Trip Report Honey, I Blew Up The Magic Band (Completed!!)

Figment Forever · Mar 7, 2015

ginadee said:
I'm hoping to go sept 3-8. It may be a solo trip. Don't know yet.

Have fun if it works out! September is our favorite time to go.

Figment Forever · Mar 7, 2015

Day 7: Sunday September 21st – Animal Kingdom – Nope – Lets go to Epcot

Today we were supposed to go back to AK, but Julia and I really didn’t feel like it. We had originally had breakfast reservations at Tusker House but I canceled them the day before so I could avoid the charge. Ross was trying so hard to “stick with the plans” and even asked Hope where she wanted to go. That’s when Hope shocked us all when she stood up and announced, “Welcome aboard the WDW transportation system, we are on our way to EPCOT… “ Ross, Julia and I almost fell down as she continued to recite the entire Epcot bus script. She even started to hum the Imagination song at the end! We were speechless – she had it memorized completely! Julia and I looked at each other and decided it was settled – we are going to EPCOT!

We had a late start to the day so we wanted to get lunch when we arrived at the park and since we went to get a return time for Soarin, we decided on Sunshine Seasons.

We are never impressed with Sunshine Seasons. The reviews are always great, so maybe we don’t order the right choices. This time was no different for us – not that great. Julia & I got an Asian noodle dish & Ross got a grilled chicken salad.

But the desserts were yummy!

Figment Forever · Mar 7, 2015

After lunch, we went on Soarin’ and then walked right on to Living With the Land.

Julia and Hope both wanted to do the Piggy Bank Adventure so we wandered into Innovations.

Figment Forever · Mar 7, 2015

The girls LOVE Piggy Bank Adventure!

Of course, leave it to my hubby to photo bomb the pig family.

Figment Forever · Mar 7, 2015

We also took advantage of the Disney Chase Visa Picture again. This time Ross & I just had the kids take the picture.

Ross and I never let Hope approach the characters without us being an arm length away. However, we were feeling brave today, so today we stayed about 3 arm lengths away. lol

Maybe it was because the Food & Wine Festival had just started, but the park was so crowded today! We had a return time for Turtle Talk, but Hope wanted to ride Nemo first. The sign posted a 30 minute wait so I told Ross we should just do it later. But he was insistent because Hope wanted to go.

So we got in the stand by line. I was stunned. I think we waited on that line for almost an hour. I don’t think I ever waited on this stand by line for more than 10 minutes and most of that is just walking around to the ride load area. Of course just as we were about to board, Julia announced she had to use the restroom and it wouldn’t wait. I almost fell down. I asked the CM if we could leave and return through the Fast Pass line – and I was so thankful that she said YES!

After the ride, we met up with Ross & Hope who were walking around and exploring. It was so nice to see Hope take an interest in what was going on.
We walked over to Turtle Talk with Crush and waited for the next show to begin. This show was a challenge for Hope to sit through. As much as she loves Crush and wanted to be there, there was just too much language for her to process and she was very restless during the show.

We wanted to walk around WS and check out Food & Wine. We also had a Fast Pass for Maelstrom. I had read the rumors of it closing and changing to a Frozen theme so I wanted to be sure to ride it one last time just in case it was true.

Ross didn’t understand why I “wasted” a Fast Pass for it because he said no one rides it! Really? When we got there, there was about an hour stand by – and he apologized. As we were on the line a CM heard me tell Ross about the rumored upcoming changes and she said it had just been officially announced the day before that it was true – it would be closing!

We saw this guy walking and knew Hope would want a picture with him.

Tuvalu · Mar 7, 2015

We can't understand the Sunshine Seasons hype either. Every dish we have ever tried has always been "meh".

Enjoying the TR!!

Figment Forever · Mar 7, 2015

It was time for Figment…

Spaceship earth…

And Test Track…

Figment Forever · Mar 7, 2015

Our original plan was to eat dinner by snacking around the world.

But I guess I got the times wrong because all the festival booths were closing early. By the time we reached Japan, they were closed. So we ventured back to FW and went to the Electric Umbrella. I ordered this monstrosity of a burger.

The kids got the old reliable…

I forget what Ross got – but he refused to let me take a picture of it. He was upset that we didn’t get eat around the world. Don’t worry honey, we have 4 days left – don’t we?

