This will be a different kind of trip report. I started a thread (http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...or-christmas-need-advise.844768/#post-5240205) a while back about our trip that we planned on surprising our kids with a Christmas vacation. Then a month back my father suddenly passed away, making this trip more somber. It was his idea for this trip, so we decided to keep our plans.
That's the set-up, now here comes the report (and the continued drama to boot).
I'm going to be brief about where we stayed (Westgage Vacation Villas), i have a timeshare that is not DVC, we've had it for nearly 30 years, and we traded our week for this dump. I'll never stay there again… it was disgusting and just a bad experience over all… 'nuff said.
We had decided to add IOA and UNI to our trip this year, as we had skipped it the last time we went (FEB 2011). I just want to mention the UNI parks first to get that out of the way, before I really get into our DISNEY experiences...
IOA on DEC 24th was a zoo show… we had expected waits, and crowds, so we were prepared. But what we were not prepared for was the chaos that the staff was causing. No organization what so ever, people just squeezing through these tiny passageways, running over kids, and seemingly no staff anywhere to help guide traffic. We went right to Spiderman and waited for 80-90 minutes. This ride is still by far one of my favorites in all of Orlando. We made our way around the park, riding what we could and spending a huge amount of time in Suess landing. The kids had a great day, despite the chaos. Potter had a listed 120+ wait time, but we heard from people in lines and staff that the wait was really closer to 360 minutes. So we never even bothered with that. And yes Butterbeer is amazing.
US on DEC 26th was actually a really light day crowd-wise. All the park traffic was at IOA that day. We walked on to every ride and show with no wait, had an average breakfast at LABAMBA, with a good character meet and greet. Simpsons was ok, I liked BTTF better. the only ride we did not do was the DESPICABLE ME ride which had a constant 90 plus wait. Overall a great day, not sure US is an all day park for my family on a light day though. The construction there was impressive though, lots of big structures going up (POTTER and TRANSFORMERS), so we look forward to returning when those are complete.
OK now the Disney park visits, and where this becomes more of a story than a trip report…
MK on DEC 25th, Christmas day. We got to the park really early, and found the crowds to be busy, but manageable. Unlike the Universal parks, the cast members were organized, helpful and just ready to control the crowds. We moved through the park rather well, getting a lot accomplished before noon, when the crowds started to get heavier and the wait times went through the roof (120 minutes for Pan). We had packed a lunch, since we had dinner reservations at BOG at 7:20. We eat lunch as my youngest finally had a dream come true and met MERIDA after a 50 minute wait. After making our way around the park counter-clock wise and leaving adventure land at around 5pm, we were headed back to our locker to get our bags so the kids could change into their christmas outfits for BOG and for some pictures near the castle. This is where the story takes a left turn…
We were walking through Main Street, at the circle with the tree and flag pole, it was right at the time of the flag ceremony. My mom was holding my 8 y/o daughters hand as they were walking through the circle, she was asked to go around, not through, and as she stepped off the curb she fell. And my mom fell hard against the iron fence, with my daughter tumbling as well. I had not realized it was my mom had fallen, it happened so fast. Her arm was through the iron bars, and was twisted in a very bad angle. I helped her with her arm and she said to me "It's broken, I know it's broken."
Now at this point all three of my kids are crying, and my oldest (8y/o) is wailing, because she had fallen as well. This is all in the middle of Main Street mind you, and there is a crowd for the flag ceremony. Two cast members are first to the scene (KATHY JO from Maine, and her report JENNY R. from Ill.) Jenny scoops my kids up and brings them away from my mom and starts to calm them down as Kathy Jo comes to me and my mothers aide trying to help us, as the EMTS arrive. There were at least 20 cast members on scene in less than 3 minutes. The EMTs evaluated my mom and got her into a wheelchair to take her to the ambulance. I was going to go with her, but my mother pleaded with me to stay with the kids, and to not ruin there vacation, and insisted that my Uncle who was with us, go instead. So I stayed behind with my wife and kids. As they wheeled my mom out, she stopped to hug and kiss the kids and JENNY told my mom that she'd take care of them and make sure that they had a great time.
