jodyb
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 15, 1999
Well, we got back last night and I'm still on that Disney "high"... and don't want it to end
so I'm going to write a trip report as a way of reliving the magic, and also a way of giving back to the DIS its given me so much!
Who: Myself and DH (we are not officially married but I call us H and W and since we are in our 60's we can do whatever-we-want-so-there.)
Why: This trip was for the purpose of celebrating the 3rd anniversary of our first date!!! It's been three amazing and wonderful years and the day deserved some serious "marking". We were both married before, have 5 kids (now all adults) between us, and I'm expecting my first grandchild this Christmas. We live somewhere in the frozen North, and *I* absolutely adore WDW and have been there (and at Disneyland Paris) too many trips to count most of those trips were with my youngest daughter who is now 23 and shares my Disney obsession. DH and I are both still working (He is a manufacturing manager and I run a free-lance writing and info business that I can pretty much take anywhere I can bring my laptop and phone ☺) We travel a lot (well, I travel more because Tom has limited vacation but we do manage to get around!)
I did all the planning... and I decided on All Star Music because it's where my travel agent found us a free dining offer for the day we wanted to arrive! It sounded like too good a deal to pass up. Ive stayed at all levels of accommodations over the years including Yacht Club Concierge (now called Club Level I guess), Contemporary and Grand Floridian, several moderates, each of the All Stars, and various off-site hotels and I can very honestly say, I see good and bad points in every single one of them. There is no perfect place to stay and I would go back to absolutely any one of them happily. For this trip, ASMu was the only one offering free dining during the time of our trip, so I grabbed it.
Well, then came the planning which I absolutely LOVE and this time it was really fun and challenging since its been a couple of years since my last trip and this would be my first experience with MDE and Magic Bands! I was excited! As soon as our Magic Bands arrived, I went out and bought some metallic nail polish (pink) and started painting mine well I got half way through and realized I didnt know what I was doing and picked up both bands (Toms blue one and my pink now sort of painted one) and brought them to my manicurist. I told her to have at them and make them fun the only direction being that Toms should look masculine and mine should look bling-y. She did a great job! I posted photos on the MB decoration thread will try to post here later.
Then I tackled MDE and I liked it!! The new FP+ seemed a bit daunting, and I didnt understand the logic of it at first but I ended up liking the new system very much! (Lots more on that later).
I found a pretty good airfare and snapped that up leaving early Sat. Nov. 1 and returning late Thursday Nov. 6. It was only a few days until our 60 day window opened for choosing fast passes, so I started researching like crazy. This was a whole new World!!!
Lots and lots of planning and changing and planning and changing and more planning and changing later it was finally HERE!!! We live about an hour from the airport and would be driving in the middle of the night on rural roads to get there for our 5:55 AM flight, and we do this a lot so no big deal BUT then they started forecasting SNOW for that night and I decided we should stay in a hotel near the airport Friday night. That way we could sleep a little later, have just a quick shuttle ride to the airport in the snow rather than driving ourselves for an hour AND if any dreaded cancelations or delays occurred wed be at the hotel rather than hanging at the airport so we had a great night at the Doubletree and sure enough, bright and early, there was no snow at all, but our flight was delayed anyway because the plane needed a battery change! I was really nervous the whole two hours we waited to take off worried wed miss our connection in Newark which would mean wed get to Orlando later which would mean wed miss EMH at MK that night!! NO ..!!
As it turned out, all was well. We had a pretty long layover in Newark so the delay just ate into that and we to our connection exactly on time and arrived in Orlando 10 minutes early! YAY!!!
Our Florida Tours driver was waiting for us at baggage claim with a Town Car to whisk us quickly to ASMu. We didnt have any baggage to claim we managed to pack for the 5 nights in carry-on luggage and I was really glad because the baggage hadnt even started coming down from our flight when we were already on the way out to the curb where our car awaited! As we left the airport our driver pointed out the HUGE CROWD waiting to board the Magical Express. O.M.G.!!! That looked anything BUT magical. (And anything but express for that matter, too ) I was SO glad wed ordered the town car!! Only 45 minutes after landing we were checking in at the resort!
CHECKING IN DOES ONLINE CHECK-IN HELP?
During my two months of planning Id read several threads here on the DIS about online check-in, getting your special room requests, and other issues with respect to checking in. Here is what I now know from our experience:
There was a dedicated line at the check-in counter at the resort for Online Check-in. We got in that line. We were called to the counter by the first available CM when we got to the front of that line. The same CMs helped the online and the other guests. There was NO DIFFERENCE as to the abilities of the CMs helping the online people versus everyone else. Really. Some people have said that if you have special requests (such as king sized bed, or special location or whatever) you should NOT check in online. This is nonsense. Checking in online ONLY means that you have input some of the information and this expedites the process when you arrive. I asked if wed been given the king sized bed we requested, and we had, however it was on the second floor facing the pool, and I had requested ground or 3rd floor, facing away from the pool (for quiet). The CM simply called the room people (forgot the official name of their job, sorry) and asked that we be switched and we were lucky there WAS a 3rd floor room available facing away from the pool. There would have been absolutely no difference in this process had we not done online check-in. So I hope that puts that question to rest for some people. Its not rude to ask if your requests have been met or even to ask for a change while you are checking in, even if you are in the online check-in line. Having done online check-in does NOT mean that you have signed away on any and all changes or anything else that a CM can do for you.
