ransam
09-21-2009, 01:58 PM
i wrote this for a friend last year when we came back from a trip in September. I found it today and thought i'd put it on here.....hope you guys enjoy.
We just got back from our trip about 2 weeks ago. What a fantastic time. I went w/ my sister and best friend, Brian. We had started planning it in January of last year, and were in Disneyworld from September 12, to September 19. For 9 months we planned, talked about it, and anticipated it. WE went to Marceline, MO to tie us over in early June, and now looking back it all went so quickly. I don’t know about anyone else, but the planning is some of the most fun of the trip for me, discussing what restaurants to go to, looking forward to the new rides and shows, and just talking about it.
I thought I’d share some of our experiences w/ you.
We flew in on Wednesday night, September 12. The flight was very bumpy and though I love to fly, even I was a little spooked. If you have never flown into Orlando airport, it’s a very unique airport. It’s very big and you can get lost, so allow yourself some time to get situated and to find out where you’re going. Also every theme park in Orlando has their own store there, heck you can do all your souvenir shopping on the way out.
We got to our hotel, the Disney all-star Music at about midnight. One thing I will mention. We wanted a cot, and I had called a few times, and was told no cots would be allowed for our room, only the suites…once we got there, I asked again and they didn’t even blink, but gave us a cot for an extra fee. So that helped out w/ 3 big sized adults in one room.
I don’t want to give you a day to day report, but I will mention a few things I found fun, and/or interesting.
It rained every day, but never for very long. Take a poncho w/ you and you’ll be fine. The only time it was really bad was one night Brian and I went to downtown Disney and got trapped for about an hour under a very small overhang from a roof. But even that was fun to see people racing to their cars getting drenched.
I am handicapped, so I had rented an electronic chair from Walker Mobility. If you have trouble getting around, then by all means invest the extra money to rent one. You’ve already spent tons of money for your vacation, so you might as well get all he enjoyment you can out of your trip. I couldn’t have done it w/o the chair. And I can tell you right now that there is NO place better than Disney when it comes to being handicapped accessible. There is no place I couldn’t go….and I will admit the fact that you get on the bus at the end of the evening or in the morning on the way there is an added plus.
We had the free dining plan and ate at Chef Mickey’s, Boma, Coral Reef, Tony’s, Le Clair (sp), and then went to the Luau. They were all excellent. I would say that the one that I was most surprised with was Tony’s. I don’t know why but I wasn’t expecting much, and it was excellent. The service was awesome, atmosphere couldn’t have been better. I loved it. But my favorite was Coral Reef. The food was incredible, nice atmosphere, great decorations. Boma’s was good, but our waiter was pretty bad, he just had no personality, but the food was fantastic. I especially loved the soups. They had at least 10 different types of soup, I had 4 of them (not full bowls), and they were all perfect.
We were celebrating my birthday that week, and my sister mentioned it at the hotel and they gave me a button and told me to wear it all week. If you have a birthday while you’re there, get a button. It’s fun. All the employees are constantly wishing you a happy birthday. You get double deserts. And I never did use my snack credits, cause when I went to get a snack, most of them told me that my snack was “on Mickey for my birthday”….I will admit I did love the attention. I liked how friendly everyone was. Another cool thing is we went to Animal Kingdom, and we didn’t plan our time right, spent way too much time at the trails, and then over to the research labs, and suddenly it was 3pm and hadn’t been to much else of the park, so we went to go on Everest. Realizing that w/ the long line, this would be the last thing we would see, we were a little disappointed and were discussing if we were going to come back and see the rest. But an employee came up, wished me a Happy Birthday and asked if I really wanted to wait in that line on my birthday. Of course I said no, so he took us to the front of the line, showed us the cool artifacts of the pre-show, and rode the ride w/ us. He knew all about the ride and was telling us about how it was designed. Working for an architect firm, I found that unbelievably exciting. He explained how when the ride goes backwards, it’s not on any motor at all, it’s all self-propelled. And said that at no time did the track or mountain touch. So theoretically you could take the track out and the mountain would still be standing, or remove the mountain w/o disconnecting it from the tracks. I thought that was really amazing. After we talked to him a little bit, he gave me an Imagineering guide to Animal Kingdom book. Then he took us to the next 2 attractions and got us right in the show w/o waiting in line. So yea, I dug that!!
Usually when I go to Disneyworld I am ready to get back home and back to a routine by the last couple days, but not this time. Everything was so awesome; I could have stayed much longer.
One of the best days was the last half day we were there. Our plan took off in the late evening so we had half a day. My sister stayed at the hotel, Brian went out on his own. It was raining a lot that morning so I just decided to brave it out and went to the park alone. It was pretty cool because no one was there. The rain kept a lot away, so once it cleared up, I still had a couple hours where the park was nearly empty. That was a lot of fun.
The only down part of the vacation was that while we were checking our baggage in…literally I was standing in the baggage lane, my brother called and my mom had suffered a very minor stroke. She’s fine now, but the flight home was very long.
