Yellow_Stitch
"No need to expose your superstructure."
- Joined
- May 10, 2005
- Messages
- 561
Day One 
Our trip started on Saturday April 30th at 5:15 a.m. in Indiana when we got up and got ready to head for the airport. DS5 was excited about the airplane ride and he handled it very well, not even using the portable DVD player we bought expressly for this trip. Oh well, we didn't really need that hundred dollars! We arrived at the Orlando airport at 11:45 and were met by Thaddeus from Tiffany Town car right away. He was pleasant and waited patiently while we collected our luggage. At the car I asked about a stop at the supermarket and he said of course. We chatted a bit on the way and he dropped us at Publix. We picked out some snacks, drinks and a Styrofoam cooler ($2.99) and met him outside. He laughed and said we were very quick. Apparently some people have made him wait a long time. He whisked us to the All Star Movies in extreme comfort and pulled to the front door and helped with the luggage. When it came time to settle the bill, he reminded me about the 8 dollar PassPorter coupon I mentioned when placing the online reservation (which I had forgotten about!) and asked politely if I could pay cash rather than credit card since the credit card fee comes out of his pay. I really didn't care either way, and since he had saved me 8 bucks by reminding me about the coupon, I agreed. I tipped right then for the round trip since he said he would be back himself for the return trip. We checked our luggage at the podium outside and walked into Cinema Hall.
First impression of ASM Cinema Hall was that it was well laid out with a kid's area to the left with Toon Disney on a large TV, Check In/Out to the right and the food court and gift shop straight ahead. Did I mention that we checked our luggage already? I stood there in my nice warm long sleeve shirt and jeans since Indiana at 6 a.m. was around 48 degrees. Oddly enough Florida at 1 pm was a bit warmer, around 83 degrees. DS5 and DW were more appropriately dressed so out to the baggage podium I go to retrieve the carry-on to grab new clothes. Ok, back to the check in line. We waited about 15-20 minutes to get to the counter. Not horrible, but not Hilton treatment. We got our "Keys to the Kingdom," which tied our room keys, park tickets and dream maker silver wishes into 3 credit-type cards. (If I ever seem to be overly descriptive of something, remember that if you've never been, you don't know!) Since our room was not to be ready for at least another hour, we made for the bus stop out front to head for downtown Disney to do some shopping.
We picked up some essentials at Once Upon a Toy: the Toy Story: Sids Room "monster toys" set, 3 Star Wars figures, a Mickey Mouse spinning light up toy, and of course, an $18 box of Potato Head parts. Previous posters claiming to have gotten ALL of the parts into one box are either bending the truth a bit or did so before they expanded the selection of parts. (No we didn't have a potato in the box!) It's the shoes that make it hard! They take up so much space that we only grabbed the yellow Mickey shoes and crammed as many smaller items as possible in that box. With much shaking, adjusting and trying to slide small parts into the cracks, I think we got quite a haul and got all of our favorites like the mouse ears sorcerer Mickey hat. We bought a couple of hats at World of Disney and strolled over to the water fountain play area by the exit. DS loved it! It was a hot day so he got a nice cool down. Back to the bus to ride to ASM.
At check in we were given a phone number to call to find our room number when it was ready. A house phone is in the lobby and the call took about 10 seconds. We were on the 3rd floor in one of the Mighty Duck buildings. Our requested choices - Toy Story or Fantasia - were booked up. Admittedly, we changed our reservation to ASM from Port Orleans after the hoped for discount code never came, so the lateness of our booking might have caused this. Nevertheless, we were disappointed. We were right by the smaller pool, the Duck Pond, but a bit of a walk from Cinema Hall and the bus stop, and the Mighty Duck hockey theme was not a huge hit with DS. Our room was fairly small but very clean and quiet. Our luggage was waiting for us in the room. AS resorts dont have a true bell hop service; you drop off your stuff and it gets to your room within an hour or so. If our room had been ready immediately, we probably would have just rolled our luggage there ourselves. We quickly unpacked and got ready to head for Pioneer Hall for a fantastic dinner and show at the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue.
