50 During 60 – (pseudo) Live Trip Report Day 1
Well, the day finally got here…Travel day and Magic Kingdom.
BEWARE LONG WINDED RANT AHEAD!!!!!
But…Let’s take a step back to yesterday…Monday, January 17th. Most of the East Coast was hit by a winter storm Sunday afternoon into early Monday. My tension level escalated to about 125%, concerned with how much snow was coming and how it would affect travel down to the Baltimore area to stay in an airport hotel and leave my vehicle for the week. Luckily for me, the storm dumped about 4 inches before changing to rain and wiping the majority of it out before morning. Much less to deal with to clear my driveway to get out, but now it was a slushy mess. Not the best for my snowblower. After about two hours of start and stop snowblowing, I got enough off to spread salt and get the worst of it cleaned off. By 2pm I was off, on my way to the hotel for the night. Very little traffic and I was checked in by 3:30pm. Good start! Add to that, my friend in Columbia contacted me and we got together for the evening. First time I saw her and her children in about 2 years. I went back to the hotel and slept happy.
Alarm went off at 4am and I was up almost immediately. Good omen, but started a long day. Shuttle to the airport was right on time and I shared it with two Southwest pilots. One headed to Ft. Lauderdale and the other would be my pilot to Orlando. We had a nice chat on the way over to the airport. It was a quick check-in and I was at the gate with an hour to waste/wait. No problem.
Flight was on time and smooth. Baggage claim for Southwest is in Terminal A, but Mears has taken over the old DME station in Terminal B, so I had to pick up my luggage and haul it through the airport to get between the terminals. Still, not that big of a deal, but with less than 5 hours of sleep it was a haul. LOL
Since I got the ‘standard’ Mears Shuttle service, there were stops before getting to All Star Movies. Coronado Springs, Animal Kingdom Lodge, then on to All Star Music and finally All Star Movies. Still, it was only about 40 minutes until I was off the bus. Checked my phone and, just as I got off the bus, got a message that my room was ready. Cool!!! Took my bags up to the room – 3908 in the Mighty Ducks section, overlooking “The Duck Pond” pool. It was a bit chilly for most of the day, so not much action in the pool today.
Decided to take a walk around, get my refillable mug – Did you know there are two styles? One that is centered on the MK area and one the covers all the parks and resorts. I got the MK centered version since that is what we are actually celebrating. Took the mug (after filling it up and drinking it on the way back) to the room and decided to leave my wallet in the room as I carry ‘business card’ wallets with one credit card, my old AP card and a couple other ‘necessities.’ A quick (15 minute) bus ride over to MK and I’m ready to get the party started. It is now a little after 11am.
THIS is where the wheels fell off…at least for today. I hope it gets better, quickly!!!
I needed to activate my banked AP voucher, so had to go to Customer Service to get it done. The line was ridiculously long and they had 6 windows open to try to cover it all. Still, it took the best part of an hour before I could talk to someone. I showed them my MDE account showing the AP Voucher attached to my account, so they asked for my MagicBand and my ID. Can you guess what happened next? I looked in my ‘business card’ wallet and realized that I did not put my license in there. We went back and forth, trying to make something work, for a few minutes before I gave up and went back to the room to get my license. My frustration is starting to rise, but in this case it was my own fault.
Another quick ride back to MK and I’m ready to get this done! Or so I thought. Back at Customer Service, I talk with a pleasant young woman named Lulu. She was so ready to help me, got my information, and….Disaster strikes! It seems that, without notifying me, Disney decided that my AP voucher could not be redeemed for a Platinum Annual Pass, which it was purchased for in June of 2019 and immediately attached to my MDE account. My MDE account shows it there with a ‘first use’ deadline of 12/31/2030.
Now what? My frustration, now at Disney, is starting to come out – for which I apologized to Lulu more than once. Her only option for me was to use the purchase value of the voucher towards the current cost of an AP. Now, to me this is a HUGE ripoff! As soon as Disney announced the ‘new’ Annual Pass program, I called to check how this would affect my voucher and was assured that it would be good, with all the original PAP benefits included. NOPE! Disney doesn’t care. Lulu took pity (?) on me and added the PhotoPass package to the new AP at no cost, but I had to pay the difference between the voucher value. So, $522 later, I can FINALLY enter MK.
Isn’t this supposed to be a ‘slow’ season? Now, I don’t visit in ‘peak’ times, but it was busy today. NOTHING had less than a 60 minute wait. The PeopleMover had a 2 hour+ queue, and just as I walked past, it went down. Haunted Mansion 75 minutes, Pirates 90 minutes, Buzz Lightyear was ‘quick’ at 60 minutes. I DID time PhilharMagic perfectly, though and walked right in as the doors were being opened for a new showing. With the addition of the Coco scene, I think they cleaned up the entire video and soundtrack and ‘fixed’ most of the effects. That said, the theater was PACKED! There weren’t 20 seats open in the entire theater. I’ve NEVER seen that before. Walked the park and was hoping something would calm down, but to no avail. Went behind the Barnstormer to see what kind of progress was going on with Tron, but it looks a long way from even being in a testing stage. Took some picks from that side/angle because I don’t think I’d seen anyone show that angle before. (Will post on my facebook page soon – Bud Luskus [for those who don’t know my ‘full’ name])
The frustration and lack of sleep took its toll on me and I decided to give it up for today, head back to the room, get a bite to eat and turn in early. (To Be Determined! LOL)
Tomorrow: DHS in the morning – Hope to get up early enough to get the ‘extra’ early 30 minute entry ‘gift’ from Disney for staying in one of their resorts.
Evening is planned as a few hours in AK after 2pm.
It HAS to get better, right? We shall see….Stay tuned….