She then had my kids walk in the parade down main street, which stopped near the castle, and she knew my youngest was a huge JESSIE fan, and had JESSIE dance with her, and we got some really nice pictures. After the Dance Party ended the kids walked in the parade back down main street and then were invited to light the Christmas Tree with a bit of pixie dust and Disney magic. Then they gave each kid a certificate and pin for the occasion. When this was done they sent us on our way, and it was time for our dinner at BOG.
We were placed in the west wing, which is just stunning (the entire place is beautiful). Dinner was good (I was too distracted to even give a review, my mind was not in the moment), the kids enjoyed the experience. We were served THE GREY STUFF from the staff with a note hoping that Grandma got better, and the Beast came to our table (I'm told he does not do that) and gave each kid a hug.
We rushed out of the park after stopping at BELLE's Tales, which our kids loved, ignoring the fireworks, and arrived at FLORIDA ORLANDO hospital, down I4 to visit my mom. She had broken her arm in three places… and needed surgery to repair it. (FYI surgery did not happen until FRIDAY! Four full days later… and she was not released until SATURDAY, so she missed the entire trip.) What a long day.
DHS on DEC 28th was a great day. Crowds were light and the Fastpasses we plucked for TSM worked out well, no long waits and we did the entire park before it started to downpour at 7:30pm. Had a great dinner at CHEF MICKEYs that evening. I love this park, but it needs a bit more. CL or MI roller coaster Please!
Our last day was MK again on DEC 29th. This was exactly 1 month from the day that my dad had passed away. We visited my mom early that morning in the hospital, as they were releasing her at noon,and she was going straight home to Brooksville, about 1:30 minutes away. It rained that morning until about 11am, and the park was not full by he time we got there at 10:30. The rain cleared, and it really was a good day.
When we first got to the park, my wife and I headed to City Hall, we had 3, 2 Day passes that went unused because of my mom's fall, and we were hoping that they would release them from the 13 day time period attached to them, so we could use them on a future trip. They did that, with no hesitation at all. And as we were standing there KATHY JO from Christmas day walked up and greeted us, and asked how my mom was. we told her the bad news and she was pretty shocked that my mom had been in the hospital the entire week, she asked if were were planning on staying for the 10pm fireworks and the 9PM electrical parade, and we were. She gave us reserved spaces for both, which really made us pretty happy. Then she told us to hang on, she'd be right back. When she came back she handed me 20 Fast Passes (there were 5 of us), and told us to enjoy the day. Which we did, it was really busy by the afternoon, and with our normal fast passes and these, we waited in ZERO lines all day.
As we headed to the reserved spot for the parade, we were greeted by JENNY, the cast member who had helped the kids on Christmas. She gave the kids big hugs and asked them how they were doing asked about my mom and told them that she would stop by before the fireworks, and to wait for her. When she came back, she brought two other cast members with her and they each handed a bag to each kid. They had made them Ear Hats with there names on them, and told them that Mickey was wishing their nana best wishes. This really made me and the wife break down a bit, and the kids were very happy. The fireworks were amazing to watch from in front of the PLAZA… it was really magical.
So that was our trip… we headed home the next morning.
If there is one thing that I got out of this trip, it was that the Cast Members at Disney are amazing people, they are just sweet and kind. They went so far above the call of duty it was awe inspiring. They took a horrid situation (and I know that there are going to be people that say they did this only in fear of a law suit, but keep in mind, the Cast Members are not the ones that would get sued) and made it incredible for my kids. This was a hard trip for me, loosing my dad right before the trip he helped organize and bring to life, and then having my mom fall and need surgery so close to my dad's passing… My parents became mortal in my eyes in a short period f time, and here we are at the Happiest Place on Earth, and these things are just happening to us, and a few cast members created magical memories for us.
