Who:
Wife and mom and daughter-in-law and writer of this trip report, Amanda, 40
Husband and step-dad and son, Joe, 36
Son, step-son and step-grandson, Miles, 8
Mom and step-grandmom and mother-in-law, Dee, 71
When:
Friday, July 27 – Sunday, August 5, 2007
Where:
Rental house in Clermont off Hwy 27
Day One
Friday, July 27
Joe and I have been going to Disney the past couple of years, just us, no kids, no parents, no grandparents, etc., first on dates and then to get engaged, and finally to celebrate our first wedding anniversary last May. After a long three years away from the parks, my wonderful son Miles is finally going back to Disney World, for our first big family vacation together! We decided nothing less than a full 10 day trip would do, as Miles hasn’t been since he was 5, and I wanted him to see and do it all. Early on in the planning, Joe was feeling just as bad that his mom hadn’t been invited along for the past years on our trips as I was about Miles not getting to go, so it seemed only fair that we pile everyone on and make it an extended family thing.
Joe’s mom Dee has not been the easiest new mother-in-law. She was frightened and upset at first that Joe was marrying someone who was divorced, unsure about her new relationship to my son, and sad that she now has to realize Joe really means it when he says he’s not having children of his own. We’ve been through what’s been a sometimes rocky year’s worth of major holidays together, and now the thought of doing a precious Disney vacation together seemed like potential disaster to me. I wasn’t sure going into it if this trip was going to be too difficult to enjoy, or if it would be barely tolerable. My expectations weren’t much over that. What actually ended up happening was a healthy bonding and growth experience for us all, for which I am really thankful. I think this trip was exactly what we needed to start creating new shared memories and experiences. Anyone who has been through the experience of building a new step-family, and dealing with new step-grandparents, I know you know where I’m coming from!
Joe and I worked together for many months ahead of time to plan for issues we thought might arise. We knew that Dee would want to do things she enjoys that were not going to be ideal vacation activities for Miles, like a lot of shopping, going out for drinks at various favorite resorts, and going to Catholic mass on Sunday mornings. We also knew that she would prefer for Joe to be with her at all times, and that Miles and I would feel hurt if Joe wasn’t able to tour with us at least half the time or a good part of each day, so there was some careful thinking to be done on how to handle Joe’s popularity. Also, Joe refuses to get up before noon on vacation or weekends unless absolutely necessary, so we had to talk that one through. Visiting Disney in the height of the summer, staying off site, if I was going to get Miles onto everything he wanted to see and do, I was going to have to be at the gates for park opening at least three or four times during the week.
We decided quickly that a rental house off property, with lots of bedrooms and space, and a two rental cars were a must. The second rental car was a life saver. Dee went to mass on Sundays (she loves Mary Queen of the Universe in Orlando), and most importantly, it freed me to get up early in the morning and go to park openings while Mr. Night Owl snoozed away every day until noon. I got him up for park opening once, for the Magic Kingdom on our first day – he promised he’d do that one with me - and we almost got to Typhoon Lagoon for opening on Friday, but I digress.
I bought and used the Tour Guide Mike service for this trip, and found it helpful. Since we were off-site, we never went to any park that had Extra Magic Hours that day, as suggested. Between getting to the parks early when possible, using FastPass, and Tour Guide Mike’s best park day advice, I feel like we got to do just about everything we wanted to, and the crowds and waits were far less than I had anticipated for a high summer vacation period. The only thing we got aced out of were the water parks, but that was because I tried to go in the late morning instead of at opening or in the late afternoon as suggested.
Well, enough planning, let’s go!
Joe and I have been flying into Orlando after work the past couple of years, for our trips, because Joe wants to wake up there and not waste a day traveling. But it means we never get in until midnight, and I didn’t think that would be a good idea with Miles. I talked him into flying in the middle of the day, instead, this time, and it was really nice to not feel so rushed, trying to race to the airport after work, and being tired all the next day because we didn’t get to sleep until 2 a.m.
We live in Harford County, MD, close to Joe’s job, and Dee lives an hour up the road in Wilmington, DE. We decided to fly out of Philadelphia instead of Baltimore, so Joe could cut Dee’s grass right before we left, and to save Dee the drive to and from our place. We got up around 8:30 a.m. and, having been totally packed the night before, needed only to stop at McDonald’s for breakfast and coffee for the drive up to Wilmington, and we were on our way! We got to Dee’s a little before 10:00 a.m. and had plenty of time to do our chores at her place before leaving for the 1:30 p.m. flight.
