Trip Report The Never-Ending Summer Of Disney *COMPLETED*

Seriously?!!

Can you believe it??

BC7AE996-5BB5-4770-9C10-F20CE1197633.jpeg

This is jaw-dropping news!!

If only.

Two things in life give me the blues ~ the end of summer and the end of a Disney vacation. A never-ending summer of Disney would be a dream come true! But I am certainly happy to “settle” for a WDW vacay in June....in July....and in August. 😊And rather than write three separate trip reports (and annoy @amjt660 when my *COMPLETED* report really isn’t 😉) I decided to take @Rista1313 ’s suggestion and post an ongoing travelogue, à la @blgauger style.

So let’s get started!

Vacation #1
June 16-24, 2018
Tuvalu, Woody and Em get pampered at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge

Was there rain? Any snarky Cast Members? Ridiculous guest behavior? A Magic meet-up? How many times did we watch Happily Ever After?

You’ll have to follow along to find out.
 

wdwfamilynh

Well-Known Member
It makes me wonder why some people spend so much time sitting around observing and JUDGING other people. Mind your own business. Enjoy the people you're on vacation with, or read a book. They weren't bothering you.
Point #1 = Isn’t it hard to mind one’s own business when others make a PUBLIC spectacle of themselves?

Point #2 = Not “bothering you?” Again, PUBLIC spectacle...
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
Morning Tuvalu! It’s CFA Friday! And since I don’t like coffee, here’s my coke! Breakfast of champions!

View attachment 315448
It's nice to know I'm not the only person on the planet who doesn't drink coffee!! The looks I get from people here when I say I don't drink coffee....:rolleyes: Then they inevitably ask if I'd like some tea....which I also don't drink. "No coffee OR tea??? What do you drink??" Milk, juice, soda, sometimes water as long as it's not with a meal...there ARE other liquids in existence!
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
Refreshed from my Mickey D’s Coke, I now continue with Sunday at the Oasis pool......

Woody returned to his lounger to read. I, the sunflower, was so happy the sun was out that I sat in the shallow end of the pool, soaking up the rays while being cooled by the water. I really missed my fellow sunflower @TrolleyFollower91 and wished she’d been there with me. Woody did join me in the pool later.

It was great leaving the pool when we wanted too, not because a thunderstorm was chasing us out. (We would not be so lucky on other days.)

The path that goes past Fiji leads to Luau Cove.

View attachment 315321
Meant to get a picture with the giant Tiki but never did.

WARNING: The rest of this post contains a grumbly rant. Skip ahead if you prefer not to read it.

Woody and I agree that one of the niceties of being on vacation is having Housekeeping clean our room. Now we are not messy people.....just an unmade bed and folded used towels on the floor. Still it is a pleasure to have someone else make the bed, hang clean towels and empty the trash. Room servicing is so important to us that we would never “opt out” even for a gift card. That’s how we roll.

It’s no secret that Disney has made deep cuts to their Housekeeping staff. The fact that they offer “opting out” at the values and moderates speaks volumes. But each cut means a job loss for someone and extra work for the staff that remains. Sadly this is how corporate America operates ~ cut costs to make the “numbers” look good while forgetting that there are people behind those numbers.

Disney charges a premium to stay at their deluxe resorts and it is not unrealistic for guests to expect a high level of service ~ a major one being room servicing at a reasonable hour. Regular shifts start at 8:30 am (which is early for late risers, but using the privacy sign can avoid an unpleasant knock on the door) and there are lots of folks who are gone for breakfast/the parks meaning those rooms are ready for cleaning. IMO all rooms should be serviced by 2 pm for returning guests, 3 pm for new check-ins.

I complained earlier in this report about the shoddy Housekeeping service Em and I received last month at Beach Club. We had good service at the WL in June, but horrid service at the GF in May. So our track record for deluxe Housekeeping this year has not been good and was about to get worse.

Wet and sweaty from the pool, we opened our door at 4 pm to an unmade room. My blood pressure shot up, for all the reasons I described above. Maintaining my composure, I dialed Housekeeping. The CM promised to send someone right over (the cleaning carts were still in the hallway.) Woody and I decided to sit on the balcony in order to give the housekeeper free rein of the room.

The views lowered my BP.
View attachment 315323

View attachment 315322

Woody and I chatted, our backs to the room. We hung out on the balcony for 45 minutes. When I turned to go inside, my BP spiked.

No one had serviced our room!!

I opened our room door, intending to speak to a housekeeper still servicing rooms on our floor.

All the Housekeeping carts in the hallway were GONE!

“I am going to the front desk,” I announced to Woody. (He didn’t ask why. One look at me and he knew.)

