WDW trip 6/11/07 - 6/21/07

JustPlainBill · Jul 2, 2007

6/16/07
We awoke early to get ready to transfer to the poly. As my wife got the kids ready, I decided to take some last minute video of the resort. When I returned my wife told me were ready to go. I called down to bell services to have them send up a bellman. We had our van so we didn't need to have disney transfer our luggage. We wanted 100% access to our stuff at all times so we would just keep it in the van until our room was ready. Our plan was to check in early at the poly then go to MK until our room was ready. We would call our resort from the park, and when the room was ready we would come back and get into our room. We had a 1:00 PM ADR for Crystal Palace, and a 7:00 PM ADR for the Spirit of Aloha dinner show. The bellman showed up as I went to get the van from the guest parking lot. As I walked through the lobby a YC CM asked me to fill out an electronic survey on how I l liked my stay at the YC. I obliged and gave them positive remarks. It took awhile for the bellman to bring our luggage down, I told the bell captain he would need two carts, but the bellman told me that the message wasn't passed along to him, he only brought one. This was ok, but one of the valet people came up to me to ask why I was parked where I was, I guess to have me move along to clear the space. After telling him I was checking out and waiting for my family and luggage to come down. He said it was ok and left me alone. I suppose they would have liked me to use the valet service, but I don't care for it, it is an unnecessary luxury, if I can walk these parks all day, I can certainly get my own vehicle.
When the luggage arrived I tipped the bellman, he went out of his way to get me a map to the poly from the YC, which I thought was cool. It has been awhile since I drove in the MK area, I had driven to the Grand Floridian the last time I was at WDW. When we approached the gates to MK I was in the right lanes and I noticed some lanes were for busses only so I tried to stay out of them. I stopped at the gate and the attendant gave my wife some garbled directions on which lane would take us to the poly. We left confused and wound up in the MK parking lot. This caused panic in my wife, which distressed the children. I was OK, keeping calm looking for the exit back onto world drive, I would make another approach and talk to the attendant myself. I found the exit and came upon the same attendant, only I pulled up so he was on my side so I could talk to him, he gave the same garbled direction and seemed to be angry that he was being disturbed. I asked for clarification, he talked about taking the extreme right lane and follow the green line. Looking ahead I saw the road I had taken before which was the way back into the MK parking lot, I was told was a blue line, I saw the green line a bit further to the right. Being colorblind really isn't fun sometimes. I really didn't appreciate the attitude of the attendant, I mean I know he must have been working there for a long time, and people like me are probably a nuisence because we don't know the roads well because we don't visit as often, but cut me a break at least, I am paying his company a lot of money on this vacation, the least he can do is give me an extra few minutes and some clear direction. Anyway as soon as I pulled away, I found the road and within minutes we pulled into the poly parking lot. We walked in to the lobby and checked in. As we were waiting I noticed one of the CMs behind the counter checking someone else in was from a town in Illinois that was about 8 miles from ours, by his nametag. We struck up a freindly conversation. We were interupted by our own CM checking us in by her exclamation that we were upgraded to concierge at the Hawaii building. You would think that this would make us happy, but it distressed us a bit. When we booked the poly almost a year ago we studied it very much. We wanted the newly remodeled Tahiti longhouse, 3rd floor with an MK view. When we told the CM this she said that the concierge room we were assigned was on the first floor and had a huge tree if front of our window blocking the MK view. She said she would try to get us moved to the third floor at the Hawaii. A manager said that we couldn't be moved and seemed irritated that we would ask. For me and my wife, we had concierge before at the GF, only we paid for it it wasn't free. It was no big deal and we didn't think it was worth the extra cost. It is my feeling that if you want to upgrade me, fine but it better match what I originally book at least or upgrade someone else and put me in the Tahiti longhouse like I originally wanted. The CM that was checking us in went behind her boss's back and got us moved to the third floor, she said that we paid for an MK view and that is what we should have. Our room wasn't ready yet so we explored the lobby and the giftshops. We didn't feel like going to the MK now, so we called and cancelled our CP ADR. Our kids hung out at the TV, craft area in the lobby and colored pictures and made a few leis. They had given us leis after we checked in and put them around my neck, it itched like crazy so I had to take mine off. One of the Bellman offered to take a picture of my wife and I. As we were walking I spotted a cell phone and a wallet laying on a bench in the lobby, I saw no one in the area that it may have belonged to. I guarded it for a few minutes to be sure, I waved one of the bellman over and pointed to the items and I told him I believed they were lost by someone. He scooped the items up and I watched him turn them in by the check-in desk. I sat down and waited while my wife explored the gift shop, I was also at a vantage pont to watch the kids while they played in the kid area. About 30 minutes later a young teenage girl about 16 or 17 asked me if I saw a wallet and phone on the bench I was sitting on, I told her indeed I did and I told here to check by the desk, that's where the bellman took it. She looked very relieved. I watched her go to the desk and I saw the woman she was talking to shake her head no, I knew she was telling her she didn't have her phone and wallet. I became irritated and I stormed over to the desk as the teenage girl looked back at me looking worried again. I called the bellman over again who had taken the items and told him to retrieve them, which he did right away. The desk CM shrugged her shoulders as if to say, she didn't know. My response was, at least you could have asked around for crying out loud! With that the teenage girl's mother walked up and thanked my wife and I for helping, she also seemed very relieved.
I'll continue with what happened Later, thanks for reading.

