Background:
Myself: 31 yr old software developer
Wife: 34 yr old Teacher
Son1: 7 yr old
Son2: 3 yr old:
Today is Saturday.
We awake around 845am. We open our curtains and what do we see? The Golden Zephyr is working, could it really be?
We get the kids awake and dressed, no time for breakfast, for the Golden Zephyr is going around. Something we havn't seen yet. So we head right down to DCA and enter the park and round the corner. We see this big green wall surrounding grizzly river. That wasn't there yesterday. Apparantly something was wrong with their fastpass machines, and they had them completely enclosed. But we didn't have time to see, we had a mission. We walk around into Paradise pier and park the stroller. We head up the steps to the Zephyr, all along waiting for them to say, Sorry theres a gust of wind, we goto close. But they didn't and we board the ride. Its a fun ride, but if you have a small child like our Son2, who is a daredevil and under 40" tall, then its a great ride. The announcer was rather funny, stating things such as "Enjoy your ride on the Golden Zephyr, Nevermind that they are Silver". Next up is Mullholand Madness. Son1 is a little nervous, but we convince him to ride. He is not a big ride lover, but we think he is just more scared of the unkown, because once he rides something, the ride becomes his favorite and he wants to do it over and over. So while they are in line (10 minutes without fastpass, and we got a child swap ticket) Son2 and myself head over to The Golden Zephyr again. This time we ride it with just 2 other people in all the cars. It is strange, it is Saturday and there is no one in the park.
Now its my turn to ride Mullholand Madness. This is really a jerky little ride, but fun. Not as much fun as the Technic coaster at LegoLand. Okay Orange Stinger Time. Now my weight can fluctuate from right under to right over 200 lbs, and since I didn't have breakfast yet, I figured I was safe to ride. The ride is quite fun and when it was over, no one was in line, so they just said if you want to ride again just stay in your seats. So we did. Son2 went to the SS Rustworthy playground while we did that.
I want to ride the Cal Screaming coaster so we agree to walk over and get a Fastpass for myself, but it was closed for a while and they close fastpass at that time as well.
Lunch time. we go look at that food area, Lucky Fortune and mexican place, but there really wasn't anything good for kids to eat. So we decide to walk a bit farther. We come to the Wine place and ask what they had. There is a small deli type place that was wonderful. There were fresh sandwiches and salads and kids meals. The price was about the same as a burger at the fast food places, and there was no one there, it was cool and quiet. The lady working there was great too. Ilyn was her name, and we wrote a compliment about how great she was. She played with the kids and was just so willing to make sure we enjoyed our lunch.
After we ate, we headed back to get my fastpass, and I did get one. We then headed over to Superstar limo, after we saw Goofy, mickey, Max and Esmerelda all outside. Esmerelda was totally alone, no one was around her, and Mickey only had 1 family with him. Son2 likes superstar limo, he says they are trucks.
Its time for a nap, so I head over to Cal Screaming and the rest head up to the room. I get over there and I go through the fastpass line, get assigned my row, a car comes in, and Boom, its broke again. So on the way out, I ask for my fastpass back. It appeared that most people were being honest about whether or not they had fastpass. So I head back to the room for a bit, and keep looking out the window and when Cal Screaming was working, I headed out again.
