We just returned last night from our annual Sept. trip. We normally go the middle of Sept. but went a little later this year and we could tell a difference. Some things were a little more crowded than we were used to, although not nearly as crowded as peak season.
We had 11 people on the trip. Me (the planner and disney fanatic), DM-52, DD-56, DH-34, DSiL-32, DB-32, Dn-4 (his first trip), DS-23, DBiL-21, dd-5, ds-2.
We tried to cram a little more in than usual since it was nephew's first trip and since his parents hadn't been in a long time.
9/23. We checked in at SSR. We had 2 studios and a 2 BR unit. The 2 studios were ready but our room wasn't. Went swimming and could already tell it was more crowded than last year. The parking lot was pretty full and the pool had more people in it than we saw swimming the whole week we were there last year. We had dinner that night at Chef Mickey's, which we always love, and then just rode the monorail around and headed back to the room to relax or walk to DTD.
9/24 We went to magical beginnings at MK. It was definately more crowded than early entry used to be but we were able to ride the carousel, snow white, peter pan, small world, thunder mtn. and splash mtn by 11:00. Ate dinner at Col. Harbour House and went back to the room to swim. After dinner at Kona Cafe, we went back to MK for EMH. Rode buzz, CoP, Space Mtn., race cars, tea cups, dumbo and watched fireworks before heading back to the room for the night. At the start of the fireworks, my dd and I saw tinkerbell fly down from the castle. I have been to disney more than 30 times and that was my first time seeing tink. The wait for buzz was about 10 minutes, 20 minutes for space mtn. We left around 10pm and people were still coming into the park.
9/25 Typhoon Lagoon. This was probably our second most disappointing day. I let other members of our group choose which waterpark to do. We went to BB last year and loved it. We did like crush n gusher at TL but the slides at BB seemed to be more fun overall. I definately like the kids' area at BB better. We all did the swimming with the sharks thing and pretty much none of us enjoyed it. dd went in with me and dh. She wore a disney lifevest and rode on dh's back while he floated across. However, once we reached the rock partway through, the lifeguard told us she had to go by herself and just hold our hand. The problem was that her face kept going under, even with the vest, and it scared her. She didn't want to kick b/c the instructor at the beginning kept telling us not to kick our feet in the water, so she thought a shark was going to bite her if she moved her feet. I ended up hooking her arm over my shoulder and just pulled her as fast as I could to the stairs and got out. My nephew had the same kind of problem but was so bad that the lifeguard pulled him across on her float, which scared him even more and caused him to cry. Not a fun event for us. We had more fun in the underwater viewing area. After we got out, we did see a lifeguard jump in to help a swimmer who was having some difficulty breathing, I think. Later, while eating lunch, we saw about 10 lifeguards run across the bridge to the wave pool and then a lot of other staff members head that way too. The wave pool was cleared of swimmers and they brought out a girl on a back board. She appeared to be moving and I'm not sure what happened but they did have paramedics come in to take her off in an ambulance and I have never seen so many cast members from one park in one area. The kept the pool closed for a while. It was very impressive to see the lifeguard response and I hope the girl is okay.
After putting the kids down for naps with the grandparents, Dh and I went to Epcot. We were only gone 2 hours (including bus time) and did MS and Soarin. MS was a walk on and I was very nervous since it was my first time and I had heard all these reports of people feeling sick afterwards. However, it was not bad at all. We had about a 30 min. wait for soarin but I loved the ride. I think it's one of disney's best rides. The adults went to MGM EMH and it was packed. The wait for RNR was 1 hour and then it was closed for tech. problems. DH and I did ride Tot 3 times but then left for the hotel.
9/26 We spent the day at Seaworld and really enjoyed the park. It was not crowded at all and walked on twice to ride Krakken. My dad really loved this park, especially journey to atlantis.
9/27 Today was MGM, and we really didn't enjoy it much. It always seems to be our least favorite park but we went for my nephew to see playhouse disney and the car stunt show. He enjoyed both but I think we would have had more fun at a different park. We had planned to go to AK for EMH but DS and DBiL went over earlier and said it was crowed so we skipped it and went to Epct instead. We took the kids on Test Track (20 min. wait) and Soarin (fastpass wait about 10 min).
