20 min wait for Living with the Land, and other stuff - FINAL trip report

[azcavalier]

Wow, was that a hot week. Now, keep in mind, we have never been to Disney in the summer. Is it worse than it was this week? Low to mid 90's with high humidity? It felt like we were swimming out there a few times. That pool sure felt wonderful around 2pm every day.

No real new lessons learned, except for one. When we checked in, the CM that checked us in mentioned that we could park for free since we were resort guests. I don't think anyone had ever told us that before, and we had always used the busses. So, we decided to try it out. Wow, that is so much more convenient than waiting on the busses. Don't get me wrong, the busses are nice, but we had no waiting, and no problems getting into or out of the parking lots at the parks. It was SOOO much faster. And after the fireworks shows, such as Illuminations, we didn't have to wait an hour to get on a bus. It was -zip! out of the park, into the car, on the highway, and we were back in our resorts and in our beds in fifteen minutes.

So....

LESSON LEARNED - If you have a car, drive to the parks! Except for the Magic Kingdom....that parking lot isn't actually anywhere close to the park.

So, the last few days, we ate at Tusker House, O'Hana, and Le Cellier. O'Hana and Le Cellier were excellent, and Tusker House was a nice change.

In the end, a couple of things about the week stick out, besides the heat....

My wife, the crazy pin lady, actually managed to collect the entire 26 pin "alphabet" set that has one character whose name starts with that particular letter, and she did so in five days. So, for example, the "G" has a picture of the Genie on it. They were all animated characters, except for one. Quick, any guesses who the letter "V" might stand for?

"The Voyage of the Little Mermaid" is by far the worst stage show in the whole of WDW. The voice of the CM who sang Ariel's part was actually very good, but on the whole, it's just kind of a cheesy show, not at all on par with any of the others.

Our Mousekeeper was excellent. The room was always spotless, and the kids were so excited to come back every day to see what she had done with their stuffed animals. Also, over the course of the week, she had created three more stuffed animals from the washclothes and hand towels, and even had stuck on paper eyes, noses, mouths, etc. It was really cute. I took pictures almost every day of what the animals were doing. Once they were all circled around the biggest one, who had an open book in it's lap. Another time, they were climbing up/down the bed post. Once they were all actually watching the TV, which they had switched on. That's just one of the touches that makes Disney special.

On a final note, the older kids and I drove 716 miles home today, and made it in about 12 hours (including stops) from Orlando to southwestern VA. But early in our trip, sometime between 9-10am, on a strip of 1-95 north of Daytona Beach I saw something I have never seen before. As we were heading northbound, I saw an SUV (Ford Expedition maybe?) heading southbound, drive on to the shoulder, hit the guardrail, and take flight. It flipped up and over, end over end, and spun slightly, before coming down on its top half on the median and halfway on our shoulder. I was only about 50 yards away when it landed. I moved over a couple of lanes (light traffic) because I actually thought it was coming into our lane. I have no idea what caused it, and there were no other cars involved. I don't know what happened to those in the truck, as I didn't stop. I was going to, but saw a lot of other cars pulling over on to the shoulders to stop, and I don't possess any special skills that would have made me particularly helpful. That, along with no one to stay with my kids (and if it was gruesome, I certainly didn't want them near it), and we still had ten hours to drive even without delays, I just kept going. Had my DW been with us (she was flying to Arizona to visit family), we would have stopped, as she is a surgeon, and could have possibly rendered assistance. I don't know what the result was of the accident. I tried to Google some news, but I don't remember exactly where it was, except that it was on 95 in Florida. If anyone happens to have ANY idea of a single-car SUV accident on that stretch of road during the morning of Sunday, October 11th, I would appreciate it.

So, it was another great trip to Disney. Looking forward to going back either late next year or early in 2011. In any case, it'll be during a cooler time.

[KylesMom]

I'm glad the rest of your trip was a good one.

In answer to your question about the weather, sometimes YES, sometimes NO. This June was a record-breaker & it was definitely mid 90s with incredibly high humidity. Honestly, though - we've gone in May, June, July & August & can't tell much of a difference . . . hot is hot!

Our family is a "drive-to-the-parks" sort also, with the exception of MK. We also find it much more convenient!

Glad you are safe after that horrible accident you witnessed - scary, to say the least.

Thanks for sharing with us!

[BluewaterBrad]

Sounds like you had a very fun trip!

[nicster]

You answered a question that DH & I have been pondering. Is it better to just go ahead & drive from resort to park or not? We felt like we spent a lot of time in restaurants & buses this last trip.
Glad the accident didn't include you, it sounds horrible!

[faline]

Sounds like you had a good trip. Sorry you witnessed such a horrid accident. I hope the folks were okay!

[ChipDale]

Sounds like a good trip in spite of the heat & humidity. I'm glad that you and your family made it home safely - that accident would have scared the you-know-what out of me! Thanks for taking the time to share with us.

[azcavalier]

You answered a question that DH & I have been pondering. Is it better to just go ahead & drive from resort to park or not? We felt like we spent a lot of time in restaurants & buses this last trip.
Glad the accident didn't include you, it sounds horrible!

The last four times we've gone to WDW, we've had a car (whether rented, or driven our own), but we had never actually driven to the parks. We just used the vehicle for DTD, the grocery store, outlet malls, church, Walgreens, etc. But that was because we always thought we'd have to pay for parking. Apparently, that isn't the case. IF you have a car when you're there, it just makes it SOOO much nicer and faster to get in and out of the parks.

I mean, we had never, ever wanted to stay for fireworks before, because we didn't want to fight the crowds and have a long wait for the busses, with standing room only once we got ON the the busses, and the amount of time it would take to get back to the resorts. As it was, I thought it would be harder to get out of the parks as it was. But not so. Illuminations ended at 9:15pm. We were IN BED by 9:40pm. Traffic was not bad at all. I think that had we tried to use the busses, we would still have been waiting to get on a bus at 9:45pm.

I would say this, though. The signage on the freeways around Disneyworld can be confusing. For example, when you leave POR, The first sign you see says simply, "Theme Parks", and has an arrow pointing to the exit. But if you take it, you're railroaded to either Epcot or MK. If you wanted DHS or AK, then you're hosed. Why it doesn't just say "Epcot and Magic Kingdom" is beyond me. So, use a map until you're comfortable finding your way around.

[pdrlkr]

Thanks for the Report!