Trip Report July 26 through August 8, 2008

Hello everyone!

Like some have done before, I thought I would start my trip report to WDW before I go and finish it up when I return. I'm starting it now because I know I won't have time later this week.

My family consists of myself, Male 43, my wife 45, and my two daughters ages 8 and 10. This will be me and my wife's 5th trip and my kid's 2nd trip back to WDW. We last visited last summer, this is our first back to back WDW vacation and we probably won't return for a few years after.

Our vacation will start on Saturday, July 26th and we will return home on August 8th. We'll be driving down and back in our 2006 Chrysler Town & Country touring minivan.

On this trip my wife and I will be celebrating our 21st wedding anniversary.

We decided to make an effort to finally visit Universal this time, we've never been, and we will do SeaWorld as well, before we do WDW. It is the fact that we haven't visited Universal before that we are justifying our return to WDW again so soon, not that anyone needs to have a reason, my wife's idea.

On the first day we're going to drive south starting at 5:00 AM from northern Illinois to just south of Chicago through Indiana, Kentucky Tennessee and stop in northern Georgia overnight. Sunday morning we then will continue south and take the bypass around Atlanta to avoid the road construction that is going on downtown and continue south through Georgia into Florida. We plan on being on Universal's property mid to late afternoon Sunday before 6:00PM, hopefully earlier. We have reservations at the Portofino Bay Hotel, we requested a bay view room. We are staying on Universal's property for 4 nights, we want to do both Universal parks and SeaWorld. If we have time we'll do other diversions we don't normally get to do, pool time for the kids, shopping and other such frivolities around Orlando proper. We'll also do some resting up around the hotel before embarking on our WDW adventure, because that is one thing we won't be doing once we get there. We don't have a real plan as far as which parks we'll do when, probably SeaWorld last. We like to plan but we also like a little spontaneity as well.

We will leave Portofino on Thursday morning 7/31/08 and check into the Contemporary resort early, before noon if possible. We requested an MK view, on a higher floor. We have ADRs for Chef Mickey's that morning, the last seating time. We haven't done Chef Mickeys since 1987.
We plan on hitting MK that first day with no real itinerary, I would like to hit the Haunted Mansion imeadiately because I missed it last year due to the refurbishment and haven't rode it since 1990, but my kids have never seen it before and I want them to experience it the same way I did for the first time as a kid in 1973, at night, I'm a sentimental fool, I guess.

The next day August 1st is our Anniversary and as I mentioned we're staying at the Contemporary, which was our honeymoon hotel 21 years before. When we made the reservations last summer the person we talked to said we could request the same room we stayed in then, but that isn't important to us, so we didn't request it. We will do MK on this day as well, we have ADRs for dinner at CRT for our anniversary, not necessarily me and my wife's first choice, our kids wanted to do it. We decided to celebrate our anniversary as a family instead of just as a couple. There will be plenty of opportunities to do the couple thing when the kids are grown and out of the house. We will do MK again on our last day before going home, too depressing not to.

We plan on hitting MK, Epcot, AK and DHS on their late EMH days, my wife has written down the days, we'll have to check to make sure they don't change, I think as the days fall we won't be able to do late EMH at DHS, I don't remember. One thing, we will be doing less TS dining than we did last time. We wasted a lot of time sitting in restaurants last year.

That's the general plan, we have been preparing for this trip since last July. We are now about 95% packed thanks to my wife. The only thing left is my stuff. I had the van cleaned out, washed and waxed and had the oil changed.

Our trip is only 7 days away and the pressure is on. It seems I've been counting the days and it's here all of a sudden! Just yesterday I remember it being 368 days away! My wife has been cleaning the house and I have to mow the lawn one last time, if it ever stops raining, it's raining now as I write this.

I've been preparing things at work, I'm at work now. I've been ordering extra supplies and delegating some of my responsibilites so my absence won't be too keenly felt. Being away from work for two weeks is not something I normally do, it does make it worse coming back. Not only will everything be piled on my desk and my computer filled with unread emails but being in the zombie state that first day back is a killer. I'll try not to think about it and let that foul day worry about itself for now!

I'm really looking forward to this vacation. We did the awkward "first time back in 17 years" last year and got through most of the new stuff that we never experienced. Our touring, I anticipate, will be better this time around. Our kids have matured a bit more and since this trip is not a surprise to them I've been coaching them about the rides they were too scared to try last time and the new ones they'll see at Universal. I think they may want to try some of them, we'll see. If not, I won't push them too hard, but I really think being more ready this time they'll want to do more. They're adamant that they won't do ToT, they won't negotiate on that one for sure, disappointing, but not unexpected, after the "freak out" they had last year when my wife and I did the swap thing in line and they thought they were going to ride, despite our reassurances that they weren't. They also told me most certainly they are not doing Dr. Doom's fearfall either.

I'll continue to add to this post before we go if I have anything else to report, otherwise I'll add what happened when I return.

