Dates: September 7-14, 2006
Cast of Characters:
Transportation to resort: Rental Car / Disney's Magical Express
Resort: 2 adjoining rooms at Disney's All-Star Movies, Mighty Ducks section, Annual Passholder Discount
Ticket type: Annual Pass / 6-day Magic Your Way basic ticket / Old Park Hopper
Background
I try to get my Mom to WDW once a year. Each time, it gets tougher and tougher, since she suffers from Parkinson's disease and has difficulties with many everyday tasks. The last two times I took her, we had a great time, but I was very tired and a bit stressed from taking care of her by myself. My sister suggested that we invite Sophia along this trip, an extra set of hands to help. I was certainly willing to try it just to get my Mom there again. Plus, Sophia had never been to WDW before, so it would be a treat for her.
We always fly out of Atlantic City International Airport - Spirit Airlines has a direct flight from ACY to MCO, and my Mom's house is only 15 minutes from ACY. Couldn't be simpler, right? Did I mention that Sophia is afraid to fly? She insisted that she would only be comfortable travelling by bus (a 25 hour trip!), and neither my sister nor I could convince her otherwise. This added another level of complexity to both the planning and execution of our travel. I managed to arrange it so that we were scheduled to arrive in MCO about an hour before Sophia's bus would get to Orlando. For the return trip, her bus left 6 hours before our flight, giving my Mom and I plenty of time to grab lunch and relax before heading back to MCO. When Daniel said he wanted to join us for a few days (he lives in Brooklyn NY, and would be leaving from JFK the same day), I arranged Magical Express for him, so that I wouldn't have to make another run to MCO.
Highlights
We really had a wonderful trip, and I have no major complaints, I can't just have an empty section here, so I'll just note the following:
Cast of Characters:
- Me and my Mom: Huge WDW fans;
- Sophia: My Mom's home aide, had never been to a Disney Park before;
- Daniel: Not exactly a WDW fan, but he decided he wanted to join us for a few days anyway.
Transportation to resort: Rental Car / Disney's Magical Express
Resort: 2 adjoining rooms at Disney's All-Star Movies, Mighty Ducks section, Annual Passholder Discount
Ticket type: Annual Pass / 6-day Magic Your Way basic ticket / Old Park Hopper
Background
I try to get my Mom to WDW once a year. Each time, it gets tougher and tougher, since she suffers from Parkinson's disease and has difficulties with many everyday tasks. The last two times I took her, we had a great time, but I was very tired and a bit stressed from taking care of her by myself. My sister suggested that we invite Sophia along this trip, an extra set of hands to help. I was certainly willing to try it just to get my Mom there again. Plus, Sophia had never been to WDW before, so it would be a treat for her.
We always fly out of Atlantic City International Airport - Spirit Airlines has a direct flight from ACY to MCO, and my Mom's house is only 15 minutes from ACY. Couldn't be simpler, right? Did I mention that Sophia is afraid to fly? She insisted that she would only be comfortable travelling by bus (a 25 hour trip!), and neither my sister nor I could convince her otherwise. This added another level of complexity to both the planning and execution of our travel. I managed to arrange it so that we were scheduled to arrive in MCO about an hour before Sophia's bus would get to Orlando. For the return trip, her bus left 6 hours before our flight, giving my Mom and I plenty of time to grab lunch and relax before heading back to MCO. When Daniel said he wanted to join us for a few days (he lives in Brooklyn NY, and would be leaving from JFK the same day), I arranged Magical Express for him, so that I wouldn't have to make another run to MCO.
Highlights
- "Pleasantly surprised" was the catchphrase for the trip: I am by nature a pessimist, and even a trip to WDW doesn't change that. With all the variables in our travel plans and other trip details, I kept expecting something to go wrong or badly. Amazingly, nothing did:
- Travel plans - No mishaps or major problems here. I found both bus terminals with no incidents. (Thank you Google Maps!) Sophia, with her 25 hour bus ride on 4 different buses, was closest to arriving on time, only 15 minutes late. My Mom and I arrived a half hour late - first they couldn't get the plane's engines started (isn't that reassuring?), and then we had to fly down to Vero Beach and approach MCO from the South due to thunderstorms in the area. Still, Sophia only had to wait about a half hour for us at the bus terminal. Daniel, on the other hand, wasn't as lucky. His flight left the gate at JFK on time, but they didn't get into the air until 2 hours later, having to wait for 40+ planes in front of them to take off. Good thing he could take Magical Express, so that I didn't have to go back to the airport after a tiring travel day!
