*** The Official August 2019 thread ***

[FoxC63]

Considering it's 1:34 am Monday morning I can honestly say - ONE MORE DAY!!!

 

[Lsdolphin]

Has anyone seen the Halloween mugs yet?

 

[The13thLetter]

Has anyone seen the Halloween mugs yet?

There weren't any yet at beach club as far as I could tell last week.

 

[The13thLetter]

Home yesterday, and the post-Disney depression is real. This time though it is not only because we are back, but the trip itself was much different than we are used to, so I am still having mixed feelings about how it all went. I will explain tomorrow (if anyone cares haha) in my trip write up. I am currently catching up on 300+ emails from work.

 

[Wood Nymph]

We went to Hollywood Studios today. Here is a tip for next time - the old, familiar bag check is where it always was, but they opened a lot more bag check lanes to the left, in a 90 degree angle to the old lanes. Those lanes were not crowded at all, but I didn't know they were there until after I waited in the long lines at the old location.

 

[The13thLetter]

I posted this in the SWGE area but in case anyone was curious about the AP previews.

We did the 8/21 9am AP session. Walked over from Beach Club and got to HS around 930. No line to get into GE.

We are not Star Wars fans by any means but were pretty impressed by the land itself as well as everyone being in character (someone asked me what we thought of the land and I said i hadnt seen any of the new movies and he said he did not know what we were talking about haha). After walking around a bit we stopped fr breakfast. The Ronto Roasters breakfast wrap was really good, and I was surprised to see the Dasani bottle waters were Batuu-ized as well.

We then walked around the stores a bit and headed to our Oga's reservations time. We enjoyed our time in there but was a bit surprised they sat you down at tables with other people and took your drink orders. It was good because we did not have to get drinks at the bar of flga someone down and were also able to sit, however our eats were on the outside of the table so we were staring at the wall instead of being able to look all over the Cantina. Next we walked around some more and got in line for smugglers run. It said 40 minutes and it took exactly that from the time we entered the line to the time we left the ride. DW and I were both pilots so were we pretty stoked about that. I thought the ride was good and worth the 40 minute wait but I probably would not wait more than an hour for it, but I probably wouldnt wait more than an hour for any ride haha. We then got the rum blue milk which we actually really liked, then walked around one more time, and headed out.

So overall it was a cool place, and I will be back, just probably not until things die down a bit.

 

[Wood Nymph]

I thought the ride was good and worth the 40 minute wait but I probably would not wait more than an hour for it, but I probably wouldnt wait more than an hour for any ride haha.

I get motion sickness really easily. Can you compare this ride to any other Disney ride?

We then got the rum blue milk which we actually really liked, then walked around one more time, and headed out.

Our waiter told us that green is best.

So overall it was a cool place, and I will be back, just probably not until things die down a bit.

I wish we could have done the AP preview. We are here for opening day and the day after, but we we told that they weren't giving out virtual passes. It was just going to be one huge, long line to get into SWGE. We might not get in on this trip. It is too hot out to wait for a long time in this heat.

 

[FoxC63]

Home yesterday, and the post-Disney depression is real. This time though it is not only because we are back, but the trip itself was much different than we are used to, so I am still having mixed feelings about how it all went. I will explain tomorrow (if anyone cares haha) in my trip write up. I am currently catching up on 300+ emails from work.

I'm interested! Leaving tomorrow but when I get back (Sept 4th) and ready to dive into the DIS I look forward to reading all about your trip!

 

[krd315]

We got home yesterday from a great 7 day trip. It was different for us because we drove from Texas, 2 days each way. It was hot and humid as expected but we survived lol. We did all 4 parks and the 8/20 Halloween party. We had FP's for all the favorite rides and did more morning pool time with late afternoons and evenings in the parks. Only 2 mornings for our favorite breakfasts at O'hana and Crystal Palace. Lots of new things this trip: slinky dog dash, 7 dwarfs mine train, fantasmic, expedition everest and Illuminations/Frozen Dessert party. Now I need a vacation from my vacation lol.

 

[Lsdolphin]

Arriving on Wed. Watching the weather and keeping my fingers crossed!

 

[Jaimetropmickey]

We had very little rain on our two week holiday... took out the rain jackets once for a few minutes... the storm today made up for it! Crazy lightning every few seconds for about 2 hours. Ankle-deep flooding throughout the Magic Kingdom.... There was a very brief power outage when we were at Pecos for dinner. When the lights came on, there was no more music in the restaurant... no more music in Adventureland. 17 rides were down due to lightning and/or outages. We ended up leaving... nothing much to do in the park! Even with 2 anytime FP for 7DM (it was down in the am and for the storm).
Monorail was also down... crazy long lines for buses and ferries to the TTC! A very stormy way to end an amazing 2 week vacation!

