The cast:
Me(Dave) - 32. I'm the planner on these trips. I had the trip booked and paid for in February. I had reservations made at the 90 day window and I had our parks planned as soon as the calendars were released.
Wife(Amy) - 28.
Daughter(Ashley) - 9.
Son(Justin) - 8.
We actually got into the Orlando area on the 29th. Bad planning on my part. It seems that everyone from Florida was coming home from Thanksgiving that day. We drive down from Memphis and it's usually a 13 hour drive. This time it took 16 because right outside of Gainesville we hit massive traffic and it took 3 hours to get from there to Orlando. It got even worse once we got off of the FL Turnpike onto 428 because right after we went through the first toll plaza our low fuel light came on. Luckily we made it to the next gas station.
So, instead of arriving around 4pm as planned, we got to the HoJo on 192 around 7pm. We stayed at the one by the IHOP and Waffle House right by Celebration Ave. It was decent but had no fridge or microwave. The pool was nice and heated but as is usual with off site hotels we had drunks at the pool.
Our first full day in the area we went to Cocoa Beach. It was slightly cloudy but in the high 70's so it felt good. We stayed for about 4 hours and left with a ton of seashells. Also, we had an older couple come up and give our kids a sand dollar. That was VERY nice of them.
Our second day was spent at Universal using the 2 parks 1 day tickets. We only planned on 1 day because we had never been there before and weren't sure how we would like it. We LOVED the place. The decorations were very well done and the parks we great, as were the employees. The only beef we had was with the fact that some rides didn't open until an hour after the park and they had people out trying to get you to do surveys and tv pilot screenings. It felt like being at a car dealership or something. It was a great experience and I was worried that with Universal getting my hopes up so high, I might be disappointed with Disney if they didn't bring their A game. Boy did that turn out to be the case.
Days 3 and 4 were spent at SeaWorld. The only reason we spend 2 days there is because the 2nd one is free. It's a decent park but there's not much to do for us. The Dolphin show(Blue Horizons) is just as great as it was last year. Also, the mime from the Pirate show is AWESOME. He was the same one from last year and if he were not there then I wouldn't go to that show, although the show is decent. If anyone happens to know him please tell him how awesome he is!!
Now, I'm not going to separate the days at Disney because I don't feel the effort is worth it given the experiences we had there. We spent 10 days in the parks, 6 at MK, 2 at DHS, and 1 each at Epcot and AK. The MK was a fricking madhouse each and every day. Our first day there was the 5th, and when they canceled the parade taping I knew that it would be bad in the park.
Then on the 8th we did our first MVMCP and it was nuts. They weren't checking for wristbands so every Tom ________ and Harry was in the park and the wait times were absurd and crowd control was out of hand. I had some lady blatantly target me with her stroller because she didn't want to wait for the people in front of her and she ran right into me. Had there not been her kids in the stroller I would have mule kicked it.
It got so bad that we were honestly thinking of just packing it up, raising hell with management and coming home. Things got better at the other parks. We had a fantastic server at Tusker House for breakfast. His name was Neil and he even took some family photos for us and he was very energetic and you could tell he loved his job. He was awesome.
We also had another great server at the LTT. Mo from Morocco. He was very attentive and made sure we never had an empty glass or plate. A really great guy!!
We ended up eating at Crystal Palace our first day, which we were late for because I had the wrong reservation sheet and I noticed my goof about 30 minutes before our eating time and we were still at the hotel. I called ahead and they said no problem, take your time. All in all we ate at Crystal Palace, LTT, Tusker House, 1900 Park Fare, Chef Mickey's, 50's cafe(will never do again as it took 2 hours), SciFi Theater, Tony's, and Cinderella's Castle. Most of them were good but I'd be crazy to ever pay for these places if not for the free dining plan. We ended up having 30 snack credits on our next to last day and 12 when we checked out so I went the the food court and got some stuff. By the way, we got the free dining plan and I upgraded to the one with table service and they told me I didn't qualify for the free mugs and would have to buy them. Seriously?
I did see some of the folks from Micechat at MK and Epcot. I only recognized Dustysage, Fishbulb and Monorail Man.:wave::wave:
This TR is somewhat out of sequence, not very organized and I just uploaded some of our pics to a Flickr page because we have about 10k pics and I don't have time to organize them right now but feel free to check them out.
We're highly disappointed with Disney right now and I think Walt is rolling in his grave at what this company has become. I know it's a business but they're so busy trying to rake in the cash that they're ing off a lot of the regulars and would be regular yearly visitors. Between the cheerleaders, Pop Warner folks, Brazilians and people there only because of the deals going on it was beyond crowded. People's manners are horrible. A few nights before we left we were eating at the Golden Oak or whatever it's called where the fry cart used to be and we had this group of teenaged boys sitting next to us being crude and using foul language. Now as you saw, I have young children and they had to listen to it. Eventually I had to go over there to their table and put an end to it.
