Tink77
01-18-2008, 04:53 PM
I haven't posted anything on this website for a long while. Hope 2008 is finding all of you well! :)
I've been a bit under the weather and work has been crazy since we've gotten back so I haven't had much time to write so . . . I'll be submitting the days/nights of our vacation in separate threads.
Hope you enjoy - hope I don't offend (pretty sure I've been guilty of that in the past) . . .
WDW – Orlando, FL
December 30, 2007 – January 4, 2008
Pop Music Resort
Quick Summary (scoring is between 1 and 10, with 10 being the best score)
*Highlight of the vacation was unexpectedly running into our good friends Ashley and George from Tennessee. We had no idea that they were going to be taking the trip down!
One random turn of the corner, at the perfect time, changed our New Years Eve entirely! It was amazing to be in the Magic Kingdom with our friends on such a special night.
Hotel Rating: 6
Explanation: Rooms were clean and bright. Mousekeeping was GREAT! Noise level was ridiculous! Check-in and Concierge staff was not helpful.
Hotel Food Rating: 4
Explanation: Breakfast, good for a quick bite with quickly prepared hot foods and a wide variety of choices. Dinner, disappointing. Pizza sucked. We didn’t try anything else.
Crowd Rating: 4
Explanation: Too many people at the parks! Yes, during this time we should expect larger than normal crowds but it was paralyzing at some junctions. Also, on this vacation we encountered several completely unruly people. I was astonished as to their actions and attitudes.
Overall Experience: 7
Explanation: We’ve learned three key things while on this trip.
1. We’ll never again go to the Magic Kingdom on New Years Eve.
2. When an abnormal amount of people congregate they become ugly no matter where they are. (I know, call me naive)
3. Value Resorts will be a last choice on future vacations.
We checked into Disney’s Pop Music Resort on December 30, 2007 at about 2p.m. The CM at the check in counter was less than helpful. The only thing she handed us was the diagram that depicted where in the resort our room was. We had to remind her that we needed a parking pass and then inquired where we could get brochures to the parks and where we could purchase annual passes. She directed us to the Concierge desk. The Concierge desk told us that they were unable to sell annual passes at their counters and that we should visit the customer service counter at any one of the parks to assist us and we left with no park brochures. Ok, not much accomplished thus far but whatever . . . we’re at Disney! (Those were my thoughts THEN) We parked and took our belongings to the room. I was happy to see the newly renovated rooms very much to my liking. We had a king size bed that Mousekeeping had left an adorable Mickey made of towels on and everything was clean and smelled fresh! I really liked the light wood with the blue colors and brushed nickel accents. The border was a bit cheesy but hey, it’s all in the spirit of Disney Magic.
We had requested a refrigerator but there wasn’t one in the room. Chris made a quick call to the Front Desk and within 5 minutes we had a fridge in our room and cooling! All was remedied and we were comfortable. (*I need to note here that Mousekeeping was terrific! They were all extremely friendly and the service provided to us in our room was lovely!)
We had planned to go to Epcot that afternoon but I was feeling a bit under the weather so we decided to stay in, get our things put away and take a walk around the resort.
All was put away and we were getting hungry so we took a stroll down to the Food Court for some grub. As we approached the Food Court we saw the bar – this was a nice sight! After receiving our drinks I inquired to the bar tender as to where the smoking area was and he told me that he just instructed people to smoke on their balconies! WHAT? Did I hear him correctly? Shocked we simply walked away. We managed to find the smoking area, enjoyed our cocktail – smoked our cigarettes and went in to retrieve a pizza to take back to the room. One large pepperoni pizza please! ($16.99 + tax) Within 10 minutes our little “ready signal contraption” starting beeping and we were off. We got back to the room, turned on the TV and sat down to eat. After one bite we looked at each other and spit out into napkins the partially raw dough we were chewing on. Yuck! I couldn’t believe it. We were tired and cranky so we decided to eat the pizza from the crust side in and call it a loss. I think we both ended up eating a total of one piece – ½ 2 slices. $16.99 for 2 pieces of pizza was a bit stiff for me but whatever! Tomorrow we were going to spend New Years Eve at the Magic Kingdom!!!!!!!! WOOO HOOO! We needed our rest!
