We survived Presidents Week 2014 (2 updates 4/6)

[BradleyB]

My name is Marci and I am a Disneyholic. I love, love, love Disney and feel the magic. In no particular order…
• Our family watched the Wonderful World of Disney every Sunday,
• my brother and I saw every Disney movie at the theaters when they were released (and re-released),
• I decorated my older boys’ nursery with Disney babies (too adorable!!!) in 1990, and
• in the late 70s, early 80s, alternated annual passes between Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm (my folks thought it would keep me from going to parties and getting in trouble and it worked for the most part!)
• My dad and I had a view of the fireworks from our apartment in the late 70s and we watched almost every night
• In the early and mid 70s, we took every family that visited us two places: the beach (we lived in Huntington then) and Disneyland.
• I dragged my first and second husbands to Disneyland (with and without the kids)
• I treated my bestest hubby and my mother to Disneyworld on a weeklong, deluxe, adults-only trip in 2013 (amazing trip!)
• I took two of the boys (17 and 9 at the time) to DW over presidents week in 2009 (the oldest is autistic and has sensory issues and had no desire to go after we tried a couple of DL trips (the GAC was a godsend, but it was still stressful to him))

I just LOVE Disney! On the 2013 trip, I bought an AP and TIW and we definitely got our moneys worth, but I kept thinking “I really should get one more trip out of it.” So, I started planning it. I decided I would go presidents week 2014 because I am a teacher and we have the week off from school. I had taken the boys on this week 2009 and we had a great time, so why not?

I asked my mom (she is my best friend) – she said no, she had too much fun on the last trip and was afraid this one wouldn’t live up to it.

I asked my hubby (he is my other best friend) – he said no, he was running a huge job (he is a construction superintendent).

I asked the 23 year old (he is really high functioning autistic and has made incredible strides.) He said no, he is displaying his research at a conference (he is an honors student at Missouri Western State University.)

I asked the 22 year old – he said no, he is working at a new job and is also a student at Missouri Western.

The 21 year old is in the air force and he used all his time off recently so I knew he could not go.

The 14 year old decided he wanted to spend the week with his dad (hubby no. 2)

Hmmm, what is a disneyholic to do? Solo trip! So I booked POP Century for 2/16-2/21 and started planning. Well, a couple of months later, the 14 year old decided he wanted to go, so I spent a small fortune to get him plane tickets on the same flights that I was on (I had gotten a good deal) and ordered a ticket for him from UCT.

Who? Myself and my lovely, 14 year old, moody, ADHD (off the charts!) son.

What? We are going to Disneyworld! This is the third trip for each of us (and sadly, probably the last for a long time)

Where? Pop Century

When? Presidents week, 2014

Why? Magic, pixie dust, and forced family fun

 

[BradleyB]

Blast from the past: 2009

Epcot and Magic Kingdom, post #3

Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom, post #4

Blast from the past: 2013



Epcot, post #5

Magic Kingdom, post 6

Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom, post 7

Food pics, post 8

Victoria and Alberts, post 9


Yes, I did gain quite a bit of weight in-between. "Happily ever after" has been rough on the figure, but I did lose 12 lbs between the 2013 and 2014 trips. Still working on it - it is much more fun to put it on than to take it off!

Evolution of my strategy:


Post 10


Sunday, 2/16 Travel Day

Post 11

Monday, 2/17 Epcot

Post 12

Tuesday, 2/18 Animal Kingdom

Post 13

Wednesday, 2/19 Magic Kingdom

Post 16

Thursday, 2/20 Hollywood Studios

Post 17

Friday, 2/21 Hollywood Studios

Travel home

A few final thoughts about our trip

 

[BradleyB]

Some of my favorites from Presidents’ Week, 2009

Epcot















Magic Kingdom:

 

[BradleyB]

Hollywood Studios:











Animal Kingdom:

 

[BradleyB]

Epcot:

 

[BradleyB]

Magic Kingdom:

 

[BradleyB]

Animal Kingdom:











Hollywood Studios:

 

[BradleyB]

Random Food/Drink:

Yachtsman




Narcoossee’s




Yak n Yeti




Jiko’s


Hoop de Doo Revue:



Via Napoli:

 

[BradleyB]

Victoria and Alberts:

 

[BradleyB]

Evolution of my strategy:

Disneyland pre fast pass: get there early, hit the E-ticket rides, then relax, eat, drink, hit up lesser rides and shows.

Disneyland with fast pass: get there early, hit the headliners, pull fastpasses and re-ride headliners. Repeat. Its not that big of a park, so we never felt like it was too much walking.

Disney world first time: get there early, use fast passes, ride headliners, eat a lot. We were on the deluxe dining and spent a lot of time at sit-down meals, but that was good – neither kid had a melt down.

Disney world adult trip: get there early, never be without a fast pass, eat, drink, tour at our own pace, give the fast passes to others when we didn’t feel like using them (we totally MADE some folks’ day when we handed off TSMM or RNRC passes!)

I was the fast pass queen. I tried to always have two or three attractions worth at any given time, but I was also happy to share. It worked very well for us.

This trip: Well, they started this FP+ thing. Okay, I thought, we can double dip – coolio. Then they took away the paper FP, tiered Epcot and Hollywood Studios, and limited it to three. Not so cool I thought, but I was locked in to this trip and I didn’t feel like hassling the fees to switch to DL. We’ll just give it the old college try and see what happens. Since I was traveling with Mr. High Energy kiddo, we will go full commando mode and see how that works.

I don’t have a smart phone or the app handy and that did make a difference.

Spoiler alert: It worked magically until it didn’t. You’ll see what I mean later.

 

[BradleyB]

Sunday, 2/16 Travel Day

Woke up at 4:00 am. Ugh! For my DH, it was just another day, like getting up for work. For myself and DS, it was sleepwalking time for a bit. We didn’t sleep real well because we were so excited.

Check before we leave:
- hard ticket media? YES
- table in wonderland? YES
- memory maker card? YES
- print out of fast passes? YES
- magic bands? YES
- notebook with ressie confirmation numbers? YES

We got through security at Seatac just fine. They were testing a new program and we didn’t have to take off our shoes or take the liquids out of our carry on. Nice! Had a mickey d’s breakfast and settled in to wait.



