Sept. 2 to Sept. 9

My wife and I are in WDW for a week, staying at POR for first time, and using DDP Deluxe for first time also. We came down Saturday night, driving half way that evening. Let me just say that the Quality Inn in Richmand Hill near Savannah, GA is a dump, and I'll leave it at that.

So Sunday morning we got out of bed (not woke up, as that would imply sleeping(see above)) and drove the rest of the way to WDW. We got here at about 11am. I missed a turn or we would have gotten here a few minutes sooner. I try to explain to her that there is a dirrence between "Next Right" and "This Right" and that the purple sign was wrong, not me! Anyaway, Riverside looks nice, service is very good, and we are all giddy to be back in WDW again. Room is not ready, so we go to the Studios. Use snack credits to eat snacks at Starring Rolls, and split a large sandwhich. Everything looked so good here. Surprised to see FP still available this late at toy Story, but return time conflicts with dinner. We ride Star Tours, RnR, and watch Beauty and the Beast. OK, so Tower Fast Pass says 80, yes 80, minutes. I call No Way and get in stand by. We walk all the way up to the end of the Pergola, essentially standing right next to the Hotel. I am thinking there is no way this is 80 minutes. But after 5 minutes, the line has not moved. (This is when we go to Beast). When we get out of Beast it says 30, but when we get in Stand by, the line is only about 20 paces from the linew entrance! Now that may be 80, I think. So we go towards gift shops to wait on RnR FP return. We start watching Streetmosphere characters Lenny, Sparky, and Co. These guys are great! Reallyady funny.So after RNR, room is ready, and we head back.

Room is great. We have been given a good Garden view. We rest and go to our dinner at Boatwrights. This was our first time here and it was excellent. Server (Rick) was great, as was the food. She had the Shrimp app, I had Crawfish bites. Then she had Pork chop, I had Prime Rib. I had the Butterscotch Creme Brulee for desert. All was really, really, good. I would go out of my way to eat here again. As I taste everything, I would recommend the shrimp app, Prime Rib entree, and the Creme Brulee. After dinner, we took a carriage ride, as we are celebrating our Anniversary, and we rode carriages in Charleston on our honeymoon!

We were so tired we sleep for like 12 hours taht night!

 

[MaxsDad]

Sorry it has taken so long. Been working 55 hour weeks.

We decide to walk to the MK for Night of Joy. It is after four pm, so we can just swipe our event tickets. Lots of people heading toward the entry gates. Rain looks immenient. We get our wristbands and walk under the train station. Someone asks for help with a photo at the Goofy statue, and we are glad to help.

We are wanting to get "ears" for our Grandsons with their names on the back, so we go to the shop between Tony's and the Candy store. I ask about resort delivery, but they say since we check out Sunday morning, (this is Friday night) they can't do that. Well, it is about to rain, and I don't want to carry them around all night, esp. in those conditions. Package pick up is closing for evening too. We decide to come back Saturday to do the deed. We walk into Candy store to look around. It starts to rain. So we shop slowly throughout this side of Main St. hoping it will stop soon. We get to the end, and it is still going. Cut thrugh Terrace, as it is mostly covered, and go to Monsters. Most people are from Florida in the theater, so the where are you from bit stalls a bit. Good show though, as guest are excited and into it.

Go to Buzz next. Max out score for second time ever. Consider re-ride but decline. Head towards Progress, still trying to stay dry. It has just closed. Sadness. Start talking to CM about it, and he was friendly. CM says that it is heading to the Smithsonian, to operate there. Says it may be in the next six months. Now I really want to ride it. Will my Grandkids get to see this? Does not know what may replace it, though. Peoplemover closed also. Big line at Space. Decide to get Icees from LunchPad. Rain diminshing. This is a good sign.

I will admit that after that point, I don't recall the exact order of things. That first part is pretty easy, as it had a specific flow to it. From there, I can say what we experienced, but not necessarily in order.

