jwsqrdplus2
<font color=green>I suddenly got inspired<br><font
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2003
- Messages
- 5,265
We just got back from a 6-day, 7-night stay at Shades of Green. Our party included 9 people: 5 adults and 4 kids (15, 12, 5 and 3). We had tons of fun and dodged tons of raindrops! Some thoughts from out trip (these are just my opinions):
Hotel: If you are eligible, Shades is the best deal on property. You are essentially on the monorail loop (short walk to Poly) without paying monorail resort prices. Rooms are large and comfortable even for a family of 4 with 2 teens (OK, 1 teen and 1 almost teen) or 2 young kids. Buses from Shades do run with military precision which is both good and bad. Good: the schedule is quite predictable. Bad: if you "just miss" a bus, you generally have to wait an hour for the next one, take the next bus to a monorail resort, or take a cab.
FP+: we did not have magic bands (although DH wants me to look into them for next trip), so we used our park tickets. Everything worked as advertised including the e-mail notification when a ride was down during your FP+ window. No one in our party had any major issues with FP+. We could only make our reservations 30 days out, but we were able to get everything we wanted (including A&E after their hours were extended). In MK, we did not get the most ideal times/flow, but we made it work. Note: Using military salute tickets purchased in advance thru SOG requires a lot of organization on the guest's part. I received copies of the back of our vouchers so I could make FP+ reservations. I assigned a voucher to each person, then made FP+ reservations for our entire party. SInce we were not all doing the same rides at the same time, keeping straight which ticket belonged to which person was paramount! When we activated the tickets, I literally wrote the name of the person it belonged to on the activated ticket to keep things straight. Another use for a sharpie on your trip!
4th and beyond FP+: Worked great. We were able to get additional FP+s based on availability. Only one major glitch: make sure the CM at the kiosk listens to you before he/she starts pushing buttons. We had one who just started pushing buttons despite me saying our party was split between 2 parks, and suddenly the part of our group that was in MK (no park hoppers) had a FP for DHS. The only way to straighten that out was to go to Guest Relations at front of the park (we were at the FP+ kiosk by Muppets) in the then pouring rain! I texted the other half of our group to let them know what happened, and fortunately they were able to just let them expire, so no harm done. But I have yet to figure out how the CM was able to do that since we did not have park hoppers. I do look forward to being able to schedule 4th and beyond on my phone rather than having to seek out a kiosk!
Weather: We had an extremely rainy trip. And I do not mean just the afternoon pop-up shower that goes away 5-10 mins later. I mean massive storms including lightning and thunder every day we were there. We have traveled to WDW during this time of year several times, and I am pretty sure this was the rainiest trip ever for us! But the rain did not stop us from having fun. We either waited out the showers in indoor attractions/stores or we donned our ponchos to head to the next indoor attraction. The only day the rain really messed with was our MK day and SDMT FP+! MAJOR OPINION ALERT: I feel that Disney needs to ban umbrellas from the parks. Some people are absolutely dangerous with umbrellas! I wear a hat in Disney for both sun and rain protection. I lost count of the number of times the spokes from someone's umbrella skimmed across the brim of my hat (and I am 5' 7", hardly considered short!). Had I not been wearing it, those spokes could have easily been in/near my eyes. DH (who is 6' 1") had many up close and personal encounters with umbrellas as well.
SDMT: this ride was down more than up our entire trip. We only went to MK 1 day, but we heard the same story from fellow guests throughout the week. Like most outdoor attractions, it goes down when it rains, especially when there is lightning in the area. However, since the ride is still new, there are still kinks to be worked out. How excessive rain and humidity impacts the ride is one of those kinks! Not only was it down due to rain, but it remained down due to mechanical issues caused by the rain. We finally did get to ride it around 9pm (FP+ was for 3:15-4:15), and it was a fun ride. I recommend a night time ride if you can get it though. Cresting the hill after the mine scene and seeing the castle all lit up is pretty neat!
CMs: we found them to be as friendly and helpful as ever. The very first CM we talked to in GR at MK when we went to activate our military salute tickets was awesome, and that did not change throughout the week. At the end of our MK day, we got stuck on Splash for an hour before we were evacuated. I have a bum knee (surgery on it 3 times) that normally does not bother me too much at WDW as long as I am careful, brace it when necessary and don't do anything stupid. Unfortunately, being stuck in Splash for that long kept my knee bent past 90 degrees which in turn led to me having problems the rest of the week. I was still able to walk, but it was more of a limp, and I had to brace it all day instead of just later in the day when I was tired. Also, hills and ramps slowed me down while stairs became my nemesis (always have been to some degree)! Bending my knee to fit in the ride vehicles for several attractions became increasingly difficult. However, politely asking attraction CMs if there was a seat with a little more leg room, or an option to avoid stairs worked. Every time I asked, the CM was able to help me out, so we could still enjoy attractions. Often we were seated in the wheelchair row as long as there were no other wheelchair/scooter patrons waiting or directed to the ramp for entering an attraction to avoid stairs. It made things much more comfortable for me, and we were able to carry on with our trip just at a much slower pace! It was obvious to us that the CMs we encountered absolutely love their job!