I finally got to ride, and it was a good ride. I think I like The Rockin Roller Coaster better. I then rode Maliboomer (I didn't see the singles line until after I waited, but it was only 10 minutes). I then headed over the MK to ride the Indy ride(singles line) and when I went in I went to Guest Relations to make sure Fantasmic Balcony seats would be sold the next morning, I have heard they sometimes don't sell them if Private functions are there. But she says they have some available today in the Premium location- The sitting area by Haunted mansion. So I buy 4 of those for $140.00, and go over to check the area out. It didn't look like that good of a view. I stopped by Indy (120 minute wait) What a difference from Cal Adv. I ask for the singles line, and they are out of the passes. They said they have around 50 of them, and gave them out, but no one seems to return them. I skip it, I am not waiting 2 hours. I go back to City Hall and they happily return my $140 for the Fantasmic seats. I will try again tomorrow morning (But something comes up, explained later). I stop by Marcelines Confectionary in Downtown Disney and pick up some fudge for the boys(Me included in that). I tell DW about what I did and the fantasmic situation. She couldn't beleive I went and asked for my money back( I am usually pretty passive). I showed her the receipts (Debit and credit) and she almost had a cow. She said "140 dollars". I told her that when we talked about it, it was $40 a person. She thought I said $40 total, which would of been $10 a person. She was going to be the one to go down in the morning and get the ticket, and she said, that if she did and the CM told her the total was $160, she would of had said "Your out of your mind". So we discussed it and decided that we should use the money to buy a few more shirts and sourvenirs. I was a little sad, but it works out, as you will see in tomorrows episode.
We have dinner reservations at Hooks Point tonight. So we walk through DD to get there, we are a little late, but they didn't care. The place is really pretty, and the ceiling is painted to look like a map of Neverland. This would be our Best Meal of the stay at Disney, and our most expensive. We ordered the kids meals (And they have the best selection of kids meals at any restaurant we saw, around 10 items), and our appetizers. My wife had bruschetta and I had a weed salad(you know those salads with all the different types of greens) with a Creamy balsamic dressing. The kids meals came and a little later our meals came. I had Grilled Pork loin with an Apple Onion salsa type thing that was very good. I forgot what my wife had, but she just loved it. We also got a dessert, it was called Hooks Treasures, and was a sampling of all the other desserts. They were good but the portions of the samples were small. Dinner here cost $130 with tip. But it was well worth it and since the kids were very good, it was the best meal. We wanted to take the monorail back to the MK, but the wait was 40min. I forgot about the Resort Guest Express pass, but then later I heard it was suspended anyway. We go in the MK and take the train over to ToonTown. When we got there, there was sign saying it would be closing at 8:30 for the firworks, it was 8:20now. So we get one ride in on Gadgets go Coaster and as we are leaving, Toontown was empty. It really was nice. We next get in line for Small world since it was only 10 minute wait. I think Small World at DL, is cleaner than the one at WDW. I don't know why, but it just seemed fresher. Now its 9:15 and we head to Main Street for Beleive again. The show was good again, its a shame that they only showed it 2 nights while we are there.
After the show we head to the Astro Orbiter. The line was long, but the kids had been begging to ride it each time we go into the MK. We wait 30 minutes. We know it was 30 minutes, since we got in line at 9:40 right after the fireworks were over and it was 10:10, and we get to about 3 familys from the entrance, and guess what IT BREAKS DOWN. They announce that the back of the line was to exit the back and the front would be walked through. My wife asks the guy, Do we get some sort of pass to come back. He replied "IT was only a 10 minute wait". Well we knew the times and we said, "it was 30 minutes." We didn't really have to argue, once we said we waited for 30 minutes, he asked us to wait there. Its amazing no one else asked. He asked us if we wanted a pass to this ride or another ride, we told him this ride. As he was filling the form out, a supervisor came in and asked if everything was okay. We explained to her that we just wanted a pass since we waited for 30 minutes, and it was going to be our last ride. Son2 just kept saying "It's broken".
***Magical Moment: The supervisor asked the kids if they were really dissapointed in not riding, and son1 said yea, he had been waiting all day to ride, and Son2 kept saying "Its Broken" with these pitiful looking eyes. The supervisor was great and said since you are so disspointed, she asked the CM to write out another No Strings Attached card for 4 sets of Mouseears. So we took our card over to the Mad Hatter and got our Mouseears with our names on them. The kids and my wife wore theirs and She said I had to wear mine. She said it really is the only time a 6'3 200lb man can wear mouseears and not look GOOFY. So I did and We were the sight, a family of 4 walking out of the park all in MouseEars. As we walk by the tram, loaded with people, we once again felt better about the money we paid to stay there.