I believe in being nice (but firm) when voicing a complaint. Matter-of-factly I explained our situation to the Duty Manager. She was extremely apologetic, agreed with my concerns and scheduled a servicing for 7 pm (when Woody and I would be out of the room). She also scheduled our daily housekeeping for between 9 am and noon for the rest of our stay. I was given her direct number should anything else arise.

I returned to our room and told Woody to go ahead and shower. I put the privacy sign on the door. When he finished it was my turn. I had just turned on the spigot when there were several loud raps on our room door....AT 5:30 PM. WITH THE PRIVACY SIGN ON THE DOOR HANDLE.

Woody had barely finished dressing. He opened the door to a maid wanting to clean our room. He informed her that our cleaning was scheduled for 7 pm and she seemed confused.

Needless to say, the Duty Manager received a text after I finished showering.
I'm so sorry you had that experience. Especially after you had talked to the duty manager. That's unacceptable. Did they do something for you to make up for it?
I would actually prefer to "opt out", not just for the gift cards, but because I hate them coming to the door when I'm trying to sleep in (when we have the privacy sign on the door!) or while I'm trying to shower, or coming back to find them busy in the room and I can't get in, and an unmade bed just doesn't bother me as much as the inconvenience of them being there. Plus, I feel a little weird having someone in my room where I have all my stuff. I'm probably paranoid, but I'm always picturing them going through my things to see what I have in there. Last year, when my dad died, I was living in a hotel for weeks and I hated that cleaning staff was coming in every day and seeing all my family business....the will, pictures, the flag because he was a veteran, heirlooms....I had nowhere to store it, so it was just....out there. It feels like a violation, even though they never said anything about it. It just makes me uncomfortable. My thing on vacation is that I don't want to cook. I can deal with making my own bed, but please don't make me cook!! But I can totally empathize with you that something that is so important to you goes wrong. And then after complaining about it, it happens again. You definitely had a reason to be livid. I hope they fixed it!!
 

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
A truly "deluxe" resort should be run like a deluxe resort. For the amount of money they charge the guests, there's no excuse for inconsistent cleaning schedules.
Preach it, sister!

I agree. But, I’m one of those people who don’t mind if my room is not serviced. Call it paranoia and/or saving the planet. Now, if I were there for a longer period of time, I might.
And that’s what makes the world go ‘round. :happy: You and @Songbird76 are only two of countless people who would prefer not to have their room cleaned.

Wait a minute--that looks like a plastic straw?! :p
Apparently McDonald’s didn’t get the memo....

Morning Tuvalu! It’s CFA Friday! And since I don’t like coffee, here’s my coke! Breakfast of champions!

View attachment 315448
Thanks, @Rista1313! Hope you had a chicken biscuit to go with that Coke!

It's nice to know I'm not the only person on the planet who doesn't drink coffee!! The looks I get from people here when I say I don't drink coffee....:rolleyes: Then they inevitably ask if I'd like some tea....which I also don't drink. "No coffee OR tea??? What do you drink??" Milk, juice, soda, sometimes water as long as it's not with a meal...there ARE other liquids in existence!
Add me to the no coffee or tea club. 😎
 

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
eta: apparently CFA didn't get the memo on plastic straws either. (please don't take my red straw away!)
As I read your post a song immediately came into my mind.

(To the tune of “You Are My Sunshine”)🎼
You are my red straw
My only red straw
You make me happy
To drink my Coke
You’ll never know, straw
How much I love you
Please don’t take my red straw away!

🎤
 

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Sunday, con’t

Woody and I tried to put the housekeeping hassle out of our minds and focus on dinner. We like to have one signature meal on our shorter trips and since we don’t eat seafood, a tender and juicy steak is top on our list. We have been to Yachtsman, Le Cellier and Citricos but always tend to gravitate back to California Grill.

Because California Grill is a difficult ADR to snag, I always book it when my 180 day window opens. So even before I took my first vacation in 2018, I had CG ADRs for April, May, June and August.

After a disappointing meal in April with Em (due to new chef and removal of favorite menu items) I seriously considering cancelling the other three ADRs. But I was willing to give CG another try in May ~ and Woody and I had an excellent dinner. That experience led me to keep the June ADR (my positive review is on page 22 of this report) and June led me to keep the ADR for tonight.

So naturally we were looking forward to this meal.

We left our unmade room and hoped to find it serviced upon our return. During our monorail ride it rained briefly (the only rain of the day.....a miracle!) but since we were disembarking inside the Contemporary it was a non-issue for us.

