[slist]

Wonderful trip report. We were their at the same time 7/11 to 7/22. We did not get to do everything we wanted. We missed soaring (fast passes gone every time) I will never again go in July to hot and crowded. I am starting to make plans for my next trip October 06.

[Country Bear]

I'm not sure if they had any pennies for the celebration, a lot of machines were broken. I found a happiest Celebration quarter. I think it was in MK train station.

[PiratesFan]

Originally Posted by Dana

*clapping* what a great trip report. Your attention to the details made me want to read it again (and I did) and your pictures were so awesome! Thank you for taking the time to do all that. It was like I was right there with you getting angry at the woman at your pool and her obnoxious kid and getting even more angry with the lady and her battling ram. I am glad that you all managed to have a magical time despite some of these bumps in the road and despite the heat and crowds. Thanks again for such a great report. *clapping again*

Dana, thanks for noticing the details. It has actually taken me a good while to write about each day even though I took good notes every night before bed. It has been a great way to give something back to DC and to accurately give a timeline to all of the pictures we took.

As for a couple of annoying incidents, they were really exceptions to an otherwise great time. My biggest peeve was the poor quality and selection of food at the Poly snack bar. With DDs 5 and 7, we were often taking breaks at the resort and just needed to grab some decent food that was not as elaborate as the Kona Cafe or Ohanas. I still miss the way the Col. Cotton Mill was in the Dixie Landings days. They offered a much better variety of food, morning, afternoon, and evening. I am begining to see the light why some people swear by concierge. Especially at the Poly. Kind of steep in price though just to avoid dry chicken and rubber hamburgers.

I know lots of DCers have favorite spots around the MK to eat at. We do to, but when you are in the parks, it is often dificult or not just impossible to pick any old place and expect to either find a table, not wait on a 30 min line just to order, require reservations, or find a menu without all of the pseudo gourmet food offerings that a finicky-to-normal 5 and 7 year old will be satisfied.

We thought that during this trip, we would avoid some of the food woes by booking lots of character meal PSs. For our 8 night, 9 day trip, DW booked 3 breakfasts, 2 lunches, and 3 dinners. This was really great for all of us, but the times in between, mostly around diner, were a bit difficult. Many times we were in our home base park, the MK, and wanted to get a bite for this or that. Well, this or that, always meant leaving the park by monorail or boat, getting in the car, and either travelling to another park, resort, or go off-property (went to a Shonney's near DTD once). As I am sure most of you know, those kind of trips can take a really long time, especially when you have to dodge the parade and Wishes crowds. Not really an option at all when you have a hungry spouse and kids that need something soon.

Hopefully things will get better as the kids get older. Can't blame them for not wanting the same chicken strips and fries being offered in different places over and over.

PiratesFan

[Dana]

Originally Posted by PiratesFan

Dana, thanks for noticing the details. It has actually taken me a good while to write about each day even though I took good notes every night before bed. It has been a great way to give something back to DC and to accurately give a timeline to all of the pictures we took.

As for a couple of annoying incidents, they were really exceptions to an otherwise great time. My biggest peeve was the poor quality and selection of food at the Poly snack bar. With DDs 5 and 7, we were often taking breaks at the resort and just needed to grab some decent food that was not as elaborate as the Kona Cafe or Ohanas. I still miss the way the Col. Cotton Mill was in the Dixie Landings days. They offered a much better variety of food, morning, afternoon, and evening. I am begining to see the light why some people swear by concierge. Especially at the Poly. Kind of steep in price though just to avoid dry chicken and rubber hamburgers.

I know lots of DCers have favorite spots around the MK to eat at. We do to, but when you are in the parks, it is often dificult or not just impossible to pick any old place and expect to either find a table, not wait on a 30 min line just to order, require reservations, or find a menu without all of the pseudo gourmet food offerings that a finicky-to-normal 5 and 7 year old will be satisfied.

We thought that during this trip, we would avoid some of the food woes by booking lots of character meal PSs. For our 8 night, 9 day trip, DW booked 3 breakfasts, 2 lunches, and 3 dinners. This was really great for all of us, but the times in between, mostly around diner, were a bit difficult. Many times we were in our home base park, the MK, and wanted to get a bite for this or that. Well, this or that, always meant leaving the park by monorail or boat, getting in the car, and either travelling to another park, resort, or go off-property (went to a Shonney's near DTD once). As I am sure most of you know, those kind of trips can take a really long time, especially when you have to dodge the parade and Wishes crowds. Not really an option at all when you have a hungry spouse and kids that need something soon.

