Oh, has it Been Raining? No, this is Just Sweat. Sept/Oct 2022 Trip Report! (Updated 9/16!!)

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Have been off the boards for a while and omg what a bunch of chaotic updates but YAY NEW KITTIES!

Haha, seriously! It's been quite the summer so far! Binx is such a great kitten, albeit an absolutely crazy one. He's also HUGE for his age, he's a full pound heavier than he should be, the vet thinks he's going to be a very big cat. My poor older cat Ham is going to be in for a shock when Binx grows up!

 

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It sounds like the after hours party could have gone a lot smoother. The long check in time is almost inexcusable. I would be really angry at that. And not having the International Gateway open for exits is another mystery. What would it have taken to allow guests to leave. I'm sure they keep a guard at the gate 24/7.

Yeah, and we got lucky making it through just as the party started. I would have been really mad if we ended up wasting party time waiting in the check-in line! It was such a bummer that they wouldn't let us exit from IG too, people kept saying it was so they wouldn't have to position CMs along the way to keep people from exploring, but still, it would have been so much nicer being able to walk home!

Your mom is a good sport.

She sure is a trooper, I'm very lucky to have her!

 

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Yikes on the wait to check-in and wait for buses. That would have really annoyed me. Especially frustrating to be so close to your resort and have to go the long way back. Glad you got some good rides on Guardians in. I always tell myself I want to try to pay more attention to the dialogue during the ride but then never do. I have to try to remember to listen for the EPCOT line if I get September. That's a cool detail.

Yeah, I'm glad we ended up taking an Uber, we were so ready to be back in bed at that time of night! It would have been sooooo much nicer just walking home. I do wonder if they kept the original location of being in the UK, France, and Morocco they would have left the IG open.

Haha, yeah that line you get with September is pretty awesome, I confirmed it on the January trip that it was only played when when I got September and not the other songs I got (although I got September most of the time... )

 

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Whaaaa-?? Where/when does this line come in?? During the ride itself? At the end? I'm intrigued!

It's right at the very end just before pulling into that random mostly empty room where the Guardians come on the screen (seriously why is that room so weirdly bland?) before the unloading room.

 

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Hello everyone! Just popping in a for a midweek RL update! I realized that today we are exactly 6 weeks out from our Food and Wine trip!!! This is coming up fast! I think our schedule is mostly set at this point, we're mostly doing Epcot to try to eat at a lot of the food booths. Also the new food booths open while we're there, so we actually added some time in Epcot to make sure we try those out as well.

Speaking of the new food booths, I'm SOOOO excited the artist palette of wine and cheese is making a return! Back in our early days of F&W that was one of our favorite items to get, it was sad when it went away, so I'm very happy it's back this year! I'm also happy the crispy cheese from India is back, although why are they not calling it paneer this year? Are they not using paneer, or did people just not know what paneer was last year? I hope it's as good as last year, loved that dish!

We're also doing some recurring meals, like Tiffins, and some new ones as well. We're eating at Monsieur Paul this year for the first time since 2013, so obviously the first time since the new prix fixe menu, so I'm really excited about that. We're also doing the Sangria University, which sounds like a lot of fun!

Meanwhile, we've also been working on our BIG FAMILY DECEMBER TRIP! Haha, this is seriously a huge trip for us, its the first trip my dad is coming on since 2013, it's our first time staying club level, it's our first triple split stay, AND it's our first time staying in suites! EEK! We've been messing with the schedule a lot, we're trying to fit in all the holiday offerings and somehow do all the rides (ok maybe not ALL of them), and somehow have lots of down time to enjoy the rooms/club levels. Yeah, I realize this is gonna be hard.

In other news, Binx is settling in somewhat nicely with the rest of the fam, that is when he has stopped attacking them. He is crazy. Seriously, he LOVES to attack Ham and Dug, and they are not exactly fans of this. However, when Binx calms down, they are happy to cuddle with him, so it's not all bad! Here's a picture of Binx and Ham together!



So cute!

Alright that's it for today, hope everyone is having a great week! ​

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Hi. Glad I caught this. I've been consumed with the DIS drama. When are you dates for F&W? DM me and maybe we can meet up for a bit on one day. Big Dec trip also sounds amazing. If we don't catch up in fall maybe then. Sweet Binx.

 

[Wood Nymph]

I realized that today we are exactly 6 weeks out from our Food and Wine trip!!!

We have a Food and Wine trip going up next month, too. We always talk about all the food we want to try when we get to Epcot. But then we forget what we wanted to try and end up with our old standbys. We have one Epcot night scheduled for Food and Wine food and this time we will be forced to concentrate on the food. The no park hopping rule makes it really hard to take advantage of the booths.

we've also been working on our BIG FAMILY DECEMBER TRIP!

Your family trip sounds like it will be wonderful. We love the evening appetizers and make a dinner out of them.

We love going to WDW in early December. My sister is joining us for her first Christmas trip and have lots of plans for her.