Okay, so off we went to the room. It was your basic All Stars room. Perfectly adequate and there isnt really any more to say about that (unless you have questions, in which case of course Id be glad to answer.)
We hadnt eaten since breakfast and it was pushing 4 PM by now, so we walked over to the food court at AS Sports to pick up our refillable mugs (free as part of our package) and grab something to eat. Not a magical experience. The food court was almost empty, and yet we waited and waited and waited for our burgers and fries. Finally got them, and they were tasteless and just well.. bad! But we ate because we were starved, and got ice cream cones to eat on the walk back to Music.
I almost forgot to mention that November 1 was COLD in Florida!!! More on that later. And yes, we eat ice cream in any and all weather
So.. back at the room, we unpacked, and then fell into bed, setting the alarm for 8 PM.
GOOD thing we had that nap!!! The plan was to hit MK and last until EMH ended at 2 AM! We bundled up (and I mean really bundled up I had my silk long underwear top under a sweatshirt and a pretty heavy jacket and Tom had his under a t-shirt, long sleeved shirt, hoodie, and windbreaker! And we were still cold! ☺) On the way to the ASMu lobby at 8:30 PM to ask the doorman to call us a taxi, we stopped at the store so I could buy a hat. I had forgotten to bring one down front he frozen North LOL... found a nice one, bought it and put it on, and then on to the Contemporary resort. We told the driver we were really going to the MK and he dropped us right at the walkway it was perfect. We walked over to MK and wow, its so much fun using the MBs to enter the park (you can tell it doesnt take much to excite me LOL)! Main Street at night!!!! My absolutel favorite !!! The MSEP was going on as we arrived. We knew wed be seeing the second parade so we just sort of ducked behind the throngs lined up along Main Street and took in the fun music and happy atmosphere as we walked toward the castle area. We went through the stores, sort of weaving in and out of the sidewalk area. In the candy store I found a wonderful Tinkerbell mug. I told Tom Im buying this now! because I know from experience that if you say Ill see this somewhere else later in the vacation you never do, and you regret not buying what you like the minute you see it! So I purchased it and had it sent back to the resort so as not to have to carry it around. When we got to the Plaza ice cream parlor the lines were pretty short (parade was still moving around the area) and we grabbed some cones (yes, second ones that day this would be a pattern ☺) For some reason I've always loved that ice cream on Main Street! Tom said "You know you can get Edy's ice cream at the grocery store..." I KNOW I can!! But still...
So far we've used a counter service credit each for dinner at ASSp, and a snack at the ice cream parlor. Magic band working perfectly. Love it!
When the parade ended we grabbed some spots for WISHES, which was going to start in 45 minutes. Perfect spot right in front of the ice cream parlor. Celebrate the Magic was lovely, and WISHES was amazing, as always. These were both firsts for Tom and he was very impressed! Next Haunted Mansion - a 10 minutes stand-by line. Now it was almost time for the 11 PM parade. We had FP+ for that parade but could tell by how empty Frontierland was that we would not need them. The difference between the THRONGS of humanity that had lined MS for the first parade, and the quiet, lovely atmosphere of Frontierland 2 hours later was HUGE! So we just hung out there and watched the parade with the smattering of other people. The parade was so much fun, as usual. For me, the best part is the fun uplifting music. Yes, it repeats itself over and over again but hey, did I mention fun and uplifting????
After the parade we fell in behind it and followed it to its end near Splash Mountain and then we continued walking to BTMR. Very short standby line a walk on actually SO much fun at night! Next, on to Tomorrowland! Toms first time on Space Mountain! No lines its approaching midnight now and very cold! Most of the families with very young kids have exited by now its just too cold for extra magic hours until 2 AM for a lot of people. This is not to say the park emptied out but there were no real lines for anything except 7 Dwarfs Mine Train. We waited about 30 minutes for that. This would be the longest line of our entire vacation. We went on Dumbo! Thats right.. two 60-somethings on Dumbo. I loved it! Fantasyland in the middle of the night is really lovely! And 2 AM on Main Street?? Nothing like it! I was in heaven!! Tom enjoyed it too! We caught the bus back to the resort and fell into bed like bricks at around 2:45 alarm set for 8:30
Tune in for tomorrow... we go to DTD for House of Blues Brunch, and on to Epcot...