Hopefully things will get better as the kids get older. Can't blame them for not wanting the same chicken strips and fries being offered in different places over and over.

PiratesFan

I feel the same way as you with the food offerings. I feel so bad for my DD who doesn't really eat a lot of the "normal" fast food. She eats chicken strips for 80% of the trip. I plan at least one sit-down meal a day so she gets a little variety. Those fast food places that actually have variety are the first ones to get full and not have a spare table when we decide we want to eat...lol We eat lunch at our resort often too. I have to have a break as does my DD who is 11 now and still needs to rest a bit after a hard morning in the parks. Besides aren't those breaks great? You get to refuel your stomach, yourself and your patience. I have found it easier to deal with the bumps in the road (example: rudeish guests) if I am not tired. I truely enjoyed every word of your trip report and thank you for the time you took to write it. Your reasons for doing that are the exact ones I have for writing the same details. Thanks agian.

[dznygrl]

PiratesFan, I was so enthralled with your entire trip report! THANK YOU for taking the time to write notes every day, so you could come back here and give me a little reprieve from my PDD. I really appreciated the pictures too...though I did start to cry at one point because the pictures made me feel like I was there...

I applaud your bravery for going during such a busy time, too. I don't think I could handle it, honestly. I spent all of last summer (almost every single day) at Disneyland while I was working down there, and the crowds made me SO CRABBY. I lost patience with the pushy people, the heat, and the lack of space to even stretch my legs! I'd get off of work at DCA, try to get over to DL for one show in the Tiki Room before I went home, and it was like trying to get around a mall on the day after Thanksgiving!!

I hope next time you'll be able to take a trip during lower crowds. It's sooooo worth it! 9 days is a great length of time for a trip...longer than I've ever been!...and you would enjoy it so much more if you didn't have to deal with the stress of those darn crowds.

Thanks again for the TR! It was fantastic!

[cinderbella]

Lovely!!! Lovely!!!!!!
I felt like standing and applauding when I finished this...(I read it straight through)
Love the pictures! Love the details! It sounds like you had a wonderfully, hot and crowded time!!!

[Tinkerbelle67]

Awesome TR, thanks for sharing. Glad to see someone else takes notes and writes every night (I was afraid I was the only one).

[PiratesFan]

DAY 9 Monday, July 18 (Departure)

Well, today finally came, the day we leave WDW. We woke up around 7:30 and tried to clean up the room and continue packing as much as possible. Although check-out wasn't until 11:00, we had a surprise breakfast PS at Ohanas planned for the kids at 8:30. It was pretty crowded when we checked in. While we waited, the photographer took photos of all four of us and then just my 2 DDs alone together. I thought, Oh well, maybe this is part of the package.

Breakfast was average, but definately not as good as breakfast in 1900 Park Fare or for the Princess Storybook breakfast in Akershus in Norway.
No big deal, we were there mostly for the kids to sort of say goodbye one more time to Mickey and friends.

About 10 minutes after being seated, we got some photos of the kids with Chip. 20 minutes passed with no other characters coming around yet, and while we were still eating, our server (dropping the CM designation here this once for a reason) presented us with the check. My DW and I just looked at each other, then spoke some verbal non-mentionables in this forum. I was a bit annoyed at what I surmised as a rush-job. There were plenty of other open tables, so I couldn't understand this. Shrugging it off, we continued with our breakfast while visited by Mickey and Dale. Our server kept coming back to see if we wanted a refill on our coffee. We accepted once, but the other couple of times we declined because not enough time passed between cups. I felt this was not out of good service but rather something else. She also mentioned to my DW if she could take the check, to which my DW said as soon as we see Goofy who was the only character we did not see. At this point, we were there for about an hour, and basically finished eating, just waiting for Goofy while sipping on our respective beverages. All of a sudden, another server or bus person comes over and asks us if we were finished. We said yes, where he proceeded to basically clean off the entire table except for our napkins. It's great to have your dishes removed while you enjoy the rest of your time, but this guy even wiped the middle of the table off! I was extremely irate at how we were rushed through our breakfast by these people. I did not want to complain because our poor 2 DDs were just sitting crooked on their chairs, watching other tables, and wondering when Goofy would finally visit them. He eventually came over to which we left without haste. When this continual rush-job by the staff was going on, I mentioned to my DW that I remember reading on DC about this happening to someone else, so it was a little more comforting to know that we were not just being singled out. It spoiled my breakfast though, because I felt on the defensive. My feelings moved to the offensive when I told my DW that if this continues, I would certainly complain and refuse to pay the bill.

