WishIwere's Very First (and long) trip report from Christmas 2002

[wishiwere@wdw]

Trip Duration - December 26 - 31, 2002
Left for the airport from Camden County New Jersey @ 11:30am
Arrived at Atlantic City International Airport @ 12:35pm
Flight departs for Orlando @ 2:55PM
Hotel – Port Orleans Riverside
Average Temperature – 45-75 degrees

We were talked into flying out of Atlantic City for the first time by our travel agent. The deciding factor for us was the price. We saved approximately $500.00 by flying with Spirit Air instead of USAir out of Philadelphia. The planes were nothing special nor were the airport. However, I would never hesitate again to fly out of AC. Our plane left 5 minutes early and landed 10 minutes early. Our luggage was already on the conveyer when we arrived at Orlando’s baggage claim. Our “only” disappointment was that it seemed everybody flew out of AC that day as they were out of parking. They detoured us in a very confusing manner onto a muddy grass and straw field. There was a guy in is truck collecting the money in a rather lazy way for parking and it was very unorganized. It wouldn’t have been so bad had it not snowed the day before which left the field all muddy and slippery. Thankfully they had a shuttle bus but we still had to haul 5 bags, a stroller and a 6-month old baby through about 100ft. of crap. Our luggage wheels were all caked up in mud which continued to fall out in our hotel room during our trip.

This trip would be the first time my wife and I went to WDW with anybody besides ourselves. What makes that special is that this “3rd” wheel would be our 6 month old baby. I’m sure some of you had read my posts over the last few months but for those who hadn’t, the majority had to do with me asking for suggestions for traveling with an infant. We very much appreciated all of the help and support you all provided us. I know our trip would not have gone as smoothly had we not consulted here first!

Normally, we go to WDW every August because my wife is a school teacher. This makes it very difficult to go when the weather is cooler and the crowds our down. This past summer was obviously changed by the birth of our first wonderful son. This cancelled our 2002 trip, or so we thought. Sometime in November, we started going into WDW withdrawal. I suggested that we go over the Christmas break since we could both get off from work and our son would then be 6 months old. I immediately called our travel agent and booked the trip. We would be going from December 26th through the 31st. There was no way we could be apart from family on our sons first Christmas so we left a day later and since my wife had to return to work on the 2nd of January, we came home New Years eve to allow her a day to catch up on reality.

Continued…

 

[wishiwere@wdw]

DAY 1

DAY 1:

Unfortunately, our flight did not leave AC until around 2:50PM on December 26 because I booked the trip so late. This would have us landing at Orlando International just before 5:00PM. We had no difficulty finding our luggage and the line was extremely short for Mears. One major concern we had before leaving was having our son traveling by Mears without a car seat. To our pleasant surprise, they transferred us to the hotel with a coach bus. Not only did we feel safer than we would have in a 15 passenger van but the bus did not have seatbelts anyway. Carrying his car seat would have turned out to be pointless. (The main reason we didn’t bring it was because of the parking situation mentioned earlier at the airport. We were out of hands.) In the future, I think I will either rent a car or have a limousine transfer us with a car seat. This eliminates the need to carry our car seat and will make us feel safer having him strapped in.

We arrived at Dixie Landings……I mean Port Orleans Riverside around 6:15PM. Not too bad but we were upset that we missed most of the day in the parks. The weather was PERFECT at a nice an humidity free 60 degrees. However, we decided it would be best to check in first and get our hotel room situated. We were also starving as the pretzel bag on the plane did not exactly fill us up. The room was ok but we had asked for a king size bed and a crib and did not get either. We lived with the bed situation because we wanted to get going so I called guest services and asked for a crib to be sent over. This worked out well anyway because the additional double bed was great to have for changing our son (on a changing pad) and overall was great to dump stuff onto.

Next we went over to the main cafeteria for some dinner. In my opinion, this is the best cafeteria in all of the moderate resorts. After a personal pizza and the purchase of our refillable mugs, we headed over to the south bus depot for the Magic Kingdom. It was now around 8:15PM. We arrived at the Magic Kingdom around 8:45. Our sadness of arriving so late quickly disappeared after walking towards Main Street. However, the security setup was rather ridiculous. I know why they are doing it but the inspection was rather pointless. It also ruined the appeal of what was once a beautiful entrance area. They have temporary fencing erected along with portable tables and canopies. I guess it’s whatever makes people happy. I know they NEVER inspected our bags thoroughly enough to find anything but I’m sure it was more to set the precedence.

