Early May 2014 Disney (Wait I mean “House hunting”) Trip Review

[marciemi]

So my husband is being transferred to Orlando (not totally willingly but we’re making the best of it!) to open a new facility down there in August. They paid for a house hunting trip for us to go down so figured we’d make the most of it by buying our AP’s early (even though it means no FL discount but if we wait for that it’ll be October since we’ll be in Corporate Housing for the first few months anyway and not officially residents). So we worked in seeing 30 houses over a long weekend and still managed to spend part of each of the 4 days at the parks. I’ll focus on the park part here.

One quick caveat – we took almost no pics. Like maybe 1-2 a day. So if you’re reading in hopes of seeing lots of great pictures, you may want to choose another TR. Sorry!

We found out about this trip only about 2 weeks in advance. The company wanted to put us up in the Hilton, in the UCF area, for $120 a night (apparently only hotel they have direct billing with). Since DH will be working in Davenport (right near Disney), we asked if we could find somewhere on our own and submit later to be reimbursed. Ended up finding a nice townhouse in Regal Palms for $69 a night (with all the fees, cleaning, taxes, etc. it ended up being close to $100 a night total) – which gave us plenty of space and a nice quiet place to relax without kids running and screaming down the hallways. While the pool/spa area seemed nice, we really only used it once for about 30 minutes as we were just too busy. It would be great if you had young kids, but for a “late 40-somethings” couple, we really had no need to go on waterslides or lazy rivers on such a short trip. Incidentally, the pic in the siggie below is from 1998 – our guys are all now in college (and the oldest graduates in just 3 weeks!). How time flies!!

Our arrival day was pretty basic – we both worked most of the day (Fri, May 2) and had a Southwest flight at 5:30ish out of Indy. Actually got through security and at the gate in time to watch the AirTran flight at the gate next to ours board for a 4:20 or so flight – really should have opted for that one instead (but we’d already checked luggage and really had no choice in the flights as the company scheduled them). Our flight showed “On Time” right up until the flight time, when they suddenly decided to tell us that apparently the flight would NOT be on time (shocking at that point!). We were waiting for the Flight Attendants. Well, we waited for quite a while with no further updates from the good folks at SW (most people were standing by the boarding numbers for most of this time since they’d told us we’d be boarding soon back at 5:15 or so). Around 6:15 the crew finally showed up (obviously coming from another delayed flight) and we boarded and left, well over an hour late. Managed to score a row with an empty seat between us in the back of the plane which made for a much more comfortable flight at least. No issues in Orlando getting baggage and out to the rental car (other than the steady rain at that point) – Orlando has one of the easiest rental car facilities of any airport I’ve been to – especially if you’re an Emerald Aisle member at National (lines for Hertz were incredible – probably 30 people in line when we walked by it). We avoided all lines, walked right to a car, tossed our stuff in and were out the gate about 2 minutes later.

Got to Regal Palms and checked in easily and I did some quick unpacking while DH did some quick shopping for essentials at Walmart (pancakes for breakfasts, wine for unwinding after the parks). Texted our realtor all our info and called it a night!

Tomorrow – Day 1 – House Hunting and Epcot Evening - Sat, May 3

 

[marciemi]

Day 1 had us up bright and early – but not to head into a park. Possibly for the best as it rained pretty much steadily all day (and was not exactly warm either). Decided to wear the one long-sleeved shirt I’d brought, along with a “real” raincoat for going in and out of houses. We’d hoped to wear some of our nice matching t-shirts and shorts (well, the t-shirts match, not the shorts!) but today was not conducive to that!

We wrapped up with houses by around 5 and headed back to the Townhouse. Grabbed a fanny pack, the receipt printout for our AP’s, and headed over to Epcot. When we showed them the voucher receipt, they didn’t charge us for parking. We walked into the entrance area (seemed easier than waiting for a tram) and went to a ticket window (no line at this time). Quickly got the passes exchanged for cards and got our little “AP Discounts” booklet and headed into the park. So far, so good.

