Trip Report COMPLETE...And that's how you give a cat a pill - an August trip report

Hello all. Thanks for reading the 2015 version of the Burnett family trip report. Hopefully you find it enjoyable. I'll add days as I find time, but this may take a while.

Anyone want to read the pre-trip report - here's the link: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/the-trip-that-almost-wasn’t….898587/#post-6672384

Intros

So nothing much has changed in terms of the travel party (other than every time I do this we seem to be a year older than the last time).

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From left to right there is our DD Stephanie (14), myself (Graham – 40), my DW Tammy (XX) and our DS Liam (12). We were down at WDW from August 15th to the 25th. We spent 6 nights at a Poly studio and 4 nights at a WL studio.

Some background

So if you read our last trip report (http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...in-between-an-august-2014-trip-report.889324/), you may remember that near the end of the trip it was announced that the company I worked for (Tim Hortons), had announced that they were merging with Burger King. There was a lot of uncertainty about what the future would hold after that announcement, and we weren’t sure when we’d be back to WDW. Fast forward to January 26th of this year…I’m sitting in my office when the phone rings and I’m called down to one of the “extra” offices we have. Long story short, my position was deemed redundant, and I was relieved of my duties.

However, a few weeks later I had a new job. After taking a few weeks off to relax, I started my new job…and our next WDW trip was back on.

Once we knew the trip was on we started our normal prep stuff (buying gift cards at Sam’s club or Target each month). By the time we were ready to leave we had enough cards to pay for all the meals etc. I then went on the Disney gift card website and merged all the cards into 3 cards. This made life easier for us (fewer cards to carry) and for the CMs (who didn’t have to scan a bunch of $50 cards when we went to pay our bill).

Well, that’s it for background….So here we go


Day 1 – Aug 15 – A different start

So August 15th finally arrived. Everyone was really excited and had trouble sleeping the night before…Speaking of the night before…this was the first year we didn’t stay at a hotel near the airport. Being so close to the Buffalo airport, we always book flights on either Southwest or Jet Blue out of Buffalo, as they are significantly cheaper than flying out of either Toronto or Hamilton (our hometown). However, this year our flights weren’t until later in the afternoon (3:45), so we didn’t need to stay overnight since it’s only a 1 hour drive from our home to the Buffalo Airport.

So there we were, up nice and early, car already packed and ready to go. We were going to take the kids to their karate class (Steph is a yellow belt and Liam is a brown belt), but then decided it wasn’t worth risking one of them getting hurt so decided we’d just head out early. We made a quick stop at the bank to pick up some US $, and then headed out.

The trip down to Buffalo was fine until we got to the border. We have NEXUS cards (basically means we are pre-screened so we can get through customs quickly – think of it like a customs Fast Pass). However, this time we presented our cards to the officer, and we were then asked to pull over. It turns out there wasn’t anything wrong, but we had been selected for a compliance check. We weren’t really sure what that meant, but we were asked to pull over and get out of the vehicle. A few minutes later another officer came over and did a quick search of the interior of our vehicle, then handed us back our cards and our keys and said we were good to go. Well that was different.

After crossing the border we made a quick stop at Sam’s Club and Target to pick up a few last minute things, and then headed to Cracker Barrel for lunch. After a good lunch we headed over to the airport. We went to the long-term parking lot and found a spot. Right after we pulled in the shuttle came up behind us, and before we knew it we were at the main terminal…which was absolutely packed. It turns out the Baltimore airport had a power loss, so no flights were going in and out, which was causing a back-log. The line inside to get to the Southwest desk wasn’t moving, so we headed outside and did the curbside check-in which was much shorter. Our bags were all within the right weight, so all was good.

Next up was airport security. Fortunately, since we have NEXUS cards, we can sign up for pre-screening at the airport, so there was no wait there either – other than Liam got pulled over for a secondary check (seems to be a theme). They did a hand swab and then put the swab into a computer and a few seconds later he was given the all clear. After that all was good

Waiting to board selfie:
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It's funny how things change. Here is a picture of what our kids were doing waiting for our first trip to Disney (7 years ago):
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and this is what pre-flight boarding looks like now:
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There's our plane:
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On the plane selfie:
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Our flight left on time, and was relatively uneventful (I fell asleep for most of the flight which was great).

I didn't choose the thug life...(and my kids think I'm a total dork now).
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We arrived in Orlando around 6:30, right in the middle of the daily storm (which freaked Tammy out. She’s a very nervous flyer). We got off the plane and headed over to the ME desk. That’s when I realized I had forgotten the ME boarding passes at home. No big deal though, they just printed off new ones for us there, and sent us on our way. Our bus was waiting, and we boarded quickly (around 7:00).

ME Selfie:
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A half hour drive later and we pulled up to the Poly.

Check-in went smoothly, other than our Magic Bands were no where to be found. It turns out they were waiting for us at Kidani? I guess it kinda makes sense since we had originally booked at Kidani, but we changed that back in February when Poly bookings opened.
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Oh well. They gave us four magic bands (and had our colours available), and sent us off to our room.
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to be continued
 
Last edited:

Nubs70

Well-Known Member
I should have Tammy call to complain;)
It would it be worth a try.

Our situation was we wanted to add days to our trip. We called several times prior to leaving and we were assured several times that we could take care of the transaction in person once we arrived.

Once onsite and checked in, we tried to complete the transaction to which they told us it was not possible at the price quoted prior to leaving. The reason stated was we had already checked in.