We know from experience with having lunch in the Crystal Palace with Pooh and Friends, that it can take an hour or more for all of the characters to circulate around to each table, so waiting for Goofy was not an issue for us. And besides, we were not even there an hour.

Another peeve I had during this breakfast was when they came to our table with the photos we took, they wanted the usual fee of around $20 for the photos of us all together and also of just my 2 DDs together. Fit to be tied with our server, and I guess taking things a bit personally, I was steamed by the fact that Disney was now trying to double-dip us for twice the money for pictures. I thought that the kids' photos would be included in with the group photo package. Obviously not. I felt a bit used at this point because as we were waiting to be seated, I saw only one photo being taken of several families with and without kids. It's a wierd thing to see photos of yourself and family and not buy them. We know from our own experience in having professional pictures done of the kids from Walmart or from school, that its tough to send any back. Since we were in Ohanas, I thought it was more appropriate to have the FAMILY photo, but my DW liked the photos of the kids better. She payed cash for the kids while used my Debit card for the family photo. While waiting to sign the receipt, I cooled down a little, where my DW pointed out how the family photo was not that great. When the CM got back with my receipt, I told her we changed our mind and didn't want the family photo. We thought we would just cut our loses at this point ($65 breakfast for four, no tip).

As we headed back to the room to gather up our things, we realized that it was getting close to check-out time. If it was any consolation to breakfast, we were definately leaving with more than we came.

As we walked to the van one final time, my DW and DD-7 were very upset that, in retrospect, we did not get the chance to rent a Surrey bike to ride around the Poly like we did the last time we were there. It didn't take me too long to say, let's finish loading up the van and then we could go rent one. So we made a U-turn and headed back, towards the Poly marina. We had a CM take a photo of us before our trek. We had the bike for 30 minutes but lasted only about 20. It was a much more appropriate way to end our trip.

So with that, we eventually left the WDW property around 12:15. (one for each of us). Our next stop was to drive to St. Augustine and stay there for 3 nights. There we visited some of the oldest city historical sights, the Alligator Farm, and spend some time on the beach. Keeping things still Disney related, I do have to add that there was a Belz Outlet Mall nearby with a Disney Outlet in it! They had a lot of shirts from 2004, some Christmas and Halloween stuff, and a few other good buys. My DW bought a great embroydered denim baseball jacket for the winter at 1/2 price. We didn't get a chance to go to the Disney outlets on International Drive, but this sure made up for it.

I can't say for sure when our next trip to WDW will be. I do know that it will be for a while though. We might have to re-visit a one-armed man in Nevada before that.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my TR as much I have enjoyed writing it. It is a bit sad to be writing this in conclusion because it closes the loop on what was a great trip. Pixie dust wishes to all.

PiratesFan

[lovemysons]

Oh the last day always leaving me feeling so melancholy. Our boys liked the surrey bikes at the Poly too.

I know what you mean about the photos. The same thing happened to us at Chef Mickeys. At O'hana's, we just side stepped the whole photo thing. I just feel so put on the spot when they bring you the photos, and you have to decide whether or not to buy them.

[PiratesFan]

Originally Posted by lovemysons

Oh the last day always leaving me feeling so melancholy. Our boys liked the surrey bikes at the Poly too.

I know what you mean about the photos. The same thing happened to us at Chef Mickeys. At O'hana's, we just side stepped the whole photo thing. I just feel so put on the spot when they bring you the photos, and you have to decide whether or not to buy them.

We should have known better, but when you take the time to make PSs and spend the money, it's nice to have an "official" photo in addition to the ones taken by ourselves. It's just that this was the first time they presented us with two photo packages. I just thought that it was excessive and that they were taking advantage of the fact that we had young kids. I didn't see any second shots taken of the many teenagers that were there with their families.

As we looked at the photopass photos online, we are still faced with the same dilemma of what to choose or not. At least we have a some time to decide before we can't access them past the 30 day viewing limit.

PiratesFan

[Country Bear]

More pics please.

[Peppertink]

Great TR...lots of details which drew me into your report. It was like we were all there with ya!

[dznygrl]

I loved the pic of you guys on the surrey bike! I'm glad you were able to end the trip that way, and not with that experience at 'Ohana as your last memory. I'm really sorry that happened; it makes me want to think twice about eating breakfast there! I can't stand being rushed through a character meal. It's so rude.

I'm glad you had a great trip!!! The TR was awesome. The time you spent taking notes was well worth it! *applauds*

[PiratesFan]

Here are a few more pics that I thought came out good.

PiratesFan

[dznygrl]

Oooh, more pics! Thanks...can't get enough!!