9/28 We spent the day at AK and really enjoyed it. We rode Safari first and just walked on. We had no wait for Lion King, It's tough to be a bug or Primeval Whirl. We went to EE after lunch and had about a 30 minute wait. We weren't all that impressed with this ride. I think we had heard so much about it that it was actually a let down. I probably would not stand in line for it again. After swimming and a nap, we went to MK for spectromagic. We had a great spot in frontierland and my nephew went crazy seeing the parade. Afterwards we took the kids on thunder mtn twice with no wait and saw the fireworks while on the ride. It was very mobbed trying to leave the park until we cut through the shops on main st.
9/29 We slept in and then went to a late breakfast at chef mickey's. Afterwards we went swimming and then headed to epcot for dinner at Le Cellier and a ride on Soarin. It was pretty crowded so most of the family headed back to the room while my dad, DS and I went through WS and left right after the fireworks. DS and I walked to DTD from our hotel when we got back and I was pretty surprised at how few people were shopping but it was MNSSHP at MK that night so that could be the reason.
9/30 We slept in and then went over to the boardwalk then headed to AKL for lunch and to look around before driving home.
We wished we had a couple of extra days for this trip. Looking back, we shouldn't have done a waterpark and seaworld since it didn't leave a lot of time for relaxing around the resort. We also don't know that we'll go back during free dining. It was hard to be flexible with touring the parks and dining since we had to stick to our dinner reservations since restaurants were so booked up. However, we love disney so much that we are already planning a trip in Dec., Jan, and March. We did have an odd bus driver one day. He was being great, talking to everyone and asking who had birthdays, etc. His speaker system was messed up so it was hard to understand him so not all of his questions were answered. He got mad and announced that the bus driver was shutting down and it was our loss as he had a lot of information to pass on. He repeated that several times and then didn't talk anymore. We thought it was very strange. We also ran across a lot of really great cast members, including one who gave me a whole roll of mickey stickers to give my DSiL for her kindergarten class. We were impressed.
We had 11 people on the trip. Me (the planner and disney fanatic), DM-52, DD-56, DH-34, DSiL-32, DB-32, Dn-4 (his first trip), DS-23, DBiL-21, dd-5, ds-2.
We tried to cram a little more in than usual since it was nephew's first trip and since his parents hadn't been in a long time.
9/23. We checked in at SSR. We had 2 studios and a 2 BR unit. The 2 studios were ready but our room wasn't. Went swimming and could already tell it was more crowded than last year. The parking lot was pretty full and the pool had more people in it than we saw swimming the whole week we were there last year. We had dinner that night at Chef Mickey's, which we always love, and then just rode the monorail around and headed back to the room to relax or walk to DTD.
9/24 We went to magical beginnings at MK. It was definately more crowded than early entry used to be but we were able to ride the carousel, snow white, peter pan, small world, thunder mtn. and splash mtn by 11:00. Ate dinner at Col. Harbour House and went back to the room to swim. After dinner at Kona Cafe, we went back to MK for EMH. Rode buzz, CoP, Space Mtn., race cars, tea cups, dumbo and watched fireworks before heading back to the room for the night. At the start of the fireworks, my dd and I saw tinkerbell fly down from the castle. I have been to disney more than 30 times and that was my first time seeing tink. The wait for buzz was about 10 minutes, 20 minutes for space mtn. We left around 10pm and people were still coming into the park.
