Live Report from AKV

[AZDisneyDan]

Day 11 w/ pics.....

Well, it’s with a sad disposition that I give my final report from WDW as today we must relinquish our home and allow another DVC member to enjoy their time at this magical place. We got another late start yesterday as it is just too hard to wake up when you are snug in your big king size bed the 1 bedroom provides. We arrived at the gates of Disney’s Hollywood Studios at about 10:30 (an hour and a half too late) and went straight to Toy Story Mania and got in line since the FP’s were for after we planned on leaving the park. The wait time listed was 40 minutes, but it ended up taking exactly 1 hour. We got to see Mr. Potato Head take off his ear, which we hadn’t seen any other time in line this trip. What an awesome technological breakthrough and I can only imagine what lies around the corner with AA technology. This was my last chance to beat the DW at this ride and I was determined to get the job done. She led after the first two games, but then I over took her after game three. Unfortunately, she did it again on the last game and beat me by 2,300 points. I was crushed and just could not believe I didn’t pull one out against her on every ride. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong or what she is doing right, but I have to get some serious studying in before the next trip. I must redeem myself as this game has sucked all the confidence out of me.

After my humiliating defeat with the Toy Story characters we walked over to the backstage tour and had to wait 20 minutes. It had been a while since we have been on this attraction and the only thing we had in our minds was the horrible version they have at Walt Disney Studios Paris. I thought this version was better than Paris, but still in major need of an overhaul and/or needs to be removed for more attractions. The DW on the other hand thought the whole thing was as bad as the one in Paris and she has little to no interest in experiencing it again. The special effects show in the beginning is lame and then the tram tour doesn’t really take you anywhere, except to the much outdated (20 years) catastrophe canyon and a bone yard with props from movies so old, most kids could be overheard asking what movies they were referring to. Hollywood Studios is no longer am active studio producing much of anything, so they need to stop pretending they are and just focus on giving us attractions that fit the movie theme and move on.
Green Army Men Streetmosphere

We jumped off the tram after our spin around the stunt show that eat up much of what used to be part of the backstage tour, and we made our way to the front of the park to get a little snack to hold us over until lunch. On the way, the DW made a pit stop and while I was waiting for her return I stood by the fountain over by the Studio Catering Co. and found, just sitting on the ground upside down, three FP’s for Tower of Terror. She came out and I shared with her my magical moment. We were both excited about the score and stopped to get some popcorn and cheesy pretzel before heading over to Tower for our ride. We made a couple of retail therapy stops and then used our FP’s at Tower for our last ride of the day at the Studios. Rock and Roller had a 70 minute wait so we decided to leave and return to SSR. We took a brief break in the room and then headed to DTD.

Once at DTD, we had lunch at Earl of Sandwich where we both had the seasonal turkey, cranberry, and stuffing sub, which was very tasty. We really like this place since the food is very good and even know they always have a long line, they have a great system and line moves very quick. Since tomorrow we have to fly home on Virgin Atlantic and we heard there is a place to check-in and drop off you bags at DTD, we decided to look for the desk. We asked and were pointed in the way of the La Nouba building, which we finally got to and found the closed desk. We now have our plan of attack for later today. We stopped at Virgin Megastore on the way back and make a couple of purchases. I asked the girl if they gave a DVC or AP discount and she thought I was a CM and gave me an employee discount on what was not on sale, which really wasn’t much for us. We made one last stop at Goofy’s Candy Co. where we made three pretzel rods with white chocolate and various other toppings and I grabbed a slushy for my throat and the walk back to SSR.

We took about an hour or two break at the villa where we enjoyed our bath tub for the very first time and loved it so much we kicked ourselves for not using it each time. Oh well, I guess we know for next time. After we got a little rejuvenated we got ready for our evening at Epcot. We drove over to the Boardwalk where we parked our car and eat at the pizza place outside of Spoodles. We sat outside in the cold, although we were bundled up, and enjoyed pretty decent pizza by the slice. Then, we walked through the International Gateway and made our way to Space Ship Earth for a final ride on our favorite Epcot attraction. During the ride the DW found two hidden mickey’s (I found two different ones earlier in the week), but we went by too quickly for me to see. Once we got off the ride we returned to get right back on, but they were down and not letting anyone in line. We walked around the shops in the area and when we returned they were back in business. This time on the ride, I saw and confirmed her findings, so together we saw four inside the attraction.