JustPlainBill · Jul 2, 2007

6/16/07 Early afternoon/evening.
After bumming around the poly waiting for our room to be ready we strolled over to the concierge Hawaii longhouse to look around there. We walked past the pool and imeadiately our kids were harrassing us and asking when they can go swimming. Not now we said we have a lot to do. We stopped in and spoke with a CM sitting at the concierge desk, he told us there was snacks upstairs in the concierge lounge we could help ourselves to and he gave our kids a complimentary sand pail and shovel. We went upstairs to the concierge lounge, either they were putting the snacks away or had slim pickings, all I saw was some salsa with corn chips and a couple of pieces of fruit, I know I wasn't paying for it, concierge I mean, but I wasn't impressed either. When we had concierge at the GF many years ago the spread was enormous, it was a feast for a king. I don't know if the concierge snacks at the GF are the same anymore or not? We went back downstairs and strolled along the sandy beach of seven seas lagoon, it was very hot and the sun reflecting off of the white sand caused me to regret leaving my sunglasses in the van. The kids explored the beach for small shells. We went back to the ceremonial house to look around some more. Shortly thereafter we called and found out our room was ready, it was shortly after 3:00 PM. Just as we found out the room was ready, Thobo, the bellman who offered to take our photo earlier asked what was up. We told him we just received word that our room was ready. He reconfirmed the room number for us and he took us to a golf cart and drove us to our van in the parking lot and we loaded it up. He drove us to the hawaii longhouse and told us to go on ahead of him, he would be right up. Thobo is from South Africa, and he remarked on the difference between the Florida heat and the heat of South Africa. He said to him it was hotter and more humid in Florida and he is still having trouble getting used to it. We entered our room, it was much darker in color to the bright light colored room we had at the YC. Though were were generally pleased with the decor. I was disappointed to see two light bulbs burned out in the bathroom, one on the mirror and one in the ceiling. I thought housekeeping should have caught it and had it fixed. We checked the refrigerator and it was on but it was warm and it looked like someone had thrown it off the roof, it had a huge scratch and a big dent in the door. I called maintenence to replace the light bulbs and I called housekeeping about the busted refrigerator, both said they would be up right away. Thobo arrived with our luggage and pointed out all the rooms features. Thobo was so friendly to us that I asked him if I could take his picture, he distressed that he was all sweaty and not good looking enough, we talked him into it though, I tipped him and he left. As we settled in I took some pictures of our room and of our view. It was a spectaculiar one. The MK was dead center and closer than I thought it would be, no trees in the way. The Contemporay, our honeymoon hotel was to the right and the GF, the hotel we stayed at on our last trip, was on the left. The white sandy beach was streched out below with seven seas lagoon beyond. The launches from the resorts were coming and going and the large launches from the TTC to MK were criss-crossing as well. The maintenance guy showed up and changed the light bulbs. I asked him about the fridge, he said that it was a houskeeping issue, but he would remind them to take care of it.
We continued unpacking and arranging the room to fit our needs and got dressed and ready for the Aloha dinner show. When the time came for us to leave I called houskeeping to find out what was up with the fridge, they said they would get to it. I asked if I had to be in the room when they arrived, they said no, that we could go where ever and they would replace it while we were gone.
We walked to luau cove. We had to wait in a line to have pictures taken of our party. We had no intention of buying pictures so it was a waste of time. We then had to wait in a holding area scrunched in with a bunch of other people, with no where to sit or nothing to do but stare at each other. At least with Hoop dee do we could walk around and explore a bit. After about 30 minutes we were let in to our table. Our table was in front just off center to the left. Our server was friendly, he explained about the menu and drink options. I ordered an MGD, I had to pay for it because only Bud was free. I only drank one. The first course was some coconut bread, salad and pineapple. My wife asked the server where the butter was and he looked back at her as if she was kidding. He looked at me and I shrugged my shoulders. My wife must have committed some kind of error because our server looked incredulous. Who ever thought of putting butter on coconut bread? He did wind up bringing us butter, I told my wife when he comes back ask for some gravey to dip the bread in as a joke, which she did. The server realized we were joking and grabbed my wife's shoulders and shook her. he asked where we were from, we told him, originally Chicago, but we moved out to the NW suburbs. He mentioned that his manager was from Chicago as well. My wife told him not to mess with her, chicago italians can be formidable. About 15 minutes later a man came up to our table and stood by staring at us, we knew he worked there because of his name tag. After a few awkward minutes he asked us if everthing was ok. We said yes everything was fine, why? He continue staring at us as if he was very confused. I looked at his name tag closer and saw that he was from Chicago, and put two and two together. I asked him if he was the manager, he said yes and that he thought we had a problem. My wife laughed out load and said "I can't believe he sic'd you out on us! As it turns out our server was getting back at us for our joking, he sent his manager out under false pretences, making us out to be angry, disatisfied customers. Shortly after the server came up laughing and jabbing his manager. We talked to the manager for awhile then all was back to normal. The food itself was nothing to write home about. the bread was dry, the salad unusual. The main course was rice, bbq ribs and chicken. We didn't eat much, the food was better at the Hoop dee do. The show wasn't much to crow about either the fire dancer was the climax, and was the best, we would have been happy to just see him it was the only good portion of the show, other than the interaction we had with our server and his manager. I had seen the bad reviews from others regarding the show. I kept checking my watch to see if we would get out in time to catch wishes. Unfortunately not, I could briefly see the fireworks from behind the trees from our table. When the show was finally over we walked back to our hotel. We noticed the fridge was never changed. It was now 10:30 and we first reported the broken fridge at 3:30 that afternoon. My wife called down to houskeeping to find out what was going on. The person on the phone said that they had just changed it out for us. My wife responded that unless they had two refrigerators that had the same scratch and dent on it this was the same one as before and it is not working still. They said that they would be right up. Two women arrived from housekeeping about ten mintues later. They had what looked like a brand new white mini-fridge with them on a handtruck. Before my wife could say anything they began bickering about how they were just here. My wife told her that that was not true, that in fact this fridge is exactly the same as the one that was here when we checked in about eight hours ago. My wife pointed out the scratch and dent that we noted earlier. One of the housekeepers dashed to the broken fridge and opened it and stuck her hand in. She exclaimed in a hostile but reserved tone, Ma'am, I don't know what you expect, but this is as cold as this fridge is gonna get! I became very angry by this time, (if this is Concierge service, they can keep it) I approached the housekeeper with her hand still in the fridge and I told her to feel the freezer unit, I asked her is it wet? She said yes that it was, I told her that it shouldn't be wet it should be cold and dry, or have white frost sticking to it. She then told me that this unit is off. I told her that if it is off you just turned it off. I told her that if it was off she just turned it off, because we rechecked it before they came. I told her besides you just said this fridge was as cold as it's gonna be, how can that be so if it is off? She continued trying to make us out to be difficult guests by questioning how much food we jammed into the fridge. We told her we just checked out of the yacht club, their fridge was working perfectly there, I know how a fridge is supposed to work, I have one at home. Besides, I'm a maintenence supervisor where I am employed, surprise! I know a broken machine when I see one. With that the houskeeper broke down and said well, we'll give you another fridge if you'd like...I cut her off and said rather crassly...PLEASE DO SO! With that they quickly changed out the fridge and were gone in a matter of 30 seconds. I'm happy to say the new fridge became cold imeadiately, and worked perfectly the remainder of our stay. I will say that no one in any room should be subject to that sort of behavior from the staff, let alone a deluxe resort and concierge room to boot. I had heard about the level of service declining at the poly, I didn't believe it until now, believe it, it's true. After emptying our cooler and filling the fridge we got our kids ready for bed. My daughter asked why were we fighting with the housekeeper. I tried my best to explain what I thought was going on and came up with that they must have told someone or checked off somewhere that they changed our fridge but didn't for whatever reason. When we called them on it they thought they would get in trouble and tried to make us out to be complaining guests who are never satisfied, so they brought up a brand new fridge to show us up, they put up a fight to make us back off, only we wouldn't. I told my daughter that when you expect good service you don't settle for anything less, don't be unreasonable, but if you have to, fight for what you deserve. I looked at the whole debacle as a teaching lesson for my daughter. We put our girls to bed and my wife and I relaxed on our balcony watching cinderella's castle change color. Then went to bed ourselves when the kids fell asleep. We would go to epcot tomorrow, for fathers day.
More to come.