Joe hates checking bags and waiting for them upon arrival, so he had talked Dee into only packing one roll on bag, which she didn’t find comfortable at all, I think. Joe had his usual one roller bag, too, but this time I broke form and had stuff to check. Because I had my own rental car, it wasn’t going to hold them up if I had to wait at baggage claim, and I had packed a giant duffel bag full of full size new toiletries and other goodies that you can’t bring on, like scissors and nail clippers, that I planned on leaving in my new OwnersLocker.com storage locker in Orlando.
It’s a new service where you pay a fee for a 22” x 20” x 13” heavy duty purple plastic storage bin to be held in a climate controlled facility for you between trips to Orlando, then delivered and picked up to the resort of your choice. It’s brand new company, and because they are just taking their first clients and I was willing to take a chance with them, the owner offered to bring and pick up from our rental house this one time, something they can’t normally do. They are trying right now to secure a self service pick up and drop off point for people to visit, if they are cruising, staying with relatives, staying in a rental house, etc., hopefully they will have that going in the next month or two. I’ve been really really happy with their service so far! Joe and I are going back this year, and I can’t wait to have all that stuff waiting for me when we check in to our resort. You just pick up and drop off the locker at your bell services desk. Again, that’s www.ownerslocker.com.
Here’s what’s in our locker now:
Mickey rain ponchos
Joe's rain pants and rain shorts
Amanda’s crocs with their Disney jibbits J
WDW fanny pack
Camelbak hydration pack
Beach towels
Pal Mickey and his little outfits and a caribeener to clip him to my pack
Personal mini fan on a string
AA Batteries
Nice scented candle & lighter
Scissors
Paper bowls, paper plates, plastic spoons, forks & knives
Cereal
Tupperware for leftovers
Coffee & coffee filters
Ziplocks in gallon, quart, and snack sizes
Spices for making spaghetti sauce when we stay somewhere with a kitchen
Wet wipes
Purell
Blister pads
Ear dry drops
Bodyglide antifriction stick (LOVE THIS STUFF)
Sunscreen for face and body
Antiperspirant
Massage oil
Bath pillow
Sugar scrub
Diamancel foot callous buffer (best pedicure product in the universe!)
Nail clippers
Moisturizer
Shampoo & conditioner
Ibuprofen
Rolaids
Tagamet
Sudafed
The Philadelphia airport is awful. The runways are too short, they have horrid delays because it’s laid out improperly and has more traffic than it can handle, it’s been under construction/renovation since I moved here and I’m sure long before then, the parking fees are higher than BWI by quite a lot ($17 versus $9 for the long term garage per day), it’s inconvenient to walk around in, ugly, and dirty. Today the power wasn’t working properly in our concourse, and it was hotter than hell in half of the waiting areas, the credit card machines didn’t work in any of the stores because their internet service was out, and the TSA attendant I went through was actively, aggressively, shaming and harassing passengers she felt she could bully. I am never flying out of there again, I’d rather go pick Dee up and bring her down to BWI than drive ten minutes from her house to fly out of Philly.
We got there too early, really, and had to wait around for an hour and a half before our plane left. Ate some nasty Burger King that people were in line for, shortly after we got ours, for up to half an hour (I’d rather starve), served by slow moving sullen employees amidst a whirlpool of spilled ketchup sticky counters exploded straw dispensers and empty napkin holders. We had to be there that early, however, because of our Southwest “A” and “B” boarding pass issues, which is mostly my husband’s thing.
Joe has to have a window seat when he flies. And he has to fly Southwest. Yes, I know, there are other options, but if you’re a man or you know one, you can’t tell me you/they don’t have your own weird “have to’s” that if you/they don’t get what you want, you/they freak out. I don’t know if it’s testosterone related, but it seems to be a universal man thing, the Grown-Man Freak-Out (GMFO). I’ll be nice and not call it a temper tantrum. Though that’s what my step-mother calls my father’s outbursts.
28 hours before our flight, Joe called me from work and said, don’t forget to check in for our flights so we don’t get aced out of our A boarding passes. 23 hours before our flight, I checked in online at Southwest.com and got… B boarding passes. All the “A” ones were already gone. In order to quell the oncoming GMFO I assured Joe that we could be at the gate up to two hours before our flight, so he could be FIRST in the B line, which he was. And, lo and behold, he got a window seat. I think it’s got to the point with Southwest where if you aren’t sitting at the computer waiting for the first few minutes or even seconds that your flight is available for check in, you don’t get an A anymore, especially not if people are connecting at your airport, because they would have been allowed to check in for both their first leg, and yours, together, sometimes many hours before your window of opportunity opens. I’ve never seen us not get a window as long as we were there in time to get into the first half of the B line, but it still makes Joe so nervous he’s no fun at all for the day before we fly if he doesn’t have that A.