Once inside we were just in time to see the 9:00 fireworks. These were much nicer (and longer) than the normal nighttime fireworks. We were also very amazed when it started snowing afterward. How awesome is that!? Once the fireworks were over, we headed back to Liberty Square to find a good seat for the 10:00 SpetroMagic parade. To our surprise, the place was emptying out. Did everybody not realize that they were open until midnight? Oh well. I wasn’t going to complain. We had a front row seat for the parade and our son absolutely LOVED it. Many of the characters blew him kisses or stopped over to hug and kiss him. I knew right then and there that we made the right decision to go.

After the parade, the place emptied out even more. This allowed us to ride Winnie the Pooh, Small World and Buzz with our son and he loved every second of it. Then it was time to back to our room and get some sleep.

Continued…

 

[wishiwere@wdw]

DAY 2

DAY 2:

The next day we were a bit slow waking up. We finally left the room around 11:00am and went to the cafeteria for lunch. I knew this day would be awesome because we were going to my favorite park, Epcot. We also had the Candlelight Processional dinner package that included dinner in Canada. I will agree with many of the comments posted on here about Epcot's current condition but that didn’t ruin my visit as much as the freaking fountain not working again. I have been there 4 times in four years and saw it work 1 time. We were in Epcot on 2 of our 6 days and it was only running the water through itself. That in itself is a down attraction. More than likely it was because of the crappy looking, unappealing garbage they had setup in the area for their New Years Eve celebration. It was rather close to the fountain and maybe the misting water could have damaged the equipment. Did I mention that this stage looked like crap? Anyway, we moved on to see Figment since the last version completely sucked. Wow were we amazed! This is once again a great ride! In fact, the catchy music is still in my head. This instantly became our son’s favorite attraction. He laughed, clapped and cheered through the entire ride. Of course, this required the immediate purchase of a stuffed Figment (who is now replacing Tigger as his favorite plush toy). We then strolled around future world and decided that 55 minutes for The Land was too long and the fast-pass would bring us back during dinner so we went on Spaceship Earth. I didn’t find the TV warnings in the beginning all that intrusive as others had mentioned but it was still rather silly. Regardless, this aging classic does need some help because the track is not too healthy. It felt as though we were hopping, skipping and squealing through the course. Still, nothing beats that feeling when you reach the top and the seats spin around. Of course, that is partially ruined by the warning about turning around backwards.

We then headed over to World Showcase to make sure we didn’t miss the afternoon Tapestry of Dreams parade. It wasn’t bad but I personally didn’t like it as much as the original. I also liked the old music better without so much talking throughout. We also both thought the parade was better at night but they were not offering a nighttime performance. Oh well, our son enjoyed it very much and the cast members in the parade did an outstanding job. Each and every one of them seemed to pour their hearts into it.

After the parade, we started to work our way towards Canada for our 5:30PM dinner package at Le Cellier Steakhouse. We passed (and watched) many street acts on our way. None of these atmosphere acts seemed to be around on our last visit so this was great to see. Once inside the steakhouse, we were treated to a wonderful meal and fabulous service. Our son spent the entire time flirting with those around us (as he did everywhere we went) and trying to grab everything on the table. After some great steak, desert and “real” Molson, we headed back to future world to kill time before the 8:30PM processional. Once again, we went to see Figment. Our son can’t get enough of this ride! On the way out through Image Works, a few CM’s stopped us and said we MUST have our son’s picture taken because it would come out so cute. He had a Mickey Santa outfit on the included a Santa hat with mouse ears. We soon found ourselves having his picture taken in front of the castle backdrop which came out great! We will cherish this picture for a long time to come. (I’ll post a link to the picture later)

Sadly, we encountered some of the most disgusting, worse than Six Flags bathrooms on our way out of Image Works. We were going to find a CM to let them know but we had to get back for our priority seating and I wanted to see Mission Space at night before we went back as well.