December 31, 2007
The weather: Cloudy and damp
We woke up early as to ensure our attendance at The Magic Kingdom on this special night! We took showers, grabbed some muffins that we brought along and set out for the park. We took the ferry over and that’s when the madness began. As we approached the dock, a man started ramming his stroller into the back of my shoe. I had no idea what he was doing! Chris then pointed out to me that his wife had gotten ahead of him and he was trying to catch up with her. I have no problem with allowing him in front of me to retrieve his wife but seriously, you have to ram into my ankles? Why he couldn’t simply excuse himself boggled my mind. I stepped aside and let him in front of me and took a deep breath. I knew this was going to be a long day.
Once on Main Street we decided to walk away from the crowds and go to Adventure Land. We walked right on to Thunder Mountain and rode the ride. Whew! This was an exhilarating start to the day Smiles in tact, we decided to get a FastPass to Splash Mountain and ride the Train around the park to exit in Toon Town. We got off of the train and headed to see Mickey! Chris bought me a new chef’s apron that I wanted to have autographed so I was very excited! The crowd at the house of The Mouse wasn’t too bad. We were in and out in about 25 minutes. We left Toon Town and decided to venture towards Tomorrow Land. This was a fatal idea! We took the turn just after the race cars and were astonished at the Stand By Line at Space Mountain – the wait was approximately 2 hours and it was only 9:30 a.m. so we decided to get a Fast Pass to the ride (our Splash Mountain FP time had begun) and we were shocked to see our ride time as 6:30P.M. !!!
We then decided to ride the Transit Authority. This was unbelievably crazy! No one knew where the line was and they kept stopping and starting the ride causing massive build ups in the crowd. Some were huddled in tiny corners of the outer railings with their maps out just trying to figure out where they were going next – not realizing there were others behind them that thought they were in line. It’s was mass confusion! Tomorrow Land was packed to its limits. The lines to everything other than The Carousel of Progress were out of control! No Stand By Line was under 2 hours and judging from our FP for Space Mountain we weren’t expecting to ride much of anything.
*The pixie dust was certainly lacking at this point because all we saw was pushing, shoving, glaring eyes, verbal slurs and random acts of immaturity and exhaustion.
We decided to get out of the chaos and do some Main Street shopping. At that time, the shops weren’t too crowded. We walked around, picked up some trinkets and decided to head towards the beginning of Main Street and start from the top and work our way back. Just as we turned the corner I spotted this most familiar couple sitting on a bench! It was our friends George and Ashley! WOOO HOOO! Ashley was looking at her phone (probably texting ) and George was looking down when I approached. “Well look who it is!” We had reservations at Tony’s for lunch so after catching up for a brief moment, they took off to use their FP to Space Mountain and we agreed to meet back at the restaurant for lunch. The staff at Tony’s was accommodating to our addition of 2 for lunch so we were very happy and the forecast of the day seemed much brighter despite the glooming clouds in the sky.
*Turns out they were staying at the same hotel as we were too!!!!
Chris and I kept with our plan of light shopping and met up with George and Ashley for a late lunch at Tony’s. Our server was hilariously wonderful! He was animated and adorable and very prompt with our orders. Everyone but me ordered the Spaghetti and Meatballs. I opted for the Shrimp pasta. We were all stuffed so we decided to walk some of those carbs off by heading to the only ride without a line . . . The Carousel of Progress! After the show we headed to the smoking area just outside Space Mountain. Chris took off for the restroom as the 3 of us kids waited. Within 30 seconds we all started staring up into the sky wondering where in the hell the chirping was coming from. Not sure who noticed first but before long we discovered that just steps away Disney CM’s were distributing paper horns. I’m all for celebrating but it was 4 in the afternoon! We were all astonished! I can’t adequately describe to you the sound of these things going off thousands at once, and every group in the park thought it was adorable to toot their horns in sync. I felt like Alice in Wonderland spiraling down the hole!