On board, I let Dee sit next to him on one side of the plane and Miles and I took the other, to give Miles a look out the window, too. I should have made him sit in the middle because he barely looked out the window anyways. Instead, he was so excited about the trip, he squirmed and talked constantly the whole way. I think he was quiet for two 90 second pauses. I had brought two things for him to read, a kid’s guide to the parks, and a Star Wars graphic novel, but he couldn’t concentrate on them.
There was very bad turbulence the last twenty minutes, skirting around and through a major thunderstorm cell outside Orlando. Every time we fly here lately, we go through crappy weather and get a rocky ride. Joe and I had a flight last February that he and I both agreed was the most intense turbulence we’d ever experienced. There were a lot of people on the plane who I could tell were scared, though they really have no reason to be, with that particular issue. Applause broke out when we landed.
On the ground, Miles and I said goodbye to Joe and Dee for now, and went straight to the Crocs store in the Orlando aiport mall. After poo-poo’ing the reports of how wonderful Crocs are for touring the parks, I was willing to give them a try, because I’m just sick of my legs and feet hurting no matter what shoes I wear. I bought myself a pair of light lavender Cayman clogs and Miles picked out the same style in bright Kelly green, his favorite color. He wore his right out of the store and insisted they felt great. We paid a little more here than you can find Crocs for on the web, $36.95 I think for mine, not sure if Miles’ were cheaper, but it was worth it to have a salesperson help with sizing for this first purchase. I can tell you, they have absolutely revolutionized my ability to keep going for 12 and 13 hour days, and I LOVE them!!! I can’t believe I didn’t listen to other people and get these two years ago. Miles did have an issue with rubbing on the outside of one foot, probably the way he walks, but a thin pair of socks cleared that up for him, and I didn’t have any problems with rubbing or blisters at all. The key is to buy them a whole size up from your regular shoe size. I’ve since bought two more pairs for wearing to my job here at home, where I’m on my feet a good bit, and I adore them. I get them now at www.shoebuy.com, look for promotional codes first on the internet, there’s always one running, plus for “joining” for the first time as a “member” (i.e. signing up for emails) I got another % off bonus on my first purchase.
With Crocs in hand, we headed for baggage claim. I had a hard time talking Miles out of eating at the Chili’s right by the Crocs store, but I didn’t want our bags to get taken off and put somewhere weird as unclaimed. As long as we took to get down there, our bags still weren’t even on the carousel until a few minutes after we arrived. No wonder it makes Joe so impatient. 20 to 30 minutes seems an unacceptable amount of time to have to wait for your bags, to me, but it’s been so long since I checked anything, maybe I just don’t remember it’s always like that.
We walked over to the Alamo rental car area in the garage right there, and picked out a Jeep Liberty mini suv. For some reason, when I was booking my rental car, Alamo had a special on these mini suv’s where it was cheaper than the mid size sedan I’d normally get. I ended up not liking it much, it handled funny and the a/c controls were hard to figure out. It was comfortable for the times all of us were in it together, though that was only maybe four or five times the whole trip. I had booked this with my Southwest airlines Rapid Rewards number, with a code from Southwest, to get double rewards credit, and it was a good rate.
I was concerned because I have Quick Silver, where you register your driver’s license and other information in advance, with Alamo, and check in online, so you can skip the rental counter, but Southwest’s information on the double credit promotion said I had to go to the rental counter to give them my Rapid Rewards number. But my Rapid Rewards information is part of what I’ve got stored with Alamo via the Quick Silver service, so I took a chance they’d figure it out. I checked when we got home, and sure enough, Alamo had correctly credited my Southwest account with the double credits.
I prepaid for a tank of gas, figuring on a 10 day trip I could easily bring it back empty, and besides, there is NOWHERE anywhere near the airport in Orlando to get gas, making it a real hassle in my book. The prepay price was only $.05 more per gallon than local stores, so I figure it’s worth it, to not have to deal with gassing up on your last day. If you do decide to get gas on the way to the airport, by all means use the Hess stations on Disney property. You’ll see all the taxis and towncar drivers buying their gas there, which is all you need to know to understand the Disney Hess’s have the best prices in the area. They’re clean and have excellent shopettes, too. There’s one outside the Magic Kingdom on World Dr. and another outside the Boardwalk resort on East Buena Vista Dr., both of which we use regularly.
Miles and I were ready to eat dinner, it being around 5:00 p.m now, and I headed for the Cracker Barrel on west 192, which was right on the way to our rental house. There’s a Cracker Barrel right by my condo complex in Maryland, but frankly, the food there isn’t up to standards, and I was hoping that here in the south they would do a better job with southern food. I was correct! Miles got eggs and biscuits and gravy and I got a bunch of vegetables and catfish, and it was excellent. I was surprised that at dinner time the place was almost empty, and our server said the crowds don’t come in until after 7 pm every day. Good to know.
