Just Back: 2/8-2/12 Crowds, Weather, Cheerleaders, and More

[PIRATEGIRL007]

We just returned from a quick trip to WDW we arrived last monday night 2/8 and returned home on Friday night 2/12. This was just a quick trip to celebrate our 1st Anniversary early (it is on 2/28) and b/c we found $10 flights thru allegiant. We just couldn't pass up the deal. The crowd calendar reports for the days were rangind from 5-8's and the weather was "supposed" to be mostly sunny in the mid 60's during the day and low 50's at night.

Who are we: Me, a 28 year old Disney freak who always looks for a chance to sneak off to Disney. This is my 8th year of Disney obsession, I never got to experience it as a child so I am making up for it since 2002. DH, a 32 year old Disney freak in the making, he is very close to offical freakness, I just don't have him addicted to the Dis fully yet. He has been going with me to Disney for the past 4 years and has been more in those 4 years than his whole life. His family vacationed in FL every year when he was a child and he had been a handful of times before going with me. We have 2 children (his, my steps) that are currently 4 and 7 they will not be joining us on this trip. Don't worry they are used to it we go every year without them and this year we are all going in May for a week long trip.

How it all came together: I told my DH Wed night that dream anniversary present would be a trip to Disney, which we knew was out of the question budget wise and time wise and then Thursday morning I pulled up allegiant to check a flight price for a friend and found the $9.99 deal. I thought I was hallicunating, you see I switched to day shift in January and am not completely used to being up and at it early in the day. I keep hitting refresh on my computer b/c I thought I was seeing things, but no it was real, I had my co worker look to verify. It really was $9.99 each way within 2 hours I had booked the trip, car, room and flight for under $500, had DH and both our bosses convinced to give us the time off.

Resort: We stayed at All Star Movies in the Dalmations building closest to the main building for $49/night w/ the AP discount. We were in room 1917 on the 3rd floor, parking lot facing room but there was a large wooded area in front of our rooms which helped block out the parking noise and gave a nicer view. The rooms are clean but a little small, the overall grounds seemed to be up kept well and clean. There was some painting going on during the days we were there and could smell the fumes but no additional noise. Mousekeeping was wonderful we got towel animals on the first day and had excellent service everday, the beds were made, linens replaced and room generally tidy when we arrived back in the afternoon. The pools looked nice but there was no way I was getting in that water in the weather we had. I did see a handful of the teens in it on Thur and Friday but otherwise it was empty. We stayed at ASMusic in September and comparing the two resorts is next to impossble. Our room at ASMovies was just as updated and nice as Movies and the food court and layout of the resort was identicaly.
The Cheerleaders: The resort was overall quiet even after the cheerleaders arrived on Wed and Thursday. Yes I said cheerleaders and quiet in the same sentence. The were polite and well behaved, didn't cut line for the busses and didn't start random cheers in line. We noticed several schools at our resort on Wed and Thursday morning we saw 3 or 4 squads out practiciting. They were in common areas around the pools and you couldn't hear them from our room. We even had a group practicing right outside our room on the grass (we were 3rd floor) and didn't know they were there until we walked out of the room. On Thursday more groups arrived including the Gremlins group. They were nice, polite, well behaved cheerleaders until after dark. And then someone fed them.We know this b/c we saw them at the food court around 11. They ran up and down the breezeways slamming doors and yelling until 1230. They opened up the 'connecting' doorway into our room and slammed it a few times. They knocked on our door and ran away when I answered and walked outside they apologized and at least looked a little embarrassed. This continued until about 1230 when I finally called the front desk. The staff was very apologetic and sent someone up right away. The cheerleaders cleared out of the breezeways and went into thier rooms, but the room next to us continued to laugh, yell, giggle, and so on. I know the walls are a little thing at the All Star Resorts but I really don't think they are THAT thin. After about 30 more minutes of tossing in bed listening to thier chatter my DH went outside and banged on thier door, they didn't answer but he told them we can hear them and know they are in there and that we don't care how much they hated getting up early or who got stopped at security in the airport but they needed to quiet down. We didn't hear a peep out of them the rest of the night. They were still up and moving about but not talking or were whispering at a level we couldn't hear.

Crowds:
To Be Continued shortly................

 

[mickeystoontown]

Signing on for more! I often say trip reports and pictures are what keep me sane until my next Disney vacation. Thanks for your contribution to my sanity. By the way, will you be posting pictures?