JustPlainBill · Jul 2, 2007

6/17/07 Father's Day Epcot
We made our way to the poly monorail station, to take to the TTC to transfer to another monorail to get to epcot. I know it probably would be faster to walk to the TTC, but it had been a long time since we rode the loop, I couldn't wait any longer. It was my kids first monorail ride. We made the change at the TTC, we thought we would need only one more day at epcot, since we wrapped up half of WS a few days before. besides epcot has removed more than a few of our favorite attractions since we were last there in 1990, we thought we may not spend much time in FW either. We started off by me dashing off to the land pavillion to get our soarin FPs, hopefully this time around would be luckier. My wife took the kids to meet me by the Nemo ride. I got the FPs and met up with the family by nemo. There was no line so we walked in. The attraction was cute but I didn't see the big deal, I mean when we left nemo there was a huge line stretching out beyond down the path. there would be no way I would wait more than 20 minutes for the nemo attraction, knowing what I know. the kids loved crush's turtle talk, we looked at some of tanks and took the kids picture in Bruce's mouth. We then went to cash in our soarin fast pass.
More to come.

JustPlainBill · Jul 3, 2007

6/17/07 Epcot (continued)
We entered the FP line at soarin and were seated in about 10 minutes. My family had never been on soarin before, I thought it would be a hokey attraction. I was wrong, this ride was really cool. I didn't expect it to feel so real. Soarin is my youngest daughters favorite WDW attraction. I'm only disappointed we weren't able to get her back on it a second time.
After Soarin we went to the energy exhibit, which I wasn't sure if I liked the Ellen version or the original better. We next went to SSE and I could see why it's getting a refurb. The audio in my vehicle was crackly and going in and out. I noticed some positive changes that were added since I was last there. We next went to the imagination exhibit, I didn't like the current version, the last version I saw was with Figment and the Dreamfinder. I miss the original music as well. we took in honey, I shrunk the audience, it was kind of ho hum. We got FPs for test track, our return time was 6:00PM. We decided to finish off WS starting with Canada. We moved rather quickly, through canada and UK, the kids stopped and got their passports stamped. We kind of lingered in France, the kids took a break by the fountain in front of Les Chefs De France, playing with the water. We made our way towards italy because we has ADRs at Alfredos. Since Alfredos would be closing, we wanted to have one last meal there, it was one our favorites. Our experience at Alfredos was good, I hope it's replacement is equal or better. We walked back to Future World to ride test track. It had rained, and it was a little misty when we entered TT. The FP line looked longer than it should have been. After waiting about 15 minutes without the line moving an inch and announcement came that said due to technical difficulties our wait time for test track has been extended. We debated what to do next, do we wait or do we go somewhere else, I opted to wait a little while longer, good choice because the line started moving about ten minutes later. I have been in automotive manufacturing and have experienced real test tracks at GM and Chrysler. The ride offers a good facsimile of a real test track. The last run though is more intense then what I remember. My kids loved TT as well. it was getting late enough for us to stake out a spot to catch illuminations. We usually picked a spot in mexico in the previous years we came, we picked a really good spot in Germany. I saved the spot, my wife got me a beer and pretzel. Sjhe wanted popcorn so she went off hunting for a wagon. I sat at the spot with the kids. The pretzel was kind of stale and tasteless, so I let my kids break off little pieces and feed the fish. You'd be suprised at how big the fish are, a couple of whoppers jumped out of the water to get the food. It kept the kids entertained for awhile. Another family came by and staked their claim next to mine. They were from Boston, I cold tell by their accent. We talked for awhile about our vacations, the bears, Rex Grossman, cubs, red sox, patriots and (grits teeth) colts.
My wife came back complaining she had to walk all the way to FW to get popcorn. She still had time so she took the oldest daughter to Japan to get a pokeman plush toy she wanted earlier but we forgot to get. As we were waiting a security cm leaned on a rail next to me and pointed out the boat close to shore about 15 feet away. He told me that they were loading the shells for the fire works. I had never even noticed the tubes on the shoreline, I thought wow that is very close. My wife got back just in time when the show started. I though illuminations was a good show, there were some dead spots though where nothing was really happening. When the show was over we made our way to the monorail station. It was a long walk, I regretted not being at the YC resort just then. We took the monorail back to the TTC, wasn't much of a wait, I was suprised, as a matter of fact we didn't wait very long for anything so far. Instead of transferring to another monorail to the poly we just walked over. Wishes was just starting at the MK so we rushed over to an open shoreline to watch it. I didn't realize how much vegitation there was around the TTC until I tried to see through the trees. We got to about the Tahiti longhouse when we saw the fireworks. We just stood there and watched for awhile. We went back up to our room and noticed that the room was hot. The rooms has motion sensitive air conditioning. So we rewarded after a long hot day at the park with a hot room to come back to. It took about an hour for the room to cool off, how irritating. Before the kids went to bed they gave me my father's day cards and presents. When my wife and I tried to sit out on the balcony that night we were eaten alive by mosquitos, we had to go back in.
More to come.

