~The Man Report 2006~~~~~End & Summary~~~~~Lots of Pictures

[sherreis]

Looking forward to hearing the rest. Sorry about the TSA people - what a nasty way to start a long trip home.

And, about the bagel dogs..... when are you getting more of them?

 

[Linnie The Pooh]

And, about the bagel dogs..... when are you getting more of them?

Well, they're scheduled to show up a week from Friday so I'm sure he'll have to order more then

 

[Montana Disney Fan]

Almost done with with the final installment. Here are a few pix of our way home.

 

[blue_river]

Almost done with with the final installment. Here are a few pix of our way home.

oh no...it's coming to an end

I have more to say about previous installments but it will have to wait until later tonight.

Thanks for the final pics.

BTW - looks like you have a beautiful home!

 

[blue_river]

Have you ever had this happen to you?

Um...NO

In walks four Cast members who announce that we’ve been selected to all receive Disney Dream Fast passes.

WooHoo Pixiedust all around

As we slow down near a bathroom, my daughter say’s “Why are we stopping”. After I tell her what’s going on, she yells “Again”! Even at 4 she’s knows that it’s getting ridiculous.

haha...poor Linnie The Pooh

The ride went great and Moan Boy was fine. Apparently he’s finally figured out that I am one of his parents and am able to provide good care to him. It only took 7 years. Maybe the fact that I've never changed a diaper contributed to his thinking.

What??? Never changed a diaper?????? Hooboy...Where is Linnie...I need to talk to that girl.

For some reason, she looks a lot thinner to me.

The kids don’t have ID’s.

ACK!!! I would have been in panic mode. You are lucky!!

The first voice mail is a former employee who calls me a nasty name and tells me he’s going to kick my butt. I save that one for the police.

WOW - any more news on that?

Now I realize it wasn’t Disney that constipated me, it was the 24 Bagel Dogs over 72 hours that did it!

LOL - that'll teach ya!

It's so cold here. I asked my DD if she wanted to throw on her swimming suit and go swimming like we did last week. She said no way! Then she said, "Is it spring yet?" Oh boy. She's in for a long winter if she's asking that already!!

aww...that's cute

k...finally caught up. Now I'm waiting for the final *sniff* installment

 

[kpk89]

Interesting report ... like the live angle. Seems like you all had a great time, despite some intestinal, er, difficulties.

 

[stinkerbelle's mom]

I'm so sad Linnie & Buzz that this is all coming to an end! Can't wait til the next trip to da house of mouse. Take care!

 

[Montana Disney Fan]

We made it to Denver without a hitch. The kids watched the DVD player until it quit for good then we broke out the laptop and ran it until the batteries died. I packed the charger since they weigh so much but regret that move as there is now no way to entertain my kids.

In Denver we have a little lunch at the Steak Escape. The Ragin’ Cajun Chicken sandwich on wheat rules!

We now have a 4 hour layover facing us in Denver without any way to entertain the kids. Loud Girl is fairly easy. All she needs are some color crayons.

Moan Boy is a lot harder. He’s not interested in coloring or reading and really doesn’t even want to watch a show. He just wants to get home and hates all the waiting around. We finally figured out that if we moved around a little, and showed progression towards boarding the final aircraft, he would calm down.

Once we got on the Denver-Billings plane, everything was fine. Loud Girl went to sleep and Moan Played with some books and looked out the window.

We landed in Billings on time but our luggage never came off. How can your luggage not make it with you when you have a 4 hour layover? Shouldn’t that be enough time to find the correct connection? One would think…

So, we head towards United check-in to see what’s going on. Low and behold, right near the check in, are our two very lady-like baby blue suitcases with duct tape.

I don’t know if you all remember, but our luggage arrived in Orlando before us having made the tight connection in Denver. The same thing happened here. There was a 20 minute connection to Billings that I didn’t book in case there was a delay and our luggage went on that.

Doesn’t your luggage have to travel with you now since 9-11? That’s what I’m always told when I try to catch an earlier flight. Strange.

Well, we got our luggage and then had to locate our car in the long-term parking area. I couldn’t remember where it was since it was early that morning we left and I was excited.

I held the keys in the air and pressed the lock button over and over as we walked until I heard the horn sound then kept pushing it until we found the car. It was a lot easier to find than that first day at MGM, 12 days earlier.

We made it home to our sparkling clean house (the wife likes to come home to a clean house so she had done some heavy cleaning prior to us leaving). The sun was out, the house was warm, and it was good to be home.

We ordered up some Chinese Food from our favorite restaurant, planned our meals for the week, and then kicked back and reflected on the awesome trip.

We went to the photo pass website and ordered three awesome pictures of our family. One outside of AK, one in front of Spaceship Earth at Epcot, and one of us on Test Track. I hope they implement that photo pass on all the ride pictures. So much easier to do it when you get home vs. standing in line to order.

Summary:

National Rental Car – Awesome! They are located AT the airport and if you are an Emerald Club member you simply walk up, choose a car, then drive over to the kiosk with the gate. No need to stand in line at the counter. I recommend signing up for EC prior to leaving. It’s free so why not.