We bussed over to the MK, then to the boat dock to head over to Pioneer Hall. You are dropped off just a short walk from the hall. We checked in to get our tickets at a window to the left of the main entrance. We strolled around a bit and watched a peacock near a display RV. The line to get in was long, and seating was already assigned, so we saw no need to jam up at the door. When the line was almost gone we joined and were led to the center table, 1 away from the stage. Our server quickly brought out salad and bread and we dug right in. 2 sangrias later the show started. DS5 loved the music and the dancing, even if some of the jokes were lost on him. The performers were very enthusiastic and got the crowd involved in the show. The food was good: fried chicken and ribs were the main course with corn and baked beans. By the time the strawberry shortcake arrived, and more sangrias later, we were having a blast. Alas, the show had to end and we made for the dock to return to our nest.
As we walked down the dock we saw a large line for the contemporary boat and only 2 people on the MK side. After waiting a few minutes I asked the CR boat Captain when the next MK boat was coming, he said there would be no more. Mind you, this was the 7:30 show, not the late one. Turns out MK had closed early for a grad night! We made for the bus stop at the other end of the Pioneer Hall area and waited for a bus to any other park to transfer to a bus to ASM. Guidebooks have described the Ft. Wilderness bus system as confusing, but never describe it in detail. The buses that came were marked Outpost Yellow or Settlement Purple. No help there. I asked a bus driver if our best bet was catching the next Downtown Disney bus and transferring there. He said that was best. So we waited, and waited, and waited. No DD bus. We had now been here for what seemed like 45 minutes to an hour, and the sangria had worn off. I asked yet another bus driver, and he said we needed to catch any Settlement bus, then a DD bus, then our ASM bus! Finally we were back to civilization! Keep this sad story in mind if you stray into the Ft. Wilderness area without a good grasp of how their system works. We were back in our room at 11:30, wearier but wiser.
Our trip started on Saturday April 30th at 5:15 a.m. in Indiana when we got up and got ready to head for the airport. DS5 was excited about the airplane ride and he handled it very well, not even using the portable DVD player we bought expressly for this trip. Oh well, we didn't really need that hundred dollars! We arrived at the Orlando airport at 11:45 and were met by Thaddeus from Tiffany Town car right away. He was pleasant and waited patiently while we collected our luggage. At the car I asked about a stop at the supermarket and he said of course. We chatted a bit on the way and he dropped us at Publix. We picked out some snacks, drinks and a Styrofoam cooler ($2.99) and met him outside. He laughed and said we were very quick. Apparently some people have made him wait a long time. He whisked us to the All Star Movies in extreme comfort and pulled to the front door and helped with the luggage. When it came time to settle the bill, he reminded me about the 8 dollar PassPorter coupon I mentioned when placing the online reservation (which I had forgotten about!) and asked politely if I could pay cash rather than credit card since the credit card fee comes out of his pay. I really didn't care either way, and since he had saved me 8 bucks by reminding me about the coupon, I agreed. I tipped right then for the round trip since he said he would be back himself for the return trip. We checked our luggage at the podium outside and walked into Cinema Hall.
First impression of ASM Cinema Hall was that it was well laid out with a kid's area to the left with Toon Disney on a large TV, Check In/Out to the right and the food court and gift shop straight ahead. Did I mention that we checked our luggage already? I stood there in my nice warm long sleeve shirt and jeans since Indiana at 6 a.m. was around 48 degrees. Oddly enough Florida at 1 pm was a bit warmer, around 83 degrees. DS5 and DW were more appropriately dressed so out to the baggage podium I go to retrieve the carry-on to grab new clothes. Ok, back to the check in line. We waited about 15-20 minutes to get to the counter. Not horrible, but not Hilton treatment. We got our "Keys to the Kingdom," which tied our room keys, park tickets and dream maker silver wishes into 3 credit-type cards. (If I ever seem to be overly descriptive of something, remember that if you've never been, you don't know!) Since our room was not to be ready for at least another hour, we made for the bus stop out front to head for downtown Disney to do some shopping.