You know, I’ve been to Disneyworld, and Disneyland many times in my life. I wanted to write something just to conclude this year’s trip. Since my family use to go to Disney every year when we were younger, Disney has changed so much. The first time we went there was just magic Kingdom, a couple hotels, and a few shops outside Disney. Now, it has 4 theme parks, golf courses, a sports complex and many hotels. Attractions like the toad ride, 20,000 leagues under the sea, City of Motion, have been replaced by rides like Splash Mountain, Mission space, fast track. The older classic characters have had to make room for the princesses, lion king, and other modern heroes. It hasn’t gotten bigger, but it has definitely filled out. Tomorrowland has been realized and been updated to continue looking to the future. I remember going to Innoventions as a kid and they talked about things to look forward to in the future, like someday being able to take a phone everywhere you go, and having a personal computer, and being able to send mail electronically and it being there instantly and I remember thinking, “no way”….But tomorrow is here, and I’m very excited to think about how things will change in the future and while having such loving memories of the past, I’m excited to see what Disney will have in store for us in the future. Yes, Disneyworld has changed so much, but the one thing that has always been consistent is the level of customer service. No one has better consistent customer service than Disney. I believe in customer service and I believe that is why Disney is and always will be the best at what it does. It makes us all feel like kids, and treats kids like adults. I read once that Walt said he wanted to build a park that kids and parents alike could enjoy on the same level and have fun. But like I said, if I had to say one thing that has always just blown me away about Disneyworld, and Disneyland, it’s their customer service. This has never been made clearer than the past week after we left Disney. At the airport, I had a couple run-ins w/ employees of a certain airline, and my sister just looked at me and said “well the Disney service is gone, welcome to the real world”. As I mentioned my mom was in the hospital when we got home. For the most part the doctors and nurses were fine….that’s the problem right there, they were “fine”….we even had a few nurses that were rude to us. My mom had an IV that twisted in her arm, causing her discomfort; we called for assistance, and 12 minutes later a nurse showed up, said she wasn’t able to help but went to get someone and 15 minutes later someone fixed it. At Disneyworld if you drop a piece of paper 4 employees are fighting amongst themselves to pick it up. If you ask for directions, they don’t point you in the right direction, they walk you there. Wouldn’t’ it be nice if hospitals, actually all companies had Disney Customer service?
Anyway, I know very long, and I doubt many read it all, but I started writing and couldn’t stop! Ha
I had a great trip and already thinking of when to go back. Thinking I might try for a weekend trip, just me, to see how pretty Disney is during Christmas.. I have heard it’s pretty awesome.
,
We just got back from our trip about 2 weeks ago. What a fantastic time. I went w/ my sister and best friend, Brian. We had started planning it in January of last year, and were in Disneyworld from September 12, to September 19. For 9 months we planned, talked about it, and anticipated it. WE went to Marceline, MO to tie us over in early June, and now looking back it all went so quickly. I don’t know about anyone else, but the planning is some of the most fun of the trip for me, discussing what restaurants to go to, looking forward to the new rides and shows, and just talking about it.
I thought I’d share some of our experiences w/ you.
We flew in on Wednesday night, September 12. The flight was very bumpy and though I love to fly, even I was a little spooked. If you have never flown into Orlando airport, it’s a very unique airport. It’s very big and you can get lost, so allow yourself some time to get situated and to find out where you’re going. Also every theme park in Orlando has their own store there, heck you can do all your souvenir shopping on the way out.
We got to our hotel, the Disney all-star Music at about midnight. One thing I will mention. We wanted a cot, and I had called a few times, and was told no cots would be allowed for our room, only the suites…once we got there, I asked again and they didn’t even blink, but gave us a cot for an extra fee. So that helped out w/ 3 big sized adults in one room.
I don’t want to give you a day to day report, but I will mention a few things I found fun, and/or interesting.
It rained every day, but never for very long. Take a poncho w/ you and you’ll be fine. The only time it was really bad was one night Brian and I went to downtown Disney and got trapped for about an hour under a very small overhang from a roof. But even that was fun to see people racing to their cars getting drenched.
I am handicapped, so I had rented an electronic chair from Walker Mobility. If you have trouble getting around, then by all means invest the extra money to rent one. You’ve already spent tons of money for your vacation, so you might as well get all he enjoyment you can out of your trip. I couldn’t have done it w/o the chair. And I can tell you right now that there is NO place better than Disney when it comes to being handicapped accessible. There is no place I couldn’t go….and I will admit the fact that you get on the bus at the end of the evening or in the morning on the way there is an added plus.
We had the free dining plan and ate at Chef Mickey’s, Boma, Coral Reef, Tony’s, Le Clair (sp), and then went to the Luau. They were all excellent. I would say that the one that I was most surprised with was Tony’s. I don’t know why but I wasn’t expecting much, and it was excellent. The service was awesome, atmosphere couldn’t have been better. I loved it. But my favorite was Coral Reef. The food was incredible, nice atmosphere, great decorations. Boma’s was good, but our waiter was pretty bad, he just had no personality, but the food was fantastic. I especially loved the soups. They had at least 10 different types of soup, I had 4 of them (not full bowls), and they were all perfect.
