PART FIVE!! *December 2012 Roll Call* Holidays, FLE & MVMCP!! A very, merry thread!

[WedgieSock]

We're BAAAACCCKKK!

Had a great trip...loved new Fantasyland and BOG! Had many magical moments (and one not so magical one that turned INTO a rather magical one) and made a ton of great memories.

Great to hear you had a good trip!

We also had quite a few magical moments .... but I am saving them for the group TR ... can't wait to hear yours

 

[jimjenkids]

Congrats to your son! Winning 5 of the last 6 matches is quite a feat!

I had to re-pack everything yesterday too after looking at the forecast again! Only thing that has me worried is the low on the 21st is supposed to be 41 and that's our MVMCP night. I hate having to bring a coat just for that, but I have leaned from years of sitting in a tree stand while deer hunting that 41 gets freaking COLD if you are standing still out in it for any length of time, like we will be for the parade and fireworks. Eh, guess I'll wear a coat onto the airplane just in case.

Good thing I don't have time to re-pack everything a third time, or I'd probably start second guessing what I've got packet yet again

We have our polar fleece coats and hope that will be warm enough....if not I guess they can layer up with a sweatshirt....seem that the DS15 gets cold first(we joke that it is due to him being so skinny)....been a bit cooler lately and calling for snow tuesday into wednesday.....we did however buy new stretchy gloves-if I bring them maybe we wont need them!

 

[pilferk]

Ok, you know we're all SO going to nag you until you explain what this "not-so-magical, yet magical moment" was!

Our last day in Epcot (Thursday, Dec 13th), my wife had to make an "emergency run" to the restroom with our youngest. She ended up at the ladies room on the Mission Space side of Innoventions-ish.

A CM had recently mopped the floor, but had "hidden" the wet floor sign behind the entrance (my wife has a great picture....you can't see the sign at all). She rounded the corner into the bathroom, moving quickly since my youngest was in full "potty dance" mode. My wife took a nasty fall onto her...."pride"...twisted her ankle and whacked her knee pretty good,too. She managed to protect our daughter, though, and kept her upright.

Within seconds of the fall, she had a CM at her side, who escorted her to first aid (after they found us). She was generally OK, but had a nasty bruise on her..."pride".... and her ankle was swelling up pretty good. They wrapped up her ankle, gave her some ice and ibuprofen, and were VERY apologetic.

We began to discuss what our options were (there was no way my wife was going to be able to walk the parks)...and the nurse at first aid called in a Custodial manager to see what they could do to help. They ended up comping us an ECV and setting our party up for a "private" (we shared with 2 other guys) viewing of Illuminations in Italy (the magical part)....their suggestions, FYI. We would have been happy, honestly, with the scooter...she could stand, and hobble some, but walking would have been painful for long periods of time on her ankle.

We also had a call (with follow up emails) asking us for the pictures we took so they could make sure that signage was placed more properly in the future. They also insisted we take a guest claims form and contact card...though we have no intention of using it. By the time we flew home on Saturday, her ankle was much better and the bruise, while uncomfortable, wasn't (and still isn't) really effecting her that much.

 

[1stvisit0909]

I just wanted to post so I could see my ticker again.

 

[M&MGirl1]

We have our polar fleece coats and hope that will be warm enough....if not I guess they can layer up with a sweatshirt....seem that the DS15 gets cold first(we joke that it is due to him being so skinny)....been a bit cooler lately and calling for snow tuesday into wednesday.....we did however buy new stretchy gloves-if I bring them maybe we wont need them!

I have a polar fleece jacket packed already. It was a windbreaker I was debating taking on the plane, but I can always just buy a sweatshirt down there if I need another layer. Decisions, decisions. LOVE your thinking about if you take the gloves maybe you won't need them!

Our last day in Epcot (Thursday, Dec 13th), my wife had to make an "emergency run" to the restroom with our youngest. She ended up at the ladies room on the Mission Space side of Innoventions-ish.

A CM had recently mopped the floor, but had "hidden" the wet floor sign behind the entrance (my wife has a great picture....you can't see the sign at all). She rounded the corner into the bathroom, moving quickly since my youngest was in full "potty dance" mode. My wife took a nasty fall onto her...."pride"...twisted her ankle and whacked her knee pretty good,too. She managed to protect our daughter, though, and kept her upright.

