Our Condo is booked from June 13 - 20th which I booked in February when I purchased our tickets, meal deals and sipper cups. We have 4 days worth of tickets and I FREAKED out when someone mentioned to me, in passing last month, that the Grand Opening date was June 18th! This was a Surprise birthday present for my three children. I had already told them we were skipping cake, presents, family, friends the whole deal and they were Thrilled since it was WWOHP. I didn't get an email or Anything! I signed up for all the updates and gave my email address when purchasing the tickets.
Now I am paying for Two places to stay when we can only stay at one. The whole reason we were going was to celebrate my childrens birthday in WWOHP.
We have hotel reservations because they Told me we would get in to the WWOHP one hour earlier than General Public for each day of our stay. I hope they honor this or I will Never go back. This is our first experience with OU and I kind of hoped the WWOHP would be to my children what Disney was to me. A MUST for family vacation. If we don't get in during our vacation and I have paid out the wazzooo my children will only look at OU as a disapointment and WWOHP as a great disapointment and never want to go back again. Seriously....
My Mom told the kids about how I had this huge facination with Cinderella's castel the first time I went to Disney. As a grown up I thought the story was funny but I remembered it vividly. I practically dragged my parents and definetly Nagged the heck out of them about getting to the castel ASAP. I was so disapointed to find it was just a "hallway". I pressed my tiny little face on the painted doors in the "hallway" and thought if I just believed enough the doors would open and magic would happen. My mother eventually pryed me off the wall and I cried on and off the rest of the day. My poor Poor mother!
I mentioned that now the Castel was different. There were shops and a restaurant! Anyway, we get to the Castel with my children and we peek into the BBBoutique and oooh and awww from around the corner. I had no idea we should have booked the restaurant a year or 2 in advance but asked to just take a peek.
At the stroller check in area, They very politely but Firmly said NO, only those with reservations. My children Never want to go back to Disney as long as they live. My littlest one said "Disney doesn't want to give you magic Mom. They just want to see you press on the walls and cry." That crushed me a hundred times more than when I was a little girl with her face pressed on those walls. That time it wasn't the disapointment of not "seeing the magic". She said a few other things but I cannot recall them. I am sure they are in our trip report that I don't think I posted. I was Heart Broken, absolutely Crushed by the sight of my young daughter actaully believing that magic wasn't possible in the one place Magic should seem real for children.
We had fun but after that I could have taken them any where to have the same amount of fun. It was a very disapointing trip. The whole idea of magic went right out the window.
Hey, I went back after years and years! I had no idea the old story would be so crushing.
At least the letter says for each day of your stay, which we have 7 days so *hopefully* FJ will be running for one of them. I sure hope they let us at least see the que even if the ride is *101* ( just messin...NOT a Universal term, I know)..he he heee,,,learning a lot on these boards!
Photo ID...hmmm, will have to make sure DS has his school ID, he does not have his license yet, 2 more months
If you were there late enough, could you see the castle lit up for evening?
Hopefully tomorrow works out for you guys. Yes, that does sound concerning abut not being able to keep it running for more than 2 hours. I hope they choose to keep the land open longer than teh 8-10 window, especially if the ride is down, any talk or ability to see it at night?
