My first TR - Sept 2010 Three Adults "and Your Little Dog too!" - Page 6 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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What a great day! Sorry you weren't going to get thru all your must do's, but what a great idea of putting your wishes down in a notebook for the next time! Love all the pictures!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
What a great day! Sorry you weren't going to get thru all your must do's, but what a great idea of putting your wishes down in a notebook for the next time! Love all the pictures!
I think that if anyone asks me for one piece of advice on doing Disney, that this would be it - write down your wishes for next time. There is too much to do, and even if you go in with a list of "musts," stuff comes up and even those things can get missed. Or you discover something new in the World that you just don't have time for.
The list is helping with the upcoming trip to make sure that we have our priorities - pools for Stitch, sit-down breakfasts for DB and Illuminations for me, plus other various smaller items.
The morning and early afternoon were at Epcot - love staying at the Boardwalk Villas and taking that very nice, quick boat ride to the gate. Little Dude was made honorary citizen of WDW for being such a good service dog!
Stitch was able to get us ADRs at The Cellier just days before our trip - someone had canceled and it opened up a spot for us. Wonderful meal, just yum.
(Stitch after sugar)
We finished stamping our passports and getting the tags for our kid-cot masks. Notice the relaxation here.
Then we passed by the pin trading cart at the American Experience and someone said the word “clearance.” This is the worst word to say to Stitch and I - we love clearance and we love a good sale. We love coupon shopping. Clearance? Because of the lack of job for DB when we were to return, we had not been buying a lot of souvenirs. A shirt for Stitch, a hoodie for me, car topper mouse ears from each world, frames on clearance from the hotel - one for each of us to take to work. But that was it really. So to have these pins on clearance, let’s take a look!!
And that way leads to the dark side. LOL
We learned all about pin trading from a woman looking for clearance pins there. We learned you buy them on clearance and then trade for what you want from a CM. Oh my - all the way back to the hotel, we pin traded. Got to the hotel, and went downstairs to the boardwalk and checked out the pins in the General Store. Nothing was marked, but we remembered what the woman had taught us and we started buying up the clearance starter packs and clearance pins by the butt load. We were ridiculous! But we were also giggling like mad. Ok, well Stitch and I were giggling, DB was less than thrilled with our new hobby. In fact, he went so far as to say that he was glad that we had discovered this only on the last day because it would have drove him nuts if we had done pin trading the entire trip! So, giggling away, we bought lots of clearance pins to trade with.
Off to Mickey’s Halloween - on time! More pin trading!! Even splurged and we each bought one full price Halloween exclusive pin and then bought each other one pin. All other pins were obtained through trading. Oh we were so bad that we missed the first parade, too busy trading! Yeah, you can see why DB was less than thrilled with this new hobby of ours.
We did get to see the Villain's’ show. This was one of the main reasons why Stitch wanted to come back - she wanted to see Cruella De Vil. We so lucked out with the line (and of course, I can be really pushy when I need to be!) and managed to be in the front part of the line. In front of us was an extended family all dressed up as Dalmatians - Cruella loved them. But when we got the front, she saw Little Dude and squealed. Yes, she really did squeal, I have it on camera.
She took him right of out Stitch’s arms (which you’re not supposed to do to a service animal, but we knew she’d do it and Stitch purposely had removed him from his bag and placed him front and center for her to notice) and started cooing at him. There was a park photographer there, not a Photopass person, but definitely something official, and she did pose after pose with the dog. It was just fantastic, it was neat to have someone coo over the dog when we were ready for it, expecting it. Definitely the highlight of the entire trip. Of course, we got photos and video, etc. And I really do think we made the Cast Member’s day, I think we got to spend more time with her than anyone else - well, the Little Dude did at least, as those two were off posing for the other camera! LOL
("I really am an animal person!" - Cruella)
We saw Hallowishes again, still just blew my mind as a fireworks show. Really, the best I’ve seen.
We stayed where we were for the parade, and had front row seats. CMs were walking along the parade route when one of them tripped on the trolley tracks, spilling candy everywhere. One of the CM turned to the crowd and said “now who can help me pick this up?!” And kids just mobbed her. As did I! Not for myself, but for the kids who couldn’t or wouldn’t go. I know that my parents would have held me back from mobbing the candy. So I gathered as much as I could and handed it out to all the kids in my area who didn’t rush out.
