"When life gets you down do you wanna know what you've gotta do? Just keep swimming" 10 year anniversary trip 8/24-8/30 at CSR

[disneylove16]

I’m sorry DAH was a wash out for you! I would’ve hated wasting the money to do just two rides.

Thanks! Once we werw back at the resort, I checked the app and it looked like Dinosaur and Triceratop spin were running after we left. So I'm hoping those who stuck it out had a better night!

What a bummer! I would have been down about the DAH also! We have done it 3x at MK and have always been able to ride so many things! Once I got so many waters and diet cokes, it lasted the rest of the trip!

You definitely should have got your money back, 2 rides that stinks!!

You really take some nice pictures, I am enjoying them!!

Thank you!! We actually had tickets for DAH at MK later in the trip, but skipped it since we ended our trip early

 

[annie170]

I read your two other trip reports and really enjoyed them and glad to see you've started another!

You take such beautiful photos!

I'm so sorry you had a bad experience at Starbucks in MK. There is no excuse for a cm to speak to you that way. You should contact Disney to report that rude behavior.

I would be pretty irate over the DAH debacle. I agree that the event should have been cancelled or a portion of the ticket price should have been refunded.

 

[disneylove16]

I read your two other trip reports and really enjoyed them and glad to see you've started another!

You take such beautiful photos!

I'm so sorry you had a bad experience at Starbucks in MK. There is no excuse for a cm to speak to you that way. You should contact Disney to report that rude behavior.

I would be pretty irate over the DAH debacle. I agree that the event should have been cancelled or a portion of the ticket price should have been refunded.

Thank you so much! I felt like maybe I would deter people from reading since this TR isn't as positive as my others, but not every trip is going to go perfectly. I appreciate you following along

 

[disneylove16]

Disney Springs
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We slept in a bit since we consider DS our rest day. We headed to Earl of Sandwich for an early lunch/late breakfast. Earl of Sandwich is a must do for us every trip. I love their holiday turkey sandwich, and DH gets the full montagu. I also got a side of potato salad, and DH got a side of steak fries. All of it was delicious.












Afterwards, we hit some stores, and stopped at Starbucks. They have a special menu here, which is pretty awesome.






We both got the circle of latte, which was yummy.

 

[disneylove16]

We got the Mickey Mousse, which is amazing, and the flavors of Florida one, which is like grapefruit and orange flavored. DH wasn't a fan, but I loved it.






After that, we headed back to the resort, and pretty much just relaxed the rest of the day.




I love these lil guys






Then we had an ADR for Maya Grill. This wasn't originally in our plans, I think we had plans to go to Rainforest Café in DS, because I wanted to try the conch fritters that were on the flavors of Florida special menu, but for whatever reason we switched. DH thought the food was ok, I wasn't a fan at all. Our server was a bit rude as well. Needless to say, we won't be eating here again anytime soon. Also, I did ask if they were able to make the margarita flight that I had seen all over the internet, but our server said no. Just a heads up in case anyone had their heart set on that!




Funny sidestory, when we arrived the restaurant had just opened. There was another family ahead of us waiting for the hostess to help them. (There were no CM's in sight). A woman and her children went to the restroom, and an elder woman (I assumed the Grandmother) waited behind. This lady started grabbing the little crayon packets from the basket on the hostess station by the fistful and shoving them in her pockets and purse. The way she was doing it was so sneaky-looking it made me giggle.

 

[disneylove16]

DH got a bloody Mary or michelada, I can't keep track anymore. (These are essentially the same thing by Disney standards, only difference is vodka vs beer).




We got the guacamole and the queso fundido to split





I got the shrimp tacos, which I was not a fan of. The shrimp had a really weird fishy taste to it, I felt like it wasn't fresh. It came with a side of rice and corn, which was good. I believe DH got the alambre de res.








For dessert, DH got the coconut flan, and I got the ancho chile crème brulee.




When we left, we stopped at Laguna Bar, I was hoping to try the caiprihina, but the bartender advised the menus on the WDW site are old. He wasn't able to make a mojito, so I got some kind of margarita, and did not like it at all.




We made our way to the dig site, and I checked out the menu at Siestas, they had a mojito frambuesa, so I decided to try that. It was so delicious.

 

[disneylove16]

We headed back to the room, and watched some TV. We (I) finally dug into the desserts from Coral Reef.




DH called his parents, and found that our younger dog wasn't doing so well without us there. He was refusing to eat, which was stressing me out. DH tried to watch him (and my Mother in law) interacting on one of our cameras, and both of them seemed super stressed. I felt helpless being across the country. He kept telling his mom not to stress, but his parents are really not "dog-people". Unfortunately, his parents are the only people besides us that our younger dog trusts. He was abused before we got him, and does not take to people. I started stressing out the rest of our trip about DMIL being stressed, and the position I put her in, on top of stressing about my dog not eating. It was a rough night, but we finally fell asleep.