After dinner, we rushed to the rental house, because I was expecting the Owners Locker folks to bring my (empty for now) new locker between 6 and 6:30 pm. One of the owners, Brian, came himself and we got to talk for a few minutes. Very personable and professional guy, I could tell my things were going to be in good hands with their company.
I found our house on www.vrbo.com, a home called Hakuna Matata, located in the Orange Tree subdivision in Clermont. There was a lot of construction going on on Hwy. 27, but once that’s finished, and with the new “Western Way” entrance to Disney off 429 open now, it’s conveniently located. (We didn’t know about the Western Way gate until just a couple of days ago, so used the old Black Lake Rd-Sherberth Rd-Osceola Pkwy to get on and off property this trip, which avoids most of the worst traffic on west 192.) There’s a super Wal Mart just down 27, and a Winn Dixie, and two Publix supermarkets on 192, plus tons of other so
Our house was four bedrooms with a pool, hot tub, and three bathrooms. Joe and I took the master with a king bed and big tub (sadly wasn’t comfortable for two, really, as we found out later). There was a big glass walk in shower, which I liked a lot. Looking at the other rooms, I decided to steer Dee to the one of two queen bedrooms that had its own private bath, not wanting to subject her to Miles’ disgusting bathroom habits. He’s so nasty right now, he’s too old to let anyone help him, and too young not to be gross, getting poop on his fingers still sometimes and wiping on the entire toilet paper roll, forgetting to flush about 60% of the time, etc. I have to patrol him after each use, and I’m really hoping he improves this year, as I’ve about had it with him. Joe said he was pretty gross at that age, too, and that Miles will grow out of it in middle school when he starts caring if girls think he smells like a dirty butt. I use a lot of purell on him, that’s for sure.
Miles was a little disappointed, and so was I, that there was no gaming system like a PS2 to play with, and the “high speed internet” we were supposed to have was so slow it was impossible to play any of his favorite web based games on the computer in our living room. The game room in the garage turned out to be not air conditioned, and it was so hot out there, we never bothered to take out and set up the ping pong table (photos of the house had showed it assembled, by the way, which I didn’t appreciate it not being like that when we arrived) or use the foos ball table. Miles wasn’t too distraught, however, and neither was I, because heck we’re at Disney and we have our own pool! But I won’t be renting again from anyone who has that same management company. I still can't find their name, should have written it down, but I think I'd recognize it if I saw it again. Basically, I think any of the huge management companies are an issue, and I won't be renting off site without delving into who the owners use a little more thoroughly.
I had given Dee and Joe a list of groceries, and they were off buying those and park hoppers for Dee and Miles at Shades of Green. Joe is a Department of Defense civilian employee, so we get good rates on passes. You can buy them at your local MWR office, but the staff here at ours is either clueless or rude or both any time we try to deal with them, so we prefer the efficient and friendly people at Shades of Green. Dee was really looking forward to seeing the resort, too, having never been inside before.
While we waited for them, Miles and I hit our new private pool. Ahh! The water felt awesome. Sadly, even though we’d paid for pool heat, when I turned on the timer for the hot tub, it didn’t warm up much at all after the 20 minutes the brochure in our house said it would take. I figured it just wasn’t set to get hot, for some kind of fear of lawsuits reason. The pool was certainly a comfortable temperature, so it didn’t occur to me that maybe the heat wasn’t on or wasn’t working properly. Come to find out, over the next two days, that the power had gone off, and zeroed out the pool heat timer, probably the afternoon we arrived, from the big storm we’d flown through. Once we figured that out, after another power outage on Sunday, we called the management company and by Monday night I finally had a very hot hot tub available to me. But by then it was raining every day, and the pool heat had been off for so long, that the pool itself never did get up to a warm temperature again until near the end of our trip, which ticked Joe off because we were paying $20 a day for pool heat. I guess I could have called the house owner and tried to finagle some of the money back, but I feel like it was partly my fault for not calling right away on this first evening when the hot tub didn’t heat up right away.
There were some fun pool toys in the garage, and Miles and I had a great time floating around and goofing off for about an hour. At 9:30 p.m. I started to wonder what the hell had happened to Dee and Joe, as I’d expected them to be here around 8:00 p.m. and was wondering if they were lost. They were. Turns out, instead of going to eat at Steak & Shake off the Greeneway like Joe usually does, they’d gone straight to Shades of Green, and then from there to the absolute opposite side of Disney property from our rental house, to the Steak & Shake on South Apopka-Vineland Rd. Then from there, instead of shopping at the stores on Hwy 27 near our rental house, they’d gone on some wild goose chase up through Windermere looking for Tab, Joe’s favorite diet soft drink, and then Joe had decided without a map to look for a “short cut” over to Hwy 27 without having to go north to 50 and then west to Clermont town, or back through Disney property. So of course they ended up doing a big pointless loop that put them right back on west 192, but this time it was park closing time, and they were in a major traffic jam. The upshot was, they did about an hour and a half of extra driving. This kind of dinking around and lack of planning is one reason I was happy to have my own car on this trip, I can’t stand not being efficient and knowing where I’m going. They were no worse for the wear, but I would have been livid if I were stuck in the back of the car with them through all that.