Thanks for reading in advance!

 

[disneygirl1]

Love reading your trip report! Can't wait till the next installment...

 

[JustPlainBill]

Tuesday, August 5th
Epcot

We took the monorail over to the TTC to transfer to the Epcot Monorail. It was then I noticed the huge tour group I mentioned earlier dressed all in yellow getting on the the MK express monorail. I wondered then if the reason I hadn't bumped into these tour groups in the parks was because I was going to the parks with EMH. Maybe the tour groups stayed away from those certain parks, I don't know, just guessing.

As soon as we got to Epcot, I gathered my family's tickets and I made the mad dash to get our Soarin' FPs, while my family leisurely walked toward the Land Pavillion. The fast passes I got were for about noon and hour and a half away. The standby line was only 30 minutes, it seemed to still be a little early. By the time my family arrived I suggested we ride Soarin' since the line wasn't so bad yet. I was vetoed, the family wanted to do Nemo since there was no wait at all. We did Turtle talk as well. Our kids were parked right in front of the screen. I wasn't going to video tape the show, but something told me I should so I did. Shortly into the show Crush noticed our two girls in front both in yellow with "pony" seahorse tails running down the back of their heads. He asked our daughters what their names were and where they were from. He asked who brought them there from the "inois of Ill," and they gave me and my wife up. Crush asked us to raise our hands and asked us some questions. It was a bit fun, he joked with me a bit and made me the butt of a joke or two but it was in good fun. I got it all on DVD too! I was going to skip Nemo too!

We did Spaceship Earth next, the wait was only 30 minutes, we noticed the wait for Soarin' jumped up to 60 minutes.

The improvements made to SSE looked very good. Our kids really liked the ending sequence where pictures of their faces where put in the cartoon thing at the end. They thought it was a riot, they wanted to ride agian right after, which we couldn't because of our Soarin' FPs, we did ride it again later though. We rode SSE last year and it did need a good refurb, and I think it got one.

We next went to do Soarin' the standby line was up to 70 minutes, before getting into line we got FP's for Soarin' again. We sat in the last row of seats, the show didn't seem to be as good from there. We last rode in the first row of seats last year, the ones that go higher. After riding Soarin' I didn't have the same feeling as I had the first time we rode it. It was still fun, but it wasn't the same.

We had lunch at the counter service place right next near Soarin' on the lower floor of the Land Pavillion. While paying for our food I noticed the cashier was from Chicago by her name badge. I struck up a conversation with her. I told her from where in Chicago I'm originally from. She told me she was from the south side. Sox fan I said aloud with apprehension. She asked if I was a Cubs fan, I said of course. She said ironically that she was a south side Cubs fan. Impossible, I declared! She said no, it's the truth, she said it had caused her problems in her family. She told us to be sure and go back and get our free cookies for our anniversary. We thanked her and tried to find a table, it was very crowded and there wasn't a table in sight. Luckily, a family had just gotten up and held the table for us before they left. We thanked them and proceeded to dig in.

We finished lunch and we saw the Lion King show on the second level. I was surprised the land boat show was a 60 minute wait!

We did SSE again, 30 minute wait, unfortunately the computers went down or something and the much anticipated end show didn't work, just a generic cartoon played without our faces. The kids were very disappointed, inconsolable really.

We next went to Mission Space, had never been on that one yet. The tip board said it was a 60 minute wait for the mild version and 40 minute wait for the spinning version. I forget the color scheme green and orange, which is which. When we got to the ride the times were switched, 40 min. for one and 60 min. for the other. Surprisingly when we entered the ride (milder version) we went right in, no wait at all. Our kids loved it so much that we went right back on again. While browsing some of the shops I came across a pin that had Mickey Mouse in a Chicago Cubs uniform with the Cubs logo. I snapped it up and put it on my camera case. I didn't see pins for all the teams, they only had 3 or 4.

We went on Soarin' again, this time we got to go in the front row. Much definately a better ride. Still not the same as the first time last year though. Soarin' was up to 120 minutes by then.

We skipped the imagination ride, not having liked it last year. We preferred the original version we last saw before in 1990. We did HISTA and decided after that we didn't like that one anymore either after seeing it once last year.

We wanted to do TT but couldn't. The standby line was 2 hours, and the fastpasses were all gone for the day.

We did some more shopping and made our way over to Germany for our 5:30 ADRs at the Biergarten. We hadn't been there since 1987, it wasn't a buffet then. The hostess gave us a beeper and told us they would page us when our table was ready. We browsed the shops for about 20 minutes when the beeper went off.

The hostess who seated us noticed that my last name was German and remarked about it. I told her yes it was. She began speaking to me in German. I made out a few words here and there but I confessed to her that I was 4th generation American on my German side, my Mom's side is Danish/Irish. The last person who spoke fluent German in my family was my Grandfather. I had a year in school and ashamedly I forgot a lot of it. I actually know more Spanish than German.