Within seconds of the fall, she had a CM at her side, who escorted her to first aid (after they found us). She was generally OK, but had a nasty bruise on her..."pride".... and her ankle was swelling up pretty good. They wrapped up her ankle, gave her some ice and ibuprofen, and were VERY apologetic.

We began to discuss what our options were (there was no way my wife was going to be able to walk the parks)...and the nurse at first aid called in a Custodial manager to see what they could do to help. They ended up comping us an ECV and setting our party up for a "private" (we shared with 2 other guys) viewing of Illuminations in Italy (the magical part)....their suggestions, FYI. We would have been happy, honestly, with the scooter...she could stand, and hobble some, but walking would have been painful for long periods of time on her ankle.

We also had a call (with follow up emails) asking us for the pictures we took so they could make sure that signage was placed more properly in the future. They also insisted we take a guest claims form and contact card...though we have no intention of using it. By the time we flew home on Saturday, her ankle was much better and the bruise, while uncomfortable, wasn't (and still isn't) really effecting her that much.

SO sorry your wife took a nasty tumble! I don't know what the custodial team was thinking when they put that wet floor sign where no one could see it, but it sounds like Disney handled the situation VERY well. It's great they comped you the EVC so you could continue touring Epcot, and the private viewing for Illuminations was a wonderful bit of !

 

[pilferk]

We have our polar fleece coats and hope that will be warm enough....if not I guess they can layer up with a sweatshirt....seem that the DS15 gets cold first(we joke that it is due to him being so skinny)....been a bit cooler lately and calling for snow tuesday into wednesday.....we did however buy new stretchy gloves-if I bring them maybe we wont need them!

We were there on Thurs and Friday (Highs in the low 60s, lows in the low 50s). We ended up buying blankets for illluminations on Thursday night (we were in shorts) and were glad we had our fleece jackets on..mostly because it was quite windy. But during the day, we were pretty comfortable.

Having said that, if we'd had on long pants...we would have been fine in our fleece jackets for Illuminations, too.

 

[SAT887]

Our last day in Epcot (Thursday, Dec 13th), my wife had to make an "emergency run" to the restroom with our youngest. She ended up at the ladies room on the Mission Space side of Innoventions-ish.

A CM had recently mopped the floor, but had "hidden" the wet floor sign behind the entrance (my wife has a great picture....you can't see the sign at all). She rounded the corner into the bathroom, moving quickly since my youngest was in full "potty dance" mode. My wife took a nasty fall onto her...."pride"...twisted her ankle and whacked her knee pretty good,too. She managed to protect our daughter, though, and kept her upright.

Within seconds of the fall, she had a CM at her side, who escorted her to first aid (after they found us). She was generally OK, but had a nasty bruise on her..."pride".... and her ankle was swelling up pretty good. They wrapped up her ankle, gave her some ice and ibuprofen, and were VERY apologetic.

We began to discuss what our options were (there was no way my wife was going to be able to walk the parks)...and the nurse at first aid called in a Custodial manager to see what they could do to help. They ended up comping us an ECV and setting our party up for a "private" (we shared with 2 other guys) viewing of Illuminations in Italy (the magical part)....their suggestions, FYI. We would have been happy, honestly, with the scooter...she could stand, and hobble some, but walking would have been painful for long periods of time on her ankle.

We also had a call (with follow up emails) asking us for the pictures we took so they could make sure that signage was placed more properly in the future. They also insisted we take a guest claims form and contact card...though we have no intention of using it. By the time we flew home on Saturday, her ankle was much better and the bruise, while uncomfortable, wasn't (and still isn't) really effecting her that much.

Aww! I hope your wife is doing well now! I'm glad they took care of you and it was your last day...

 

[Shir Kahn]

We're finally down to single digits!

 

[Tltorrez]

I found the groups of rude people frustrating (sometimes it was very blatant) I know I'm not perfect, often distracted by shiny objects and sometimes in my own world too so I tried to be extra nice to the people around me. I especially tried when the masses were just not letting people move across the way etc, I know with a double stroller it was hard, So I tried to be super aware of others to hopefully make up in karma for when I was the horrible double stroller pushing person (battering ram?) I tried to say sorry as much as possible too....

It can be definitely be hard to maneuver in a crowd but as you pointed out, it's all about awareness and attitude. We were on the GF mezzanine sitting out if the way and there were two sizeable trees that people were taking pics in front of. We watched this one guy moving around this tree and taking pictures and he trips over the tree and unplugs it. He's lucky he didn't pull it over. But so he looks at the tree with the lights out and then just walks away. There weren't any CMs around so I ended up plugging it back in myself.