We left before Illuminations so we could beat the crowds out of the park.

We wanted to get a good night's sleep because we had breakfast reservations at Crystal Palace before MK opened and I really wanted to walk into MK without the crowds to take some pictures - that would be a first!

While we were at the bus stop waiting, we noticed a couple and their little girl waiting in front of us. They were wearing the "Celebrate" buttons but under the world "celebrate" they wrote in black marker, "Life". They were there because of "Make A Wish". I thought their buttons were so special but I didn't want to appear rude and take a picture.

We face a lot of issues with Hope and Autism, but times like these make me realize, we don't have a single thing to complain about.

Up Next: Our vacation ends… and… Where’s the Magic Band???

Figment Forever · Mar 7, 2015

Tuvalu said:
We can't understand the Sunshine Seasons hype either. Every dish we have ever tried has always been "meh".

Enjoying the TR!!

I'm so glad we are not alone! Next time we agreed to eat counter service in WS. Thanks for reading!

disneypearl · Mar 7, 2015

Figment Forever said:
I'm so glad we are not alone! Next time we agreed to eat counter service in WS. Thanks for reading!

We always go and look at the menu at Sunshine Seasons but never decide to stay and eat. It's strange though because it always smells so good!

I am impressed and happy to read about Hope and they progress she has made this trip. Such a cutie. I love how she had the Epcot bus message memorized.

Sudcaro- Sudcaro · Mar 7, 2015

Funny you should mention that Make A Wish kid and her special button - we'll be on that same trip in a few days, and I was planning on doing the same thing for my daughter, as we too will be celebrating life!
I think we all have our struggles, and should celebrate being alive any chance we're given.

Figment Forever · Mar 8, 2015

disneypearl said:
We always go and look at the menu at Sunshine Seasons but never decide to stay and eat. It's strange though because it always smells so good!

I am impressed and happy to read about Hope and they progress she has made this trip. Such a cutie. I love how she had the Epcot bus message memorized.

Thanks! By the end of the trip, she had all of the parks bus scripts memorized. It was so funny - until we got home. Every time we got in the car to go out, guess what we heard? On our way to the supermarket we would listen to, "Welcome aboard... " lol But I used it to my advantage, I just helped her change the park names with where we were really going!

Figment Forever · Mar 8, 2015

Sudcaro- Sudcaro said:
Funny you should mention that Make A Wish kid and her special button - we'll be on that same trip in a few days, and I was planning on doing the same thing for my daughter, as we too will be celebrating life!
I think we all have our struggles, and should celebrate being alive any chance we're given.

You are so very right!!! Wishing your family a magical time on your trip and praying for extra Pixie Dust to fly your way in WDW and everywhere else!

Sudcaro- Sudcaro · Mar 8, 2015

Figment Forever said:
You are so very right!!! Wishing your family a magical time on your trip and praying for extra Pixie Dust to fly your way in WDW and everywhere else!

Thanks.

mrdrift · Mar 9, 2015

What a wonderful day at Epcot. I'm really happy to hear that you were able to do everything you wanted to do eventually. The old reliable food looked wonderful. The Duffy pictures were really cute. Following along

ScarletBegonias · Mar 9, 2015

Loving the report so far! It's been nice to see you veer off schedule a little bit and have good things come from it!!

Figment Forever · Mar 10, 2015

mrdrift said:
What a wonderful day at Epcot. I'm really happy to hear that you were able to do everything you wanted to do eventually. The old reliable food looked wonderful. The Duffy pictures were really cute. Following along

It was great to be at EPCOT during the F&W Festival - but WOW the crowds were crazy compared to what they were the other day. Yes, we love Duffy! He has become part of our family.

Figment Forever · Mar 10, 2015

ScarletBegonias said:
Loving the report so far! It's been nice to see you veer off schedule a little bit and have good things come from it!!

It felt good to break the schedule - but keep reading... lol

Thanks for reading!

Figment Forever · Mar 11, 2015

Before I begin my account of day 8 of our trip, I must stop to mention a conversation that Julia and I had as we were walking through POP Century. She had asked me if I was keeping notes for my trip report. I told her yes – but I told her I was worried that it was going to be boring because nothing really “exciting” happened. That being said…

Day 8: Monday September 22nd Magic Kingdom (Or are we in the Twilight Zone?)

