10th Anniversary Trip WDW/Disney Magic About This Page:

[apk]

10th Anniversary Trip WDW/Disney Magic
January 28 – February 6, 2010

I took the trouble to write up this trip report mainly because I want all the newbies out there to learn from my mistake(s) and NOT go through the nightmare that I did! Look for TIPs that I spell out within the report, these are the tips you should use to avoid my pitfalls. I'm a Disney veteran having been to several parks throughout the world and WDW too many times to count, and Disney cruises as well, but my story shows we can all live and learn. Plus I figure everyone likes to read a trip report now and then, and mine certainly is dramatic. I give fair warning that this is LOOOOONG due to the dramatic events that occurred and my need to tell each one, so, refill the liquid caffeine of your choice, pull up a comfy chair and read on! Sorry for the length, they do get shorter - promise!

Pre-trip Report:
Cast of Characters:
Me - Annette (43) Disney fanatic (or Freak as DH says….)
DH (57) - converted Disney FAN
Small Chip & Dale in cruise attire and a Baby Poohbear accompany us on the trip.

Living in Wisconsin, we planned to fly down early to avoid any possible snow storms that would have us missing our cruise. The dates we would now be in Orlando prior to our cruise coincided with Disney’s 40% off room rates at WDW promotion, so we secured our favorite resort, POR Alligator Bayou and we were all set. The cruise had been paid in full and we had difficulty in getting reservations for Palo (could only do 8:30pm one night which was too late for us). I was surprised about not getting the Palo reservations for the time we wanted at 180 days out, but decided not to sweat it as we had been lucky enough in the past to get them once on board the ship.

Since we were flying down on a Thursday, and disembarking on the cruise Saturday, that gave us one day in the Park(s). We began batting around “which park should it be?” a few weeks prior. I should insert here that we had been fortunate enough to spend 10 days at WDW last fall during the last week of Sept/1st week of Oct 2009. Man was it hot then! Regardless, we had done our fill of park days so weren’t too stressed about which park it would be for our 1 day on the Friday, but at the same time, had never had to choose just one before. I finally told DH that it came down to what tickets we had left, either Park Hoppers or those single day tickets you have to take when you buy the Free dining package, as we have for the past 5 years in row. Those single day tickets we had accumulated and the leftover PH tickets were on several different Key to the World cards which I had carefully notated how many days left on each with a black sharpie when we left WDW in Oct. Tip#1: Carefully notate how many days of tickets you have left on your KTTW card on the back with a black sharpie! This will save you so much time and aggravation in the future, trust me. This particular aggravation can only be saved if you then put your KTTW cards and leftover ticket media in a safe place where you know to find them in the future. Tip#2: ALWAYS put your leftover media in it’s own special place as soon as you return home, or notating on the back of the cards does not help much. Tip#3 Always travel with your ticket media on you (hand luggage) as opposed to in your suitcase, as your suitcase might not make the destination but you and your hand luggage probably will. I had the clearest memory of arriving home in early Oct, unloading my carry on bag and coming across the envelope with all our ticket media in it. I distinctly remember saying to myself “I should put this up in it’s special spot immediately”. And then I didn’t. So now I don’t know where they are. It’s been 4 months and I don’t have a vivid memory of what I did with the darn things after that one movie reel in my head where I tell myself what I should do! So I begin slowly tearing the house apart room by room and trying not to panic. The tickets represented a lot of money, as we always get the maximum 10 day Park Hopper, No Expiration, Water Parks & More version of the tickets then just use them until they’re out. I knew we had some days left but was unsure how many. I didn’t panic at this point in time (hey, I had like 10 days before we left..no need to panic) but did start thoroughly tossing my home office, the living room, the bedroom, etc. As I did this one room at a time, DH did not notice. It wasn’t until our departure was T-3 days that I sat down and told DH I could not find them. He reacted very calmly and said ‘Huh – they are not in their special place?”. He took it really well considering I had hit full panic by now. I knew we were not going to pay $75.00 each for a one day – one park ticket. I continued to search madly and we have an extra bedroom that is the “junk” room and routinely accumulates lots of boxes of things and paper. I spent 5 hours going through every box and every piece of paper and still did not find them. I did, strangely enough, find both DH’s and my KTTW card from our recent fall trip. I finally decided the movie reel in my head was wrong when I pictured several cards in an envelope and these two must be it. They did have 2009 dates on them, even though they did not have any sharpie writing on the back. I just talked myself into the fact that these MUST be it. So I packed them and off we went. With just a slight nagging that there should be black sharpie writing on them….but I just tried to ignore that little whispering in my head like I tried to ignore how many rooms I had tossed and not really put back into place during my home search and would have to after vacation.