However, when we got to the times board it showed us that our first FPP (Living with the Land) was Down. I tried on my phone to see if I could change it but it showed nothing available. We figured we’d go to a Kiosk, see how they worked, and maybe get a different FPP instead from a CM. Ah, we were so naïve and optimistic!! This became the start of several days of dealing with the CM’s, Customer Service folks, etc. and never getting our passes to work correctly. They worked fine on my phone and at the rides but never at the kiosks (hence, getting a 4th FPP took forever and manual override by a CM). Much more about this later. This was frustrating because the CM insisted that it showed we had no account, nothing booked as far as FPP’s for the 4 days we were there and that we’d have to start from scratch. I showed her they were still there when I went into MDE on my phone but she insisted the FP’s were no longer that. Her specific quote was “That’s unfortunate.” Sigh.

She eventually sent us to the main FPP center in Innoventions. There the CM was able to manually pull up all of our FPP’s but still couldn’t get them to work on a kiosk. He overrode it and assigned us an additional FPP that would work at any attraction except Test Track or Illuminations. We were skeptical but since it wasn’t that crowded we figured we’d be okay. So we wandered over to Imagination (no real line) and rode. Finished right as we were at the start of our window for Soarin’ so headed there and used our first FPP with no problem. FP as a whole never works great on this ride (seems like you still always wait a decent amount of time no matter what) but it was about the same with FPP as with Legacy FP.

We were hungry and craving food from Japan so began the trek around WS. It was still raining slightly but looking like it was letting up so when we got there we ordered and got a seat outside (inside was very full), after wiping them down with a stack of napkins. I was amazed at how crowded the park seemed, based on the predicted crowds that day and the fact that it had been raining all day. Most rides weren’t that bad but just walking through WS was a challenge! We both ordered one of the Udon soups (just typing this is making me crave it again – we LOVE the Tempura Shrimp Udon soup and it was a perfect evening for it!) and the house salad (with ginger dressing – also a favorite). Unfortunately it started raining on us again as we ate but we just pulled our raincoats over our heads and finished up the meal. We’d considered heading to France for dessert but were both stuffed after the meal so kept going in the opposite direction. Stopped in Mexico to ride the boat ride there (Is it still called El Rio del Tiempo? Can’t remember!) – again with no line but with idiots who were determined to take flash pictures every few seconds. And they weren’t even taking them of the ride itself but of the family so were aiming back directly within the boats. Over and over. Sigh.

We walked back and decided that we’d see if our “bonus” FP worked at Character Connection since we wanted to get a pic of us with Mickey to post on FB for our “Moving to Orlando announcement” for friends (we’d told most close friends by this point but not more distant folks). The FP worked fine and actually never even showed as used throughout that day. However, the line was only maybe 5 minutes at that point – it was more testing to see if it worked than actually needing it. Saw Mickey, Goofy & Minnie quickly (didn’t you used to see Donald and maybe Pluto too?).







It was probably nearing about 8:15 at this point and we wanted to leave before the crowds of Illuminations so we decided to use our last FPP that we had scheduled for Spaceship Earth. They told us when we got there that it would take longer to go through the FP line than the regular one but I think they just didn’t have the FP line open at all due to the low number of people. We rode, sent our video postcard, and walked out to the car just as we saw Illuminations’ fireworks starting back in the distance of the park. Got back to the Townhouse, quickly got stuff ready for the next day, had a glass of wine and crashed!



Next up – Day 2 – MK & Liner’s Meet (and some fun surprises!)

 

[keishashadow]

Talk about a dream come true, I'm sure you'll embrace living so near mecca.

I admit to needing new glasses but please tell me Goofy doesn't have you in a choke-hold lol.

 

[macraven]

i'm reading, keep going marcie.............write some more.

 

[marciemi]

Today was a MK day, although at least we weren’t trying to join the Anna & Elsa madhouse! We decided based on the FPP’s we had and the time we had (again looking at houses, this time in the afternoon), that we wanted to start with Peter Pan and then hit Splash and go from there. Unfortunately, this meant we were in the midst of the A&E crowd in any case. We were at the park by about 8:15 and through the turnstiles and near the front of the crowd on the left side. We had a chance to socialize with some other folks there and just hang out. I still haven’t figured out how you watch the preshow if you’re trying to be near the front of the crowd so while we could hear it, we were too far forward (nearly under the train station) to see it.