As I have said many times before, our family is not very good with rope drops or opening shows – we always run late. But I vowed today would be different. We had an early reservation for Crystal Palace before park opening so we could walk through before the crowds. But as hard as I tried, of course, we were running a little late, so I didn’t even attempt to take a single picture!

When we got to Magic Kingdom, we looked for the breakfast line, but couldn’t find it and the CM we asked didn’t seem to know what we were talking about. Maybe it was gone because we were late – so we got on the LONG line and waited to get in. Okay, so no pictures without crowds – maybe next time.

As we got to the entrance, I scanned my Magic Band as I did for the past 7 days but to my shock, that whizzing circle did not turn green today, instead, it turned a very troublesome shade of blue. I tried again and again and again. Then Julia tried and Ross and Hope. Uh Oh!

I was so worried that we would miss our breakfast ADR’s. A CM with an I-Pad pulled us to the side and looked up our info. My stomach sunk as soon as I saw the look on her face. I don’t know what she saw on her screen – but it must have been a doozey!

“You used all your days – you have no park days left.” She said.

Ross and I looked at each other. We told her it was not possible, we had a 10 day ticket, added an eleventh day, so we still had 4 days left.

“No” She said very firmly. “You have used all your days.”

We were beyond confused. We asked how that was possible – we arrived on the 15th and today is the 22nd so that would make 7 days – there were 4 days left.

She gave us the answer, “No, you arrived on the 11th and the 21st would have been the last ticket used. You have no tickets left.”

Bewildered we told her, “We didn’t arrive on the 11th – we arrived on the 15th”!

We pleaded our case to her. But she was insistent “No you did not – you arrived on the 11th – it is right here in our system.”

Part of me wondered if we were on one of those prank shows – I kept looking around for a camera or someone to jump at us and laugh that we were “punked”. But no such luck.

I assured her that we were most definitely NOT in WDW on the 11th – but in NY. I started to pull up our Jet Blue itinerary on my phone. I also asked her to please call FQ to confirm when we checked in.

As I was pulling up information on my phone, Ross asked her a brilliant question. “Where were we on the 11th”?

She responded without hesitation, “Animal Kingdom.” She said. “You were in AK on the 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th .”

By this time, I knew it was no joke. I was shaking and ready to cry. I could tell by the tone of her voice, she didn’t believe a word we were telling her.

I showed her my phone with the Jet Blue info on it – and My Disney Experience which had our check in date. For the first time, I think she realized something was extremely wrong and that we were not MK crashers. She told us to remove our Magic Bands and give them to her and get in line at Guest Services.

Now if anyone has seen the Sandra Bullock movie, The Net, you will understand how I felt taking off that Magic Band and handing it off to her. I looked at Ross and said, no one will ever believe who we are!

We didn’t have any choice though. We stripped ourselves of our Magic Bands and got in the longest line for guest services I have ever seen.

By now the opening show had commenced. The entire MK gang was dancing and singing away as we waited in a complete fog, not knowing what was going on.

When we got up to the front, just as I thought, the CM didn’t know what I was talking about. They had to find our Magic Bands and then the first CM we spoke with. Soon, I found myself retelling the whole story of adding the 11th day and of course her response was, “You can’t do that – it’s not possible.” It was obvious; she did not believe my story until I pulled out the receipt and showed her. She said to wait a moment and caucused with other cast members who were all scratching their heads and staring at us. Soon, 3 CM’s were at the window starring completely in disbelief at a computer screen and trying to figure out what was going on. Once again, I explained what had happened. At last, I got the first sign of hope when she said, “I’m sorry – we are trying to figure out what happened.”

I told her that we had reservations at CP that we’re now beyond late for – she promised they would call over and let them know what was going on so they would seat us when we arrived and we would not get a charge.

We waited and waited.

As one can imagine, Ross was fuming. He may as well have had a neon sign on the top of his head that flashed, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it!” Yes – it was completely his day of redemption, “This is why you don’t change the plans!” The only thing that I had going for me was that he was even more upset at the CM’s who were treating us like we were liars.

The whole time, Julia was doing her best trying to keep Hope entertained but understandably she was just as frustrated as the rest of us. She came over and asked Ross what was going on. Ross told her, “Mommy broke the Magic Bands!”

