"There must be more than this provincial life..."

[Normangirls]

Sounds like this is going to be a good trip report

As I've said before, seriously, don't get your hopes up.


But,

 

[hucifer]

I am really enjoying this report. You are a great writer!

And thumbs down on you not posting pics of yourself. I need to put a face to the wit.

 

[disneyaddicted]

I like you, you're really funny and I am really looking forward to more of your TR.

 

[Diamondintheruff]

Even so called Disney "Experts" miss stuff sometimes. Like when we went to morning EMH at AK and tried to do Kali River rapids first. We soon found out they aren't part of the EMH experience. Opps!

I would be boring if we were perfect all the time.

 

[Normangirls]

I like you, you're really funny and I am really looking forward to more of your TR.

I'm so happy to have you here!

Thanks to everyone who has joined my ramblings. I'm working on an update soon.

 

[Normangirls]

(WARNING: I just read through this one last time, and realized I am completely insane. So I will apologize ahead of time for the whining, and for, in some cases, the complete lack of sentence structure.)

Whew. We got our PIN, we got our reservations, and we managed an emergency-landing-on-the-Hudson save (have we turned that into a pop culture phrase yet?) by forcing DH to fly home for his meeting. The worst is behind us right?

Would I say that if it didn’t get worse?

Years before, after learning about CRT and 180 day ADRs (yea, DIS!), I had quickly become a self-proclaimed expert. I had it down. I knew when to call, what number to call, what buttons to push, and what to ask for (14079393463, say “reservations,” say “no,” say “IneedCRTforOctober6at8:00pleaseandthankyou!”). And then three things happened.

One – Disney went to 90 day ADRs.
Two – Disney opened free dining up to the public (so much for my exclusive little Precious).
Three – they introduced on-line ressies.

All this combined made for the absolute WORST experiences of my life with Disney. (NOTE: I know, if this is the worst thing I ever have to experience, I really have nothing to complain about – there are obviously worse things out there people have to deal with every day. Wearing a mullet, listening to Miley Cyrus “sing” live, and ending up on peopleofwalmart.com come to mind as examples. I’m just saying, if Disney really wants to be my happy place, then nothing about it should be this hard.)

First, I prepped for the new 90-day ADRs. Everyone on the DIS was talking about how it was MUCH worse than the 180-day system. I loved the 180-day system. Yes, I still obsessed about calling at 7:00 a.m. on my date, and yes, I would practice the night before so I knew how to get through the telephone prompts faster, but it wasn’t a race. Well, actually it was a race – it was like a marathon. You could have a loose plan, buckle down, and be ready to get through the process. You could change things, switch things around, and just keep on working to the goal.

The 90-day window made it a sprint. Shoot out of the gate, just barrel through, don’t look around, don’t slow down for any reason. Go, go, go, go! There were too many people, calling all at once, all for the same dates. Free dining to the public made this even worse. I had to bring my A-game, to be the Jesse Owens of ADRs (had to get my Ohio State reference in there).

Can you tell I was getting a little obsessive? Nothing new, just a little more pathetic when you understand that we’re talking about restaurant reservations. Not heart transplant surgery. But I couldn’t stop myself from letting my planning consume me. DH threatened to take away my internet privileges, but I reminded him he’s not the boss of me.

Since we were staying on-site, we had the 90+10 thing going for us. And I really over-thought this and came up with a plan. Since we could get ADRs up to 10 days into our stay, and most people do not stay that long, then on my call date (June 29th) most people would be asking for dates for the first week after 9/27. But fewer people would be asking for dining dates toward the end of my stay. So I would try for CRT and Le Cellier on days nine and ten. I was one Smarty-McFarty.

We planned out all the other places we wanted to try, and then I ran into the when-are-they-going-to-release-park-hours thing (Hamm from Toy Story: “They can’t be serious!”). In the end I only had September hours to go with. In the past, park hours were pretty predictable, following the same pattern from year to year. But, of course, Disney decided to mix it up a little bit (to whatever Stephen Hawking Cast Member who decided that: thanks.), and they did not seem to be following the same pattern as 2008, so I couldn’t be certain what to do with my October dates. I had never cared before, since our only ADRs in the past were CRT and Chef Mickey’s – I would just pick a date for each, and we could work around it. Not so easy when you have 13 free dining credits to schedule (oh, poor me). What if I scheduled Crystal Palace on a day we absolutely HAD to be at EPCOT? Curse you, free dining! O.K., not really.