Disney had changed the process from what I read and they walked everyone forward at ropedrop, amongst many warnings to stay behind all the CM’s, all along Main Street. This took us up to the rope past the castle area, where we waited on the left hand side, figuring we weren’t near all the A&E folks. We weren’t near the front here, evidently based on the number of people who’d already done an early breakfast and were already lined up.



Again, at the next ropedrop (right at 9) they told everyone to stay behind the CM’s. I kept following them as my husband was yelling “Marcie – we’re not GOING that way!” Guess I felt a little leery breaking off left on my own, but quickly did and were the first people to Peter Pan. Evidently I missed the entrance though as where I went had a chain across it still, but looking at the line of people following me I quickly moved the chain anyway and entered the queue.



We were able to ride PP quickly and headed over to Splash Mountain, where there really wasn’t anyone near us either. We did see people in boats a few ahead of us but evidently no line for this ride on a cool morning (everything was still wet from all the rain of previous days). I’d brought a disposable poncho from the dollar store which worked nicely to keep me from being soaked and then I tossed it afterwards. DH opted to just get wet (mostly from the wet seat!) since it was already warming up. We always enjoy this ride and it was nice without the masses.

Went over to the train next and timed it well – it arrived about 2 minutes after we got to the station and we were the ONLY folks boarding in Frontierland! We rode it over the Fantasyland (save energy whenever possible!) and saw the new Tomorrowland for the first time as we made our way to Little Mermaid . Used our FPP’s here, although they really weren’t needed at this point but since we hadn’t ridden it before we wanted to make sure we’d be able to. Enjoyed it but thought it seemed too similar to Nemo over at Epcot. We next backtracked through this whole area over to Adventureland. Rode Pirates after a short wait then had a FPP for Jungle Cruise – this one was more beneficial as there was a decent line at this point. I was disappointed with JC though – I cannot remember the last time I actually had a good skipper on this ride (between this trip, 2011 and 2009). Seems like every one we’ve had lately just was going through the motions and reciting the jokes by rote while mumbling into the handset they had rammed right up to their mouth. Hoping someday to get a CM who actually seems excited to be there and makes it fun – maybe we’ve just had bad luck.

We walked back to Tomorrowland and since our Space FPP wasn’t for a while yet, we rode the TTA. First time I’ve been on this ride when it stopped (for probably 5-10 minutes). Just enjoyed watching the world and sitting down and it was funny to see a HUGE line for boarding it when we got off (never seen a line for that ride before!). Since we were rushing off right after Space to meet the realtor, we decided to grab a quick/early lunch at Cosmic Rays. This place isn’t overly exciting but the topping bar is excellent. I got a barbeque sandwich but added about an inch worth of mushrooms to it, along with a zillion pickles (yes, I realize, this doesn’t go together that well). Fortunately neither of us is overly susceptible to motion sickness as we went right from there to ride Space!

Got in line and as we were near the front of the FPP line, they suddenly stopped our line, waited a few minutes, then diverted the FPP line into the queue on the other side (we were guessing that side was having technical issues). All went smoothly from there and we boarded without issue. Did the countdown – 20 seconds until launch, 10, 5…and we were the first car waiting to go and then just stopped. Again sat for quite awhile (probably only 5 minutes but it seemed longer), while we waved to the one car waiting on the adjacent track. Right about the time we were wondering if we’d actually get to ride, our car suddenly launched. We went a short distance and then all the lights turned on!! As far as I could tell, for about the first half of the ride, we were the only car on the track. My husband was yelling “This is SO COOL!!” and we eventually saw one other car (guessing the folks waiting with us). When we got into the station, we were stopped before the unloading platform and they had to come over and release the bars one row at a time and help us up to the exit area. There was a CM there with a pad of slips – I’m guessing special FP’s for anyone who was upset or complained but since my husband was busy telling him how cool it was to ride with the lights on, needless to say we didn’t get one!