FINALLY, after what seemed to be an eternity, it was about an hour; we got our Magic Bands back. They never told us what happened or why it happened. They said they had NEVER experienced anything like this before, but that everything was okay. They also added an extra Fast Pass on to our day for the delay and told us we could get back on to the line to enter MK.

Being so late for breakfast, I figured we could be escorted to the front of the line, but no, that wasn’t the case. I asked the CM, after all the time we wasted trying to figure this out; don’t you think someone could get us into the park without waiting on another line? Nope. Her response? “That’s why we added an extra Fast Pass to your day.”

When we arrived at CP, I went to check us in. Of course, no one had called ahead and they didn’t see us in the system right away; but thankfully, they located us, gave us a pager and told us it would be a few minutes.

I didn’t mind the wait. I think we all needed a few minutes to regroup. We were still in disbelief and tried to figure out what had happened. Obviously, we figured it was because of the now “doomed” 11th day being added on, but it was so weird how elusive they all were.

As we were waiting, I checked my phone to see the times of our Fast Pass reservations, figuring with the huge delay, we would probably have to move some around. I pulled up “My Plans” – and the APP crashed. No big deal. I just deleted it and re-downloaded it.

The APP was back and running and I pulled up my “My Plans”. That’s when I realized our troubles were not over – because we had NO plans. All of our information for our trip was gone.

NO Fast Pass reservations

NO Dining Reservations

NO FQ reservations

NO information about our trip at all – everything was wiped out!

NO WAY!

By the time they called us in, Ross was beaming. He didn’t find the loss of the reservations that bad and he took full advantage of getting the point across that he was right and I was wrong.

So instead of enjoying Pooh’s Puffed French Toast, I found myself choking down an extra portion of crow. But at least I dined in good company.

Figment Forever · Mar 11, 2015

After breakfast we trudged backed to Guest Services to see if we could retrieve our reservations that had mysteriously disappeared. Julia was so upset, the last thing she wanted was to wait in another line that didn’t lead to a ride or attraction. But she didn’t have a choice.

My biggest concern was for our 2 remaining dining ADR’s. We had lunch planned on the 24th in EPCOT for Germany. We also had dinner tonight planned for Be Our Guest. I knew very well that if our dinning reservations were canceled out, there was no way we were eating at BOG. But I also knew finding ANY reservation within such a short time would be next to impossible.

We arrived to Guest Services and another line. When we reached the front of the line, I found myself retelling the entire story to the young lady who stared in disbelief at me. She confirmed that our dinning reservations were still there. But the Fast Passes were gone. She said she was happy to schedule us new Fast Passes – but come on – you guys know what is coming… Our Fast Passes included 7DMT, TSMM, Anna & Elsa & Splash Mountain; all of which had NO availability. She said she could not give us Fast Passes for those – especially since we had no proof that we had Fast Passes for them in the first place.

Leave it to my husband – he just happened to have asked FQ to print something out for us a few days earlier and with it, came all of our reservations including our Fast Pass info. I found it and gave it to her. But it was useless – she actually told us the printout didn’t matter because we could have changed them. What??? I said why would I change the reservations I wanted, only to ask for them back???

Still, there was no getting them back. I forget whatever Fast Passes she scheduled for us – but she did give a “bonus” Fast Pass for each of the remaining days of our trip. Although she said they could not be used for 7DMT or Anna & Elsa. Julia was almost in tears at this point – she just wanted to leave and we were lucky that Hope wasn’t going bezerk. So we just left. I asked for a number I could call to give my opinion about the new Fast Pass system. She gave me a card and then rudely said, “They are not going to give you anything more, I already gave you more Fast Passes than I should have.” I thanked her and said I didn’t want anything – I just wanted to give my opinion about their new system.

We all agreed to put the craziness behind us and enjoy our day. Of course as soon as I reloaded the My Disney Experience, I discovered the CM who was supposed to give us one extra Fast Pass per day must have made a mistake and loaded them all on our day today. So we had 3 set Fast Passes and then 4 additional. And so we exited the Twilight Zone and headed to Fantasyland.

Ross was not buying into the extra Fast Passes not working for some rides. He didn’t think it was possible for some attractions to accept it and others not. So he said to give it a try – the worst that could happen is they say no. He did have a point, after what just happened, getting thrown off a Fast Pass line seemed like nothing.

And of course, my husband was right…

Trip Report Honey, I Blew Up The Magic Band (Completed!!)

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Tuvalu

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