The Trip with Star Wars, Fighting...and a Penguin?

fallen_angel727

Here you leave today and enter the world of yester
Joined
Oct 24, 2008
Hi all, I'm going to attempt this trip report thing again, hopefully I'll make it through this one :rotfl2:

So we just came back from a 6 night/7 day stay at POP. We had a great time, but one thing we learned is that travelling in groups with Disney Newbies isn't always easy, there were plenty of ups and downs but I promise you we did have a wonderful time. I also learned that I probably need to keep my knowledge of Disney (even though it's minimal) to myself as all week when I asked what everyone wanted to do I got "it doesn't matter because it will ruin your plan"...so needless to say the trip didn't begin well. We were unaware how strongly our travel companions DID NOT want to do anything regarding with Star Wars Weekends, and basically the problems of this trip came down to a great lack of communication on everyones part and we learned that maybe we should have split up more often :lmao:

So now that the bad stuff is out of the way (it may resurface again temporarily...be warned!) lets get onto the wonderful parts of this trip that was 9 months + in the making. Let me introduce to you to our travelling party

From Left to Right we have DBrother (Goofy), Goofy's GF (Cindy), Me (Leia), and DH (Han Solo)



Next up Travel Day 1
 
It appear you may have been at Star Wars Weekends that same time I was! Can't wait to read more about your trip.
 
Well this post is going to be relatively short, with no pics (sorry), not much happened today other than travel

Han Solo and I were up at the crack of dawn, well actually earlier 3:00am to be exact. I was so excited that I completely forgot I'm not a morning persona nd was actually quite pleasant to be around this early (DH was kind enough to tell me this :lmao:). The car had been packed up the night before so we were ready to go by 3:30, and we actually left on time for once 3:26 by the clock in my car. Next stop was my parents house to pick up Goofy and Cindy.

Oh side note, I forgot to mention that we were travelling to Disney about 1200 miles (or 18 or so hours) in my little Honda Civic with 4 adults plus all our gear.

Anyway, by 3:35 we had arrived at the gas station to "fill up" (really it was only about $20, as we were hoping to fill up once we crossed into Michigan where gas is cheaper than here in Canada), put air in the tires etc. We made good time here also and pulled into my parents driveway by 3:45, were packed up and on the road by 4:00...great time (take my word for it with our track record I was expecting to be leaving closer to 5 :lmao:)

We crossed the boarder into Detroit with no troubles. The customs officer asked for our itinerary and I gave him the booklet Disney sent us (the one with the vouchers and things in it). He was really excited about the fact that we had goofy golf vouchers for some reason, told us several times to make good use of them :rotfl2:

After that we were on our way, we stopped in Toledo at Meijer for sor breakfast foods (cereal, pop tarts etc) then we were on our way. Oh side note, I was SHOCKED at how cheap gas was not more than $36 to fill my tank from empty (about $55 at home)...thanks America :thumbsup2

We drove until about 9:30pm when we stopped for the night in Cordell Georgia with only minor traffic in Atlanta (40 minutes to get through the city down I75 at rush hour - I guess the Pixie Dust came early!).

Some quick, kind of boring travel pics...


Turner Field...home of the Braves (Goofy and I are HUGE baseball fans!)


Georgia sunset/moon rise...pardon the traffic barrels lol

Up next the 4 hours of our trek and check in at Pop
 


So we left off stopping for the night in Georgia

:offtopic: I forgot to mention our super yummy dinner at Red Robin the night before, we don't have them at home so it was definitely a treat!!!

We left the sketchy travel lodge we stayed at as early as we could the next day (some creepy guy kept trying to teach DH about Jesus and prove how he was a direct descendant...it was awkward, especially when we found out his wife was the wonderful receptionist that helped us check in) and by 7:30 we had eaten and were back on the road...

2 hours later we pull into a rest stop (some one apparently didn't pee before we left, I promise it wan't me :rolleyes1). It was a good thing we stopped because I had been sleeping and didn't realize where we were...



We made it...well to Florida anyway!! And let me say the weather was absolutely PERFECT. Not a cloud in the sky, no humidity and 80 degrees...heaven!

After our stop, we continued on, I was a bit worried as we had decided not to take the turnpike and come in the "back way" so to speak. Well we found it no problem, in my excitement I completely forgot to snap a pic of the Disney arch (I know Bad fallen_angel, Bad). We headed Straight to POP where we realized we were about 3 hours earlier than we thought we would be ( we made EXCELLENT time the night before) it was only 1:00pm, sweet.

SO we park and head inside to check in. Well because we were early there were no rooms available in the areas I had requested (50s or 70s). I offered to wait and said we had a car we can just take our things to the park and come back later, but the CM behind the desk said it wasn't necessary and he may have something ready for us in another section, the 60s pool view. Sweet an upgrade...awesome!. Or not...he hadn't checked first and all he had was 80s building 7 facing the parking lot. I insisted that it was no problem for us to come back after our park time but as I was talking he was clicking away and the next thing I new he was handing us our KTTW cards...for building 7 :(
Well I didn't really want to argue and it wasn't really a huge deal where we were so I said thank you and we were off, well the boys were...to the farthest parking lot ever from Classic Hall.