MaXXimus · Jul 3, 2007

Eagerly waiting for more... very interesting read might I say. I must comment on your experience with the housekeepers... I had a similier kind of experience at Wilderness Lodge. It was our first day and we were just checking in and the CM waiting on us finished all the paperwork and went on to explain how to get to our rooms. Im not sure if your familer with WL but facing the desk she told us to head left and then make a right (going towards the doors that lead out to the arcade) and then make the second left, go to the elevators and go down one floor. Well we did as she said and after making the second left we walked forever trying to find an elevator and once we boarded we noticed that "it dont go down" because we were on the ground floor. We headed back the long walk and stopped in the Merchentile store and there were 2 CMs in there, one was waiting on a customer and one was standing there watching her (I think she was in training) so I asked her how to get to our rooms. She paused for a minute and then told us to hold on a second... she waited for the other CM to finish and then said "These people would like to know how to get to room 1015"... and of all the things to say, the elder CM says "They can go to the front desk and ask" with a real cocky attitude. Needless to say I shot her a nasty look and then proceeded to the front desk, asked how to get to the room and then requested a manager so I could complain about the incident.

It boggles my mind how workers can treat guests this way and your experience was much worse then mine. If I were in your shoes I would have not contained myself from telling them to shut up and change the fridge liek your suppose to. I was never raised to be ignorant but there is a fine line that needs to be drawn when your an employee and should be doing as a customer requests and all the while being curtious about it.

JustPlainBill · Jul 3, 2007

Thank you for your interest. I'm not familiar with the wilderness lodge, it was one of the options we were thinking of, but decided on the poly instead. My kids wanted to try out the bunkbeds that they saw advertised. We're planning on another trip down maybe next summer, we'll probably choose the contemporary.
Anyway, yesterday after posting my issues with the poly's housekeepers, ironically, we received a postcard in the mail that same afternoon from the polynesian resort asking us to take an online survey regarding our satisfaction with our stay there. Boy, did we let them have it. I haven't posted all the problems we had yet here on my trip report yet, what I have posted so far is just the tip of the iceberg. We did name names of CMs at the poly who did great things for us, like the front desk person who went behind her bosses back to get us a better room and the friendly bellman. They asked us if we would ever come back to the poly again, we said on the survey that we would never return to the poly ever again, for $500 a night to be treated that way, who in their right mind would return, you'd have to be crazy. The survey said that they wouldn't contact us regarding the content, if we wanted to be contacted we should call Guest Relations. We've gone that route before only to get even angrier, and more disatisfied. Our strategy is to go "toe to toe" with the person wronging us at the time. At least I'll get it off my chest, it did finally get me a working fridge. I'm not looking for a handout, or some kind of discount. I just want someone to apologize and tell me they're going to fix their problems, so the next guest doesn't get stuck.
I will try to add another segment of my trip report on my lunch hour, see ya then!

JustPlainBill · Jul 3, 2007

6/18/07 Magic Kingdom
We had originally planned not to be in the MK on a Monday, because we heard that Mondays were always crowded. Somehow we wound up being there anyway. At least on this Monday it was true MK seemed to be packed, people everywhere. Now I haven't been to the MK in 17 years so I'm looking at it from my perspective. The first line we got in after entering the park was the WDW railroad, I never had to wait for a second train before, ever. This time we did, the line was so long. After the second train departed I asked the CM to let my family out, we would ride it another time. We decided to spend the first part of our day on mainstreet thinking the crowds would surely be scattering to the far corners of the park, but no, it seemed either there was a constant influx of people coming into the park or everbody was staying on mainstreet like us. We spent some time in the shops, moving one to the other trying to stay cool. Bought some souvenirs. We walked into caseys to get a few drinks and the CMs there suddenly started singing "Take me out to the ball game," when they came to the part about buying cracker jack, they threw about 25 small bags of cracker jack out to the customers. I thought it was funny when my wife called out and asked when do you throw the hot dogs. We went across the street to get the kids some ice cream. The stage show was going on at the castle and the parade was about an hour away. We staked out a semi-shady spot in front of caseys. Judging by the movement of the sun the spot would get shadier as time passed, 45 minutes before parade time and the shady spots were going fast. As the parade time got closer I could see mainstreet was becoming packed, the CMs were trying to keep the sidewalks open so people could pass. I became irritated when a group of people tried to bust into our spot. This is typical I've found, no matter how soon you save your spot, some chuckleheads always try to squeeze in at the last minute. If you turn or move just six inches you will have a siamese twin attached beside you. These people don't seem to mind rubbing up against you sweating all over. I ask myself why do I do this to myself? I was confused to see that the parade was coming from the the opposite side of mainstreet, I was expecting it to start by the firehouse. The parade was good, at least the kids liked it. I was glad to get it under my belt, so when the next parade comes it will clear out some of the lines at the attractions. After the parade we went to cinderellas castle to catch the stage show. Afterwards we went to fantasyland. There was no wait for Philharmagic so we went in to get out of the sun. We next went to the carousel, we only had to wait ten minutes. Everything else seemed to be packed, so we went over to tomorrowland. We climbed aboard the WEDway people mover, (I refuse to call it by it's new name TTA, stupid, isn't anything sacred anymore!) We next went to cosmic rays for something to eat. As I was grabbing a table while my wife went to get food, I noticed a large backpack, unattended on the floor. A CM was walking by cleaning tables, so I flagged her to report the bag. She seemed like she didn't know what to do, she kept on cleaning and disappeared. About 15 minutes later I noticed the bag was gone. Someone must have taken it when my back was turned, I didn't notice. The food at CRs was better than I expected, AA character Sunny Eclipse, I could barely understand, the room was so echoey, and his spiel seemed to repeat after about 15 or 20 minutes. We next ducked into the carousel of progress, because there was no line and it looked like it was about to storm. After the show it started raining so we went back in and saw it again. I could hear the thunder rolling outside while the show played. We next shot over to Buzz light year between the raindrops and then The Monster comedy club, both were cute, but I didn't plan to revisit them, the rain subsided. Let me say that up until this time I haven't seen anyone get any kind of an award or dream or anything. You wouldn't even know it was a year of a million dreams if you talked to me.
I'll be back with more.