Jungle Cruise was closed, as scheduled it appears. Skipper says maybe I can get you two on, but he is not serious, but for a second I was excited at the idea of a private cruise. Then Skipper out front said gas is too high to run the boats for small crowds, hence why not open for special event. Makes sense. Later, i wished i had asked him to just pretend and just do the jokes.

Saw some of needtobreathe. Sounded good live. Played some material I was unfamiliar with. Likely saved well known stuff for last. Decided if we are going to see Chris Tomlin and Casting Crowns, we need to eat and ride now. So we leave Castle area while they are still on. Ate at Pecos Bill's. Tried to go to Splash/Thunder, but you couldn't even cross the bridge. They had the whole area closed. Since I don't recall the exact details, I will just say it this way. At various times during Night of Joy, Disney closed the above, Space, Pirates, and Pooh, and that's just what i am aware of. Frustrating when you go from one attraction that is closed, (Space) to the other side of the park, to find that attraction closed also. I said something to one of the upper level CM's about it. I try not to ...... blame them for it, as I suspect it was likely due to guest that these problems were happening.

Find a good spot to view stage pre-second show on the "bridge between bridges", but it is raining again now. In past years, I have seen them delay or cancel shows for rain, so i am concerned. We deicde they will not be able to start on time, if at all, and head to Mansion in the rain. In the line, we start talking to group in front of us. This couple have an adolescent son, but he is a little ..... concerned about riding the "Haunted" Mansion. It has been years since he rode it, and it must have had an impact on him. I consider telling him they had to take me out of the stretching room when I was about three/four, but decide this will not help matters. Further conversation leads us to believe he is possibly developmentaly challenged. Wait is unusually long for this ride, so we get to talk to them a good bit. One of my favorite things about Night of Joy is it seems every year I get to meet super nice people and fellowship with them, while we discuss some common interests: Worship, Music, Disney, etc. He rides it, but we don't see them after the ride to see how it went, but he made it past the stretching room!

I think I hear music. We head towrdas the hub, and Chris Tomlin is playing, under a tent, looks to be just him playing an acoustic. I kick myself for missing part of it. Oh well, can't do a thing about it now. Bridge is packed, so go deeper into the hub. Find an obstructed view, but a good one too. Eventually, rain stops, and full band kicks in. Praise God! I had hoped he would play something from the White Flag release from Passion Conference, but he does not. He does play something new though.

Later, wife's feet are killing her. She really can't stand still anymore. Walking seems to help, but standing is painful. Give serious thought to missing Casting Crowns. After Chris Tomlin, we stay put, as crowd dsiperses, and make our way a little closer. Get up to the benches behind the partners statue. This seems to be a high point in the elevation of the hub. Good spot. All bench seats are taken. She is hurting bad. Considers going back. Goes off to take a break comes back. I don't know if people were hearing our conversation or not, but seats opened up while she was gone. One was offered to me. I took it and called her. She came back with out water, and took the seat. Said line ws ridiculous at the stands in the hub. Of course, I can use my Disney knowledge to solve this issue. My memory tells me, incorrectly turns out, that they sell bottles of water near the registers in the emporium. No one would think to go there. Well, when I don't see it there, I just cross over to the Candy Store, I know they have drinks there. I buy like 4 drinks, and am back at the spot in less than 10 minutes. I give the extra waters to those around us, who gave us a seat, and didn't have a drink. Casting Crowns does a wonderful job. Wife sits whole time except a song or two. We walk out ahead of the crowd, during last song. Ride monrail to BLT.

Decide to switch sides of bed to see if I sleep better. I plan on going to MK at some point to ride Splash, and order ears. But the plan for the day is to go to the pool, and relax and enjoy the resort for the majority of the day, before we go to the secoond Night of Joy.

 

[corey154]

I love your trip report, thank you for sharing all your details! I know it's alot of work for trip reports, so I really do appreciate the time you took to share it with us! And all the yummy food detail!