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

We had very little rain on our two week holiday... took out the rain jackets once for a few minutes... the storm today made up for it! Crazy lightning every few seconds for about 2 hours. Ankle-deep flooding throughout the Magic Kingdom.... There was a very brief power outage when we were at Pecos for dinner. When the lights came on, there was no more music in the restaurant... no more music in Adventureland. 17 rides were down due to lightning and/or outages. We ended up leaving... nothing much to do in the park! Even with 2 anytime FP for 7DM (it was down in the am and for the storm).
Monorail was also down... crazy long lines for buses and ferries to the TTC! A very stormy way to end an amazing 2 week vacation!

More than ankle deep at Animal Kingdom. Second the CRAZY lightning. DH went for pizza offsite - places without power ringing the area.

 

[luvmy2babies]

Home yesterday, and the post-Disney depression is real. This time though it is not only because we are back, but the trip itself was much different than we are used to, so I am still having mixed feelings about how it all went. I will explain tomorrow (if anyone cares haha) in my trip write up. I am currently catching up on 300+ emails from work.

I understand as our trip was great; but also much different this year as well.

 

[The13thLetter]

I get motion sickness really easily. Can you compare this ride to any other Disney ride?
Our waiter told us that green is best.

I wish we could have done the AP preview. We are here for opening day and the day after, but we we told that they weren't giving out virtual passes. It was just going to be one huge, long line to get into SWGE. We might not get in on this trip. It is too hot out to wait for a long time in this heat.

I get motion sickness as well so I have never tried star tours or mission space. Soarin is in my top 3 favorite rides though and does not make me sick. I do take Dramamine for FoP and do fine on it, so I ended up taking it for Smuggler's Run too and was fine on that as well. The best way to describe it is like FoP, but if you are the pilot you are actually controlling where you are going and that tends to help me with the motion sickness since it is all synced up. There is so much to pay attention too both on the screen and in the ship that you may be too busy to even get sick. I think i would probably have been good without Dramamine, it seems a bit smoother than FoP, but again that could just have been because I was so focused on flying haha.

We didnt try green, we had heard on all the media sites that blue was better, plus i wasnt in the mood for tequila

I am pretty sure I saw that they are doing virtual queues for GE, but maybe not right away? I definitely saw postings about it on blog mickey (they had pictures of the boarding groups thing).

 

[The13thLetter]

Ok so here it goes, trip summary, thoughts, and feelings.

DW and I have been going for a few years now, and up until last year it was just the 2 of us. Then we had our little guy, and last year we went the 3 of us when he was about 5 months. Although we did not get to go open to close like we used to, he was little so kind of just sat in his stroller, napped, went on the rides he could with us, and we were still able to do mainly what we wanted without too many changes (only big change was we took breaks in the afternoon, which is probably a good idea anyway, and were back in the rooms by 8 every night). He is now a 16 month old and boy what a difference. I know we should have expected it but I thought because he was eating normal food and could walk and sleeps much better that it would be even better, however it ended up being a lot more difficult. First he cut 3 or 4 teeth the day we got there so he was running a fever and was overall cranky most of the days. Then because he is so independent he didn’t want to be stuck in high chairs or strollers all the time, but he also refuses to wear shoes lol, and even if he left them on there is no way I could have him just walk around the park safely. As the week went on he felt better, and ate better, and was in a better mood, so that definitely helped. Plus he was good on all the rides and did seem to enjoy all of them. But this, coupled with the fact this is the first time we went with my parents and DW's parents who are non-Disney folks, plus the room we had at BC was not ideal and we could not change it, even when I offered to pay for an upgrade (they said there were none for our length of stay/dates), plus it was extremely hot and humid (duh its august) and seemed way busier than i recall for this time of year, and that this is the longest trip we have done (9 days) all sort of combined to make a perfect storm of anxiety for me. I put unnecessary pressure on myself to want things to go well for everyone and was so focused on what we were doing next that I feel like I missed being ”present”. Overall I just felt like it was a disaster even though I am sure it was nowhere close to that. So when I said the post-Disney depression was a mix this time, it truly is, and I am not sure where I sort of fall on the sad-meter. I know its first world problems, and we do go every year, but with all these things combined I honestly feel like I didn’t even go to Disney. I know that may sound crazy but the whole thing is a big blur and I can’t help but feel sad like I was so anxious the whole time that I didn’t get to enjoy it at all. Again I know that things like going in august, taking a 16 month old, bringing non-Disney people along, are all things that were under our control so it may sound stupid to “whine” about it, and I am sure in a few weeks I will be back to myself and will realize it was the regular "I am not at Disney anymore" sadness, but I just wanted to share/vent a bit to people who might understand how I feel.


