The Wonderful Happy I-Love-My-Family December Trip Report (cue the sarcasm...)

[TaraPA]

OK let me just start by saying I LOVE DISNEY. I have been a Disney nut for a long time, and we've gone 6 times in the last 8 years. Sadly to say, after this trip, WDW is starting to lose it's magic for me. I had to hum Zip A Dee Do Dah in my head over & over to remind myself to be happy in Disney World. It's better than being at home, right? Not that I won't be back on the boards in a month to start planning the next trip, but let me just say it will be DS6 and myself ALONE. The rest of this cast is me, DH, DS9 & DS6. DH does not enjoy Disney so I have no idea why I forced him to go. Most of our other trips were just myeslf & the kids or one kid, so I will NOT make the mistake of making him come with us next time. Also DS age 9 - I don't know technically what age a 'tween starts at but he's definitely got some major attitude going on. He was miserable the whole trip & didn't know when to keep his mouth shut. MEGA attitude at WDW. It's amazing how WDW can transform the sweetest angels into little devils - I can attest to that firsthand. Ever notice how many parents are threatening or beating their kids in WDW? Seriously! They are over-tired, over-stimulated & just don't know how to deal with the exhaustion other than to have a tantrum or lash out. Sad to say it almost felt good to see other kids behaving badly to know I wasn't alone!

DAY 1

Ok I really don't want to complain, but let me just make some "personal observations" regarding this trip. There are some great times as well. We stayed at AKL for 6 nights, 12/5-11. Airport & flights were smooth sailing thru Philly - I even had to ask DH if we had gone thru security yet, it was that easy. We were the only ones there, and they never once asked for my 3-1-1 baggie that I had obsessed over for days. I did have it out & visible the whole time, so I'm guessing that was enough???

Magical Express - same thing. Smooth sailing, no line at the counter or any wait for a bus. We stopped at Pop & then right onto AKL. It took about an hour to get from the plane to the resort. No lines there either. Check in was smooth, although the CMs seemed to be lacking in enthusiasm. Hey they don't all need to jump around & shove Disney down my throat but a little smile & welcome would have been nice. PERSONAL OBSERVATION #1 - CMs are generally lacking in the customer service dept. I have noticed a decline in this over the years, but on this trip I can only recall a handful that were truly friendly & polite & contributed to our overall WDW experience. Luggage was in our room in 3 hours.

I headed to the culinary tour of Boma & Jiko while the crew checked out the resort. I was the only one on the tour that day so I had all the free food samples to myself! YUM! It was great, I highly recommend this tour. We had dinner at the Boma buffet - best food on the whole trip. Buffet is hot & fresh & has a ton of variety in it's offerings. I tried almost everything & loved it all. DH is a meat & potatoes kind of guy so he was not thrilled with all the curry (or is it cumin?) that they used. Guess we're not heading back there again.

DS9 was whining non-stop to go to the arcade so after many no's & him still at it, we headed back to the room for bed (no his mouth didn't stop ONCE til he fell asleep about the stinking arcade!) The room was decorated beautifully, and the savannah view was awesome.

 

[TaraPA]

Ok today has to be better, DS9 has slept well and MUST be over his attitude problem. Right? WRONG! He wakes up and the 1st words out of his mouth are "Are we going to the arcade today?" Yes dear, we paid thousands of dollars to drop hundreds more in an arcade that you can see at home. We're off to MK, DS6 is thrilled & happy & that perks me up a bit. DS9 runs his mouth endlessly about "stupid MK," "you said I could go to the arcade" (he hears voices in his head), "this isn't any fun," "all the other kids are in the arcade" etc.