Other guests: I always enjoy "making new friends" on the buses or waiting in line for rides, and that continued on this trip. The biggest grumblings I heard the entire week was all weather related due to the rain. My oldest (15) on the other hand seemed to notice everything: strange outfits (strapless, tiger striped jumpsuit with acrylic platform heels), guests that were oblivious to the others around them, large groups plowing through other guests, people invading her personal space in lines, etc. She kept getting frustrated, and I had to remind her that not everyone has the same idea of how to vacation at Disney. I noticed a few wild things too (mostly bizarre outfits, especially at DHS since it was Star Wars Weekend!), but nothing that detracted me from having fun!
Emergency Procedures: this was the first time we ever experienced Disney's emergency procedures first hand. We were near the end of our ride on Splash (about 3-4 logs from unload) when suddenly all the lights came on inside the attraction. My first thought was, "That can't be good." We get the standard announcement of how things will be underway shortly a couple of times. Then we get the "We are unable to fix the problem, and we will begin evacuation procedures immediately." CMs start moving back and forth on all the paths, telling guests to stay in their seats, and explaining the evacuation procedures. A guest in front of us asked what happened. The first CM said he could not tell us. The next one asked said someone jumped off the ride on the up slope of the big drop. We did see a mom and her kids being escorted out of Splash before the actual evacuation began, and later DH heard a lady talking outside the bathrooms by Splash how her daughter freaked out, slipped under the lap bar and jumped out before she could grab her. So we are pretty sure that is what happened. Evacuation was very safe and orderly. As we were escorted out of the backstage area, each guest evacuated was handed an anytime, paper FP for the "thrill" rides in MK that expired Jun 30. We were not coming back to MK that trip, but half our group was, so we gave them the passes. The biggest downfall to the whole adventure was it did affect my bum knee in a negative manner.
Overall, we had a great time. We experienced things we had never done before (SDMT, Blizzard Beach, DisneyQuest) as well as revisited most of our favorites. Because of the age range of our group (68 down to 3) we took the whole trip at a much more relaxed pace than normal. FP+ really helped us to do that. We didn't get to do everything we normally do, but I wasn't worried since I know we will be back!
Hotel: If you are eligible, Shades is the best deal on property. You are essentially on the monorail loop (short walk to Poly) without paying monorail resort prices. Rooms are large and comfortable even for a family of 4 with 2 teens (OK, 1 teen and 1 almost teen) or 2 young kids. Buses from Shades do run with military precision which is both good and bad. Good: the schedule is quite predictable. Bad: if you "just miss" a bus, you generally have to wait an hour for the next one, take the next bus to a monorail resort, or take a cab.
FP+: we did not have magic bands (although DH wants me to look into them for next trip), so we used our park tickets. Everything worked as advertised including the e-mail notification when a ride was down during your FP+ window. No one in our party had any major issues with FP+. We could only make our reservations 30 days out, but we were able to get everything we wanted (including A&E after their hours were extended). In MK, we did not get the most ideal times/flow, but we made it work. Note: Using military salute tickets purchased in advance thru SOG requires a lot of organization on the guest's part. I received copies of the back of our vouchers so I could make FP+ reservations. I assigned a voucher to each person, then made FP+ reservations for our entire party. SInce we were not all doing the same rides at the same time, keeping straight which ticket belonged to which person was paramount! When we activated the tickets, I literally wrote the name of the person it belonged to on the activated ticket to keep things straight. Another use for a sharpie on your trip!
4th and beyond FP+: Worked great. We were able to get additional FP+s based on availability. Only one major glitch: make sure the CM at the kiosk listens to you before he/she starts pushing buttons. We had one who just started pushing buttons despite me saying our party was split between 2 parks, and suddenly the part of our group that was in MK (no park hoppers) had a FP for DHS. The only way to straighten that out was to go to Guest Relations at front of the park (we were at the FP+ kiosk by Muppets) in the then pouring rain! I texted the other half of our group to let them know what happened, and fortunately they were able to just let them expire, so no harm done. But I have yet to figure out how the CM was able to do that since we did not have park hoppers. I do look forward to being able to schedule 4th and beyond on my phone rather than having to seek out a kiosk!
