We Can Fly, We Can Fly, We Can Fly......We Flew Trip Report - Page 24 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Sounds like it was a great trip overall, despite a few small bumps. I am SO glad they found your bags! I would have been freaking out too.
It's funny bc when you mentioned RAC, I thought, "Everyone seems to use it. I wonder if we should try it next trip" and you confirmed my thoughts on it. I have always been scared either way for luggage services. I like to see my bags as long as I can, and am always worried that RAC wouldn't get them to the airport in time. Sorry that happened to you though, even if it did confirm my worries, which I am kind of grateful for.
Can't wait to hear your final thoughts. Thanks for sharing your trip, I have enjoyed reading about it.
I really enjoyed reading about your trip. I'm sorry about the luggage fiasco, but it's good they were able to bring them to you that night. Looking forward to your final thoughts and thanks again for sharing with us!
Just caught up on your last few posts. So sorry that Abby was still not feeling well but she was definitely a trooper and putting a smile on her face and enjoying your last park day. What wonderful magic for her at DHS, such an amazing meet & greet.
Sorry your last day was filled with storms (thankfully they did not provide a not so fun flight) and then the lost luggage, I would have been ready for bed as well when getting home. Glad your luggage made it home quickly.
Another wonderful trip, love sharing your families adventures.
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sorry about your troubles with your luggage!! i'm glad it was worked out somewhat quickly. That's odd about them putting the wrong DME documents on your door, the same thing happened to me two days before going home when my sister and I were staying at CBR
DME. I liked the fact that once I left my bags at the airport, I didn’t have to touch them again until they arrived in my room. I would definitely take the bus to the resort again.
Renting a car. As always, for us it’s a must do and I will continue to rent a car while at Disney. We could come and go as we pleased and when we wanted to go off property for shopping or hit a nearby Hess station for less expensive bottles of soda to take into the parks, it was quite easy to do.
DME then renting a car at the CCC. Since I’ve already mentioned I like DME and I’ll still continue to rent a car, it stands to reason I would do this again. A really big plus was the "savings." I saved close to $300 by doing DME to the CCC. Another advantage to it was we were actually "assigned" a car. It wasn’t a free for all, go pick a car that’s out there. There was one waiting specifically for us. Yes, the wait time we had was a bummer (almost an hour and a half before the shuttle came for us), but now I know, I can plan better for the future and have it not be such a downer.
ASMu - I liked the resort. It was pretty much like staying at AS Sports with the exception of 2 things - the theming and this one seemed to have far more families there. The pool was cool and unlike our previous night time experience at the pool, especially with the movie, this time was completely different. Yes, there were lots of kids but they were appropriately clothed and actually either swimming or watching the movie (or like us, doing both at one time).
Hopping from the MK to DHS and then back again with the bus. I’m still not sure whether this saved us time or not. I’m pretty sure it did, but I am not going to make a habit of it. We will just plan our days much better or not hop from the MK at all.
Renting a scooter from Walker Mobility. We receive Disney quality service (if not better at times) from them so I will continue to use their services, even if they never become a Disney preferred vendor. To me, it was no big deal to have to schedule a pick up and drop off time because I chose times that worked for us. To me, it was just as easy as going to Bell Services for the scooter.
RAC - Right now the jury is out about this. Part of me isn’t happy that 4 of my bags didn’t get on the same plane as us but I don’t know who’s at fault - RAC or TSA. The other part of me says give them another try because I really liked not having to deal with my luggage before or after vacation.
Luggage Services at the All Stars - now that I know someone will come and help us, I will definitely use this service again. I was thinking that if we don’t try RAC again, we would use luggage services to get our stuff to the car and then take our own stuff to the airport. Once there, it’s not a big deal to unload the car at curbside and it shouldn’t be a big deal to get from there to return the car.
Breakfast ADR’s. We did a few of them this year and they really worked out well. I did enjoy the fact that we didn’t have to stop what we were doing to go to a meal - we could go wherever until whenever.
Dinner ADR’s. 2 of our 3 dinner ADR’s worked out well. Our Trails End Buffet dinner took far more time than I had ever anticipated so I wasn’t happy about that. After this year, I really think we need to stop doing this one. 1900PF and GG worked out well though with GG working out the best for the obvious reason that it’s still in the park. Lenny wasn’t thrilled when I told him it’s time to stop doing Trails End - he loves to have a meal of fried chicken - but I did tell him that 50’s PT has fried chicken on the menu so maybe it’s time to try someplace new.
Lunch ADR’s. We ate only one lunch at a TS location this year. It worked out okay but I had tried before we even left to switch to breakfast and give that a try. I think if we ever go back and Abby is still into the character meals and this is still Pooh, we’ll do breakfast instead of lunch and if not, an early dinner (I would think an early dinner would work out well like GG).
No plans on our arrival day. The lack of plans worked out well our arrival day. I would do this the same way again. It was nice not having to rush and race for a meal or a park.
Timing on arrival day. My timing was way off this day. I don’t know if it was bad luck or really bad planning on my part but next time I will definitely allot more time for things. The worst case scenario for that will be being ahead of schedule but that’s far better than running behind.
7 days in Disney parks. While that should have been enough time, between penny hunting, going to water parks, hopping and all the other things we did, it almost seemed like it wasn’t enough time to do everything. There were things we didn’t get to do at all - Thunder Mountain for example - but the weather is what was to blame initially. If we had more time in the parks though, then I think we would have been able to do everything we wanted to.
