The "Never Again in July - nunca mais em julho" Disneymoon Trip Report

7.7.12 - Our Wedding day went well, actually very well. It rained all morning and to our luck it stopped an hour and a half before our ceremony and the weather was perfect; reminiscent of a fall day in New England... a tad on the cloudy side, cool with no humidity. This IS not part of the TR but I figured some people were interested... so I wanted to share. I'm sure everyone is interested in what I look like, so bam... here's a couple quickies. The rest of the TR is coming... soon!

The best trip ever, and with the crowds and tour groups 11 days was money and we needed every bit of it.

 

[jlsHouston]

a wonderful trip report, Congratulations!

 

[annawilliams]

Congrats!!!! You two are adorable together!

 

[disney1077]

Congratulations!

 

[disney1077]

Continuing on from my previous post on 7.9: the Brazillllllians

I know this is a controversial topic here, and that many threads end up getting locked, members being told their ignorant or prejudicial. I must admit, when I would read threads I often said "yeah, how bad could they really be?" Well, let me tell you something... they are downright AWFUL.

Once we soaked in the view, the room upgrade, the complimentary bottle of Disney exclusive champagne we changed our shoes, freshened up, and ran right into the MK. I mean, we were on a monorail resort! Although, we simple walked from the Tahiti building over to TTC, it was much quicker. We followed tradition, entered the MK to the right and went immediately to Adventureland and POTC. I immediately saw the yellow shirts, the flags, the blue shirts, again the flags. I knew we were in trouble. We're in line for POTC (and I must admit the crowds are too much in July) and the chanting began. POTC is one of those attractions where everything gets you into the mood, the music, the smell... and then it was all ruined by a ratpack of Brazilians chanting and banging on the wall, followed by screaming during the ride and about 200000 flash photos. All of this happened within the first 30 mins of being inside MK and our first ride of the day. I was NOT a happy camper. I spent all of this money to have to deal with these kids for 11 long days. We came across groups from Paraguay and Argentina and guess what, they were fine... it was the Brazilians who were chanting, linking arms at night so you couldn't cross, essentially groping each other. CM after CM chatted with me about how they felt Disney brass needed to do something about the groups, along with them admitting their loss figures (stolen goods) is the highest when the groups are in the park.

I am not surprised by this as I always go in July. they can be real pains. The thing that bothers me the most is when you are waiting in line and there are couple of them in front of you and all of sudden a whole mob of them come in and cuts in the line.

 

[ddbowdoin]

At this point in my TR, I feel the need to discuss and highlight something my wife and I really, really enjoyed and got into. Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom.

This is really a great addition to MK and gives guests who know the park like the back of their hand a chance to do something differently. What is even better is the element of chance and surprise, you simply don't know what cards you'll get in your pack that day. To cover the basics (for those who haven't played) there are stations throughout MSUSA, AL, and Liberty Square. Each guest receives one pack of cards (containing 5 cards) per park admission. Your task is to defeat 8 villains, plus Hades making it 9 total. Once a game is beaten you can receive an additional pack of cards. The art is really outstanding on the cards and we began collecting and beating the game as soon as we arrived. At this point there are 70 cards, with #61 - 70 being ultra rare (as they aren't printed anymore) and are on ebay at 135 a card, yes 135 bucks each.

We have a nearly completed deck (minus the 61-70) and cannot wait to return to play. The only downside is the game was set to easy for the summer months to control the crowds. From my understanding there are additional levels as you complete the game and the game becomes harder and harder, and the aspects of the ratings of each card also come into play at later stages.

We essentially returned to MK every day to either play or receive new cards and then would leave to head to our originally planned park for that day. In addition to the game, many players carry duplicates and trade with others... which is an awesome communal aspect of the game. 90% of the people I saw playing were adults, very few children and it seemed no one was out to screw anyone in a trade.

 

[JCtheparrothead]

Great trip report so far. Congrats on your wedding.