We were about 30 minutes early for check in, so we passed the time perusing B*V*G, one of my favorite gift stores. Lots of Halloween merchandise was on display even though it was only the end of August.

I pulled a @ajrwdwgirl and took pictures of what I liked best.

A8A458BB-4828-4F98-8358-E8B7827429F4.jpeg


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B7BCCF50-A82B-43D1-B00B-ABFE3E37262C.jpeg


Hmmmm, Tuvaleen’s first Halloween is coming.....
4C814E08-A41A-46BD-A218-73D762CD692E.jpeg


......too bad this would be too big for Tuvalette.
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Adorbs, but as you know I can’t pull off wearing a hat.
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@MinnieM123 I think you need this!
96D7C539-A03A-4420-AA4C-220AE77F1C18.jpeg
 

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
We rode the escalator down to the 2nd floor to check in for California Grill.

(One of Disney’s greatest mysteries is what happened to the 3rd floor of the Contemporary Resort? If you take the escalator down from the 4th floor concourse (where shopping and dining are), you end up on the second floor.)

I thought our favorite server Ryan had Sundays off, so I made no requests with the hostess. We were instructed to wait by the elevator to be escorted to the 14th floor.

@SteveBrickNJ our elevator operator was Derek from Brick, NJ! (Do you know him? :joyfull:)

Our pager buzzed immediately and we followed another hostess to a table in the back of the main dining room overlooking the observation deck. I had a good view of the entire restaurant and the show kitchen. I enjoyed watching all the activity (when I wasn’t looking at Woody, of course. 😉)

We opened our menus while we waited for our server. I noted a few changes I wasn’t thrilled about.

EE539759-EC47-48F4-AB64-879FA9F5F584.jpeg


AC022593-FF15-4791-A527-6BBD27238592.jpeg


Gary, an older gentleman, was our waiter. He began by saying he never tries to upsell any of his customers, which I thought was a bit odd when introducing himself but I appreciated his honesty. He then waxed poetic about the sun dried tomato and oil spread for the sourdough bread. (I am still pouting over the removal of the lavender focaccia.) I thought maybe this was a different bread dip than what I had last time so Gary’s praise piqued my interest.

Until it arrived......and I immediately requested butter.
F2094D74-A52C-4707-A2D5-81BB48260956.jpeg

(Yes, @riverside I stole your picture! :angelic:)

Gary brought us our wine and I toasted our vacation.
32903659-88EB-4DE8-A814-D4C02B21C8A7.jpeg


Gary almost seemed surprised that we wanted to order appetizers (he must take his “I don’t upsell” motto very seriously!) However in no way did he try to rush us along. He was a consummate server and paced our dinner properly.

Woody started with the Roasted Tomato Soup. I had a taste and instantly thought how wonderful this soup would be on a cold winter night!
FE8A9FF5-CB60-4338-9C32-9D2CFC44A6F5.jpeg

(Although on the very, very off chance the chef at CG is reading this ~ PLEASE bring back the BLT flatbread! The tomatoes on the flatbread were every bit as good as the tomatoes in this soup!!)

I was pleased with my Heirloom Tomato and Stone Fruit Salad. I wasn’t sure what “Stone Fruit” was, but the salad included peaches and another Georgia staple ~ pecans.
85E5E96D-428B-4183-9BE1-4188008900C2.jpeg


Edit: I googled Stone Fruit. Peaches, cherries, plums, nectarines, apricots and mangoes qualify. “Stone Fruit” is obviously a classy way of saying “fruit with a pit.” :hilarious:
 

SteveBrickNJ

Well-Known Member
We rode the escalator down to the 2nd floor to check in for California Grill.

(One of Disney’s greatest mysteries is what happened to the 3rd floor of the Contemporary Resort? If you take the escalator down from the 4th floor concourse (where shopping and dining are), you end up on the second floor.)

I thought our favorite server Ryan had Sundays off, so I made no requests with the hostess. We were instructed to wait by the elevator to be escorted to the 14th floor.

@SteveBrickNJ our elevator operator was Derek from Brick, NJ! (Do you know him? :joyfull:)

Our pager buzzed immediately and we followed another hostess to a table in the back of the main dining room overlooking the observation deck. I had a good view of the entire restaurant and the show kitchen. I enjoyed watching all the activity (when I wasn’t looking at Woody, of course. 😉)

We opened our menus while we waited for our server. I noted a few changes I wasn’t thrilled about.

View attachment 315517

View attachment 315516

Gary, an older gentleman, was our waiter. He began by saying he never tries to upsell any of his customers, which I thought was a bit odd when introducing himself but I appreciated his honesty. He then waxed poetic about the sun dried tomato and oil spread for the sourdough bread. (I am still pouting over the removal of the lavender focaccia.) I thought maybe this was a different bread dip than what I had last time so Gary’s praise piqued my interest.