Day 1: We had an early morning flight out of Madison on that Thursday. I have a relatively new assistant who is still learning the job so I promised him I would have my Blackberry on me at all times until Saturday and then it was sink or swim for him as I would only call in once during the week. On the flight down we got bumped to first class because I was a Delta Premiere flyer. Very nice. This meant that we could each check up to 2 bags at no charge, which we were kind of counting on as after we packed 1 bag each we still had large snorkeling fins and beach towels that weren’t in a bag. We chose a large rolling duffel as the 3rd bag and check it for a total of 3 bags. Not bad – I had managed not to pack the entire house (probably because I had tossed all the contents and now couldn’t pack it!). The flights went smooth and we connected in Detroit. It was on the 2nd flight to Orlando that the migraine hit. I could tell the minute it hit that I wasn’t going to have a good day. So I took my medication on the plane and willed it to go away. It got worse instead. Bummed me out as I was on vacation with a capital V and expected to have a fabulous time. We landed, got our Budget rental car and off we went to WDW. I had gotten a really good rate with Budget for a pick up at Orlando and drop-off at Port Canaveral where you board the Disney ships/boats whatever, I’m not nautical. There’s another tip coming if you use Budget and plan to drop it at PC, but I’ll tell that in it’s correct chronological order later. We checked into POR-AB and while I was dealing with the check in, I handed my 2 KTTW cards to DH and had him go over to the concierge and check how many park tickets we actually had left on them. He came back with a smile and said he had been told we had 7 PH days and 6 WP&M uses on them. I can be happy just as well as the next person, but I had figured we had about 3 days left and 7 days sounded just plain wrong to me. Since I was still completing the paperwork at check in, I asked DH to return to Concierge and ask a different employee to check it to verify. (Yes I know I sound anal here, but I can’t help it. I knew 7 days was wrong). HE did just that and came back and said the other concierge told him we had 3 PH days and 8 WP&M. Hmmmm, two very different answers from within the same hotel. Strange. We would discuss it at dinner. I had planned to have dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack right next to Disney. I love crab and we just don’t get it here in Wisconsin. Off we went and had an early and delicious dinner of crab. We stopped by Walgreens there next to the restaurant for last minute snacks for the room, etc. My migraine had become less painful with the food and relaxation but it was still there, hovering. We were tired from the early morning flight and getting up at obscene hour to get to the airport, so we decided to go back to the hotel and just relax. I took more meds and went to bed.

More to come, Annette in Wisconsin

[chezp]

Interesting start - I'm waiting to see what happens with the tickets and it does sound like there's more drama to come during this trip...

[DrDolphin]

Wow - sounds like a stressful beginning with the migrane and the tickets - I hope things improve.

[Cam22]

I have frustrated myself before by forgetting to put stuff back in its place. So I definitely feel for you. Hope the tickets work out!

[Colexis Mom]

Great start Annette! More please!

[OhToodles!]

I hope you had a great time even with some snafu's. Can't wait to hear more!

[B.M.]

Hope those tickets work!
Hurry back !

[pamcarey]

Great start! I hope eventually things went well with your trip. I definitely hope to learn from your tips!

[MAria R]

Great start, can't wait to find out what happens with the tickets!

[Kenny]

An interesting start... but from the sound of it, I'm afraid it gets more stressful!

