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...

 

[LeighM]

Families with their surprises and drama LOL. I would've added to it and not changed my plans at all to accommodate The joys of being an only child!!! My husband is the youngest of 3 and I'll still go and do my own thing.

 

[myhappyplace]

I am loving your writing style!!

Hopefully for your sake there isn't much more drama, but it's so fun to read

 

[eliza61nyc]

The night before Magic Kingdom:
When we last left you, intrepid travelers we were about to embark on a "thank you" dinner which actually was a timeshare spiel. I played nice and agreed to go on the condition that I'm outta there by 8 pm as not to miss wishes, which actually was the theme for my whole night. The timeshare community was about 17 minutes from the world, dinner was your standard buffet fare of a carving station, some pasta, vegetables, salad and maybe another dish. very standard. the only redeeming factor was free booze. The theme was "south seas/Hawaii" type vibe with entertainment of a hula dancer. lol, then the fun began because of course we had to do audience participation. yep, the hula dancer wanted everyone to try a few dance moves. nothing like seeing 70 year old seniors doing the hula.
I bribed the "youngins" to get up there with the promise of Beaches and cream.

lol yeah I paid dearly for this. As expected the problem arose when I tried to leave, the conversation went:
Hostess: don't forget your tour leaves tomorrow at 8
Me: thank you, my SIL is signed up.
Hostess (now with a feral gleam in her eye because she smells fresh blood): why don't you come also it will be a lot of fun
Me: thanks but I actually already own a timeshare at Disney.
Hostess: well you know, Disney is very restrictive and you don't actually "own" it.
Me: Then it's a really good thing I like going to Disney
Hostess: Think of the memories you and your kids will make as they get older.
Me: I just shelled out 78,000 bucks of money I haven't even made on college tuition, I get monthly "memories" in the mail and they are unemployed. It's against our religion for unemployed youngins to procreate. have a good night.

 

[eliza61nyc]

Magic Kingdom:
After all these years this is still my favorite park. There is nothing like walking under the train station and having the world unfurl in front of you.
My only complaint which is not exclusive to Disney, the rushing of the seasons. come on world, it's not even Labor day and we've got Holloween decorations up? don't even get me started on Christmas decorations in October in the stores.

The weather continued to be typical Florida late summer weather, Nuclear hot, humid with rain showers throughout the day.

We arrived just in time for the morning parade which is sort of a "block party" theme, with music encouraging guest to "Vamos" or let's go. of course floats with all our favorite characters.
When I say "we" lol it's a bit of a mistake, our party that can't be on time to a trip to walmart of course are not here.

 

[eliza61nyc]

Magic kingdom:
Parks continue to be light although this may have been due to the fact that today is a Boo party night so Mk closes at 6 pm. If you are only doing 1 park a day or don't have hoppers you probably would not blow your MK day on a short operating hour day.

No problem doing every thing twice with the exception of course of 7Dwarfs mine train. We did get a bit of pixie dust, a young couple had a fast pass for 5 for the dwarf mine train so we did that twice. We had fast passes for Space mtn, Haunted Mansion and buzz.

For me magic Kingdom is Disney at it's finest, it continues to be my happy place. Even with the jungle tribe I belong to.

LOL big brother with his thumbs up, does not like rides. He got on NOTHING.

 

[eliza61nyc]

Tomorrowland is capitalizing on the popularity of Incredibles 2. tons of those characters walking around all day. lol or maybe it was just folks dressing up as the characters for the Halloween party.

 

[Laura Loves Tigger]

Loving your Trip Report - and your conversation with the timeshare hostess! Congrats to the graduates!

 

[Rista1313]

I'm late to the party, enjoying this comedy of PITA brother so far!

tonight I'm going to a dinner given by a timeshare operator.

I can't even believe you agreed to this! LOL I'm really good at saying NO!

 

[Shouldigo12]

Don't you hate it when you go through all of that effort to plan something out for somebody and they say "....nah, I think I'll just do it my way"? I'm glad you're getting to enjoy the fruits of your labor, though!

 

[fractal]

The night before Magic Kingdom:
When we last left you, intrepid travelers we were about to embark on a "thank you" dinner which actually was a timeshare spiel. I played nice and agreed to go on the condition that I'm outta there by 8 pm as not to miss wishes, which actually was the theme for my whole night. The timeshare community was about 17 minutes from the world, dinner was your standard buffet fare of a carving station, some pasta, vegetables, salad and maybe another dish. very standard. the only redeeming factor was free booze. The theme was "south seas/Hawaii" type vibe with entertainment of a hula dancer. lol, then the fun began because of course we had to do audience participation. yep, the hula dancer wanted everyone to try a few dance moves. nothing like seeing 70 year old seniors doing the hula.
I bribed the "youngins" to get up there with the promise of Beaches and cream.
View attachment 310697

lol yeah I paid dearly for this. As expected the problem arose when I tried to leave, the conversation went:
Hostess: don't forget your tour leaves tomorrow at 8
Me: thank you, my SIL is signed up.
Hostess (now with a feral gleam in her eye because she smells fresh blood): why don't you come also it will be a lot of fun
Me: thanks but I actually already own a timeshare at Disney.
Hostess: well you know, Disney is very restrictive and you don't actually "own" it.
Me: Then it's a really good thing I like going to Disney
Hostess: Think of the memories you and your kids will make as they get older.
Me: I just shelled out 78,000 bucks of money I haven't even made on college tuition, I get monthly "memories" in the mail and they are unemployed. It's against our religion for unemployed youngins to procreate. have a good night.