Here’s where we ran into trouble with the kiosks again. We had wanted to get a quick FPP for later when we returned to the park so got in line at the kiosk (which was pretty long at this point). Same thing happened as the previous night – put the cards in, it showed we had no account associated with the cards. Had a CM come over to help who said she’d never seen the error before. Got the head CM in the area to come over and help and he also didn’t know what to do. He mentioned giving us a paper FP for any attraction (except MSEP, which was really the one we wanted but it wasn’t available and he said he couldn’t do anything with that) but we also wanted to get it fixed. He took us over to a different FPP area and another supervisor who also “had never seen this error before”. She was able to override the system and give us one for Buzz for the time we wanted but that was all she could do. I was getting frustrated because it was like “What do you want?” and I had no clue of what times/FP’s were still available and just wanted to see it on a kiosk (or tablet that they were using or my phone or whatever!). It sounded like possibly it had been messed up by whatever the issue was with Space Mountain – that it kept showing we were still in line for that and hadn’t used that FP. However, they assured us everything was okay, we had the new FP, and since we were in a hurry to meet the realtor we rushed out of there.

After approximately another zillion houses, we headed back to the MK for our Liners (Touring Plans) meet that evening. First went to Buzz and since we got stuck in one room for a couple minutes and my husband managed to find a 100,000 target in there (which of course he didn’t share with me until right when we were about to leave the room!), he managed to get to 999,999 for the first time! (Cheating, I know). It did make for a boring rest of the ride for him though since that was fairly early on and he couldn’t get any more points. So we left Buzz, hungry and wanting to grab something quickly before the meet, but decided we wanted to check and see if we could get another FP first (more to make sure our cards finally worked than because we needed the FP). The park was open until midnight that night (2am for EMH) so still long lines at the kiosks, even at 7:30pm.



Coming as completely not a shock, we still weren’t able to access our accounts on the kiosk. The CM’s again were willing to override and give us a FP, but we didn’t have time for more rides anyway so they told us we could go up front to Guest Relations (or a separate FPP help area up there). Decided I’d wait at Tomorrowland Terrace for the Liners and he’d run up and see what he could do. He went up, waited in line, and they told him it was all taken care of. Unfortunately there are no kiosks anywhere in the front of the park (or at the FPP help area), so he ran all the way back to Tomorrowland and waited in line again only to find out that (shocker) they still didn’t work. Meanwhile, back to the front of the park where they replaced our cards and back to the kiosks where guess what? Nope, still didn’t work. Sigh. He gave up since we’d never had any trouble at the attractions and figured we’d be getting our Magic Bands by our next trip and it just wasn’t worth any more hassle (plus was getting impossible to go up and down Main Street as the time for MSEP neared). On the plus side, they did give us 2 FP's good for the next day good at any attraction that showed up on my phone/MDE page!

We had a good time meeting some folks from Lines, including the famous/infamous adrake and weasus! Even got a sticker from weasus celebrating the fact but we only had a few minutes to talk by the time DH got back before we headed out to find a spot for MSEP.



We got as far towards the entrance on Main Street as we could (weren’t planning to stay for Wishes) and easily found a spot behind some folks sitting there. We sat for the 15 minutes or so until the start of the parade then stood once the parade started in order to be able to see. (We were right back up against the rope). Had a good time but didn’t even bother to take many pictures since they never come out well and you can find thousands more that are better online.



Once the parade was over, we worked our way to the main exit which was extremely challenging since apparently EVERYONE else was working their way up to the castle for Wishes. Or so it seemed until we got to the monorail where it seemed suddenly like everyone was also waiting for the monorail. We managed to squeeze on the second one that arrived and went part way around before stopping for about 5 minutes to wait for the monorail ahead of us to unload (which was obviously as crammed as ours was). We got to the station and started working our way down across the platform when I saw another DISBoards shirt ahead of us and ran up to say hi!

DH & I were wearing the ones we got (DISBoards – Access the Magic) from back in 2005/2007. We’d bought a set for our 2005 trip but then as we prepared for our 2007 trip (link below if you want to read that LONG trip report) they were closing out on them so we bought quite a few since they were like $5 each (“buy two and I’ll send one free!!”) but in limited sizes. I like to wear them in the parks in the hopes of meeting other DIS’ers.