I can't wait for the rest!

 

[MaxsDad]

So Saturday is the last full day. The plan is to hang out at the resort (BLT) and spend time together by the pool, then go to Night of Joy that evening, to see Third Day, among others.

However, I woke up with a really, really, bad headache. So bad, it made me feel I was going to throw up. My wife was very understanding. We missed going to the pool, so I never got to slide the slide. She went to the food court at the Main building and got us some lunch, and did some shopping. I tried to watch some college football, but couldn't get my team on the TV or the laptop. Funny how I can't get ESPN3 on my laptop at a Disney Resort, the company that owns ESPN. Overall, I was pretty bummed about the whole morning. By the afternoon, I was feeling better though, and we headed over to the MK.

Since my headache caused us to "miss" much of today's fun, we decided we would go to the MK again Sunday morning before driving home so we could get some ears for Grandkids and shop. This way we could enjoy the park more today, Saturday. We were still seeing some rides temporarily closed during NoJ. In years past, Saturday's NoJ has been busier than Friday. There were longer lines tonight too. The construction walls were still up around FL at this point, but they had moved one of the walls today. You could now walk through the entrance.

We visited Storybook Circus. They had made progress insce April. Goofy had a new entrance sign. Pretty cool. This area is themed so much better than before (ToonTown). Including this ride. I really don't see how anyone could disagree with this, if they are being honest. We rode Great Goofini. Fun little ride. Can't wait to take the kids on it in a few years.

Later, we went over to Pooh. It was closed momentarily. But as we walked back by a few minutes later, it was open again. So we got in stand by and got on. Before we got to the Heffalump room, the ride stopped, and we were evac'ed. That was two evac's on this trip, and a total of 3 for 2012 (PotC, Maelstrom, and Pooh). Got to walk out backwards through the ride. Got the obligatory FP, but this one was much better than the one at Epcot. Epcot's just had Mission Space, Living with Land, and Maelstrom. It proved fairly useless for us. This one, however, had Space on it. And do to its many closures, the standby line was out to the Peoplmover track. So we strolled right in and rode Space for the first and only time on this trip.

Lecrae was the first performer of the night on Castlestage. He had the crowd going. Not my style, but I like his message. Only listened to his show in passing by through the hub. Third Day was the second performer, so we decided to eat dinner before they start. We usually prefer Columbia Harbor House, but it is not open for NoJ. Pecos Bills is second choice, but it was across the park. So we decide we settle for Ray's, if ti is not too crowded. It seems to always be packed during NoJ, as they have a DJ there, and it is pretty loud. We walk around to the Bay (3?) closest to the castle and it has the shortest lines. We get dinner and find that the balcony dining area closest to the castle is very empty. So we sit down to eat our meal, look around, and guess who is sitting beside us? The family from the Haunted Mansion the night before! So we continue our discussion, and find out how the HM went for them, discuss WDW, chances of running into another, wher we are from, etc. As I said in a earlier post, I really enjoy this part of NoJ. Come to realize, these seats have a pretty good view of the front of the stage. Third Day begins, and you can see singer up front. But I find it difficult to just sit here and listen. Besides the other music drowning out the band, it just doesn't feel like you are a part of it here. So we go to the hub and get a decent view up against a fence railing to lean against.

MercyMe has closed out NoJ every year I have went. I saw some of them the first year I went at the Studios. It was great. Since then, I have only seen them in passing as I leave, because they don't even start until like midnight, and we depart on Sunday morning typically. Knowing this we leave after Third Day. Often times, I look back at the castle, then the train station, with sadness in my heart as I leave MK on the last night, but tonight I know I will be back tomorrow, so it is not as bad. Plus, we get to ride the monrail now. Turns out to be the Avengers monrail!

We get back to the room and decide to order room service for the first time in all the WDW trips we have ever taken. The thinking is we will be packing up in the morning, and it would be quite convienent to have breakfast brought up to the room while we pack up.