O.K., I was not going to lose my head over this. Deep breaths. I would just plan it out, and see what happens. What else could go wrong?

How about the introduction of on-line ADRs?

I should have paid more attention when this was launched, but it wasn’t until the week before D-day that I realized I needed on-line ressies to be part of my plan if I were going to pull off the precise execution I wanted. Time to learn something new!

It’s really a shame none of these skills can go on my resume, you know?

So I learned the system. (I’m not making this up) I spent a lot of that weekend at the office, on the computer, perfecting my game. I spent more time on this than I did on childbirth classes, including the refreshers. But I was ready to go.

You think all this is sad? Here’s where it gets really pathetic. I couldn’t sleep the night before. I kept waking up, worrying I’d miss my alarm clock. Worrying that our computers at work would go down. Worrying that I’d planned too much, and wouldn’t be able to make any changes if I needed to. Worrying about park hours. Worrying that I needed to feed the cat. Worrying about CRT. What if I can’t get CRT? I love CRT. I love eating in the castle. I want to live in the castle.

(OFFTOPIC: I wonder if it is true that Tom, Katie and Suri stayed in the castle suite recently. That would be awful. It would kind of cheapen it, you know? They don’t “deserve” that anymore more than many, many other people. What about letting people from our armed forces stay there? Or, auction it off for charity? O.K., off my soapbox. And has anyone ever actually seen a “soapbox” these days? We need a new phrase. How about “on my blog/rant” for 2010? O.K., this time I’m really done.)

I got up on time. I got to the office on time. My secretary was on vacation that day, so I put a sign on my closed door that said “On a conference call – do not disturb.” I was ready. I logged on at 6:00 a.m., and hit the ground running. First up, CRT. Got it! Yeah, WDW dining, in your face! Then Le Cellier – got it! Woo hoo! This was too easy. Then I tried for Chef Mickey’s on our check-in date. Nothing. We always eat at CM our first evening, so this threw me for a loop. I went ahead and booked Crystal Palace for a 3:30 dinner (lunch + dinner = linner? Dunch? Aaahhh! Stay focused!).

And so it went. It quickly became a struggle to find anything open when or where I needed it. Some of my easier to-get ressies I had planned for our first few days, so those went O.K. I even stumbled on a slot at 1900 Park Fare for one evening, so I snatched that up, too. But my arch-nemesis turned out to be the Hoop-de-doo Revue. For that one (and for CRT, too, in case you care) you had to give a credit card number to hold the ressie. That slowed me down. Can’t have that. Got to keep going. Go, go, go! I went through it, and realized I had reserved the 9:00 p.m. show. Are. You. Kidding? This is a place for families, and they think anyone really WANTS to eat at 9:00?

I was working the on-line system like it was an angry bull and I was a rodeo clown (there you go – with no pictures of me posted, just picture a rodeo clown), and by now it was 7:00. Yes, I had spent an hour on the computer and was not done yet. With my problem with the HDDR, I went ahead and called 407-WDW-DINE. I called at exactly 7:00, was put on hold, put the phone on speaker to wait, and kept plugging away on-line.

For the record, with my door closed and blinds pulled, no one could see me in my office slowly losing my freakin’ mind.

I was on hold for 53 minutes. If I had to wait 53 minutes, how many people had called, with me, at exactly 7:00 and beat me to the punch by 0.0038 seconds? Or did they only have four people working the phones? Finally a charming young lady who obviously HATED her job (and me personally) answered. And told me she could not make any reservations, as her computer was down. After 53 minutes on hold, you’re telling me you can’t do anything for me? Then why did you answer your phone?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Rather than debate with her the logic of answering a phone when you are unable to do ANYTHING (I’m still carrying a bit of residual anger. Can you tell?), I hung up and called again. That time I was on hold for 72 minutes. I’m not exaggerating, I have a little timer on my phone. By the time the young man answered, I was exhausted. I had run both the marathon and the 100-meter dash, it was after 9:00, I was out of coffee, and had absolutely not sense of humor left.

(ANOTHER SIDE NOTE: I was a stressed out Human Resources Manager with no secretary to run interference for me the rest of the day – not a stellar moment in my career, and to Craig, who came in that day to ask about his vacation time, I’m really, really sorry about my comment about your stupid Michigan shirt. And about throwing that stapler at you.)

So this CM talked me down. He was like my very own Disney crisis counselor. He soothingly talked to me about my HDDR ressie, and cancelled it for me. He patiently reviewed everything I had done so far to make sure I wasn’t double-booked. He even praised my excellent dining choices (“Who’s a good girl with her ADRs? You are! Yes you are!”). He may have even suggested I try some yoga and a nap.

