faline
12-26-2015, 03:24 PM
Saturday, December 12
Plan for the day:
Magic Kingdom with three fastpasses
Before we headed to the bus stop, we went to the desk this morning to inquire about the evening visit we'd had regarding the leak. We wanted to know if we could/could not use our jetted tub. The woman at the desk said there were no notes on file regarding our room, went and checked with someone else (I'm guessing a supervisor) and told us we could continue to use the jetted tub.
Animal Kingdom/Magic Kingdom - they're both kingdoms so what's the difference? We walk outside to the bus stop and there's the bus I think I want so we hop on. As we pull away from the bus stop the driver announces we'll soon be at Animal Kingdom. Animal Kingdom!! I thought I was getting on a Magic Kingdom bus?! Others on the bus are sympathetic with my plight and suggest I take a bus from Animal Kingdom to Magic Kingdom and I figure that's what I'll need to do. The driver overheard and, kindly circled around to the bus stop again to let us off. I apologize to our kind, fellow passengers for delaying their trip. As we step off the bus, the Magic Kingdom bus is pulling into the bus stop right behind the bus we are getting off!!
I knew the Magic Kingdom would be crowded on this day. For one, there had been parties the previous two evenings. Secondly, this was a weekend day. And third, the posted hours for the Magic Kingdom were from 8 in the morning until 1 the following morning.
Gene had wanted to have breakfast out but choices for breakfast in the Magic Kingdom, without a reservation, are limited. We went to Gaston's for cinnamon rolls and coffee. We had initially gotten in line on the right hand side but there were only two parties in the middle lane so shifted there. What a mistake!! This guy was very disorganized and slow. We must have seen 20 parties come and go on either side of us before this person finished with the two parties in front of us and managed to put two cinnamon rolls on paper plates and fill two cups with coffee for us!!
Oh well!! We're in the vicinity of the Mermaid ride so do that (15 minute wait time at this point). We head to Big Thunder Mountain - wait time is listed as 30 minutes and it was about that amount of time. We now have fast passes for Pirates so go there. After walking through Swiss Family Treehouse,visiting the Tiki Room, and Country Bear Jamboree, it is time for our Pooh fastpass. Walking through Fantasyland is a chore. There are cast members lined up all though the area encouraging walkers to stay to the right. In need to food, we decide to visit Columbia Harbor House. This is insane!! We are placed in line to be placed in line. Somehow I get access to the upstairs without a filled tray in my hand though others report they were not allowed upstairs without a tray and, in fact, when we descend the stairs, there is a rope across the stairway to keep folks out without having a tray with them. Once upstairs, I wander back and forth more than once before spying a couple of women who are leaving.
We have one more fastpass for the day - for the Dwarves ride which means we need to thread our way once more through Fantasyland. The standby for Dwarves is now at 100 minutes!!! The People Mover is now open. There is a cast member standing way out in the walkway with a sign saying the line for the People Mover starts here - something I have never seen before!! We finally make it on and decide we've had enough of the Magic Kingdom for the day!!
I thought about returning to Disney Studios this evening for another look see at the lights but the only dining reservation I could find there was at Brown Derby for 9 this evening. While at lunch, I looked at several options and, ultimately, made a reservation for close to 8 this evening at Jiko.
As we left the Magic Kingdom to head to our bus stop, I noted that the line for the Hollywood Studios bus stop extended through the back/forth loop allotted and stretched back to the beginning of bus stop area!!! Before our bus arrived, a bus for Hollywood Studios finally arrived and that driver must have called for backup as a second bus arrived just moments later. Those two buses filled with almost an equal amount of folks left waiting for a bus to that destination as our bus arrived.
We arrived home to find a card indicating our room had been "serviced" during our absence. I guess that the plumber had arrived. No additional information/instructions were left for us.
After relaxing for a bit and changing our clothes, we head to the bus stop to take a bus to ANIMAL Kingdom this time. Actually, we figured we could transfer at any park as they were all still open but decide a transfer at Animal Kingdom is the best option and this is the first bus that came along. It's a good thing we chose this route. Traffic heading toward Hollywood Studios is very heavy but doesn't interfere with our route though we do seem to get hung up trying to enter the Animal Kingdom bus stop. We move over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge bus stop which is just steps away from where we disembark. A driver who just came on duty and, waiting for a bus assignment strikes up a conversation with us. He tells us he had just been dropped off for this shift by his wife and had to run a ways to be able to clock in on time. He says traffic is horrible with all the folks trying to get to Hollywood Studios to see the Osborne Lights. Already, he said, both the Studios and Epcot parking lots are full and they are now parking cars in the Animal Kingdom parking lot to handle the overflow!! The arrival of our bus ends our conversation and we are quickly at Animal Kingdom Lodge.
