mickeystoontown
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2006
I'm so anxious for them to arrive! This is the biggest pile of crap that I've ever seen!
**Wait! I forgot something. We got a call from Lacey the evening before saying that they had arrived at the hotel but they said the reservation had been automatically cancelled. What the heck? I logged into hotels.com and found the reservation and tried to call them back. She text me that they had found it and they were checking in.
It was all just a mix-up. What had happened was this: When I am looking for hotels on the way to Disney, I initially book our normal hotel. Then, for months, I check prices to see if I can get it cheaper. Once it gets closer to the trip, I keep the cheapest rate and cancel the others. The hotel staff looked at the one that I had cancelled about a week prior. They weren't looking at the one that I kept. Another factor was that the kids had decided during Sunday dinner that they could just share a room for the night. John and I had said we would be paying for everything but gas and food. They said there was no reason for us to pay for two rooms when they would only be crashing for the night. I, personally, wouldn't want to sleep with my sister and her husband or my brother and his wife but whatever. (Lacey and Jesse were in a missionary college and they dormed with five other people so it doesn't bother them at all. Hunter and Tabitha said they didn't mind either soooo.....)
Okay, let's get back to the report.
Today was the day! The day the kids would meet us at Walt Disney World! The first time my daughter-in-law, Tabitha, would EVER visit Walt Disney World! The first time we would be together as a family of six at Walt Disney World!
I went online and booked a breakfast reservation at Rix. We aren't big breakfast eaters but breakfast sounded good today. As we walked to Rix, we received a call from Hunter. They had been on the road about two hours. The little stinkers were supposed to call us when they got on the road. We asked them to check in with us along the way. Our plan was to have breakfast and then go to Disney Springs to shop for a while. We were really just trying to keep ourselves occupied so we wouldn't keep looking at the time and wondering when they would get there. It's like a "are we there yet" moment.
We checked into Rix and were immediately seated. There were only a handful of people there.
We couldn't decide what we wanted so we ordered two different entrees and split them between us. John ordered a breakfast wrap, and I ordered an omelet.
During breakfast, we noticed more and more people entering the building. There were oodles and oodles of cheerleaders, what appeared to be basketball players, and businessmen and women. They were like ants scurring here and there. The food court was packed.
Once we were done with breakfast, we made our way back to our building but chose to go the long way around. We went over the bridge and over to Cabanas.
This is where the post will be very wordy with no pictures.
We stopped at our room, made a restroom stop and picked up my purse. We walked to the bus stop and waited and waited and waited. Bus after bus passed our stop. Other guests joined us at the stop. Many of them were waiting on a Disney Springs bus too. Yes, we could have gotten in our car and driven but, you guys, I do not like driving on Disney property especially driving to Disney Springs.
After what seemed like forever, we were finally at Disney Springs. We made stops in several stores purchasing a couple of t-shirts, a few stickers, and I can't remember what else. John got himself a coffee from Starbucks even though he had coffee at breakfast. His doctor once asked him how much coffee he drank a day and he said not much. When the doctor asked how much is not much, John's reply was about six cups. The doctor couldn't believe he didn't think that was much.
While shopping, we would receive texts periodically from the kids. When they were about two and a half hours away, we figured it was time to go back to the resort. We got in the Coronado Springs bus line and waited about 20 minutes for a bus to get there. The bus was full when we left Disney Springs. As we almost always do, we made our way to the back of the bus so that everyone behind us could load onto the bus.
Once we arrived at Coronado Springs, our first stop was Gran Destino where quite a few people got off and quite a few people got on. And that's where the biggest pile of crap began. People got off and on at Gran Destino. We then started around the resort and towards Casistas. Even before we got to the stop, we could see what looked like dozens of cheerleaders. Some guests got off and as many cheerleaders as could fit got on. The next stop was Ranchos and even more cheerleaders got on. I don't see how they even fit. We couldn't see a thing because our back was to the windows and cheerleaders were, literally, sitting on top of each other and talking so loud I could hardly hear my own thoughts. I was so glad that we would be getting off at the next stop.