 

[Tltorrez]

And thats all you can ask. Of course, I cut across people sometimes it happens in a crowded place. I'm aware I can be a complete ditz "ooooh shiney" so I will always say sorry. I have no problem when someone bumps/cuts across etc - heck, it can be hard to navigate and I felt sorry for those with strollers - but if you don't say sorry then I'm not a happy bunny. Manners don't cost a thing, my Mum gave them to me absolutely free and I gave a complete set of manners to my daughter for free and we use them regularly

Worse than the people who don't say sorry though - are the ones that glare at you or say something rude because they've just stepped in front of your wheelchair. Or the parents who don't even realize that their child was in danger of being run over. It takes a lot of effort to stop that chair. Overall we found people to be fairly considerate but there's always somebody.

 

[happy tink]

We found that aswell - Mum became invisible in her ECV! Although we did get down to the GB House, it wasn't much fun for her as people kept standing in front of her.

Something else you might find interesting (if you didn't already know) the monorail broke down so we had to get to MK another way. Our only option was the bus as the boats at GF are unable to take people that are in ECVs. We waited 30mins for a bus because, apparently according to a CM, they are not geared to bus routes to MK because of the monorail so they have to radio out a bus if the monorail breaks down.

When did the monorail break down? Our last day riding was 12/08. We also went to see the GH, 12/06 and there was hardly anyone else there. Just wondering if we were there at the same time aprox?

 

[Tltorrez]

Oh, and did I mention that we saw someone take a swing at the bus driver. And then went after the greeter monitoring the bus stop.

The bizarre part was that this wasn't an incident in the park at 1am after a long day. This was at the resort at 9:30 in the morning. They had to evacuate the bus and put everyone on the next one because security came and our driver had to give statements. Of course, DSis was already strapped in so we couldn't switch easily so we waited. It was pretty clear those people were going to be kicked off property.

 

[Tltorrez]

When did the monorail break down? Our last day riding was 12/08. We also went to see the GH, 12/06 and there was hardly anyone else there. Just wondering if we were there at the same time aprox?

It went down near the end of our trip. The construction at GF accidentally cut a power line and apparently it took a while to figure out what happened. The whole system was down.

 

[SAT887]

Oh, and did I mention that we saw someone take a swing at the bus driver. And then went after the greeter monitoring the bus stop.

The bizarre part was that this wasn't an incident in the park at 1am after a long day. This was at the resort at 9:30 in the morning. They had to evacuate the bus and put everyone on the next one because security came and our driver had to give statements. Of course, DSis was already strapped in so we couldn't switch easily so we waited. It was pretty clear those people were going to be kicked off property.

Seriously? That's crazy- we saw tempers flare on our flight home. I was like seriously people, you take this any further and you will be hanging out with the TSA and have more issues than sitting apart on your SWA flight...

 

[Wendimn]

I am sooooo freaking out. We haven't been to Disney World in 14yrs..so this will be like our first time. First time..busiest week of the year..lol..yup we are nuts Just really hoping I understand the FP and hope we get around ok since we don't know where everything is. This is our one and only WDW trip..just want everything to go as good as possible..

 

[Shir Kahn]

I am sooooo freaking out. We haven't been to Disney World in 14yrs..so this will be like our first time. First time..busiest week of the year..lol..yup we are nuts Just really hoping I understand the FP and hope we get around ok since we don't know where everything is. This is our one and only WDW trip..just want everything to go as good as possible..

I hope everything goes smoothly for you!

 

[Wendimn]

I hope everything goes smoothly for you!

Thank you...same to you!!!!

 

[SAT887]

I am sooooo freaking out. We haven't been to Disney World in 14yrs..so this will be like our first time. First time..busiest week of the year..lol..yup we are nuts Just really hoping I understand the FP and hope we get around ok since we don't know where everything is. This is our one and only WDW trip..just want everything to go as good as possible..

I'm sure it be wonderful!

 

[BDL]

I have 80+ pages to catch up on ! Did the WiFi work for you at your resort? It worked early in the am for us over at CBR but that was it. We couldn't get it most of the time so I only have 3 posts on here during our vacation.