The hostess understood and sat us down next to a family with two young kids, coincidentily they were from a Chicago suburb. It was their first time visiting WDW and they had just arrived that morning. They were staying at the Yacht Club. When they found out that we had some WDW experience they asked us all kinds of logistical questions, how to get here to there and how, kind of questions. We were happy to oblige. When we told them that we had stayed at Universal, they asked about that as well. When they asked how they could transfer to MK to catch wishes. I told them about the bus from the YC, but mentioned that if they had park hoppers they could just walk to Epcot and take the monorail. My wife looked at me strangely and said "Honey were already in Epcot". I was taken a-back. My wife apologized to the couple and pointed to the Beer in front of me and told them that I must have thought I was in the real Germany. We all laughed. I had been giving the directions from the YC not realizing they wanted to go to MK that evening from Epcot. We went up to get our food. My wife had surprised me, she never drinks beer, but on this trip she was drinking more with me. The beer was very good. I drank all of mine and had to drink 3/4 of my wife's, because she couldn't finish. The food was very good, the best in WDW I declare! At least my experience. The tastes reminded me of my Grandmother's cooking, which I haven't had in over 20 years since her passing. I only wish my stomach could have held more. My youngest began acting up a bit, and misbehaving, which kind of put a damper on the evening. The show was shorter than the original 21 years ago and had less performers, but was still good.

By the time we got done with dinner it was 6:30 PM. There was a storm front moving in and very dark clouds overtook SSE:




It got darker and the wind was picking up. We feared a storm but never saw rain. It was late magic hours for Epcot, but again with our youngest's misbehavior we decided to call it a night. We wanted to see Wishes from the Contemporary again, we liked that show better than illuminations anyway. After that big meal at the Biergarten we were in no mood to do anymore walking or riding any rides.

We shopped a little more and made our exit to the monorail, changed at the TTC and got back to the hotel and watched Wishes. The next day would be our last day at WDW we would leave for home Thursday morning.

More later.

 

[Ravenclaw87]

Drinking champagne on your balcony does sound awfully peaceful and romantic, albeit your Doritos incident!

And, yes, I always think AK is 10x hotter than everywhere else in Florida! I know it has the least amount of a/c-ed places in WDW, but still--- it just seems soooo hot.

I'm glad you liked SSE: I did, too, and I was starting to feel like I was the only one!

 

[JustPlainBill]

Drinking champagne on your balcony does sound awfully peaceful and romantic, albeit your Doritos incident!

And, yes, I always think AK is 10x hotter than everywhere else in Florida! I know it has the least amount of a/c-ed places in WDW, but still--- it just seems soooo hot.

I'm glad you liked SSE: I did, too, and I was starting to feel like I was the only one!

Thanks, great minds think alike!

 

[JustPlainBill]

Wednesday, August 6th.
Last full day at WDW.

Magic Kingdom.

When I awoke this morning I had a positive attitude. Even though this day always happens in everyone's vacation. I didn't want to live through this day dreading it's end. I decided to just live it.

It looked like it was going to be a great day, though still hot. We took the monorail over to MK, I decided to do more video recording this day. I took shots of the monorail ride around Seven seas Lagoon, the area in between the MK monorail station and the park entrance. I took shots up and down mainstreet, inside some of the shops. We had small breakfast at the Mainstreet Bakery. As we made our way towards Adventureland we nearly passed Casey's. I told my wife last year that I wanted to get a hot dog there, but never did. Hadn't gotten to it yet, so now my wife asked if I wanted one now, in case we forgot later. I said ok, I don't normally eat a hotdog right after breakfast, but it was a small breakfast and I really wanted to try one. It was good, hadn't had a hotdog like that in a long time.

We made it to the Dole whip stand in Adventureland. My wife asked me if I wanted one too, I passed, I was now full and didn't want to think of food for awhile. She joked around with the CM behind the counter, I took some video of Adventureland. We were going to go on PoTC, but for some reason our youngest balked. She has a fear of darkness and drops, and she told us that she was afraid of the initial drop, which is why she doesn't like Spash. I tried to talk her into it, persuade her, but my bag of tricks didn't work this time. I think she was mad that we didn't schedule any pool time and this was her way of rebelling. My wife offered to stay behind and let me ride with our oldest daughter, but I passed and said maybe later.

Despite my initial positive attitude things started going downhill from there.

My wife tells me that day wasn't EMH at MK. I didn't check myself so I assume my wife was correct. The park seemed to be packed, no matter where you turned there were people everywhere. Lines were long and tempers were short.

We spent a lot of time in line. Certain rides weren't so bad 30 or 40 minute waits. The most popular were 60 minutes or more. Peter Pan was never under 120 minutes. For some reason that ride seemed to have the longest wait of any MK attraction. I like the ride too but I can't fathom why it's so much more popular than anything else and why anyone would wait in a 2 hour line to ride it?