Well, I commented on the shirt and we started chatting as we walked down the long ramp. He mentioned he’d seen us in the park earlier and noticed our shirts must be from awhile back as the DIS hadn’t used that slogan in a long time and said we should be sure to hold on to them. I told him my username (expecting to get one in return) and it turned out I was talking to Pete Werner (founder of the DIS)!! Definitely a “celebrity spotting” for those of us who’ve been on the DIS since the late 90’s so I had my husband take a pic of the two of us! Definitely made my evening and I’ll keep wearing those shirts in the future!



Since we still hadn’t managed to find any time to get dinner, we called ahead to Dominos up in Davenport and picked up a pizza on our way back to the townhouse. Ate a late pizza dinner (around 10:30pm by this point) and called it a night.

Next up – DAY 3 – Epcot Evening

 

[macraven]

you really have fun when you are at the motherland.


you should of had Pete to autograph your Dis shirt.

 

[marciemi]

Yet another day of house hunting but a late afternoon & evening devoted to Epcot! Since we had several extra FP’s today to use for all our problems yesterday and were just meeting up with a friend, it was going to be a fairly low-stress day. Got back to the condo after lunch and met the friend at the entrance. Socialized much of the afternoon and then went into the park around 3:30. She had to go renew her annual pass so we ran ahead to Test Track while she did. Had no idea it had changed so much since the last time we rode it in 2011! I guess I’d heard it was being refurbished but figured that meant just cleaning up a few of the areas, not redoing the whole thing! We had fun designing the car to look like a submarine (middle son just branched submarines with the Navy!) and riding in general with our FPP we’d done in advance.




A good time and then I went over to meet my friend at the Land building while my husband went off in search of pins and shopping (he had wanted a Cinco de Mayo pin but evidently we were there too late in the day). I took his card and my friend and I used them on Soarin’ without any issues (this was one of the “free” FP’s from yesterday). Some of the fun things my husband found:



DH then met us at the Land pavilion and we all rode the boat ride together. We were getting hungry, and really not in a hurry, so decided to work our way back towards France for some (CS) dinner. We stopped first at the Duffy store near the entrance to World Showcase so I could get some Olaf pressed pennies for some friends with young Frozen fans! DH got one of the frozen pineapple drinks from the stand near there – I didn’t realize until after we got home that many of those stands we saw were a result of Flower & Garden and weren’t normally there. I might have tried a bit more if I had!

Stopped on the way at the International Gateway penny press to get Anna (or Elsa – one of them!) while DH went ahead and found us a seat in France. They had totally redone the CS restaurant here as well from the last time we were here in 2011. Still enjoyed the quiche and chocolate mousse although nowhere in the area apparently had any kind of white zinfandel for us to buy. One place had a blush wine but said it wasn’t sweet and we wouldn’t like it if we were looking for white zin. Have to narrow down where to get there besides France next time to bring when we eat there!

One funny story – as we were working our way back there, we were just slowly rambling along and chatting. My husband was laughing about it as we’re normally completely “Type A/Commando” park goers – whether we’re in a hurry or not, we’re not walking slowing or aimlessly. He pointed out to his horror that we were being “passed by strollers!” Just a tad unusual for us!



Our friend was heading back to the Tampa area so we all strolled back to Future World together and she headed out while we went to use our last set of bonus FP’s at Test Track one more time. Had fun here again and then went back to Mexico to get a traditional frozen Margarita for Cinco de Mayo!



Strolled back and found that last (Anna/Elsa) penny press in Mouse Gears and then just sat and people-watched for a bit. Decided we could go ahead and order our AP Magic Bands (we couldn't in advance until they were activated) so did that while watching. Back to the condo where we packed up as much as we could quickly before the departure the next day.

Day 4 – AK and return to the real “world”

 

[marciemi]

Primary objective for this day was seeing the Nemo Musical, which is one of my favorite shows at Disney. So we had FP’s for that (which ended up really not needed), EE and the safari but no real major things to do so decided to come in a bit later and see what happened then (we’re always rope drop people!).