Same here. I'm finally back to work so now I can get my priorities straight. Following Disboards.

Ok, so here is a short summary/highlights of our vacation.

Arrived at CBR on 11/29 then headed down to DTD for a bit and then dinner at T-Rex. We were in Trinidad South bldg 34, room 60 and my mom and brother had Jamaica at bldg 42 room 15. Which was perfect for my brother who smokes. The DSA was pretty much right outside their room. All of us loved the resort! DS got to enjoy the pool on our down time days and had fun with the Jammin Pool Party and answering Disney trivia questions. We even watched Lady and the Tramp outside by the pool. DS went back into the pool after the movie was over for the last time as we were leaving to come home the next day.

Epcot - First day in the parks and first of 2 days at Epcot. TT wasn't open yet. Soarin had a 55 to 65 minute wait time all day, so we waited until EMH when it was down to about 25 minutes. While waiting on line the person behind me read my LGMH with my user ID out loud. Turns out she's another DISer . Unfortunately, I don't remember her name (I do know that she's not on this thread). Got the from my brother after we rode it. Even my mom liked it. Lunch was at R&C, which was excellent!

Second day both DS and I had our faces painted. DS picked the Asian Tiger and I picked Christmas Tink. I'll see if I can post that picture later. While DS was getting his face painted, my mom got the phone call she was waiting for. My cousin's wife went into labor! Unfortunately, she had to have a c-section done b/c the baby was too big and the mom-to-be has a small body frame. But she did delivery a healthy 8 lb 1 oz baby girl the next day! It just took the new mom and dad about 4 days to finally pick out a name!

ETA: OMG, I can't believe I forgot to add this! TT wasn't scheduled to open officially until the 6th. But when we were there on the 5th it was open! The CM said it opened that Monday. DH found it open when he used the Disney app on his smart phone when the park first opened. We made a "B" line for it and rode it. As soon as we got out, the line was very long so we opted to get FP's for later. I'm glad we did, but even the FP line had a bit of a wait when our window opened. It was then closed for about and hour or two before re-opening again in the evening.

We had dinner at Tutta Italia. The fettucini was excellent as was the mocha tiramisu.

AK - My family talked both my mom and brother to ride EE with us. DS was talking about it like he's been on it before . He hadn't. Last time we were at Disney he was 4 and too short to ride the attractions like this. After we got off, my mom said never again. She couldn't take the main drop. However, DS and my Dbrother went on it 2 more times. They loved it! After the first ride, we decided to just get one downloadable picture. But after talking to the CM, I did what DH would have done and opted to get the PhotoPass Attractions card. DH was totally shocked that I had done that. He said to me, "You?! That's something I would have done!"

DHS - We had a great time! Highlight of the day was when my brother was picked to be one of the extras in the Indiana Jones Stunt show at the 6:45 show. If anyone was there that night, he was the one wearing the blue plaid shirt and was wearing the striped robe. I was on line for Phineas and Ferb at the time since they were only there until 7 pm.

Worst part of the day was the new The Legend of Jack Sparrow. There was a soft opening so we got on line for it. All I can say is that all of us were very disappointed. Once you get inside, you are standing for 8 minutes with very little interaction. You do two things to help the talking skull and that's it. The rest of the time, you stand there listening to the skull and Jack and watch what is going on on the scenery. If you are over to the left, you can't see the main storyline play out b/c it's blocked. We all thought this was an intro to something bigger and that we would go to another room. But that wasn't the case. When it was over, DS looked at us and said, "That's it :?" Basically, it's not worth it and is right up there with Stitch's Great Escape. DH saw a CM from the research department later on in the evening and told him how disappointing it was.

Dinner was at 50 PTC which was great. Our waitress wasn't as interactive as the other one for our section. But she was still good and we had a great dinner. As far as the Osborne lights go, we finally caught that during EMH.

Oh, and we finally upgraded to PhotoPass+. We liked the fact that we get all the pictures and the rights to them. Originally we weren't going to go with PhotoPass at all b/c the quality of the pictures in 2006 were very washed out. But Disney has come a long way and the quality is so much better than it was.

MK - Day 1 of 2. We hit the section of Fantasy Land with Ariel's Grotto first. I know a lot of people love the new section, but I wasn't that impressed with it. It was kind of "eh" for me. The rest of my family like it though.