We unpacked groceries, and Dee seemed a bit unsure about her room but finally settled in (hey, it’s free, can’t complain too much!), I got Miles to bed after he had to have a clinking mobile hung up in the vaulted ceiling near an air conditioning vent removed, and finally around 11:30 p.m., Joe and I had the first moments alone together today since we got out of bed this morning. Didn’t last long, because we needed to be up at 7:45 a.m. tomorrow morning for the park opening ceremony at the
Day Two
Saturday, July 28
Today was the one day I got Joe to agree to get up for a park opening. He’d never seen the opening ceremony at the
The night before, Joe’s mom had said “if I’m up when you all are ready to leave, I’ll go with you,” so this morning, when we saw and heard nothing coming from her room for the half hour it took us to get out the door, we assumed she wanted to stay in bed and we’d hook up later. We got about 3 minutes down the road and Joe’s cell phone rings. Why did we leave her, she asks? She wants to go, too! We swung around and got her, and apologized. She couldn’t believe we couldn’t hear her hair dryer and the water running, her tv on in her room, etc., but honestly those doors and walls must have some kind of ultra soundproofing in them, because we had no idea she was up. She said she ran out into the driveway and was waving her arms at us, but we never looked over. I said it must have been kind of funny to be watching that scene from one of the other rentals on our street, family pulls away and here comes grandma waving her arms getting left behind. Oh well, we made it still in plenty of time to the opening ceremony, and I was really glad she decided to come along.
Joe’s got a thing about parking at the Magic Kingdom, he hates that there’s an extra layer of transportation to get there when you drive, but this morning because we were so early we were right up front in the lot in the “Chip and Dale” section, and could just walk to the TTC, and I think Dee enjoyed the monorail ride over to the park.
For the opening ceremony, they will tell everyone to move into the center of the plaza in between the ticket gates and the train station, eventually, so that’s where I led us.
Miles informed me on the way in that he didn’t need to stop for any of the characters in town square, because he’s not “into them” any more. He knows now about them and Santa, sniff sniff, that was a not-great surprise for me this summer. Supposedly... read on, because the Disney magic got to him a few days later and he turned into a big autograph hound.
We were able to skip the character lines forming and march straight on to Miles’ #1 must see attraction, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. In the past, the golden destination would have been Fantasyland, but in talking to Miles planning this trip, it became clear his favorite things in the MK would all be in Tomorrowland now. Except for
We all trooped onto Buzz together, and Miles wanted me to drive. He got in some decent shots, but told me next time not to make our buggy turn so that we were traveling backwards, as he didn’t like that. Our photos unfortunately didn’t come out that great, Miles’ head was partially hidden behind his gun, so we passed on purchasing them.
Joe really wanted to ride
After about twenty minutes of precious park opening time that I could just feel fading away, standing around waiting in the
Now it was
Walking by Cinderella’s Golden Carousel, who should we see posing and getting ready for a spin but Mary Poppins herself!
I let the gang stop and watch while I ran over to Peter Pan for FastPasses. We pulled a
Loading, we made the mistake of telling them we had a party of four, and the guy told us all to get on one bench. None of us are small people, and a couple of us are downright big, and it was really uncomfortable.
We now had two sets of FastPasses for Peter Pan, so around we went twice in a row! Miles didn’t remember this ride at all, and loved it, especially the
We were going to have to choose between Splash and Big Thunder today, I thought, but now with our certificate, we could do both! Dee really wanted to eat at Pecos Bill’s because she remembered liking the topping bar for the burgers there, but Miles had his heart set on Cosmic Ray’s, so we decided to split up for lunch. I gave Joe Miles’ and my tickets, and asked him to pull FP’s for either Thunder or Splash, depending on their return times. I said I’d meet them in front of the Splash gift shop at
It was a quick walk over to Cosmic Ray’s, where Miles and I took a potty and hand-washing break and then went in. I got a slab of bbq ribs and mashed potatoes and Miles had chicken strips and fries. There was no one in line for food at
After a leisurely and peaceful meal, we walked back through the hub towards
He had FastPasses for Big Thunder that were good in ten minutes, so we stood around waiting to get in line, until we saw the cm letting people in a couple minutes early, so we approached and she waved us through. Even with FastPass, there’s a huge amount of queue to walk through inside the ride, and we waited about ten minutes at the end before boarding. Joe was happy because he scored the last train car, which whips you around the most.