[apk]

10th Anniversary Trip WDW/Disney Magic
January 28 – February 6, 2010

Cast of Characters:
Me - Annette (43) Disney fanatic (or Freak as DH says….)
DH (57)
Small Chip & Dale in cruise attire and a Baby Poohbear accompany us on the trip.

Day 2: Friday morning – we had elected to get a wake up call to see if they were still using the obnoxious voice of Stitch. DH grabbed the phone and said it was Stitch with Mickey at the end. We were up. Migraine was still there, crap, crap crap. Last night we talked it over and decided that since the concierge told us all the PH tickets were on one KTTW card and none on the other, so we couldn’t both go in using it, we would actually not go in the parks and just enjoy the resort and DTD for once. I had brought an emergency prescription for steroids but didn’t want to resort to that yet. So I took more meds and we headed off to our Character Breakfast at the Cape May buffet at the Beach Club. We had an early reservation at 8:00am and it was nice and quiet and all the characters were out and about. They have a nice buffet and it’s not crazy like Chef Mickey’s. We took photos, ate our fill and then decided to walk over to the international gateway at Epcot to ask the ticket booth person how many days did she think were on our card? She replied that she saw 7 PH days and possible 8 WP&M but to be sure, we really ought to see the man in the next booth over, whom she said was “The final answer” on ticket media. Well, since we now had 3 different answers, we did seem in need of a “final answer”. We went to that booth. He was very nice as we explained the problem and how many different answer we had received. He had to go back through the entire history of the ticket, where and when it had ever been used and reissued, etc. It took him 20 minutes! The final answer was 0 park days and 4 WP&M visits. Well. We hadn’t quite expected that, although it sounded suspiciously true to me as I thought about the fact that there was no black sharpie writing on it. We were so disappointed. He then asked if we were planning to go into the park. We said that we had wanted to but now that we found out we did not have the tickets on the KTTW card, we would not. He understood our disappointment and said he was in a position to help us as Disney gave their Cast members some leeway when it came to situations like ours. He then gave us each a one day, PH ticket for that day only. It expired at the end of the day. There went the idea of resting at the resort right out the window! We thanked him profusely and asked each other what should we do? We had one day and a park hopper but it was already 10:00am. We are the sort of people who are always at the parks for rope drop. It was so much later than rope drop we had to figure out what which park we should do. DH wanted to visit space mountain since it was under rehab during our fall trip. So off we went back to the hotel room (we did not have park shoes on or other stuff we needed like more meds). We grabbed everything quickly then off to the MK we went. After I parked the rental car in the lot, I handed DH the camera to put in his pocket. I had on new shorts from Talbots that had nice deep front pockets. I put my blackberry in my right front pocket and my little change purse in my left. My small change purse acts as my wallet when I travel. It’s 4.5 inches long by 3.5 inches wide, only about ¼ inch thick. It has non skid fabric that grips your pocket on one side to prevent pick pocketing and a zippered middle section. There’s a reason I’m giving such a detailed description. My head was hurting big time but I was determined that DH was going to have a good time in the parks and we were going to have fun no matter what. We made a beeline for Space Mtn. grabbed a FP for it then headed on in. There was no line at all, we walked all the way through to the loading area. I don’t understand the plywood wall you have to go behind before you get to the back and forth railing, but we enjoyed the ride and I could not believe how dark it was after the refurb. Here’s another free TIP #4: if you have a migraine, the vivid strobelights and jerkiness of SM probably aren’t going to help you get rid of it. We went next to one of my old time favorites, the TTA. Then it was off to the Haunted Mansion. Lines did not appear to be long at any of the rides. It was a beautiful day, probably around 70 degrees. After HM, I realized I had been kidding myself, I was going to keel over from the pain throbbing inside my head. I told DH that I was really sorry but he could take my ticket and my fastpass and ride everything he wanted to, but I had to go back to the hotel and lay down. In the dark. In the quiet. He told me that sometimes I feel better after a bite of food and sitting somewhere dark and quiet. He said this as we were passing the Columbia House, one of my favorite restaurants. I could tell he really didn’t want me to leave. I felt terrible about it, so I agreed I’d wait in the restaurant and get a cold drink and he could meet me after riding Thunder Mtn. After he had taken 4 steps away from me and I turned toward the restaurant, I put my hand in my left pocket to find it empty. I called my DH back as loud as I could and told him that in on hour and somewhere on 3 rides, I had managed to lose my wallet. The wallet that had all my cash, all three credit cards I owned , my driver’s license and my Disney Rewards card with $660.00 on it. (Insert Groan here). He looked at me like I was kidding. Nope, I really lost it. We immediately backtracked to TTA. Nothing, no wallet found. I just knew it had to have happened on Space Mtn. I went back and by some stroke of luck the ride was closed due to technical difficulties. This meant they had shut down the ride, and the lights were on inside. I explained the situation to the nice cast member and he said he’d have someone look inside on the floor under the lights right away but I’d have to wait there. Fine! After 15 minutes, he came back and said they were still looking. He told me that if money or id were involved, it went immediately to the supervisor and he put it in a locked box that only he had access to. Then at the end of the night it was transferred to City Hall Lost & Found. I mentioned that I was leaving on a cruise the next day and all my credit cards were in the wallet and he went to tell his Supervisor. Then another cast member came out and told me they had not found it. He said that if it was a wallet, they immediately took it to City Hall and not the lock box. Hmmmmm, more different answers from every cast member – what was the deal with this today?