 

[Eeyore daily]

I'm sorry about your dogs! I would be stressed too.

 

[disneylove16]

Animal Kingdom
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The next morning, DH called his mom again to apologize for us stressing her out, and she said our dog was eating. DH checked in on the camera. DMIL was hand feeding our dog to get him to eat I know it's not the best way to get a dog to eat, but he was eating, and I was thrilled. I was so appreciative to DMIL for getting him to eat, but a seed planted in my head that I wanted to go home. We still had 4 more days to go, and I didn't think I could make it. My anxiety was starting to get the best of me, and word of Hurricane Dorian started worrying me that we would have to extend our trip even longer. I decided to just make it through the day, and see how I felt the following day.









We rope dropped Kilaminjaro Safari, but ended up waiting a long time because they were doing some training with CM's driving the vehicles.









We got to hear the male lion making little roars, which was awesome. I recorded it, but don't know how to post video!

It started raining a bit, so we waited it out, then made our way to Rafiki's planet watch.



We ended up drawing Scar, and the CM running this was awesome. He was so much fun! We went to Restaurantosaurus for lunch. We loved it last time we went, but this time it was a huge miss for us.



I got the chicken sandwich, and DH got a burger. They no longer had the mushrooms and onion on the fixins bar, but will get them for you upon request.

 

[disneylove16]

I'm sorry about your dogs! I would be stressed too.

Thank you!

 

[Eeyore daily]

I'm glad they were eating finally. Whatever helps with that is better than nothing. The animation experience looks like so much fun. I really want to do that even though I can't even draw stick figures nicely lol.

 

[disneylove16]

After lunch we rode Dinosaur, EE, and KRR.







We stopped at Anandapur ice cream truck for some root beer floats on our way out of the park.



Then we headed to DS for our ADR at Raglan Road.

 

[disneylove16]

I'm glad they were eating finally. Whatever helps with that is better than nothing. The animation experience looks like so much fun. I really want to do that even though I can't even draw stick figures nicely lol.

Yes! I was so worried about him starving. I know people say a dog won't starve themselves, but he is stubborn and has a lot of issues, so you never know!

Animation Experience is so much fun! I can't draw to save my life, but my Scar came out decent. they really guide you every step of the way. I would say definitely give it a try! You might surprise yourself!

 

[disneylove16]

We headed to Raglan Road, and got seated in the side room, where you can't see any of the stage or show, which was a bummer.




DH got another bloody Mary, and I got a strawberry cucumber mojito. I wasn't sure I'd like my drink, but I absolutely loved it.









DH got the steak for his entrée, and I got the cider salmon. It was ok. The salmon of knowledge that they used to have on their menu was the best dish I've ever had at WDW. I think I continuously hold every dish I get here now to that standard, and it always falls short. It wasn't bad though. Just not as good as salmon of knowledge. I also was not a fan of the things on the side, I think they were endives? I substituted mash for the golden potatoes.






For dessert, we both got the bread pudding.




After dinner I spent a good amount of time in the gift shop, as I always do. Here was another frustrating issue from our list. We bring basic Am Ex gift cards that I get throughout the year. Sometimes vendors have issues with running them, so on our DS day, I purchased a $500 Disney gift card at World of Disney, thinking it would be easier to use that. Well I tried using it at the Raglan Road gift shop, and the very nice CM said it wasn't going through due to insufficient funds. I explained that I hadn't used it yet, and she suggested I head over to guest services. It started pouring outside, but I made my way over to guest services while DH went in search of a restroom. At guest services, the CM said I needed the receipt, which I had in the safe at the resort room. Without that, she couldn't help me. I didn't feel like heading back to the resort and then back to DS to finish our night, but me being me, I couldn't just ignore the issue. So we headed back to the resort. I found the receipt, and tried to check the balance online. It gave me an error message, so I called the 800 # on the back of the card. After holding forever, being transferred back and forth, I finally was told that the card was reported as lost or stolen (which I did not do) and the department I needed to speak with was closed. She said I would need to call in the morning. I was frustrated, and we decided not to head back to DS. My anxiety was out of control by this point (again, that's something I take responsibility for, someone without an anxiety disorder would probably not let these little issues ruin their trip). I started crying that I wanted to go home. Like, now. We still had our DAH at MK the following night, as well as the rhino tour, which I had been ecstatic about on our last day. But DH could see the shape I was in, and had been watching the news about Hurricane Dorian, and agreed to cutting the trip short. I didn't even care about losing out the money on the prepaid events, the unused days of our trip, or the new plane tickets we would have to purchase, since we did not purchase any type of trip insurance through Priceline.