Took off on time at 7:30 am and arrived in Milwaukee about 3.5 hours later. The next flight did not leave for almost 3 hours so we had a little time to kill. The flight to Orlando was fine. We had decided to get our own bags as we didn’t want to wait til late to receive them from Magical Express. Although our flight landed at 7:11, it took a LONG time for the bags to arrive at the carousel. Oh well. We got our bags, went back up to the second level, over to B side and did the long walk to ME check in. No worries. It took about 15 to get on our bus and on our way. It wasn’t too crowded at all. The bus stopped at AOA before POP. It was a pleasant trip and so far, the kiddo was great.

I read the entire book, “Divergent” today and half of “To Kill a Mockingbird” and enjoyed the opportunity to sit and read for fun. One passenger who sat across the aisle from me told me I was the fastest reader she ever saw. I told her that I had learned to speed read when I was 12 when it was all the rage and it just stayed with me.

Check in was easy and quick. Sadly, my DS was so exhausted from the travel and his meds had worn off, he couldn’t really focus on the cool shadow boxes from the decades. I did not do online check in but I had put in a couple of requests. I asked for 60s building, lake view, ground floor. Well, we got 90s, pool view, ground floor. 1 for 3. okayyyyy. It was louder than we would have liked (minus), but we cut through the parking lot so it wasn’t too far from classic hall (plus).

Our room was an okay size for the two of us, but the cleanliness was kind of a disappointment. There were two pennies and a sunflower seed on the grungy carpet and they were still there at the end of our stay. Do they not vacuum? There was a long black hair stuck to the wall of the shower, a mystery sticky substance on the floor between the bathroom and the sink area and it looked like a petrified booger on the wall next to the electric outlet. Plus assorted smashed bug guts that were not wiped off the walls. EW!!!!!!!!!! Trust me, it did not get any cleaner during our stay except for what I cleaned up myself using my trusty Clorox wipes (a suggestion from this board – thank you!)











Ricky asked me, “Mom, why didn’t we stay at the other place?” He meant POR where we stayed in 2009. Me: “This saved us almost $700 bucks.” Ricky: “Oh. Can I have some money?” Me: “Go to sleep!”

It took me a while to unpack and organize – I had brought a LOT of stuff based on my previous trips and suggestions from the packing threads. By the time I was finished it was about 11:00 pm and time to crash. Some late, loud park returnees woke my DS up, but I slept like a log and didn’t hear a thing!

 

[BradleyB]

Monday, 2/17 Epcot Day

I happened to be monkeying around with my FP+ selections the day of the glitch eliminating the tiers so I had the following plan for Epcot:

Rope Drop
Test Track 2x
Sum of All Thrills
Test Track 950-1050 FP+
Mission Space
Nemo
Turtle Talk with Crush 1050-1150 FP+
Living with the Land
Soarin 1200-100 FP+
World showcase (snack, drink, Agent Perry missions)
La Cellier for dinner 720 pm

This is how it actually went.

Up at 6:00 am. Holy crap! My body is telling me it is 3:00 am and it doesn’t want to be up yet. Shut up body! I showered and made my coffee and felt human enough to wake up the Rickster nicely. So I did. He showered and had some oatmeal I made (I did say I brought a LOT of stuff, didn’t I?) along with some milk, beef jerky, a granola bar, and his meds. He bounced around and babbled constantly (while eating, sigh) until the meds kicked in. We had no issues with the buses at all and were the third family at our tapstile waiting for Epcot to open. It was crowded as it was Presidents Day today.



We went directly to test track and rode it. Ricky noticed that it had changed since he was there in 2009. He wanted pics with the corvette in the dump spot and he wanted to play some of the racing games. My Gollum side is thinking “Are you kidding me??? This is valuable touring time we are wasting! Silly hobbit, I mean kid” My Smeagol side is thinking, “The kid is having fun and it is wholesome – let it go!” This side won.






Okay, so when we finally finish in there, the TT standby line is longish and we have a FP anyway, so we go to Sum of all thrills. Its 930 am and there is only one other mom and kid in line besides us. We had missed this on our 2009 trip, but hit it on the adult trip and I knew he would like it. I asked “do you want to do this separately or together?” He surprised me by saying “together.” Even though he can be smelly and difficult, I do love this kid! He designed a most awesome ride that was very thrilling with loops and all kinds of stuff and we had a great time! We would have done it again, but the line was kind of long and we had more to experience.

We got in line for Mission Space – Orange, but it was down, so they steered us into the Green mission. It was kind of tame, but definitely fun.

Potty break and then back to TT for our FP+ Its 10:15 am and there is a long standby wait. We get through pretty fast with our fast pass and think that this isn’t too bad.



After stopping to check out the Jammitors (so cool) we decide to get a snack at the Electric Umbrella Café which was just opening at 11:00 am. We split a meatball sub with fries and had a couple of cups of water. The sub was not too good, but it kept us going.

Next it was the Nemo ride. Its 11:15 am and the standby line was very short. It was cute and we were off by 11:30. Ricky decides he didn’t want to use the Turtle Talk fast pass – he just wants to wander around the aquarium instead. Okay………… I probably should have found a CM to change it to Spaceship Earth (I couldn’t believe those lines!) but I decided to go with the flow.

This is not the commando, do everything trip I envisioned, but we are having a good time and enjoying each other so far. Ricky has been my most difficult teenager by far out of the 4 boys and it is nice not to be arguing with him for a change.

We hit up Soarin for our FP and loved it. Then we did Living with the Land and he was completely bored, but he tolerated it with surprisingly little snark!

We decided to head to the world showcase at 1:00 pm and do some Agent Perry missions. When we were here in 2009, they were testing the Kim Possible missions and all 3 of us had a blast with them. We really like sounding the gong and getting the stares like we did something naughty.

I got a Unibroue (YUM) in Canada and then we did our UK mission. It was fun, but I could see the Rickster was fading. It was warm and he was tired. He decided to go back to POP and take a break. It was so cool that he is big enough to do this on his own and I could just wander around the showcase.