Imagine our surprise when the bus driver drove right past it. Right past it! We tried to say something but I'm serious when I say we couldn't move and we couldn't even call out to the driver. He sped right out of the resort and took us back to Disney Springs.
As soon as everybody got off the bus, we walked to the front and asked the driver why he didn't stop at the Cabanas bus stop. He looked at us like we had two heads and rudely said "because the bus was full" to which we replied, "we were getting off not on." He sat there for a minute and said "Well, you are getting off now". John was spitting nails mad so I knew that I had to do the talking. I asked him if he could take us back to the resort because we had already wasted so much time due to his error. He basically said we were screwed and to get off. John asked his name and took note of the bus number. The driver grabbed his bag and got off too. Booty face!
Lacey messaged us while we were talking to him, and I didn't answer. They had run into traffic and would be later than originally expected. I decided to grab John something to drink to take his meds with and I'd go into Guest Relations to discuss what had just happened. I waited in the Guest Relations line outside and when I reached the podium, I was told that I was wasting my time waiting to go inside. They couldn't do anything about it. I asked if I could at least make a report of what happened and how rude the bus driver was. They said it was about a 45 minute wait and, again, it wouldn't do any good.
By this time, I was pissed, and it takes a lot for me to get pissed. I met back up with John, gathered up our bags and went back to the bus stop. Thankfully, we didn't wait as long as before. And I didn't go to the back of the bus either. We plopped our behinds down in the first two seats on the bus. There would be no repeat of what happened to us before.
We made it back to our resort, madder than two wet hens. You won't believe what happened next! Our bus broke down. It was smoking and shuddering. The bus driver told us that we had to get off at Gran Destino and walk. What an ordeal! But, we were back and would be there when the rest of the family arrived.
**Up next: Your dad's under the car kids!
**Wait! I forgot something. We got a call from Lacey the evening before saying that they had arrived at the hotel but they said the reservation had been automatically cancelled. What the heck? I logged into hotels.com and found the reservation and tried to call them back. She text me that they had found it and they were checking in.
It was all just a mix-up. What had happened was this: When I am looking for hotels on the way to Disney, I initially book our normal hotel. Then, for months, I check prices to see if I can get it cheaper. Once it gets closer to the trip, I keep the cheapest rate and cancel the others. The hotel staff looked at the one that I had cancelled about a week prior. They weren't looking at the one that I kept. Another factor was that the kids had decided during Sunday dinner that they could just share a room for the night. John and I had said we would be paying for everything but gas and food. They said there was no reason for us to pay for two rooms when they would only be crashing for the night. I, personally, wouldn't want to sleep with my sister and her husband or my brother and his wife but whatever. (Lacey and Jesse were in a missionary college and they dormed with five other people so it doesn't bother them at all. Hunter and Tabitha said they didn't mind either soooo.....)
Okay, let's get back to the report.
Today was the day! The day the kids would meet us at Walt Disney World! The first time my daughter-in-law, Tabitha, would EVER visit Walt Disney World! The first time we would be together as a family of six at Walt Disney World!
I went online and booked a breakfast reservation at Rix. We aren't big breakfast eaters but breakfast sounded good today. As we walked to Rix, we received a call from Hunter. They had been on the road about two hours. The little stinkers were supposed to call us when they got on the road. We asked them to check in with us along the way. Our plan was to have breakfast and then go to Disney Springs to shop for a while. We were really just trying to keep ourselves occupied so we wouldn't keep looking at the time and wondering when they would get there. It's like a "are we there yet" moment.
We checked into Rix and were immediately seated. There were only a handful of people there.
We couldn't decide what we wanted so we ordered two different entrees and split them between us. John ordered a breakfast wrap, and I ordered an omelet.
During breakfast, we noticed more and more people entering the building. There were oodles and oodles of cheerleaders, what appeared to be basketball players, and businessmen and women. They were like ants scurring here and there. The food court was packed.