- My Mom did so well - My Mom's energy levels vary greatly and unpredictably each day. This has affected our park touring in the past, so I was expecting the same this trip. Not once did we have a problem! We got a slow start each morning (her worst time anyway), but we were on our way to the parks by 11am, not too bad. We spent 6 pretty full days in the parks, one park per day. The only time she nodded off was in the American Adventure (but then again, so did I.
) Usually we don't stay too late in the parks, but because she was doing so well, we were able to see 3 night time events (Wishes, Fantasmic!, and Illuminations), and visited Downtown Disney and an outlet mall on other evenings. Having Sophia along certainly helped - she is very much in tune with my Mom's needs, which helped keep us going, and also allowed me to relax much more. And Sophia loved every moment of the trip, so inviting here was definitely the right choice. - No problems getting Advanced Dining Reservations - I kept reading about how the free dining package offer was causing all of the sit-down restaurants to be booked solid, and had resigned myself to eating counter service the entire trip. In reality, we had no problems at all getting ADRs for the exact locations and times that we wanted, even when requesting it for the same day. We ate at a sit-down restaurant almost every day, and on the days we didn't, it was our own choice. It may have helped that our ADR requests were for late lunchtime, but no matter what, I was happy to be able to eat wherever we wanted.
- Weather - You name it, I had worried about it - thunderstorms, heat, hurricanes. We had no problems at all. The forecast called for typical Florida weather, scattered thunderstorms. Some storms did pass through, but the timing was just right - each time, we just happened to be indoors long enough for it to pass over. The temperatures got up into the high 80s/low 90s each day, but the humidity wasn't too bad, and it was never anything we couldn't tolerate. We had even warned Sophia how terribly hot the Animal Kingdom could feel, and then had the most pleasant weather there that I have ever experienced. As for hurricanes, 3 storms formed in the Atlantic right before and during our trip. None of them came close to approaching Florida. (One thing I hadn't ever thought about was earthquakes. There was a magnitude 6.0 earthquake nearby in the Gulf of Mexico while we were there, but we never felt it. Something to add to the Worry List for next time. )
- Weekend Mobs at resort food court - I've usually been able to gauge how crowded the parks are going to be by how busy the resort food court is in the morning. Over the weekend, the All-Star Movies food court was chaos - noisy, with long lines everywhere. I was dreading those days in the parks, expecting them to be just as busy. Surprisingly, the park crowds were very light. I have no idea where all those people were going (maybe they were just attending the Night of Joy event), but I was happy that they weren't in the parks!
- Cast Members and Characters: I can't say enough about how wonderful the WDW cast members and characters were the entire trip. Cast members were friendly and frequently offered help with my Mom. The characters went out of their way to interact with her, even during the parades - Smee came up and kissed her hand, and Baloo stole her hat. I know she loved the extra attention, and it made the trip even more pleasant.
- Pirates of the Caribbean: My Mom hadn't seen Pirates in a couple of years. She has difficulties climbing in and out of the boats, and I was nervous about trying to help her by myself. With Sophia along, I felt a bit more brave. Between the two of us, we were able to get her in and out. I'm so glad we did! We loved all of the latest changes to the ride. The Davy Jones effect at the beginning was so cool, the Captain Jack animatronics were simply amazing, and we could have sworn a cannonball buzzed our heads during the ship/fort scene. Nice job!
- Disney Dreams Come True Parade: I wasn't so excited to hear that the new parade in the Magic Kingdom was a just modified version of the previous Share A Dream Come True Parade. The new parade music, however, more than made up for that. I love the theme song - it has as much energy and excitement as the Remember The Magic parade music from the 25th anniversary celebration. Can't wait until it's available on CD!