MaXXimus · Jul 4, 2007

On our last day I was outside on Main St waiting on the parade to start and those chuckleheads you talked about kept inching there way in front of this mans quadropalegic son (who was of course in a wheelchair). He told me in a low voice how upset he was about it but seemed afraid to say anything... I motioned to a CM nearby and just pointed at the people who had jumped in front of his sons view and the CM quickly came over, motioned the people away and then stood guard :sohappy:

JustPlainBill · Jul 4, 2007

MaXXimus said:
On our last day I was outside on Main St waiting on the parade to start and those chuckleheads you talked about kept inching there way in front of this mans quadropalegic son (who was of course in a wheelchair). He told me in a low voice how upset he was about it but seemed afraid to say anything... I motioned to a CM nearby and just pointed at the people who had jumped in front of his sons view and the CM quickly came over, motioned the people away and then stood guard :sohappy:

That is great, I wish more people were as considerate as you. Thanks for the story.

JustPlainBill · Jul 4, 2007

6/18/07 Evening MK
We left tomorrowland and made our way back to fantasyland. Our original plan was to get to the park as early as we could tomorrow and try to ride all the fantasyland attractions right away before the crowds build. However, the 1st spectramagic parade started and it seemed to have drained everyone from fantasyland. Just about ever ride was a walk on, except for dumbo and peter pan's flight. We rode the pooh ride, snow white, Its a small world, we stood in a 25 minute line for peter pan. We walked towards liberty square when the fireworks erupted. It was an odd perspective to view the fireworks from. We continued walking over towards liberty square and went to frontierland. By this time my youngest was having a meltdown, she must have been exhausted and having a sensory overload. We sat awhile in front of the horseshoe saloon, after getting drinks and popcorn. The park was emptying out fast, it was amazing. I saw some CMs putting up the rope barriers for the 2nd spectromagic parade which we intended to watch. I left my family to look for a washroom. I found one in the walk way between frontierland and adventureland. I thought the area would be a good one to watch the parade. I asked my family to come over and we sat on a ledge. A CM, girl in her early 20s walked over and spoke with us awhile. She was in the college program and she talked about her experiences and we shared ours. We must have talked for about 30 minutes, when a manager or somebody walked by and handed her a handful of cards. As it turns out they were these special tinkerbell pins everyone talks about, the ones they're giving out to people that do good deeds and such. After the manager left the CM gave us a few pins and instructed us that we had to give some away as well, each pin had a mate attached, each card had two pins exactly the same. You were supposed to keep one and give the other to another guest who did a good thing, spread the magic so to speak. She said we could not give them to another cm or keep them for ourselves. We thanked her and said we would follow the rules. She did tell us that the haunted mansion, which was closed for refurbishment was goinf to get everything the HM at DL has, I assume that means everything.
The crowd for the parade was especially light and made viewing it a very pleasent experience. I still was disappointed a little, I really like the mainstreet electrical parade, and midded it. After the parade we slowly made our way to the park entrance. We stopped in all the shops along the way, when we got to the monotail enterance, it looked rather long, there was a GF/Poly launch standing by at the dock, so we rushed to the dock to catch it. It was a nice ride back to the hotel.