Weather: We had an extremely rainy trip. And I do not mean just the afternoon pop-up shower that goes away 5-10 mins later. I mean massive storms including lightning and thunder every day we were there. We have traveled to WDW during this time of year several times, and I am pretty sure this was the rainiest trip ever for us! But the rain did not stop us from having fun. We either waited out the showers in indoor attractions/stores or we donned our ponchos to head to the next indoor attraction. The only day the rain really messed with was our MK day and SDMT FP+! MAJOR OPINION ALERT: I feel that Disney needs to ban umbrellas from the parks. Some people are absolutely dangerous with umbrellas! I wear a hat in Disney for both sun and rain protection. I lost count of the number of times the spokes from someone's umbrella skimmed across the brim of my hat (and I am 5' 7", hardly considered short!). Had I not been wearing it, those spokes could have easily been in/near my eyes. DH (who is 6' 1") had many up close and personal encounters with umbrellas as well.
SDMT: this ride was down more than up our entire trip. We only went to MK 1 day, but we heard the same story from fellow guests throughout the week. Like most outdoor attractions, it goes down when it rains, especially when there is lightning in the area. However, since the ride is still new, there are still kinks to be worked out. How excessive rain and humidity impacts the ride is one of those kinks! Not only was it down due to rain, but it remained down due to mechanical issues caused by the rain. We finally did get to ride it around 9pm (FP+ was for 3:15-4:15), and it was a fun ride. I recommend a night time ride if you can get it though. Cresting the hill after the mine scene and seeing the castle all lit up is pretty neat!
CMs: we found them to be as friendly and helpful as ever. The very first CM we talked to in GR at MK when we went to activate our military salute tickets was awesome, and that did not change throughout the week. At the end of our MK day, we got stuck on Splash for an hour before we were evacuated. I have a bum knee (surgery on it 3 times) that normally does not bother me too much at WDW as long as I am careful, brace it when necessary and don't do anything stupid. Unfortunately, being stuck in Splash for that long kept my knee bent past 90 degrees which in turn led to me having problems the rest of the week. I was still able to walk, but it was more of a limp, and I had to brace it all day instead of just later in the day when I was tired. Also, hills and ramps slowed me down while stairs became my nemesis (always have been to some degree)! Bending my knee to fit in the ride vehicles for several attractions became increasingly difficult. However, politely asking attraction CMs if there was a seat with a little more leg room, or an option to avoid stairs worked. Every time I asked, the CM was able to help me out, so we could still enjoy attractions. Often we were seated in the wheelchair row as long as there were no other wheelchair/scooter patrons waiting or directed to the ramp for entering an attraction to avoid stairs. It made things much more comfortable for me, and we were able to carry on with our trip just at a much slower pace! It was obvious to us that the CMs we encountered absolutely love their job!
Other guests: I always enjoy "making new friends" on the buses or waiting in line for rides, and that continued on this trip. The biggest grumblings I heard the entire week was all weather related due to the rain. My oldest (15) on the other hand seemed to notice everything: strange outfits (strapless, tiger striped jumpsuit with acrylic platform heels), guests that were oblivious to the others around them, large groups plowing through other guests, people invading her personal space in lines, etc. She kept getting frustrated, and I had to remind her that not everyone has the same idea of how to vacation at Disney. I noticed a few wild things too (mostly bizarre outfits, especially at DHS since it was Star Wars Weekend!), but nothing that detracted me from having fun!
Emergency Procedures: this was the first time we ever experienced Disney's emergency procedures first hand. We were near the end of our ride on Splash (about 3-4 logs from unload) when suddenly all the lights came on inside the attraction. My first thought was, "That can't be good." We get the standard announcement of how things will be underway shortly a couple of times. Then we get the "We are unable to fix the problem, and we will begin evacuation procedures immediately." CMs start moving back and forth on all the paths, telling guests to stay in their seats, and explaining the evacuation procedures. A guest in front of us asked what happened. The first CM said he could not tell us. The next one asked said someone jumped off the ride on the up slope of the big drop. We did see a mom and her kids being escorted out of Splash before the actual evacuation began, and later DH heard a lady talking outside the bathrooms by Splash how her daughter freaked out, slipped under the lap bar and jumped out before she could grab her. So we are pretty sure that is what happened. Evacuation was very safe and orderly. As we were escorted out of the backstage area, each guest evacuated was handed an anytime, paper FP for the "thrill" rides in MK that expired Jun 30. We were not coming back to MK that trip, but half our group was, so we gave them the passes. The biggest downfall to the whole adventure was it did affect my bum knee in a negative manner.
Overall, we had a great time. We experienced things we had never done before (SDMT, Blizzard Beach, DisneyQuest) as well as revisited most of our favorites. Because of the age range of our group (68 down to 3) we took the whole trip at a much more relaxed pace than normal. FP+ really helped us to do that. We didn't get to do everything we normally do, but I wasn't worried since I know we will be back!
The only thing that I am worried about is getting to the parks by RD, especially since the monorails are starting later in the morning during our stay. I'm hoping that the boats from the Poly to MK are efficient.
