Okay here'e the short version in case you're just joing our escapade.
Who: Amanda (Me) and Sara (My best Friend)
What: 21st Birthday's in WDW
When: August 15th - 19th (???)
Day 2
August 16th 2002 - My Birthday
We're still in Atlanta sitting on the plane for almost 2 hours after sitting in the airport for 1 hour. Finally we were given clearance to leave but by then there was a HUGE pile up on the runways. Sitting watching out the window I counted 6 planes landing and 8 take off BEFORE we got to take off. At least by this time Sara's meds are kicking in and she is feeling much better. On our way down the runway we counted 14 planes waiting behind us! and all of this was at 12:30 EST in the morning!
We finally landed in Orlando at 1:35 am EST (we were *supposed* to be asleep by now.) When we arrived in the baggage claim we found our towncar driver, Bob, practically asleep leaning against a pillar. We told him we could handel our luggage and let him go get the car. He was an EXCELLENT chauffer and we had a really great time using Tiffany for the first time. (Mears wanted to pick us up for the airport 3 hours early which would mean we would miss the Share a Dream Come True Parade. For $9 more p/p it was worth it for the towncar
)
For our first night in Orlando, since we were arriving late (later than we thought) we had decided to stay at the courtyard in Downtown Disney for 1/2 the price of one more night at the all stars. We checked in there at 2:00am EST and finally went to bed at 2:30am EST. Our room was a beautiful corner room and was pretty big for hotel rooms, especially $50 rooms in WDW.
The alarm clock was set for 6:30am EST and just to be sure we actually got up we also ordered a wake up call for the same time. I think we probably jumped 3 feet into the air when all that racket went off but we were up. I took some pictures of the room and the really cool view of Downtown Disney from our 9th floor balcony then packed so we could give the resort our luggage and go right to the parks.
As Directed we gave the fromt desk 15 minutes notice that we wanted a taxi to the All Star Sports where we would be staying the rest of the trip. (Or so we thought
) We then went back up to the 9th floor and halued down our luggage as there were no bellhops to be seen and checked out taking the time to get airline Frequent Flyer miles for the hotel stay. We then went to stand on the curb to wait for the taxi at 7:00am EST. The bellman finally came and insisted on puchind out luggage out the door then expected a tip for just moving our luggage (3 peices, 2 of them small) 5 feet out the door. After waiting 20 minutes the Gest services rep came out and was suprides to see we were still there. We were tired but we couldn't have missed a taxi pulling up to us, especially one that was going to take us to get our park tickets! She then directed us to take the Hotel shuttle. Please correct me if I am wrong but I thought those shuttles were complimentary but when we got to the All Stars the driver insisted on $15. Instead of arguing we just paid it and let her go. There was no signs or meters or anything saying she was or could charge us for riding.
At the all stars, we checked in our luggage then checked in for our room. We were given room 7321 I believe. It was on the 3rd floor of building 7 (One of the football buildings) which was exactly what we wanted. We were told after buying our e-night tickets that the room was ready for us. We were kind of suprised but decided to go lock our vouchers for the rest of the trip in the room safe then got to the parks. When we reached the room the door was standing wide open, the carpet was soaking wet, there were no beds what so ever, and no light covers, just bare bulbs hanging off the walls. We knew this was a vlaue resort but that was pushing it. While we were standing there dumbfounded a construction worker cam in who could harldy speak english. he asked if he could help us and we explained that this was the room the front desk had given us for our stay. He told us that it couldn't be then checked the number we were given with the number on the door. We were right but he said they had that wing under construction for cleaning until Tuesday. (We went home Monday) Back to the front desk to request another room. The CM we talked to this time thought that we just didn't like the room until we told her that there were no beds what so ever and we at least wanted a bed for $100 a night. She gave us a different room on the 3rd floor of building 10 (The other football building) and re ran our cards. This room was not ready however so we had to check our vouchers folder as luggage to be sent to our room.
Finally we were off to the parks. We first went to magic Kingodm for Birthday pins then we decided to begin our trip at MGM. Upon arrival we got fast passes for Rockin Rollercoaster and waited in line for it since it was only a 15 minutes wait. We figured we could then ride Tower of Terror while waiting for the fast passes to begin. By the time we got off Rockin, the wait line for Tower of Terror was up to 40 minutes. We checked out the shops then went back for our fast passes. By this time it was 12:30 pm EST and time to leave for our Priority Seating at Animal Kingdom Rainforest Cafe at 1:00pm. We checked in with no problem then went to stand in line to be saeated. Sara went off to the bathroom while I waited. Our hostess came and announced 4 names, 2 infront of us and 1 behind us. The 2 ahead of us were all present and the family behind us was missing Mom/Wife. Both that husband/dad and I made polite mention that were waiting for others in our party and then the hostess said "Oh well" in a really snotty tone then left with the first 2 parties.
