Trip Report Its all fun and games 'til the 2nd emergency room visit

This is a follow-up to the pre-trip report titled "We Were Due"

This is my first attempt at a trip report. But if any trip ever deserved one, it was this one. As a sports junkie I will preview the coming posts as reflecting a trip that had 7 "wins" and 2 "losses".
The wins-
1. Customer Service resort wide (specific examples from Pinocchio Village Haus, POR, and Crystal Palace).
2. Port Orleans Riverside
3. Disney Springs
4. Early Morning Magic Event
5. Park Maintenance (especially Magic Kingdom)
6. Memory Maker
7. Enchanted Tales With Belle

The losses-
1. Hollywood Studios
2. Riverside Mill Foodcourt

The wins were far greater in their impact on our trip. I will go into better detail in the coming posts. I will also attempt to add photos (never done so on this site). Come for the pictures (phrasing) and stay for the emergency room visits. Should be fun!

 

[mouse_luv]

I'm joining in. Love your trip thread so far, and so sorry to hear your son had a GM seizure. I have those myself, out of nowhere/they don't know what causes them besides carbs . I hope he is doing better and you found the source of his seizures and/or he's controlled by meds.
Looking forward to the rest of your trip report!

 

[jharvey]

Day 5- Hollywood Studios / Disney Springs

I am a Disney fanatic. I am a Disney apologist. With the said, they should be ashamed of Hollywood Studios. The park is a trainwreck and will continue to be one for at least the next 3 years. I know its not practical, but in a perfect world they would be able to shut it down and knock out the changes in less than half the time. Calling this place a half day park does nothing to express its current condition.

So, on our DHS day we showed up an hour early. We were let in early and held up behind the rope line. And then the running of the bulls. Even with getting to the park early and trucking over to TSMM, we were in for a 15 minute wait. I know some people are not as high on this as I am. For me, it sits in a perpetual death match with Soarin for my second favorite WDW attraction. Our day consisted of two rides on Star Tours, TSMM, Tower of Terror, Great Movie Ride, and Muppet Vision, while eating lunch at Sci Fi.

So.... not a lot. An example of the "half-day" park at its best was our first ride of Star Tours. I get in line with Molly and Madison with a 20 minute posted wait. 45 minutes later we were only half way through the queue. When I get frustrated I start typing and get very petty. At this point in the trip, we had yet to hear back from the POR food & beverage manager about the snafu with the diet cokes. Between the stress of my son's health scare, the heat, crowd sizes, etc, I went full petty in two e-mails to Disney (comes in to play later).

The last thing we did was Tower of Terror (Me, Brandi, McCall, Lawton, and Madison). Brandi tried this one solo during our 2012 trip. In 2013 McCall, Lawton, and I joined in with Brandi. McCall had a near panic attack and I kept my cool by mainly laughing at her discomfort as we made our way through the queue. During that ride (2013), McCall sat next to me while Law and Brandi sat one row behind me. As soon as the drops started McCall screamed, "Josh, make it stop!" at the top of her lungs, while maintaining a death grip on my arm. Lawton freaked out and Brandi laughed at all of us.

This trip we added Madison to our merry band. And.... this made memory maker worth it. The video is tremendous. For our purposes, a picture will have to do.

McCall is the one in the pink shirt pulled over her head. Madison is next to her with her mother, once again laughing at our pain, next to her. Just in front of them is Lawton with his head against my arm with me curled up in a ball. The video is even better because you can see McCall stomping on an imaginary break. I hate thrill rides. I am an admitted coward. But I love this ride. If for no other reason than the reactions Law and McCall have nearly cover up my own terror. Couple of notes. McCall, not having me to grab put a vice like hold on the guy next to her all the while screaming, "I hate y'all! No I don't. Yes I do". Unrelated, look at the kid on the bottom left. Looks more chill than he has a right to be.

Beyond that, lunch was ok. Sci Fi was one we skipped our last two trips but remembered fondly from our 2010 trip. The environment and service would rate an 9 out of 10 for us. But the food was maybe a 5. It wasn't bad. It wasn't good. And that takes into account the best dessert of the trip- Sci-Fi Candy Bar.

We rode the bus back to POR and caught a boat to Disney Springs for our Splittsville ADR. We had never eaten here before. Previous to this trip we had only eaten at Earl of Sandwich and Cookes of Dublin. So this time we wanted to try a TS. Raglan was our first choice but with the amount of kids in our group we settled on Splittsville. The food looked good so we gave it a whirl. We got the Macho Nachos and wings for appetizers. I had sushi and the rest of the table had the pizzas. The sushi was far fresher than any bowling alley should be expected to have. The pizzas were winners as well. Overall, I would rate this as the second best meal of the trip behind Via Napoli. A definite must do next time.

Overall, the vibe at Disney Springs was unbelievable. It was a standout for the trip. The live music, the food, the shops, and overall decor and presentation were night and day different from our last trip when it was just a jungle of construction walls.

 

[fractal]

Sorry about your son and glad he recovered.

Great ToT photo.

Never thought of eating at Splitsville - thanks for the idea. Also excited to hear your impression on Disney Springs.

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Love the ToT picture!!! too funny!!

My ToT picture is HILARIOUS! I love the ride, but I look utterly terrified in our pic while everyone else in the car looks chill.

 

[Cowboy Steve]

Working emergency services at a theme/amusement park takes a special kind of person. I did it for 14 years here at a major amusement park in Ohio. Having worked as a career firefighter/EMT for both a municipal fire department and an amusement park, I spent almost an entire 'rest' day at WDW just visiting the 3 fire stations on the property (Reedy Creek Fire Department). It's a firefighter thing... I can't explain it. When I travel, I stop and visit brother and sister dragon slayers lol. What a great bunch of firefighters! I would have been extremely surprised and disappointed if you hadn't had the kind of support they provided. It is a matter of pride - someone who wasn't expecting to have a bad day is having one... at a place they came to play. So you do what you can to make their incident as painless as possible. Looking forward to more of your trip report! They are most entertaining!

We visited the Sci-Fi Dine-in Theater Restaurant our first ever trip to HS many moons ago - the year HS opened I believe (it was called Disney/MGM Studios then). We are going to revisit it on our December trip! I know the food will probably be so-so... but the ambiance is worth it! It is just fun! And we have eaten everywhere else in the park... so...

 

[Disneymom64]

Eagerly awaiting the rest of the story!!