 

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Hi. Glad I caught this. I've been consumed with the DIS drama. When are you dates for F&W? DM me and maybe we can meet up for a bit on one day. Big Dec trip also sounds amazing. If we don't catch up in fall maybe then. Sweet Binx.

We'll be there the 20-25! Will you be there around that time? That would be awesome to meet up, I'll DM you about it.

The December trip is really starting to come together, and I am so excited! The only park I've ever seen around the holidays was AK since that was the only one we could get CM tickets for way back when I went last in December, so I cannot wait to see all the other decorations.

And haha, yeah Binx is sweet once he gets his energy out He actually is really sweet, he loves to cuddle, and is basically my shadow, he needs to be in whatever room I'm in, it's really cute!

 

[KPeterso]

My mom and I are doing our annual mother-daughter trip 9/15-9/28, so looks like we will overlap too. We are not big F&W people though.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

The December trip is really starting to come together, and I am so excited! The only park I've ever seen around the holidays was AK since that was the only one we could get CM tickets for way back when I went last in December, so I cannot wait to see all the other decorations.

OMG you're going to lose your mind with the decor. Don't sleep on the resorts if you have time.

 

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My mom and I are doing our annual mother-daughter trip 9/15-9/28, so looks like we will overlap too. We are not big F&W people though.

That's awesome! I can't believe we're only a few weeks out from the trip, I am so ready to be back. I know it's been less than a year, but it feels like it's been forever!

 

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OMG you're going to lose your mind with the decor. Don't sleep on the resorts if you have time.

That is what we're hoping for! We're planning time each day to take as many family pictures as we can with all the decorations. We are planning on doing the monorail loop resorts to check out the décor there when we visit the MK (fingers and toes crossed the GF has the lobby gingerbread house this year...the construction has me worried). We're also strongly considering then heading over to WL to grab lunch at Geyser point so we can check out those decorations as well. Then when we're staying at the BC and/or BWI we'll obviously check out those resorts and pop over to the YC. And we'll see the AKL decorations when we stay there. I guess one bonus for a triple split stay during December, we get to see a lot of decorations! Plus the parks, I cannot wait to see it snoap on Main Street!

 

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Happy almost Friday everyone! Just popping in for a quick RL update. So the F&W trip is in less than 4 weeks

This really came up fast this year, I feel like August just started yesterday, and here we are almost at the end of the month.

I've been going back and forth on my costume for MNSSHP this year, I was originally planning on being a wilderness explorer again, but I've done that the past two years, so I feel like I need to change it up. Although with all the unexpected vet bills this summer I can't really afford to buy stuff for a new costume, so I've decided to bring back my original MNSSHP costume from 2016, the Cheshire Cat! That was the one and only time I did this costume, so I think it's time to bring it back. My absolute favorite picture from Disney was from the 2016 party in the costume, although all you can see is the ears really...



Anyways, I'll probably get a different shirt since the print on the one from that party is peeling off, but it looks like Etsy has some pretty inexpensive ones that should fit the bill. Fortunately I still have the ears. Speaking of the ears, have you ever had an interaction with someone that just sticks with you, even if it's very simple? Well, I had one related to those ears. We were heading out of the YC to catch the bus to the party, so I was wearing them, and as we were walking through the lobby we walk past some CMs in suits and one says to me as he passes "That smile! THOSE EARS!" then proceeds to tell us to have the most magical time that evening, but all that stuck to me was how excited he was about the ears. So whenever I see pictures from that night I immediately think of that comment.

In other trip news, my mom got the DAS all squared away earlier this week. Well, both of us kinda had to work on it this time around. So, if you read my FARTs TR you may remember that Disney's system was trying to use my leftover tickets from the hurricane last September in January instead of the tickets I purchased for January, so the CM had to override the system. Well, the way they did that was to create a separate profile for me to assign those leftover September tickets so my January tickets could be used. I didn't think anything of it until I got a panicked email from my mom while at work earlier this week saying she couldn't do any of the DAS pre-selections because I had two profiles. Ugh.

So I told her not to worry about, I'd deal with it when I got home from work. I gotta say, with Disney's IT I was a bit concerned about dealing with this, I was really worried that somehow they'd delete the leftover tickets, but fortunately it was actually a very smooth process and in less than 5 minutes (well maybe 10...took me a while to explain all this to the poor CM), they had the two profiles merged so there was only one of me again! (seriously, the world cannot handle two of me... ) She also made sure that both my mom and I were using the leftover tickets on the same day since they have the pre-booked genie+ on them, so overall a wonderful CM!

After that we decided to try to get the pre-selections done again. It took a while to find where to start the chat after already approved for DAS, and once we did, the chat box opened and we could see the chat my mom had started in the morning when she initially tried to do it, so it didn't seem like it had started a new chat. But we waited since the previous page said to wait for a CM to answer. So we waited, and waited, and waited, but after a while I suspected since we were just reentering the chat my mom had been in earlier in the morning that they were not aware we were trying to start a new chat, so we wrote something like "hello? anyone there?"