The 2 of us didn't know what to do. Finally after everyone was persent she came back and took us to a center stand. We asked her since this was a birthday celebrations for us if we could get a table by some water, we would even wait longer for it if necessary. The first hostess blantently ignored us and the second one said there were none avaliable. We restated that we would wait for one and made mention of about 8 tables for 2 near water. We were seated in the dead center of the room.We made mention of this to our really nice waiter and during the course of lunch we also told it to 2 manager at his insistance.
following lunch we wnt into Animal Kingdom and saw pretty much everything we wanted to. We hav the vouchers for priority seating for the parade but no one ever told us we had to notify Disney 24 hours in advance to actually use them so we lost 2 of 3. We still got good seats to watch in the shade and were close enough that we could walk right on to the Safari ride. The last thing we did was Kali River Rapids. I made the mistake of wearing my really good tennis shoes so since I wanted to keep them dry I got 2 bags and put them on my feet. It worked great. The shoes were the only thing I cared about getting wet. Teh other people in our boat didn't have a clue so I think a few of their cameras got ruined in the water and since they didn't close the baggage thing in the middle their stuff was a little wet too. We tried to warn them as this was our 4th trip donw the rapids since 99 but they didn't believe us, they quickly learned we were right.
We then went back to our resort to change clothes and then headded to Magic Kingdom where we ate Dinner and then waited for Spectromagic Parade and the fireworks since that voucher too was useless. We managed to get really good seats for both then stayed in the park for E-night.
Because of our Birthday pins we were able to ride Space Mountian 3 times in 15 minutes! We also got our all time best scores on Buzz lightyear and did Hanuted Mansion about 4 times. We also did the rest of the rides at least twice before e-night ended at 1:00am EST. We then went back to our resort for a few hour sleep since by this time we had slept a grand total of 9 hour in the past 48.
Coming Soon to a Chat board near you...
Day 3 - The Commando raid continues - Watch out for the humongous bugs!
Who: Amanda (Me) and Sara (My best Friend)
What: 21st Birthday's in WDW
When: August 15th - 19th (???)
Day 2
August 16th 2002 - My Birthday
We're still in Atlanta sitting on the plane for almost 2 hours after sitting in the airport for 1 hour. Finally we were given clearance to leave but by then there was a HUGE pile up on the runways. Sitting watching out the window I counted 6 planes landing and 8 take off BEFORE we got to take off. At least by this time Sara's meds are kicking in and she is feeling much better. On our way down the runway we counted 14 planes waiting behind us! and all of this was at 12:30 EST in the morning!
We finally landed in Orlando at 1:35 am EST (we were *supposed* to be asleep by now.) When we arrived in the baggage claim we found our towncar driver, Bob, practically asleep leaning against a pillar. We told him we could handel our luggage and let him go get the car. He was an EXCELLENT chauffer and we had a really great time using Tiffany for the first time. (Mears wanted to pick us up for the airport 3 hours early which would mean we would miss the Share a Dream Come True Parade. For $9 more p/p it was worth it for the towncar
)For our first night in Orlando, since we were arriving late (later than we thought) we had decided to stay at the courtyard in Downtown Disney for 1/2 the price of one more night at the all stars. We checked in there at 2:00am EST and finally went to bed at 2:30am EST. Our room was a beautiful corner room and was pretty big for hotel rooms, especially $50 rooms in WDW.
The alarm clock was set for 6:30am EST and just to be sure we actually got up we also ordered a wake up call for the same time. I think we probably jumped 3 feet into the air when all that racket went off but we were up. I took some pictures of the room and the really cool view of Downtown Disney from our 9th floor balcony then packed so we could give the resort our luggage and go right to the parks.