Once we were done with breakfast, we made our way back to our building but chose to go the long way around. We went over the bridge and over to Cabanas.
This is where the post will be very wordy with no pictures.
We stopped at our room, made a restroom stop and picked up my purse. We walked to the bus stop and waited and waited and waited. Bus after bus passed our stop. Other guests joined us at the stop. Many of them were waiting on a Disney Springs bus too. Yes, we could have gotten in our car and driven but, you guys, I do not like driving on Disney property especially driving to Disney Springs.
After what seemed like forever, we were finally at Disney Springs. We made stops in several stores purchasing a couple of t-shirts, a few stickers, and I can't remember what else. John got himself a coffee from Starbucks even though he had coffee at breakfast. His doctor once asked him how much coffee he drank a day and he said not much. When the doctor asked how much is not much, John's reply was about six cups. The doctor couldn't believe he didn't think that was much.
While shopping, we would receive texts periodically from the kids. When they were about two and a half hours away, we figured it was time to go back to the resort. We got in the Coronado Springs bus line and waited about 20 minutes for a bus to get there. The bus was full when we left Disney Springs. As we almost always do, we made our way to the back of the bus so that everyone behind us could load onto the bus.
Once we arrived at Coronado Springs, our first stop was Gran Destino where quite a few people got off and quite a few people got on. And that's where the biggest pile of crap began. People got off and on at Gran Destino. We then started around the resort and towards Casistas. Even before we got to the stop, we could see what looked like dozens of cheerleaders. Some guests got off and as many cheerleaders as could fit got on. The next stop was Ranchos and even more cheerleaders got on. I don't see how they even fit. We couldn't see a thing because our back was to the windows and cheerleaders were, literally, sitting on top of each other and talking so loud I could hardly hear my own thoughts. I was so glad that we would be getting off at the next stop.
Imagine our surprise when the bus driver drove right past it. Right past it! We tried to say something but I'm serious when I say we couldn't move and we couldn't even call out to the driver. He sped right out of the resort and took us back to Disney Springs.
As soon as everybody got off the bus, we walked to the front and asked the driver why he didn't stop at the Cabanas bus stop. He looked at us like we had two heads and rudely said "because the bus was full" to which we replied, "we were getting off not on." He sat there for a minute and said "Well, you are getting off now". John was spitting nails mad so I knew that I had to do the talking. I asked him if he could take us back to the resort because we had already wasted so much time due to his error. He basically said we were screwed and to get off. John asked his name and took note of the bus number. The driver grabbed his bag and got off too. Booty face!
Lacey messaged us while we were talking to him, and I didn't answer. They had run into traffic and would be later than originally expected. I decided to grab John something to drink to take his meds with and I'd go into Guest Relations to discuss what had just happened. I waited in the Guest Relations line outside and when I reached the podium, I was told that I was wasting my time waiting to go inside. They couldn't do anything about it. I asked if I could at least make a report of what happened and how rude the bus driver was. They said it was about a 45 minute wait and, again, it wouldn't do any good.
By this time, I was pissed, and it takes a lot for me to get pissed. I met back up with John, gathered up our bags and went back to the bus stop. Thankfully, we didn't wait as long as before. And I didn't go to the back of the bus either. We plopped our behinds down in the first two seats on the bus. There would be no repeat of what happened to us before.
We made it back to our resort, madder than two wet hens. You won't believe what happened next! Our bus broke down. It was smoking and shuddering. The bus driver told us that we had to get off at Gran Destino and walk. What an ordeal! But, we were back and would be there when the rest of the family arrived.
**Up next: Your dad's under the car kids!
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We went back to our home away from home, Caribbean Beach, and remembered why we loved it so much. I'll be writing a trip report about our travel adventures and will let you know when I've started. First, I need to finish up this one which I am about to work on. Oh and we already have a countdown for next year which will probably come as no surprise to anyone. What may be surprising is that we are also visiting Universal in 2023. I'll get to all that later. 
