Our 'Ohana is Making a Splash on Safari: Reporting LIVE from...AKL (8/6)

[dizneechic]

Loving this!!

Is the Tronorail still running on the Epcot monorail line? Any Tronorail merchandise around?

And thanks for the tip to avoid those lime green Brazil shirts! They must be TGMers too!

 

[SydandPaige'sMom]

Thank you so much for your updates! It's awesome to read what we will be experiencing in a few months

 

[PolynesianAlex]

Im not expecting you too but if you can check the menu at the tambu lounge and see if they have the orange creamsicle drink?

 

[Missoutandabout]

Haven't chimed in yet but I've been reading -- keep up the excellent work! Making me all antsy for our Poly trip (like I needed any encouragement!)

 

[iloveeeyore]

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Loving this!!

Is the Tronorail still running on the Epcot monorail line? Any Tronorail merchandise around?

And thanks for the tip to avoid those lime green Brazil shirts! They must be TGMers too!

Yes the tronorail is running on the epcot line. We think its very cool! We haven't seen any merchandise around, but we haven't been looking, either. Will try to take a look around and report back.

Thank you so much for your updates! It's awesome to read what we will be experiencing in a few months

Thanks. Hope i can note something that will be helpful to you in some way.

Im not expecting you too but if you can check the menu at the tambu lounge and see if they have the orange creamsicle drink?

We will be in the tambu on wednesday. Will check. Orange creamsicle? Mmmm sounds yummy! But i will be ordering a lapu lapu. I tried an island sunset last night at kona and it was so good!

 

[jsrj21]

Great 'LIVE' reporting!!!

I will be there this afternoon for 9 days [leaving out of White Plains as well].

My wife, son, and I hope to do exactly what you are doing this summer - a split stay between the Poly and AKL. We have always stayed at CBR and we have always said that if we were to stay anywhere else, it would be the Poly or AKL.

We will be at Ohana's on Wednesday and Sunday!!!!

Enjoy your stay. I won't have access to read this report from WDW but I will once we get back.

Jose
Norwalk, CT.

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

More great live reports - thank you!
I love that you are timing the travel time - it's totally something us DISers want to know so thank you!

Sorry you didn't see Tink fly but I'm glad the fireworks went off. Will you have an opportunity to see her fly another night?

 

[iloveeeyore]

Haven't chimed in yet but I've been reading -- keep up the excellent work! Making me all antsy for our Poly trip (like I needed any encouragement!)

Thank you for the encouragement. Thanks for reading!

Great 'LIVE' reporting!!!

I will be there this afternoon for 9 days [leaving out of White Plains as well].

My wife, son, and I hope to do exactly what you are doing this summer - a split stay between the Poly and AKL. We have always stayed at CBR and we have always said that if we were to stay anywhere else, it would be the Poly or AKL.

We will be at Ohana's on Wednesday and Sunday!!!!

Enjoy your stay. I won't have access to read this report from WDW but I will once we get back.

Jose
Norwalk, CT.

Safe travels, enjoy your trip and 'Ohana. Thanks for reading!

More great live reports - thank you!
I love that you are timing the travel time - it's totally something us DISers want to know so thank you!

Sorry you didn't see Tink fly but I'm glad the fireworks went off. Will you have an opportunity to see her fly another night?

Youre welcome. Im glad you like my report. We saw tink only thursday night from the Poly beach but probably won't see mk fireworks again. We saw them again last night and again no tink. Really bad lightning. More on that later!

 

[iloveeeyore]

Sunday was Belle's 16th birthday. We told her she could choose the activity and she picked water park. Since we went to blizzard beach last time we decided on tgphoon lagoon this time. We ha another quick breakfast at CC and were at the bus stop by 8:33 after a 3 minute walk from the room. The bus arrives at 8:33 and as were at tl by 8:52. No stops on the way there. The bus was continuing to dtd.