United & Ted – Great airlines but I wish there was more to do in Denver. If you fly Northwest and connect through their Minneapolis hub, there is a ton of stuff to do and great restaurants to eat at.

Caribe Royal – The room was great although aging a bit. The pool area was disgusting and the staff was mediocre. I wouldn’t recommend for the money. We’re not staying off-site anymore. For a few dollars more, you can stay on-site and get the full Disney experience.

Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort – Awesome! The views from the deck were great. If you spend a lot of time on your deck and in your room, I recommend the Congress Park area. If you don’t care, then don’t worry. They are all nice. The floors and walls are THICK. We always request a high floor due to noise from those above us plus we like the view better. At SSR, you don’t have to worry about hearing anyone. We never heard a soul the entire time and the place was SOLD OUT. The floors feel like concrete when you walk around, not wood. It’s really a solid built hotel. Since the doors to the rooms are exposed to the outside and the weather, they have weather stripping around them and block out noise from the hallway. It’s just real quiet and peaceful with beautiful views. The room was also fresh with brand new furniture and bedding. The only thing wrong with SSR is it needs another restaurant. A nice sit down restaurant that also delivers to the rooms would be nice. A lot of people have complained about Disney Transportation at this resort but we had NO PROBLEMS at all for the two days we used it. We never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus. I give this place a solid A vs. the rest of the properties we’ve stayed at in WDW.

Pleasure Island – Is totally under construction. It looks like a bomb went off. They aren’t even setting off the fireworks every night anymore due to the construction. I hope it’s done by next year.

Downtown Disney- I love it down here. So much to do and all the activity. Plenty of places to eat and of course the wonderful margaritas from Captain Jack’s. We didn’t rent a boat this year but I’d like to do it again next year. Our past two vacations down we rented a boat and had a lot of fun. We thought a little picnic on the pontoon boat my be fun so we’ll do that next year.

Boardwalk – We love the BW area. I want to do the whole ESPN Zone experience next year as we missed that. I love the Flying Fish and Spoodles and hope to add those to our experience next year as well. Jellyrolls was a blast and we loved renting the surrey bikes this year (twice). I also like the live entertainment. It’s just a happy place to be.

Stats

As always, our favorite park was Epcot. We went there 5 times (4 with the kids in tow). We visited every other park twice. We never park hopped this year. We went to the pool every day but one. We put 340 miles on the rental van. We walked close to 30 miles. Gasoline was $2.22 / gallon. We spent just under $5,000 for the entire trip including the pictures we ordered from photo pass after we got home plus the long term parking which was $72 for 12 days. Remember though, our DVC room was already paid for thru the club membership and I got the airline tickets free with miles.

Until next year, adios amigos!

Clan Mills

 

[kathymc]

very fun report and great photos - thanks for all the time and effort!

 

[serendipity]

thank you so much. I really enjoyed reading your report. Especially about the bagel dogs!

 

[Linnie The Pooh]

BTW - looks like you have a beautiful home!

Thank you. We had it built this past year. It's been fun moving in and decorating it. I think it needs more Mickey stuff though. Buzz has this habit of taking pics of me with the camera angling up, making me look like an amazon. I'm really not as tall as the door on my house!

Speaking of Buzz, he told me today that he posted his last post and that I needed to make mine and do a summary. I don't know exactly what to say and I've been pondering that all day.

I did think it was absolutely ridiculous of TSA to try and make our kids say their names to them. I know how bad it is to do racial profiling, but we hardly look like terrorists. The kids couldn't even understand what the lady was asking-her English was so bad. I know the TSA people couldn't tell my son is disabled, but you know, we teach our kids to NOT talk to strangers. I did tell DD to say her name to them and she did say "LeeAndra." Only when she says it, you can't tell that's her name. What a joke. It reminded me of when we went on Soarin' last year. The CM at the first gate where you show your FP tickets was a real doozy. I was first in line with the tickets, which is unusual. Buzz is always the one in charge of that. I handed hthe CM the FP's and he checked them, gave them back to me and I proceeded to take them from him. Oh no-everyone has to hold their OWN ticket, he said and was quite snotty about it! I was floored. I wasn't about to let DD3 and DS6 (disabled) hold their own tickets-they'd lose them. I turned to Buzz for help and he snatched them from the guy and walked away, not distributing them to our 3 year old daughter and son with a disability.... Anyway...

I do want to thank everyone who hung in there with us!! That was great! I hope we were helpful and at the same time maybe entertaining. If you think we're weird online, you should see us in real life.

Summary:
Disney World -Good

Anything not Disney World -Bad

Have a good year everyone!!

 

[OhMari]

Adios!! Great report. I hope you print it out and save it for your kids to read when they get older.

I'll put you in the completed TR's in a few weeks.