I did a meet and greet with Tigger, watched O Canada, a meet and greet with Mary Poppins, a meet and greet with Princess Aurora, and just meandered with a big smile on my face. I am in my happy place and I don’t care if people are looking at me like I’m nuts. I’m a middle aged woman doing Agent Perry missions with a beer in my hand and no kid in tow – saweet!

















A note: the Norway pavilion was crazy and sadly, I decided no Maelstrom for me. I did not want to deal with the crowd of crazed Anna & Elsa fans.

I met Ricky at the park entrance at 5:00 pm. He was feeling better and his meds were wearing off. Uh oh….. Spaceship Earth had a 20 minute line and we didn’t feeling like waiting so we went and did the Mission Space: Orange side. It was fun! Ricky ended up buying a souvenir for his little stepbrother in the dump area and spent a few minutes bouncing around from game to game. Unfortunately, he couldn’t concentrate enough to actually finish one so we left.

He decided he wanted to go on the Gran Fiesta so we did. He sang the song and annoyed the people on the boat with us, but I have to say I was proud he knew the words. I raised him right!

We had a fun meet and greet with Donald Duck too.





We went around the world showcase and he did a meet and greet with princess Jasmine in Morocco. What a flirt!







Then it was time for our ADR at La Cellier. We had a wonderful server named Laura. Great service. We had:

Cheese soup
Charcuterie plate
Filet Mignon
Rib Eye
Coca Cola for Ricky
2 glasses of wine for me
$163.05 with TIW

A note here: We truly eat family style, so we share our appetizers and entrees. Everything was outstanding. I had read some so-so reviews about La Cellier, however our table was not crowded, the food was good, and the service was efficient.

We were out of there in time for Illuminations, but Ricky was D-U-N so we headed out of the park. We got right on the bus with almost no wait and headed back to POP.



What did we do today?

Test track
Sum of all thrills
Mission Space: green
Test Track FP+
Jammitors show
Snack
Nemo
Aquarium
Soarin FP+
Living with the Land
Agent P: UK
*Tigger
*O’Canada
*Mary Poppins
*Agent P: Italy
*Princess Aurora
Mission Space: orange
Gran Fiesta
Donald Duck
Princess Jasmine
Dinner at La Cellier

* without Ricky

Not too bad for Presidents Day with a 14 year old.

Spending:
$ 29.36 mug, food at POP (when the Rickster was there during his break)
9.79 meatball sub and fries
12.00 souvenir
9.06 tipsy duck in love
7.25 sam adams seasonal
10.25 unibroue
3.75 dibs ice cream
11.65 dos equiis and chips
163.05 la cellier

$256.18 total – Yikes!

Ricky thanked me several times and then we crashed!

 

[BradleyB]

Tuesday, 2/18 Animal Kingdom

My plan for today:

Rope drop
Safari
Everest 2x
Primeval Whirl
Triceratop Spin
Dinosaur
Mickey & Minnie FP 10:55-11:55
Lunch
Everest FP 1200-100
Trails or whatever
Parade 345
Safari FP 330-430
Kali River Rapids if hot
ADR Rain Forest Café at 5:15
Tour til closing

This is what actually happened…………

That dang alarm went off at 6:00 am again. Ugh! Ricky moved slowly but cheerfully. What??? Where is my surly teenager? Pixie dust! We showered and he headed to the food court to get his breakfast and then came back and took his meds and off we go.

Now, I had sworn that the hours for Animal Kingdom were 9:00 am to 8:00 pm but they were open when we arrived. We were in through the tapstiles at 8:30 am.

We went straight to Expedition Everest and rode twice. We just walked on both times. First ride was in the very back and second was in the very front. The back seemed faster, but the front was funner. I asked Ricky to go on a third time but he wanted to go on the safari. Okaaaaaaaaay.





We had a great guide for the safari. He was knowledgable (sp?) and took his time. The animals were out and active and we really enjoyed this! I wish I had gotten his name.

Then we headed over to Dinoland. I had given the backstory to Ricky but he got really confused which led to some funny conversations about Hester and Chester. The people around us must have thought we were off our rockers, haha. We rode Dinosaur twice and then got in line for Primeval Whirl at 10:35.




By now it was warm so we got some water from the CS and headed over to our Mickey and Minnie meet and greet. Even with the FP, that line moved sssslllllooooooooowwwww. They would cram more people in the small waiting room and close the door. It was hot, the sound of whiny kids was loud and echoed, and it didn’t smell that good with all those warm bodies in that enclosed space. But we made it and even smiled for our pictures!



It was time for our Everest FP so we went and did that. Fun! Ricky and I both love that coaster. Then we decided we were hot so we went on the Kali River Rapids stand by. It said 40 minutes, but it only took about 20! We didn’t get too wet, but it was enough to cool us off some.



Snack time: water and a Jalapeno mickey pretzel.

Back to Dinoland. Ricky wanted to play the basketball carnival game. He bought a ticket and won the chameleon from Tangled. We did a meet and greet with Goofy and Pluto there too. It was fun!





Now, we are totally off the plan here, but we are having a good time and the kiddo is actually smiling and making suggestions on what to do instead of mumbling “I don’t care” or “whatever mom” so I am a happy camper. Disney is my happy place.

We are hot so I buy him a mickey bar and take my “mommy tax” and he didn’t even growl at me. He IS in a good mood.

One more trip on Kali River Rapids. We got wetter this time but we were both wearing wicking, dri-fit clothes so it was no biggie.

We took the train to the Conservation Station. I had not done this in either of my previous trips, so it was new to both of us. We met Rafiki and checked out the work that the vet was doing to a turtle. It was pretty fascinating. Then we listened to one of the herpetologists tell us about his blue tongued skink and we got to pet it. Next, the petting zoo thingy. Ricky and I talked with one of the CM in there and he was really friendly and informative. Finally, we met Chip and Dale and headed back to the main part of the park on the train. It was a worthy side trip!





Whatchu looking at Willis? Haha


We came back and checked out the Flights of Wonder show and it was cute! Ricky’s dad and stepmom have a macaw and an African grey so he was very interested in the show.



We walked the Pangiani trail and especially got a kick out of the swimming hippo. It was graceful and funny and reminded me of Fantasia for some reason. We must have watched it for about 10 minutes.