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

Crowds: The crowd calendar predictions (from touring plans.com) were ranging from 5 to 8 for the week. We are firm beleivers in their calendar and use it every trip. We sometimes use thier plans which are great too but this trip was a relaxed and laid back do whatever whenever trip so we didn't use any touring plan. On the calendar Tue was a 5, Wed 8, Thur and Fri 7. We used lines on DH's palm pre while we were there and he loved it. He loves to play with his phone so it just added to the fun for him. He loved sumbitting wait times and earning 'badges'. We also used the wait times submitted to determine where to go next and it was very useful for park hopping. We pretty much stuck to the avoid advice and best advice. DH also used Lines a few times to advise friendly people on the busses which attraction to head to first or to see if FP's were still available. He gives it 2 Thumbs up and can't wait to use it for our May trip. It will be busier and we expect more people reporting wait times in.

Weather: The weather forecast changed daily leading up to the trip so I didn't know what to pack. We live in the mountains of Tn and havn't seen but a handful of days above freezing since December. This year has been very cold and snowy. We have had snow every week usually two or more significant snowfalls each week. I am sick of it. So I figured going to Florida would help. The original forecast had days in the low 70's and nights in the 50's. Then it changed to 60's and 50's. Then 60's and 50's and so on. By the time we arrived the forecast had one day in the 60's which turned out to be tuesday and it rained most of the day. The rest of the days were in the 50's with some nights dipping into the low/mid 30's. Rain was predicted for Tuesday and Friday. It sprinkled off and on most of Tuesday and Poured down most of Friday morning and all the way to the airport (we left around 5pm). Wed was ok weather but windy so the wind chill made it a little worse and Thursday was down right chilly in the morning. I wore jeans and long sleeves everyday and a light jacket or a fleece pullover. DH wore shorts on Tuesday but jeans the rest of the week and a jacket everyday. We were comfortable most days but Thursday morning we got very cold. We ended up seeking refuge inside of Tusker House at AK and then made it an early day. We went shopping at the outlets that night instead of back to the parks b/c of the cold. At the outlets it was freezing as well and we only went to one store b/c it was too cold to shop around!

Charecters: We didn't see anyone out of the ordinary in any of the parks, except the Mayor and Chief on main street. On the days it was raining we saw very few charecters or no one at all. The lines were pretty long for most of the meet and greets so we didn't wait for many at all. In MK we saw (but didn't wait for): Daisy and Goofy in Town Square, Pooh and Tigger at Pooh's playful spot, Frontier Donald and Goofy in Frontierland, Buzz at COP, and the Toontown tent had the Princesses and Fairys. We walked over to check it out one night and Cindy and Belle were listed for Princesses, fairies not listed at all but we never saw the wait go under 30 minutes. Princesses varied from 15-60. Fairies wait on Lines got up to 80 minutes. DHS at the hat for RD were Goofy w/ Pluto; Stitch; Chip w/ Dale and Donald w/ Minnie. In the Animation Studio were Mr. Incredible w/ Frozone, all 3 UP! charecters and Sorcere Mickey. I also saw June and the other kid from little einsteins. Monters Inc were in thier hideout area. AK out front at opening we saw Rafiki and Baloo. On the Africa Trails: Flik, Terk, King Louie w/ Baloo. In Camp Micky-Minnie on the trails: Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald. Chip & Dale and Miss Bunny & Thumper were right outside of FOTLK exit. When we left AK Briar Rabbit was outside the entrance. At Epcot Daisy & Stitch were out in Future World Friday morning. The Charecer gathering spot never saw a wait of less than 30 minutes so we didn't bother to see who was appearing. The Disney visa meet and greet was closed the 3 times we stopped by.

Crowds and Weather day by day:
Tuesday: Best Park: DS and AK, avoid park Epcot. We went to DS. We arrive at RD, there was no show so we followed the masses to TSM. It seemed much less crowded than our one and only other RD back in September. We grabbed FP and then got in standby line. We waited about 20-25 minutes for our first ride. Got off and went to RnR, grabbed another FP (wait was over 30 min, FP time was actually quicker than the wait) and went to ToT. We waited about 10 min for Tot and then went back to use our RnR FP's. We headed over to TSM and used our other FP, then took a spin on the backlot tour (the water show was cancelled b/c cold) and headed to Epcot for lunch. It was sprinkling rain all morning and then turned to a steady drizzle as we got in line for the boat to Epcot. We ate at Biergarden w/ the AP discount. It was great (see reviews later in trip report) and alot of fun. We took a quick ride on Spaceship Earth and headed to the room to dry off, it was still raining lightly. After a break we headed back to DS. It was pm EMH hours and even though I am against them normally since it was raining and crowds were light we went anyway. We re-entered the park after 8pm, EMH ended at 10pm. We rode RnR, saw Muppets and VOTLM and checked out the Dance Party, then rode GMR and ran to TSM for a last minute ride. We got in line at 958 and waited less than 15 minutes, posted time was 40 minutes. Our bus arrived about 5 minutes after we did at the stop and DH and I were the last to squeeze (literally) on our bus standing. We grabbed dinner that night at the food court at ASMovies and took it to our rooms to eat.