Ohmari

 

[Martha7]

Your trip report was the best ever! I absolutely loved it and think that it deserves a place in the TR Hall of Fame! How great was it that you got the special fast passes?! Did you get to keep them as a souvenir? When's the next WDW vacation? I want to make a note to myself to watch for the TR from that trip! Thanks for all of the entertainment and laughs! Hope the winter isn't too hard on all of us in cold climates!

 

[Montana Disney Fan]

Your trip report was the best ever! I absolutely loved it and think that it deserves a place in the TR Hall of Fame! How great was it that you got the special fast passes?! Did you get to keep them as a souvenir? When's the next WDW vacation? I want to make a note to myself to watch for the TR from that trip! Thanks for all of the entertainment and laughs! Hope the winter isn't too hard on all of us in cold climates!

Thanks Martha. We go every October so there will be Man Report in about 11 months (Oct 8-19, 2007).

Yes we got to keep the special Fast Passes. They rip off the little tabs when you use them for each ride. We still have our tabs for Honey I shrunk & Maelstrom on each ticket.

I'll put you in the completed TR's in a few weeks.

Thanks. I was wondering when you guys did that.

I hope you print it out and save it for your kids to read when they get older.

I think I'll do that but it will probably be like 200 pages!! I'll need lots of ink for the printer

 

[Mickey4me!]

Thanks for the very entertaining report! We'll be at SSR tomorrow and I'm hoping for a 2 bedroom close to where you were.

I had to laugh at your airport faux pauxs! For the last 8 mos, I've been working in VA M-F and flying home to ATL every weekend. What's really gotten old is not just the travel back and forth but the astonishing lack of manners and common sense of some people! I have always threatened to write a book on airport etiquette. Stuff like...how to dress for security, how NOT to just come to a dead stop in the middle of a crowded terminal, how NOT to crowd around the boarding area when only zone 2 has been called and your zone 9, etc....

Glad you had fun!

 

[blue_river]

Buzz and Linnie,

Thank you for your final post and summary.

I don't often have time to read the boards on the weekend (family time) but I didn't want to miss the opportunity to comment on yours before the moderator sent it off to never never land. I see now there is still a few weeks remaining but since I'm here....

First, I'd like to give my appeciation for the effort that you both put into this trip report. Especially during your vacation. I know it requires a lot of time - and time is precious when you're in the World

Second, this TR was - in my opinion, THE BEST trippie I've read since joining the disboards. Without taking anything away from ZZUB (because we all know that man can WRITE), yours was so very real, honest and amazingly humourous! I laughed at every single installment.

Linnie - I'll be thinking of you this holiday season because I realize how hard it's going to be for you without your father and grandmother. May your memories comfort you and keep them both close at heart.

I see you already have your date booked for next year! I'm jealous. My DH has agreed to return next year ONLY if the free dining is offered. I have my fingers crossed. It would have been neat to go at the same time and meet up but if the free dining is around it's during hurricane season so that won't happen. (haha..like how I assume you'd want to meet up )

Anyway, I'll be looking for your trippie next year.

Thanks again.

 

[sherreis]

I've only been on DisBoards since this summer and have to say that you're TR is definitely one of the best I've read and is one of the reasons that makes DisBoards such a nice place to be addicted to. Looking forward to reading the Man report next October. Then, it will make even more sense to me cause I have no idea where anything is - we haven't been to DW in 17 yrs and it was only MK/Epcot then.

 

[yellowtink]

It can't be the end. It just can't I think I am going to faint. I am happy you had a good time. I wish it was me.Get a better DVD player thing.

 

[ZZUB]

Dude, this totally rocks! I'm all about bagel dogs, saving money and planning for a trip for a year. I'm impressed that you wrote as you went. I don't want to be anywhere near my computer on vacation. But then it it takes me a year to finish writing about the last trip so maybe you're on to something.

I'm only up to Day 4, but I've been laughing my butt off. Seriously. I have to stand b/c I no longer have a butt to sit down on.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of this.

 

[Linnie The Pooh]

First, I'd like to give my appeciation for the effort that you both put into this trip report. Especially during your vacation. I know it requires a lot of time - and time is precious when you're in the World

Second, this TR was - in my opinion, THE BEST trippie I've read since joining the disboards. Without taking anything away from ZZUB (because we all know that man can WRITE), yours was so very real, honest and amazingly humourous! I laughed at every single installment.

Thank you. That is really nice.

Thank you to everyone for all your kind words and encouragement.

Linnie - I'll be thinking of you this holiday season because I realize how hard it's going to be for you without your father and grandmother. May your memories comfort you and keep them both close at heart.

And the same to you as well, blue. I'll be thinking of you too with the loss of your mother and being diagnosed with your illness. Hopefully next year will be better.

I see you already have your date booked for next year! I'm jealous. My DH has agreed to return next year ONLY if the free dining is offered. I have my fingers crossed. It would have been neat to go at the same time and meet up but if the free dining is around it's during hurricane season so that won't happen. (haha..like how I assume you'd want to meet up )

That would be great!! Your family sounds like such fun!! I'd love to meet you and them! I'm going to keep reading your TR's-they are fantastic!!