Within seconds a CM was typing, and soon after we were getting the pre-selected rides done. It was different this year (according to my mom...I didn't help last year). This year instead of just typing back and forth with the CM for the selections, we had to actually fill out a form to submit back to them before they would look for availability. I will say, and I hope I'm not jinxing it, but compared to last year, it was a lot easier to get what we wanted during the time frame we wanted, so I hope that means some low crowds!

In other news, there are soooo many people at work sick right now. One person even was just diagnosed with a sinus infection and STILL CAME TO THE OFFICE. It seems like the weeks leading up to my trips everyone around me seems to get sick, but I realize that's just because I'm actually noticing because I actually care. When I have no trips coming up, catching a cold is actually kinda (sadly) welcome so I can work from home that week

Anyways, I think that's it for now. I still need to finish this TR, will get to that soon, hopefully before the next trip!

Oh! ETA. So have you seen the announcement about the construction on Stormalong Bay in 2025? Super weird to get such an early notice about construction right? Well, I'm totally claiming responsibility for the super early announcement (mostly kidding). So remember that free trip I got from Disney? Well, it came from an email I sent to them about all the construction we've had to deal with multiple times over only like four years with little to no notice. Which, in itself not likely to make them change their ways. However, since I am in the construction industry, I actually laid out a typical timeline for construction contracts from solicitation to bidding to awarding and so on, and basically called them out for knowing well in advance that construction would be happening but failing to notify guests. Low and behold, we now get a 1.5 year notice of construction. Coincidence? Probably, but I'd like to think I played a part in it. ​

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Hurrah for the upcoming trip! Your costume sounds cute! Thanks for the advance notice on the SAB construction. I wonder what all they're doing over five months!?!? Ugh. I think I'll take that time to explore some other resorts, as much as I like that area -- sounds like a mess to me! Although if they offer some good discounts ...

 

[Wood Nymph]

So have you seen the announcement about the construction on Stormalong Bay in 2025?

I think your complaint about the lack of construction notices definitely contributed to Disney's decision to announce the pool closure ahead of time. And I'm really glad they listened to the many complaints about it.

Now I'm hoping for some deep discounts for BC & YC during the 2025 construction.

Your Chestire Cat is cute. It will be a great way to have a cool costume at MNSSHP.

 

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Hurrah for the upcoming trip! Your costume sounds cute! Thanks for the advance notice on the SAB construction. I wonder what all they're doing over five months!?!? Ugh. I think I'll take that time to explore some other resorts, as much as I like that area -- sounds like a mess to me! Although if they offer some good discounts ...

Thanks! I'm so excited for this trip, I feel like it's been ages since I've been on vacation, I am so ready!

And haha, yeah, I mean I'm sure I'm one of many guests who complained which ultimately made them change their ways, but it is nice to feel important every now and then. I do wonder if they'll offer any discounts during that time...seems like perfect timing for another FARTs trip!

 

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I think your complaint about the lack of construction notices definitely contributed to Disney's decision to announce the pool closure ahead of time. And I'm really glad they listened to the many complaints about it.

Haha, I wouldn't be surprised, but I'm sure there were tons of other complaints. It is really obnoxious to have construction so close, especially when it starts at 7am after a late night!

Now I'm hoping for some deep discounts for BC & YC during the 2025 construction.

That would be amazing, it may be enough to be able to afford another FARTs trip!

Your Chestire Cat is cute. It will be a great way to have a cool costume at MNSSHP.

Thanks!

 

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Ok, popping in to be a Debbie downer tonight (seriously I usually hate this saying, but when it's your name and it works, well, you just gotta go with it!). I just need to vent for a bit (so please feel free to ignore all this mess!)

So remember all the insurance issues I was having a while back? I thought I got it all worked out, I'm on a new great plan and everything was all set up with my mortgage for all the changes. Well, I just got a notice from my mortgage company saying that I was not insured at all for the month of July and they are going to put a lien on my house. So of course I immediately go look up my previous insurance since that was supposed to go through mid August, and yup, sure enough it shows that it ended mid August.

Of course being Sunday I can't get in touch with anyone, and tomorrow I'm stuck in meetings all day so can't take care of this until Friday since I'm stuck in the office Tue-Thur, ugh. This is so frustrating, I thought this was all worked out, and now I need to figure this mess out. Plus I'm pissed at my mortgage company, they claimed they sent multiple notices about this, and this was the final one, however this is the only one I got, no others are in the system and I never received any correspondence outside of my online account, so if I were paying via the mail and not signing into my online account every month to pay I would have no idea! I know once I can get in touch with people I'll be able to get this worked out (hopefully), but it's just so frustrating after doing everything right and still having to deal with this, especially after the crap summer I've already had. I'm so over all this, I'm ready for some happy things to happen!

I guess it's good I have a trip coming up soon, it'll be so nice to get away from all this and be a kid again for a few days! ​

 

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Ugh. Is there an online chat you can invoke?

 

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Ugh. Is there an online chat you can invoke?

I ended up calling, it wasn't too bad, had to do a conference call with my mortgage company and the former insurance company to get it worked out and hopefully get the correct documents sent to my mortgage company. Need to call back in a few days to make sure it all went through, but looks hopefully for now!