We head to MK where the crowds are moderate but not too bad. Amazingly we walked on the Indy race car ride (what IS this called??) 3 times in a row - that has always had a long line in the past for us. Walked on Buzz, TTA (stangely this is one of our favorite rides!), HM, Pirates & a few others. Ate lunch at Cosmic Rays - long lines there & blah food. PERSONAL OBSERVATION #2: Food quality has also gone south in recent years at WDW. Eating in WDW used to be such a highlight for me. This year was truly a culinary disappointment. One meal was so bad it was inedible, but we'll get to that later. DS6 was THRILLED with chicken fingers, fries & soda for every meal, so for that one reason I'll let it slide. Disney has GOT to be magic for mom to let me eat this crap day in & day out! Honestly the chicken fingers all over the World were pretty decent, just after 7 days of them I can't bear to eat another one. DS9 was still in need of an attitude adjustment.

Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern was FABULOUS. We cleaned up 2 helpings of everything. The mashed potatoes & green beans were superb. There's some sort of butter/garlic sauce on the beans. Our server was excellent except for one thing. During the meal she asked my boys if they'd like to see what she drove. I thought how neat, she's going to show them something colonial to keep with the theming of the restaraunt. Wrong! She whips out a personal pic of her in black leather by her HARLEY! I have no idea where that came from or why she thought it was appropriate. When I'm in Disney, all things should be Disney & magical. She was carrying the pic with her order pad so I'm guessing she shows it often. Back to PERSONAL OBSERVATION #1 about the decline of CM customer service - as it relates to Disney theming - this trip I overheard MANY conversations between CMs about their boyfriend, their party the other night, their dog's illness, their haricuts, etc. I do NOT need to hear about your personal life while I'm in Disney. I never once heard personal conversatons between CMs in the past - they all used to stay in character & be 110% Disney. Now I'm not saying that it's a requirement that they speak total Disney, but this trip it just seemed to be the norm to talk amongst themselves about personal things rather than to engage in conversation with guests, like they used to. I remember in past years the CMs literally kissing your butt with kindness - hey nothing wrong with that. Don't the CMs have to go thru mega training just to get into the program? I guess good help is hard to find these days. My mom always says "There's a lot of DUH people out there working in custmer service." Sad but true.

After several more hours of arcade whining, DS9 proceeds to gulp his refillable mug full of cocoa, eat a bag of Butterfinger Bullets & then half a bag of Disney sour gummies. Can you see where this is going? Yep right to the toilet - head first. I'm just thankful we were in the room & not on a bus or in a line! Ok this is OT - but we did notice an awful lot of illness in the parks this trip. At least once or twice a day we saw heads hanging over raillings & heaving in lines. I learned that many CMs carry tubes of that wood chip stuff that they put on vomit in their costumes! Must be a common occurance. Lots of kids plus over-tiredness, over-stimulation, over-eating & over-spinning equals lots of vomit! On that note we'll skip to day 3....

 

[teentoddlermom]

Looking forward to the rest of your report! You are right on with your personal observations, unfortunately.

 

[disneymom2one]

We have a preteen too (11) and what we do to stop many of the battles is give her a separate allowance for vacations. It's generally about $10/day for Disney vacations. That seems like a lot but for Disney vacations but it really doesn't go far at all. If she wants to play in the arcade, it's okay with me. It's her allowance. Want a smoothie? Sure ... just use your allowance. Yet another light-up toy when we have a half dozen? Straight out of her allowance. This does two things. It allows us to control the spending but it also gives her a voice in her vacation. It is her vacation too. She's usually better on vacation than at home (and she's also special needs) because we give her little autonomy. Not everyone parents that way and I understand but it works well here.

 

[OhMari]

I hope you come back and continue.

 

[akrake]

Ever notice how many parents are threatening or beating their kids in WDW? Seriously! They are over-tired, over-stimulated & just don't know how to deal with the exhaustion other than to have a tantrum or lash out. Sad to say it almost felt good to see other kids behaving badly to know I wasn't alone!
.

 

[MP2002]

Come Back, I want to hear about the rest of your trip Please!!!!!!

 

[TaraPA]

WHOOPS got busy with the holidays & life in general & forgot to finish this! Now that a month has gone by and the whining & attitude of DS9 have faded (from the Disney trip, it's the norm at home!), of course I'm back on the boards already dreaming of a fall trip, just myself & DS6.