We're a bit early for our reservation but check in at the podium and are handed a pager. We head upstairs and check out the lovely holiday decorations and then decide to sit down at Victoria Falls. In my experience, service at this spot is notoriously slow and I am fine just sitting. However, we are approached by a server before our pager goes off so we each order a drink. The drinks have just been set down in front of us, literally, when the pager goes off. Gene stays to settle up the drink bill while I head downstairs to be seated.
Dinner is good. We share Taste of Africa (a mixture of breads and dips) as an appetizer and then each have the filet mignon for dinner. Too full for dessert, we are ready for the trek home.
We figure we can travel to either Downtown Springs or Magic Kingdom to transfer to Old Key West. A Disney Springs bus arrives as we approach the bus stop so we hop on board. I had thought about catching a boat back but we decide to stay at the bus stop. This place is wild!! The bus stop setup is clearly inadequate with multiple bus destinations sharing the same bus slot. One bus pull up to our slot but it's not for us - it's for 8A and we're 8B (or vice versa). That fills and leaves. Another bus pulls into our slot but it's not for us - it's just disembarking passengers and moving on. I'm not sure how long the couple in front of us had been waiting but she was clearly frustrated. The third bus to pull into our slot was for Old Key West. Overall, we only waited about 15 minutes for our bus but it still felt very chaotic.
As we drive along, I see the sign for Old Key West flash by and our driver announces that he needed to apologize as he missed the turnoff for our resort and would need to circle around to come back to it. Obviously, you can't just do a u-turn in a bus so we ended up pulling into Port Orleans and getting turned around to come back to Old Key West. This time, Hospitality House is the first bus stop so we don't need to get off at the top of the hill and walk back to get "home".
Tubby, and to bed.
Plan for the day:
Magic Kingdom with three fastpasses
Before we headed to the bus stop, we went to the desk this morning to inquire about the evening visit we'd had regarding the leak. We wanted to know if we could/could not use our jetted tub. The woman at the desk said there were no notes on file regarding our room, went and checked with someone else (I'm guessing a supervisor) and told us we could continue to use the jetted tub.
Animal Kingdom/Magic Kingdom - they're both kingdoms so what's the difference? We walk outside to the bus stop and there's the bus I think I want so we hop on. As we pull away from the bus stop the driver announces we'll soon be at Animal Kingdom. Animal Kingdom!! I thought I was getting on a Magic Kingdom bus?! Others on the bus are sympathetic with my plight and suggest I take a bus from Animal Kingdom to Magic Kingdom and I figure that's what I'll need to do. The driver overheard and, kindly circled around to the bus stop again to let us off. I apologize to our kind, fellow passengers for delaying their trip. As we step off the bus, the Magic Kingdom bus is pulling into the bus stop right behind the bus we are getting off!!
I knew the Magic Kingdom would be crowded on this day. For one, there had been parties the previous two evenings. Secondly, this was a weekend day. And third, the posted hours for the Magic Kingdom were from 8 in the morning until 1 the following morning.
Gene had wanted to have breakfast out but choices for breakfast in the Magic Kingdom, without a reservation, are limited. We went to Gaston's for cinnamon rolls and coffee. We had initially gotten in line on the right hand side but there were only two parties in the middle lane so shifted there. What a mistake!! This guy was very disorganized and slow. We must have seen 20 parties come and go on either side of us before this person finished with the two parties in front of us and managed to put two cinnamon rolls on paper plates and fill two cups with coffee for us!!