We picked up some essentials at Once Upon a Toy: the Toy Story: Sids Room "monster toys" set, 3 Star Wars figures, a Mickey Mouse spinning light up toy, and of course, an $18 box of Potato Head parts. Previous posters claiming to have gotten ALL of the parts into one box are either bending the truth a bit or did so before they expanded the selection of parts. (No we didn't have a potato in the box!) It's the shoes that make it hard! They take up so much space that we only grabbed the yellow Mickey shoes and crammed as many smaller items as possible in that box. With much shaking, adjusting and trying to slide small parts into the cracks, I think we got quite a haul and got all of our favorites like the mouse ears sorcerer Mickey hat. We bought a couple of hats at World of Disney and strolled over to the water fountain play area by the exit. DS loved it! It was a hot day so he got a nice cool down. Back to the bus to ride to ASM.
At check in we were given a phone number to call to find our room number when it was ready. A house phone is in the lobby and the call took about 10 seconds. We were on the 3rd floor in one of the Mighty Duck buildings. Our requested choices - Toy Story or Fantasia - were booked up. Admittedly, we changed our reservation to ASM from Port Orleans after the hoped for discount code never came, so the lateness of our booking might have caused this. Nevertheless, we were disappointed. We were right by the smaller pool, the Duck Pond, but a bit of a walk from Cinema Hall and the bus stop, and the Mighty Duck hockey theme was not a huge hit with DS. Our room was fairly small but very clean and quiet. Our luggage was waiting for us in the room. AS resorts dont have a true bell hop service; you drop off your stuff and it gets to your room within an hour or so. If our room had been ready immediately, we probably would have just rolled our luggage there ourselves. We quickly unpacked and got ready to head for Pioneer Hall for a fantastic dinner and show at the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue.
We bussed over to the MK, then to the boat dock to head over to Pioneer Hall. You are dropped off just a short walk from the hall. We checked in to get our tickets at a window to the left of the main entrance. We strolled around a bit and watched a peacock near a display RV. The line to get in was long, and seating was already assigned, so we saw no need to jam up at the door. When the line was almost gone we joined and were led to the center table, 1 away from the stage. Our server quickly brought out salad and bread and we dug right in. 2 sangrias later the show started. DS5 loved the music and the dancing, even if some of the jokes were lost on him. The performers were very enthusiastic and got the crowd involved in the show. The food was good: fried chicken and ribs were the main course with corn and baked beans. By the time the strawberry shortcake arrived, and more sangrias later, we were having a blast. Alas, the show had to end and we made for the dock to return to our nest.
As we walked down the dock we saw a large line for the contemporary boat and only 2 people on the MK side. After waiting a few minutes I asked the CR boat Captain when the next MK boat was coming, he said there would be no more. Mind you, this was the 7:30 show, not the late one. Turns out MK had closed early for a grad night! We made for the bus stop at the other end of the Pioneer Hall area and waited for a bus to any other park to transfer to a bus to ASM. Guidebooks have described the Ft. Wilderness bus system as confusing, but never describe it in detail. The buses that came were marked Outpost Yellow or Settlement Purple. No help there. I asked a bus driver if our best bet was catching the next Downtown Disney bus and transferring there. He said that was best. So we waited, and waited, and waited. No DD bus. We had now been here for what seemed like 45 minutes to an hour, and the sangria had worn off. I asked yet another bus driver, and he said we needed to catch any Settlement bus, then a DD bus, then our ASM bus! Finally we were back to civilization! Keep this sad story in mind if you stray into the Ft. Wilderness area without a good grasp of how their system works. We were back in our room at 11:30, wearier but wiser.