Needless to say, we won't be going back to Disney for a while, not until the deals are gone and the cheerleeders are gone. Speaking of that, I have a tradition of trying to be the last person to ride the Haunted Mansion when we're there. One night we were in the last cycle with a lady and her two sons and then a group of about 10 cheerleaders around 10-12 years old. By the time we got to the stretching room the lady and her sons refused to go with that group, so the hostess(Jessie) said they could wait behind and asked if we wanted to join them. Of course we did and she let us wait in that little side hall with the servants key rings or w/e it is. It was my first time backstage on any ride and it was awesome. Come to find out, the lady and her sons run the website ownthemagic.com. We ended up chatting with them after we exited the ride and we headed to the hub.
At the hub they hipped us to the "Kiss Goodnight" at the castle and we chatted with them on the monorail all the way back to the TTC. They continued on as they were staying somewhere else on property. It was great to meet them and they were some of the nicest people we've ever met. They said they're down at WDW about every 3 weeks so I need to see if they want to adopt our family...
On our last night, Jessie was closing the HM so of course I asked if we could be the last ones on. Not only did she comply but she, along with Robbie and another young lady gave us a mini tour of the queue area and the first foyer along with the stretching room. This experience almost made up for all of the bad experiences we had on the trip. Thanks a ton to the HM crew from the 14th!!!!
We did get to experience Philharmagic and Laugh Floor this year and they were great. My daughter loved Everest and I think she rode it about 20 times that night, literally. My son and I have problems with thrill rides and thanks to Maelstrom, we conquered our fear of drops. Yes I know it's a sissy ride but for the first time ever I had my hands up on a drop ride.
So the CM's I want to acknowledge are Jessie and the HM crew from the 14th, Mo from Morocco at the LTT, Elijah from the Restaurantosaurus, Neil from Tusker House and Pache(sp?) from Buzz Lightyear. I finally found the secret spots on Buzz and got a 999,999 pin for both kids.
Anyhow, this is long enough. Check out the pics, I might put more on Flickr. Disney, if you're reading this, you won't be getting any more money from me until you get your crap together and start giving a crap about the people. Until that happens, take out Cinderella's Castle and put in a big cash register and be honest about it. I was even thinking about joining the DVC after talking to a nice couple at the 50's cafe but there's no way that's happening now. I was right, Universal set you guys up for failure. I'm really disappointed that you guys let Universal show you up. From now on we'll be going there instead.
Thanks for reading this TR guys!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30626181@N03/?saved=1
Me(Dave) - 32. I'm the planner on these trips. I had the trip booked and paid for in February. I had reservations made at the 90 day window and I had our parks planned as soon as the calendars were released.
Wife(Amy) - 28.
Daughter(Ashley) - 9.
Son(Justin) - 8.
We actually got into the Orlando area on the 29th. Bad planning on my part. It seems that everyone from Florida was coming home from Thanksgiving that day. We drive down from Memphis and it's usually a 13 hour drive. This time it took 16 because right outside of Gainesville we hit massive traffic and it took 3 hours to get from there to Orlando. It got even worse once we got off of the FL Turnpike onto 428 because right after we went through the first toll plaza our low fuel light came on. Luckily we made it to the next gas station.
So, instead of arriving around 4pm as planned, we got to the HoJo on 192 around 7pm. We stayed at the one by the IHOP and Waffle House right by Celebration Ave. It was decent but had no fridge or microwave. The pool was nice and heated but as is usual with off site hotels we had drunks at the pool.
Our first full day in the area we went to Cocoa Beach. It was slightly cloudy but in the high 70's so it felt good. We stayed for about 4 hours and left with a ton of seashells. Also, we had an older couple come up and give our kids a sand dollar. That was VERY nice of them.
Our second day was spent at Universal using the 2 parks 1 day tickets. We only planned on 1 day because we had never been there before and weren't sure how we would like it. We LOVED the place. The decorations were very well done and the parks we great, as were the employees. The only beef we had was with the fact that some rides didn't open until an hour after the park and they had people out trying to get you to do surveys and tv pilot screenings. It felt like being at a car dealership or something. It was a great experience and I was worried that with Universal getting my hopes up so high, I might be disappointed with Disney if they didn't bring their A game. Boy did that turn out to be the case.
Days 3 and 4 were spent at SeaWorld. The only reason we spend 2 days there is because the 2nd one is free. It's a decent park but there's not much to do for us. The Dolphin show(Blue Horizons) is just as great as it was last year. Also, the mime from the Pirate show is AWESOME. He was the same one from last year and if he were not there then I wouldn't go to that show, although the show is decent. If anyone happens to know him please tell him how awesome he is!!
Now, I'm not going to separate the days at Disney because I don't feel the effort is worth it given the experiences we had there. We spent 10 days in the parks, 6 at MK, 2 at DHS, and 1 each at Epcot and AK. The MK was a fricking madhouse each and every day. Our first day there was the 5th, and when they canceled the parade taping I knew that it would be bad in the park.