Wednesday: Best Park: EP, Avoid park AK. We decided to sleep in today and have breakfast before heading to the park. Today was the only slow bus service we had a ASMovies. Every other time we got a bus it was there in 5-10 minutes but this morning bus after bus after bus went by while we stood there and our line grew and grea. We saw busses for every other park, 3 for DHS and 4 for DTD while we were waiting. Our line was quickly lined up out of the que when a ASM CM arrived and got on his walkie talkie about. We headed to MK caught the monorail to Kona and had breakfast. It was not raining but was cloudy and cool. The sun popped out a time or too but for the most part it was overcast. We spent the morning doing all of our favorite MK attractions. We didn't have many long waits, waited 20 min for Space about 11am (posted 30), then went to BTMRR and waited in a 60 min line that was posted 30. I knew the line was longer than 30 min when I looked at it but tried to beleive it wasn't that long, I should have known when DH got 'the card' to turn around and go back but we didn't. This is now the longest I have ever waited for anything at Disney. Once we realized we were gonna be in line forever it was too late to back out, there were too many people packed in behind us. We did meet some nice locals and see some people from our home state (Hello Morristown Dis'sers!) but it was a long wait. To give Disney some credit I did notice that the trains were not running at regular intervals, sometimes we would watch for 2 or 3 minutes with no trains going by. I figured it out when I arrived at the loading doc and saw the "GAC line" packed out. This was not the first time I noticed many "GAC" users this week. I acutally saw more this week than ever before and I'll leave it at that. When we got off BTMRR we saw they had updated the wait to 60 minutes. We rode several more things and had a late lunch at Pecos Bills before heading to the room around 5. It was getting colder and the wind was picking up. We took a break for a while and DH decided it was not going to be comfortable being out in the wind and cold (weather channel had it with wind chills in the mid 30's actual temp was around 42ish) and decided we should take advantage of our rental car and go to the outlets to shop at the Charecter premier store. We headed up there around 7pm and it was very COLD and windy just walking to the store from the car, I was glad we decided to skip the parks. We scored some great deals and finished our DD's bday shopping while we were there. We made it an early night and headed back to the room.

Thursday Best Park: AK, Avoid parks: MK EP DS. We headed to AK, we arrived about 20 minutes after RD. We drove to AK today b/c we planned on doing the Rirchard Petty Driving Experiance Ride along this afternoon. We headed to EE first thing and grabbed a FP the wait was longer than I was willing to wait (must have been more than 30 minutes) so we headed over to Dinosaur while waiting on our FP time. It was very cold this morning. We both had on our jeans and jackets. We stopped by Primeval Whirl and waited less than 5 mintutes, then we practically ran to Dinosaur b/c it was warm in there. It was an odd day overall b/c we were ducking into shops not to escape the heat but to get some heat! After Dinosaur and hanging out in the shop some we headed to EE to use our FP. I felt like we had literally climbed Everest after we got off my eyes were watering and both our faces were red from the cold and wind. We headed over to Africa checking the charecter trails (Flik, Turk, King Louie & Baloo) and headed to Safari. The posted wait ws 10 minutes but we walked right on (it takes that long to walk back there). Our jeep was full and we were off on a Safari. It was really cold but many of the animals were up and active. The giraffe's were moving about the Savannah and an ostrich came right up to our jeep. We also saw some of the cow looking things up close. After our ride we were offered another trip with no wait so DH and I took advantage of it and we were glad we did. We moved to the front row in hopes that we could feel some of the drivers heat (it didn't worked, she actually rolled up the window flaps and it was colder). We re-rode on the opposite side and got some amazing pictures, we saw the rhino's up and about, the giraffe's were still wondering around and we even saw the lions up and moving. The female was walking around thier area and the male was actually awake and in plain view. In all my trips I have never seen him off that rock or awake so it was worth the time in the cold to see the the king up and about. We were absoloutely freezing by the time we got off the second Safari and started trying to find a way to warm up. We walked by Tusker House that had no wait and started discussing lunch. We checked out the menu and decided to go for it since it was warm inside. The hostess said they were getting alot of walk up traffic since it was so cold out. After lunch we headed to Maharjah Jungle trek to see the big cats. Alot of the animals on the trail were MIA b/c the cold. The bats, the comodo dragon and many of the birds called in sick that day. We rushed to FOTLK to see it and called it a day.