Until it arrived......and I immediately requested butter.
View attachment 315524
(Yes, @riverside I stole your picture! :angelic:)

Gary brought us our wine and I toasted our vacation.
View attachment 315518

Gary almost seemed surprised that we wanted to order appetizers (he must take his “I don’t upsell” motto very seriously!) However in no way did he try to rush us along. He was a consummate server and paced our dinner properly.

Woody started with the Roasted Tomato Soup. I had a taste and instantly thought how wonderful this soup would be on a cold winter night!
View attachment 315520
(Although on the very, very off chance the chef at CG is reading this ~ PLEASE bring back the BLT flatbread! The tomatoes on the flatbread were every bit as good as the tomatoes in this soup!!)

I was pleased with my Heirloom Tomato and Stone Fruit Salad. I wasn’t sure what “Stone Fruit” was, but the salad included peaches and another Georgia staple ~ pecans.
View attachment 315519

Edit: I googled Stone Fruit. Peaches, cherries, plums, nectarines, apricots and mangoes qualify. “Stone Fruit” is obviously a classy way of saying “fruit with a pit.” :hilarious:
LOL....regarding the elevator operator.
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
As I read your post a song immediately came into my mind.

(To the tune of “You Are My Sunshine”)🎼
You are my red straw
My only red straw
You make me happy
To drink my Coke
You’ll never know, straw
How much I love you
Please don’t take my red straw away!

🎤
I heard Disney is going to completely get rid of plastic straws starting in 2019, so we're now all supposed to buy reusable ones. I wonder if they will use it as way to sell more merch. Come out with their own reusable straws and sell them in the parks.
 

LadyBelle

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
I heard Disney is going to completely get rid of plastic straws starting in 2019, so we're now all supposed to buy reusable ones. I wonder if they will use it as way to sell more merch. Come out with their own reusable straws and sell them in the parks.

Disney never misses an opportunity.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Sunday, con’t

Woody and I tried to put the housekeeping hassle out of our minds and focus on dinner. We like to have one signature meal on our shorter trips and since we don’t eat seafood, a tender and juicy steak is top on our list. We have been to Yachtsman, Le Cellier and Citricos but always tend to gravitate back to California Grill.

Because California Grill is a difficult ADR to snag, I always book it when my 180 day window opens. So even before I took my first vacation in 2018, I had CG ADRs for April, May, June and August.

After a disappointing meal in April with Em (due to new chef and removal of favorite menu items) I seriously considering cancelling the other three ADRs. But I was willing to give CG another try in May ~ and Woody and I had an excellent dinner. That experience led me to keep the June ADR (my positive review is on page 22 of this report) and June led me to keep the ADR for tonight.

So naturally we were looking forward to this meal.

We left our unmade room and hoped to find it serviced upon our return. During our monorail ride it rained briefly (the only rain of the day.....a miracle!) but since we were disembarking inside the Contemporary it was a non-issue for us.

We were about 30 minutes early for check in, so we passed the time perusing B*V*G, one of my favorite gift stores. Lots of Halloween merchandise was on display even though it was only the end of August.

I pulled a @ajrwdwgirl and took pictures of what I liked best.

View attachment 315508

View attachment 315509

View attachment 315512

Hmmmm, Tuvaleen’s first Halloween is coming.....
View attachment 315513

......too bad this would be too big for Tuvalette.
View attachment 315514

Adorbs, but as you know I can’t pull off wearing a hat.
View attachment 315510

@MinnieM123 I think you need this!
View attachment 315511

Yay for merch pictures! :)
 

DisSplash

Well-Known Member

YES, This!! I completely agree that McD's has the BEST fountain soda out there. We had a whole discussion about this at work and we were all in complete agreement … someone told me that McD perfected a tubing system for the fountain soda machines? I dunno, but they sure do taste absolutely perfect every time. And with the $1 price tag for a large, you cannot beat it!
 

Rista1313

Well-Known Member
YES, This!! I completely agree that McD's has the BEST fountain soda out there. We had a whole discussion about this at work and we were all in complete agreement … someone told me that McD perfected a tubing system for the fountain soda machines? I dunno, but they sure do taste absolutely perfect every time. And with the $1 price tag for a large, you cannot beat it!

When I worked at mcdonalds as a teen (ok we are talking 30 years ago) .. a supervisor once showed me how they "calibrate" their fountain drink machines, with a little screw, I'm not sure how they knew when it was "right", but I do remember her doing it.
 

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