The Candlelight Processional alone was worth the trip to Orlando. This was absolutely incredible. Gary Sinise was awesome as was the choir and orchestra. In fact, at the end, Gary did a little show of his own by thanking everybody and bringing out the poor girl who “always” ends up behind him where nobody can see her. He was very funny and inspiring and did an excellent job. On the way out, we saw the other single reason I would visit WDW. Reflections of Earth! We didn’t have the best viewing spot because of leaving the Processional but it was still awesome! Since we were still on a high from ROE, we went back to Magic Kingdom for some more rides until midnight. This was the second night that Peter Pan had more than a 1 hour wait. This would prove to be the case for our entire trip.

Continued…

 

[wishiwere@wdw]

DAY 3

DAY 3:

Day 3 would take us to Animal Kingdom. We got ourselves moving a bit earlier because of the park closing earlier. This would prove to be pointless as you will soon find out. This part of our trip will hopefully become a lost memory of an otherwise perfect vacation. In fact, I intend to write WDW to let them know about what happened. We arrived at our bus stop around 10:00am. This was early for us as we were actually out the door around 9:00 for breakfast and then went back to our room to drop off the mugs and change our son. 10:00 should still be early enough right? Wrong. After about 20 minutes, we started noticing the same busses cycling through again. We also noticed there were many of the same people still waiting with us. Finally, we started approaching busses to find out what was going on. Well, some of the drivers shut the door on us and others drivers didn’t speak English (or pretended not to). Still, we were all very patient tourists. Finally, 45 minutes later, 1 Animal Kingdom bus came by but it didn’t even pull into the stop. Since we were the last stop, it was already full. This pis*sed us off even more because they didn’t even stop. We then bombarded every single driver that pulled up demanding that they do something. Some of them said they would call it in while other said it “should” be coming soon and quickly pulled away. I thought it was VERY interesting that they ALL seemed to know something was up but they wouldn’t speak up. FINALLY, a very nice driver took the time to hold us there WHILE she called it in so we could hear the response. She then requested that they send the bus in backwards so that it stops at our stop first. The person on the other end agreed and said 5 more minutes. Well, another 15 minutes passed by and we finally had our own empty buss to board. Our stop alone almost filled it. It was now 11:15 and we arrived at AK around 11:50 after some other stops. It was noon by the time we were in the park and we were angry, upset and most of all, disappointed. I think the most aggravating part of all was waiting over 1 hour while trying to keep a 6 month old baby happy and occupied. ANY parent knows this is not an easy task. That completely wore us out. Once we were in, it was time for lunch. We ate at our favorite Pizza place near Camp Minnie Mickey. Then it was time to see the new DinoRama section since it was under construction last August. However, this would prove to be a SHORT visit because your were walking back to back into this section. I picked up a fast pass for the new roller coaster and we left ASAP. I would say they have a major traffic flow problem here as they do with the entire park. We then saw Flights of Wonder, and tried to pass some time until the new parade started. This parade was great as was Flights of Wonder (I think with a new script) but that was all we really got out of this park. We then went to see Mickey to have pictures and headed back to Primeval Whirl with my fastpass. It was actually a very fun ride that was very nicely themed. This was very much needed but the area needs to be opened up more.

We were very happy to leave this disaster. I know the crowds were high this day but I think it is overall poor planning and a bad layout that caused the problems we encountered.

We decided it was time to get away from the parks and tour the hotels for a bit. We went to the TTC to board the monorail. Eventually, we ended up at the Polynesian Resort. Do they decorate at all for Christmas? I think there were two Christmas trees and few lights. This was very disappointing but I wasn’t going to let it keep us from venturing elsewhere. We then went on to the Grand Floridian. Some day I hope to stay here. WOW is all I can say! The decorations were amazing! The gingerbread house was cool as well.

We went back to the hotel again to rest and eat dinner and then ventured back out to the Magic Kingdom (notice a trend here). At night, you can’t beat the crowds at the MK. We basically walked onto a few more attractions such as Country Bears (the Christmas special was cute. We liked it a lot), Carousel of Progress, TTA, Buzz and Snow White. We then got to see the show in front of the castle after the fireworks since we missed it before. In fact, we watched the fireworks right at the entrance the last time and didn’t even know they had this show. It was very entertaining. We finally hit our limit and after seeing the long line at Peter Pan, we decided to call it a night.