DH and I are huge Nascar Fans and were so sad to see the free Richard Petty offer when it came out b/c we knew we would not be back down until it was over. Our inital plans were to return in May. So when we booked this last minute trip and I reminded DH that we could still do the ride along he was pumped. We headed over to the speedway and showed our AP's to get the free ride along. We got suited up in our fire suits and headed outside. The driving instructers said it was too cold for the NHRA rides it has to be at least 50 before they allow them and before they will give the driving class, ride alongs were the only thing going that day. We both rode in the 18 M & M's car (DH is a big Kyle Busch fan). The 3 lap ride was a blast you can really feel the G-forces pushing down on you and the roar of the engine will rattle your bones. We both loved it. They video tape your ride and offer a DVD for something like $40 but we never got to see it. After we got done we went back inside changed into your street clothes and left. They didn't try to sell us anything or upsell us to a full package. It was a great free experience and I highly recommend anyone in the area while it is going on to try it. Driving to the speedway, completing the ride and driving back to ASMovies took less than an hour.

It was already warmer out and didn't seem nearly that bad that evening. We headed to MK about 6 and got a FP for Space Mtn and received another pair from a sweet couple that was leaving and were not going to be able to use thiers. We rode with FP 1 right away and then rode all of our favorites again and grabbed a few things we had missed the day before. We rode Space Mtn w/ our FP the second time around 8pm, the posted line sd 60 minutes but it was way off. The FP wait took us about 20-30 minutes while the standby line had no one in it until the point where it merges w/ the FP line and they kept letting stand by ers on it whike FP line waited and waited. Many people in line kept asking if we were in the right side. We were backed up to the begining of the games and moved sloweley thru the que. It seems both times we went thru the FP line at Space this night the CM's didn't know what they were doing. We finished the night w/ a quick dash to Peter Pan's flight (30 min posted, took 15), Pirates (10 posted, walked on) and a swing around the Magic Carpets of Alladin (walked on at 10pm exactly, they cut the line off about 4 people behind us). The busses for ASMovies were packed tonight but we only waited about 20 minutes total and we got seats on the second bus.

Friday Best Park: MK DS Avoid Parks: EP. We headed to Epcot with plans to hop to MK for lunch at Casey's before leaving. It was sprinkling in the early morning as we packed the car we drove to Epcot and arrived about 930am. We got a FP for TT, the line was already up to 45 minutes so we headed to Soarin. The wait was posted 30 min so we hopped in line and it was right at 30 minutes. Then with a 10 minute wait we took a spin on Living with the Land (one of my favs and it was closed last trip) and wandered back over to Test Track to use our FP. FYI Test Track isn't much fun in the rain and when its under 50 degrees outside. Our ride photo was cute though as everyone in our car had thier hoods on and were all hunched down in thier seats. No on looked scared or suprised just really cold. We stopped by Mission Space afterwards and saw a 35 minute wait (orange) but FP good to be used in 30 minutes so we grabbed the FP's and went to see Nemo and his friends. A quick run thru Mousegears and it was time to use our FP for Mission Space. We decided that we would get a bite to eat off property on the way to the airport. As we were leaving I grabbed an ice cream sandwich (I hadn't had one ice cream the whole trip) and the CM laughed at me, said I would probably be his only customer of the day. I assured him I would be eating it in my car with the heat on and he understood. About the time we got into the car (130pm) the sky opened up and it started pouring down rain and poured down all the way to the Sanford airport.

We stopped at Steak and Shake for lunch and then pulled a move straight from "Home Alone" as we ran from the rental car drop off thru the rain dragging our suitcases to make check in for our flight. We made it with 2 minutes to spare. We were soaked and cold (oh and I'm sick now, sinus infection, I am telling myself the half mile sprint thru the rain and cold had nothing to do with it). We also discovered that at the Sanford airport they do not shut down the ticket window like it says on our tickets 45 min prior to departure. We wisked thru security (BTW they check NOTHING there, my suitcase was jammed full of weird looking stuff, pins, etc they didn't even blink) and made it to the gate about 10-15 minutes before they started boarding.


Up next Dining Reviews:
Biergarden
Kona
Tusker House
New burgers at Pecos Bill's
All Star Movies Food Court

 

[cmp1111]

Great details - thanks for posting. Can't wait to hear more!