DS finally got to drive a car at the Tomorrow Land Speedway. This has been something he's been looking forward to this since he was 4. He also loved Space Mountain. The rides like Winnie the Pooh were kept for EMH when the lines were much shorter. Dinner was at LTT, where DS was so tired that he fell asleep at the table after eating . The food was really good.

The highlight was during the 3 pm parade (which we got an excellent spot over in Frontier Land). DS was using his Bloggie (aka video camera) and Captain Hook comes right up into his face while he's recording. He wasn't expecting that and backed up a bit. We all started .

The second day was the grand opening of Fantasy Land. We missed the show with Ginnifer Goodwin b/c we were at the Steam Trains tour at the time. However, being inside before the guests was an excellent opportunity to get some great pictures without a sea of people in them. We did get to see the opening and everyone running . DS and DH both got it on video. Once the tour was over, we did the attractions and areas that we didn't have time to do the first day as well as get pictures & autographs from Goofy and Donald Duck. We left MK early to head for our ADR over at the Captain's Grille at YC.

While taking the bus from YC to DTD for transfer back to CBR, I got to meet another DISer from this thread - Christine (aka Mom2rtk). It was really nice talking to you Christine!

After all of the walking we did, my body was hurting so I made an appointment for the Spa over at the YC for Dec 7. All I can say is . The soreness in my body was gone after that!

Later that day, my mom and I headed over to the GF for afternoon tea. We really enjoyed some mother/daughter time. I even took a picture of the swan dessert we got.

The one surprise was from DS. He's now into pin trading! At the beginning of our trip it started out as just collecting the limited edition pins that he received. By the end of our trip he was bit by the pin trading bug and started to trade with the CMs.

Overall, we had a great time. I wasn't ready to come back home to the cold weather yet and would have loved to stay in paradise just for a few more days. But we couldn't.

Ok, so maybe using the word "short" in my opening was not a good idea :

You inspired me to do a 60 sec post-TR as well. Don't worry folks. I will be doing a full post-TR on the group post-TR thread and on my own PTR.

12/6 - Flew out of Logan. Landed at MCO. Stayed off-site at the Marriott Courtyard at Buena Vista (a very nice place by the way)

12/7 - Went to POR. EPCOT/Tutto Italia (AWESOME!!!) . Back to POR (rooms weren't ready in the morning). Back to EPCOT for Blair Underwood CP (AWESOME!!! as well. Buries the Whoopi CP we saw 2 yrs ago)/TT/M:S

12/8 - AK/Tusker House (Mmmmmm. Great pics too). Safari/EE. MGM/Sci-Fi Dining (not impressed). Star Tours/Osbourne Lights (Ooooooh... Pretty). POR-Yee Haw Bob (fun, but crowded)

12/9 - Resort hopping (Kona Cafe- Tonga Toast, Mmmmm). MVMCP/Crystal Palace (who doesn't love Pooh & pals?)

12/10 - Sleep late (zzzzzzzz). MGM/Brown Derby/ToT/RR/Star Tours (again )/Fantasmic!

12/11 - EPCOT/Akershus (kids are so cute w/ the princesses), Figment/Soarin/Nemo/Karamelle Kuche'. POR/Boatwright's for dinner (Great food)

PS: Anyone here eat at Boatwright's this night? I thought saw some familiar faces and looked like some people were looking at me like "Where do I know him from?"

12/12 - Hit 3 of 4 parks. Dinner at Le Cellier (NEVER disappointing)

12/13 - Park hopped. Spent an abysmal 3+ hrs at MCO . Flew into Logan . BDLsgal asks "So... When do you wanna come back?"

In the expanded version, we'll get into the guys' nights, the pursuit of our PhotoPass+ and a bag of rice.

How's that for a teaser? Stay tuned...

 

[cybrkitn]

You did the Photopass pre-order, right?

Two steps:

1) Edit as desired. I generally add some borders and click Save As Copy ( so that you have original and the one with borders).

2) when you are all done editing, go to the product page and select Photo CD. Add it to your cart. Your cart should now show the cost of the CD and a credit for that amount.

When you select the CD you have the option of getting a physical CD or digital download.

Here's a question for you. I was emailed that my PhotoPass+ CD has been shipped (we upgraded from the attractions+ card to PhotoPass+ at DHS). The person I spoke with on the phone said they will send out the CD and she will email me the promo code. So my question is this: is the CD blank for us to transfer our pictures off the site onto it? If not, how does this work ?