It was Wednesday, and I found tickets for Friday for $200 pp. The tickets for Thursday were like $800 pp. I called Priceline to see if the fees applied to make the changes would be less than just rebooking and losing out on our original tickets. It worked out about the same, so I asked them to just rebook us. The representative checked to see if MCO had any advisories about the hurricane that would allow us to rebook without penalty, but there were none. I felt such instant relief knowing we were going home the day after tomorrow.

 

[disneylove16]

Epcot/ F&W/ Travel day home
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The next morning, we decided to make the best of the day, but honestly, neither of us were feeling it. I went to guest services in the lobby, receipt for the gift card in hand, and explained the situation to a CM. He was very nice, and made a few calls to sort things out for me. Eventually, the full amount was restored to the gift card. I was still slightly frustrated because we were leaving the next morning and would no longer have use for the gift card, but it was what it was. We thanked the CM and headed to Epcot, which was so crowded. It was opening day of Food & Wine. I didn't take a single picture.
We did try Coastal Eats, Active Eats, Ireland, China, and I believe a few others. The first few booths were so unorganized, and CM's seemed so confused, and every booth had a long wait. When we hit the China booth, it was so hot and crowded, I really thought there was a chance I'd pass out. A lot of the day was a blur for me. I do remember the mango tea with boba was so good from China, and I don't know if that's because I was dying of thirst, or if it was really that good. I'm a bit of a milk tea/boba-snob, so it must've been good. We rode FEA, and hit some stores to cool off, and just decided to go back to the resort. I went the gift shop to try and use up the rest of our credits from our dining plan. I came home with a giant bag of rice krispie treats and lollipops. We both felt kind of crappy, and skipped out on our after hours event at MK since we had to be up at like 2 am for DME to take us to MCO. I took a few more photos of the resort when we got back.










The last photo I took is of this lil guy who came right up to us. I love squirrels! We went to bed early, and as usual, our trip home was uneventful. I did want to share, that Friday night, I got an email notifying us that MCO had advisories regarding Hurricane Dorian, that would allow people flying to or from MCO to make changes without penalties. I called Priceline, and advised that I received that email, and even though the email was issues after I made the changes, the rep that helped me was able to reverse the charges for the new tickets, and I was refunded about a week later. So if you're even unsure on making changes, always try calling, sometimes you'll get a helpful rep like I did! Since I cancelled the rhino tour over 24 hours in advance, also got a refund on that.

I really want to reiterate that most of this trip being lousy for us came from my issues. Your trip is what you make of it. I knew before we went that I was not doing well with my anxiety. Somehow I thought that by going to WDW, it would help me since it's my happy place. It didn't work out like that. I would never go again while feeling the way I did. I am happy to say though, that we have been home a little over 2 weeks now, and my health is my priority. I am already feeling so much better, and we are already looking to book a trip for next year! We are on the fence about booking POP or ASMovies.

Thank you for reading along, and hopefully will have a new TR for you all next year!

 

[annie170]

No need to explain. During a trip in August of 1995, we encountered record capacity crowds and heat. This was before fast pass. I kid you not, we rode three rides in six hours at Magic Kingdom. It was just that crowded and I was surprised they didn't close the park. Needless to say, we took an eight year hiatus from Disney.

Some trips are better than others and I'm glad you're feeling better. Thank you for sharing your trip with us!

 

[disneylove16]

No need to explain. During a trip in August of 1995, we encountered record capacity crowds and heat. This was before fast pass. I kid you not, we rode three rides in six hours at Magic Kingdom. It was just that crowded and I was surprised they didn't close the park. Needless to say, we took an eight year hiatus from Disney.

Some trips are better than others and I'm glad you're feeling better. Thank you for sharing your trip with us!

Thank you! Oh jeesh, only 3 rides in 6 hours?! I can't imagine. I don't blame you for taking a break!! How did you feel on your 1st trip back?

Thank you for reading along!

 

[disneyAndi14]

I’m glad you got the gift card sorted out, save it for next trip, they never expire!

Sorry the trip wasn’t the best but there is always next time!!

 

[disneylove16]

I’m glad you got the gift card sorted out, save it for next trip, they never expire!

Sorry the trip wasn’t the best but there is always next time!!

Thank you! That's good to know about the gift card, at least I'll be ahead of the game next trip! And I'm sure next trip will be better.

 

[cinderaimee]

I enjoyed your report and I'm sorry that you had to cut the trip short, but it's important to take care of your mental health I'm glad you're feeling better now. You can apply Disney gift cards to vacation packages, so it won't be a waste, you just got a jump on saving for your next trip

We stayed at Pop in August and I really loved it there, so that gets my vote for your next trip!

You got so many beautiful pictures of the resort! I was never really interested in staying at CS until the Gran Destino tower opened - it is just so beautiful that it put that resort on my short list for our next trip.