Trip Report The "how did it all go so horrible wrong" August trip to the world, let the madness begin. LOL COMPLETE

Well got my official signal to get excited in the mail Saturday...

Yep our magic bands came. Yippee. So how did we get to this point?

Well way back in December, I got an idea to take the minions on one last family trip to celebrate two college graduates and one person hitting 21. My original goal was to make it to London England and of course murphy's luck hit and I found out I needed a new roof. Ok, London's out, how about Disney?? I figured that with everyone hopefully looking for gainful employment, this maybe the last vacation we'll get in for a while

So here's the original crew....

Now my brother and sister in law swear they do not want to go, lol great. In April I call again to make sure everyone is on board, inform the minions that I am making plane reservations and buying tickets so once they say they are in, there is no cancelling.

Plans so far,
5 nights/ 6 days 2 bedroom suite at OKW
Fast passes all made, got every thing we wanted including the new slinky dog rollercoaster and FOP.
dinner reservations for a few favorites made.

Last night, I get a call from my brother......"can we cancel the plane tickets". hummm no, we can't. why?? well because wifey and I are coming now and we're driving down so we thought we'd save you some money.

WTH!!!
OK dude, it's 21 days before the trip, you've got no park tickets and my meal reservations are for 5. how do you plan to pull this off.......

This is going to be interesting...

 

[fractal]

Oh boy.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Drama! Love it!

 

[LeighM]

Reminds me of a meme I saw passed around FB Disney groups this weekend. I can't remember the exact wording, and I can't find it now, but it was something like "Ohana means family. Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten. Unless you're late for a FP and then see you later sucker."

 

[Think Tink]

Well congrats on the milestones! But Yikes, good luck with all that added drama!
I'll be there at the World the same week

 

[eliza61nyc]

Well congrats on the milestones! But Yikes, good luck with all that added drama!
I'll be there at the World the same week

Lol. Awesome!! I may need a character witness when my brother says some thing stupid like "I'll just tag along when your fp comes up" and my hands unexpectedly come in contact with his neck.

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Oh no!!!! Nothing like last minute drama! I hope you get it all worked out.

 

[FlaggNL]

hope everything works out fine...... sounds like drama

 

[eliza61nyc]

8 days to go and my brother is about to become my dearly departed beloved brother.

So Yesterday I get a phone call and conversation goes like this,

Brother: Hey, we might want to see if we can at least split the family up on different flights.
Me: Why G?
Brother: well you do realize that if the plan goes down, the entire family will be wiped out.
Me: Oooh look, a dumb idea has found a friend. so maybe I should blow all my millions on the next powerball jackpot.
Brother: ok, ok don't get huffy (which usually makes people more huffy).

Anyhoo, what is the plan for dinner on thursday? actually this is a night I left open why? great wife and I want to take everyone out to dinner. Nice, where and when....
Well we found an all you can eat seafood buffet, all we have to do is sit through a 1 hour timeshare presentation. WTH!!! ( we really do need a cursing similie). First of all we already own a timeshare, it's called dvc. next I'm not spending precious vacation time listening to a sales pitch. 3rd, they are never 1 hour.

the countdown continues...... happyplacehappyplacehappyplace

I've got 3 more brothers right, I can get rid of this one. no one has to know.

 

[Tiggerish]

8 days to go and my brother is about to become my dearly departed beloved brother.

So Yesterday I get a phone call and conversation goes like this,

Brother: Hey, we might want to see if we can at least split the family up on different flights.
Me: Why G?
Brother: well you do realize that if the plan goes down, the entire family will be wiped out.
Me: Oooh look, a dumb idea has found a friend. so maybe I should blow all my millions on the next powerball jackpot.
Brother: ok, ok don't get huffy (which usually makes people more huffy).

Anyhoo, what is the plan for dinner on thursday? actually this is a night I left open why? great wife and I want to take everyone out to dinner. Nice, where and when....
Well we found an all you can eat seafood buffet, all we have to do is sit through a 1 hour timeshare presentation. WTH!!! ( we really do need a cursing similie). First of all we already own a timeshare, it's called dvc. next I'm not spending precious vacation time listening to a sales pitch. 3rd, they are never 1 hour.

the countdown continues......

View attachment 304939View attachment 304938

I've got 3 more brothers right, I can get rid of this one. no one has to know.

I think you should put yourself out of his misery right now. We won’t tell.

Timeshare presentations!!????!!

 

[Zipadeelady]

Your first mistake is saying this will be your last family vacation. I know i've said that before but then I end up planning another vacation with everyone.

I hope you have a great time with your family and don't let them annoy you to much.

 

[hanwill]

This is going to be one great trip report. I hope your brother survives. . and, I hope you really get to enjoy WDW- all of it!

 

[MickeyCB]

Well got my official signal to get excited in the mail Saturday...

View attachment 300953

Yep our magic bands came. Yippee. So how did we get to this point?