Without a thought in the world other than escaping the deafening sound of the paper horns, which by the way, were completely freaking out the hundreds of Sea Gulls that seemed to interpret this as a mating or feeding call, we aimlessly travel through Tomorrow Land and decided that we would see Mickey’s Philharmagic. The line wasn’t too bad so it seemed like a good idea, that was until a group of folks behind us started blowing their horns (again, in sync with each other) loudly in line. I wouldn’t normally complain but it was freakishly loud! Maybe it was b/c we were in a semi-confined area – not sure but it was certainly unpleasant and there was no escaping if we wanted to see the show. A woman standing just behind us kindly asked the CM if he would ask the group to “stop the music” when all hell broke out! The CM requested that they stop the horn blowing and the group didn’t appreciate this woman’s thoughts and made it known! All I could hear was “Cuban-American!!!!” and more horn blowing. They actually went as far as to attempt to blow their horns directly into this woman’s face when Ashley stepped into the right/wrong spot and “got in the way.” Before she knew it, they blew their horns within inches of her face. GROSS!
Anyway, the Philharmagic was great, as always and we walked out.
We girls needed the potty so we headed to the nearest restroom! In line, Ashley had an “experience” with a very irritating woman who apparently thought she was more important or needed to use the facility more than she did. Whatever. Later that evening, Ashley would be the shining STAR in one of bathrooms in Adventure Land by FIXING a toilet all by herself by FLUSHING it!! She’s my hero!
After hours of walking around the park, the crowd seemed to be growing. How could this be? There were already so many people that it was literally uncomfortable in all areas. Our husbands, trying their best to be patient, were growing more tired by the minute. Ashley and I were desperate! We HAD to stay until midnight. Didn’t we?
We decided to grab a quick bite at Peco Bills in Adventureland. It was almost time for Spectro Magic (my FAVORITE parade) and Ashley promised we’d get a good view if we hung out at the restaurant for a while. I’m thinking . . . I sure hope so!
We quickly ate and in a split second Ashley said – “Let’s go!” The four of walked out of Peco Bills and our husbands head directly to the benches to sit. Us girls, acting as if we had the energy of a 5 year old headed up to the parade line. We found the perfect spot (thanks to Ash) Before long, I was in the front row, recording the entire thing (which is exactly what I wanted as I will play it on our LCD when experiencing my “I miss Mickey” moments! ) Ashley was a pro! She took my backpack so I could keep my arms up and provided comedic relief to those surrounding us in the crowd.
Thank you, Ash!!!
We had a great view, even for my 4”11 stature. I got the whole thing on tape, even amidst the sprinkling rain and we made it back to our husbands safe and sound.
It was clear that they were completely exhausted but by this time we were only a few hours away.
To hear us say it, “It’s only 3 hours!” To hear our husbands say it, it was more like “It’s STILL 3 hours. We’ve been here since 8 A.M.!”
We then thought we’d try to make our husbands comfortable while remaining at the park and decided to move closer to the entrance on Main Street. OMG! It was in sane! The CM’s were directing “traffic” through the stores, lined with painting tape, to show patrons the correct path to follow and it was still utter chaos. By that time, young children became unruly because they were obviously exhausted, screaming at the top of their lungs, almost as in sync as the paper horns were earlier in the day and the adults had run amuck!
After about 30 minutes, from Adventureland, we landed just outside the restaurant we had eaten lunch at earlier.
Before long, Ashley and I took a long look at our desperate husbands and decided to take them back to the hotel and relieve all of our pains!
We alert the husbands of our new plans – we’ll leave the park and go back to our hotel and meet at the bar and ring New Years in together at midnight.
The look on Chris’s face upon hearing the news was almost indescribable! I could see that in his mind he whispered, “Oh God, thank you.” It didn’t seem that George felt much different! LOL
We left the park on the ferry. Chris and George sat on the bench on the first level while Ash and I walked up the stairs and stood along the railing of the 2nd floor balcony and took in the view of the gloriously lit up castle as we left the Magic Kingdom. There wasn’t ANYONE around! It was lovely!
So we meet back at the hotel bar, found our smoking area. There were 4 chairs and no one was around! We all got comfortable and began chatting. We laughed like fools and before long two hours had passed and we saw fireworks going off! None of us realized how much time had past and we had a perfect view!!! It was midnight on New Years Eve! We were with our dear friends! It wasn’t crowded!