Continued…

 

[wishiwere@wdw]

DAY 4

DAY 4:

Sunday “was” to be Disney/MGM studios day. We attempted a few things while we were there but overall, this was by far the worst crowd we have ever witnessed in the park. You could not even walk. It was more a crawling shuffle. We were very happy with the 100 YOM presentation and were glad to get in and see that. (I had to buy the DVD afterwards) I could have spent hours looking at all of the stuff in the preshow area. This was very well done overall. We then went over to the Playhouse Disney show. This was very well done as well and our son loved it. The only part we didn’t like was sitting on the floor but I can understand why they did that. After that, we waited through a very stressful time along the parade route. We were glad we did once we finally saw the parade but it was very agonizing trying to keep your spot. We decided to say goodbye to the studios after the parade out of pure frustration with the crowds. Fortunately, it was only about 65 degrees out so we could tolerate things a bit more than usual.

Since it was only late afternoon, we decided to try out the ferry boat from the studios and visit Boardwalk for the first time. Since we are from NJ, I didn’t think we would be very impressed by a replica of a seaside resort. Well, we weren’t. I have a feeling that Californian’s feel the same way about California Adventure. We already have one of those! Anyway, it was rather nicely done but the knats were unbearable at dusk. We were eating them while we walked. There was also A LOT of construction going on which made the place look rather bad in some spots. Overall, we weren’t all that impressed and decided to keep the visit short after some ice cream. We then hopped on the Epcot ferry and went to the international gateway. Oddly enough though, we didn’t stay at Epcot very long and instead took another spin on Figment (My son really loves Figment by this point!) and then went to the Monorail to catch a ride to the Magic Kingdom again. We then ate dinner at Pinocchio’s Village Haus and then enjoyed some more late night rides. Most of them we had already done but we did add POC and maybe a few others. It’s a Small World was also gaining popularity with my son as he was really fascinated by the moving children.

We didn’t stay out as late tonight because of vacation fatigue. You would never know that we didn’t stop all day by looking at our son. We told ourselves that if he was tired, we would go back for naps. We also told ourselves that if he was cranky, we would go back for naps. However, he was ALWAYS happy, clapping, smiling and having a good time. So much so that we almost forgot we need a rest as well! Upon our return to the hotel, we walked in and noticed animals on our nightstand. I’m not exactly sure what they were but they were cute nonetheless. We also were treated to an endless supply of soap, shampoo and towels. I think we had enough to last a month. This was by far the best service we have ever had while staying at WDW and I owe this to all of you. I remembered reading a thread a long time back about tipping. A couple of you had mentioned that they like being tipped daily because sometimes the housekeeping staff changes. Normally, we would leave a large tip on the last day but instead we left something every day. It certainly seemed to work this time.

Continued…

 

[wishiwere@wdw]

DAY 5

DAY 5:

My wife felt bad that I missed Tower of Terror at the studios the day before because I had been talking about the new ride program that was supposed to start at the end of December. We decided that I would take the bus to MGM by myself and arrive just after the park opens and then she could sleep in a little with the kid. I was cool with that so I was off to the bus stop just before 8:00am. Well, I didn’t get there as early as I would have liked because of the crummy busses but I did manage to arrive around 8:45am. After a very fast paced walk, I was grabbing a fast-passs. However, they had CM’s standing there to let us know that the return times were wrong because the computers were down. I didn’t care because it was only an hour later. I saw the standby time (which was only 15 minutes) and figured I could get on it once through standby and then go grab a fast-pass for RNR before going on TOT with my fast-pass. However, as I was waiting in line, a CM came on the PA system to announce that because the computers were down, the standby time was also wrong. Uhhhggggg! Well, 55 minutes later I was walking onto the last car in the back corner. I knew I was in for a treat after realizing that the entire back row did not have a lap bar! I wasn’t sure if the new program was in use because it was listed as starting on the 31st (this day was the 30th) but I learned very quickly that things were to be different. What a great ride! I then walked around to grab a FP for RNR and realized I missed my chance. The return time was already into the middle of the day. Oh well. I’ve been on better coasters anyway. (I have Six Flags for that) I went back into line with my TOT FP and rode the 3rd shaft. This car still had the lap bars in the back with a seatbelt in the middle but it still had the new effects and a completely different drop sequence. Tower of Terror is one of my all time favorite rides and is even more so after the changes they made.

