BluegrassDaisy
02-02-2010, 11:20 PM
Who: Myself, DH, DD23 & DD11
When: 1/23-1/30
Where: Beach Club Villa – 1BR
Why: To Celebrate DD23’s Graduation from College
Touring: The crowds were great and even though there seemed to be lots of people at times, we optimized our early morning hours and were able to do all of our favorites multiple times and gave several sets of fast passes away. I love doing this! One note, there were a LOT of tour groups from Brazil, this was in no way a problem for us – just an observation. There were a lot of teenagers in these groups and we enjoyed seeing them have a good time. With the exception of Monday we were at the parks for opening. We toured in this order:
Saturday: Epcot- some time in both FW & WS. We arrived around 1:00, so this was a ½ day.
Sunday: Epcot FW \Afternoon pool time \Evening MK for EMH
Monday: Sleep in\ Character Breakfast\ Epcot WS
Tuesday: MK\Evening at DTD
Wednesday: Studios\ Evening at MK
Thursday: AK\ Evening at Studios
Friday: MK\Afternoon Pool time for DD23 & DH, Studios for DD11 & myself\After dinner at Epcot for EMH & Shopping
One note about crowds, we planned to attend the 2nd showing of Fantasmic on Thursday evening. We had done this in October and arrived about 30 minutes prior to the show, got in and had fine seats with no problem. The schedule was similar that week, with Fantasmic being shown 2 nights with 2 shows both nights. WELL, on this night, we arrived at the Studios around 6:30, that’s when the 1st show started; we rode RnR and TOT, when we got off TOT, the 1st show was letting out, we saw an unbelievable number of people leaving the show. We decided to go ahead and get in line for the 8:00 show about 7:15, by this time, the line was about 6 people wide and nearly all the way down the street, I had never, in my many trips seen a crowd like this. A man with a huge backpack of camera equipment backed into DD23 and cut her nose! Of course, it was an accident and his wife was so apologetic, but that just shows how crazy things were. By the time we got to the theatre, guests were being directed to stand in the back. We were able to snag 4 seats near the back at the far end of the stadium and we greatly enjoyed the show. After we were able to avoid the line for the boat to BCV by walking to the resort by way of the of the Boardwalk. My daughter determined that there couldn’t have been anyone left in Brazil that night – they were all at DHS!
We had only one negative experience the entire week and it was rather strange. We were riding Astro Orbiter early on Friday morning. When we got off the elevator and went to board, the rockets were all full. DD & I showed the attendant that we had a card (they give you one for each rocket at the bottom before you go up); The CM checked and there was a family who was spread out – basically they didn’t have a card for each rocket. When the attendant told them they needed to double up, the mother went ballistic! She said she was told by the downstairs CM that her 7 year old could ride alone. Technically, this was true, but they didn’t get enough cards for the kids to ride alone. She gave the CM at the top a very hard way to go while we stood by watching. The poor little boy who had wanted to ride alone was embarrassed; he got out the rocket with his brother and said he wouldn’t ride. Seeing that, I told the CM that he could take our card and ride in our place. By this time the CM was angry and said no – she had called her manager and he would be there to work it out. This took about 10-15 minutes. It was really weird, my DD and I are standing here waiting, and everyone else is loaded and waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Finally the manager showed up and basically he let the kid ride while DD and I waited. The Manager apologized to us for the inconvenience and gave us a fast pass that we could use anywhere in the park anytime that day to help make up for our lost time. The annoying thing about the whole situation is that while my DD and I waited, the DAD of the family sat alone in a rocket and never even offered to let his son ride! So the mom/little girl rode, the 2 boys & the dad rode individually and my DD and I had to wait a round (DH & DD11 rode and then waited for us). I felt these parents were a terrible example to the kids. The mother thanked up profusely as they left - I was very tempted to ask just WHY one of them hadn’t given up their seat for their child rather than inconveniencing my family, but my DD is quite a peacemaker and she would have been mortified! Anyway, it slowed us down during our valuable early morning time, but mostly it was just strange. As it turned out, we didn't even use the FP.
New Things: The Sum of All Thrills in Innoventions was AWESOME. The girls and I did this twice. DH felt claustrophobic in the simulator and only went once. We also enjoyed the newly refurbed SM. We made an appointment for a family photo session at the BC. This was great and with the DVC member discount, it was very reasonable. It only took about an hour out of our day and we got some great shots. I had learned about this in October and planned ahead to do it this trip, I was very pleased with the results.