I am with you though, 1 trip with the bazillions of Brazilians and you try to avoid those times from there on out.

 

[dixiegirl]

"isn't that place just for kids?"

"oh, I thought you went last year"

"are you going with nephews or something?"

Loving the trip report !! Oh and we started as a Disney Honeymoon Couple as well , that was 16yrs ago and we have gone back every year since and now with our two girls who are 12 and 8. But we got all the flack as well!! Believe me after planning and the stress from all the wedding crap, you need a place to let loose and be a kid! Congrats to both of you and the many more trips to the World I'm sure you'll take!

 

[J_Carioca]

The best thing to do when people criticize you for honeymooning at Disney is to just let it go. I used to try to explain to people why it was so amazing, but then I stopped. I finally figured out that I was only likely to convert more people to being DW fans and thus make the parks even busier. So now when people ask about Disney I don't even try to make them understand how great it it...I just figure that's fewer people in the parks

 

[ddbowdoin]

7.11: now, our first logistical aspect of the trip, we were checking out of Poly and into our normal resort... The Beach Club. One would think this is easy, but it turned out a little trickier than I thought. 1.) bell services took our bags and we ventured off to AK. Once in AK we took advantage of early EMH and knocked out a safari ride, two adventures down Everest, a quick spin in Dinosaur, and Kali. We then watched our favorite show on property, Nemo. We swore we would give AK ample time but we literally did everything by 1PM which is pretty rough if you ask. This included all trails and shows, minus Lion King.

No real tasty meals to report here, we kept it casual and actually canceled our ADR's at Tusker. We devoured our annual turkey leg, despite regretting and hating the purchase afterwards. is that Turkey or Ham? hahaha.
We aren't breakfast people, never really have been. When it comes to walking around all day in a gate, last thing I want is to be loaded down and sluggish. Occasionally I'll get bacon and eggs or pancakes but I usually regret it. We topped lunch off with a massive ice cream sandwich, wow... thing was huge and really good. What is up with Disney and "hand scooped ice cream"... is this not normal in the southern states? Here in Yankeeland all ice cream is hand scooped, hard ice cream.

We decided to cancel our dinner ADR so that we could head over to the Beach Club and square away our second check in. At this point the heat was getting to us a small bit, but we carried on and were still on a 100MPH pace. Now the tricky parts, we arrived back at BC around 3PM, checked in, and went to bell services. Hmm, our bags weren't there yet. They called over to Poly and were told everything was delivered, then called again and said they had our bags and were putting them on a van to transfer, then they called again and said they still had the bags. At this point the bell services from BC just drove over and got our bags. Not a huge deal, but two hours later we had our bags. We showered up, watched a little tube, and then headed into Epcot for a casual dinner. We decided to give Morocco a try and I am GLAD I did. I'm unsure how authentic this food was but I found the dish simply delicious. It was nice to have something besides burgers, fries, and nuggets. I will definitely return to the Tangerine Cafe.

As always Illumuninations is an amazing show... we decided the deck outside of Teppan Edo would be a nice spot and it delivered. At this point in our trip, three days in we were still on cloud 9. The impending reality that we would eventually have to fly home did not creep in yet... but I stress the YET.

 

[lostpro9het]

Great TR so far!

We decided to give Morocco a try and I am GLAD I did. I'm unsure how authentic this food was but I found the dish simply delicious. It was nice to have something besides burgers, fries, and nuggets. I will definitely return to the Tangerine Cafe.

Said it before and Ill say it again, Tangerine Cafe is the best QS spot at WDW!

 

[ddbowdoin]

Great TR so far!


Said it before and Ill say it again, Tangerine Cafe is the best QS spot at WDW!