It was now going on 10:30 so it was time to head back to the hotel to meet with my wife and son. This would also prove to be agonizing because of the busses. A bus would stop at the Port Orleans bus stop to drop people off but I could not get back on for a return visit. Some of the drivers were rather rude in letting me know. Eventually, a “special” bus pulled up just for me. The driver seemed aggravated that I was already going back to the hotel this early in the day but she began to make conversation after a few minutes.

Once I returned to the hotel at 11:45am, we went to the cafeteria for lunch and then headed over to the Magic Kingdom to see the Christmas parade. This was a very long but very well done parade and my son loved it. I was a tad disappointed that we didn’t see the snow globes since we saw them being built during a tour last year. Regardless, it was still well done. We stayed in the Magic Kingdom for the rest of the day and then went over to see the Osborne lights at MGM. I didn’t know exactly what to expect but wow was this awesome! They also had snow coming down in the New York section which looked really cool. I was really glad we made the side trip back to see this. It was truly amazing to see. Since we were coming up on our last day, we decided to pull a late night trip back to the Magic Kingdom where we rode many more rides. We were becoming addicted to the late night hours they were offering at the MK and were very glad they added them.

Continued…

 

[wishiwere@wdw]

DAY 6 - The end

DAY 6:

Sniff, Sniff….The last day…..Sniff.

Today we had to pack our stuff first thing. You would have thought that 10 people were staying in our room if you looked at all of the stuff we had in there! Once we were packed, we walked over the cafeteria for breakfast. After breakfast, we did one last check around the room before calling bell services. We then went back to the Magic Kingdom and once again tried Peter Pan. No luck with standby and the fast-pass return was too late for us. We did finally get to see the Hall of Presidents though. It was actually a really nice show. After eating lunch and basically hanging out, we went back to the hotel to retrieve our luggage and wait for Mears.

They had us being picked up at 3:00 for a 6:20PM flight. I guess they are worried about security but we didn’t have any issues with delays.

Once again, a very relaxing flight on which my son slept 98% of the way through and the other 2% he entertained those around us by playing peek-a-boo. We landed sometime around 8:30 and we were home around 9:45 on New Years Eve.

All in all, this was the best trip we ever had to WDW. The weather was AWESOME. The decorations were wonderful and the special perks such as the Candlelight Processional, increased streetmosphere, and shows were great. We loved the late hours and the abundance of characters throughout. (Maybe later I’ll ya about our little Mickey Mouse picture incident in which the photographer screwed up the picture) For those that actually read this far……Thanks. It took a long time to type. Trust me! You can check out my photos by going to http://68.46.158.36/WDW2002/index.html . Thank you for reading and I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

PS- I’ll check back for any questions. There is tons more that I omitted to keep it somewhat short but perhaps I can help somebody else out.

 

[Grumpy56]

Great trip report! Thanks so much for posting it. And your son, what a cutie! Awesome that you got to hear Gary Sinise at Epcot, he is a great actor. We have never braved the crowds during Xmas week, good for you. Glad you had a good time. We always figured that as long as everyone was having a good time it was great to travel when the kids were young and flexible! Now that mine are teens, it a little more challenging:lol: TRhanks agin, I enjoyed your report.

 

[Invero]

Re: DAY 3

Originally posted by wishiwere@wdw
We then bombarded every single driver that pulled up demanding that they do something. Some of them said they would call it in while other said it “should” be coming soon and quickly pulled away. I thought it was VERY interesting that they ALL seemed to know something was up but they wouldn’t speak up.

A few things...

Although I understand your frustration, there really is no need to bombard those other drivers. They have nothing to do with it, nor can they really do anything about it. As a driver, I will tell you, if you come up to my bus yelling and screaming at me for something that I have nothing to do with... I'd do the same thing. We're human beings, we have nothing to do with what's going on, nor can we change it.


As for what they seemed to know... they knew nothing. They don't do the dispatching. All of our dispatching is done from a parking lot within Port Orleans, by a dispatcher with the computer.