This was a wonderful family trip and we made memories that we will cherish always. I’m trying to figure out a way to use my AP & TIW card just one more time before they expire. Wish me luck and thanks for reading!:mickey:
When: 1/23-1/30
Where: Beach Club Villa – 1BR
Why: To Celebrate DD23’s Graduation from College
Touring: The crowds were great and even though there seemed to be lots of people at times, we optimized our early morning hours and were able to do all of our favorites multiple times and gave several sets of fast passes away. I love doing this! One note, there were a LOT of tour groups from Brazil, this was in no way a problem for us – just an observation. There were a lot of teenagers in these groups and we enjoyed seeing them have a good time. With the exception of Monday we were at the parks for opening. We toured in this order:
Saturday: Epcot- some time in both FW & WS. We arrived around 1:00, so this was a ½ day.
Sunday: Epcot FW \Afternoon pool time \Evening MK for EMH
Monday: Sleep in\ Character Breakfast\ Epcot WS
Tuesday: MK\Evening at DTD
Wednesday: Studios\ Evening at MK
Thursday: AK\ Evening at Studios
Friday: MK\Afternoon Pool time for DD23 & DH, Studios for DD11 & myself\After dinner at Epcot for EMH & Shopping
One note about crowds, we planned to attend the 2nd showing of Fantasmic on Thursday evening. We had done this in October and arrived about 30 minutes prior to the show, got in and had fine seats with no problem. The schedule was similar that week, with Fantasmic being shown 2 nights with 2 shows both nights. WELL, on this night, we arrived at the Studios around 6:30, that’s when the 1st show started; we rode RnR and TOT, when we got off TOT, the 1st show was letting out, we saw an unbelievable number of people leaving the show. We decided to go ahead and get in line for the 8:00 show about 7:15, by this time, the line was about 6 people wide and nearly all the way down the street, I had never, in my many trips seen a crowd like this. A man with a huge backpack of camera equipment backed into DD23 and cut her nose! Of course, it was an accident and his wife was so apologetic, but that just shows how crazy things were. By the time we got to the theatre, guests were being directed to stand in the back. We were able to snag 4 seats near the back at the far end of the stadium and we greatly enjoyed the show. After we were able to avoid the line for the boat to BCV by walking to the resort by way of the of the Boardwalk. My daughter determined that there couldn’t have been anyone left in Brazil that night – they were all at DHS!
We had only one negative experience the entire week and it was rather strange. We were riding Astro Orbiter early on Friday morning. When we got off the elevator and went to board, the rockets were all full. DD & I showed the attendant that we had a card (they give you one for each rocket at the bottom before you go up); The CM checked and there was a family who was spread out – basically they didn’t have a card for each rocket. When the attendant told them they needed to double up, the mother went ballistic! She said she was told by the downstairs CM that her 7 year old could ride alone. Technically, this was true, but they didn’t get enough cards for the kids to ride alone. She gave the CM at the top a very hard way to go while we stood by watching. The poor little boy who had wanted to ride alone was embarrassed; he got out the rocket with his brother and said he wouldn’t ride. Seeing that, I told the CM that he could take our card and ride in our place. By this time the CM was angry and said no – she had called her manager and he would be there to work it out. This took about 10-15 minutes. It was really weird, my DD and I are standing here waiting, and everyone else is loaded and waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Finally the manager showed up and basically he let the kid ride while DD and I waited. The Manager apologized to us for the inconvenience and gave us a fast pass that we could use anywhere in the park anytime that day to help make up for our lost time. The annoying thing about the whole situation is that while my DD and I waited, the DAD of the family sat alone in a rocket and never even offered to let his son ride! So the mom/little girl rode, the 2 boys & the dad rode individually and my DD and I had to wait a round (DH & DD11 rode and then waited for us). I felt these parents were a terrible example to the kids. The mother thanked up profusely as they left - I was very tempted to ask just WHY one of them hadn’t given up their seat for their child rather than inconveniencing my family, but my DD is quite a peacemaker and she would have been mortified! Anyway, it slowed us down during our valuable early morning time, but mostly it was just strange. As it turned out, we didn't even use the FP.
New Things: The Sum of All Thrills in Innoventions was AWESOME. The girls and I did this twice. DH felt claustrophobic in the simulator and only went once. We also enjoyed the newly refurbed SM. We made an appointment for a family photo session at the BC. This was great and with the DVC member discount, it was very reasonable. It only took about an hour out of our day and we got some great shots. I had learned about this in October and planned ahead to do it this trip, I was very pleased with the results.
This was a wonderful family trip and we made memories that we will cherish always. I’m trying to figure out a way to use my AP & TIW card just one more time before they expire. Wish me luck and thanks for reading!:mickey: