A Heaping Helping of Disney with a Side Dish of Drama - June 2013 TR

[Deesknee]

oh No! How horrific the bus ordeal was! I know most people love the convience of the disney buses, but we always get messed up, or have a long wait. We find renting a car is a much better option for us. DH enjoys driving in FLA, so I am very lucky that way.
Your boys look very patient considering the bus issue they just went through. Hopefully you all are able to enjoy DQ & it will have been worth the hassle.
We stayed POR once. 5 in the room. Not a happy ending. lol I think that may have been one of the few times we didn't rent a car.
Your drink looks yummy. I remember when the whip cream vodka was being tested. DH got a tasting sample here at home & loved it!

 

[disfanforlife]

I think I would have been in tears after that bus ordeal. I get tired and cranky at night.

 

[DisneyJo]

It sounded as though you had lots of fun doing the missions!

I'm so sorry about your toe but I love how inventive you were with keeping your bandage dry

Oh my word your bus situation sounds terrible, I'm glad you eventually got back to DTD though

 

[BridgetR3]

oh No! How horrific the bus ordeal was! I know most people love the convience of the disney buses, but we always get messed up, or have a long wait. We find renting a car is a much better option for us. DH enjoys driving in FLA, so I am very lucky that way.
Your boys look very patient considering the bus issue they just went through. Hopefully you all are able to enjoy DQ & it will have been worth the hassle.
We stayed POR once. 5 in the room. Not a happy ending. lol I think that may have been one of the few times we didn't rent a car.
Your drink looks yummy. I remember when the whip cream vodka was being tested. DH got a tasting sample here at home & loved it!

Yes the bus ordeal was AWFUL but luckily it was the one and only day we had any bus trouble at all. We had our car at Disney with us but chose to ride the buses instead. You will see that we don't make that mistake again on a different day.

The whipped cream vodka was STRONG but it was a good drink. Still not my favorite one of the week though....

I think I would have been in tears after that bus ordeal. I get tired and cranky at night.

I felt SOOOOO bad because it was after all my fault - well sorta!

It sounded as though you had lots of fun doing the missions!

I'm so sorry about your toe but I love how inventive you were with keeping your bandage dry

Oh my word your bus situation sounds terrible, I'm glad you eventually got back to DTD though

We did have a great time doing the missions.

Inventive is a great word for it I suppose.

We are finally back at DTD. Now to see if we can get into DQ.

 

[BridgetR3]

Oh my gosh Bridget... my apologies for being so far behind! I'm glad that you liked the BCV - you really can't beat the location for the quick walk to Epcot!

Captain's Grille didn't really thrill us as well. Black potatoes? Ugh! Glad the boys enjoyed the sandcastle club.

Sorry about the drama parts with the room keys and the lost APs. (I went back and re-read your entire TR up through current.)

Did you go on the orange or green experience for Mission Space - I can't imagine you would go on Orange but you never know.

The boys look like they are loving the trip and you got them to ride some of the rides that were a bit doubtful/scary. Great job coaching them through it.(HM example comes to mind - "look for the party.")

So sorry to fall behind.

Please don't feel like you have to apologize. It happens to all of us!! Welcome back!

Yes Captain's Grille has definitely fallen off of our must do list. Black potatoes tasted pretty good IF you could get past the fact that they were black (or marbled if I'm trying to be fancy like the menu).

I rode Mission Space Green definitely NOT orange!!!

Yes the boys really grew up on this trip and tried LOTS of rides that they hadn't ridden before!

 

[BridgetR3]

My update today will be a quick one as we are running out the door for spirit night at our local Chick-Fil-A as well as a soccer game for DS11.

When I last left you all we had just arrived back at DTD and were hoping to get into Disney Quest. Sadly as soon as we turned the corner we found a LONG LONG line coming out of DQ, but the line was moving so we joined it. At last we were squished in the building's lobby with what felt like one million other people. I asked the CM who was closing the door behind us what the wait time was to get into DQ and she said, "Honestly I have no idea. We are just letting ya'll in to get you out of the rains that are coming again in a few minutes. We have been at capacity all day and it could easily be a 2-3 hour wait from here."

2 -3 hour wait?!?!?!? Just to get in?????

We quickly had a family meeting in the middle of the DQ lobby and decided that we would have to wait until some other time to do DQ because by the time we would be getting in, it would be time for our Be Our Guest dinner reservations. My boys (all three of them!!!) wanted me to cancel our BOG reservation!!! They have no clue what I went through to get that thing!! So we left Disney Quest with the two little ones in tears.....

Our plan at this point was to go next door into Splitsville and pray that they had an open pool table. Splitsville is really neat but I don't think I could ever pay that price for bowling while you are already spending so much to be at Disney. However, pool is only $9 an hour and we could all play so we decided to play pool. We were able to get a pool table on the second floor and had a great time while the weather outside was AWFUL!!!