We hadn't rode splash yet, the kids didn't want to ride it, so my wife and I got FPs twice and switched off. We really didn't like riding rides alone apart from each other, but short of dragging our kids kicking and screaming on these rides, which would be worse, there wasn't much else we could do.

It became hotter and the park got even more crowded by afternoon. I asked my wife again, are you sure it's not EMH today? She affirmed it wasn't. I wanted to get over to the Haunted Mansion but all day it seemed very crowded. We did the Riverboat and Presidents next. We went to Fantasyland and tried to get on some of the rides during the afternoon parade, but our strategy didn't work this time. Fantasyland was choked with people and the lines were still long.

Before we left on this vacation I told my wife we had to ride the Haunted Mansion at least six times, to make up for not being able to ride last year. Were had already rode it 5 times, on the previous days when the park wasn't so crowded. It was nice taking in all the new stuff that was added. We bumped around to each land trying to get into lines for attractions that weren't so long, without much success. We rode PoTC separately. We had early dinner at Pecos Bills, first time there. I never realized how big that place was on the inside. Not bad for counter service food, the CMs were nice as well.

We really should have conceded defeat and left the MK for some other venture but we were stubborn, I think now my youngest daughter had the better idea, A day in the pool would have been much nicer than what we were doing at the time, I must have been insane not to switch gears. I remember our last day, last year at MK being similar, only then, I did take the kids back to the hotel to the pool for a few hours.

We figured once it got around Spectromagic time we would have our fun, when everyone cleared out to watch it. It never happend, the crowd never disapated. We decided to go to HM, there was still a wait of 40 minutes, but we got in line anyway.

My mood went from bad to worse. It must have been Bozo day at the MK, every moron in the park decided to ride the HM at the same time as us (not that everyone in the park that day was a moron, just all the morons that were in the park that day amongst the good decent people decided to gather on one ride at the same time). When the doors opened and we gathered in front of the fireplace with the changing picture the noise level was high I could barely hear the Ghost Host. When we filed into the stretching room half the people became even louder and more obnoxious. These people looked like they might have been from Brazil, I thought I detected a bit of portuguese, but they weren't organized like a tour group. They weren't wearing the same color shirts or anything. People were talking aloud, totally ignoring the GH and the room stretching. A few men, not teenagers, men, were actually screaming at the top of their lungs, just screaming, not at anything particuliar, while the room stretched, prompting the other half of the room to scream back at them to shut up. One @$$, was screaming into the ears of a little girl that he was holding trying to scare her, I guess? He succeded in making her cry, so he can be proud of himself. It was bedlam! I couldn't hear a word of the ghost host at all or any of the cool effects that had been added. On an earlier HM visit the ghost host's voice travels all around the room, it sounds like he's flying around. Couldn't make any of it out this time.

When it came to loading, everyone tried to get ahead of everyone else, pushing and stepping on small children. When the second stretch room opened up behind us as we were queuing up, they tried to jump ahead of us, making it even more congested. Honestly, why can't people wait their turn?

I shepherded my youngest daughter into her doom buggy and sat down next to her, my wife got into the one behind us with our oldest daughter. I had my dvd recorder out, because I had tried to get the stretching room on dvd, no lighting, but to no avail with all that noise. Just as the safety bar came down I was trying to put my camera away back in my case. The CM standing where the doom buggys enter the first part of the attraction scolded me and told me to put my camera away, no photography was allowed she yelled tersely. I nodded my understanding, and showed her that I was indeed putting it away. Then I thought, she could have been nicer about it. Anyway, we weren't into the ride barely 10 feet when morons ahead of us and behind us began snapping flash pictures constantly blinding everyone. Every few seconds a flash would go off. Us, and others in the other doom buggys were yelling at them to stop but they wouldn't listen. I don't know why they didn't make an announcement or stop the ride. What really angered me was getting scolded while I was putting my camera away and everyone else was just snapping away freely. I never saw it so bad.

It was after exiting the ride I admitted defeat, all I wanted to to was leave. I was angry enough to hit someone, realizing this, I tried calming myself down. It did help hearing my wife complain about the experience, at least I wasn't alone. We rode a few more attractions and decided to leave and watch wishes from our room back at the hotel. We made our way down mainstreet, meandering through the crowd of people who were positioning themselves for the show. By the time we got to the other end of mainstreet the hub area by city hall, my mood lighten up a bit. I think it was all the CMs that were lining the street as we walked past them. They were all very friendly and each wishing us well and waving.

An announcement came that wishes was going to start in 10 minutes. My wife tugged on my arm like she wanted to watch the show from where we were. I relented, that part of mainstreet wasn' very crowded, finding a spot wasn't so hard. I decided to record it so I got my camera out. During the show a moron on a scooter figured it was a good idea to drive his vehicle through a crowd of people while their heads were looking up at the fireworks. I didn't notice him until he ran over my wife and 10 year olds daughter's feet and I heard them scream in pain. He apologized after my wife yelled at him.