Thanks for listening to me, I just really had to share this story.
That's the set-up, now here comes the report (and the continued drama to boot).
I'm going to be brief about where we stayed (Westgage Vacation Villas), i have a timeshare that is not DVC, we've had it for nearly 30 years, and we traded our week for this dump. I'll never stay there again… it was disgusting and just a bad experience over all… 'nuff said.
We had decided to add IOA and UNI to our trip this year, as we had skipped it the last time we went (FEB 2011). I just want to mention the UNI parks first to get that out of the way, before I really get into our DISNEY experiences...
IOA on DEC 24th was a zoo show… we had expected waits, and crowds, so we were prepared. But what we were not prepared for was the chaos that the staff was causing. No organization what so ever, people just squeezing through these tiny passageways, running over kids, and seemingly no staff anywhere to help guide traffic. We went right to Spiderman and waited for 80-90 minutes. This ride is still by far one of my favorites in all of Orlando. We made our way around the park, riding what we could and spending a huge amount of time in Suess landing. The kids had a great day, despite the chaos. Potter had a listed 120+ wait time, but we heard from people in lines and staff that the wait was really closer to 360 minutes. So we never even bothered with that. And yes Butterbeer is amazing.
US on DEC 26th was actually a really light day crowd-wise. All the park traffic was at IOA that day. We walked on to every ride and show with no wait, had an average breakfast at LABAMBA, with a good character meet and greet. Simpsons was ok, I liked BTTF better. the only ride we did not do was the DESPICABLE ME ride which had a constant 90 plus wait. Overall a great day, not sure US is an all day park for my family on a light day though. The construction there was impressive though, lots of big structures going up (POTTER and TRANSFORMERS), so we look forward to returning when those are complete.
OK now the Disney park visits, and where this becomes more of a story than a trip report…
MK on DEC 25th, Christmas day. We got to the park really early, and found the crowds to be busy, but manageable. Unlike the Universal parks, the cast members were organized, helpful and just ready to control the crowds. We moved through the park rather well, getting a lot accomplished before noon, when the crowds started to get heavier and the wait times went through the roof (120 minutes for Pan). We had packed a lunch, since we had dinner reservations at BOG at 7:20. We eat lunch as my youngest finally had a dream come true and met MERIDA after a 50 minute wait. After making our way around the park counter-clock wise and leaving adventure land at around 5pm, we were headed back to our locker to get our bags so the kids could change into their christmas outfits for BOG and for some pictures near the castle. This is where the story takes a left turn…
We were walking through Main Street, at the circle with the tree and flag pole, it was right at the time of the flag ceremony. My mom was holding my 8 y/o daughters hand as they were walking through the circle, she was asked to go around, not through, and as she stepped off the curb she fell. And my mom fell hard against the iron fence, with my daughter tumbling as well. I had not realized it was my mom had fallen, it happened so fast. Her arm was through the iron bars, and was twisted in a very bad angle. I helped her with her arm and she said to me "It's broken, I know it's broken."
Now at this point all three of my kids are crying, and my oldest (8y/o) is wailing, because she had fallen as well. This is all in the middle of Main Street mind you, and there is a crowd for the flag ceremony. Two cast members are first to the scene (KATHY JO from Maine, and her report JENNY R. from Ill.) Jenny scoops my kids up and brings them away from my mom and starts to calm them down as Kathy Jo comes to me and my mothers aide trying to help us, as the EMTS arrive. There were at least 20 cast members on scene in less than 3 minutes. The EMTs evaluated my mom and got her into a wheelchair to take her to the ambulance. I was going to go with her, but my mother pleaded with me to stay with the kids, and to not ruin there vacation, and insisted that my Uncle who was with us, go instead. So I stayed behind with my wife and kids. As they wheeled my mom out, she stopped to hug and kiss the kids and JENNY told my mom that she'd take care of them and make sure that they had a great time.