 

[iloveeeyore]

We rented a small locker for $13 and bought 1 refillable mug to share, and found some lounge chairs in the shade near the wave pool. We were the first group at shark reef which was cool, but we felt a little rushed which was surprising considering there wasn't anyone waiting. Then we made our way over to crushin gushed and rode all 3 slides which were super fun. There was no line but after 3 we felt we should save our legs andenjoy some other attractions before it got crowded, so next we did humumga kowabunga which we didn't love (got wedgies and spanked) then did the storm slides with very short wait. By now we needed a. Real from climbing so we took a spin on the lazy river. Next it was time for the wave pool. About 11:00 we all laid down and fell asleep for about an hour. Boy did we need that and it was very refreshing!
Lunchin was at Leaning Palms and it was fine quick service with plenty of seatin for a busy lunch hour.
After lunch we did the raft slides to the left. The best was the family one, followed by the rapids one. The one to the far left was completely lame and seemed like maybe it didn't have enough water.
Overall we had fun but by 2:45 we were done and ready to go back to the quiet pool at the Poly. So we gathered our stuff and were at the bus stop a little before 3. The bus came at 3:16, we stopped at CR first, and we're back in the room by about 3:50.

 

[iloveeeyore]

Jumping ahead in my narrative to report that we watched nightastic from the Poly beach tonight and it was beautiful and tink flew (yay) but the beach was very crowded and in the pool was wall to wall people including children screaming and splashing. Every single seat along the beach was taken, every table at the pool was occupied and the beach was lined with people standing. When the fireworks were over, hordes of people swarmed toward the gch, presumably to the monorail. I went to the quiet pool with my family because the volcano pool was still very crowded and it was about 95 degrees and filled with screaching splashing children. I don't ever remember seeing the pools this crowded during the day, let alone a monday night at 10:30. I have no idea what was up with that! I hope it was a freak situation but from the reports i've been reading i guess it wasn't.

 

[iloveeeyore]

Sunday when we got back to the Poly, Aladdin decided to bead over to the gift shop at the wl while belle, herc and i stayed back to go for a swim. We wanted to try the quiet pool. We stopped to fill our mugs and got to the pool and then...a bolt o lightning, a clap of thunder, the pool was closed! We came back to the room to relax and soon Aladdin was back. Here's how he got to and from the poly to the wl. Monorail to mk, boat tl wl. Shopped a bit he bus to mk and monorail back to poly. The whole trip took about 90 minutes. Thank goodness he got back when he did because the storm took on near biblical proportions. The lightning flashed and the rain poured down for a few hours and what we came to learn a little later was that a monorail got struck by lightning and stopped on the track for an hour and then another monorail came to rescue the people but that one got struck too, and the whole monorail system was down for many hours. We found this out as we were heading out to belle's birthday dinner at CG. The cm at the monorail station said sorry the monorail isn't working bit buses are being provided downstairs. So we went downstairs and were directed to the bus stop about 40 yards away. The line of people waitin for buses was almost back tl the gch and there was nobody there keeping order. No help at all. In the line there were peoeple trying to get to every park and monorail resort and utter chaos. It was so disappointing to see that the poly had no one out there to help organize the line. The bus would comeand stop in the middle of the line instead o at the first person. There were people waiting who said they had been waiting for 90 minutes. The buses were packed likes sardines. I mentioned to the bus driver that there was chaos at the curb with no one providing order and he said that was good to know, he would tell someone. We we're late for our dinner at CG.

 

[bluejasmine]

WOW not good. Pls be sure and speak to a manager, there has been so many reports about things at the Poly being this way that I feel we all need to complain to management or it will not change!

The pool and beach being that crowded with ppl who probably are not even Poly guests is unacceptable with the money guests pay to stay at the Poly!

The situation with the bus is also unacceptable, I understand that the monorails were a freak thing but you cant tell me that some CM didnt notice the chaos out by the buses!!

There has been alot of complaints late;y about the Poly and the CL and I did personally send an email to WDW yesteday about the ongoing list of complaints and I encourge everyone else to do so as well. You can bet your bottom dollar that while I will not go looking for trouble if situation arises that is unacceptable I WILL have a heart to heart with management!

Enjoying your live report~ Thanks so much for doing it!

 

[dizneechic]

Yikes! Reading about the lightning strikes makes me glad we decided to rent a car. Not a huge fan of buses anyhow, but to imagine the chaos and trying to board one with a group of 5 would be a nightmare.

I will admit though I do love lightning storms, especially in FL. I would have loved to just camp in the room, order take out, and watch.

 

[iloveeeyore]

U

WOW not good. Pls be sure and speak to a manager, there has been so many reports about things at the Poly being this way that I feel we all need to complain to management or it will not change!

The pool and beach being that crowded with ppl who probably are not even Poly guests is unacceptable with the money guests pay to stay at the Poly!