When we finished the trail, it was time for our Safari fast pass. The fast pass line was so long, it snaked way down the walkway by the stroller parking. We got through in about 15 minutes or so, but I felt really sorry for the families waiting in standby because their line was not really moving at all. Maybe one family for every 50 or so FP people. They were rushing the loading, the safari itself, and people noticed. It was not nearly as good as in the morning and the CMs seemed harried. Bummer! Ricky looked at me and said “It was way better this morning. I’m glad we went then.” I had to agree with him.

He wanted to play the basketball carnival game again so back we went to Dinoland. He won the snake this time. We wandered around but it was crowded and the wait times were long so we decided to check out the Pooh and Tigger meet and greet. It is tucked back and there was only a few people back there, so we had our picture taken.





Time for our ADR, so off we went. We were seated at a four top which was nice – we were next to the water too, so we didn’t feel crowded. Now I had joined the Landry’s Select club (a tip from this board) AND I put down February as my birthday month, so we had no wait for our ADR and there was a $50. credit on my Landry’s card. We had:

Chicken tenders appetizer
Grilled shrimp
Steak and lobster
Rainforest Ricky slush
2 Goose Island IPAs

With the tip, I only paid $47.38.

Again, we each had some of everything and it was pretty good/okay. The service was quite good and the manager checked in with us as well. So, how did it rate? table location: good!, service: good. It wasn’t as super as the night before, but it was a good experience.

Now, by this time Ricky’s meds have worn off, so he is unfocused and chattering away like crazy. He is very intelligent, but his mind goes a mile a minute, so it can make you nuts if you are not used to it. I am.

Ricky really enjoyed Dinoland, so there we go again. We had a meet and greet with Donald. Ricky set his snake down on the rock wall and it picked up what smelled and looked like hash residue. What??? He was so bummed and started to fall apart, but I told him no worries. We went back to the Carnival area and the CM working the basketball game gladly exchanged it. Ricky then went on to win the big bear so all was well with the world again.





We rode Dinosaur again and then popped over to Everest to ride. The first time, the teens in front of us deliberately ruined the picture with an obscene gesture. I scolded them (the teacher in me) and we went again. I was ready for a third ride, but Ricky said no. I looked at him and he was done in. We headed out as they were closing and got right on a bus. When we got back, it was relatively early, but we were beat and crashed right out.





So what did we do today?

Expedition Everest 2 x
Safari
Dinosaur 2 x
Primeval Whirl
Mickey & Minnie meet and greet
Expedition Everest
Kali River Rapids
Pretzel
Carnival game
Goofy and Pluto meet and greet
Ice cream bar
Kali River Rapids
Conservation Station
Rafiki meet and greet
Chip and Dale meet and greet
Flights of Wonder
Pangiani Trail
Safari
Carnival game
Pooh & Tigger meet and greet
Dinner at Rainforest Café
Donald Duck meet and greet
Carnival game
Dinosaur
Expedition Everest 2 x

Not bad for a busy time of year.

What did we spend?

4.79 pretzel
3.75 mickey bar
12.00 carnival games
26.58 t-shirt
47.38 dinner

$94.50 total + whatever Ricky spent on breakfast (can’t find that receipt)

 

[BOG Obsessed]

Subscribing to your TR.
Very detailed report so far, I like your summary of accomplishments for the day.
Would love to take a mother/daughter trip to DW when she gets older.... What a nice bonding experience with your DS.
Thanks for sharing

 

[BradleyB]

Subscribing to your TR.
Very detailed report so far, I like your summary of accomplishments for the day.
Would love to take a mother/daughter trip to DW when she gets older.... What a nice bonding experience with your DS.
Thanks for sharing

Thank you. It was awesome to have this time to be together without the daily chores and homework interferring or making us fight.

Definitely do the mother/daughter trip when you can. I had a blast last year with my mom and husband (luckily she adores him and vice versa)

I was worried about us not doing much due to the fast pass + thing, but we could do plenty until the day it didn't work at all.

 

[BradleyB]

Wednesday, 2/19 Magic Kingdom

A note: I forgot my camera so the only pics I got were from the rides and one photopass pic.

There is so much to do at Magic Kingdom, I didn’t really have much of a plan. Last April on our adult trip, we went directly to Fantasyland and did the sentimental stuff like Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh before heading to Space Mountain. We also hit up IASW and Barnstormer. I asked Ricky about these and he was not interested at all. Okaaaaay.

My plan:

Rope drop
Space mountain
Speedway
Astro orbiter
Buzz
Big thunder mountain railroad
Pirates
Jungle cruise
Haunted mansion
Big thunder mtn FP 12:00-100
Be our guest lunch FP 12:55-1:25
Buzz FP 2:00-3:00
Space mountain FP 3:00-4:00
Carousel of progress
Hall of presidents
Liberty belle
Whatever until head to the ferry to fort wilderness at 7:30
Hoop de Doo revue at 8:30

Hmmmmmm. The best laid plans of mice and moms…

6:00 am alarm. I roll out of bed and almost fall down. Oh my gorsh! My calves are tight and sore!!! So of course I have to stretch and test them. Yep, still sore. Again. Still hurts. I finally regain my sense and take a hot hot hot shower. After a long shower and copious amounts of coffee, I am human and ready to deal with my son. So now I wake Ricky. He was a total sweetheart! Okay you, who are you and what have you done with my teenager? He showers and has oatmeal that I fixed in the room, a yogurt parfait, and a side of bacon for breakfast (two separate trips to the food court.) Weirdo.

Off we go. Now this time, we are not quite as early and there is a long line for the bus. It shows up and it is one of the super long bendy buses. It fills up with people and is standing room only. The kid and mom in front of us are stopped and told to wait for the next bus. He starts to have a mini meltdown (this early????) and my grumpy teen looks up and says to him, “hey dude, there’s a bus right behind this one. You get to be first on it.” And smiles. What???? The kid brightens, his mom mouths “thank you” over his head, and I swear, the sun shone a bit brighter that moment. All we were missing was a heavenly chorus. And we were on the next bus before you know it and got to sit down.