We got to the parking lot around 9:25 and waited a few minutes to get through the toll plazas. Parked quite a way out but decided to walk anyway rather than wait for the (crowded) trams since it was a reasonable distance. We got to the bag check and were frustrated by the people ahead of us acting perplexed that they’d actually have to take a bag out of the stroller AND open it. Oh, and open a purse TOO? Sigh. Getting through the gate itself was quick and since we had a FP for EE from 9:30 to 10:30, decided to head there first. Were surprised to find that the wait time was only 5 minutes – I asked if it was accurate and they assured me it was so we decided to wait in standby first, which (as advertised) only took about 5 minutes. We then rode it a second time with the FP, even though the line really wasn’t much longer, since I knew my husband wouldn’t really want to do it a third time (he has a limit on rollercoasters before getting nauseous!). We walked from there over to DinoLand and again were surprised that (even around 10am) the line for Primeval Whirl was only listed as 10 minutes. It really didn’t even take that long, although neither of us are big fans of this ride (just too rough) so I think we’d pass in the future! We still had some time before our Nemo FP (listed return time was 10:30-10:50am) so we decided to try Dinosaur. Got stuck waiting for a bit to load (think they were adding in some extra cars) but still got off the ride by about 10:30 and headed right to Nemo.



We went to the FP line but there really didn’t seem to be a line for standby either (probably because it was the first show). The CM at the entrance commented on my AF Academy shirt that his brother was a graduate (our son graduates next week!) but I was more focused on finding a seat so unfortunately didn’t take the time to talk to him. I’d asked for the reflective captioning, which is really helpful to know all the words to the music in this show (and because I’m somewhat hearing impaired). We enjoyed the show as always and headed from here to the safaris to use our last FP for the day before heading to the airport.

Well, here’s where we ran into our first real issue with FP’s of the trip (besides the obvious technical issues with ours). The FPP line was HUGE! As in they couldn’t use the regular queue and had people throughout the entire area trying to get into the FPP line. They were telling people to only have one person in their group scan their MB/card to move the line more quickly, and we still ended up waiting probably at least 20-30 minutes. The standby line said it was 55 minutes at that point and I have no clue where everyone came from since the rest of the park didn’t seem crowded. I also checked the time later in the day and the waits were back down to like 20 min standby so I can only guess a huge crowd of people all came out of one show and went to the safaris at the same time. I still can’t figure out though how they all had FPP’s for that exact time though. Some pictures of the FPP line:



The ride itself was uneventful – we never get great shots so really didn’t try and just watched animals. Although I was distracted by the guy in front of me (probably mid-20’s with a GF/SO with him). The family in the row ahead of them had a young girl (maybe 2-3) who kept turning around and smiling at people. Well, the guy in front of me kept taking her picture – at first I figured it was just because she was being cute but then as he took more I figured he must be with them. Seriously, like every time he took a pic of an animal off to the side, he then would take a quick pic of her as well. I watched them when we got off and they never spoke to the other family or apparently had anything to do with them so it left me a bit creeped out – almost wondered if I should tell the girl’s family!



We’d been planning on trying for another FP at a kiosk to see if (maybe?) our cards would work but it was getting tight on the airport timeline at this point and we didn’t see any immediate kiosks so just headed out, after a quick stop for some Anna & Elsa (or Olaf) rice krispie treats for some co-workers’ daughters (and apparently my husband). We stopped at Sweet Tomatoes in the Lake Buena Vista area for a quick lunch (our realtor had recommended it) and really enjoyed it. Probably ate way too much though so don’t see going there that often! Got to the airport and into a HUGE security line – one thing that will definitely be a change to us moving to Orlando as opposed to the Indy airport where you usually wait like 4 people or so. However, we were anticipating this and had plenty of time to get through and to our gate. We were on Airtran this time who actually boarded quite a bit ahead of schedule so made it back to the real world without any issues – DH enjoying his Olaf treat on the plane, to the rolled eyes of the flight attendant:

One funny thing – when the aircraft began its taxi speedup up the runway to takeoff, two of the young kids several rows ahead of us immediately put their hands up in the air (like you would on a coaster)! Too funny and cute. Anyway, got our luggage, got the car and that wrapped up this visit. Looking forward to being back down there (for good) in July!

 

[macraven]

i always love reading your trippies Marcie !

 

[keishashadow]

that FPP line (complete with a creeper no less ) was crazy long...sigh.

haven't followed it much, wonder if they plan on having online capability down the road as in the 1st 3 now?

sweet tomatoeswill have to check it out. we like the girdanos (sp) in lake Buena vista but it always takes forever to get served.