Now for some happy stuff highlights:

-Even though he was in a bad mood, his first haircut was super adorable

-Jelly Rolls is amazing and thankfully my parents watched the little man for a few hours one night for DW and I to go out

-The pool and slide at BC are awesome

-Everywhere we ate did not disappoint (beaches and cream, plaza, art smith, cape may, tusker house, via Napoli, even espn)

-Location of BC was awesome as well, can’t beat walking to the parks and the boardwalk, especially since epcot is out favorite park

-AP preview of GE. Not sure when I will get a chance to head back there so I am glad we got to see it now with low crowds.

-Got to see illuminations one last time and little man seemed to enjoy it

I will end with these 2 very happy amazing things; a story and some pictures.

First, my mom has bad vertigo so there is no way she could go on FoP, so I made FoP FPs for my dad, DW, and myself, and made Navi River FP for my mom to take the little man. The 3 of us went on FoP then we walked my mom over to Navi river. My mom is small so I asked the person at the front of the ride if I could walk with my mom and carry my son for her and then I would just not ride, to save my mom the burden of carrying a heavy 16 month old (he may not have eaten much this trip but he does normally, trust me haha). The cast member said give me your magic bands (talking to me, DW and my dad), he tapped all of them on his device and said how about all of you walk together. It took me a minute to realize that he had just given the 3 of us fastpasses so that all 5 of us could go on Navi together. I cannot tell you how amazing that was (I already shouted him out with a cast member compliment on twitter haha) and how it truly turned that day around for me.

Second, here are pictures from our last day, the reason I was so optimistic about this trip and why even though I am sad, I do know that it is probably mostly in my head, and everyone had an awesome time. Especially this little guy, even though he may not have seemed like it the entire time

Thanks for listening everyone. Hopefully I didn't come off ungreatful or entitled, it was just not what i was expecting and it threw me off a bit it seems. We are booked for next year and I am counting down the days (hoping I get a work conference sprinkled in somewhere before haha).

 

[menotyou21]

Ok so here it goes, trip summary, thoughts, and feelings.

Thanks for sharing. My guess is: you did an amazing job and some time from now you will look back on these amazing pictures (plus many more) and you will realize it was a great time. Once the stress of it all wears off.....the "sadness" of it being over.....and the exhaustion of a young kid.....you'll love the memories! My kids and I pulled up our 2011 trip this past weekend and it was a blast!

 

[luvmy2babies]

@The13thLetter I understand. We took my mom with us on this trip and I am so glad we did it. She's probably going to be one and done with Disney, she's getting older and has a bit of arthritis. The kids also loved having her with us. Our previous trips together were Thanksgiving trips to the beach which of course is much different.

There were probably 10 plus things I wanted to do on this trip that we didn't get to do because I got overruled. I always travel alone with my 2 children and at times this felt like I had a 3rd just because I still had to take care of everybody. I had Memory Maker and we probably took like 10 photos and didn't get a photo in front of the castle at all. Usually we get up and out to the parks early. My daughter tries to lay around; but my son and I get her going. With my mom there my daughter had a partner in her efforts. On our first day it was more than understandable. Due to flight issues we didn't get in until almost 1am; but the other 3 "early" days, instead of our average start being around 9am, it was around 10:30 when we left the resort and on those 3 days we left at least an hour earlier than I had planned because folks said they were tired; while we had not taken the breaks I had built in to the day. I wish we'd had more days.

But then it was best we didn't. My mom has back issues that act up when she sits too long on a hard surface so before the trip I purchased a portable seat cushion. It was working great; but she lost it on park day 2 of 5. I ordered something I found on Prime Now; but it wasn't close to the one she had. I returned to the park that evening but had no luck getting it back. I could tell she felt horrible so I brushed it off; but I spent the rest of the trip worrying she'd wake up one morning unable to continue or worse in horrible pain. In fact, when we were on our way to our brunch on departure day, she told me she was going to need a wheelchair. I asked why since we were just going to another resort to eat. She thought we were going to another park.

My 16 year-old thought our AK day was our DHS day and when it became clear I had inadvertently given the wrong layout of the days, she couldn't get over it. One of the gifts of ADHD and teenage hormones. We were in AK less than 2 hours when she said she wanted to go back to the resort, which completely took the air out of the day for my mother (who was trying to enjoy the Pandora area) and her brother. She's 16 so I agreed she could leave and we moved our schedule around to see Festival of the Lion King 2.5 hours earlier so she wouldn't miss it. We ended up leaving just over an hour after she did because her brother was heartbroken she left. I had to convince him to proceed to Dinoland which he had been looking forward to all morning.