 

[wishiwere@wdw]

Sorry if that was taken out of context a bit. By bombarded, I meant that all 25+ of us approaced the bus to "let" them know the seriousness of the situation. We never once raised our voice and in fact, I personally only spoke to one of the drivers. Nobody at my stop was at all rude to anybody and usaully we were funny about it. The only frustrating thing with the entire situation was that the drivers who were stopping did not really say anything other than "Yea, we've heard a LOT of radio talk about this route" or we would just have the door slammed in our face. Regardless, what were we to do? There is no way to call as there are no phones and Murphy's Law says that if I walked back to our room or to guest relations, the bus would have pulled up the second we walked away. The last driver was able to help as she called somebody and awaited for a response. She also requested that the bus do the route backwards so that it isn't already full like the one before it and they anwswered back. I would say they can do something to help. The fact that the full bus drove past our stop and didn't even pull in to say anything really set everybody off. That is simply wrong. Regardless, nobody should have to wait 2 hours to get anywhere. I would eventually get fired if the train I took to work was 2 hours late a few times. Did you happen to be working that saturday after Christmas? I'm just curious if word got around. The driver that did finally come (who was very cool by the way) stated that our "situation" was all over the radio. We would have been fine with EVERYTHING had a CM simply stopped by and said that there was a problem and there would be a delay. We could have gone somewhere else or found another way to get there. Things do happen such as accidents, breakdowns, traffic jams, etc. but if they can't tell us, what should we do? Thanks for reading

 

[Becky]

Hi WISH,

I totally agree with you about the lack of Christmas decorations. I guess the old Disney days are gone forever.

Sorry about your bus experiences. We were at the All Star Movies. Sports and Music are picked up first and usually there was only room for 5-6 people by the time the bus got to Movies.

The exception was for MK. Each All Stars had their own bus for MK.

You are lucky you didn't stay until New Years Eve. The monsoons made the Bus situation unbelievable. The problem was people shoving their way in front of those in line for 20-30 minutes, NOT the drivers who were great. You should have seen all the Special Busses they sent.

We did Peter Pan once. Longest wait we have ever had.

We say every year we will never go at the end of the year again. But every year we do. Oh well

 

[wishiwere@wdw]

Yup, I saw the weather on TV when I got home and was very glad we were home instead of there . I'm actually really glad that we went this time of year. Sure the transportation was a bit more taxed as were the rides, food lines, etc. but overall, it was worth it for the extra shows, decorations and of course, WEATHER! Coming from a snow storm to the 60's was great

 

[Invero]

Originally posted by wishiwere@wdw
Sorry if that was taken out of context a bit. By bombarded, I meant that all 25+ of us approaced the bus to "let" them know the seriousness of the situation. We never once raised our voice and in fact, I personally only spoke to one of the drivers. Nobody at my stop was at all rude to anybody and usaully we were funny about it.

I'm glad to hear that... it's a little pet peeve, so I apologise if I was set off...

Originally posted by wishiwere@wdw
The fact that the full bus drove past our stop and didn't even pull in to say anything really set everybody off.

The driver probably forgot to change their destination sign to "Special"...

Originally posted by wishiwere@wdw
Did you happen to be working that saturday after Christmas? I'm just curious if word got around.

I was working nights at the MK that week... As I recall we got quite busy that week... We were slow for an hour, and then it was like EVERYONE decided to go everywhere all at once.

 

[wishiwere@wdw]

Yea, that would really make more sense for the bus that passed by. No harm would have been done if it didn't read Animal Kingdom on it. Oh well. Transportation in general was nuts the entire time we were there. This wasn't limited to the busses either. Overall, there were very few delays or issues for the number of people there and we didn't let it ruin our stay.

I actually liked your response and didn't take it personally as it reminds me that there are still many CM's that still have the passion to stand up for what they do. That is very awesome. Your job can't be easy and I'm sure they don't pay you enough for what you deal with.

From this experience I began to wonder if it would be a good idea for WDW to have emergency "help" phones at all of their bus stops. Not just because of what happened to us but the fact that a real emergency could happen and there is no way to call for help unless you have a cell phone. Oh....wait.....I think just about everybody had one of those..Some form of a help box would be nice for certain situations.

