Beach Club Babe
10-24-2010, 10:40 AM
Sunday, August 29th Departure Day
Today we will be splitting up a little. Ron will stay behind to load the car, and have some extra rest before driving tonight. Matt and the girls and I will travel to Epcot for morning EMH, then when I'm squared away, Matt will leave to park hop and get everything he can into the last day. At least that was the plan. Here's what really happened.
Ron sleeps in while the rest of us are up and ready to get to Epcot before 8:00 AM. Just before we are out the door, I make sure he is awake and tell him to call me when he gets to Epcot. We are making decent time, and arrive at Epcot about 5 minutes to opening. Something seems odd, there are no cast members out ready to open the turnstiles. We line up with the rest, but at 8:00 there is still no one in sight. It is now after 8 and finally a manager of some sort arrives on a segway. He asks how many people are here for EMH. Of course everyone raises their hand. He apologizes for the mix up, but they had changed the EMH and it was not going to be here today. Well perhaps if they were going to change this, they might have left the people know. It was still advertised on resort TV. People are groaning, but he tells us they are getting the park ready for opening as quickly as possible and hope to have it ready to go by 8:30. They are pretty much "on time" and we are let in a few minutes past.
Emily's main goal here today, was to go to the Character Connection. No one ever wants to stop here because of the size of the line, but I figured if we get here first, it won't be so bad. Matt goes over to collect fastpasses for Soarin, and the girls and I camp out near the character spot. While we are waiting, Emily makes friends with another little girl waiting, so the time passes quickly for them. Matt returns with our fastpasses, then heads back to The Land to get some breakfast before heading out to do what he wants.
The doors are now open to visit with the characters, we are he first family in, so we, along with the another little girl's family are able to take group pics with the fab five! What great pictures they turned out to be! We then get our individual pictures and are on our way. The girls are now hungry, but the only place open for breakfast is the land. There is no way, I will be able to handle a 7 year old, a 16 month old and a tray of food with no stroller. I go up to the cast member outside the door to The Land and explain my situation and ask if there is anyway I could have some sort of pass or something to be allowed in with my stroller. She is incredibly rude to me, screams no, absolutely not and proceeds to turn her back on me while I am still talking. I am more than infuriated. I am very upset and decide to head to Guest Relations to complain about her rudeness. I explain my situation again and get much more understanding. The CM takes the info about the rude CM, and offers to give me a guest with disabilities card which allows the stroller to be used as a wheelchair, so that I can in fact bring the stroller into The Land to get some breakfast. In fact he says I can use it on any attraction for the remainder of my stay. Then he asks if I am an AP holder and then says I can use it up until Oct.30. It was not my intention to get a universal pass like this, but since she was so rude and had me so upset, I will use it for the rest of the day since it will be my last. He tells me the card should be taped onto my stroller with red tape, but they do not have any so just to show it. If anyone asks why it isn't taped, they can call back to him.
I return to The Land and the rude CM sees me coming. Before I even make it near the doors, she is charging at me with her finger pointing to the parking area and is ready to say something when I am able to show her my card and she accepts it. We take the elevator down and grab breakfast. Back to elevator we go, but then Em decides she wants to ride Living With The Land again, so we turn around and go back to the entrance. When we are finished, I have still not heard from Ron. Finding that odd, I decide to call him. He is at the bus stop at Casitas. He will call me when he arrives.
The girls and I go visit Nemo and Figment again, then walk over to Test Track to get some fastpasses. While we are walking, Ron calls. He is on a bus to Downtown Disney! What? Huh? How did that happen? Well evidently, he decided to go get some coffee and light breakfast before heading over. He decided to drive over, but found no close parking spots, so he drove back to Casitas and decided to take the next bus he saw. Even though Casitas is officially bus stop #2, in reality it is always the first stop, so the busses then stop at el centro which is #1, last. All busses that is except Downtown Disney! I knew that from just paying attention, but he did not. So expecting to get to the food court, he was shocked when the bus pulled out of the resort and headed for DTD! Ugh! Ok, I told him, just let me know when you arrive.