Well way back in December, I got an idea to take the minions on one last family trip to celebrate two college graduates and one person hitting 21. My original goal was to make it to London England and of course murphy's luck hit and I found out I needed a new roof. Ok, London's out, how about Disney?? I figured that with everyone hopefully looking for gainful employment, this maybe the last vacation we'll get in for a while

So here's the original crew....View attachment 300954

Now my brother and sister in law swear they do not want to go, lol great. In April I call again to make sure everyone is on board, inform the minions that I am making plane reservations and buying tickets so once they say they are in, there is no cancelling.

Plans so far,
5 nights/ 6 days 2 bedroom suite at OKW
Fast passes all made, got every thing we wanted including the new slinky dog rollercoaster and FOP.
dinner reservations for a few favorites made.

Last night, I get a call from my brother......"can we cancel the plane tickets". hummm no, we can't. why?? well because wifey and I are coming now and we're driving down so we thought we'd save you some money.

WTH!!!
OK dude, it's 21 days before the trip, you've got no park tickets and my meal reservations are for 5. how do you plan to pull this off.......

This is going to be interesting...

This is a hilarious story so far and what a nice picture of your very handsome family. But, who's the not so happy appearing guy on the left? Looks A LOT like my husband that we buy grumpy items for every trip!

Reminds me of a meme I saw passed around FB Disney groups this weekend. I can't remember the exact wording, and I can't find it now, but it was something like "Ohana means family. Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten. Unless you're late for a FP and then see you later sucker."

My absolute new favorite Disney quote, I have already sent to many Disney friends tonight, who think it's a hoot!

 

[fractal]

Bit of advice. You are not tied to the hip with anyone.

If they have some "great plan" I would just say "knock yourself out, we'll meet up with you later."

Getting rid of one brother is such a messy affair.

Sending some pixie dust your way!

 

[eliza61nyc]

Ok just back from a very interesting family trip to the world. First off, let me say that we had a really good time but it was not without it's share of "drama". I'll alternate the family funnies with the review of the parks and resorts. also I do give the good with the bad, there were no major issues but some annoyances

So when last we left, big brother had announced his decision to go on this little getaway. problem being, he announced it 10 days prior to us leaving. no tickets, no fast passes and no dining reservations.

So departure day arrives and all goes smoothly ON MY END. We have an early morning flight out of Philly at 6:50 am with arrival time in Orlando of 9:15. since I knew the room would not be ready that early, the game plan was to check in and then head to Epcot for some fun and food. My brother and the little misses would be arriving via BWI later that evening.

EPCOT: arrived at Epcot around noon and had a great lunch at via napoli. We love this place and it's a tradition to eat here at least once. this year I veered from the normal program and did not get a pizza but instead order the Penne con rolla. It was good but I gotta tell you there specialty imo is the great pizza.
The last week before Labor day through the first two weeks of September maybe the "sweet" spot to visit Disney. crowds where low, making it easy to ride most stuff two or three times. The downside to this is that it is Africa hot with a touch of New Orleans below sea level humidity. Sweet Mary, mother of a teenage Jesus it was hot and humid.

wait times on Test track where probably the longest at 65 minutes around 3 pm. Soarin was 35 minutes most of the time we checked and even dropped down to 25 minutes. Misson space green was 15 -20 minutes during the afternoon and the Orange side was great at 25 mnutes.
ONLY complaint: frozen was down again. I've booked fast passes for this ride the last 5 trips and as of today have yet to ride it. Now I understand technical difficulties but this ride is also the one that has had the most off loads (breaks down in the middle of the ride and has to have guest taken off). Disney it's time to do a major overhaul. I do not remember maelstrom having all these issues but listen it's not a "coincidence" it's systemic. To borrow a tune from Frozen, it's time to "let it go" and take the ride down for a major evaluation.

Back at the ranch, big brother and wife missed their flight. says he took a wrong turn on the bwi parkway and was late. I pointed out that he must have been cutting it rather close in the first place if one wrong turn made him miss the flight. Since they were on Spirit there was only two other flights out to Orlando. They did not get in until 12 am in the morning. around 6 pm I get a call: "hey sis do you think you could get me a refund on one day of my tickets". hey big brother...Hell to the no.

The starting line up: My niece just graduated from NYU and my youngest from Temple. Number one son will arrive tomorrow, poor slob had to work (lol, no kiddo you don't get 7 weeks vacation your first 6 months on the job) So it was originally supposed to be myself and 4 twenty-somethings.

 

[eliza61nyc]

Day Two: Animal kingdom.
Well the brother and wife finally made it. I had decided that since my brother is chronically late that all meet ups would occur at the designated park. this way they could just call when they arrived. And he did not disappoint, the schedule meeting time came and went without any phone call. they were 2 hours late. not a problem as we got in a few rides while waiting.
Of course he has a surprise in store. Sister in law decided to bring her 12 year old nephew at the last minute and oh, she took a tumble at work and was in a wheel chair. Can you be adopted at 57+?? Now my kids, niece and nephew are usually pretty laid back but we're talking 4 young adults between the ages of 21 and 25 who had visions of drinking around the world dancing in their heads. They simply don't want to entertain a 12 year old. especially one that has no fast passes.
Brother and wife get the great idea that if they get a disability card that will move them up to the front of the line, but alas that didn't work because of folks misusing the system (oh the irony). since we were a party of 7, soon to be 8 now all the card does is allow the guest with the card and up to 4 additional guest to wait in a designated boarding area until the rest of the party in the line catches up. No we are not waiting 90 minutes dude to ride anything.