We were celebrating my birthday that week, and my sister mentioned it at the hotel and they gave me a button and told me to wear it all week. If you have a birthday while you’re there, get a button. It’s fun. All the employees are constantly wishing you a happy birthday. You get double deserts. And I never did use my snack credits, cause when I went to get a snack, most of them told me that my snack was “on Mickey for my birthday”….I will admit I did love the attention. I liked how friendly everyone was. Another cool thing is we went to Animal Kingdom, and we didn’t plan our time right, spent way too much time at the trails, and then over to the research labs, and suddenly it was 3pm and hadn’t been to much else of the park, so we went to go on Everest. Realizing that w/ the long line, this would be the last thing we would see, we were a little disappointed and were discussing if we were going to come back and see the rest. But an employee came up, wished me a Happy Birthday and asked if I really wanted to wait in that line on my birthday. Of course I said no, so he took us to the front of the line, showed us the cool artifacts of the pre-show, and rode the ride w/ us. He knew all about the ride and was telling us about how it was designed. Working for an architect firm, I found that unbelievably exciting. He explained how when the ride goes backwards, it’s not on any motor at all, it’s all self-propelled. And said that at no time did the track or mountain touch. So theoretically you could take the track out and the mountain would still be standing, or remove the mountain w/o disconnecting it from the tracks. I thought that was really amazing. After we talked to him a little bit, he gave me an Imagineering guide to Animal Kingdom book. Then he took us to the next 2 attractions and got us right in the show w/o waiting in line. So yea, I dug that!!
Usually when I go to Disneyworld I am ready to get back home and back to a routine by the last couple days, but not this time. Everything was so awesome; I could have stayed much longer.
One of the best days was the last half day we were there. Our plan took off in the late evening so we had half a day. My sister stayed at the hotel, Brian went out on his own. It was raining a lot that morning so I just decided to brave it out and went to the park alone. It was pretty cool because no one was there. The rain kept a lot away, so once it cleared up, I still had a couple hours where the park was nearly empty. That was a lot of fun.
The only down part of the vacation was that while we were checking our baggage in…literally I was standing in the baggage lane, my brother called and my mom had suffered a very minor stroke. She’s fine now, but the flight home was very long.
You know, I’ve been to Disneyworld, and Disneyland many times in my life. I wanted to write something just to conclude this year’s trip. Since my family use to go to Disney every year when we were younger, Disney has changed so much. The first time we went there was just magic Kingdom, a couple hotels, and a few shops outside Disney. Now, it has 4 theme parks, golf courses, a sports complex and many hotels. Attractions like the toad ride, 20,000 leagues under the sea, City of Motion, have been replaced by rides like Splash Mountain, Mission space, fast track. The older classic characters have had to make room for the princesses, lion king, and other modern heroes. It hasn’t gotten bigger, but it has definitely filled out. Tomorrowland has been realized and been updated to continue looking to the future. I remember going to Innoventions as a kid and they talked about things to look forward to in the future, like someday being able to take a phone everywhere you go, and having a personal computer, and being able to send mail electronically and it being there instantly and I remember thinking, “no way”….But tomorrow is here, and I’m very excited to think about how things will change in the future and while having such loving memories of the past, I’m excited to see what Disney will have in store for us in the future. Yes, Disneyworld has changed so much, but the one thing that has always been consistent is the level of customer service. No one has better consistent customer service than Disney. I believe in customer service and I believe that is why Disney is and always will be the best at what it does. It makes us all feel like kids, and treats kids like adults. I read once that Walt said he wanted to build a park that kids and parents alike could enjoy on the same level and have fun. But like I said, if I had to say one thing that has always just blown me away about Disneyworld, and Disneyland, it’s their customer service. This has never been made clearer than the past week after we left Disney. At the airport, I had a couple run-ins w/ employees of a certain airline, and my sister just looked at me and said “well the Disney service is gone, welcome to the real world”. As I mentioned my mom was in the hospital when we got home. For the most part the doctors and nurses were fine….that’s the problem right there, they were “fine”….we even had a few nurses that were rude to us. My mom had an IV that twisted in her arm, causing her discomfort; we called for assistance, and 12 minutes later a nurse showed up, said she wasn’t able to help but went to get someone and 15 minutes later someone fixed it. At Disneyworld if you drop a piece of paper 4 employees are fighting amongst themselves to pick it up. If you ask for directions, they don’t point you in the right direction, they walk you there. Wouldn’t’ it be nice if hospitals, actually all companies had Disney Customer service?
Anyway, I know very long, and I doubt many read it all, but I started writing and couldn’t stop! Ha
I had a great trip and already thinking of when to go back. Thinking I might try for a weekend trip, just me, to see how pretty Disney is during Christmas.. I have heard it’s pretty awesome.
,