The situation with the bus is also unacceptable, I understand that the monorails were a freak thing but you cant tell me that some CM didnt notice the chaos out by the buses!!

There has been alot of complaints late;y about the Poly and the CL and I did personally send an email to WDW yesteday about the ongoing list of complaints and I encourge everyone else to do so as well. You can bet your bottom dollar that while I will not go looking for trouble if situation arises that is unacceptable I WILL have a heart to heart with management!

Enjoying your live report~ Thanks so much for doing it!

Glad you are likingmy report. I will absolutely speak to a manager while we are here and also send a letter when we get home. We always write a letter when we get home and praise the good, menfionthe not-so-good.

Yikes! Reading about the lightning strikes makes me glad we decided to rent a car. Not a huge fan of buses anyhow, but to imagine the chaos and trying to board one with a group of 5 would be a nightmare.

I will admit though I do love lightning storms, especially in FL. I would have loved to just camp in the room, order take out, and watch.

Yes we loved the storm also. We sat on the bacony and watched and took photos and video and oohed and aahed. It was beautiful! But here's what we were thinking about that. This wasn't the first epic lightning storm of the century in central florida. Shouldn't there be a solid plan b for when the monorails go down? Anyway we were quite shocked by how inefficiently this was handled. Im sure there will be many many complaints from lots o irate guests about how things were so unmanaged that night.

 

[iloveeeyore]

We are at dhs waiting for rope drop and i have to tell you the brazilians are still here. It looks like the same group we encountered at soarin. At least now Aladdin knows to avoid them on the fp line!

 

[iloveeeyore]

Mad house today at dhs today. We were at the turnstyles by around 8:20 and by the time we got to tsm the wait was 30 minutes. Aladdin had to wait almost 10 minutes for fast passes. Guess who was right behind him in line?! Brazilian tour group leader lady! The fp return time was 10:10. By the time we were able to get to rnrc the line was an hour long. We rode as single riders and waited about 35 minutes. We just missed an animation class so we are waiting now. Just so you know tgm did not recommend this park today, but we chose it knowing that anyway, because we want to see fantasmic. Thankfully there are two of them tonight!

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

Mad house today at dhs today. We were at the turnstyles by around 8:20 and by the time we got to tsm the wait was 30 minutes. Aladdin had to wait almost 10 minutes for fast passes. Guess who was right behind him in line?! Brazilian tour group leader lady! The fp return time was 10:10. By the time we were able to get to rnrc the line was an hour long. We rode as single riders and waited about 35 minutes. We just missed an animation class so we are waiting now. Just so you know tgm did not recommend this park today, but we chose it knowing that anyway, because we want to see fantasmic. Thankfully there are two of them tonight!

I broke down and subscribed to TGM yesterday. I was disheartened to find that one of the parks I chose for a night was RED but I'm rethinking my strategy now because of his recommendations. So it's good to hear that his predictions were accurate for DHS. How was fantasmic????

 

[dizneechic]

Guess who was right behind him in line?! Brazilian tour group leader lady!

We just missed an animation class so we are waiting now.

Please show off your drawing when done. This is our one MUST do for our trip. Missed it last time and my DS9 wants to be an artist when he gets older.

Just so you know tgm did not recommend this park today, but we chose it knowing that anyway, because we want to see fantasmic.

Tsk Tsk! Good to know the avoid was spot on. Wonder how the other parks feel today. Has the advice panned out well otherwise (or so you feel?) We did TGM last trip and this one as well and stick to the rec's so don't know what the parks feel like outside of sticking to the plan.

 

[dizneechic]

Yes we loved the storm also. We sat on the bacony and watched and took photos and video and oohed and aahed. It was beautiful! But here's what we were thinking about that. This wasn't the first epic lightning storm of the century in central florida. Shouldn't there be a solid plan b for when the monorails go down? Anyway we were quite shocked by how inefficiently this was handled. Im sure there will be many many complaints from lots o irate guests about how things were so unmanaged that night.

They absolutely should have had a crowd management plan in place, especially given central FL is the lightning capital of the US! I'm sure it's not the 1st time it's happened and even outside of lightning I've read of several monorail issues lately. Considering Disney averages 40k visitors per DAY they should be a machine when it comes to crowd management and people movement, it's pretty sad to hear they failed in this area.