to you to avoid the funk but there's got to be something right??

 

[CandleontheWater]

Uggg, the military can ruin the best laid plans! I'm so sorry you had to cancel, but I hope you can go again soon!