Back in the World Showcase we entered Mexico for a quick ride on The Three Caballeros and as we entered the line there was some chaos with some people at the entrance. We walked in and then noticed this group was yelling to others in other parts of the line and there was mass confusion. They were a bunch of the cheerleaders that have arrived this weekend for some competition and the group was loud, unruly and unprepared. The parents were as bad as the kids and when they got to the loading platform the CM had to stop the ride to help these people. They had a group of 25 and we along with a few others were caught in the middle since they did not have their group together before entering the line. We were jumping up and down telling the CM we were just a party of two and not part of this big obnoxious group. She put us in the next boat with a few others and we were off. At the end of the ride, we got stuck several boats before unloading. We sat there for about five minutes, but had to put up with the annoying group in the boat just in front of us. They were loud and ignored the CM’s request to stay seated and keeping hands inside the boat. One of the offenders who was sticking their hand in the water and splashing others was a father of one of these girls. We could not wait to get off this ride and away from this group.

We escaped the rowdy cheerleader group from you know where, we stopped in Norway for a sweet pretzel and then made our way to the UK to find a place to watch Illuminations. Once we got to the UK, it was very busy with others who had the same idea, but we noticed that there were many locations before the UK, so we back tracked and sat in a perfect little area with nobody around just past France toward Morocco. Once people saw us sitting there the area quickly filled up, but we were right up front. We enjoyed our last performance of Illuminations with mixed emotions as it would be our last night in a park and what better way to go out than with this show. We sat there for a while after and just could not get ourselves to leave. We talked to one of the custodial CM’s for a bit as he was very friendly and chatty. After our talk with him we exited through the international gateway and got our car from the Boardwalk and returned to SSR. We are now gathering all of our stuff and getting ready for the long and sad journey home (England for the next 6 months).

I hope you enjoyed coming along with us for our very first trip home as DVC members. All of your very kind comments have kept me dedicated to ensuring to provide and update each and every day which was more difficult on certain days. This TR will be a lasting memory for me and the DW and I am sure we will read it to look back and remember the amazing time we had.

As I get ready to pack up all our stuff and enjoy the last few hours we have on property (our flight is not until 7:40 tonight), I just want to get sappy for a quick second. I really do look around at this wonderful place and think about one of my favorite Walt quotes, which is “we should never loose sight of one thing; this was all started by a mouse.” It just puts everything into perspective when you think about what they have accomplished here. On a personal note, while I have enjoyed everything WDW has to offer none of it would be as enjoyable is I wasn’t able to spend it with the one I love, my dear wife. The special memories we have created here will stay with us forever and I look forward to a lifetime of return trips as DVC members to let our inner children loose, so they may play together at the happiest place on Earth. Thank you, moments of sappiness is now concluded, you will be returned to your regularly scheduled update.

Well, I’m not completely done as we still have all the adventures of today as depressing as most of it will be. We are going to pack up, check-in to our flight at DTD and then spend a few hours at the MK before heading to the airport. Upon our return home, I will give one final update to report how today went. So, stay tuned and wish us luck on our long journey home.

 

[AZDisneyDan]

Day 12 w/ pics....

Well, it's no fun to return home after a Disney vacation, but especially when it's your first trip home and you return with a very bad cold. It's interesting that I had lost my voice about a week ago and felt a bit funny, but was able to feel good enough to do everything we wanted and I never felt bad enough to alter our plans. It was on the very long flight home that I started to really feel the pressure in my head and by the time we landed in London, I felt pretty sick. I am sitting here writing this and pretty much can not breathe at all.

I did not want to finish this trip without posting about our last day at WDW. We awoke on Monday to the very sad fact that the day we had been dreading arrived and it was time to pack up our stuff and get ready for our return home. We took our time waking up and then began pulling everything out of the drawers and filling our suitcases. We even had to buy the duffel bag the World of Disney was offering if you spent $70 or more (for $20) to fit all the stuff we bought. We showered, made sure everything was packed and said our sad goodbyes to our 1 bedroom villa. We loaded up the car and made the very short trip around the corner to DTD where they have a place where you can check in and drop off your luggage for Virgin Atlantic flights. It was very busy there and we had to wait a while to get our bags weighed and then check-in. Virgin of course screwed up our reservations again as after we got to Orlando for some unexplained reason they split our reservations into two and then just a couple days before the flight we lost our seat requests. They also told us that we had to pay $20 to check-in at DTD.