Ultimately the situation was resolved but not without much effort and escalation. If chance allows, drop the term detrimental reliance.
 

gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 10 – the END

So the last day is here. It’s kind of weird, but we are actually ready to go home. We’ve had a great time, but I think we’re all just exhausted now. However, we still have most of the day, so lets get started. We were up and out the door fairly early. Goodbye Wilderness Lodge. We took our bags down to the airline check in desk which went smoothly. We checked the carry-on bags at bell services, and then got our day started.

Breakfast was the first order of business, and we had reservations at Trail’s End again.

Early morning at the dock
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Breakfast was great, as usual.
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Our server was a man named Donnell, and he was really good. He spent a lot of time chatting with us and just made us feel right at home. We filled out a guest comment card for him.

After breakfast, we headed over to the MK for the last time. Our first stop was Adventureland. The kids had such a good time doing the Pirates Adventure thing that we decided to complete all the missions.
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I found the whole thing to be really well done.
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It took us about 30 minutes to complete all the missions, and we all had a great time.

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Next time POTC..Next time
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Next we headed over to Tomorrowland for our Space Mountain FP. It was great. You know, we’d probably be a lot less tired if we planned our FPs better so we weren’t zig-zagging across the park. Only took us 10 days to figure it out.
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After SM Steph and Liam went on MILF and Stich while Tammy and I did CoP. I love CoP.
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hidden mickey in the final scene
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to be continued
 
Last edited:

gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 10 continued

After CoP Tammy and I headed over to the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, and had one of the most awkward experiences ever. We get to the loading area and jumped into a car. The next thing we know this mother and son jump into the car with us (I would guess the son was around 17 or 18, so it's not like some young kid)???? I’m guessing it was their first time and didn’t know they should get into their own car, but it was too late…the doors closed…and we rode the whole time looking at two complete strangers while trying to avoid touching knees with each other.

Tammy and I laughed about it afterwards, but it was pretty uncomfortable. It’s kind of weird trying to have a conversation with each other with total strangers being so close to us.

So with the awkwardness out of the way, we met up with the kids again. It turns out MILF had broken down while they were in the waiting area so they had been given FPs. I knew we had FPs booked for BTMR, but the wifi was really acting up, so I couldn’t check the time, so we decided to head over that way. When we got there we were a bit surprised by the line for FP. It was soooo long.
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I would guess around 3 rows of switchbacks to get to the magic band “tap” station, but then even you got past there, the line was outside the building. We decided to pass. We just don’t have the stamina in us any more (It was super hot again today). We headed through Frontierland and decided to make a stop and the Country Bears.
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The show was good, but I honestly never realized how “inappropriate” some of the song lyrics are (“all the boys that turn me on turn me down”… “Momma don’t whip little Beuford”…) Funny.

After that the kids went and used their MILF FPs at the Speedway. They had fun. After that Liam wanted me to take him on Stich one last time. It sucks, but my last ride for this trip will be Stich. It was OK. I got scolded by a CM for taking a picture in the pre-show are (no flash or anything, but apparently you aren’t supposed to take pictures inside the que).
This was the picture that got me in trouble

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All good though.

So it is just blazing hot today…we’re tired….the kids are fighting with each other…That’s it….we’re calling it a day. I know it’s early (it’s around 1:00ish), and we intentionally booked our flights late to be able to spend the day at the park, but we just don’t have it in us.

One last castle shot on the way out
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We made our way up Main St USA one last time. We stopped in at a few of the shops on the way out. I ended up buying some Mickey pajama pants and a Walt Disney T Shirt, and Tammy got a new wallet. I also picked up a small toy monorail for my desk (need to have something to remind me of “home”), and a dole whip air freshener for my car (which isn't really for me since I don't have a sense of smell)
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They may not be quite as ready to leave as we are
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We got back to the WL around 2ish. Tammy tried to get us on an earlier ME bus, but no luck, so we just hung around the lobby. I went and got one last Mickey Bar from Roaring Forks and then waited.
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Waiting
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Around 5 the ME bus came.
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We boarded, and with that our trip came to close. The ride to the airport was good. We got there and were a bit disappointed that our 7:30 flight had been delayed 2 hours, but it is what it is. We went to the food court and had dinner (you know Disney is over priced when you buy Chinese food at the airport and think “wow, what a great deal”). The flight home was a bit stressful for Tammy. She is not a great flyer and gets super tense at the slightest turbulence. Well…we basically flew the whole way home through a thunderstorm. Tammy was almost in tears the whole trip as we bounced around quite a bit. The kids and I thought it was fun, but Tammy really didn’t enjoy the flight home at all.

So that’s it. It was a great trip, and now that we’re home we really miss being there, but that just makes us look forward to our next trip.
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...like in late December...

Thanks for reading along.
 

fractal

Well-Known Member
Sharing the TTA with other people would be very awkward. I also got scolded taking a pic of Stitch pre-show (without a flash). What do they have hiding there? I mean, I've never seen anybody else get scolded for using flash in Pirates, HM, etc. but try to take a non-flash picture in Stitch and everybody loses their mind.

Great report - I can certainly relate to your experiences as a Father with his family at Disney. Thanks for sharing!
 

gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sharing the TTA with other people would be very awkward. I also got scolded taking a pic of Stitch pre-show (without a flash). What do they have hiding there? I mean, I've never seen anybody else get scolded for using flash in Pirates, HM, etc. but try to take a non-flash picture in Stitch and everybody loses their mind.

Great report - I can certainly relate to your experiences as a Father with his family at Disney. Thanks for sharing!

I know right. Who knew they were hiding their most top-secret technological advancements in the pre-show of Stitch.

Glad you enjoyed the report. Looking forward to your next one.
 

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