- Evening Extra Magic Hours: Sophia and my Mom were pretty tired each day after touring a park. On the other hand, a trip to WDW always energizes me, and I wasn't ready to head to bed at the same time they were. It was great to be able to get them settled back into their room, and then head back out to a park and play some more.
- Disney Dining Experience card: I am always looking for ways to save some money during the trip, so I thought I would give this a try. I purchased the card at the annual passholder price of $60, and used it for most of our meals. It took us 3 days to reach the break-even point, and we saved an additional $50 during the rest of our stay. It may not seem like a lot of savings, but every little bit helps.
- Crystal Palace: I had never eaten in the Crystal Palace before, mainly because I am not a big fan of Pooh and Friends. Sophia and my Mom seemed to be enjoying the Character meals, so I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did, if only because I really enjoyed the food they served for lunch. It also helped that the restaurant was nearly empty, which made for a more peaceful experience.
We really had a wonderful trip, and I have no major complaints, I can't just have an empty section here, so I'll just note the following:
- Room Requests: I wanted my room to be as close as possible to my Mom and Sophia. This was more than a convenience - I needed to be nearby in case my Mom was having problems, or if Sophia needed assistance. When I called the Disney Reservation Center to book our rooms, I explained the situation, and asked that our rooms be either connecting or adjoining, (I was trying to be flexible, since connecting rooms are limited.) When we checked in, I found out that I had been granted neither; from the reaction of the check-in person, they weren't even close. I had to explain the situation all over again, and then wait while they made a call to get it all straightened out. We were finally given adjoining rooms. I know that room requests are not guaranteed, but since they were able to accommodate me when I pushed for it, it seemed like the Room Planners had made no effort at all to grant my original request. What is the point of taking requests if they weren't even going to try?
- All-Star Movies "Concierge": Through some mix-up, I was scheduled for a Magical Express pickup on our day of departure. I saw no way in the provided information to cancel it, so I went to the resort's Concierge desk to get it straightened out. There were 3 people working, and only 5 other people on line in front of me, yet I stood there for 20 minutes without being waited on. This has got to be the most inefficient area I have ever seen in at a Disney resort. One worker took at least 15 minutes to help a couple simply purchase park tickets. After that, another guest bypassed the line and went right up to her to ask a question, and rather than directing the guest to the line, she spent the next 5 minutes helping her. Another worker would take long pauses between people, pointlessly shuffling papers at his position, or wandering to other positions, apparently looking for something but never finding it. An additional worker showed up, but never actually helped anyone. She also shuffled papers around, and would type at her keyboard from time to time and just stare at the results on the screen. Finally, a resort manager came by and asked if he could help anyone. I explained my situation, he took my paperwork and said he would cancel it. I was finally able to leave the line. This is certainly an area where some improvements can be made.
- September is a good time to be there: I'm not a big fan of crowds, so I try to aim for off-season periods, usually early May or December. This trip proved to me that September is another option. The crowds were very light, yet the park hours were not as truncated as they can be in December. The weather was warm but not intolerable. (We have experienced some pretty cold December days!) Maybe we were just lucky that the hurricanes stayed away, but I'm willing to take that chance again. And I felt good about being in the parks on September 11th, helping to show the terrorists that they haven't won.
- Always test your photo storage media before you leave on your trip: I have an 8MP digital camera, a collection of compact flash cards of various sizes, and a 6GB microdrive. When I was at WDW in May, I had decided to use the CF cards during the day, and copy the pictures over to the microdrive each night using my Dell Axim. I quickly discovered that this process took way too long, and didn't ever want to go through that again. I decided that this time I would just fill up all the compact flash cards, and then switch to the microdrive for the rest of the trip. However, when I reached the point where I needed to use the microdrive, the camera refused to recognize all of the available space. The drive had more than 4GB available, but the camera only recognized about 600MB. Luckily, that didn't fill up until my last evening in the parks, but I still wasted time reviewing and deleting photos to try to get more space. After some research when I got home, I reformatted the drive in the camera, and now all 6GB of space is recognized. Wish I had tried that before I left!
I'm so glad that you had a wonderful trip and I enjoyed reading your report.