We loved how these are bowling pins and balls!

After we finished our hour of playing, we decided to try to head to Magic Kingdom in hopes of being able to slowly make our way to Be Our Guest in between squall lines from Tropical Storm Andrea.

This time we were going to hop on whichever Magic Kingdom loop bus came up first because it was raining pretty hard. So we ran out to the bus area and a Grand Floridian bus was waiting for us! Score!!

As we were getting closer to MK, the rains began to slack off.



The boys were happy again.....although everyone was still doubting our reservation at Be Our Guest.



This is the Grand Floridian Villas which are probably old news by now.



However at the time it was a big deal to us!

With no issues at all, we were soon at the Grand Floridian and inside where it was nice and dry!



This lobby is gorgeous but to me (puts on fire suit) it's too much, as in too pretty, too nice, too ornate....



Is this a human cage?



Gorgeous chandelier



Beautiful!



A hidden Mickey



As we reached the second floor we headed out to board the monorail. Would our transportation issues follow us onto the monorail? Would we miss our BOG reservation?? Would the boys even like it?

 

[saintstickets]

Sorry you had the bad bus experience. We've been pretty lucky in our trips and have not had to wait very long. Just wait, I say that and while we are there next week, we will spend half our time waiting for a bus!

Loving your TR...hope you survived TS Andrea and the boys liked BOG!

 

[Deesknee]

CANCEL BoG? Men. I really hope they love it! Or else you will end up being the meany for making them leave DQ I bet. But if you had stayed you would have been waiting in line for each game! IMO you were right to leave especially since you wanted to try splits vile for the pool tables.
I love the GF but have never stayed there. I agree it is very ..fancy/formal. I would like to stay for a weekend sometime just dh and me. Although have you glanced at the DVD planned rooms? Wowsy wow wow! Lol

 

[dismom9761]

Great update
I hope you made it to BOG

 

[BridgetR3]

Sorry you had the bad bus experience. We've been pretty lucky in our trips and have not had to wait very long. Just wait, I say that and while we are there next week, we will spend half our time waiting for a bus!

Loving your TR...hope you survived TS Andrea and the boys liked BOG!

Thanks for following along!!! How exciting to be going next week!!!! We have 5 weeks from today before we leave.

Last night I clicked on a link in your signature and starting reading TR where you visited Discovery Cove and where your wife had a bad migraine. I can successfully say that I got ZERO accomplished but it's a great TR!!!!

CANCEL BoG? Men. I really hope they love it! Or else you will end up being the meany for making them leave DQ I bet. But if you had stayed you would have been waiting in line for each game! IMO you were right to leave especially since you wanted to try splits vile for the pool tables.
I love the GF but have never stayed there. I agree it is very ..fancy/formal. I would like to stay for a weekend sometime just dh and me. Although have you glanced at the DVD planned rooms? Wowsy wow wow! Lol

The new GF rooms and the lobby look awesome. Oh that lobby!! Have you seen the penguins in the fountain?!??! I'm a penguin lover! We WILL have pics of that lobby on our next trip!

Great update
I hope you made it to BOG

I hope we do too!! But we are about to get stuck again........I'll try to update tonight!

 

[lovethattink]

Bridget, I've been following along. Mostly on my phone and I'm not that great posting from it. On the laptop this morning and that makes it easier.

Your son's worry at Epcot during EMH sounded just like something JJ would worry about. I'm glad he was able to relax and enjoy the time once he saw others were there too.

I've been to DQ when it was full, but don't think I've ever been there when it reached capacity. You were smart to leave and head to Splitsville. We've walked through there and it looks great. Haven't bowled and didn't realize the pool was that affordable. Glad you had a good time there.

The GF DVC is still under construction, but much more has been completed. Last week the resort monorail was down from 11 to 6 daily for construction. I'm sure that made it interesting for those at the resort monorails. I was told the only resort the monorail went to was the Contemporary during those times. They bussed or boated the other resorts.

 

[SGMCO]

Enjoying the trip report.
you've convenced me never to go in June to WDW, to crowded, long waits.
We always go in Sept. and are able to walk on everything.

 

[BridgetR3]

Bridget, I've been following along. Mostly on my phone and I'm not that great posting from it. On the laptop this morning and that makes it easier.

Your son's worry at Epcot during EMH sounded just like something JJ would worry about. I'm glad he was able to relax and enjoy the time once he saw others were there too.

I've been to DQ when it was full, but don't think I've ever been there when it reached capacity. You were smart to leave and head to Splitsville. We've walked through there and it looks great. Haven't bowled and didn't realize the pool was that affordable. Glad you had a good time there.