Looks like it was worth the B&C bill!

Timeshare sales is ridiculous.

 

[John park hopper]

Your time share entrapment brings back a similar nightmare which happened many years ago. We were at WDW for 3 days and got caught-- the supposed deal was free park tickets for a quick 2 hour presentation sounded good. Took a bus to the site and turned out it was not 2 hours: after 2 hours I demanded to be returned to our resort got some static and told them I was here for 3 days and did not want to waste my time on something I would never buy into. Make a long story short they returned us to our resort and we never got our "free tickets" which cost me 2 hours of my time. I have found when going with extended family members things never seem to work out the way i have it visioned in my head, your trip report kinda supports that view. Have to ask the parks look rather empty did you luck out and miss crowds? Glad you had a good time

 

[Zipadeelady]

Loving your report! Don't know how I've missed your posts all last week, must be life keeps getting in my way. Can't wait to hear the rest.

 

[eliza61nyc]

Hollywood studios

Loving your report! Don't know how I've missed your posts all last week, must be life keeps getting in my way. Can't wait to hear the rest.

lol, thanks all and I will definitely pass on the well wishes to the graduates. now to find them a job......

So my brothers and I are all Catholic school refugees, lol 12 years under my belt and the only thing I can figure out is this is my penance for sneaking wine into Sr. Mary Margret's typing class in 11th grade. there can be no other reason why I'm being tortured.

Since Magic Kingdom closed early on Friday, the original game plan was to have dinner at Disney springs and then skip over to Epcot, for illuminations. Unfortunately big brother who I am now (in my head) referring to as "he who must not be mentioned" does not want to break up the party into 4 and 4. for some reason he is refusing to acknowledge a party of 8 is simply harder to seat. luckily again, the "millennials" come to the rescue and basically threaten to hog tie him and shove him in the trunk. lol, never get in the way of 4 twentysomethings and food and my niece is holding her own with her cousins.

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS (and why the hell can't these folks be on time).
lol, ok let me say up front, I've been told I accept "mediocrity" because I have not jumped on the "disney is going downhill bandwagon. So take my review of TSL with a grain of salt.

HS has always been my least favorite park but I am very happy that they are adding things to it.
TSL. I thought TSL was cute, no it is not a land thats going to carry a theme park by itself but it's not horrible. I loved the big bright primary colors. Immediately upon walking towards it a person feels "happy"

One negative: there is not a lot of shade to be found. so if you are visiting on a hot florida, summer day, relief from the sun will be scarce.

slinky dog dash was a pleasant surprise, it goes at a pretty brisk pace and has some nice twist and turns. No it is not a thrill ride but it is a lot of fun and both adults and kids can thoroughly enjoy it.

 

[eliza61nyc]

 

[eliza61nyc]

Toy story midway mania is as fun as ever and when we were there, there was tons of "live" entertainment in the form of the green army men. they had a drum line formation that was hysterical, they had two army men jugglers and three other men that engaged the kids in "drills"

 

[eliza61nyc]

The main criticism on the boards seems to be for the alien saucer ride. All I can say is that there were tons of family's enjoying it. We did not ride it but it is perfect for families with little ones. for once you can get on a ride with your kid and they don't have to worry about it being too scary or anything. Is it a carnival ride or cheap? Is it up to the Disney standard of 30 years ago? I don't know, I don't go around comparing my vacations for long ago to what I'm doing today.
Again the people we saw seemed to enjoy it.

one bittersweet moment. for every year since the boys were little, they have taken a picture in front of Kermit with their dad,

We literally have measured their ages by these pictures, unfortunately their dad lost his battle with cancer a few years ago and this year was the first year they took the picture without him. I was a hot mess.

even at Disney, cancer sucks

 

[eliza61nyc]

So finally big brother shows up around 2pm to attempt to ride the rides. The next problem with traveling with a horde is that every thing must be discussed ad infinum before you can move. Did you know that you can buy a Jack Daniel slushie at HS? lol, I found them because my youngest must have sensed me getting ready to explode and literally just shoved me in the direction of the shops where I found the frozen drink stand.

thankfully again crowds were low and we were able to do Star tours and Tower of terror without much of a wait.

and just when I thought we would get through the day without a side trip to wackadoodle land, we decided to go to fantasmic.
How could one mess up simply watching a night time show you say.......
Well since sister in law was in a wheel chair they showed us to the back of the theater where they have great seating for those in scooters/wheelchairs and t heir guest. but ohhh no, they want to sit down front as not to "miss" anything, and no amount of me arguing will convince them that it's an amphitheater there are no bad seats in the house.
She decides she will walk but doesn't want to leave the wheelchair behind. God bless the cm's, it's like a laurel and hardy routine on one side are 3 cm's trying to pull a wheel chair out of the jaws of a crazy lady.

 

[Rista1313]

Jack and Coke Slushie sounds awesome!

 

[Zipadeelady]

I'm so sorry to hear about your husband. It's great that you kept the tradition of taking the boys picture in front of Kermit. I'm sure it's something they will always remember that they did with their dad.

And Amen about TSL. I've heard so many people on other threads here that are saying how horrible it is. I've yet to be completely disappointed by anything Disney has added or redone since we've started going with our family in 2006. I can't wait to see TSL. It opened the day we left our vacation.

 

[riverside]

I’m so sorry for your loss—yes, cancer sucks.
Enjoying your trip report!!