We all slept in Day 3 (because of the vomit episode the night before) an I called to cancel the ADR for Donald's Breakfastosaurus. As soon as DS9 is awake & realizes we're not going to a huge buffet breakfast the mouth starts again....anyway we go have a light breakfast at Mara, which I wasn't impressed with. Typical food court food in my opinion. Kids & DH did not like it either. We hung out at the resort for an hour or so to be sure DS was ok. The animals were very active, we had great views from the balcony of 4 giraffes and 2 zebras. We hit AK that day, and although the park seemed crowded most rides & attractions were walk-ons. My new favorite ride is Dinosaur - love that ride! The 1st time I got off of it I felt like I had been in a car accident. But since it was a walk-on all day, we rode & rode - at least 6 or 7 times! Lunch was Flame Tree BQQ - which was one of the best CS meals we've had in Disney. From AK we headed over to Epcot - which isn't quick - we had to take the bus to the TTC at MK and wait in line for the monorail. I took well over an hour to park hop. We only did World Showcase, just a quick spin around to see it all. By this time we were both ready to leave DS9 behind at any country that would take him! He was still on the "I want to go to the arcade" deal. Dinner was Liberty Inn in the America showcase - very long lines, slow service & mediocre food. The lines for the candlelight processional were enormous, I was glad we didn't have tickets for that. It got quite chilly that night so we raced back to the bus to get back to the resort. Both DSs wanted to do the animal viewing with the night vision goggles, but as a punishment for running his mouth off all day, DS9 had to stay in the room with DH. He didn't miss anything - it was freezing, and there was only 1 pair of night vision goggles to share with the group. Once it was our turn we couldn't see a darn thing anyway!

 

[TaraPA]

Ok let me just say it was FREEZING that day. We are from the Northeast so we can take cold - but it was super windy & just downright unpleasant! We had on jeans, sweaters & light jackets & were shivering the entire time. Anyone else remember that day? I think it was a Thursday or Friday - 12/7 or 8 or 9? We hit MGM & it seemed like all we did all day was wait in line for shows. NOT fun with a kid who just wants anything but to be at WDW. We waited long for Indiana Jones but the kids loved it, and then were almost the 1st ones in queue for LMA - which had to be an hour wait or more til we got in the stands, and then til everyone was seated. My tip would be to say that there's no reason to go that early & wait in line - we had a good seat up front but once it got really full people started pushing & squeezing on the ends - so they had a view as good as ours & had just walked in. The show was great for the boys but I don't need to see it again. Almost 2 hours spent on LMA -not worth it to me. In fact I think we could skip MGM altogether next time! I really enjoy the Great Movie Ride & The Backlot Tour, but have seen them many times. We had dinner at Sci Fi - it was great. We had been there before & liked it, but I was nervous because of the bad rap it's been getting on here lately. Our service was excellent, the kids enjoyed the movie clips & the food was good. The milkshake was excellent! We were so cold (and tired of hearing DS9 whine) so we headed back to AKL by 7pm. They boys took part in the musical parade at the gift shop, and they seemed to enjoy it. I took a load of wash down to the laundry room which was very nice. It was themed just like the rest of the resort, and had a nice sitting/waiting area with a TV. A very nice lady offered me the rest of her Tide since she was finished - saved me $2 - thanks!

 

[natale1980]

Your trip sound rough... I don't know what I am going to do if my Little man grows up to be a pre-teen!!
I never remember not wanting to be at Disney World... but I was brain washed at a very young age.
We did have a REAL bad trip about 3 years ago when I couldn't wait to get home but I started planing my next trip right away.

I totally know what you mean about cast members now talking about personal stuff while they are working. The first time I heard this I was utterly confused!! I remember thinking to myself that I expect that when I go to the local mall, but at Disney the cast members aren't supposed to talk about that kind of stuff. That's why they are called cast members and not employees. I guess Disney just set high standards for us in the past and now some times no longer live up to them.

Well, I hope the rest of your trip went better!

-nat