The GF DVC is still under construction, but much more has been completed. Last week the resort monorail was down from 11 to 6 daily for construction. I'm sure that made it interesting for those at the resort monorails. I was told the only resort the monorail went to was the Contemporary during those times. They bussed or boated the other resorts.

Hey!!! Thanks for following along!!

Yes DS7 was so worried that night. He does not like to "get in trouble". He was able to relax after we made it into Mexico without her noticing us.

Pool is fairly cheap at Splitsville (for now at least) and it doesn't really matter how many play.

Yes the pictures that just came out of the new Villas at Grand Floridian are great!! I definitely want to stay there now!!

Enjoying the trip report.
you've convenced me never to go in June to WDW, to crowded, long waits.
We always go in Sept. and are able to walk on everything.

I wish we could go in Sept. but with school and kids we are stuck with late May/early June.

 

[BridgetR3]

We walked right out of the Grand Floridian and straight onto the monorail. Our luck had changed!!!! Yippee!!! Or had it?

None of us noticed that most of the cars of the monorail were full. We had to walk up about three or so cars to get one with one section fairly empty. As we stepped on, the people inside warned us that they hadn't moved in "a while". We didn't know what "a while" was nor did we ask but as we stepped on the doors closed behind us and ...... and then they opened right back up as the announcer told us that we were waiting for clearance to head to MK.




After a little while the family on the same side as us gave up and exited the monorail. They were going to try the boats but honestly with the weather the way it had been on this day, I wasn't sure that the boats were even running so we waited. We talked about our BOG reservation and I finally convinced the boys to keep it. We talked about what we would ride when we did eventually make it to MK. We talked about Wishes and how there was no way Tink would be flying tonight with this weather. One more trip that I would not get to see her fly.

Finally we were talked out so we began taking pictures.



Our scary face - he "forgot"



Smiling faces



Show me your teeth (or the lack there of)



A quick pic of DH and I

As I went to move to take pics with DS11, the doors close but I didn't pay any attention because they had been doing this every few minutes or so. EXCEPT that this time the announcer said that we are cleared to move!!! So we start moving and we get here......



And we stop. Shucks!! We were cleared to go to MK but NOT to enter it yet so now we are waiting on the rail in the middle of no where with no chance of exiting. Wonder how long we will stay here......



Although the sky is dark, the rains are slowing down and according to our weather apps, we are almost finished with TS Andrea.



DS11 did not want to take pictures here as he was nervous about the monorail since we were stopped so I took pics of the scenery.



Extremely blurry photo of the electric parade boats hidden on the side of the MK



Finally a little over 25 minutes later (that's according to time stamps on photos so we are honestly probably looking at closer to 40 minutes since we stood for a while and then sat and talked for a while before beginning to take pictures), we emerge from the monorail ready for our time at MK.

Honestly I can not see paying GOOD money to stay at a monorail resort just for the luxury of the monorail. We have made it to MK on buses from the other side of Disney World before in less than or right at 25 minutes. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure we will stay at one of these resorts one day (Poly is DS11's dream and once it becomes DVC we will do it) but I would never stay here just to have the monorail access to MK. It's not worth it!

The sky was still spitting on us quite a bit so we kept our ponchos on while we made our way to MK.




Once inside, we walked into this......



Disney must have made a killing selling ponchos this week....



I had no clue that they actually still ran the parade in the rain???



We hung out and watched it for a little while but it was over quickly and we were ready to ride!! What would we ride first? What do we always ride first?? Yep you guessed it....



We noticed during the ride that it never said "Paging Mr. Morrow - Mr. Tom Morrow". We always say that part with the recording but this time when we said it, the recording did not. It was weird.







Next up, another favorite!!!


CONTINUED IN THE NEXT POST!!!

 

[BridgetR3]

We left the Peoplemover and decided to ride the Carousel of Progress. This is a once a trip must for us!! I do believe that it had begun to rain again while we were on the Peoplemover so this was a perfect ride to escape the rain!!



We were even able to get front row seats right in the center.



There's a great big beautiful tomorrow at the .....screech......we came to a halt.....a grinding halt.....hmmm that's odd. Do you know that if the seats become stuck the show keeps going EVEN if you can see both stages at the same time!?!?!?!? Yes we were stuck between this scene and the next one. We were able to see and hear both stages at the same time. That never stopped.....only our seats did. Yes, go ahead blame it on us. I think at this point we should have gone back to the room but then we would have missed the best part....dinner and our surprise!

The scenes only went through about 3/4 of the script before our seats started moving again. Once we were completely in the room and the seats had stopped in the correct place, the scene started over. Score, we get to watch it twice!



It never did stop on us again throughout the rest of the show. We really do love that show and we will continue to see it each and every trip but maybe it needs a little work! lol....



Look a baby duck and what's that I see????? DRY CEMENT!!!





Let us not forget that it was all started by a mouse.....and Walt of course!