I believe the girls and I rode Gran Fiesta Tour and Maelstrom, then wandered around WS taking pictures just waiting. In a little while we got another phone call. He had just made it to Downtown Disney! Apparently they went to Typhoon Lagoon first, then sat there for a long period of time. There was a sign directing him to take a bus to POFQ if he wanted to get to Ecpot, so he told me he was just getting on the bus now. Continuing on taking pics and doing some shopping, we get yt another phone call. Although the sign said to get off at French Quarter, he decided he should just get off at Alligator Bayou, since a bus might come while he was still on the other. There he sat at Alligator Bayou. Numerous busses came many times over, but none for Epcot. He began keeping track with his phone, the list was ridiculous!
Finally he made it! We used our fastpasses for Soarin' and Test Track, then made our way out to the monorail and over to MK. Along the way, I canceled our lunch ADR at Whispering Canyon since we definitely did not have the time now!
At MK, we went straight for what Ron had been craving, a dole whip. Though I don't know how much he actually got to enjoy as we were all stealing bites from him, particularly Hallie! Then it was onto Jungle Cruise and Pirates, into Frontierland, and a visit with lumberjack Donald, then Haunted Mansion. One last visit into Columbia Harbor House for the trip.
After that we crossed into Fantasyland, where there was just a sea of people, we were virtually unable to move. I still had the pass from earlier, so we were able to ride Peter Pan, and the Snow White and Pooh, before heading into TL since the crowds were way up than all week! In TL we rode the peoplemover, then Em wanted to join in the dance party thing going on with Chip and Dale, we were also able to get pics with them, either before or after, I can't remember which. We had time for one last ride, so it would be Buzz. Matt had now come along, so we were all back together.
Back to the resort we go, and Ron, Matt, adn Hallie head to The Pepper Market for a little dinner. I was going to fulfill Em's last request. She REALLY wanted to go for one last swim before leaving. She did not get much pool time on this trip, and she ws disappointed that she did not get to ride the slide other than that one day. So we hopped in the car and drove around to the closest I could get to the pool. We got out our bathing suits, and changed in the wome's room. Not a half bad idea Em! The water felt great, and I was definitely more comfortable on the ride home! Of course Em had a great time at the slide and then tried out the playground for a few minutes before we drove over to meet the rest.
I made a few last minute purchases in the shop, including the purse I promised Ashleigh. Then I grabbed some dinner for Em and I to take in the car, and we made our way off property and began that long drive home!
Once again, another uneventful drive, and we made it home, early Monday afternoon!
Today we will be splitting up a little. Ron will stay behind to load the car, and have some extra rest before driving tonight. Matt and the girls and I will travel to Epcot for morning EMH, then when I'm squared away, Matt will leave to park hop and get everything he can into the last day. At least that was the plan. Here's what really happened.
Ron sleeps in while the rest of us are up and ready to get to Epcot before 8:00 AM. Just before we are out the door, I make sure he is awake and tell him to call me when he gets to Epcot. We are making decent time, and arrive at Epcot about 5 minutes to opening. Something seems odd, there are no cast members out ready to open the turnstiles. We line up with the rest, but at 8:00 there is still no one in sight. It is now after 8 and finally a manager of some sort arrives on a segway. He asks how many people are here for EMH. Of course everyone raises their hand. He apologizes for the mix up, but they had changed the EMH and it was not going to be here today. Well perhaps if they were going to change this, they might have left the people know. It was still advertised on resort TV. People are groaning, but he tells us they are getting the park ready for opening as quickly as possible and hope to have it ready to go by 8:30. They are pretty much "on time" and we are let in a few minutes past.
Emily's main goal here today, was to go to the Character Connection. No one ever wants to stop here because of the size of the line, but I figured if we get here first, it won't be so bad. Matt goes over to collect fastpasses for Soarin, and the girls and I camp out near the character spot. While we are waiting, Emily makes friends with another little girl waiting, so the time passes quickly for them. Matt returns with our fastpasses, then heads back to The Land to get some breakfast before heading out to do what he wants.