I told folks I wasn't going to be playing delivery person when it came to the food court this vacation but that was exactly what I ended up doing. I understand what you're saying about first world problems and how you don't want to seem ungrateful. I am though super glad I went ahead with getting connecting rooms at the resort. That worked out wonderfully and it is cheaper than a suite or a villa and we had 2 bathrooms plus everyone had their own bed.

All in all we made some great memories and overall enjoyed our vacation. I have no regrets about us going; but I certainly hope that doesn't end up being our last trip to Disney World.

 

[mamamelody2]

Ok so here it goes, trip summary, thoughts, and feelings.

Thanks for your report! LOVE the pics of your little guy and Mickey!

My kids are all teens now, and we never went to WDW when they were little, but I'm pretty darn sure they would all have run screaming at that age! LOL.

 

[Monykalyn]

It took me a minute to realize that he had just given the 3 of us fastpasses so that all 5 of us could go on Navi together. I cannot tell you how amazing that was (I already shouted him out with a cast member compliment on twitter haha) and how it truly turned that day around for me.

As a mom of former CM (college program) thanks for doing this-they really do mean alot to the CM!

Second, here are pictures from our last day,

He is really adorable and fantastic pics to remember the trip. We took a 16 month and 6 year old to Disney waaaay back (that 6 year old is almost 22 now). Traveling with a toddler certainly has its challenges. We didn't start staying on site until kids were way older-as having space for separate sleeping areas, and space to stretch out were necessary to our sanity. Expectations of a trip with younger children are certainly different than without kids!

All in all we made some great memories and overall enjoyed our vacation

And traveling with a teen is a whole 'nother ballgame. This is when we enjoyed a few days onsite as the kids could come and go as they pleased (within reason). That meant the DH could also go back and nap too LOL! Glad the vacation overall was good!
Perhaps the hardest thing to adjust to is the different style of vacation to accommodate different families at various "life stages". My oldest and I could Disney all day, all the time. DH isn't quite that enthusiastic, and the younger two, while enjoying our family vacations, are pretty "over" Disney. My middle does LOVE universal however, and I have done trips with just one kid at times (Disney trip this month was with oldest, middle and I have Universal/HHN for next month). My youngest discovered he enjoys cruising (maybe more than the other), as we took our first family cruise in June. I've had to let go of the "perfect" family vacation with those instagram moments and just let stuff be at times-they want to sleep in-go with it. Rather skip a FP for pool time? Sure. The best moments can be when those change of plans happen (ie forced upon us LOL)

 

[Wood Nymph]

the storm today made up for it! Crazy lightning every few seconds for about 2 hours. Ankle-deep flooding throughout the Magic Kingdom..

I couldn't believe how fast and hard the rain came. And then the fireworks went off around 9:36 pm. We saw them from the Wilderness Lodge but I bet there weren't too many people in the MK by then.

More than ankle deep at Animal Kingdom. Second the CRAZY lightning. DH went for pizza offsite - places without power ringing the area.

Some of that lightening felt really close. There was also a rainbow after the storm.

The best way to describe it is like FoP, but if you are the pilot you are actually controlling where you are going and that tends to help me with the motion sickness since it is all synced up. There is so much to pay attention too both on the screen and in the ship that you may be too busy to even get sick. I think i would probably have been good without Dramamine, it seems a bit smoother than FoP, but again that could just have been because I was so focused on flying haha.

Thanks for the description. I can handle Soarin' without a problem. I have trouble with FoP, even with Dramamine, because everything happens so fast. It is a little overwhelming for me. But I know my husband would love the ride.

Second, here are pictures from our last day, the reason I was so optimistic about this trip and why even though I am sad, I do know that it is probably mostly in my head, and everyone had an awesome time. Especially this little guy, even though he may not have seemed like it the entire time

It is hard to travel with children that young. My husband always loved to go to Disney with the kids, but I dreaded the trips when they were that young. But I do have lots of good memories in spite of the stress of the trip.

All in all we made some great memories and overall enjoyed our vacation. I have no regrets about us going; but I certainly hope that doesn't end up being our last trip to Disney World.

Teenagers can be tough. We took our grandsons last summer when they were age 12 and 14 and they mostly wanted to go swimming.

We have traveled with extended family and have had a few disasters where there were a few hurt feelings and tears shed. And some family members will never travel with other family members again. But we also learned not to have too many expectations and just to go with the flow. It helps that we have been to Disney so many times that we don't really care what we do anymore.