This was also the only time I’ve ever seen a Cast Member get royally P.O.’d at a guest. We were warned that the headless horseman was coming through - he’s coming, backup. He’s coming, back up. He’s coming, back up. Alright already, where the heck is this guy? We were warned not to wave our hands and startle the horse, not to cross the road, etc. And we were waiting and waiting. Finally someone cut across the road and a CM went after him, screaming. And then suddenly there was the headless horseman! Which was cool, but with all that hype, it wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be. And he went by so quickly that I don’t even have a picture of it. Later on that night I learned why the CMs were so insistent about not moving and why that one CM was actually yelling at a guest. The horseman is blinded by the costume. The horse is taught to run the route with no directions from the rider. There is no way to really stop the horse until it reaches the train station and the rider has no control over the animal. So, it’s a big deal not to startle the horse. And now the yelling made sense. But still, it was shocking to witness a CM just start screaming, she was so upset with that man. Then again, if he had crossed just seconds later, maybe he would have startled the horse and the rider would have a broken neck! I really thought that CM was going to throw the guy out of the park and then burst into tears - it was that emotional. But as the horseman came through, I think the guy snuck away as we were all distracted.
The parade was great and included the 2nd and 3rd best parts of the trip (yes, all three “top” items of the vacation were within a two hour period.) As Tigger came down the road, he saw Stitch sitting right on the sidelines in her wheelchair and messed her hair. She was so shocked!! I wonder if it was a CM that we had seen earlier since we had seen so many characters and they remembered her. Because when she saw Tigger earlier (both times) she explained that Tigger was one of her favorites and his signature is on her hat. This was the 3rd best part.
The second best part was Jack. Cuz it’s all about pirates, you know. So the parade is coming down the street, and Jack is on top of the rocks, looking down over the crowd. And he’s trying to pay attention to both sides of the crowd, waving and greeting people. Well, right before he got to us, he turned his back to us to greet the other side of the route. Stitch screamed “JACK!” “What?!?!” and he comes staggering back to our side. I thought she was going to swoon at that, good thing she was already in a chair! I couldn’t believe that she got his attention over all the noise from the music, the parade and the crowd. I also couldn’t believe that he actually turned towards us, reacting to the yell. That was so awesome (and I have it on video!)
Then, more pin trading!! Oh my goodness, it’s a good thing that DB and I have 10 years of marriage under our belt because this tried his patience in the worst way. DB is a calm guy, very little gets under his skin and even when something does get under his skin, he doesn’t really show it. But this was definitely getting under his skin, I could so see it. But we were having so much fun that he didn’t say anything and was a great guy to go along with us.
(you can see my lanyard with pins )
Back at the hotel, more pin trading Yeah, we were hooked. And Hermi, at the Villas’ concierge, who was wonderful to us through out the trip: helping us with the wheelchair, dining arrangements, tickets to both Halloween parties and anything else we needed, presented Stitch with an exclusive blue-backed Stitch 10 years of trading pin. That is one pin that will never ever be traded away.
(think we can hitch a ride back to Disney with these guys?)
Lessons Learned:
Halloween at Magic Kingdom isn’t just for kids
Pin trading rocks, but need to find something to do with DB when we do trading!
Love Cruella with Little Dude! (Although I am relieved you were all prepared for her to pick him up, as I know that's generally against all service dog rules)
My DD likes getting free pins from our DVC rep, and using THOSE to trade for any pin that has her beloved Pluto!!
Thank you everyone who has followed along so far Here is the final installment of my trip report, along with a summary
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
So sad, but it’s time to leave. Packing was difficult, although we didn’t buy much. But some of the things were awkward to pack. We squeezed in more pin trading. We had managed to use all our counter service meals, I was very happy about that. I had read reviews of the dinning plan, the one with one snack, one counter and one table service, that people were converting their counter service points to snack points to use them up on the last day. I am thankful to report that by careful planning by everyone, we had no unused counter points. Table service options were also all used up.