George
Myself: 31 yr old software developer
Wife: 34 yr old Teacher
Son1: 7 yr old
Son2: 3 yr old:
Today is Saturday.
We awake around 845am. We open our curtains and what do we see? The Golden Zephyr is working, could it really be?
We get the kids awake and dressed, no time for breakfast, for the Golden Zephyr is going around. Something we havn't seen yet. So we head right down to DCA and enter the park and round the corner. We see this big green wall surrounding grizzly river. That wasn't there yesterday. Apparantly something was wrong with their fastpass machines, and they had them completely enclosed. But we didn't have time to see, we had a mission. We walk around into Paradise pier and park the stroller. We head up the steps to the Zephyr, all along waiting for them to say, Sorry theres a gust of wind, we goto close. But they didn't and we board the ride. Its a fun ride, but if you have a small child like our Son2, who is a daredevil and under 40" tall, then its a great ride. The announcer was rather funny, stating things such as "Enjoy your ride on the Golden Zephyr, Nevermind that they are Silver". Next up is Mullholand Madness. Son1 is a little nervous, but we convince him to ride. He is not a big ride lover, but we think he is just more scared of the unkown, because once he rides something, the ride becomes his favorite and he wants to do it over and over. So while they are in line (10 minutes without fastpass, and we got a child swap ticket) Son2 and myself head over to The Golden Zephyr again. This time we ride it with just 2 other people in all the cars. It is strange, it is Saturday and there is no one in the park.
Now its my turn to ride Mullholand Madness. This is really a jerky little ride, but fun. Not as much fun as the Technic coaster at LegoLand. Okay Orange Stinger Time. Now my weight can fluctuate from right under to right over 200 lbs, and since I didn't have breakfast yet, I figured I was safe to ride. The ride is quite fun and when it was over, no one was in line, so they just said if you want to ride again just stay in your seats. So we did. Son2 went to the SS Rustworthy playground while we did that.
I want to ride the Cal Screaming coaster so we agree to walk over and get a Fastpass for myself, but it was closed for a while and they close fastpass at that time as well.
Lunch time. we go look at that food area, Lucky Fortune and mexican place, but there really wasn't anything good for kids to eat. So we decide to walk a bit farther. We come to the Wine place and ask what they had. There is a small deli type place that was wonderful. There were fresh sandwiches and salads and kids meals. The price was about the same as a burger at the fast food places, and there was no one there, it was cool and quiet. The lady working there was great too. Ilyn was her name, and we wrote a compliment about how great she was. She played with the kids and was just so willing to make sure we enjoyed our lunch.
After we ate, we headed back to get my fastpass, and I did get one. We then headed over to Superstar limo, after we saw Goofy, mickey, Max and Esmerelda all outside. Esmerelda was totally alone, no one was around her, and Mickey only had 1 family with him. Son2 likes superstar limo, he says they are trucks.
Its time for a nap, so I head over to Cal Screaming and the rest head up to the room. I get over there and I go through the fastpass line, get assigned my row, a car comes in, and Boom, its broke again. So on the way out, I ask for my fastpass back. It appeared that most people were being honest about whether or not they had fastpass. So I head back to the room for a bit, and keep looking out the window and when Cal Screaming was working, I headed out again.
I finally got to ride, and it was a good ride. I think I like The Rockin Roller Coaster better. I then rode Maliboomer (I didn't see the singles line until after I waited, but it was only 10 minutes). I then headed over the MK to ride the Indy ride(singles line) and when I went in I went to Guest Relations to make sure Fantasmic Balcony seats would be sold the next morning, I have heard they sometimes don't sell them if Private functions are there. But she says they have some available today in the Premium location- The sitting area by Haunted mansion. So I buy 4 of those for $140.00, and go over to check the area out. It didn't look like that good of a view. I stopped by Indy (120 minute wait) What a difference from Cal Adv. I ask for the singles line, and they are out of the passes. They said they have around 50 of them, and gave them out, but no one seems to return them. I skip it, I am not waiting 2 hours. I go back to City Hall and they happily return my $140 for the Fantasmic seats. I will try again tomorrow morning (But something comes up, explained later). I stop by Marcelines Confectionary in Downtown Disney and pick up some fudge for the boys(Me included in that). I tell DW about what I did and the fantasmic situation. She couldn't beleive I went and asked for my money back( I am usually pretty passive). I showed her the receipts (Debit and credit) and she almost had a cow. She said "140 dollars". I told her that when we talked about it, it was $40 a person. She thought I said $40 total, which would of been $10 a person. She was going to be the one to go down in the morning and get the ticket, and she said, that if she did and the CM told her the total was $160, she would of had said "Your out of your mind". So we discussed it and decided that we should use the money to buy a few more shirts and sourvenirs. I was a little sad, but it works out, as you will see in tomorrows episode.
