WDW vs. Recession & Rain

**Dixie Springs** · 05-28-2009, 01:01 PM

You will probably see the term "rain" in any trip reports covering the past couple of weeks at WDW. I have never experienced anything like it in my 25+ years of WDW visits. I believe Daytona logged over 2 feet (yes, feet) of rain, with Orlando only marginally behind. It was a bull-market on ponchos.

Bad Stuff
In addition to the deluge of rain, we encountered one of the .005% mean Disney castmembers upon check-in at AS Music. She was a piece of work.

Our 'non-smoking' hotel room (1 of 3 booked in our gathering) smelled like we were in an ashtray. They replaced curtains and linens, then ran the ozone machine. This made it smell like we were just near the ashtray, rather than in it.

We were just about to board the balloon at Downtown Disney, and were turned away for a refund due to wind (oh well, next time I guess). Exact same thing happened after climbing the stairs to Slusher Gusher.

Exiting Typhoon Lagoon during the scheduled afternoon rain-out. Perhaps the most non-Disney set up: the single road out. Sat in line for 1 hour. Asked a woman to move her car up a bit (she blocked us and had tons of room) so we could make a turn. She responded with a one-finger salute and road-rage hillbilly screaming. Geat for the kids to see.

Good Stuff
Seeing our niece perform in parades and photoshoots. We were astounded. She is a CM, and was 'friends' with Jedi Mickey throughout Star Wars Weekends; and with Mickey in the Animal Kingdom Parade; with some Br'er Rabbit 'friendship' in-between. Wow!

Free park entry and deep hotel discounts for entire family thanks to DD and DN who are castmembers. We haven't paid for park entry in the past 4 years and are spoiled.

Seeing first-timers on Soarin', and everything else.

All Star Music managers, who reconciled all of our issues.

Typhoon Lagoon CM, who helped us with a lost-ticket issue.

It's still WDW - I saw nothing obvious to indicate any negative changes due to the economy. Believe me, I heard the details on the various budget cuts via family CM's, and we 'Disnerds' can always find gaps in the magic, but it's still the best!