The doors are now open to visit with the characters, we are he first family in, so we, along with the another little girl's family are able to take group pics with the fab five! What great pictures they turned out to be! We then get our individual pictures and are on our way. The girls are now hungry, but the only place open for breakfast is the land. There is no way, I will be able to handle a 7 year old, a 16 month old and a tray of food with no stroller. I go up to the cast member outside the door to The Land and explain my situation and ask if there is anyway I could have some sort of pass or something to be allowed in with my stroller. She is incredibly rude to me, screams no, absolutely not and proceeds to turn her back on me while I am still talking. I am more than infuriated. I am very upset and decide to head to Guest Relations to complain about her rudeness. I explain my situation again and get much more understanding. The CM takes the info about the rude CM, and offers to give me a guest with disabilities card which allows the stroller to be used as a wheelchair, so that I can in fact bring the stroller into The Land to get some breakfast. In fact he says I can use it on any attraction for the remainder of my stay. Then he asks if I am an AP holder and then says I can use it up until Oct.30. It was not my intention to get a universal pass like this, but since she was so rude and had me so upset, I will use it for the rest of the day since it will be my last. He tells me the card should be taped onto my stroller with red tape, but they do not have any so just to show it. If anyone asks why it isn't taped, they can call back to him.
I return to The Land and the rude CM sees me coming. Before I even make it near the doors, she is charging at me with her finger pointing to the parking area and is ready to say something when I am able to show her my card and she accepts it. We take the elevator down and grab breakfast. Back to elevator we go, but then Em decides she wants to ride Living With The Land again, so we turn around and go back to the entrance. When we are finished, I have still not heard from Ron. Finding that odd, I decide to call him. He is at the bus stop at Casitas. He will call me when he arrives.
The girls and I go visit Nemo and Figment again, then walk over to Test Track to get some fastpasses. While we are walking, Ron calls. He is on a bus to Downtown Disney! What? Huh? How did that happen? Well evidently, he decided to go get some coffee and light breakfast before heading over. He decided to drive over, but found no close parking spots, so he drove back to Casitas and decided to take the next bus he saw. Even though Casitas is officially bus stop #2, in reality it is always the first stop, so the busses then stop at el centro which is #1, last. All busses that is except Downtown Disney! I knew that from just paying attention, but he did not. So expecting to get to the food court, he was shocked when the bus pulled out of the resort and headed for DTD! Ugh! Ok, I told him, just let me know when you arrive.
I believe the girls and I rode Gran Fiesta Tour and Maelstrom, then wandered around WS taking pictures just waiting. In a little while we got another phone call. He had just made it to Downtown Disney! Apparently they went to Typhoon Lagoon first, then sat there for a long period of time. There was a sign directing him to take a bus to POFQ if he wanted to get to Ecpot, so he told me he was just getting on the bus now. Continuing on taking pics and doing some shopping, we get yt another phone call. Although the sign said to get off at French Quarter, he decided he should just get off at Alligator Bayou, since a bus might come while he was still on the other. There he sat at Alligator Bayou. Numerous busses came many times over, but none for Epcot. He began keeping track with his phone, the list was ridiculous!
Finally he made it! We used our fastpasses for Soarin' and Test Track, then made our way out to the monorail and over to MK. Along the way, I canceled our lunch ADR at Whispering Canyon since we definitely did not have the time now!
At MK, we went straight for what Ron had been craving, a dole whip. Though I don't know how much he actually got to enjoy as we were all stealing bites from him, particularly Hallie! Then it was onto Jungle Cruise and Pirates, into Frontierland, and a visit with lumberjack Donald, then Haunted Mansion. One last visit into Columbia Harbor House for the trip.
After that we crossed into Fantasyland, where there was just a sea of people, we were virtually unable to move. I still had the pass from earlier, so we were able to ride Peter Pan, and the Snow White and Pooh, before heading into TL since the crowds were way up than all week! In TL we rode the peoplemover, then Em wanted to join in the dance party thing going on with Chip and Dale, we were also able to get pics with them, either before or after, I can't remember which. We had time for one last ride, so it would be Buzz. Matt had now come along, so we were all back together.
Back to the resort we go, and Ron, Matt, adn Hallie head to The Pepper Market for a little dinner. I was going to fulfill Em's last request. She REALLY wanted to go for one last swim before leaving. She did not get much pool time on this trip, and she ws disappointed that she did not get to ride the slide other than that one day. So we hopped in the car and drove around to the closest I could get to the pool. We got out our bathing suits, and changed in the wome's room. Not a half bad idea Em! The water felt great, and I was definitely more comfortable on the ride home! Of course Em had a great time at the slide and then tried out the playground for a few minutes before we drove over to meet the rest.
I made a few last minute purchases in the shop, including the purse I promised Ashleigh. Then I grabbed some dinner for Em and I to take in the car, and we made our way off property and began that long drive home!
Once again, another uneventful drive, and we made it home, early Monday afternoon!