We were through bag check and the tapstile for the opening show, but kind of in the back since we didn’t get as early of a start as we should have due to my creaky bones and my son’s multiple trips to the food court. His meds are just kicking in thankfully as he loudly peppered me with bizarre non-stop questions from the time we left the room. I kept my sunglasses on and surreptitiously watched people’s expressions who were eavesdropping. Bafflement and incredulity were most common. Me, I’m used to it.

In we go and we are off to tomorrowland. We had two rides on space mountain and got a bit confused as to where the camera was. Dorky pic alert.





Then, Buzz Lightyear. I won by only a little bit.



Ricky wanted to ride Big Thunder Mountain railroad. The standby wait was only about 20 minutes and we loved it.



We strolled over to Jungle Cruise and it said a 20 minute wait, so we went for it. It was longer than that because there was a whole flood of FP people that came in at once and the ratio of FP to standby got skewed. I scared the daylights out of a bratty kid in line when I made the tarantula move. Haha. The mom glared at me, but I smiled sweetly back. We had skipper Heather and she was awesome! We sat in front right by her and I was grateful that they did not pack us in like sardines. Ricky was old enough to “get” her corny jokes and I loved watching him as he listened. Cannibal jokes are to die for.

Pirates was another 25 minute wait even though it said 15 minutes standby. I still like Disneyland’s better, but it was good, clean, pillaging, burning, fun. Yo ho, yo ho…

It was pretty warm so we got a lemonade and a water (freebie) and found some shade to chill out.

We were kind of sad that Splash was being refurbished. Love the ride. I have an old copy of the movie and Ricky was hoping to go on the ride, but oh well.

It was time for our Big Thunder mountain fast pass. I love that ride! Noon and we had only ridden 6 rides – pathetic! But Ricky was not super energetic. My calves were no longer sore – hurray.

We bopped over to Haunted Mansion and they understated the standby wait again! Grr! Yesterday, the waits at Animal Kingdom were overstated and it was a pleasant bonus to get on the rides quicker than we thought we would. Here it was the opposite. Not good. But anyway, the ride was just as good as I remembered. We enjoyed the queue through the graveyard. I wanted to show Ricky Mr. Toad’s marker, but it was gone! Bummer.

Over to Be Our Guest for lunch. Ricky saw the line and heard the cast member tell someone it was a 45 minute to hour wait and he almost lost it. I told him we had a fast pass and he was okay then. We went in and ordered a ham and cheese sandwich to split and a soda and an ice water. Rickster had to check out all the rooms before settling on the dark one (the west wing?) It was pretty cool in there and our food came relatively quickly. It was good, the fries were fine and we were in and out in about a half hour.

We moseyed over to Tomorrowland and Ricky wanted to see Stitch’s Great Escape. Sigh…. We did and I knew enough to lean forward so I would not feel the back of the neck thing and hold my breath before the belch. There were a lot of little ones screaming in there, but my kiddo loved it. Rude and crude is perfect for a 14 year old. Welcome to my world.

It was nearing the end of our Buzz Lightyear fast pass window, so we did that, then we got in line for our Space Mountain fast pass. The FP line was way way way across to the astro orbiter, but it moved fast.





Ricky spent some time in the arcade playing skeeball and basketball while I pretended to be impressed by his prowess. He was feeling generous so he let me drag him on Carousel of Progress after I bought him some popcorn. He only snickered a little. By this time, he was feeling pretty rough so he decided to go back to POP and chill out. I get solo park time again!

Where did I go? Hall of Presidents! I get a little teary and I’m not sure why – menopause? But, I liked it. Then I got a freebie ice water and found a rocking chair and sat my butt in it and people watched. Nice. I played “Count the smiles at the happiest place on earth” but I lost. I had a big old grin on my face and people kept looking at me suspiciously like I was up to something, lol.

I cruised around Tom Sawyer Island on the Liberty Belle, up top and at the center rail, just like a kid. I love the vantage point!

Then I headed over to Fantasyland, but the waits for almost everything were really long. Grr! Oh wait, Mad Tea Party is only 10 minutes. I got plenty of strange looks when I went on it alone and spun my teacup like a maniac. I stopped when I thought I was going to vomit. Oops!

I got in line for Buzz which showed a 20 minute wait. Um NOT! It was 40 minutes. The darling CM was letting on only ONE standby party and then ALL the FP people in line. When it was empty, he would let one or two more stand by parties and the FP again. Holy Moly! That CM needed a bit more training on proper line management. When he asked me how many were in my party, I smiled very unconvincingly (NO I was NOT baring my teeth at the irritating young man) and said “13”. Take that! Myself and a bunch of really grateful standby people went through to loading. Haha!



I got a text from Ricky that he was coming back to the park, so I hopped on the railroad and headed to the front of the park. We watched the Main Street Electrical parade for a bit, then headed over to the ferry to Fort Wilderness.

The ferry ride was pleasant but a bit buggy. Lots of tired kiddos on that boat. We got to Fort Wilderness and checked in early for the 8:30 Hoop de Doo revue, then headed back to the dock to watch Wishes. It was very cool that the music played there too. We both enjoyed it.



Hoop de Doo was a hoot! We were up in the balcony and Carlos was our waiter. He was excellent! My blood sugar was a bit out of whack and when I asked for ribs without sauce, he was happy to get them for me. He also brought me a bowl of plain strawberries instead of the shortcake and I was very appreciative.

After the show, even though it was pretty late, Ricky decided he wanted to go back to Magic Kingdom, so we did. We wanted to get another ride on Space Mountain before it closed, but it was down, so we settled for Buzz Lightyear again. If we had known SM was closed, we probably would have hit Big Thunder instead. Oh well.







Time to go – MK was closing. Crowds were not too bad and we got back to POP with no issues. It was really late and we crashed out immediately.