Miles didn’t like this very much, the fact that I’m so big and he’s small made the lap bar not come all the way down onto his lap and he was worried he was going to fly out of the car. There was no way he was actually going anywhere, but he said he didn’t like coming up out of his seat and didn’t want to go on it again.
Miles was being very brave and agreed to try Splash this trip. He’s ridden both Splash and BTMMR in the past, but had said he liked BTMMR but was too scared to do Splash again. Then over this summer, talking about the trip, he’d announced he was big enough to do Splash. He did a couple seconds worth of balking at the entrance, but I just ignored him and we presented our certificate to the FastPass line front cast member and on we went.
I’m glad we were doing this last this morning, in case everyone got wet. Miles for some crazy reason said he wanted the very front of the log, but we thankfully got the back instead, because the front got soaked and he had said he didn’t want to get soaked. Dee and Joe somehow got in a separate log from us, I guess they told the cast member they were a party of two, but that was fine, we weren’t buying the photo anyways. Miles loved the ride, except for the big hill at the end, where again he was disturbed by his butt coming up off the seat a little. He says he won’t do it again, but I’m sure if we are blessed enough to go to Disney World again next year, or certainly by the time he’s 10 in 2009, he’ll change his mind and do it.
I had said, when talking Joe into doing this early morning today, that I promised we’d be done with all the above rides on my trip plan (except we got in two extra because of the FP/certificate situation!) and leaving the park by
They started out the day laughing and calling me a trip Nazi, but now
Joe had suddenly announced while waiting for the train in Frontierland that he wanted me to drop him off at Downtown Disney, instead of coming back to the house with us for our swim & dinner & rest break, before coming back to the MK tonight for Wishes. Turns out he was just too hot to see the new Harry Potter movie and couldn’t wait! Miles is scared of Harry Potter movies, they’re too dark and too violent for his taste, and
On the way, we noticed Typhoon Lagoon and
I asked Miles to please go into his room & stay there and watch t.v. quietly for an hour, and had to assure him he wasn’t punished, we all just needed some peace and some rest. I stripped off my sweaty clothes and lay down on the bed, put the ceiling fan on, and channel surfed for an hour, then sprung Miles from his room. We swam for about an hour,
He really enjoys taking Disney boats around property, so he’d asked up to come get him at the Port Orleans Riverside resort lobby.
We decided to park at the Polynesian so that
We took the boat launch over to the
We got a ton more accomplished here tonight: Laugh Floor which Miles adored, Tomorrowland Transit Authority, Carousel of Progress, Dole Whips in Adventureland, Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the
I did have to take Miles aside after Wishes and explain to him, before his whining got out hand, that we would NOT be swimming again tonight when we got home. When I reminded him that tomorrow was the day to go the Studios and see Star Tours, and the Indiana Jones Adventure show, and Lights, Motors, Action, and eat at Sci Fi Dine-In, and he didn’t want to be late or tired for any of that, now did he?, that shaped him right up. Aside from Buzz Lightyear, all these things tomorrow at the Studios were what he was looking forward to the most.
A second showing of the Spectromagic parade was coming at
We had some leftover pizza back at the house and by
We all bought stuff today. Miles had $100 in saved up allowance to spend, and though we tried to warn him not to blow it all at once, he spent a third of it today, on a Buzz Lighyear light up nerf dart blaster with sound at the Buzz ride, a stuffed Stitch glitter beanie at the Poly, and a pirate gun at the Pirates of the Caribbean gift shop. I restrained myself, though I did egg Joe on to purchase two lovely water color views of the Polynesian resort.
Sunday, July 29
So, everyone is supposed to sleep in today, but I woke up at
We got to the Studios around
Upon entering, Miles said his Crocs were rubbing his feet at the top right side; he kept stopping to try to adjust it or touch it. I looked and couldn’t see a blister yet, but it was getting pink there. We went into the first gift shop on the left, as they did have socks and Disney Crocs hanging up, and tried to pick out a pair of socks. They seemed have nothing at all for boys, and I ended up getting him a pair of small women’s ankle socks that weren’t too girlie, featuring Mickey, for some exorbitant price. I must have looked just too frazzled, I know I was sweating like mad already from our walk from the parking lot, and neither of us had enough sleep, because a cast member zeroed in on me and just refused to leave me until she made sure we had socks and were happy again. Sweet college program kid, she was great with me and Miles.
