A quick report while I'm waiting for the crew to wake up before we go to Epcot to eat and drink our way around Flower & Garden:
Before I start whining and complaining I need to first say that we had an absolute blast. It was the first Disney race for my sister and brother-in-law and they had a great time.
I drove down Friday and the offsite timeshare didn't have my reservation. They double checked and said, oh, you're not supposed to be here until tomorrow. Instead of Friday-Monday they had Saturday-Tuesday. They had no interest in trying work something out so I had to scramble for some Friday night hotel rooms. Even called guest services and they basically said, yeah, tough luck.
Brother-in-law is a Southwest pilot so they fly for free but it's standby and they couldn't get out Friday night. Brandi's flight was on-time Friday night and I picked up my sister and bro-in-law Saturday morning.
Went to Shades of Green to pick up military tickets. There was some NBC golf event going on and there was no parking. So circled around until they were done.
Off to AK for packet pick-up. Um, what happened to the expo? There was a concession truck with Disney merchandise, a New Balance tent, and a Fit2Run tent. That was it. Packet pick-up was in a big tent with shirt pick-up and exchange right on the other side. No wait at all. Very smooth, great volunteers as usual. The women's sizes seemed to run small so the ladies exchanged shirts.
We were all starving so it was off to Epcot to eat. We go to validate the military tickets and they told bro-in-law he's used up his allotment for the year but check with guest services. He had actually bought tickets earlier for his son in the Army and Guest Services gave him an exception. Typical Disney making things right. I told him to write Disney a nice note. There was a girl at the window next to him in tears and we're not sure what was going on there. Had a great meal at Sunshine Seasons, watched the Tomorrowland preview (wow, we all want to go see it now) and headed back to the timeshare to check in.
Before I start whining and complaining I need to first say that we had an absolute blast. It was the first Disney race for my sister and brother-in-law and they had a great time.
I drove down Friday and the offsite timeshare didn't have my reservation. They double checked and said, oh, you're not supposed to be here until tomorrow. Instead of Friday-Monday they had Saturday-Tuesday. They had no interest in trying work something out so I had to scramble for some Friday night hotel rooms. Even called guest services and they basically said, yeah, tough luck.
Brother-in-law is a Southwest pilot so they fly for free but it's standby and they couldn't get out Friday night. Brandi's flight was on-time Friday night and I picked up my sister and bro-in-law Saturday morning.
Went to Shades of Green to pick up military tickets. There was some NBC golf event going on and there was no parking. So circled around until they were done.
Off to AK for packet pick-up. Um, what happened to the expo? There was a concession truck with Disney merchandise, a New Balance tent, and a Fit2Run tent. That was it. Packet pick-up was in a big tent with shirt pick-up and exchange right on the other side. No wait at all. Very smooth, great volunteers as usual. The women's sizes seemed to run small so the ladies exchanged shirts.
We were all starving so it was off to Epcot to eat. We go to validate the military tickets and they told bro-in-law he's used up his allotment for the year but check with guest services. He had actually bought tickets earlier for his son in the Army and Guest Services gave him an exception. Typical Disney making things right. I told him to write Disney a nice note. There was a girl at the window next to him in tears and we're not sure what was going on there. Had a great meal at Sunshine Seasons, watched the Tomorrowland preview (wow, we all want to go see it now) and headed back to the timeshare to check in.