So we backtracked to HM with no luck there, then headed to City Hall. We got one hour and 3 rides in total for our day at the park. It was now around 1pm, my head is absolutely without a doubt going to explode (the additional stress did not help the migraine, huh imagine that). The girl at City Hall looked about 17. She went in the back but could not find it. She recommended we come back at the end of the night when the park closed to check if it had been found. I asked her what time the park closed and she replied “When the last person leaves the park”. I had very little patience left by now and asked again, no we need to know what time to come back, what time does the park close? I asked her if we could phone City Hall that evening to see if they had found it or did we have to come in person. She said they couldn’t help us over the phone, it had to be in person. I asked what time should we be here? And she said “when the park closes”. I asked what time that was and again she replied “when the last person leaves the park”. DH had to stop me from jumping the counter to strangle her with the pretty face and perky voice. I was not feeling disneyesque. The migraine had robbed me of my normal happiness and cherubic like demeanor. Another cast member who had overheard the exchange came over and in a low voice said “8pm, the park closes today at 8pm”. I thanked him and off we went. I took a nap to try to get rid of the migraine and DH headed off to the quiet pool to read. At 7:45pm we were back at City Hall. Pretty perky voice was not in sight so we asked the first cast member we could about the wallet. No luck. I knew about the general lost & found that is outside MK in the same building as the kennel. Odd place for it but there it was. The nap did nothing for the migraine. We had planned to leave WDW at 7:30 in the morning but I told DH we had to alter our plans and now go to General Lost & Found when they opened at 9am the next morning. I can’t remember what we did for dinner but we walked around DTD that evening and had a sundae at Ghiradelli’s. It was good, but it was not worth $9.00. I think their prices are crazy! I picked up some scrapbooking items at the World of Disney, we hit the other stores then back to the room. I knew I was in trouble with the migraine and having been to the ER at Celebration before, had no desire whatsoever to repeat it. So I took the emergency medication and went to bed. I was determined not to have the migraines on the cruise which would ruin my vacation. TIP #5: only carry your KTTW card with you into the parks. If you have that, you don’t need credit cards or cash. If you must carry those, carry only one credit card and minimal cash and put them in a POCKET THAT ZIPS!!!!

More to come....Annette in WI

[DrDolphin]

OMG!!! What a day!! I hope that the migrane abates - quickly!!! And I hope you found your wallet.

[B.M.]

Ugh! What a stressfull day. I'm really hoping your wallet turns up. Hurry Back!

[TMWIlson7196]

I'm sorry you had such a bad start. I hope you found your wallet.

[chezp]

Oh my goodness, what a total nightmare day - I think I'd have been ready to strangle someone as well if I'd gone through that.