And after all this complaining and moaning, I ended with some great ADRs.

9/27 Crystal Palace 3:35 p.m.
9/28 Biergarten 5:35 p.m.
9/29 Kona 10:20 a.m.
9/30 Crystal Palace 8:30 a.m.
10/1 Boma 9:20 a.m. and Trails End 5:50 p.m.
10/2 1900 Park Fare 6:00 p.m.
10/3 ESPN (no ressie)
10/4 Chef Mickey’s 5:00 p.m.
10/5 Tony’s 5:00 p.m.
10/6 CRT 8:05 a.m.
10/7 Le Cellier 4:55 p.m.

We did change some of our plans later, and cancelled a few things, but overall I felt like we were really poised to take full (and I do mean FULL) advantage of free dining.

As for the actual dining experiences, I have to say I felt a little let down. You’ve heard the complaints about changed menus, sub-par food, and the overall decline in the quality of the food and experience at Disney, and I agree with all of it. The two places with which I have the most experience, CRT and CM, were both a let down. That's why I didn’t name this installment “And a dinner here is never second best…”

But it was "free."

We also learned that we are, in fact, a family that doesn’t like being tied down with an inflexible plan. And we don’t like spending so much time at sit-down meals.

Now watch: for the rest of my life all I'll ever get is a stupid free dining PIN.

 

[hucifer]

(WARNING: I just read through this one last time, and realized I am completely insane. So I will apologize ahead of time for the whining, and for, in some cases, the complete lack of sentence structure.)

At least the spelling is correct.

Would I say that if it didn’t get worse?

True dat.

I really have nothing to complain about – there are obviously worse things out there people have to deal with every day. Wearing a mullet, listening to Miley Cyrus “sing” live, and ending up on peopleofwalmart.com come to mind as examples.

True, true, and true.

I was one Smarty-McFarty.

So you were both smart and offensive?

Curse you, free dining!

I say that every time we go to the World. Every. Time.

I put a sign on my closed door that said “On a conference call – do not disturb.”

Way to take advantage of the system.

I was on hold for 53 minutes. If I had to wait 53 minutes, how many people had called, with me, at exactly 7:00 and beat me to the punch by 0.0038 seconds? Or did they only have four people working the phones? Finally a charming young lady who obviously HATED her job (and me personally) answered. And told me she could not make any reservations, as her computer was down. After 53 minutes on hold, you’re telling me you can’t do anything for me? Then why did you answer your phone?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Yep, I'd be furious too.

He even praised my excellent dining choices (“Who’s a good girl with her ADRs? You are! Yes you are!”).

That's why I didn’t name this installment “And a dinner here is never second best…”

I'm surprised you haven't run out of lines from the movie yet.

Now watch: for the rest of my life all I'll ever get is a stupid free dining PIN.

That is more than likely. And you'll have the same mishaps next time, too.

I loved this installment! I giggled throughout the whole thing.

 

[Normangirls]

So you were both smart and offensive?

NOZZUB!




Glad you liked it!

I am having to search more and more to find a good Belle quote that fits. I can't quite figure out what to do with, "I use antlers in all of my decorating!"

Or, "And every last inch of me's covered with hair!"

 

[It'sWDW4me]

Oh. My. GOD.

I almost passed out!!! Reminder - stop laughing, deep breath, double over screaming with laughter, and repeat! Too freakin' funny.

It can't be so funny because I do the same danged thing prepping for my ADR day (2/16/10 here I come baby!), can it?

 

[Normangirls]

Oh. My. GOD.

I almost passed out!!! Reminder - stop laughing, deep breath, double over screaming with laughter, and repeat! Too freakin' funny.

It can't be so funny because I do the same danged thing prepping for my ADR day (2/16/10 here I come baby!), can it?

It's all about the strategerie!

Are they back to the 180 days? If so, you're going in August, right? I'm jealous.

 

[Diamondintheruff]

Reading your last installment about booking ADR's totally brought me back to the first time I did my ADR's. Only I wasn't on hold or had to deal with the switch to online systems or the 90 days. But I still feel your stress.

Joining TGM really stressed me out. I got to the point where I envied "them". "They" didn't know what they were missing out on. "They" were oblivious in their wanderings. I know too much to be "them" but there is something to be said for spur of the moment plans. ADR's do not make for spur of the moment plans. But there has to be a happy in between somewhere. That's what I strive for now.