From the various places I've viewed wishes, I have to say the best spot for me was from mainstreet. I viewed it from the hub, by the Partners statue last year, but that was too close. Down at the other end of mainstreet seemed to be just right. The audio worked better on the dvd camera from there as well when I played it back. If you're too close the reports of the fireworks pops out the music and voices when your too close.

We boarded the monorail back to the Contemporary as soon as Wishes was over and ended our day.

We didn't stay up any longer than we had too, we went right to bed. We had a long drive back home ahead of us.

More later.

 

[dox]

Loving your trip report and the pics! Although I only visit Universal every few years (and not a big Universal park fan), I have to say you make some great points about Universal as opposed to WDW. I stayed at Universal in 2004 at the Royal Pacific and loved my stay there. Nothing beats being able to walk into any Universal ride without a wait. I will never forget having gone on almost every ride at Universal by noon. Plus the hotel pools are great. As Universal allows pool hopping, we go to experience the Portofino pool which was great. Another added bonus is that Universal lets you drink in the pool and they'll even bring you your drinks to the pool! As for Universal Studios v. DHS....I don't know. I think as a whole US is a much better thought out park and the rides are better integrated into the park. Plus the park has a better flow. But I do feel something is missing. I hate to be corny and say that Disney magic, but that might be it. I do totally disagree with you on their "hollywood boulevard" versus DHS. I think Disney has them beat between both Hollywood and Sunset Boulevard.

Wow your HM visit sounds hellish! Just be glad you go to ride it so many times.

I do have one piece of advice for you on your future Disney trips...take your kids back to the hotel for a mid day pool break!! Trust me on this. I've been going to WDW since I was an infant and my parents almost always did this. Plus you're staying on Disney property you should be enjoying the hotel. I traveled to WDW with my brother's family a few years back when my niece and nephew were 8 and 2 yoa respectively. Oh man! My brother and his wife insisted on donig the parks commmando style and those kids behaved so badly once the late afternoon arrived until we left. Trust me you'll have alot more fun if you give them that break.

 

[JustPlainBill]

Thursday, August 7th.

We got up early and packed the remainder of our gear. We started packing things 2 days before. I had already brought down things we wouldn't need to the van as well. I brought some more things down that morning and tried to organize and clean up the van a bit for our road trip back home. When everyone was ready I called down to have the rest of our luggage brought down. I left my wife to deal with the bellman, while I retrieved the van from the self-parking lot. As I passed the front desk I remembered how just 7 days before we were checking in. Universal Studios seemed like it was ages ago. I didn't know if that feeling was good or bad?

I pulled the van up to the front of the hotel just as the luggage cart came out with my family. I packed the van and tipped the Bellman. We all got into our seats and rummaged around to settle ourselves in. We needed to reach northern Georgia by nightfall. I pulled away from the Contemporary, not with a feeling of fulfillment but with regret. Was it all worth it I wondered silently? Was this trip worth all the money that we stashed away and spent? We came off of a bad day at the MK, but was the rest of the time worth it? I felt I would ponder it on the long drive back before I would answer my own question.

We quickly got on our way, I always have that feeling of not belonging anymore when checking out, I don't know why. It felt odd to be back in the real world again. Watching gas prices rise as I get closer to home.

The drive through Florida into Georgia was uneventful, no rain like we saw when we drove down. I didn't know whether or not I should take the bypass around Atlanta again. It was Thursday, the roadwork downtown was restricted to weekends. I decided to take the bypass anyway. Everything was good, until I got to the northern part of Atlanta where the bypass merges back into I-75 north. It was about 5:00 and traffic got heavy, fast. We were stuck in stop and go traffic for about 45 minutes, even after getting back onto I-75. Another two hours later we rolled into Ringgold, GA and we checked into the Holiday Inn Express. We had reservations there and we had stayed on our trip down to WDW. It was a better stay this time, no loud music to keep us awake. We had dinner at a small local place. Very small but nice. We had a Cracker Barrel next to the hotel, but I had my fill of chain restaurants.

We took off early the next morning for home. The leg of this trip was uneventful as well. The first day was only nine hours of driving, the second leg was 11 hours, give or take. We saw a large Army convoy on I-65 in Kentucky, could have been National Guard, I don't know. I saw a big convoy on the way down to Florida as well. Nothing but HUMVs and trucks. I haven't seen as many convoys since the Vietnam war days.
We hit some traffic in Gary, In. mostly due to construction. We entered Chicago near rush hour but the road I was on saw little traffic. I got near Woodfield mall on IL-53 when things started slowing down as I predicted. I knew if I was to hit traffic it would be there, I was not disappointed. We actually rolled into our home town while it was still daylight. We got home and discovered everything was still in place. We emptied the van into our living room to leave the unpacking for the next day. I had the weekend to recover, then back to work.