And cheap... we had a vegetable plate, a chicken dish (with couscous and all that jazz), plus a drink for roughly 22 bucks or so. There was NO one there, and Mo'Rockin came on right as we sat down outside. It was a great experience. Again, I don't frequent middle eastern / arabic restaurants here so it's hard to say how authentic everything was but I certainly enjoyed and for the price, it is tough to beat.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Love the TR so far!! Sounds like ya'll had a blast!!!

Brazillian tour groups =
I've never been when they've been there and I never want to. I just don't understand how you can go to another country and completely have no regards for their rules.. I went to Switzerland and Germany and made it my job to understand how things over over there so I could act accordingly. I never imagined acting out like these tours groups do. It's a shame they have to ruin the experience for others but I digress....

Awesome about the upgrade at the Poly. And I agree with you on Wishes from 'Ohana. Doesn't seem like any of the tables really have a great view. We watched from our table at the Cali Grill in May and the view was GREAT!!

 

[captainkidd]

Brazillian tour groups =
I've never been when they've been there and I never want to. I just don't understand how you can go to another country and completely have no regards for their rules.. I went to Switzerland and Germany and made it my job to understand how things over over there so I could act accordingly. I never imagined acting out like these tours groups do. It's a shame they have to ruin the experience for others but I digress....

I don't get this either. I know some on here get offended by it, but ask any CM, and they'll all tell you - This is just the way they behave.

 

[ppodangel]

Really great trip report so far! Congratulations to you and your lovely wife

 

[ddbowdoin]

I don't get this either. I know some on here get offended by it, but ask any CM, and they'll all tell you - This is just the way they behave.

I even went as far as asking my Keys tour guide about them... she made one reference, dollar signs. That kind of upset me, they are annoying to the tenth degree.
1.) chanting
2.) clapping in lines
3.) using one person as a placeholder then having the remaining 98 kids think they can join that single person in line
4.) stealing, which I noticed on numerous occasions... pointed it out to a CM who told me once they leave a specific cart or area there is little they can do, really??!?!?!
5.) flashes on dark rides, although a hell of a lot of people do that anyway.
6.) chanting on rides
7.) tour leaders feeding about 130 park admission tickets in FastPass machines.

I could go on for days.

 

[nngrendel]

Great TR so far. Congrats to you and your wife. I have always wanted to stay at the Poly myself but its way out of our budget at this point in our lives.

I also totally get the same response when I let people know we are going for our anniversary trip this Sept. They think I am crazy up until I tell them what all we have planned.

Brazillian tour groups =
I've never been when they've been there and I never want to. I just don't understand how you can go to another country and completely have no regards for their rules.. I went to Switzerland and Germany and made it my job to understand how things over over there so I could act accordingly. I never imagined acting out like these tours groups do. It's a shame they have to ruin the experience for others but I digress....

I am also sorry to hear about the tour groups. We were in DTD on July 13th and noticed lots and lots of tour groups there. I have always read the stories of the dreaded tour groups but didn't realize how many they actually were until I actually saw it.

 

[mouse_luv]

Congrats to you and your new bride!
We are going end of Aug and hoping that the Brazillians are a continent away from Disney by then!

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

I don't get this either. I know some on here get offended by it, but ask any CM, and they'll all tell you - This is just the way they behave.

I understand for Disney it's all about the dollar signs but they should give them a list of rules they have to follow. If the rest of us have to follow these rules (no holding places in line for 45 family members, being respectful of other people in the parks/at the resorts, etc) then they should as well. Just cause they're from a different country should not make them exempt to these rules.

 

[WDW_Princess24]

Congratulations to you both! So glad Disney was able to add some extra magic! Poly is gorgeous!

 

[captainkidd]

I understand for Disney it's all about the dollar signs but they should give them a list of rules they have to follow. If the rest of us have to follow these rules (no holding places in line for 45 family members, being respectful of other people in the parks/at the resorts, etc) then they should as well. Just cause they're from a different country should not make them exempt to these rules.

They do have a list of rules. They simply don't follow them, and Disney in return does nothing. They won't turn away the money.