Oh well!! We're in the vicinity of the Mermaid ride so do that (15 minute wait time at this point). We head to Big Thunder Mountain - wait time is listed as 30 minutes and it was about that amount of time. We now have fast passes for Pirates so go there. After walking through Swiss Family Treehouse,visiting the Tiki Room, and Country Bear Jamboree, it is time for our Pooh fastpass. Walking through Fantasyland is a chore. There are cast members lined up all though the area encouraging walkers to stay to the right. In need to food, we decide to visit Columbia Harbor House. This is insane!! We are placed in line to be placed in line. Somehow I get access to the upstairs without a filled tray in my hand though others report they were not allowed upstairs without a tray and, in fact, when we descend the stairs, there is a rope across the stairway to keep folks out without having a tray with them. Once upstairs, I wander back and forth more than once before spying a couple of women who are leaving.
We have one more fastpass for the day - for the Dwarves ride which means we need to thread our way once more through Fantasyland. The standby for Dwarves is now at 100 minutes!!! The People Mover is now open. There is a cast member standing way out in the walkway with a sign saying the line for the People Mover starts here - something I have never seen before!! We finally make it on and decide we've had enough of the Magic Kingdom for the day!!
I thought about returning to Disney Studios this evening for another look see at the lights but the only dining reservation I could find there was at Brown Derby for 9 this evening. While at lunch, I looked at several options and, ultimately, made a reservation for close to 8 this evening at Jiko.
As we left the Magic Kingdom to head to our bus stop, I noted that the line for the Hollywood Studios bus stop extended through the back/forth loop allotted and stretched back to the beginning of bus stop area!!! Before our bus arrived, a bus for Hollywood Studios finally arrived and that driver must have called for backup as a second bus arrived just moments later. Those two buses filled with almost an equal amount of folks left waiting for a bus to that destination as our bus arrived.
We arrived home to find a card indicating our room had been "serviced" during our absence. I guess that the plumber had arrived. No additional information/instructions were left for us.
After relaxing for a bit and changing our clothes, we head to the bus stop to take a bus to ANIMAL Kingdom this time. Actually, we figured we could transfer at any park as they were all still open but decide a transfer at Animal Kingdom is the best option and this is the first bus that came along. It's a good thing we chose this route. Traffic heading toward Hollywood Studios is very heavy but doesn't interfere with our route though we do seem to get hung up trying to enter the Animal Kingdom bus stop. We move over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge bus stop which is just steps away from where we disembark. A driver who just came on duty and, waiting for a bus assignment strikes up a conversation with us. He tells us he had just been dropped off for this shift by his wife and had to run a ways to be able to clock in on time. He says traffic is horrible with all the folks trying to get to Hollywood Studios to see the Osborne Lights. Already, he said, both the Studios and Epcot parking lots are full and they are now parking cars in the Animal Kingdom parking lot to handle the overflow!! The arrival of our bus ends our conversation and we are quickly at Animal Kingdom Lodge.
We're a bit early for our reservation but check in at the podium and are handed a pager. We head upstairs and check out the lovely holiday decorations and then decide to sit down at Victoria Falls. In my experience, service at this spot is notoriously slow and I am fine just sitting. However, we are approached by a server before our pager goes off so we each order a drink. The drinks have just been set down in front of us, literally, when the pager goes off. Gene stays to settle up the drink bill while I head downstairs to be seated.
Dinner is good. We share Taste of Africa (a mixture of breads and dips) as an appetizer and then each have the filet mignon for dinner. Too full for dessert, we are ready for the trek home.
We figure we can travel to either Downtown Springs or Magic Kingdom to transfer to Old Key West. A Disney Springs bus arrives as we approach the bus stop so we hop on board. I had thought about catching a boat back but we decide to stay at the bus stop. This place is wild!! The bus stop setup is clearly inadequate with multiple bus destinations sharing the same bus slot. One bus pull up to our slot but it's not for us - it's for 8A and we're 8B (or vice versa). That fills and leaves. Another bus pulls into our slot but it's not for us - it's just disembarking passengers and moving on. I'm not sure how long the couple in front of us had been waiting but she was clearly frustrated. The third bus to pull into our slot was for Old Key West. Overall, we only waited about 15 minutes for our bus but it still felt very chaotic.
As we drive along, I see the sign for Old Key West flash by and our driver announces that he needed to apologize as he missed the turnoff for our resort and would need to circle around to come back to it. Obviously, you can't just do a u-turn in a bus so we ended up pulling into Port Orleans and getting turned around to come back to Old Key West. This time, Hospitality House is the first bus stop so we don't need to get off at the top of the hill and walk back to get "home".
Tubby, and to bed.