9/25 Typhoon Lagoon. This was probably our second most disappointing day. I let other members of our group choose which waterpark to do. We went to BB last year and loved it. We did like crush n gusher at TL but the slides at BB seemed to be more fun overall. I definately like the kids' area at BB better. We all did the swimming with the sharks thing and pretty much none of us enjoyed it. dd went in with me and dh. She wore a disney lifevest and rode on dh's back while he floated across. However, once we reached the rock partway through, the lifeguard told us she had to go by herself and just hold our hand. The problem was that her face kept going under, even with the vest, and it scared her. She didn't want to kick b/c the instructor at the beginning kept telling us not to kick our feet in the water, so she thought a shark was going to bite her if she moved her feet. I ended up hooking her arm over my shoulder and just pulled her as fast as I could to the stairs and got out. My nephew had the same kind of problem but was so bad that the lifeguard pulled him across on her float, which scared him even more and caused him to cry. Not a fun event for us. We had more fun in the underwater viewing area. After we got out, we did see a lifeguard jump in to help a swimmer who was having some difficulty breathing, I think. Later, while eating lunch, we saw about 10 lifeguards run across the bridge to the wave pool and then a lot of other staff members head that way too. The wave pool was cleared of swimmers and they brought out a girl on a back board. She appeared to be moving and I'm not sure what happened but they did have paramedics come in to take her off in an ambulance and I have never seen so many cast members from one park in one area. The kept the pool closed for a while. It was very impressive to see the lifeguard response and I hope the girl is okay.
After putting the kids down for naps with the grandparents, Dh and I went to Epcot. We were only gone 2 hours (including bus time) and did MS and Soarin. MS was a walk on and I was very nervous since it was my first time and I had heard all these reports of people feeling sick afterwards. However, it was not bad at all. We had about a 30 min. wait for soarin but I loved the ride. I think it's one of disney's best rides. The adults went to MGM EMH and it was packed. The wait for RNR was 1 hour and then it was closed for tech. problems. DH and I did ride Tot 3 times but then left for the hotel.
9/26 We spent the day at Seaworld and really enjoyed the park. It was not crowded at all and walked on twice to ride Krakken. My dad really loved this park, especially journey to atlantis.
9/27 Today was MGM, and we really didn't enjoy it much. It always seems to be our least favorite park but we went for my nephew to see playhouse disney and the car stunt show. He enjoyed both but I think we would have had more fun at a different park. We had planned to go to AK for EMH but DS and DBiL went over earlier and said it was crowed so we skipped it and went to Epct instead. We took the kids on Test Track (20 min. wait) and Soarin (fastpass wait about 10 min).
9/28 We spent the day at AK and really enjoyed it. We rode Safari first and just walked on. We had no wait for Lion King, It's tough to be a bug or Primeval Whirl. We went to EE after lunch and had about a 30 minute wait. We weren't all that impressed with this ride. I think we had heard so much about it that it was actually a let down. I probably would not stand in line for it again. After swimming and a nap, we went to MK for spectromagic. We had a great spot in frontierland and my nephew went crazy seeing the parade. Afterwards we took the kids on thunder mtn twice with no wait and saw the fireworks while on the ride. It was very mobbed trying to leave the park until we cut through the shops on main st.
9/29 We slept in and then went to a late breakfast at chef mickey's. Afterwards we went swimming and then headed to epcot for dinner at Le Cellier and a ride on Soarin. It was pretty crowded so most of the family headed back to the room while my dad, DS and I went through WS and left right after the fireworks. DS and I walked to DTD from our hotel when we got back and I was pretty surprised at how few people were shopping but it was MNSSHP at MK that night so that could be the reason.
9/30 We slept in and then went over to the boardwalk then headed to AKL for lunch and to look around before driving home.
We wished we had a couple of extra days for this trip. Looking back, we shouldn't have done a waterpark and seaworld since it didn't leave a lot of time for relaxing around the resort. We also don't know that we'll go back during free dining. It was hard to be flexible with touring the parks and dining since we had to stick to our dinner reservations since restaurants were so booked up. However, we love disney so much that we are already planning a trip in Dec., Jan, and March. We did have an odd bus driver one day. He was being great, talking to everyone and asking who had birthdays, etc. His speaker system was messed up so it was hard to understand him so not all of his questions were answered. He got mad and announced that the bus driver was shutting down and it was our loss as he had a lot of information to pass on. He repeated that several times and then didn't talk anymore. We thought it was very strange. We also ran across a lot of really great cast members, including one who gave me a whole roll of mickey stickers to give my DSiL for her kindergarten class. We were impressed.