*This was my favorite moment on our 07 NYE vacation!
Day 2 to follow -
I've been a bit under the weather and work has been crazy since we've gotten back so I haven't had much time to write so . . . I'll be submitting the days/nights of our vacation in separate threads.
Hope you enjoy - hope I don't offend (pretty sure I've been guilty of that in the past) . . .
WDW – Orlando, FL
December 30, 2007 – January 4, 2008
Pop Music Resort
Quick Summary (scoring is between 1 and 10, with 10 being the best score)
*Highlight of the vacation was unexpectedly running into our good friends Ashley and George from Tennessee. We had no idea that they were going to be taking the trip down!
One random turn of the corner, at the perfect time, changed our New Years Eve entirely! It was amazing to be in the Magic Kingdom with our friends on such a special night.
Hotel Rating: 6
Explanation: Rooms were clean and bright. Mousekeeping was GREAT! Noise level was ridiculous! Check-in and Concierge staff was not helpful.
Hotel Food Rating: 4
Explanation: Breakfast, good for a quick bite with quickly prepared hot foods and a wide variety of choices. Dinner, disappointing. Pizza sucked. We didn’t try anything else.
Crowd Rating: 4
Explanation: Too many people at the parks! Yes, during this time we should expect larger than normal crowds but it was paralyzing at some junctions. Also, on this vacation we encountered several completely unruly people. I was astonished as to their actions and attitudes.
Overall Experience: 7
Explanation: We’ve learned three key things while on this trip.
1. We’ll never again go to the Magic Kingdom on New Years Eve.
2. When an abnormal amount of people congregate they become ugly no matter where they are. (I know, call me naive)
3. Value Resorts will be a last choice on future vacations.
We checked into Disney’s Pop Music Resort on December 30, 2007 at about 2p.m. The CM at the check in counter was less than helpful. The only thing she handed us was the diagram that depicted where in the resort our room was. We had to remind her that we needed a parking pass and then inquired where we could get brochures to the parks and where we could purchase annual passes. She directed us to the Concierge desk. The Concierge desk told us that they were unable to sell annual passes at their counters and that we should visit the customer service counter at any one of the parks to assist us and we left with no park brochures. Ok, not much accomplished thus far but whatever . . . we’re at Disney! (Those were my thoughts THEN) We parked and took our belongings to the room. I was happy to see the newly renovated rooms very much to my liking. We had a king size bed that Mousekeeping had left an adorable Mickey made of towels on and everything was clean and smelled fresh! I really liked the light wood with the blue colors and brushed nickel accents. The border was a bit cheesy but hey, it’s all in the spirit of Disney Magic.
We had requested a refrigerator but there wasn’t one in the room. Chris made a quick call to the Front Desk and within 5 minutes we had a fridge in our room and cooling! All was remedied and we were comfortable. (*I need to note here that Mousekeeping was terrific! They were all extremely friendly and the service provided to us in our room was lovely!)
We had planned to go to Epcot that afternoon but I was feeling a bit under the weather so we decided to stay in, get our things put away and take a walk around the resort.
All was put away and we were getting hungry so we took a stroll down to the Food Court for some grub. As we approached the Food Court we saw the bar – this was a nice sight! After receiving our drinks I inquired to the bar tender as to where the smoking area was and he told me that he just instructed people to smoke on their balconies! WHAT? Did I hear him correctly? Shocked we simply walked away. We managed to find the smoking area, enjoyed our cocktail – smoked our cigarettes and went in to retrieve a pizza to take back to the room. One large pepperoni pizza please! ($16.99 + tax) Within 10 minutes our little “ready signal contraption” starting beeping and we were off. We got back to the room, turned on the TV and sat down to eat. After one bite we looked at each other and spit out into napkins the partially raw dough we were chewing on. Yuck! I couldn’t believe it. We were tired and cranky so we decided to eat the pizza from the crust side in and call it a loss. I think we both ended up eating a total of one piece – ½ 2 slices. $16.99 for 2 pieces of pizza was a bit stiff for me but whatever! Tomorrow we were going to spend New Years Eve at the Magic Kingdom!!!!!!!! WOOO HOOO! We needed our rest!