Miles saw she had pins and wailed about the fact that I had forgotten to pack his trader lanyard that we’d so carefully put together in anticipation of the trip. I felt really bad about that one, but thought maybe he wouldn’t care, but he did. The cast member pulled open a little drawer in the desk and gave him two pins; I think they were from one of the current multi trader starter sets for sale. Miles was thrilled, and ended up trading four or five more times today with these as starter stock.
The interaction with this cast member did magic to improve our moods. We walked in cranky and sweaty and in pain and then stressing out about not finding socks, and walked out comfortable, cooled off, entertained and made to feel special.
We headed straight for Star Tours, which Miles was very excited to see. He was thrilled with the At-At and we got a photo of him “touching an At-At” which he thought was wonderful. He was all big eyes in the queue and thought the pre-show movie with the ewok was hilarious. This ride was more intense than I remember! Miles was concerned that his seatbelt be securely fastened, but once he felt it tight across his lap he relaxed and had a ball.
The check out clerk kept yelling out Star Wars trivia questions, and was in full costume. A man about my age, he was clearly a big Star Wars fan who’d landed a dream job here, and he was having an awesome time playing with all the little kids in there who love Star Wars as much as he does. His question, “What is the largest predatorial animal native to Tatooine?” went unanswered.
As we were ringing up Miles’ stuff, and sending most of it up front for package pickup later tonight (I wasn’t carrying the light saber all day), Miles said he knew a lot about Star Wars. Oh yeah? The gauntlet was thrown. The cast member declared “I am the Sith Lord of Star Wars trivia; I am here to destroy young Jedi just such as you.”
Not to be outwitted, Miles said, let me ask *you* a question. OK, said the cm. “How many times in Star Wars does Yoda pop up?” “You mean how many appearances does he make in all the movies, total?” “Yeah.” So the cm falls into silence, ringing up our stuff, running my credit card, filling out the package pickup slip. “Do you give up?” Miles asks. “I’m counting,” replies the cm. After maybe two minutes, he hands me stuff to sign, and declares “33.” So if you are a Star Wars nut, you can check and see if he was right, but I’ll take the guy’s word for it!
Walking out of the store, what should we see before us but Darth Vader himself accompanied by a storm trooper, taking photos and signing autographs. Sadly, the line for it was closed to new kids by the character wrangler on duty, and they weren’t coming back for a long while. I wish they’d keep these guys out all the time when kids are out of school. Rotate them in and out and never stop the line, like they do at many other character greetings. We still had a good time looking and taking photos, and after they left Miles got on the speeder for a picture.
It was perfect timing now to make the Indiana Jones show before Dee and Joe would appear for our lunch at the Sci Fi Dine-In. The previous show was in its final minutes, and Miles and I were the first people in the standby line. When we were finally let in, about fifteen minutes later, they had filled two thirds of the theater with FastPass holders, so it was a good thing we got there early to go standby. I didn’t think Miles would enjoy this show very much, but he loved it. I guess his testosterone is starting to kick in, because he enjoyed the heck out of the stunts and explosions. I totally had forgotten most of the show, it’s been probably four years since I’ve seen it, and managed to be surprised and entertained by it, too.
It was time after the show for lunch, and Joe and Dee were waiting for us on the benches right inside the Sci Fi entrance. There was a mob of people hoping to eat, and cast members hollering out that if you didn’t have a reservation there was nothing left available for that entire day, which is typical for this place. Why, I have no idea, because the food turned out to be awful, and the service lackluster. I remember back several years ago you could get decent lunch food, certainly you could get great burgers and shakes. Some of the servers were on roller skates, and many of them were quite funny, interacting with the stuff up on the movie screen. The set is still here, but the actors have all left the stage. Now they seem to have depressed people who don’t want to be there and the food was awful.
I was served my Caesar salad DRY. No dressing on the side. No dressing period. It was never checked by the kitchen or my server before it went out. It was lettuce and from-frozen sliced up chicken, I assume the same they are serving to kids all over the parks on the new healthy kid’s menus, and a few flavorless croutons. When I did get the server to bring me some dressing after a couple of minutes of sitting staring at my food, it was o.k., but nowhere near worth the price charged for it, over $10 I think, which for what it was is outrageous. I also ordered an artichoke and spinach dip with tortilla chips. The dip was runny, and the tortilla chips were absolutely disgusting. How do you mess up tortilla chips?? Sci Fi Dine-In can! They were colored strange colors, had a bitter aftertaste, and were mealy, not crisp at all, like they were stale from too much moisture. I swear I could taste all the food coloring on them more than any other flavor.