Only three snacks were left, not bad at all!! We picked up a few things to enjoy and I was just really thrilled that we managed to balance it all right to the last day. Drove back to the airport, dropped of the car and checked our bags. The flight was fine, did reiki on the Little Dude before we even pulled away from the gate. He did much better on the flight this time.
Landed in the not so magical land of NJ, collected our things, picked up my dog, Molly, at my in-laws, and went home to get ready for work in the morning.
Lessons Learned:
A car really isn’t needed, even with the service dog. I knew that we were going to stay on site the whole time, but I wasn’t sure about flying and the airport with Little Dude since we had never done it before. So I erred on the side of caution and got the car. I also had plans to go grocery shopping since we had the kitchen, but that never happened. And we didn’t need it.
Pack a spare bag and pack less clothes. Especially with the washer/dryer in the room, we didn’t need everything we packed. And a bag just for everything you can’t cram back into the suitcases would have been handy.
Lessons Learned from the trip over all.
So you’ve probably noticed that I ended each day with a small list of lessons learned that day. It’s a project manager habit. What I have learned do to differently for next time? All experiences feed into this process, good and bad.
The Good:
The wheelchair and the GAC made the trip work. Without both of them, looking back, I don’t know what would have happened, but it would have been a disaster. I don’t know how it could have gotten worse than having us both break down within hours of each other, but if we hadn’t made changes, slowed way down and used the wheelchair, there would have been no happy memories of the trip.
We had re-usable water bottles with built-in filters. They were fabulous! We are definitely bringing them next time and they saved us so much money. One annoying side affect of one of my meds is dry mouth. So I’m always looking for a sip of water. If we had to purchase water in the parks, we’d be broke or out of snack points in two days.
Getting the refillable resort mug made breakfast affordable through using a snack point for a pastry and using the mug for a free coffee or juice.
Pressed pennies was fun for everyone and a great, cheaper, thing to collect. Stitch mapped out the ones she wanted and then we had fun trying to find where in the store the machine was hidden.
Cutting out Animal Kingdom. Still haven’t been there, but it wasn’t going to work on this trip.
Mickey’s Halloween completely and totally rocked.
Finally got it through our (my) thick heads that we needed to do Characters over rides. I had no idea that they would be everywhere and with the Photopass and the digital cameras, we had so much fun meeting them! I think it was the 5th or 6th day when I finally realized that rides were a definite second for Stitch
Photopass was definitely worth the money. Every penny, even though DB was laid off. Making the book itself was a pain, and right before I clicked “order,” they updated their system and I could do a whole new book. Which I totally did - the layouts and flexibility was so much better. The book has been shown to so many people and it is filled with our photos and park photos. Some of my favorite pictures never would have happened without Photopass. While I love DB and Stitch both very much, I tend to be the one who takes pictures of people. If there is a candid picture of me, it’s because I had to prompt one of them to take it. So doing photopass meant that there were plenty of pictures that included me and I didn’t have to feel like a nag!!
The Bad:
The luau - the food was ok, the drunks behind us weren’t and being ignored wasn’t fun. And the first two parts of the show just aren’t worth it with the sexist stereotypes. Act 3 with the fire was amazing, and I wish there was an option to just see that part.
Would you slow DOWN?!?! As you read above, it took a lot for me to realize how much we had to slow down. Really need to take this into consideration for our next trip.
Two character meals in one day is too much. We loved both the meals and we have great pictures, but it was overwhelming for everyone.
September in Orlando feels like August in NJ - still very hot and humid.
So what is on our list for next time?
Rent an ECV for Stitch, way easier than pushing.
Illuminations
The pool!
Fantasmic!
Sit down breakfasts
Animal Kingdom
More pin trading
Mini-golf
Staying that close to Epcot and MHS wasn’t that much of a bonus because we didn’t even walk to Epcot. With the wheelchair, it was easier to take the boat. So staying at a moderate would probably work.
I am so grateful for your TR stating you loved MNSSHP so much you went twice in on trip! I'm going for the first time this year!!!!!
Mickey's Halloween is so good that for our upcoming trip we are specifically coming home the day after the first Halloween party!! I don't care that it's early Sept, the party is just the best.
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