 

[honeydiane1953]

We just returned from a quick trip to WDW we arrived last monday night 2/8 and returned home on Friday night 2/12. This was just a quick trip to celebrate our 1st Anniversary early (it is on 2/28) and b/c we found $10 flights thru allegiant. We just couldn't pass up the deal. The crowd calendar reports for the days were rangind from 5-8's and the weather was "supposed" to be mostly sunny in the mid 60's during the day and low 50's at night.

Who are we: Me, a 28 year old Disney freak who always looks for a chance to sneak off to Disney. This is my 8th year of Disney obsession, I never got to experience it as a child so I am making up for it since 2002. DH, a 32 year old Disney freak in the making, he is very close to offical freakness, I just don't have him addicted to the Dis fully yet. He has been going with me to Disney for the past 4 years and has been more in those 4 years than his whole life. His family vacationed in FL every year when he was a child and he had been a handful of times before going with me. We have 2 children (his, my steps) that are currently 4 and 7 they will not be joining us on this trip. Don't worry they are used to it we go every year without them and this year we are all going in May for a week long trip.

How it all came together: I told my DH Wed night that dream anniversary present would be a trip to Disney, which we knew was out of the question budget wise and time wise and then Thursday morning I pulled up allegiant to check a flight price for a friend and found the $9.99 deal. I thought I was hallicunating, you see I switched to day shift in January and am not completely used to being up and at it early in the day. I keep hitting refresh on my computer b/c I thought I was seeing things, but no it was real, I had my co worker look to verify. It really was $9.99 each way within 2 hours I had booked the trip, car, room and flight for under $500, had DH and both our bosses convinced to give us the time off.

Resort: We stayed at All Star Movies in the Dalmations building closest to the main building for $49/night w/ the AP discount. We were in room 1917 on the 3rd floor, parking lot facing room but there was a large wooded area in front of our rooms which helped block out the parking noise and gave a nicer view. The rooms are clean but a little small, the overall grounds seemed to be up kept well and clean. There was some painting going on during the days we were there and could smell the fumes but no additional noise. Mousekeeping was wonderful we got towel animals on the first day and had excellent service everday, the beds were made, linens replaced and room generally tidy when we arrived back in the afternoon. The pools looked nice but there was no way I was getting in that water in the weather we had. I did see a handful of the teens in it on Thur and Friday but otherwise it was empty. We stayed at ASMusic in September and comparing the two resorts is next to impossble. Our room at ASMovies was just as updated and nice as Movies and the food court and layout of the resort was identicaly.
The Cheerleaders: The resort was overall quiet even after the cheerleaders arrived on Wed and Thursday. Yes I said cheerleaders and quiet in the same sentence. The were polite and well behaved, didn't cut line for the busses and didn't start random cheers in line. We noticed several schools at our resort on Wed and Thursday morning we saw 3 or 4 squads out practiciting. They were in common areas around the pools and you couldn't hear them from our room. We even had a group practicing right outside our room on the grass (we were 3rd floor) and didn't know they were there until we walked out of the room. On Thursday more groups arrived including the Gremlins group. They were nice, polite, well behaved cheerleaders until after dark. And then someone fed them.We know this b/c we saw them at the food court around 11. They ran up and down the breezeways slamming doors and yelling until 1230. They opened up the 'connecting' doorway into our room and slammed it a few times. They knocked on our door and ran away when I answered and walked outside they apologized and at least looked a little embarrassed. This continued until about 1230 when I finally called the front desk. The staff was very apologetic and sent someone up right away. The cheerleaders cleared out of the breezeways and went into thier rooms, but the room next to us continued to laugh, yell, giggle, and so on. I know the walls are a little thing at the All Star Resorts but I really don't think they are THAT thin. After about 30 more minutes of tossing in bed listening to thier chatter my DH went outside and banged on thier door, they didn't answer but he told them we can hear them and know they are in there and that we don't care how much they hated getting up early or who got stopped at security in the airport but they needed to quiet down. We didn't hear a peep out of them the rest of the night. They were still up and moving about but not talking or were whispering at a level we couldn't hear.

Crowds:
To Be Continued shortly................

God Bless You. I am thrilled the cheerleaders were quiet. I have been when "groups" have been there and it was VERY different from what you experienced. Lawd I could write a book.

 

[vikkil70]

sound like it was a great trip. I would LOVE to try to Petty driving expericence. A bit too chicken to try the driving class but would love to do the ride along.

Great details, thanks for posting the report!

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

More to come today or tomorrow, today is of course monday which is enough to make anyone ...............

And for those who asked i will try to get some picture up later this week. I havn't even looked at them yet