Winter Weather Escape to WDW and the WL ~ A January 2014 Trip Report

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Oh my gosh, your experience in AK! Why would anyone feel the need to make out in Disney World for crying out loud?! In Animal Kingdom, around children? That is nasty. I would have ripped his tongue out too! And the lady up in your personal space? Um, no. I have severe issues with that kind of stuff. How did you keep your lips sealed?!

Morghan and I adore Dinosaur too! It is sooooo FUN!

It looks like your husband and son had fun in Epcot too!

I know!!

Some people just don't know how to act in public. It's really sad

I love Dinosaur!!

Yes, DH and DS had a good time in Epcot.

Tour groups all using their FP+ at the same time, was a big part of the problem. EE went down for the morning and really backed up the FP return lines. I have no idea other than the tour groups for Star Tours.

That could very well be it.

Shelly, Hi. I can't believe my family has never seen the American dream dessert! It looks so good! I made sure I showed my sons and my DH and their like, we are def. getting that on our next trip. Any news on free dining for the month of October yet? The weather for this week looks amazing. Can't wait to see and hear more about your last trip.

We actually went there looking for a different drink last summer. The one from Phineas & Ferb, I forget what it's called. But DS saw the American Dream and thought it looked better!

Nothing out for October yet. I'll keep an eye out!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Sorry for the lack of updates!! I fully intended on doing one today, but the day got away from me. So busy!! I booked 8 trips today!

 

[RinkyTinkyTinky]

Sorry for the lack of updates!! I fully intended on doing one today, but the day got away from me. So busy!! I booked 8 trips today!

You are doing fantastic!!!

I hate I won't get another update in before we leave. We're heading out tomorrow. And guess what.... I got my ME stuff today with less than 24 hours to spare!

Talk to you next week!!!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

You are doing fantastic!!!

I hate I won't get another update in before we leave. We're heading out tomorrow. And guess what.... I got my ME stuff today with less than 24 hours to spare!

Talk to you next week!!!

Have a great time on your cruise!!!!

 

[JoBird]

We're heading out tomorrow. And guess what.... I got my ME stuff today with less than 24 hours to spare!

Talk to you next week!!!

Happy Sailing Rinky!!!!!





(sorry but I couldn't find a boat one!)

 

[rusafee1183]

So busy!! I booked 8 trips today!

That's awesome!! Congrats!

A friend of mine knows someone who works with Mouse Counselors, and is trying to get me to apply. It always appeals to me theoretically, but then I honestly wouldn't even know where to start so I just keep doing more research and weighing my options.

 

[huggiebear23]

Sorry for the lack of updates!! I fully intended on doing one today, but the day got away from me. So busy!! I booked 8 trips today!

Congrats!! Hey, I'm totally interested joining your team.. Pm me!!

 

[RinkyTinkyTinky]

Have a great time on your cruise!!!!

Happy Sailing Rinky!!!!!

(sorry but I couldn't find a boat one!)

Thanks! I can't wait to go where it never snows!!!! I might just stay there until spring!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Thanks! I can't wait to go where it never snows!!!! I might just stay there until spring!

Have a great trip!!! Wish I was going too. We're going to get dumped on tomorrow!

 

[disny_luvr]

You are doing fantastic!!!

I hate I won't get another update in before we leave. We're heading out tomorrow. And guess what.... I got my ME stuff today with less than 24 hours to spare!

Talk to you next week!!!

Have a great cruise! I'm jealous!

 

[PrincessPaczki]

Wow 8 trips booked! That's awesome! Is it easier or harder than you thought to plan for other people? Sounds like fun though!

 

[Disney before Sally]

Between all of that being scheduled in advance and the dining ADR's I felt like the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland the whole trip....good grief!

I picked up a pink shirt at an outlet disney store with the white rabbit and quote "I'm late I'm late for a very important date". I had to have it. I was thinking exactly your thoughts.

 

[Disney before Sally]

Sorry for the lack of updates!! I fully intended on doing one today, but the day got away from me. So busy!! I booked 8 trips today!

I am happy to have the time to catch up. I also have the same preference for Epcot, or any other park, over Animal Kingdom. We usually go on the last day, the half day before leaving for the airport. I have the American Slush on our must try list. : o ). Thank you for sharing your trip with us!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

That's awesome!! Congrats!

A friend of mine knows someone who works with Mouse Counselors, and is trying to get me to apply. It always appeals to me theoretically, but then I honestly wouldn't even know where to start so I just keep doing more research and weighing my options.

Thanks Heather!

You might want to consider it, but I don't know how anyone would do it and hold another full time job. It is very time consuming!!

Wow 8 trips booked! That's awesome! Is it easier or harder than you thought to plan for other people? Sounds like fun though!

Thank you!

It's really not hard, it's just very time consuming. Lately I've worked non-stop from about 7:30am until about 8pm daily. And I can never seem to get caught up!

I am happy to have the time to catch up. I also have the same preference for Epcot, or any other park, over Animal Kingdom. We usually go on the last day, the half day before leaving for the airport. I have the American Slush on our must try list. : o ). Thank you for sharing your trip with us!

Glad you are all caught up!

Yes, all the other parks tie as number 1 for me!! Love them all. AK I am okay with going every other trip I think.