As Directed we gave the fromt desk 15 minutes notice that we wanted a taxi to the All Star Sports where we would be staying the rest of the trip. (Or so we thought
) We then went back up to the 9th floor and halued down our luggage as there were no bellhops to be seen and checked out taking the time to get airline Frequent Flyer miles for the hotel stay. We then went to stand on the curb to wait for the taxi at 7:00am EST. The bellman finally came and insisted on puchind out luggage out the door then expected a tip for just moving our luggage (3 peices, 2 of them small) 5 feet out the door. After waiting 20 minutes the Gest services rep came out and was suprides to see we were still there. We were tired but we couldn't have missed a taxi pulling up to us, especially one that was going to take us to get our park tickets! She then directed us to take the Hotel shuttle. Please correct me if I am wrong but I thought those shuttles were complimentary but when we got to the All Stars the driver insisted on $15. Instead of arguing we just paid it and let her go. There was no signs or meters or anything saying she was or could charge us for riding.At the all stars, we checked in our luggage then checked in for our room. We were given room 7321 I believe. It was on the 3rd floor of building 7 (One of the football buildings) which was exactly what we wanted. We were told after buying our e-night tickets that the room was ready for us. We were kind of suprised but decided to go lock our vouchers for the rest of the trip in the room safe then got to the parks. When we reached the room the door was standing wide open, the carpet was soaking wet, there were no beds what so ever, and no light covers, just bare bulbs hanging off the walls. We knew this was a vlaue resort but that was pushing it. While we were standing there dumbfounded a construction worker cam in who could harldy speak english. he asked if he could help us and we explained that this was the room the front desk had given us for our stay. He told us that it couldn't be then checked the number we were given with the number on the door. We were right but he said they had that wing under construction for cleaning until Tuesday. (We went home Monday) Back to the front desk to request another room. The CM we talked to this time thought that we just didn't like the room until we told her that there were no beds what so ever and we at least wanted a bed for $100 a night. She gave us a different room on the 3rd floor of building 10 (The other football building) and re ran our cards. This room was not ready however so we had to check our vouchers folder as luggage to be sent to our room.
Finally we were off to the parks. We first went to magic Kingodm for Birthday pins then we decided to begin our trip at MGM. Upon arrival we got fast passes for Rockin Rollercoaster and waited in line for it since it was only a 15 minutes wait. We figured we could then ride Tower of Terror while waiting for the fast passes to begin. By the time we got off Rockin, the wait line for Tower of Terror was up to 40 minutes. We checked out the shops then went back for our fast passes. By this time it was 12:30 pm EST and time to leave for our Priority Seating at Animal Kingdom Rainforest Cafe at 1:00pm. We checked in with no problem then went to stand in line to be saeated. Sara went off to the bathroom while I waited. Our hostess came and announced 4 names, 2 infront of us and 1 behind us. The 2 ahead of us were all present and the family behind us was missing Mom/Wife. Both that husband/dad and I made polite mention that were waiting for others in our party and then the hostess said "Oh well" in a really snotty tone then left with the first 2 parties.
The 2 of us didn't know what to do. Finally after everyone was persent she came back and took us to a center stand. We asked her since this was a birthday celebrations for us if we could get a table by some water, we would even wait longer for it if necessary. The first hostess blantently ignored us and the second one said there were none avaliable. We restated that we would wait for one and made mention of about 8 tables for 2 near water. We were seated in the dead center of the room.We made mention of this to our really nice waiter and during the course of lunch we also told it to 2 manager at his insistance. following lunch we wnt into Animal Kingdom and saw pretty much everything we wanted to. We hav the vouchers for priority seating for the parade but no one ever told us we had to notify Disney 24 hours in advance to actually use them so we lost 2 of 3. We still got good seats to watch in the shade and were close enough that we could walk right on to the Safari ride. The last thing we did was Kali River Rapids. I made the mistake of wearing my really good tennis shoes so since I wanted to keep them dry I got 2 bags and put them on my feet. It worked great. The shoes were the only thing I cared about getting wet. Teh other people in our boat didn't have a clue so I think a few of their cameras got ruined in the water and since they didn't close the baggage thing in the middle their stuff was a little wet too. We tried to warn them as this was our 4th trip donw the rapids since 99 but they didn't believe us, they quickly learned we were right.
We then went back to our resort to change clothes and then headded to Magic Kingdom where we ate Dinner and then waited for Spectromagic Parade and the fireworks since that voucher too was useless. We managed to get really good seats for both then stayed in the park for E-night.
Because of our Birthday pins we were able to ride Space Mountian 3 times in 15 minutes! We also got our all time best scores on Buzz lightyear and did Hanuted Mansion about 4 times. We also did the rest of the rides at least twice before e-night ended at 1:00am EST. We then went back to our resort for a few hour sleep since by this time we had slept a grand total of 9 hour in the past 48.
Coming Soon to a Chat board near you...
Day 3 - The Commando raid continues - Watch out for the humongous bugs!