While walking around the boys decided to play SOTMK so we stopped a few times for them to finish a "quest".



While we were waiting on the boys to finish saving Frontierland or maybe just fight off the evil people, I don't really know which it is. We heard music.



These guys were playing near us. They were good and funny. I enjoyed that more than the games.

Next up - Pirates!!



And off to New Fantasyland for a little shopping and a lot of dinner with the Beast himself!!

 

[BridgetR3]

Since we have another trip scheduled soon, I'm going to finish this one up real quick! That way I can spend my time visiting other people's TR before my next trip!



We entered New Fantasyland and looked around for a while before our dinner. I don't think we had ever been to the part with the little shop yet so we headed that way to see what it had.



I need one of these!! It is gorgeous and my picture so does not do it justice!



At last, we were ready for our BOG reservation. We walked up and told the CM who we were. We had a little wait (maybe 5 minutes) and we were seated in the ballroom. It is GORGEOUS but SUPER dark. It was like eating dinner in a brownout....lol.....so I have no good pictures of the food, the company or the inside.

In our opinion, this was the best steak that we had eaten during the week on property. The fries were EXTREMELY salty and we are the type of people to add salt to everything so you know that they were REALLY salty.



The armor actually talks. Next time I WILL stop and really listen to them. DH was FLYING through this part because we was afraid to get in trouble if we stopped.....sound like someone else in my party!?!?!?



Outside we took a pic with the gargoyle on the bride.

When we arrived and when we left, there was a HUGE line of people who did not have ADR's trying to get in....

A few pictures of the area ....



There is a lot of detail work in New Fantasyland and it is gorgeous!



Love the blue lantern!

After we left BOG, we were able to get a few rides marked off of our to-do list for the evening. Up first, the new Little Mermaid...







My boys loved this conga line!



I really like Little Mermaid!! It's now a must do for our trips!

Up next was It's A Small World.....



It's only a happy ride if we don't get stuck! lol....I can't imagine being stuck in there with the song going for a while!

Then we headed over to Haunted Mansion......



To play with the interactive stuff or to stay in the quick line??? That is ALWAYS the question for us....



This time we decided to play as we had nothing else to do.





Such intense concentration!

LOVE the lanterns at the Rapunzel bathrooms....



I noticed that the crowds were beginning to come back out since TS Andrea was pretty much gone.

 

[BridgetR3]

We had just decided to do Mickey's Philharmagic when DS7 had a meltdown. Toes dug into the concrete, crying, "I don't want to go in there!!!!" Well that's odd....we have gone into this show on every trip and he has always loved it. I asked him why he didn't want to go in and he said that they were always mean to Donald (who is his favorite character). The CM next to the entrance heard our conversation and laughed about it. She gave him some Mickey stickers to help him "be brave" inside the show.



Proudly showing off his stickers....



Picture of Wheezy



And we were off.....



Pretty fountain....



We found a seat in the hub that was not going to be a spot to view the parade in hopes that we were up close for the fireworks. One last viewing of Wishes for our trip....but first we have to wait....



We could still see the parade but there were LOTS of heads in between us and them. We were content to just sit here and relax.

The parade ended and we stayed sitting for the fireworks. We were rewarded for getting their early......an up close view of TINK FLYING!!!! That's right! The weather cleared out enough that Tink flew that night!!! I may or may not have screamed, "She's flying! She really is!" To which DH was all at me.

 

[lovethattink]

Looks like the rain did not put a damper on your fun. Probably kept some people out of the park too.

 

[JoshMom5]

Loving your report. We are hoping to get a ressie for BOG on our next trip. Philharmagic is one of my favorites.

I am always amazed how the park can go from nobody to zillions in what seems like minutes.

Waiting to see what happens next....

 

[BridgetR3]

The next day we decided to sleep in, visit some resorts and scope out AKL since we would be staying there for Thanksgiving. Our vacation was almost over and we were all a bit sore this morning.

We had decided to take our car after the craziness of getting abandoned at POR a couple days before. This was a good idea but I had no clue that for BW you couldn't really park close. We were so luck with BCV that we parked right outside the door to enter the building. Here you had to walk a ways in the 90+ degree heat.....not to mention that their parking lot was FULL!



Someone's Magical/Unmagical Express is there...



Taking pictures as we walked on the bridge....



This resort has to win the award for the oddest decorations. DH wants to stay here and someday we will but there are quite a few things about it that I just don't get.



Gorgeous flower pots!



Another piece of evidence submitted for the "Oddest Decorations" Award. This chair is CREEPY!



Love love love that their little concessions area is a tent. Very festive!



The play area looked really neat! The boys will love that when we do stay here!



Oh geez!! This guy is scary!! I'm not sure either boy will slide!

So we left Boardwalk to go visit a newer resort. Which resort would we head to? Coming up next....