Animal Kingdom: Ak is fast becoming one of my favorite parks, our luck is continuing and even in mid afternoon many rides, with the exception of course the ones in Pandora were 35 minutes or less. this was a little early around 10:30

Kali river rapids seemed shorter than I remember but now it does seem that more folks in the raft get soak. I wished they had kept the center piece where you can keep your shoes and they actively try to get people to keep their shoes on. lol we took ours off. I don't mind getting wet but since I had on sneakers I wasn't walking around with squishy socks and sneakers.

We saw DeVine at the park entrance and there were quite a number of "live" acts out. the most I've ever seen.

The park was spotless with no overflowing garbage cans that I could see. We were able to do every ride twice except of course for FOP and N'avi river without much of a wait.

For me the best ride is the safari, Our guide was great, very knowledgeable and engaging. Unfortunately because they are introducing some baby animals on the savannah we were not only to come to a complete stop but the driver slowed down as much as possible at every site. lol, we did get stuck in a "rhino-jam" when this lovely fellow stopped in the middle of the road to snack.

Another successful day at the park but oooh goodie, tonight I'm going to a dinner given by a timeshare operator.

 

[fractal]

That's a great family pic in front of ToL!

I hate the term "we just figured..." I can see some more drama coming up.

AK is such a great park!

 

[DRD]

Sweet Mary, mother of a teenage Jesus

Fantastic line!

Hopefully the drama didn't intefere too much in having a good time. That had to be frustrating to have the unexpected "surprises" thrown at what sounded like a well thought out plan. Family...

 

[Brwneyedgirl72]

Sweet Mary, mother of a teenage Jesus it was hot and humid.

LOL! That almost made me choke on my coffee! That is the funniest thing I have read all day!!

 

[winstongator]

Ok just back from a very interesting family trip to the world. First off, let me say that we had a really good time but it was not without it's share of "drama". I'll alternate the family funnies with the review of the parks and resorts. also I do give the good with the bad, there were no major issues but some annoyances

So when last we left, big brother had announced his decision to go on this little getaway. problem being, he announced it 10 days prior to us leaving. no tickets, no fast passes and no dining reservations.

So departure day arrives and all goes smoothly ON MY END. We have an early morning flight out of Philly at 6:50 am with arrival time in Orlando of 9:15. since I knew the room would not be ready that early, the game plan was to check in and then head to Epcot for some fun and food. My brother and the little misses would be arriving via BWI later that evening.

EPCOT: arrived at Epcot around noon and had a great lunch at via napoli. We love this place and it's a tradition to eat here at least once. this year I veered from the normal program and did not get a pizza but instead order the Penne con rolla. It was good but I gotta tell you there specialty imo is the great pizza.
The last week before Labor day through the first two weeks of September maybe the "sweet" spot to visit Disney. crowds where low, making it easy to ride most stuff two or three times. The downside to this is that it is Africa hot with a touch of New Orleans below sea level humidity. Sweet Mary, mother of a teenage Jesus it was hot and humid.

wait times on Test track where probably the longest at 65 minutes around 3 pm. Soarin was 35 minutes most of the time we checked and even dropped down to 25 minutes. Misson space green was 15 -20 minutes during the afternoon and the Orange side was great at 25 mnutes.
ONLY complaint: frozen was down again. I've booked fast passes for this ride the last 5 trips and as of today have yet to ride it. Now I understand technical difficulties but this ride is also the one that has had the most off loads (breaks down in the middle of the ride and has to have guest taken off). Disney it's time to do a major overhaul. I do not remember maelstrom having all these issues but listen it's not a "coincidence" it's systemic. To borrow a tune from Frozen, it's time to "let it go" and take the ride down for a major evaluation.

Back at the ranch, big brother and wife missed their flight. says he took a wrong turn on the bwi parkway and was late. I pointed out that he must have been cutting it rather close in the first place if one wrong turn made him miss the flight. Since they were on Spirit there was only two other flights out to Orlando. They did not get in until 12 am in the morning. around 6 pm I get a call: "hey sis do you think you could get me a refund on one day of my tickets". hey big brother...Hell to the no.

View attachment 309710

The starting line up: My niece just graduated from NYU and my youngest from Temple. Number one son will arrive tomorrow, poor slob had to work (lol, no kiddo you don't get 7 weeks vacation your first 6 months on the job) So it was originally supposed to be myself and 4 twenty-somethings.

Congratulations to the graduates. An awesome way to celebrate.