She then had my kids walk in the parade down main street, which stopped near the castle, and she knew my youngest was a huge JESSIE fan, and had JESSIE dance with her, and we got some really nice pictures. After the Dance Party ended the kids walked in the parade back down main street and then were invited to light the Christmas Tree with a bit of pixie dust and Disney magic. Then they gave each kid a certificate and pin for the occasion. When this was done they sent us on our way, and it was time for our dinner at BOG.
We were placed in the west wing, which is just stunning (the entire place is beautiful). Dinner was good (I was too distracted to even give a review, my mind was not in the moment), the kids enjoyed the experience. We were served THE GREY STUFF from the staff with a note hoping that Grandma got better, and the Beast came to our table (I'm told he does not do that) and gave each kid a hug.
We rushed out of the park after stopping at BELLE's Tales, which our kids loved, ignoring the fireworks, and arrived at FLORIDA ORLANDO hospital, down I4 to visit my mom. She had broken her arm in three places… and needed surgery to repair it. (FYI surgery did not happen until FRIDAY! Four full days later… and she was not released until SATURDAY, so she missed the entire trip.) What a long day.
DHS on DEC 28th was a great day. Crowds were light and the Fastpasses we plucked for TSM worked out well, no long waits and we did the entire park before it started to downpour at 7:30pm. Had a great dinner at CHEF MICKEYs that evening. I love this park, but it needs a bit more. CL or MI roller coaster Please!
Our last day was MK again on DEC 29th. This was exactly 1 month from the day that my dad had passed away. We visited my mom early that morning in the hospital, as they were releasing her at noon,and she was going straight home to Brooksville, about 1:30 minutes away. It rained that morning until about 11am, and the park was not full by he time we got there at 10:30. The rain cleared, and it really was a good day.
When we first got to the park, my wife and I headed to City Hall, we had 3, 2 Day passes that went unused because of my mom's fall, and we were hoping that they would release them from the 13 day time period attached to them, so we could use them on a future trip. They did that, with no hesitation at all. And as we were standing there KATHY JO from Christmas day walked up and greeted us, and asked how my mom was. we told her the bad news and she was pretty shocked that my mom had been in the hospital the entire week, she asked if were were planning on staying for the 10pm fireworks and the 9PM electrical parade, and we were. She gave us reserved spaces for both, which really made us pretty happy. Then she told us to hang on, she'd be right back. When she came back she handed me 20 Fast Passes (there were 5 of us), and told us to enjoy the day. Which we did, it was really busy by the afternoon, and with our normal fast passes and these, we waited in ZERO lines all day.
As we headed to the reserved spot for the parade, we were greeted by JENNY, the cast member who had helped the kids on Christmas. She gave the kids big hugs and asked them how they were doing asked about my mom and told them that she would stop by before the fireworks, and to wait for her. When she came back, she brought two other cast members with her and they each handed a bag to each kid. They had made them Ear Hats with there names on them, and told them that Mickey was wishing their nana best wishes. This really made me and the wife break down a bit, and the kids were very happy. The fireworks were amazing to watch from in front of the PLAZA… it was really magical.
So that was our trip… we headed home the next morning.
If there is one thing that I got out of this trip, it was that the Cast Members at Disney are amazing people, they are just sweet and kind. They went so far above the call of duty it was awe inspiring. They took a horrid situation (and I know that there are going to be people that say they did this only in fear of a law suit, but keep in mind, the Cast Members are not the ones that would get sued) and made it incredible for my kids. This was a hard trip for me, loosing my dad right before the trip he helped organize and bring to life, and then having my mom fall and need surgery so close to my dad's passing… My parents became mortal in my eyes in a short period f time, and here we are at the Happiest Place on Earth, and these things are just happening to us, and a few cast members created magical memories for us.
Thanks for listening to me, I just really had to share this story.