Maybe I'll shoot them off an email with that suggestion. I didn't plan to send any type of complaint because then I just get pis-ed off and would rather just forget about what is in the past but this may be a way to make things better for the future. Do they actually listen though?

 

[Invero]

Originally posted by wishiwere@wdw
From this experience I began to wonder if it would be a good idea for WDW to have emergency "help" phones at all of their bus stops. Not just because of what happened to us but the fact that a real emergency could happen and there is no way to call for help unless you have a cell phone. Oh....wait.....I think just about everybody had one of those..Some form of a help box would be nice for certain situations.

I know they have them at a few stops at Old Key West, Caribbean Beach and Coronado... Not quite sure why Port Orleans didn't get them.

Originally posted by wishiwere@wdw
Maybe I'll shoot them off an email with that suggestion. I didn't plan to send any type of complaint because then I just get pis-ed off and would rather just forget about what is in the past but this may be a way to make things better for the future. Do they actually listen though?

They don't even listen to me... *sigh* I can't even begin to tell you of the battles I've fought...

 

[KathyG/poohbear]

I really enjoyed your trip report. I am glad your family had such a good time.

I had a bad bus experience while staying at the AKL in September. We waited over an hour to get back to the hotel from Downtown Disney.

I know crowds are hard to predict but we talked with our concierge and she indicated that the more people that spoke with guest services about waiting for buses the better than chance that someone would do something. So I encourage everyone who depends on Disney transportation and has a bad experience to write guest relations and report it.

We are going back in February and don't want the added trouble of a car but are a little concerned about depending on Disney. When you book a room you are always told your wait shouldn't be over 20 minutes.

 

[Invero]

I always wonder how such delays can happen... in theory, with our dispatching system, it's just not possible. In that one hour, there should have been 4 busses to AK Lodge... And I know the computer goes nuts when a dispatch is missed... never mind 4.

We've even gone so far as to place a CM at the Marketplace who's job is to visually verify that each bus arrives when it's supposed to. (Instead of the driver parking the bus and slacking off)

 

[orangefan15]

Originally posted by KathyG/poohbear

I had a bad bus experience while staying at the AKL in September. We waited over an hour to get back to the hotel from Downtown Disney.

We had this problem in December while trying to get to AKL from DTD. We waited over 45 minutes for a bus. We weren't very happy about it. We asked the bus driver if her's was the only bus running from DTD to AKL and she said there should've been at least one more, but given the time we waited, that doesn't seem likely. Its extremely frustrating to stand there and watch busses come to do pick-ups for the other resorts 1, 2 and even 3 times before a bus comes for AKL.

 

[Disneynutcase]

This thread is getting a bit off the subject. Great trip report. It and several others are helping my family plan out a potential trip either before or right after New Years 2005. I'm a bit afraid of the potential crowds that will be at the parks though. Sounded like this years' end-of-the-year and New Years crowds were pretty packed.

However, back to the side-tracked issue, in my own sick and self-congratulatory way, I always get a bit of a kick out of people who complain about the loooonngg waits that WDW transportation seems to inflict on its customers, particularly during peak season.

I've been to WDW three times. On the first visit I used Disney transportation and hated the sardine-packed busses, and the 20-40 minute waits for the busses (after being assured by CMs, concierge people and such that "busses run every 15 minutes"). Maybe during off-season when no one is there, but its an abosolute myth during Christmas and Easter breaks.

Unfortunately due to kids in school, we go during peak seasons and make the best of it. And for our last two trips, I found great satisfaction in renting a car. A bit more of an expense? Yep. But I can come and go to the parks anytime I want without any delay or problem...while the majority of the rest of you are looking like suckers waiting for some stupid bus (and enough space for you and yours on that bus!) to arrive.

Not that I'm trying to gloat...at least not too much...but the WDW transportation system didn't do it for me. I'm in Orlando to be at the parks, not at a bus stop.

 

[cymbaldiva]

Ohhh - Such a ray of sunshine on an otherwise drab thread! :lol:

Anyway, I'm sorry you had such trouble with the buses - I too have felt your pain - I stayed at the WL in 2000....it was truly a transportation nightmare!

As a whole though, I really have to go with the Disney transport system - for me, part of the Magic is the monorails, the boats, and yes, the buses !

I personally will take the Magic of being chauffered about as opposed to driving any day!