JustPlainBill · Jul 5, 2007

6/19/07
We got off to our usually late start and took the monorail over to MK. We altered our plan a bit, because we were able to get through most of fantasyland the previous night. With the parades under our belt were were going to concentrate on hitting as many attractions as possible. We did have ADRs for Tony's for lunch at about 1:00 PM. We started out by moving past mainstreet and going to mickey's toontown, we were able to get the kids in to see the characters and get autographs. We skipped the princess area for the time being. Mickey insisted on taking a picture with my wife as well as the kids. Went through most of toon town. We took the WDW railroad for round trip and past toontown and got off at mainstreet and hung around mainstreet for 30 minutes and reported to Tony's for lunch. I heard a lot of negative reviews for Tony's from several different sources. I'm sorry, I thought this restaurant was great. I liked the theming, the service was excellent, and most importantly the food was great as well. As we were leaving I noticed a family coming in being seated at the table behind ours. They asked the waiter if they would be able to see the 3:00 PM parade that would be coming down mainstreet, from the table they were being seated at. Their server said they would. I looked out the double glass doors towards mainstreet and thought well if they stood up and stretched they may have a chance of seeing it, but I bet they would be disappointed. We made our way to liberty square, I visted my favorite attraction the haunted mansion. I knew months in advance that it was going to be closed during my visit. I just stood by the closed gate, hung my head low, and sucked it up. As I turned and walked away, a bird in the tree above me did his business on my head. Incredulous, I asked my wife for a wet-wipe, which she carrys to clean the kids up. I told her what had just happened. I had to endure her laughter, and my childrens questions as to why a bird would do that to me. I told them it was justice, and it reflects my feelings about the mansion being closed during our visit. I was able to clean it all out of my hair with a couple of wipes, fortunately I think the bird got me before his lunch. The 3:00 parade was starting and we wondered what to do. We ducked into the hall of presidents to catch the show. We then went to adventureland and went first to the tree house. I had never been there in my previous WDW vists, I don't see a reason to return either. The tiki bird show was a disappointment as well. I don't like the changes they made to the show. I felt that maybe the original show was better. We rode the carpet ride and I was able to manuver the carpet twice to get a face full of water from the camel. We next got FPs for the jungle cruise and then took in Pirates. I was anticipating being disappointed, because I heard they tampered with the ride. I can say it wasn't so bad. Actually, some of the effects that were added were quite good. I actually thought the captain jack AA was real, at least the first two in the ride. I thought it was a CM in costume, I was going to wave to him it was that realistic. We next went to frontierland and went to Tom Sawyer Island. The mosquito bites my wife and I got at the Poly were really starting to itch. My wife had to stop and put cream on. We toured the island and went to the country bear show. We next went on Splash mountain, the wait was only 40 minutes. It started to storm though and the ride closed down for awhile increasing our wait to about 90 minutes. We were worried because we were cutting it close for our jungle cruise FPs. The line finally started moving, the fast pass line was rather long as well. The ride stopped once while we were just about to go down the second hill, it was all black, and we couldn't see. just as our boat reached the crest of the hill, everything stopped and the lights came on. There wasn't much to see. We sat there for about 5 minutes, I saw a CM walk up from behind and disappear into a doorway. I thought maybe the storm got worse and they were going to evacuate the ride. The lights finally went off and our ride continued. I didn't get very wet, though I was sitting in front. We next went back to adventureland and rode the jungle cruise. We then went back to liberty square to ride the liberty belle. it started to rain again. The rain came and went intermittently, The parade and fireworks were coming soon so we made our way back to fantasyland. All the rides were walk ons, so we rode them all again. We stopped at pinocchio's haus for a small dinner, my youngest was having another meltdown, it took awhile to get her to mellow out. We were able to ride the teacups this time and we made our way to dumbo. The wait was only 20 minutes, so we got in line. Unfortunately one of the elephants broke just as we were coming up to ride. The CMs took a long time wrapping it up, they shut the ride down, locked it out. It was down for at least 30 minutes. My wife notice that the family in front of us had two little girls. She thought they were behaving themselves so well waiting for the ride to restart she asked their Mom if she could give her the two tinkerbell pins we had. My wife explained the pins purpose and why she wanted to give them to her daughters. The Mom and Dad were very grateful and thanked us. We were finally able to ride dumbo. Just as we were seated and in the air the fireworks started. That was a cool experience, going round and round while fireworks were exploding everywhere. The last time I rode dumbo I was 7 years old in 1972. We went back to toon town to see the princesses and the other characters we missed. By the time we were done it was closing time so we made our way back to the park entrance. Like before the monorail line looked crowded, and there was a resort launch standing by, so we made our way to the launch again. Unfortunately this time the launch was full, we waited for the next one. The launch arrived about 20 minutes later and had trouble docking, the pilot had to make several attempts. It was then I learned that our pilot was a trainee. After we left the dock and went to the GF the same thing happened, he had to make several attempts to make the dock. I could see he was nervous, I felt it must have been his first day on the job. When we got to the Poly dock he must have got the feel because he did it in one attempt. We got back to our room and got the kids ready for bed.
I had mentioned previously about problems with our room at the poly. Another problem we had was the drain in the sink was busted, we had to use a tool to lift up the drain. The handle on the shower broke off in my hand when I used it. The television reception was snowy. We were really disappointed with our room, despite its supposed to being a concierge room. I really thought that if they would have gave us the tahiti longhouse like we originally wanted we would have been happier. After being upgraded to concierge to hawaii, I don't see the appeal. I don't know why anyone would want to pay for concierge service at the poly. The service is subpar as compared to the regular room we got at the Yacht club the week before, and the previous years rooms we stayed at the GF and contemporary. The next day would be our last full day at WDW.
I am trying to add some pictures, if I can ever figure out how to do it. I was able to do it on previous posts, but now I'm having trouble getting it to work.
More to come.

JustPlainBill · Jul 5, 2007

6/20/07 Last full day at WDW
We decided to go to MK for our last day.
We began visiting all of our favorite attractions one more time, though it became quickly appearant our kids were starting to rebel. By the early afternoon they wanted to go back to the resort and go swimming. I was disappointed that they wouldn't want to spend their last day at the MK, but I thought maybe they need some downtime. We returned to the Poly and changed into our swimwear. My wife didn't want to go to the pool because of all the mosquito bites she had. Looking at her legs you'd think she had the measles. She asked me if I'd mind taking the kids to the pool myself so she could go back to the MK. I told her no problem, I'd rather go back to the MK myself as well, but she spends more time with the kids during the year than I do, she could use a break. We got to the pool and boy was it crowded. I like cooling off in the pool, but the way I figure, I can go to any pool back home anytime I want.
When my kids are in the pool I can't take my eyes off them, It's not that I don't trust lifeguards, I just don't rely on them to keep my kids safe. With all those people in the water it's hard to watch everybody. All the time I'm in the pool I'm watching both my kids. My oldest found a friend to play with, and my youngest kind of just kept to herself. I wanted to go over by the volcano, under the waterfall, but I didn't dare risk it, the last time I lost sight of my oldest back at the YC pool put a real scare in me. We spent about 4 hours in the pool, I called my wife on her cell phone, she had been to Splash mountain, pirates and a bunch of other attractions. I told her I was going to get the kids out of the pool and we would meet her back at the MK. Getting the kids out of the pool took some work. As I was drying them off my youngest took off her headband. She had ear surgury earlier in the year and had to wear earplugs when she's in water. The headband keeps the ear plugs from falling out. When she took off the headband she found she was missing an earplug. I spent 20 minutes looking for it. The things were specially made to fit her ear, and cost some dough. I couldn't find it so I gave up. After changing, my plan was to take the kids up to the concierge lounge and get them something to eat. My plan backfired, We got to the lounge 2 minutes late, everything was cleaned up and gone. That irked me, I mean I know the stuff is out for a specific time period, but come on, are we punching a clock or what. I brought the kids over to captain cooks to get a burger or two, I haven't been there yet, I thought I would give it a try. It was confusing to me because I saw a cashier but no person to take my order. Then I realized there was a computer station to order from. Reluctently, I attempted to order from the kiosk. I'm not a total idiot when it comes to technology, but I found this way of ordering food difficult and annoying. I kept pressing the wrong button and I didn't know where to find certain items, I didn't know what came with what meal. I kept canceling and starting over. My 9 year old jumped in to help me, but she wasn't getting anywhere either. Finally a cashier saw I was having problems and tried to help me through. Why can't I just talk to a person, it works for me! She pressed the buttons for me and got us roughly what we wanted, I had to go back later for the drinks because they weren't added. After getting our food we sat down, I can't speak for the kids, but my meal was terrible. I had better food at my school cafeteria or out of a vending machine. That is one place I will never go to again. Since I'm never going back to the polynesian again, I guess that makes it easy. We caught the monorail back to the MK, main street was getting ready for spectromagic so it was getting quite crowded. My wife was waiting for us somewhere in this mess, I called her on the cell phone and we finally found each other. She saved a spot for us to watch wishes, just off the hub, near caseys. We watched spectromagic again, I noticed that ursula was added to this show, the late parade we watched before she was missing. There was a few people that tried to squeeze their way in between us. It's a good thing I didn't have a hammer in my hand, I probably would have used it on someone, it's probably one reason they don't serve alcohol at MK, If I'd had a few who knows what would have happened. When wishes started my kids were excited to see tinkerbell, she didn't fly the night before because of the rain. The show was spectaculiar as always. After the show I just realized how dirty the park was, wrappers, cups, plastic bottles, everywhere. I couldn't believe it. I never saw so much garbage on main street at one time. I saw a crew trying to quickly clean everything up. I was disgusted, 17 years ago it seemed people had better respect for the park and used the garbage cans. The other day I had leaned on a rail in the splash mountain line only to have my hand squish into someones gum they stuck on the rail. I don't know what's happened to people but it's terrible. We went over to cinderella's castle to show the kids the mural inside. We then left out through the park entrance and went back to the poly to pack and get ready to leave.
More to come.