To recap the day:

Space mountain 2 X
Buzz Lightyear
Big Thunder mountain railroad
Jungle Cruise
Pirates of the Caribbean
Big Thunder mountain railroad
Haunted Mansion
Be Our Guest lunch
Stitch’s Great Escape
Buzz Lightyear
Space Mountain
Carousel of Progress
• Hall of Presidents
• Liberty Belle
• Mad Tea Party
• Buzz Lightyear
• Railroad
Main Street electrical parade
Wishes from Fort Wilderness dock
Hoop de Doo revue
Buzz Lightyear

Spending:

5.96 yogurt parfait
2.66 side of bacon
2.87 lemonade
15.11 lunch
3.50 popcorn
5.75 sundae
98.00 hoop de doo
5.00 arcade

138.85 Total

It was a good day.

 

[BradleyB]

Thursday, 2/20 Hollywood Studios

Alarm went off at 6:00 am. Ermagerd! My legs! I hobbled into the shower and tried to stretch them out under the hot water without hitting my head. Not an easy task. Get me a caffeine drip, stat! A bit later, I wake the Rickster and while he showers, I make him some oatmeal. He has oatmeal, beef jerky, a granola bar, milk, and powerade for breakfast. Kids are so strange.

By now, I have thrown plans to the wind. We are going to do as much as we can when we want. Sounds good to me. I have the following ressies (thank you glitch!):

Rock n Roller Coaster 1:20-2:20 FP+
Toy Story 2:20-3:20 FP+
Tower of Terror 5:00-6:00 FP+
Yachtsman 8:05 ADR

We got right on a bus for Hollywood Studios, made it through bag check and were at the far left tapstile a few families back. They started letting us through about 8:50 am and people were fast walking/running. The cast members had to tell people over and over to walk. Wow!

We went right to Toy Story and it was a 5 minute wait. Mainly the longest part was walking through the queue. Love that ride! Ricky beat me on the last bit. The little goofball forgot to put on his 3-D glasses and he still did good!

Over to Sunset Blvd and Rock n Roller Coaster. Love it too!



Tower of terror was next. There was only a short wait so we did it again.



Whew! Picked up some free ice water and we headed to Star Tours. Ricky didn’t remember the ride so he got a big kick out of it.

Then we went to the 11:15 Indiana Jones show. We were early and got good seats and it was fun as always.

We walked over to the animation courtyard and had our longest waits of the day to meet Mr. Incredible and Frozone then Wreck it Ralph and Venelope. I could have done a couple more meet and greets, but Ricky was done there.
Whiny kids, smelly people, and boring waits – he had enough.











We went on the Great Movie Ride and we liked that too. It was a 10 or 15 minute wait. We talked classic cars with an older couple in line while we waited. I love classic cars almost as much as Disney. Ricky didn’t recognize some of the movies, but he still enjoyed it well enough.

Back to Rock n Roller coaster for our FP. I love that ride! We hit it at the beginning of our window and that gave us some time to see…



Ricky wanted to watch the American Idol show. When we were there in 2009, there were some really talented folks. This show was okay I guess. The first guy couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, but he was easy on the eyes. The other two were meh, all right, but they were a little older, schlubby, and definitely would not use their ticket to the front of the audition lines. On the other hand, it WAS cool to see how much fun they were having up there. Just living the dream.

After that was over, it was time for our Toy Story fast pass. Ricky remembered to put on his glasses this time. Again, I was ahead until the last screen and he just murdered me there. Brat!

We are getting a little peckish, so it was over to Studio Catering Co. for a snack. Some folks do not know to use both sides of the line to order and got a bit miffed when I walked up and ordered before them. I felt a little bad for them, but that is how I learned about it in 2009, so que sera sera. Lemonade for Ricky, Blue Moon for me, freebie ice water for both, and we split a Caesar chicken wrap and people watched. Count the melt downs at 3:30 pm by Toy Story. Good clean fun right there!

Refreshed, we headed into the Lights, Motor, Action! show. Ricky loves those kind of cars and of course, explosions and action, so there we were. Actually, what’s not to like? We got there early enough to score center seats right behind the disabled seating. Saweet! A small side rant about butt-heads that take the disabled seating and pretend they don’t understand the CM when he tells them to move and points to the symbol. It’s an international symbol you jerks! Of course you understand – so move your rears! My stepdad had two artificial legs (as well as a few other issues) and it would be so frustrating when able-bodied folks would take all the handicap seats. (Same thing for parking, grrr) Sorry-rant over. There were two big South American groups up above us in the stands and they were shouting slogans or whatever back and forth and we were like, “oh goody.” We would head in the other direction when we saw these groups and now we were trapped in the stadium with them. Augh? But, happily, they quieted down for the actual show and we forgot all about them until it was time to leave. Did we enjoy the show? Yeah! I love the smell of burning rubber in the afternoon.

We headed across the park for our FP on Tower of Terror (no wonder my legs were so sore in the mornings!) and loved it all over again. The CMs that work there are so in character!



Then back to Star Tours and we got a new adventure. Ricky wanted to be the rebel spy, but alas, it was not to be. He eyeballed the “build your own light saber” on the way out, but there was a long line of kids waiting and he didn’t want to wait, thank goodness.

We wandered through the streets of America and he decided he wanted to see the Muppet Vision show, so we did. We didn’t have to wait very long (5 minutes?) before it was in the theater. Ricky’s favorite characters are the two cranky old men. I love Miss Piggy. When we leave the theater, it was about 6:40 and cooling off nicely. Ahhhh.

We decided to ride Toy Story one more time and we went all out. Ricky beat me AGAIN – argh. I gamely asked him if he wanted to ride again as it was about 6:52 and as long as you get in line before closing, you get to ride. He said no and I was glad as my poor “old-lady” arm was aching!

On the way out, we stopped by Guest Relations (empty since it was after the official park closing) and they happily checked us in for our flight and printed our boarding passes! Awesome sauce!

We had a pleasant, uncrowded walk out of the park and hopped on the friendship boat to the Yacht Club. Ricky loved the Epcot resorts. When I showed him where we stayed for our adults only trip at the Beach Club, he said, “I hate you – just kidding.” I could see him eyeing that pool with some longing, but hey! we are not spending that much time at the resort anyway. Although we were a few minutes early, we had to wait about 15 minutes for our ADR. There were two families waiting with well-behaved children and one that was letting their kids run screeching up and down the hall while the nicely behaved kids stared at them like scientists studying bugs. Although that cracked me up (I DO love to people watch and Ricky and I will make up back stories for the folks we are watching), I was silently praying they would not be seated near us.