 

[Ellester]

Oh my! I so needed to read that installment! We've been on sick kid duty here (stomach virus, sinus infections, and the "worst ear infection I've seen in a while" says the pede) and I really needed a good laugh! I mean, not to laugh at your misfortune of being on hold for half your life, but that was one great post! Thinking about ending up on peopleofwalmart.com just makes me shudder. And I hope poor Craig has figured out his vacation on his own and doesn't have any questions about his health care coverage!

 

[Normangirls]

"They" didn't know what they were missing out on. "They" were oblivious in their wanderings.

You know ignorance is bliss, but all those blissful people also end up eating at the Plaza.

Oh my! I so needed to read that installment! We've been on sick kid duty here (stomach virus, sinus infections, and the "worst ear infection I've seen in a while" says the pede) and I really needed a good laugh! I mean, not to laugh at your misfortune of being on hold for half your life, but that was one great post! Thinking about ending up on peopleofwalmart.com just makes me shudder. And I hope poor Craig has figured out his vacation on his own and doesn't have any questions about his health care coverage!

Well, good heavens! I hope everyone is feeling better.

Craig is doing just fine -- you can hardly see his stitches anymore.

 

[disneyaddicted]

NOZZUB!




Glad you liked it!

I am having to search more and more to find a good Belle quote that fits. I can't quite figure out what to do with, "I use antlers in all of my decorating!"

Or, "And every last inch of me's covered with hair!"

I've always liked the part "I'm especially good at expectorating" gross as it is, it's still funny, it's a classy way of saying "Yea, I spit and I'm good at it, so what?"

Your post was funny. I had the same issues making my ressies, I was hooked on the T.V show lost at the time and all my Disney dreams were intertwined with lost.

 

[Normangirls]

I've always liked the part "I'm especially good at expectorating" gross as it is, it's still funny, it's a classy way of saying "Yea, I spit and I'm good at it, so what?"

Your post was funny. I had the same issues making my ressies, I was hooked on the T.V show lost at the time and all my Disney dreams were intertwined with lost.

O.K., how would someone like Gaston know that word? Just saying.

 

[hucifer]

I am having to search more and more to find a good Belle quote that fits. I can't quite figure out what to do with, "I use antlers in all of my decorating!"

Or, "And every last inch of me's covered with hair!"

I'll be most impressed if you can fit those two lines into your report...but hopefully that second one doesn't refer to you.

 

[Normangirls]

I'll be most impressed if you can fit those two lines into your report...but hopefully that second one doesn't refer to you.

I do have a post coming up about my brother...

 

[disneyaddicted]

O.K., how would someone like Gaston know that word? Just saying.

I know right!? it's a contradiction of his character, expectorating is spitting with class and we all know Gaston is lacking in all social graces, but still...expectorating? I just love that word, which sounds better?

(this is me talking to my 17 year old son)

Jimmy quit spittin!
or
Jimmy stop expectorating!

 

[Pixie Princess]

That's me reading your ADR experience. I have done the same thing.. office door closed, blinds shut, do not disturb sign on door and dialing finger ready to go! If I want HDDR on the day I arrive, I gotta do what I gotta do!

 

[Normangirls]

O.K., my brother isn’t mean, coarse or unrefined, but what an excellent title!

I had experienced some weird ups and downs planning this trip, and was (I thought) finally on the downhill slide into the land of magic, dreams, and “free” dining.

The summer was slipping away, and Labor Day weekend my family descended upon my house like it was a freakin’ Red Roof Inn. They all like to get away, and I’m the only one who lives “away” so there they were. Amid all the craziness of having seven houseguests, and the start of the county fair (where DD13 was showing her 4-H projects all weekend long), DB and DSIL wanted to talk to me privately about something.

Which DSIL followed up with immediately with, “I am not pregnant!”

When we finally got a moment alone, they sprung it on me that they wanted to go to WDW with us!

I had a number of reactions.

Shock – we’ve always wanted to go together, but it just never seemed to work out.

Dismay – they wanted to keep it a secret from their two girls. Did you ever hear the theory that, since there are so many spiders in the world, you are never more than seven inches from a spider? That was how my house was that weekend – you were never more then seven inches from a person you were hiding a secret from.