My vacation wrap up to follow.

 

[JustPlainBill]

I do have one piece of advice for you on your future Disney trips...take your kids back to the hotel for a mid day pool break!! Trust me on this. I've been going to WDW since I was an infant and my parents almost always did this. Plus you're staying on Disney property you should be enjoying the hotel. I traveled to WDW with my brother's family a few years back when my niece and nephew were 8 and 2 yoa respectively. Oh man! My brother and his wife insisted on donig the parks commmando style and those kids behaved so badly once the late afternoon arrived until we left. Trust me you'll have alot more fun if you give them that break.

Your point is well taken, I do agree.
I'm am ashamed of myself for not coming to that conclusion sooner.
More in my wrap up.

 

[Adventure]

Love the report. I'm glad you are the type to listen to their kids when they don't want to go on a ride. I tend to see a few parents each trip who take kids crying and shaking onto a ride that you know they want no part of. I think your approach will help them with more extreme rides in the future as they won't be scarred from a bad experience. Hope your final thoughts are that you decided the trip had been well worth the money.

 

[BrerKev]

What a grand trip report. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us!

 

[JustPlainBill]

Love the report. I'm glad you are the type to listen to their kids when they don't want to go on a ride. I tend to see a few parents each trip who take kids crying and shaking onto a ride that you know they want no part of. I think your approach will help them with more extreme rides in the future as they won't be scarred from a bad experience. Hope your final thoughts are that you decided the trip had been well worth the money.

Thanks, as a Dad I'm constantly vexed on whether or not I'm pushing my kids enough. I want them to experience more and live their lives to the fullest. I don't want them to be scared of their own shadows. I feel it is my responsibility to prepare my kids for the future and get them to be independent. Sometimes it's hard to be sure if I'm doing enough. I have to give them space when they push back, but I can't let them run the show either, I have to know when enough is too much.
I know as a kid I was scared of the big rides and my friends got me on them and it was then I realized how much fun it was and being scared of them was silly. I was about the age of my oldest then 10 or so. Even she was a little scared of PoTC this time, she rode it with me when the youngest didn't want to. When my wife went to ride after she asked our oldest if she wanted to go again, she wasn't very agreeable, she said she would but she didn't want to go again if she didn't have to. She didn't like the darkness or the drop either, like our youngest, but she went anyway the first time with me without complaint. So I know I must be making progress, at least she's trying to overcome her fear.

 

[JustPlainBill]

What a grand trip report. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us!

Thanks, I'll have a summary soon.
The segment I wrote yesterday really bummed me out and put me in a bad mood the rest of the day. I needed a day to recover. I feel great now. If I have some time later I'll wrap this up.

 

[JustPlainBill]

Trip Summary.

I've had about a week and a half now to reflect on our vacation to WDW.

I think the Universal Studios portion of our trip went very well. Everything from the parks, Citywalk to the hotel all were above expectations. Nothing was absolutely perfect but we had a good time overall. If I was to do anything different there I would schedule an extra day.

I've tried to make some comparisons between Disney and Universal in my report. I can't help but to do so. When you visit both parks, it's funny to notice how each one tries to mirror the other.

I think there is enough of a difference between the two to look at them as separate, individual and unique places. I couldn't just go to Universal and feel like I don't have to go to Disney World or the opposite, I couldn't just do Disney World and not feel a need to go back to Universal. As much as I feel I can't go to WDW without staying on property, I feel the same about Universal. The benifits I feel we gained outweighed the money we may have saved if we stayed elsewhere. Universal has done a good job by my measure and my family feels the same. I never thought my kids would like Universal, my initial feeling was it would be to intense, Islands of Adventure this was a bit true but for the original park, there wasn't much they didn't like.

Our stay at the Contemporary Resort was a mixed bag overall. The customer service we received was better than what we got at the Polynesian last year, but the housekeeping was about equal. The first three days I was able to see the housekeepers that did our room and we had a different person each time. The first three days the housekeeping was average, but began to decline after. We wound up not tipping the last three days, and it got even worse after we did, to where they weren't replacing the coffee or anything else. Our Portofino Bay room was very clean. The Contemporary had spots, under the sink and next to the beds where it had never seen a dust mop. The bathroom design was better 21 years ago, I think it was more houskeeping friendly and probably easier to keep clean. The sinks as they are today are something more like you would see in a science laboratory not very user friendly. It was unsettling to not have a lock on both bathroom doors and the pocket door doesn't close and form a tight fit, there was a gap as big as my thumb between the wall and door. I have a pocket door on my master bathroom at home that I installed 20 years ago that works much better and locks. While the construction of the new building never affected us. The construction going in the Grand Canyon Concourse floor was noisy and made the place look messy. Eating at Chef Mickey's was like having breakfast in a war zone that first day. It's funny, on our honeymoon there was some construction going on at the Contemporary then too. They were remodeling a giftshop, I don't know what it was called then but it's BVG now. My wife commented that it would probably would be nicer to stay at the Contemporary when there wasn't any work going on! My wife feels that the Yacht Club is her favorite hotel now, she had been leaning that way for awhile. I haven't decided.. I liked the YC very much but there's something about the Contemporary for me that transcends everything. I thought it was magnificent when I had my first monorail ride through it in 1973 when I was 7, and everytime I enter the Grand Canyon Concourse today, either by escalator or monorail, I think back to that day. If there was anything I would ask Disney to put a priority to it would be housekeeping as far as the hotels go, at least in the Deluxe resorts, I don't know how is everywhere else.