JustPlainBill · Jul 5, 2007

6/21/07 departure day
The dreaded day has come at last.
It's amazing how fast ten days can go by.
When we returned to our resort the night before as we were approaching the hawaii building entrance I found a drivers license on the ground. The person that lost it must have dropped it looking for thier room key to open the door. It was a woman from Texas. My wife turned it in to the lobby.
Our original plan was to drive straight to Nashville TN from Orlando the first day. But the construction and traffic on Rt. 75 through Georgia on the way down made me rethink the plan. Earlier in our vacation we rearranged our reservations, We rescheduled our Nashville reservation for the next day and we would check out of our room late and spent the day at Downtown Disney, since we missed it. We would leave in the afternoon and spend the night in northern Florida. We called bell services to send someone up to help us bring our stuff down. The bellman (I forgot his name) told us he had been working at the polynesian for 30 years as a bellman. He proved to us his experiance, he was able to load all our sruff onto one cart. The other bellmen had to use 2. He drove us in his golf cart to our van. I asked him to just dump the stuff onto the parking lot and I'll pack the van. I gave him a large tip. We left the poly parking lot and drove to downtown disney. We browsed around the shops on the east side, and bought souveniers for family and friends back home, also some stuff for ourselves as well. We burned up a lot of time. We made it over to pleasure island, we had lunch at the Portabello Yacht Club. Very good restaurant, good food and good service. Our server put me off at first, because he seemed to be rushing us. But halfway through the meal he toned it down and we talked for awhile. He told us his story and we told him ours. He's from Ohio, he's in his mid-thirties, used to be a restaurant manager somewhere else but quit. Still going to college, living with Mom and Dad, etc. We realized after lunch it was getting late and we would need to leave, so we did.
More to come.

JustPlainBill · Jul 6, 2007

6/21/07
We drove off WDW property, accessing the western way to 429 to the Florida Turn Pike. Got onto 75 north and drove into Lake City, FL about 6:30 PM. Checked into the Holiday inn, then when to a Super Walmart there to load up on provisions.
6/22/07
We left early and got on the road.
We stopped a few times in southern GA at some rest areas, as we drove north the traffic got heavier and the road work as well.
A lot of stop and go stuff. Sometimes it was so bad, 75 was like a parking lot. Atlanta and just north of the city I think was worse. Electronic signs said there was an accident but I saw no evidence of such. Our drive through Chattanooga TN and the mountains/Hills was less hairy than it was coming down 2 weeks earlier. Then the Trucks seemed to be driving recklessly and speeding. I'm from Illinois, where the ground is relatively flat. I'm not used to driving in my car and having my ears pop. We got into Nashville at about 6:00PM. We checked into a Holiday Inn/crossroads. The room came with a fridge and microwave, complimentory. Which was a suprise. However the room had so many cobwebs it could have double for the haunted mansion.
6/23/07
Packed up the car, sweating bullets, it was only 8:00 AM and I think it was already 90 degrees. Filled up the gas tank and left Nashville, crossed into Kentucky. As we crossed the river into Indiana, I saw a huge accident in the southbound lanes on the bridge. I thought what a place to have an accident in the middle of a mile long bridge, I was glad I wasn't driving south, the traffic there was backed up for miles and miles. It was raining off and on, as I was driving north the temptreture was dropping as well. By the time I got into northern Indiana to gas up again it was 60 degrees with a cold steady rain. Just that morning I was sweating in the heat, now I'm gassing up freezing, I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Got into Chicago around 5:30, traffic was lighter than I expected 80-94 is usually always jammed whenever I'm on it. Pulled into our hometown about 7:00 PM, we stopped at a local favorite family restaurant before driving home, so we wouldn't have to cook. Got home about 9:00PM CST. Unloaded the van and dumped everything in the living room to unpack sometime in the future. It felt odd being home again. House didn't burn down, no one broke in and stole anything, nothing was damaged, all was good. Though there must have been a power outage while we were gone, all the clocks were blinking. I did notice that the 17 year cicadas that were intesifying when we left were quieting down, they must be dieing off, thank goodness.
I will come back with a prologue.