Joy – our daughters are like peas and carrots, so this would be like Christmas, birthdays and Arbor Day all rolled up in one (What? Don’t you celebrate Arbor Day? Send Arbor Day cards? Have the traditional Arbor Day feast of circus peanuts, asparagus, and liverwurst sandwiches?). This would also be a truly excellent surprise for Nana’s upcoming 70th birthday.

Panic – did I mention that this was less than one month from the day we were to leave? DB hadn’t been to WDW since we were kids, so he was clueless. Flashes of resort reservations, park tickets and ADRs were sparking through my brain like a bad 80’s music video (“Take on me, take me on, I’ll be gone, in a dreeeeeam…”).

Now, DB and DSIL are the kind of people who tend to change their plans. A lot. So I was first curious to see if they would stick to it and really do this. They did.

So, some more introductions:

DB – older, much older, than me. He survived his wild youth, became an architect, and then a successful entrepreneur. He is a dork.

DSIL – also a former architect, she and DB run their business together. She is very artistic, and I couldn’t ask for a better “in-law.” I’ve told them many times, if they ever broke up, I’m keeping her and sending DB back to her family.

DNiece8 – she and my DD9 are the bestest of best friends. They can spend hours, days, together, and nothing makes them happier. DD9 spends a week with them every June, and it is the highlight of her summer.

DNiece3 – she is just a few months younger than my DD4, and they are at that funny stage where they want to play together but are too young to figure out what to do with each other. Usually they are very content watching a movie, or just playing in the same room.

I explained that we needed to get crackin’. They needed to decide on dates so we could start with resort reservations. They were honestly amazed that the resort could, possibly, be full. They picked some days, and couldn’t get in. I had them tweak their dates a little, and still no go. Finally we called (instead of making reservations on-line) and talked to a super helpful CM, and got dates worked out. Good – room reservations done.

The next few weeks are a bit of a blur to me, and kind of hard to explain in any coherent way. I was super busy at work, trying to finish up a few projects in record time before vacation. DB and DSIL were super busy, too, since they had just decided to shut down their business for most of a week to go with us. We talked as often as we could, e-mailed a lot, and I explained some of the following things over and over and over:

1. No, “free” dining is not free, and a room discount may save you more money.
2. Yes, ADRs are hard to get under the best of circumstances, even more so with “free” dining and your travel dates a mere three weeks away.
3. Yes, Disney would certainly offer you “free” dining even if it is next to impossible for you to get in to any of the table-service restaurants.
4. No, I really cannot add you to our CRT reservations, although I am calling and trying to do so every single day.
5. Yes, there is a difference between the quick-service plan (which was their “free” offering) and the regular dining plan (which was what we got), but if you cannot get any reservations, why do you think you should upgrade?

This went on and on and on. Over and over.

This was a very difficult situation, and I was not handling it as well as I should have.

CONFESSION TIME: I was excited to have DB and DSIL traveling with us, but I was also being quite selfish about my ADRs. The reasons we went with the “free” dining was because we knew it would allow us, this one time, to eat at places we had never experienced. And they decided to come at a point of our trip when I had CRT, Chef Mickey’s, and Le Cellier scheduled. I couldn’t add them, and I didn’t want to cancel. They completely understood and told me they had no problem with us going to our dinners and meeting up with them later. Of course, since they were being so nice about it I felt even worse.

We had a family powwow (over the phone) and I explained how I was feeling, and everyone talked it over and all was good. So we would be together when we could, split up when we needed to, and still be together. As it should be.

So our grand Gathering grew to be really, really grand, and all we had to worry about was keeping 12 people happy. Twelve very different people. Some of whom are all commando all the way, and some of whom seemed to think vacation was for, oh, I don’t know, relaxing or something (nut jobs).

“You walked in, and oops-a-daisy!”

Jumping ahead a bit, we did not tell any of the kids what was going on. DB and DSIL surprised their kids on DN8’s birthday, but we were already in Florida at that point, so my girls were still clueless. The day they arrived, we made sure we were back at the hotel that afternoon. DD9 had been making comments all week about how she wished DN8 could be there, and she wanted to buy this for her and that for her (they really are best friends). We went down to the gift shop to browse around (actually waiting for the Magical Express), and again DD9 was picking out stuff for DN8. I saw them come in the door, and I said to DD9, “You know, you can’t seem to decide what to get for her. Why don’t you just ask her yourself?” And I turned her around.

Those little girls saw each other, screamed, ran together, and wrapped their arms tight around each other. They were laughing and talking at the same time, and all we could is smile. I looked around, and saw a few people, strangers in the lobby, tearing up just a little. One of our best Disney moments ever.