December 31, 2007
The weather: Cloudy and damp
We woke up early as to ensure our attendance at The Magic Kingdom on this special night! We took showers, grabbed some muffins that we brought along and set out for the park. We took the ferry over and that’s when the madness began. As we approached the dock, a man started ramming his stroller into the back of my shoe. I had no idea what he was doing! Chris then pointed out to me that his wife had gotten ahead of him and he was trying to catch up with her. I have no problem with allowing him in front of me to retrieve his wife but seriously, you have to ram into my ankles? Why he couldn’t simply excuse himself boggled my mind. I stepped aside and let him in front of me and took a deep breath. I knew this was going to be a long day.
Once on Main Street we decided to walk away from the crowds and go to Adventure Land. We walked right on to Thunder Mountain and rode the ride. Whew! This was an exhilarating start to the day Smiles in tact, we decided to get a FastPass to Splash Mountain and ride the Train around the park to exit in Toon Town. We got off of the train and headed to see Mickey! Chris bought me a new chef’s apron that I wanted to have autographed so I was very excited! The crowd at the house of The Mouse wasn’t too bad. We were in and out in about 25 minutes. We left Toon Town and decided to venture towards Tomorrow Land. This was a fatal idea! We took the turn just after the race cars and were astonished at the Stand By Line at Space Mountain – the wait was approximately 2 hours and it was only 9:30 a.m. so we decided to get a Fast Pass to the ride (our Splash Mountain FP time had begun) and we were shocked to see our ride time as 6:30P.M. !!!
We then decided to ride the Transit Authority. This was unbelievably crazy! No one knew where the line was and they kept stopping and starting the ride causing massive build ups in the crowd. Some were huddled in tiny corners of the outer railings with their maps out just trying to figure out where they were going next – not realizing there were others behind them that thought they were in line. It’s was mass confusion! Tomorrow Land was packed to its limits. The lines to everything other than The Carousel of Progress were out of control! No Stand By Line was under 2 hours and judging from our FP for Space Mountain we weren’t expecting to ride much of anything.
*The pixie dust was certainly lacking at this point because all we saw was pushing, shoving, glaring eyes, verbal slurs and random acts of immaturity and exhaustion.
We decided to get out of the chaos and do some Main Street shopping. At that time, the shops weren’t too crowded. We walked around, picked up some trinkets and decided to head towards the beginning of Main Street and start from the top and work our way back. Just as we turned the corner I spotted this most familiar couple sitting on a bench! It was our friends George and Ashley! WOOO HOOO! Ashley was looking at her phone (probably texting ) and George was looking down when I approached. “Well look who it is!” We had reservations at Tony’s for lunch so after catching up for a brief moment, they took off to use their FP to Space Mountain and we agreed to meet back at the restaurant for lunch. The staff at Tony’s was accommodating to our addition of 2 for lunch so we were very happy and the forecast of the day seemed much brighter despite the glooming clouds in the sky.
*Turns out they were staying at the same hotel as we were too!!!!
Chris and I kept with our plan of light shopping and met up with George and Ashley for a late lunch at Tony’s. Our server was hilariously wonderful! He was animated and adorable and very prompt with our orders. Everyone but me ordered the Spaghetti and Meatballs. I opted for the Shrimp pasta. We were all stuffed so we decided to walk some of those carbs off by heading to the only ride without a line . . . The Carousel of Progress! After the show we headed to the smoking area just outside Space Mountain. Chris took off for the restroom as the 3 of us kids waited. Within 30 seconds we all started staring up into the sky wondering where in the hell the chirping was coming from. Not sure who noticed first but before long we discovered that just steps away Disney CM’s were distributing paper horns. I’m all for celebrating but it was 4 in the afternoon! We were all astonished! I can’t adequately describe to you the sound of these things going off thousands at once, and every group in the park thought it was adorable to toot their horns in sync. I felt like Alice in Wonderland spiraling down the hole!