Then on the 8th we did our first MVMCP and it was nuts. They weren't checking for wristbands so every Tom ________ and Harry was in the park and the wait times were absurd and crowd control was out of hand. I had some lady blatantly target me with her stroller because she didn't want to wait for the people in front of her and she ran right into me. Had there not been her kids in the stroller I would have mule kicked it.
It got so bad that we were honestly thinking of just packing it up, raising hell with management and coming home. Things got better at the other parks. We had a fantastic server at Tusker House for breakfast. His name was Neil and he even took some family photos for us and he was very energetic and you could tell he loved his job. He was awesome.
We also had another great server at the LTT. Mo from Morocco. He was very attentive and made sure we never had an empty glass or plate. A really great guy!!
We ended up eating at Crystal Palace our first day, which we were late for because I had the wrong reservation sheet and I noticed my goof about 30 minutes before our eating time and we were still at the hotel. I called ahead and they said no problem, take your time. All in all we ate at Crystal Palace, LTT, Tusker House, 1900 Park Fare, Chef Mickey's, 50's cafe(will never do again as it took 2 hours), SciFi Theater, Tony's, and Cinderella's Castle. Most of them were good but I'd be crazy to ever pay for these places if not for the free dining plan. We ended up having 30 snack credits on our next to last day and 12 when we checked out so I went the the food court and got some stuff. By the way, we got the free dining plan and I upgraded to the one with table service and they told me I didn't qualify for the free mugs and would have to buy them. Seriously?
I did see some of the folks from Micechat at MK and Epcot. I only recognized Dustysage, Fishbulb and Monorail Man.:wave::wave:
This TR is somewhat out of sequence, not very organized and I just uploaded some of our pics to a Flickr page because we have about 10k pics and I don't have time to organize them right now but feel free to check them out.
We're highly disappointed with Disney right now and I think Walt is rolling in his grave at what this company has become. I know it's a business but they're so busy trying to rake in the cash that they're ing off a lot of the regulars and would be regular yearly visitors. Between the cheerleaders, Pop Warner folks, Brazilians and people there only because of the deals going on it was beyond crowded. People's manners are horrible. A few nights before we left we were eating at the Golden Oak or whatever it's called where the fry cart used to be and we had this group of teenaged boys sitting next to us being crude and using foul language. Now as you saw, I have young children and they had to listen to it. Eventually I had to go over there to their table and put an end to it.
Needless to say, we won't be going back to Disney for a while, not until the deals are gone and the cheerleeders are gone. Speaking of that, I have a tradition of trying to be the last person to ride the Haunted Mansion when we're there. One night we were in the last cycle with a lady and her two sons and then a group of about 10 cheerleaders around 10-12 years old. By the time we got to the stretching room the lady and her sons refused to go with that group, so the hostess(Jessie) said they could wait behind and asked if we wanted to join them. Of course we did and she let us wait in that little side hall with the servants key rings or w/e it is. It was my first time backstage on any ride and it was awesome. Come to find out, the lady and her sons run the website ownthemagic.com. We ended up chatting with them after we exited the ride and we headed to the hub.
At the hub they hipped us to the "Kiss Goodnight" at the castle and we chatted with them on the monorail all the way back to the TTC. They continued on as they were staying somewhere else on property. It was great to meet them and they were some of the nicest people we've ever met. They said they're down at WDW about every 3 weeks so I need to see if they want to adopt our family...
On our last night, Jessie was closing the HM so of course I asked if we could be the last ones on. Not only did she comply but she, along with Robbie and another young lady gave us a mini tour of the queue area and the first foyer along with the stretching room. This experience almost made up for all of the bad experiences we had on the trip. Thanks a ton to the HM crew from the 14th!!!!
We did get to experience Philharmagic and Laugh Floor this year and they were great. My daughter loved Everest and I think she rode it about 20 times that night, literally. My son and I have problems with thrill rides and thanks to Maelstrom, we conquered our fear of drops. Yes I know it's a sissy ride but for the first time ever I had my hands up on a drop ride.
So the CM's I want to acknowledge are Jessie and the HM crew from the 14th, Mo from Morocco at the LTT, Elijah from the Restaurantosaurus, Neil from Tusker House and Pache(sp?) from Buzz Lightyear. I finally found the secret spots on Buzz and got a 999,999 pin for both kids.
Anyhow, this is long enough. Check out the pics, I might put more on Flickr. Disney, if you're reading this, you won't be getting any more money from me until you get your crap together and start giving a crap about the people. Until that happens, take out Cinderella's Castle and put in a big cash register and be honest about it. I was even thinking about joining the DVC after talking to a nice couple at the 50's cafe but there's no way that's happening now. I was right, Universal set you guys up for failure. I'm really disappointed that you guys let Universal show you up. From now on we'll be going there instead.
Thanks for reading this TR guys!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30626181@N03/?saved=1