No ponchos in the parks. We took the ponchos the first couple of days but then left them in the car, then they got put in the room. I had also taken umbrellas and truthfully we didn’t get any wetter with them than we would have with a poncho. The advantage to the umbrella is that we didn’t get really hot and sweaty when using them like we do the ponchos. Another advantage to the umbrella is Abby could use it for shade as well so it had multiple uses.
Eating at different CS locations. We liked doing this as we got to see different resorts, not just our own. We laughed because most of the food was stuff we could have gotten in some form at our own food court but it was nice to see the different locations.
Going to SW for two days. This worked out well for us. We didn’t have to run and race and other than one thing (Antarctica) we were able to get everything done we wanted to. Would I do two days there again? Honestly, I don’t know. I guess it depends upon the kind of time we have for vacation and what it would cost to do two days.
Not doing a dining plan - I know this isn’t the first vacation we haven’t used the dining plan but once again it worked out really well for us. Off the top of my head, I can’t remember how many meals we skipped but I do know there were a few of them because we just weren’t all that hungry. OOP is definitely the way from now on for us.
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Other musings/things I’ve remembered since we’ve gotten home:
When we rode SSE, the little videos weren’t working correctly. Abby’s screen showed the people in the car in front of her and ours showed Abby’s head. Only it wasn’t her full head - it was a portion and the piece missing looked like a puzzle piece.
We didn’t have a single pizza meal this trip. We like pizza and I didn’t even realize until we got home we didn’t have any at all during vacation. We also didn’t eat at Cosmic Ray’s this vacation, which is usually a favorite.
The night we split up where we met at Rapunzels Village, Lenny and Abby found a popcorn bucket sitting on the wall. The entire time they were there, no one was around it and no one came back for it so we grabbed it. We like the buckets but don’t care for the popcorn itself so it worked out well I guess.
We had every intention of exploring our "new" resort this year but we never went any further than our building (which was preferred). I’d like to say next time we’ll explore more but during 5 vacation to AS Sports, we never explored there either.
This new DAS card versus the old GAC. The more I see/read about it, it’s definitely not as daunting as it sounded. Will it take some getting use to? Of course it will but by the time we go, I’m sure any and all bugs will be completely worked out (not that I’ve read of any yet anyway).
The new FP+ system. I liked the old one with the paper. It was quick and easy - shove your card in a machine, get a piece of paper. 2 hours later, do it again. I don’t like how into technology Disney wants to be. I’m not that into it and don’t want to be either. Abby has her Ipad for school and while I’ve used it some, I much prefer my regular big computer. I find these smaller mobile devices not that user friendly and I find it a turn off that Disney will be forcing people into using them for FP. And that’s not even mentioning that they limit how many you can get.
Pressed pennies. Still the "best" souvenir on property IMO. I couldn’t seem to find any "official" count for mine except in my 2009 TR but we now have a total of 546 Disney pennies (about 20 are repeats), 88 Disney quarters (a couple of repeats) and 95 Sea World pennies. We do have various other pennies too but I’m not sure where they are at the moment otherwise I would have included that count as well (I think Lenny took them out of the book to clean and never put them back). The more we get. the more we’re addicted to them. Even without a trip, I still go to Presscoins.com to see what’s new, what’s moved, etc.
Using DME this year. Looking back, I have to say it was such a good decision to use it and not only for the savings on the rental car. With Abby’s class going to Washington DC in May by motor coach, riding DME was good "practice" for Abby so now she should have an idea of what to expect. I don’t count on them having tvs - and even if it does, I doubt they’ll use them as how can you pick movies that 40 to 50 8th graders will all enjoy - but she’ll know that the seats won’t be huge and that the luggage goes underneath the bus.
That's all I can really think of for now. Even though we don't officially have any plans yet to return, we do talk about things we want to do/will do differently etc. I do want to take Abby at least once more time to Disney but I don't know when that will be. In 2 years would be great but only time will tell when we do. We have to save for it first and depending upon what kind of changes are coming to Disney, that may also affect our timing. I personally don't care about Avatar so that won't affect when we do or don't go but things like Star Wars - or even a Carsland if that's still a rumor - might.
Thank you so much to everyone who read my PTR/TR. I hope you enjoyed following along on our trip. I'm sorry to say it's over - it's sad for me too - but I guess on the bright note, while it won't be a Disney TR, I will be back next May/June and I'll do some sort of TR about our trip to DC. Lenny won't get to go on that one though but it will be me and Abby plus about 200 other 8th graders . It should be interesting if nothing else
Thanks for the great PTR/TR!!! I really enjoyed reading about your family adventures. I hope you get to go back sooner than what you think, but, I also understand about the savings and planning trips.
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Waiting for our next adventure after enjoying our Alaska cruise. Jenn
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Great wrap up, Darlene! I enjoyed following along and I hope you and Abby have a good time when you visit DC in May. Will this be your first trip? There are so many things to see and do there, I'm sure you and Abby will love it.
Thanks for sharing your trip with us. I enjoyed reading it. I agree about the 7 days. We were also there for 7 days last month and it didn't seem like long enough. The weather waw hotter than usual and the were some bad storms.
I'm glad you liked ASMU. that was the first value I ever stayed in.
Liz
Thanks for sharing another wonderful trip with us Darlene. I always love your TRs, Abby has grown up so much and seeing the smile on her face always a joy.
I am looking forward to hearing all about your DC trip next year and you can definitely tell Lenny he will lve the fried chicken at 50s PT, it is always good and they give you so much something to add to your list for next time
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but it will be me and Abby plus about 200 other 8th graders 
. It should be interesting if nothing else 
Waiting for our next adventure after enjoying our Alaska cruise. 
Jenn
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