Happy to answer any questions. Thanks for reading!
Who: Myself and DH (we are not officially married but I call us H and W and since we are in our 60's we can do whatever-we-want-so-there.)
Why: This trip was for the purpose of celebrating the 3rd anniversary of our first date!!! It's been three amazing and wonderful years and the day deserved some serious "marking". We were both married before, have 5 kids (now all adults) between us, and I'm expecting my first grandchild this Christmas. We live somewhere in the frozen North, and *I* absolutely adore WDW and have been there (and at Disneyland Paris) too many trips to count most of those trips were with my youngest daughter who is now 23 and shares my Disney obsession. DH and I are both still working (He is a manufacturing manager and I run a free-lance writing and info business that I can pretty much take anywhere I can bring my laptop and phone ☺) We travel a lot (well, I travel more because Tom has limited vacation but we do manage to get around!)
I did all the planning... and I decided on All Star Music because it's where my travel agent found us a free dining offer for the day we wanted to arrive! It sounded like too good a deal to pass up. Ive stayed at all levels of accommodations over the years including Yacht Club Concierge (now called Club Level I guess), Contemporary and Grand Floridian, several moderates, each of the All Stars, and various off-site hotels and I can very honestly say, I see good and bad points in every single one of them. There is no perfect place to stay and I would go back to absolutely any one of them happily. For this trip, ASMu was the only one offering free dining during the time of our trip, so I grabbed it.
Well, then came the planning which I absolutely LOVE and this time it was really fun and challenging since its been a couple of years since my last trip and this would be my first experience with MDE and Magic Bands! I was excited! As soon as our Magic Bands arrived, I went out and bought some metallic nail polish (pink) and started painting mine well I got half way through and realized I didnt know what I was doing and picked up both bands (Toms blue one and my pink now sort of painted one) and brought them to my manicurist. I told her to have at them and make them fun the only direction being that Toms should look masculine and mine should look bling-y. She did a great job! I posted photos on the MB decoration thread will try to post here later.
Then I tackled MDE and I liked it!! The new FP+ seemed a bit daunting, and I didnt understand the logic of it at first but I ended up liking the new system very much! (Lots more on that later).
I found a pretty good airfare and snapped that up leaving early Sat. Nov. 1 and returning late Thursday Nov. 6. It was only a few days until our 60 day window opened for choosing fast passes, so I started researching like crazy. This was a whole new World!!!
Lots and lots of planning and changing and planning and changing and more planning and changing later it was finally HERE!!! We live about an hour from the airport and would be driving in the middle of the night on rural roads to get there for our 5:55 AM flight, and we do this a lot so no big deal BUT then they started forecasting SNOW for that night and I decided we should stay in a hotel near the airport Friday night. That way we could sleep a little later, have just a quick shuttle ride to the airport in the snow rather than driving ourselves for an hour AND if any dreaded cancelations or delays occurred wed be at the hotel rather than hanging at the airport so we had a great night at the Doubletree and sure enough, bright and early, there was no snow at all, but our flight was delayed anyway because the plane needed a battery change! I was really nervous the whole two hours we waited to take off worried wed miss our connection in Newark which would mean wed get to Orlando later which would mean wed miss EMH at MK that night!! NO ..!!
As it turned out, all was well. We had a pretty long layover in Newark so the delay just ate into that and we to our connection exactly on time and arrived in Orlando 10 minutes early! YAY!!!
Our Florida Tours driver was waiting for us at baggage claim with a Town Car to whisk us quickly to ASMu. We didnt have any baggage to claim we managed to pack for the 5 nights in carry-on luggage and I was really glad because the baggage hadnt even started coming down from our flight when we were already on the way out to the curb where our car awaited! As we left the airport our driver pointed out the HUGE CROWD waiting to board the Magical Express. O.M.G.!!! That looked anything BUT magical. (And anything but express for that matter, too ) I was SO glad wed ordered the town car!! Only 45 minutes after landing we were checking in at the resort!
CHECKING IN DOES ONLINE CHECK-IN HELP?
During my two months of planning Id read several threads here on the DIS about online check-in, getting your special room requests, and other issues with respect to checking in. Here is what I now know from our experience:
There was a dedicated line at the check-in counter at the resort for Online Check-in. We got in that line. We were called to the counter by the first available CM when we got to the front of that line. The same CMs helped the online and the other guests. There was NO DIFFERENCE as to the abilities of the CMs helping the online people versus everyone else. Really. Some people have said that if you have special requests (such as king sized bed, or special location or whatever) you should NOT check in online. This is nonsense. Checking in online ONLY means that you have input some of the information and this expedites the process when you arrive. I asked if wed been given the king sized bed we requested, and we had, however it was on the second floor facing the pool, and I had requested ground or 3rd floor, facing away from the pool (for quiet). The CM simply called the room people (forgot the official name of their job, sorry) and asked that we be switched and we were lucky there WAS a 3rd floor room available facing away from the pool. There would have been absolutely no difference in this process had we not done online check-in. So I hope that puts that question to rest for some people. Its not rude to ask if your requests have been met or even to ask for a change while you are checking in, even if you are in the online check-in line. Having done online check-in does NOT mean that you have signed away on any and all changes or anything else that a CM can do for you.