Yun was our server and although she was sweet, she was no Oscar. I was sad that Oscar wasn’t working – I think he is amazing! Anyway, Yun was a bit rushed and not quite totally on the ball. We ordered:

Cheese plate (we did not receive a card describing the cheeses)
Lobster bisque soup (yum!)
Truffle mac & cheese (it was a little to strong for Ricky)
Ribeye (split on two plates for us)
Soda for Ricky
2 beers for me

The food was very good and with TIW, it was $100.10 out the door.

We walked around the boardwalk/lake to settle our dinner. I do think it is such a cool area, but I was on a budget this trip. After our bus catastrophe last April returning from Jiko (omg! A cluster with a capital C!!!) I had the bell guys get us a cab back to POP. Quick and easy!

Ricky was a little keyed up since we were going to go home tomorrow, so he went to the arcade. I called my husband and then crashed. Ricky sent me a text around 11:30 saying he got turned around and couldn’t find the room. I slept right through it. Bad Mommy!!! He eventually found his way back – dang it!

What we did:

Rope drop
Toy Story
Rock n Roller coaster
Tower of Terror 2 x
Star Tours
Indiana Jones
Mr. Incredible and Frozone meet and greet
Wreck it Ralph and Venelope meet and greet
Great Movie Ride
Rock n Roller coaster
American Idol experience
Toy Story
Lights, Motor, Action!
Tower of Terror
Star Tours
Muppet Vision
Toy Story
Dinner

We spent:
$ 19.85 Lunch/snack
4.57 Ice cream
23.38 Souvenir
100.10 Dinner
11.00 Cab (including tip)
5.00 arcade
$163.90 Total

I would say it was a good day!

 

[BradleyB]

Friday, 2/21 Hollywood Studios

Darn alarm! We woke up tired and groggy. We had been touring hard, it was much more humid today, and we knew we had to go home this afternoon. We weren’t exactly grumpy, but I did look more like the non-smiley people than my maniacally smiling self today. Ricky looked like a normal teen – kind of bored.

We had most everything packed so we finished that, checked out, and took everything over to the Magical Express counter. No problem there. The young people working there were tres sweet.

We waited about 15 minutes for our bus. This was the longest we had waited during our trip (cue ominous music). The wind was picking up and they were talking about stormy weather rolling in (more foreshadowing.)

The plan:
Bags to Magical Express
Rope drop (whoops – missed this)
Toy Story
Rock n Roller coaster
Tower of terror 9:00-10:00 FP
Rock n Roller coaster 10:00-11:00 FP
Star Tours 11:00-12:00 FP
Leave park to POP
Take ME to MCO
Fly home happy

We arrived at 9:15 and of course we were behind the hordes of women in odd outfits (tutus and short-shorts, oh my!) and families anxious to get to Jedi sign ups or Toy Story or both. By the time we go to Toy Story, the line was long (60 min) and there was already a FP line back up. What?

The system was offline. The CM could not schedule any fast passes, the readers were not reading the bands for your fast passes. You have fast pass but no smart phone or a print out? Go to guest relations at the front of the park. Guess what that line looked like? Yikes! Want help from one of the FP kiosk people? Out of luck! Some were nice, but some of the CM obviously were having almost as bad of a meltdown as the system and the angry guests and they were downright rude and snotty. We heard them talk to some of the people near us and we could not believe our ears. This was not good!

Across the park we go, passing blue shirt CM just standing around and dodging angry park guests milling around. The lines were a nightmare and the wait times were inaccurate too. Tower of Terror was down for our fast pass time. I do not have a smart phone so I did not see the email that allowed me to use it on another experience or later. Anyway the fast pass Mickey readers weren’t working. The cast member said, maybe around 10.

Hmmmm….this is a fun day at the park – NOT!!!!!!!!!!!

What to do? We got in the single rider line at Rock n Roller coaster and it took about 30 minutes to get our ride. Still love it even it I’m not sitting next to Ricky.





We went and checked in with the Tower of Terror and here is where my print out of my fast passes came in handy. The standby wait time said 5 minutes and I asked the CM about that. She said it was 40-45 minutes but they were having troubles updating things. I showed her my print out of the FP time I missed due to it being down and she let us right in. Hooray! No problem at the second FP check due to the print out. Enjoyed the ride as always.



Then we head over to Rock n Roller coaster with our FP print out and they let us in. COOL! I love roller coasters and I am so happy my kids do too.



When we get off, it is super humid, windy, and crowded. We need ice cream (well, maybe NEED is too strong) and a freebie (because so few things here are free and I’m cheap when I can be) ice water.

A note about what we were observing with the FP debacle. People that braved the guest services mess were given cards with their fast passes (PAPER FP anyone???) that the CM took at the second check in since the mickey readers weren’t reading. People with the FP print out or MDE on their phone had CM checking them but not taking them (how could they, right?) SOME people (but not all by any means) were waiting a little bit and then going through the FP line a second or third time with the phone app and/or print out. We personally observed this and the CMs did NOTHING to stop this abuse of the system which resulted in hideous standby lines.

I love, love, love my son at times. He was disappointed in the crowds, but he was bothered by the lack of integrity on the part of some folks and at no time did he suggest we do the same. He makes me proud!

So, we go and do our throwaway FP for Star Tours and enjoy the ride. With the FP mess and all, it turned out that it really wasn’t a throw away. The standby time was 10 minutes, but the cast member said it was really 30-40. EEK! We noticed that there was some confusion going on with the loading and such for standby and FP.

By this time, it was 11:45 am. The crowds were bad, the FP CM are still just standing around, we could not find a photopass photographer anywhere, the line at guest relations was huge, and people all around us were bad tempered. We decided to get the heck out of Dodge and go back to POP.

What we did:

Suffer a complete breakdown of Disney “magic”
Rock n Roller coaster single rider
Tower of Terror FP
Rock n Roller coaster FP
Star Tours FP

What we spent:

$4.57 Total for ice cream.