We have dinner reservations at Hooks Point tonight. So we walk through DD to get there, we are a little late, but they didn't care. The place is really pretty, and the ceiling is painted to look like a map of Neverland. This would be our Best Meal of the stay at Disney, and our most expensive. We ordered the kids meals (And they have the best selection of kids meals at any restaurant we saw, around 10 items), and our appetizers. My wife had bruschetta and I had a weed salad(you know those salads with all the different types of greens) with a Creamy balsamic dressing. The kids meals came and a little later our meals came. I had Grilled Pork loin with an Apple Onion salsa type thing that was very good. I forgot what my wife had, but she just loved it. We also got a dessert, it was called Hooks Treasures, and was a sampling of all the other desserts. They were good but the portions of the samples were small. Dinner here cost $130 with tip. But it was well worth it and since the kids were very good, it was the best meal. We wanted to take the monorail back to the MK, but the wait was 40min. I forgot about the Resort Guest Express pass, but then later I heard it was suspended anyway. We go in the MK and take the train over to ToonTown. When we got there, there was sign saying it would be closing at 8:30 for the firworks, it was 8:20now. So we get one ride in on Gadgets go Coaster and as we are leaving, Toontown was empty. It really was nice. We next get in line for Small world since it was only 10 minute wait. I think Small World at DL, is cleaner than the one at WDW. I don't know why, but it just seemed fresher. Now its 9:15 and we head to Main Street for Beleive again. The show was good again, its a shame that they only showed it 2 nights while we are there.
After the show we head to the Astro Orbiter. The line was long, but the kids had been begging to ride it each time we go into the MK. We wait 30 minutes. We know it was 30 minutes, since we got in line at 9:40 right after the fireworks were over and it was 10:10, and we get to about 3 familys from the entrance, and guess what IT BREAKS DOWN. They announce that the back of the line was to exit the back and the front would be walked through. My wife asks the guy, Do we get some sort of pass to come back. He replied "IT was only a 10 minute wait". Well we knew the times and we said, "it was 30 minutes." We didn't really have to argue, once we said we waited for 30 minutes, he asked us to wait there. Its amazing no one else asked. He asked us if we wanted a pass to this ride or another ride, we told him this ride. As he was filling the form out, a supervisor came in and asked if everything was okay. We explained to her that we just wanted a pass since we waited for 30 minutes, and it was going to be our last ride. Son2 just kept saying "It's broken".
***Magical Moment: The supervisor asked the kids if they were really dissapointed in not riding, and son1 said yea, he had been waiting all day to ride, and Son2 kept saying "Its Broken" with these pitiful looking eyes. The supervisor was great and said since you are so disspointed, she asked the CM to write out another No Strings Attached card for 4 sets of Mouseears. So we took our card over to the Mad Hatter and got our Mouseears with our names on them. The kids and my wife wore theirs and She said I had to wear mine. She said it really is the only time a 6'3 200lb man can wear mouseears and not look GOOFY. So I did and We were the sight, a family of 4 walking out of the park all in MouseEars. As we walk by the tram, loaded with people, we once again felt better about the money we paid to stay there.
George
Thanks for sharing, I love reading all about your adventure am glad the ups have outweighed the downs so far. 