Dee said her sandwich was o.k., nothing great, and Joe didn’t complain about his burger. I’ve always heard not to order anything here except burgers and shakes, and I should have listened. On the way out, I heard another guest saying how terrible the food was and that all the people trying to get in shouldn’t bother. I know it’s all about supply and demand, but at what point does it become unethical to serve junk to unwitting first time guests? Isn’t Disney supposed to be about quality and pride in their service? I don’t know if it’s the meal plan or what, but I think it’s just wrong what they are doing, which is, frankly, ripping off their guests. OK end of rant.
We decided to watch the Movie Stars and Motor Cars parade, and waited just in front of Star Tours for it while Joe ran down to Lights, Motors, Action to get FastPasses. He came back just before the parade start and said the FP machines were covered up. I guess they gave up on FP for this except on the busiest days of the year. The parade spot we were standing at was bad, the characters all looked briefly our way as they came out of the gate, and then as their cars made a right hand turn they all faced that way and stayed with their backs to us until well beyond us. If I want to see a parade at the Studios again, I’ll be sure and stand on the Indiana Jones side of the street, in this Star Tours area. There were some benches in front of the Backlot Express restaurant that would have been perfect to sit on for half an hour’s rest before the parade, and perfect viewing during it. Frankly, this parade is a bore, and I’m glad Disney is replacing it next year. It was fun to see Remy and Emile from Ratatouille, which we had all seen together the previous week at the movie theater.
After Star Tours, we stopped for a potty break and some more popcorn, Miles’ favorite Disney treat this trip, and a big soda. It was hot and the salt on the popcorn felt great to eat! The Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground wasn’t too much of a madhouse, and was surprisingly cool, with its shade covers and misters and fans everywhere. Miles disappeared for a very long time, and I finally had enough of sitting in one spot and went looking for him. He had parked himself over by an intermittent stream of water that was made to look like it was coming from a leaky garden hose overhead, and he was absolutely drenched, as wet as if he’d jumped in a lake with all his clothes on. And grinning from ear to ear. I let him lead me around a little to show me the dog’s sniffing nose up in the top and a couple other things that had delighted him, and then led him out to go meet up with Joe and Dee.
We waited for them for about ten minutes by a cool (I think new?) forced perspective photo mural of a San Francisco street, and watched guests take turns pretending to be flattened out on the pavement.
Joe and Dee arrived, and were exceedingly cranky, especially Dee, who was just plain po’ed about something. She looked really tired, and hot, too. Turns out, they had gone shopping for about an hour after they left us up and down the stores on Hollywood Blvd., then had decided to go to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid. My husband pulled his usual I won’t wait in line routine and refused to stand in line for the next show (did he think the theater would be just sitting there open waiting for him when they arrived?), so he led Dee back to Hollywood Blvd. and down to Rock ‘n Roll Coaster. She didn’t really want to walk there in the first place, her ankle was starting to hurt her, she said, and she was hot, but the wait time only said 30 minutes and Joe thought they could get it done before our LMA meet-up time.
They stood in the featureless, blazing hot queue outside the RnRC building for 30 minutes, and were starting to worry about time. Suddenly, a group of about 60 Brazilian kids showed up with FastPasses and were all let ahead as a group in front of the standby line, and at that point Joe knew they’d be late for LMA, and they had to ask the cast member to let them out just before the preshow. He said the cm was like, don’t go, you’re almost there, but when they explained they had to be at LMA (at the opposite end of the park) in 10 minutes, he said, yeah, you better go. But he insisted they take two reentry FastPasses on the house and come back later! How nice! Thank you RNRC cm for making my husband less cranky.
Dee thought the Brazilian group was being let in ahead of everyone just because they were a group, and were getting special treatment because Disney wants to sell more tickets to groups, or something like that, and we couldn’t convince her that they did indeed have FastPasses and had a right to be in the line like anyone else. She really felt ripped off by Disney, and she was mad as heck at Joe for making her walk around so much and end up not seeing anything. So, that’s the end of that saga.
Joe said when they left, the wait time was up from 30 to 50 minutes, and he thought it was actually longer than that. If you hit it just wrong, and with groups using so many FastPasses together at once, it really messes up Disney’s wait time estimation system. I honestly can’t think of a good solution that would be fair to everyone. The big tour groups certainly have the right to use FastPass like anyone else.
The theater for Lights Motors Action desperately needs more air circulation fans to blow around on everyone, it was terribly hot. Thank goodness clouds were rolling in or it would have been worse. Miles and Dee loved this show. This was my second time seeing it, and I could have brought a book or taken a nap. If they ever want to see it again, which I’m sure they will some day, I’m going to go do something else, I don’t think I could stand it a third time. But that’s just me, I could care less about cars and motorized anything, they annoy me for the most part with the noise and the stink.
We went to Pizza Planet for dinner. The pizza was o.k., nothing great, but acceptable as a quick meal. It reminded me of the food service individual pizzas my old college snack bar used to make in a littl