JustPlainBill · Jul 6, 2007

7/6/07 Prologue
Reflecting back, I have to say our vacation to WDW was a success.
In my trip report I have included all the negative things that happened to us, though I may have not included everything. I feel it is important to do so. People need to know that even though it is WDW, bad things can still happen. I witnessed guests at WDW get stepped on and abused by CMs and other guests, in one form or another, I've seen the reverse as well. A few times we spoke up and pushed them to speak up for themselves. When you go to Disney, you don't want anything bad to happen, you spend a lot of money, you may not get to go as often and some people try to pretend the bad doesn't exist. I was disappointed in some of the service I recieved but it didn't ruin our trip. If anything it was a learning tool on what we would do and where we would go the next time we go to WDW.
This was our kids first trip down and it had been so long since my wife and I last visited it was almost like new again for us. We considered this trip up for grabs anyway, could have went either way, bad or good. There are things I will do different the next time. We are considering going again as early as next summer. Not getting any younger you know. We will skip the dinner shows, now that we have seen them. Spirit of Aloha wasn't worth seeing the first time and Hoop dee do was fun but really hasn't changed much in the past 17 years when we last saw it. We can use the time to see some of the things we didn't get to do. It is amazing that you can spend ten days at a place and not see everything there. The places that disappointed us we'll skip and give another a chance to either please us or disappoint. I was really disappointed in Epcot this time around, I do feel they have removed so many of the attractions that I loved that it is no longer my 2nd favorite park. The animal kingdom, I will have to reconsider and have a different plan of attack the next time, to see if our time there will be better. Resort hopping was an experience, though I don't think I'll do it again, I was disappointed by the result, and you waste a lot of time doing it. When you get really good service at one resort, and if you get bad service at the other it really stings, a lot more.
I fell in love with The Magic Kingdom when I was 7 years old back in 1972. I have only been back 3 times since. Would have been more if it had been possible. I have now had the chance to share it with my kids. I had realistic expectations and I feel after much reflection that they fell in love with WDW as well. They are already asking when they can go back. I want to thank all of you on WDWmagic who have shared your thoughts and experiences. Your input helped me in planning this trip and making it a success. I think this is all I have to say. If I 'm able to post pictures I will.
Thanks.

MaXXimus · Jul 7, 2007

Hey Bill, it was fun reading your report and I had the same thing as I am sure most have with various problems and it didnt ruin my trip as well. After rethinking AK I came to the conclusion that I will give it another chance as well BUT only if I am able to go during the cooler season. The lines and lack of things to really spread people out coupled with the heat and humidity just makes it a "not worth seeing". I think if I went in March or April I would enjoy myself 100% more.

I could have had a zillion pictures but after making it through the gates every day and already having sweat rolling down my back , on top of lugging around every day with the shoulder bag with the camcorder and extra batteries just made life miserable for me. So next time Im shooting for maybe March, 2 weeks instead of 1 and hopefully have sold my camcorder and bought a top of the line Canon camera (1D Mark III) that I can easily have around my neck.

mnmrmustard · Jul 8, 2007

Wow Bill,

That was quite the trip! I appreciate all of the detail and especially the honesty in your reporting. It is easy for hindsight to cloud our perceptions of a family vacation, especially when Disney is involved.

We are west-coasters (myself, my wife, and 2 daughters - ages 8 and 11) and have done the Disneyland thing with mostly good results. January of 2008 we are doing WDW for the first time

It was good to hear how your worked through things and also just hearing things from the perspective of being another guy surrounded by females on a trip - you are so right about the ratio of bathroom breaks lol.

I feel for ya having gone at such a hot time of year ...we were last in Orlando in October of 2002 (did Universal instead of WDW) and it was hot enough then!

The one thing I noticed throughout your report was the amount of dining reservations you had made. Do you think it was worth it to do them or looking back on it do you think it created situations where your "fun" time there was interrupted by making it to them?

Thanks for submitting the report

Mike

KnK · Jul 9, 2007

Thanks for the great trip report and all the great details. Makes my trip in 60 days seem that much closer!

JustPlainBill · Jul 12, 2007

mnmrmustard said:
The one thing I noticed throughout your report was the amount of dining reservations you had made. Do you think it was worth it to do them or looking back on it do you think it created situations where your "fun" time there was interrupted by making it to them?

Thanks for submitting the report

Mike

Thanks for the feedback. As I was writing the report I wondered if anyone would read it, or even enjoy it for that matter. It felt good writing it, almost like therapy it helped me put my vacation in perspective and helped me remember the good things that happened as well as the bad. The dining reservations were a pain. When we last visited WDW back in 1990, we only had to make 2 reservations, one for Hoop dee do and the other for King Stephans banquet hall at the castle (Cinderella's Table now). Everywhere else we could just walk in. There were places my wife really wanted to experience this time, especially in MGM and we were very worried after reading so many reports that WDW is very crowded nowadays and ADRs are hard to come by. I didn't like having to plan our day around our meals, especially if your not hungry at the time. The Alfredos reservation was the worst because of it's location as we were at test track, then having to hike all the way to Italy. I suppose we could have planned it better, but it had been a long time since our last visit, we didn't know what to expect. We are planning to go back soon, hopefully next year, we're shooting for mid-July as a 1st choice, early August for a 2nd choice or mid June as a third choice. Since our last vacation will be so fresh in our minds we should be able to improve our planning. The next time around we may cut down on the number of table service restaurants we eat at, simply because a lot of time is spent walking to the particuliar restaurant as opposed to popping in at the first place (counter service) you happen to be passing. The time wasted waiting to be seated, for us I'd say the unscientific average waiting time was 20 to 30 minutes. Usually when we went in to a table service restaurant we were looking at about 1 1/2 to 2 hours of downtime in general, that being good or bad is yet to be determined. It's good to get out of the heat, but the more you do the less you do anywhere else. We really wanted to be careful with the kids. We took breaks constantly, yet they still became over stimulated, crabby and very tired. I can't imagine what it would have been like if we really pushed them. I'll be less nervous the next time we go because I've been through the WDW with kids scene now, no matter what anyone says, you just never know until you actually do it. Next time we do go the Haunted Mansion better be up and running or I will throw myself to the ground and have a tantrum, kicking and screaming and embarrass my own kids for a change.

WDW trip 6/11/07 - 6/21/07

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