We got the whole thing worked out and were able to secure one of only three rows at the back of the plane that have just two seats instead of the usual three. Once we dropped off our two big suitcases, we secured our carry-on bags in the trunk and made our way to the MK, to spend a few hours since our flight was not until later that night. Also, the flight was already 30 minutes late (remember we had a 6 hour delay on the way here and missed our Thanksgiving dinner reservations). We parked in Goofy lot row 44 and walked to the TTC for the monorail ride to the main entrance. We entered the park and as we emerged from under the train station we noticed the Christmas tree was in town square for the first time our whole trip. We were very excited we got to see this before we left. We took a few pictures and enjoyed some time in town square before making our way to Frontierland to pick up a FP for Thunder and take a ride on Splash. On the way we had to stop for one last dole whip (yummy). Splash had a twenty minute wait which went by very fast and we really took in every second of this and every ride that day as we knew they would be our last for a while.

We splashed down with minimal wetness and then figured we would ride Pirates for one last time. The line was out the door but moved fast and we were on in less than 20 minutes. We did have a bad CM experience where we were told which row to stand in and as we got into the boat there were two girls behind us trying to get in. I told them I think they are on the next boat as I've never really seen them try to squeeze 4 people who are not together in one row on such a quick loading ride. The girls quickly stepped back and the gate closed. Well, the loading CM saw the gates close with the two girls still standing on the dock and came over and yelled at us saying that there are four to a row and he told the dispatch CM to re-open the gates so the two girls could squeeze in with us. I just looked at him when that happened and exclaimed, "that was real Disney like," and the dispatch CM sort of shook his head in agreement with me and the two girls agreed that was no way to handle the situation. I told them it was nothing to do with them, just that we thought they never tried to squeeze four into one row as the row in front and behind us had just two guests. I was not happy and it took a couple of minutes to try and shed off that annoyance and enjoy the ride. There was a really great CM totally in character at the exit of the ride and the DW and I noted what a difference between the two.

We went back to Thunder to use our FP, but once we got over there it was closed due to technical difficulties so we decided it was a good time for a lunch break. We returned to Main Street and made one final stop at Casey's Corner for some hot dogs and this time I got a side of chili and made a chili cheese, ketchup, and onion hot dog which was messy and gooooood!! After lunch we walked over to Space to grab a FP for right before it was time to leave the park and then jumped onto the TTA for a final loop of Tomorrowland. We figured we should give Thunder one last try and made a stop at Haunted Mansion on the way where there was a 20 minute wait and we got to witness just behind us a poor little girl get sick all over the ground. Within three minutes they had that little section of the line closed off and custodial was there with the kitty litter to clean up the "protein spill." Again, we just sucked in every second of the ride knowing it would be our last for the trip and then returned to Thunder and unfortunately another bad CM experience. We enjoy riding in the back on Thunder as we think this is the best place to experience this attraction. Since this was our last ride on Thunder we figured we would ask the CM if we could wait for the back. The CM's on this ride load very strangely where they walk with the guests all the way to the back and load row by row to the front which confuses a lot of guests who come down the ramp and are not sure what to do as there is no CM there. Well, we were about the placed at the very front and the DW asked if we could wait for the back and he was like "no, I'm sorry you can't" and he said this in such away that we were not sure if he was kidding. My DW asked him "are you kidding" and we quickly realized he was not and we were like what do you mean we can't wait for the back. Then he got frustrated because he could not handle two things at once and he said I guess you can just wait here. In the middle of the loading platform. I looked over at the dispatch CM and he kind of motioned to us to just head down to the back so we did. We could not believe how clueless and unkind that load CM was.