My wife and I talked more about what we would do next time. We definately need to slow it down a bit, work in some breaks mid-afternoon and such. We probably won't return for at least three years, that's not a firm time frame, but we wanted to see the new Harry Potter attraction at Universal, but we don't want to go when it first opens either. There are other vacation destinations we want to try as well. We could never swing a year after year WDW deal like some do, I don't think we'd want to anyway.

Early June at WDW last year was better than early August this year. I don't think I ever want to go back in August ever again. Too hot, too crowded. I thought the crowds were manageble until that last day at MK, but even up to that point the lines were not all bad, not evenly crowded. Some rides were walk ons, which I never saw in August 1987, all the rides were crowded then. This time only a select few were very badly crowded. In June last year we were able to use the FP system to get on those rides that were popular with success and walk on the rest. This time some attractions we couldn't do this on because the FPs were all gone, very early.

I'll continue tomorrow.

 

[dox]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences with us all! Very thoughtful trip report! Thanks.

I had a similar experience with my stay at the Contemporary back in 2006. We had an MK Tower view and absolutely loved the room, even the bathrooms. But the resort as a whole left something to be desired to. This was right before they tore down the North Garden Wings and before they built the gift shop in the middle of the concourse. Overall, the entire resort grounds and concourse had a somewhat abandoned feel to them. They entire concourse was empty: no chairs, no carpet, and no gift kiosks. Then the outside grounds near the pool were in bad shape with a really outdated pool and bar area. I don't even want to get into detail how disgusting the pool area bathrooms were. On the bright side, at least the bathrooms were getting used by people rather than people using the pool itself. Ick! Plus it was sort of weird having an entire empty building next door. On our last day one of the bartenders we had become friendly with told us that the rumor was that the north wing was either going to be converted or torn down so management wasn't doing much with the property until a decision was made as to how to proceed. That really left a bad taste in my mouth (or maybe that was the pool). After you spend so much money for a room to have the rest of the resort in such a poor state can be upsetting. That said, I really got to enjoy the room, all of the restaurants, and even the marina during my stay so that made up for it. Once everything is done I'll be back but I'd like to stay at the Polynesian or the Boardwalk next. I can't say we had a bad experience with housekeeping. We don't even normally tip until the last day of our trip.

Can't wait to hear your other comments.

 

[mouselvrmom]

Loved reading your trip report! My hubby would like to try Universal one of these trips, so it was great to read about your experiences there.

 

[GoofyDan]

Thanks, Bill, for you fantastic report. I don't know if there's a prize for the best TR, but if there were, I'd surely nominate you! :sohappy:

We're 14 days away from our first trip to the World. Hopefully the crowds will have lightened some, but I doubt the heat will have let up much. Your TR has me really looking forward to the trip now, and I'll probably be even more useless at work -- thankfully only nine more days of work before vacation!

I was thinking about doing a TR from a first-timer's perspective, but I don't know if I can attain the high standard you've set!

 

[JustPlainBill]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences with us all! Very thoughtful trip report! Thanks.

I had a similar experience with my stay at the Contemporary back in 2006. We had an MK Tower view and absolutely loved the room, even the bathrooms. But the resort as a whole left something to be desired to. This was right before they tore down the North Garden Wings and before they built the gift shop in the middle of the concourse. Overall, the entire resort grounds and concourse had a somewhat abandoned feel to them. They entire concourse was empty: no chairs, no carpet, and no gift kiosks. Then the outside grounds near the pool were in bad shape with a really outdated pool and bar area. I don't even want to get into detail how disgusting the pool area bathrooms were. On the bright side, at least the bathrooms were getting used by people rather than people using the pool itself. Ick! Plus it was sort of weird having an entire empty building next door. On our last day one of the bartenders we had become friendly with told us that the rumor was that the north wing was either going to be converted or torn down so management wasn't doing much with the property until a decision was made as to how to proceed. That really left a bad taste in my mouth (or maybe that was the pool). After you spend so much money for a room to have the rest of the resort in such a poor state can be upsetting. That said, I really got to enjoy the room, all of the restaurants, and even the marina during my stay so that made up for it. Once everything is done I'll be back but I'd like to stay at the Polynesian or the Boardwalk next. I can't say we had a bad experience with housekeeping. We don't even normally tip until the last day of our trip.