I am not sure why the whole Hollywood Studios system had a meltdown, but it did, at least before noon. The guests had expectations that weren’t met, some of the CM completely lost their cool and their heads, and it was awful and that is NOT an exaggeration. It was a very downer way to wrap up the vacation. It didn’t ruin the trip but after 4 completely kick butt days, it took away a lot of magic. And of course, people most vividly remember the most recent experience (unless you are my age haha)

Back at POP, we walked around a bit. We walked across to AoA and checked it out and them came back to POP. Ricky headed for the arcade and I headed for the pool bar for a relaxing change of pace after the last 4.5 days.

Now our flight is at 4:30 so we were told to come back at 1:30 for ME. At 1:25, we check with them, “is that our bus?” No, we are told, they are running a little late – yours is 15 minutes away. Sweet. We are sitting and chilling out on the bench and about 10 minutes later, in rolls the ME bus. It pauses, sees no ME CMs and leaves! Without us or the other couple who was supposed to be on the earlier bus? What the heck??? We are pretty upset, but calm.

Elisa, the CM, was a textbook example of great customer service. She listened carefully, restated the problem to make sure she understood, came up with a solution (called a cab/van to take the 4 of us to the airport) and got her supervisor’s approval. Before I took up teaching, I worked as in various customer service type positions and that is exactly what we trained our people to do! Disney of course paid for the cab and off we went. No problem at all.

When we got to the airport, it was a mess because of some storms that rolled through somewhere and there were delays and cancellations and long lines. There is a snarky joke in there somewhere, but I will take the high road. Some are just too easy. Our flight was delayed and then delayed again. We were flying to Chicago Midway and then changing planes to get to Seattle. We eventually got off the ground and in the air. When we got off the plane in Chicago, we ran for our gate and they were boarding! Just in time. This flight was uneventful and by the time we got in to Seattle and collected our bags it was 11:30. My sweet husband collected us and the poor man had been up since 4:00 am and worked all day.

 

[BradleyB]

A few post-Disney thoughts.

How did the magic bands work? Fine. They weren’t too uncomfortable and they worked as they should until they didn’t.

How was the stay? Fine. The cleanliness (or lack thereof) of our room and the amount of trash in the parks was sort of a bummer. Part of what has always been special about Disney was how the park is so much cleaner than the other competitors (Sea World, Universal, Knotts, Magic Mountain to name a few of my SoCal stomping grounds.)

The FP+ queues that disrupted the sidewalks and such were an eyesore and it was alarming when walking up and seeing such long lines (yes YOU space mountain, big thunder, and safari)

It seemed to be much harder to find the wandering photopass photographers on this trip and we did look for them. As a result, we have lots of ride pics and meet and greets, but not enough random park pics. I love those too!

NOT ENOUGH SMILES! People were frowny or so freaking absorbed in the MDE app on their phones, there was not a lot of friendly interactions. And it was plain weird to see an entire family not talking or even making eye contact with each other because everyone was on their smart phone. I’m talking mom, dad, and 6-12 year olds as well as teens. Why bother with a family vacation?

Speaking of being on your phone the entire time, I don’t have a smart phone and didn’t really care for the fact that you need one to access so much info and help. It is no substitute for human interaction. The MDE app kind of separates the haves and have-nots. But that was not a major issue for us really.

Disney needs to find a way to consistently treat the fast pass and stand by lines fairly. CMs varied by a huge amount how they dealt with this.

Speaking of CMs, most were adequate, a few were super dooper awesome, but far too many were grumpy, snarky, curt, or simply poorly trained. Don’t like your job? Get the heck out of the way and let someone else who wants to be part of the Disney magic have it.

Echoing others, 3 fastpasses is not enough at MK. Tiering needs to end. I hate the lack of control that I have. We loved being able to pull FP at our favorites and we miss being able to give them away if we are not going to use them. On this trip, we were lucky enough to be able to ride our faves multiple times, but not everyone can hit rope drop or stay til closing. Also, it wasn’t too crowded when we were there (except that last, awful day) so I can’t even imagine a glitch like that at a crowd level 8 or 9.

Would I recommend WDW to a friend? Not at this time. Where we live, it is really, really expensive to get to Orlando. Until the new system stabilizes, I am telling my friends “go to Disneyland” for a cheaper, closer, shorter holiday. For family fun and leisure, I suggest that they do a National Park stay. I have camped with the boys at Yellowstone, Yosemite, Lassen, Rainier, Custer, the Redwoods and they have been even better than Disney and definitely cheaper. We have marveled at Mount Rushmore and the Grand Canyon. We have taken quading trips to the Black Hills, St. Anthony, Glamis, Pismo, Florence, Moses Lake, Winchester Bay, and Coos Bay and those have all been amazing too. The memories of those trips are just as wonderful as the memories from Disney World.

Glamis, 2006


Oregon, 2007


South Dakota, 2008


Can Am



In conclusion…

This was my third Disney World trip in 5 years and I think it will be my last one until there are more attractions and Disney fixes their technology. All three trips have been amazing in their own way – I have been blessed enough to stay at value, moderate, and deluxe. We have toured and eaten differently each time and felt like we have received our money’s worth.

However, that last day at HS left a bad taste in my mouth. It was not magical in the least and was a complete waste of time and money, plus it put a major damper on what had been a great time. I am the only one in the family who is a total Disney freak and the others have indulged me up til now, but they have other plans:

April 2014 – road trip to Glamis dunes with our quads 2600 miles r/t
August 2014 – annual week and a half camping trip in Sandpoint, ID
November 2014 – annual Sandy Turkey Oregon dunes trip w/quads
December 2014 – home with all 4 boys visiting
February 2015 – still up in the air
April 2015 - Cancun

And Ricky has mentioned either Universal (club level) for his graduation present in 2017 because he wants to check out the Harry Potter stuff or the big island of Hawaii.

Plus my husband is planning a road trip for the two of us on our Can Am Spyder and the entire family wants to go back to Maui (we were there in December 2011 and the boys went Spring Break, 2013)

In case you are wondering, I still LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Disney. I just won’t be spending my money on a visit in the near future as there is so much more to life. But, when I finally am a grandma and the grandkid(s) are big enough, you know where to find me! I will be there with a maniacal smile (hopefully I won’t terrify the innocent) reliving the magic through a child’s eyes.