Okay, so off we went to the room. It was your basic All Stars room. Perfectly adequate and there isnt really any more to say about that (unless you have questions, in which case of course Id be glad to answer.)
We hadnt eaten since breakfast and it was pushing 4 PM by now, so we walked over to the food court at AS Sports to pick up our refillable mugs (free as part of our package) and grab something to eat. Not a magical experience. The food court was almost empty, and yet we waited and waited and waited for our burgers and fries. Finally got them, and they were tasteless and just well.. bad! But we ate because we were starved, and got ice cream cones to eat on the walk back to Music.
I almost forgot to mention that November 1 was COLD in Florida!!! More on that later. And yes, we eat ice cream in any and all weather
So.. back at the room, we unpacked, and then fell into bed, setting the alarm for 8 PM.
GOOD thing we had that nap!!! The plan was to hit MK and last until EMH ended at 2 AM! We bundled up (and I mean really bundled up I had my silk long underwear top under a sweatshirt and a pretty heavy jacket and Tom had his under a t-shirt, long sleeved shirt, hoodie, and windbreaker! And we were still cold! ☺) On the way to the ASMu lobby at 8:30 PM to ask the doorman to call us a taxi, we stopped at the store so I could buy a hat. I had forgotten to bring one down front he frozen North LOL... found a nice one, bought it and put it on, and then on to the Contemporary resort. We told the driver we were really going to the MK and he dropped us right at the walkway it was perfect. We walked over to MK and wow, its so much fun using the MBs to enter the park (you can tell it doesnt take much to excite me LOL)! Main Street at night!!!! My absolutel favorite !!! The MSEP was going on as we arrived. We knew wed be seeing the second parade so we just sort of ducked behind the throngs lined up along Main Street and took in the fun music and happy atmosphere as we walked toward the castle area. We went through the stores, sort of weaving in and out of the sidewalk area. In the candy store I found a wonderful Tinkerbell mug. I told Tom Im buying this now! because I know from experience that if you say Ill see this somewhere else later in the vacation you never do, and you regret not buying what you like the minute you see it! So I purchased it and had it sent back to the resort so as not to have to carry it around. When we got to the Plaza ice cream parlor the lines were pretty short (parade was still moving around the area) and we grabbed some cones (yes, second ones that day this would be a pattern ☺) For some reason I've always loved that ice cream on Main Street! Tom said "You know you can get Edy's ice cream at the grocery store..." I KNOW I can!! But still...
So far we've used a counter service credit each for dinner at ASSp, and a snack at the ice cream parlor. Magic band working perfectly. Love it!
When the parade ended we grabbed some spots for WISHES, which was going to start in 45 minutes. Perfect spot right in front of the ice cream parlor. Celebrate the Magic was lovely, and WISHES was amazing, as always. These were both firsts for Tom and he was very impressed! Next Haunted Mansion - a 10 minutes stand-by line. Now it was almost time for the 11 PM parade. We had FP+ for that parade but could tell by how empty Frontierland was that we would not need them. The difference between the THRONGS of humanity that had lined MS for the first parade, and the quiet, lovely atmosphere of Frontierland 2 hours later was HUGE! So we just hung out there and watched the parade with the smattering of other people. The parade was so much fun, as usual. For me, the best part is the fun uplifting music. Yes, it repeats itself over and over again but hey, did I mention fun and uplifting????
After the parade we fell in behind it and followed it to its end near Splash Mountain and then we continued walking to BTMR. Very short standby line a walk on actually SO much fun at night! Next, on to Tomorrowland! Toms first time on Space Mountain! No lines its approaching midnight now and very cold! Most of the families with very young kids have exited by now its just too cold for extra magic hours until 2 AM for a lot of people. This is not to say the park emptied out but there were no real lines for anything except 7 Dwarfs Mine Train. We waited about 30 minutes for that. This would be the longest line of our entire vacation. We went on Dumbo! Thats right.. two 60-somethings on Dumbo. I loved it! Fantasyland in the middle of the night is really lovely! And 2 AM on Main Street?? Nothing like it! I was in heaven!! Tom enjoyed it too! We caught the bus back to the resort and fell into bed like bricks at around 2:45 alarm set for 8:30
Tune in for tomorrow... we go to DTD for House of Blues Brunch, and on to Epcot...
Happy to answer any questions. Thanks for reading!