We enjoyed our final trip on the run away mine train and decided to take the train to avoid the parade crowds to get back to Space Mountain and our last ride of the trip. We got into the loading area after they take your FP and the ride stopped and the lights turned on. Not good. We were running out of time as we needed to get to the airport and basically said we will wait for 10 minutes and then we will have to leave. At just about 10 minutes the ride restarted and we got our final ride through space. We were very happy we got all the last rides we wanted in before our departure. We wanted one last snack on the way out so we picked up some popcorn and a peanut butter cookie and made our way to the monorail stopping at the end of Main Street to turn around and say goodbye to the castle. There were a few tears as we were very sad to leave.
Space w/ the lights on....almost missed our last ride

We had to wait twice for about five minutes each on the express monorail for traffic clearance before we reached the TTC. We walked to the car and then made our way off property saying goodbye to everything along the way . We got off at the airport exit and then sat in stop and go traffic to find a gas station to fill up the rental. We found the gas, dropped off the car and made our way through security and over to the terminal where we were happy to find there was a Delta Crown Room lounge as we are members so we were able to wait in comfort with free drinks and snacks. Our flight was delayed another hour than the original half our so it was good to wait in the lounge. We finally got on board for the long journey home and were happy to announce they added Wall-e to line up of movies because all of the kids were on board. We enjoyed watching that but as the flight went on I started to feel worse and worse. I'm just glad my body did not break down like this until we left WDW.

Overall, we had such a fantastic first trip home and we look forward to many more years of memories. Again, thank all of you for reading and commenting along the way and I am going to try and get some pictures up and maybe go a kind of wrap up update, so stay tuned and wish you all a happy and magical holiday season.

 

[Tinkerbellcrafter]

Love your pictures! Goofy eating is so funny! We just got back last night and you have shots that I missed, which is awesome. DH, DD8 and I all caught colds while down there and I heard many people coughing and sneezing. Very cool shots of Miley and the parade!

 

[podsnel]

I loved your TR and it's even better now with the photos!! Beautiful pics of the castle, too. And I have to say, I think tearing up when you walk down Main ST the first and last time of your vacation is pretty much expected of everyone on these boards!! I think you get tossed off if you DON'T cry!

Thanks for sharing your vacation with all of us arm chair travelers who are jonesin' for some of the magic at our other home...

 

[Donald is #1]

BLT Studio - notice the vanity/kitchenette

When I visited the models, I thought it was a little odd to have the kitchenette with the vanity for the bathroom.

 

[AZDisneyDan]

Love your pictures! Goofy eating is so funny! We just got back last night and you have shots that I missed, which is awesome. DH, DD8 and I all caught colds while down there and I heard many people coughing and sneezing. Very cool shots of Miley and the parade!

Thank you very much and yes Goofy does love his sweets. I am still recovering from my sinus infection and missed three days of work last week as it has been a nasty one.

Glad you guys had a good time, sad to be home huh?

 

[AZDisneyDan]

I loved your TR and it's even better now with the photos!! Beautiful pics of the castle, too. And I have to say, I think tearing up when you walk down Main ST the first and last time of your vacation is pretty much expected of everyone on these boards!! I think you get tossed off if you DON'T cry!

Thanks for sharing your vacation with all of us arm chair travelers who are jonesin' for some of the magic at our other home...

Thanks for your kind words and it was fun sitting down throughout the trip and recounting everything we had done. I'm glad someone was out there reading and enjoyed coming along for the ride (pun totally intended)

About the tears.....I don't know what your talking abour....tears, what tears??

 

[Tinkerbellcrafter]

Thank you very much and yes Goofy does love his sweets. I am still recovering from my sinus infection and missed three days of work last week as it has been a nasty one.

Glad you guys had a good time, sad to be home huh?

Very Sad...but we are planning our next trip!! Now, if we could just get rid of the congestion in our heads......

 

[AZDisneyDan]

Very Sad...but we are planning our next trip!! Now, if we could just get rid of the congestion in our heads......

Sudafed seemed to do the trick for me!!

 

[AZDisneyDan]

When I visited the models, I thought it was a little odd to have the kitchenette with the vanity for the bathroom.

I agree it was a bit weird, but I guess the wife can blow dry her hair and get me a drink at the same time!!

Ummmmm.......I don't think she'd find that very funny and she reads this stuff. So, let me offer my sincere apologies for making such an unfunny joke and I'll get my own drink......and did I mention how nice your hair looks??