Hope you get to enjoy the American Dream slushy this summer!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

DS and I got back to the WL around 6 I think. There wasn’t anyone waiting at the check in desk, so I walked over and very politely told the CM that our view was of a service area of some sort with a lot of noise coming from a lot of power boxes. She looked up our ressie and our room number and said something like – yes, you booked a standard view and that can be a service area here. I said – yes, I knew that we could possibly have a service area view, but didn’t expect to not be able to enjoy the balcony because of all the noise. She asked me if I wanted to know the price to upgrade to a woods view.

At that point I thought the only noise was going to be the power boxes when the door was open (I was wrong, but more on that later), and I was fairly certain that we just might be able to see Wishes from there (not thinking that we would not be able to hear it at all because of all the noise coming from below) because I could see the top of the CR, plus it was only 5 nights, so I thanked her and said no we didn’t want to pay to upgrade.

DS and I went back up to the room.

We took another peak out the balcony, hoping it wouldn’t be quite as bad this time. But it was!!

In about 20 minutes DH & DS12 came rolling in. The kids watched TV a bit and we started to get ready for dinner. DH took a shower and had about 3 minutes of hot water and then it turned cold. He didn’t think too much of it, didn’t even tell me in-fact. He just thought that a lot of people were showering before dinner and they hot water ran out. This proved to be a problem the next day.

Our Chef Mickey’s dinner was at 7:55pm. A little later than we normally have dinner, but it’s what worked out for this day. We hadn’t been there in awhile. This was a popular one with us when the kids were younger and loved to see the characters and when we used to get the DDP. DS14 especially loves the food there and wanted to go since we had the DDP. We have always had good experiences there in the past.

Pretty soon we headed out to the boat dock to take the boat over to the CR. It really is surprising how close the WL is to the CR. It has always seemed like it was really far back there behind the CR, but it’s not that far at all.

And we arrived!

We arrived about 25 minutes early. There was a long line to check in, but it went pretty quick. We were given a pager and had to wait about 10 minutes.

We were seated to the left of the buffet. We never sat over there before, it’s kind of out of the way of everything. When we got seated some of the characters were there already!

Minnie was there too, but she got attacked by the table behind the boys. There were either 6 or 8 adults at a table and then all of their kids at another table beside them. The adults didn’t really keep very good track of their kids. At a character buffet you are supposed to wait for the characters to come to your table. These kids got up and bombarded the characters every time before they could even reach their table, our table, and all the tables around us. We never did get to see Minnie on this round and had to wait for her to come back around about an hour later.


Continued in next post....

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Continued...

We had our bill all settled up and everything and were ready to go. We could see that Minnie was getting close again, so we waited it out…

Everything was very good. Or so we thought….

I had hoped to see if we could see Wishes from our crummy balcony, but Wishes was happening while we were on the CR boat dock waiting for a boat back to the WL.

We got back to the WL and got ready for bed. I started to not feel so well. And it only got worse from there. I won’t say much more, but I was up sick all night. I’m pretty sure it was food poisoning. Whenever I get the stomach flu I am down and out and very weak for several days afterwards. But this was different. In the early morning hours I finally felt like I might be able to sleep some. Thank goodness we didn’t have any early plans. I started to sleep a little and not feel like I might die so much after about 5:30am. And then at 7am on the dot – BEEP BEEP BEEP. Trucks backing up in the service area. Loud enough to sit you straight up in bed. Little did we know, that was the latest we would be able to sleep on the entire trip because of those trucks.


Up Next: Would we make it to our Kona breakfast???

 

[Lovemy3babes]

I have always, always wanted to try Chef Mickey’s. I'm so sorry you got sick though! I have had food poisoning a few times and it is absolutely awful. The food does look really good in the pictures. Have you ever tried breakfast there Shelly?

Not being able to even sleep in a little when you had such a rough night is horrible!

 

[JoBird]

Oh my GOSH. How in this world could you even do this update with pictures??? I wasn't even there and I'm gagging at the thought of it all.

How absolutely terrible --- the whole experience of that afternoon and night. Not magical or happy.

The CM with the upgrade to the woods view-- really! I'm guessing no one is ever happy with those rooms--- how could they be? And they just refuse to move anyone.

I'm so sorry you got so sick. Sick is bad anywhere but when you aren't at home, it just makes it worse, and to be on vacation on top of it makes it a thousand times more awful.

You need a do over trip.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

First -before I forget - your DS14 looks so much older already with his hair cut!

Onto the mess at WL - I can just imagine how they offered you to PAY to upgrade to a suitable room! UGH. How about, this is a crap room and no one should have to stay here?

Chef Mickey's looks so fun - we haven't been there since the girls' first trip in 2003! Your DS14 is hysterical with his faces - and you look so calm in the pictures! I figured you'd wait for Minnie - is she still DS12's favorite?

Sorry you got sick from it though!

 

[Wood Nymph]

That's too bad that they wouldn't give you a free upgrade to another room. The resort didn't seem very full at all. I would think that it would be good PR to make the guests happy by giving them a better room.

Did you ever figure out what you ate that made you sick?

It is too bad that they didn't have a handler at Chef Mickey to make sure people waited at their tables for the characters. They had one for Tusker House at AK.