Without a thought in the world other than escaping the deafening sound of the paper horns, which by the way, were completely freaking out the hundreds of Sea Gulls that seemed to interpret this as a mating or feeding call, we aimlessly travel through Tomorrow Land and decided that we would see Mickey’s Philharmagic. The line wasn’t too bad so it seemed like a good idea, that was until a group of folks behind us started blowing their horns (again, in sync with each other) loudly in line. I wouldn’t normally complain but it was freakishly loud! Maybe it was b/c we were in a semi-confined area – not sure but it was certainly unpleasant and there was no escaping if we wanted to see the show. A woman standing just behind us kindly asked the CM if he would ask the group to “stop the music” when all hell broke out! The CM requested that they stop the horn blowing and the group didn’t appreciate this woman’s thoughts and made it known! All I could hear was “Cuban-American!!!!” and more horn blowing. They actually went as far as to attempt to blow their horns directly into this woman’s face when Ashley stepped into the right/wrong spot and “got in the way.” Before she knew it, they blew their horns within inches of her face. GROSS!
Anyway, the Philharmagic was great, as always and we walked out.
We girls needed the potty so we headed to the nearest restroom! In line, Ashley had an “experience” with a very irritating woman who apparently thought she was more important or needed to use the facility more than she did. Whatever. Later that evening, Ashley would be the shining STAR in one of bathrooms in Adventure Land by FIXING a toilet all by herself by FLUSHING it!! She’s my hero!
After hours of walking around the park, the crowd seemed to be growing. How could this be? There were already so many people that it was literally uncomfortable in all areas. Our husbands, trying their best to be patient, were growing more tired by the minute. Ashley and I were desperate! We HAD to stay until midnight. Didn’t we?
We decided to grab a quick bite at Peco Bills in Adventureland. It was almost time for Spectro Magic (my FAVORITE parade) and Ashley promised we’d get a good view if we hung out at the restaurant for a while. I’m thinking . . . I sure hope so!
We quickly ate and in a split second Ashley said – “Let’s go!” The four of walked out of Peco Bills and our husbands head directly to the benches to sit. Us girls, acting as if we had the energy of a 5 year old headed up to the parade line. We found the perfect spot (thanks to Ash) Before long, I was in the front row, recording the entire thing (which is exactly what I wanted as I will play it on our LCD when experiencing my “I miss Mickey” moments! ) Ashley was a pro! She took my backpack so I could keep my arms up and provided comedic relief to those surrounding us in the crowd.
Thank you, Ash!!!
We had a great view, even for my 4”11 stature. I got the whole thing on tape, even amidst the sprinkling rain and we made it back to our husbands safe and sound.
It was clear that they were completely exhausted but by this time we were only a few hours away.
To hear us say it, “It’s only 3 hours!” To hear our husbands say it, it was more like “It’s STILL 3 hours. We’ve been here since 8 A.M.!”
We then thought we’d try to make our husbands comfortable while remaining at the park and decided to move closer to the entrance on Main Street. OMG! It was in sane! The CM’s were directing “traffic” through the stores, lined with painting tape, to show patrons the correct path to follow and it was still utter chaos. By that time, young children became unruly because they were obviously exhausted, screaming at the top of their lungs, almost as in sync as the paper horns were earlier in the day and the adults had run amuck!
After about 30 minutes, from Adventureland, we landed just outside the restaurant we had eaten lunch at earlier.
Before long, Ashley and I took a long look at our desperate husbands and decided to take them back to the hotel and relieve all of our pains!
We alert the husbands of our new plans – we’ll leave the park and go back to our hotel and meet at the bar and ring New Years in together at midnight.
The look on Chris’s face upon hearing the news was almost indescribable! I could see that in his mind he whispered, “Oh God, thank you.” It didn’t seem that George felt much different! LOL
We left the park on the ferry. Chris and George sat on the bench on the first level while Ash and I walked up the stairs and stood along the railing of the 2nd floor balcony and took in the view of the gloriously lit up castle as we left the Magic Kingdom. There wasn’t ANYONE around! It was lovely!
So we meet back at the hotel bar, found our smoking area. There were 4 chairs and no one was around! We all got comfortable and began chatting. We laughed like fools and before long two hours had passed and we saw fireworks going off! None of us realized how much time had past and we had a perfect view!!! It was midnight on New Years Eve! We were with our dear friends! It wasn’t crowded!
*This was my favorite moment on our 07 NYE vacation!
Day 2 to follow -