Can't wait to hear your other comments.

The bathroom design 21 years ago at the Contemporary, had the double sinks set in a long counter with no shelf below. Which I think made it easier to clean the floor underneath. We liked the design enough that when we returned home and we began remodeling our newly bought house, I drew up a near copy and had a double sink bathroom counter custom made to match the Contemporary's and installed it in our master bathroom. The Contemporary bathroom now has a cramped look. The double flat, square sinks are very close to one another, there is only about two or three inches of counter space around the sinks, so there was no place to put anything. The sinks are very large. There is no real practical reason to have them be so, when more counter space would have been better used. The sinks look like they'd be better used in a commercial application. The last time I saw sinks like that was when I was working in a dark room developing film. There was a shelf below the sinks to put bags. The shelf is set very low, enough so that the floor can't be cleaned easily underneath. If you drop your toothpaste cap and it rolls under, you may be in for a surprise as to what you'll find under there, like I did. When you pull out your refrigerator or stove from the wall and look behind it, you'll get an idea as to what I saw. My wife closed off one of the sinks and put all our stuff in it and we lived out of our toiletry bag. It was a pain trying to find stuff that way, rummaging through a bag everyday. When I first entered our room at the Contemporary, I felt the overall decor was improved from the stale, plain look 21 years ago. The computer was a nice feature, though we really didn't use it much, but we could have if we wanted. After about 2 or 3 days in our Contemporary room I began to appreciate the room decor of the Poly, YC and Portofino Bay better. Probably just a personal choice, though my wife agreed with me. My wife joked that the towel bar in the bathroom looked like a ladder going to the room above ours when there were no towels on it.

We were surprised by the anniversary card, balloons and champaign the hotel gave us, we didn't expect it and it softened any negatives we had noticed about the hotel as a whole. The view was great as always and the convienence of it's location is still something to be considered. Our kids want to try the Grand Floridian next time we go, I think because it's the one hotel at WDW they haven't stayed in that their parents have.
When we stayed at the Poly last year they had already torn down the north garden wing at the Contemporary, and had cranes in place building the new structure that is there now, only you could just see a big dirt pit as you rode by on the monorail, no structure yet. At that time, unbeknownst to my wife I already had designs on coming back to WDW the next year and I wanted to stay at the Contemporary. Seeing the construction that was going on then put a damper on my plan temporarily, but I reasoned through it and just accepted it, thinking where the construction was going on wouldn't effect us, if we had an MK view room. Then after we made our reservations, all the other stuff started happening, restaurants closing, building new gift shops, new temporary counter service installation, game room moving. I didn't know what we'd be walking into. Entering the Grand Canyon Concourse from the escalator after checking in hearing that awful jack hammer reverberate off the canyon-like walls of the concourse, made my heart sink. OMG, I thought, how will we survive with that noise! Luckily, like I said before, that particuliar noise stopped after the first day. If I had it all to do over I probably would have stayed somewhere else and would have tried the Contemporary when the work was finished. Over all it wasn't so bad, once I start nit-picking it's like eating potato chips I can't stop.

 

[JustPlainBill]

Loved reading your trip report! My hubby would like to try Universal one of these trips, so it was great to read about your experiences there.

Thanks, I would highly recommend Universal as an addition to any WDW trip.

 

[JustPlainBill]

Thanks, Bill, for you fantastic report. I don't know if there's a prize for the best TR, but if there were, I'd surely nominate you! :sohappy:

We're 14 days away from our first trip to the World. Hopefully the crowds will have lightened some, but I doubt the heat will have let up much. Your TR has me really looking forward to the trip now, and I'll probably be even more useless at work -- thankfully only nine more days of work before vacation!

I was thinking about doing a TR from a first-timer's perspective, but I don't know if I can attain the high standard you've set!

Thanks, you are too kind!
I should think the crowds would be better for you than they were for me, since everyone should be back in school by the time you're going. I'm sure your trip report will be great.
Looking forward to it!

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

Wonderful report, Bill! :wave: Shame to hear about your last day at the MK. That is certainly not the last memory I would want for my 2 week vacation. Hope it didn't get you guys down too much. And the umbrella thing made me laugh, because it does the same thing to us. If we bring umbrellas and ponchos, no rain, but if we don't bring them, better get the ark out. :lol: It never fails.

On the whole, sounds like you had a great trip. However, I noticed that you said that if you had to do it again, you'd take things more slowly, and I couldn't agree more. There's always the idea that you have to rush to do as many things as possible, but you'll only exhaust yourself in the end. It doesn't help if its 95 degrees out. The next time you get to the World, slow it down, take in the small things; heck, sit on a bench with a box of popcorn, listen to the music and watch the people go by! I've found those are the moments that, when you look back on them, are the moments that make a trip special.

Again, thanks for the report! It was great to read about your family's experience.