Now you may be thinking, of course I didn't get what I wanted I was early, I should be complaining, blah, blah, blah and I realize that. If you'll stick with this TR you'll see that even though I was bummed that we didn't get what we wanted, our rooms were just as good. We were fairly close to the "quiet" computer pool and it was very quiet all around our room the whole week. While I would never request this building, it was a nice surprise.

While the boys drove around to our building, Cindy and I decided to walk over so we could collect our mugs and of course my first snack credit some Tie Dye Cheesecake. By the time we got to our room (I'll admit we took the long way so I could point out the pools and some other fun stuff to Cindy) the boys had the car unpacked and had already opened the case of beer :rolleyes2. We let them finish up and we were off to the Magic Kingdom

WARNING: the next 7 days of posts will have you exhausted so please put on your walking shoes and be prepared for a nap at the end of each post...we however took no naps and that is what I think lead to the troubles because Goofy and Cindy definitely were not prepared to tour in the way Han Solo and I usually do

Up next - The Magic Kingdom, Columbia Harbour House, a Splash Nightmare and the first of many meltdowns
 
So we left off with the boys finishing their beer, me finishing my cheesecake and onward to the Magic Kingdom.

We reached the TTC without much hassle (keep this in mind...we had a terrible navigator and we weren't hassle free most days :lmao:). W park in the furthest Villians lot you can imagine and all I can think is "wonderful, look at the crowds." We only had a short wait for the monorail though so it wasn't too bad.

We get to the Magic Kingdom and since it was earlier than expected (it's only about 2pm as opposed to the 4-5 that we expected) we went for some Splash fast passes then headed for Pirates and had a decent ride. There was the man in front of us that kept taking pictures with the flash of EVERYTHING, however I made sure to speak up after EVERY flash, so yes our ride was ruined, but so was his :lmao: I can be rude like that lol.

Our Fastpasses we're due until about 6pm, so after Pirates we headed over to my favourite and your...the Haunted Mansion. We had a wonderful ride. We ride boys in one car and girls in the other and I had a blast watching Cindy's reaction to the ride (remember this was her first visit), she loved it!! As I thought she might :rolleyes1

Some pics of us in line...




And yea there are several pics photobombed by my brother...BUT heaven forbid we try that with pics of him and Cindy :sad2:

Anyway, onward...after HM I sent the gang over to Columbia Harbour House (with my order) and I ran to get a FP for Jungle Cruise. I made good time and got back just as they were sitting down. We had an awesome meal - as always CCH did not disappoint. Goofy and Cindy were pleasantly surprised, Cindy told me she didn't know what to expect but she figured it would be typical themepark fare, which it obviously was not!

After dinner and some wandering we decided to use our Splash FPs. Here's where the nightmare comes in. Goofy is definitely not a rides person, AT ALL, but was willing to go on for Cindy. So we're waiting in the 10 minute FP line and he's being very loud and kind of grouchy (which is what he does when he's nervous). We get into the log - Han and I in front, Cindy and Goofy in row 2 - and off we go. For about 5 seconds, we stop at the top of the lift right at the beginning. And when I say stop I mean STOPPED on an incline for about 15 minutes (and believe me it hurt the neck trying to hold your head up at that awkward angle) We asked if we were going to be let off and multiple times we were told we would be moving in a minute. At this point Goofy has become VERY quiet and everytime we spoke to him he would get VERY snippy, which clearly upset us all. Well as I said, 15 minutes later we were moving again, however exceptionally slowly. After about 3 more stops we made it to the final lift, right under the vultures...where we stopped AGAIN. Permanently this time, we were evacuated after about 50 minutes on Splash, which is kind of ridiculous. The CMs new it and we were all given fast passes good until the 31st.

This would have been great, but we were on the ride so long that now we had to decide whether we use our Jungle Cruise FPs OR get our seat for the Mainstreet Electrical Parade. It was PACKED today and it was already 8pm, if we didn't get a spot we probably never would. I talked to a manager and she was kind of snippy, our conversation went something like this...

Me: "Excuse me, I was wondering. We have FPs for Jungle cruise but we need to get a seat for the parade because it's so busy, we weren't expecting it to take this long on Splash, is there anything you can do?"
CM: "Why didn't you use the other FP first?"
Me: taking out the Jungle Cruise FP "Because they weren't until after this one"
CM "Well FINE, you can have some, but maybe you should plan better next time"
Me: "Umm thanks? But there's no need to be rude it was a simple question"

Then we just walked away with the CM in a huff...obviously giving 150 extra FPs was stressful, but a simple no would have been sufficient...thought we did get our extra passes so it was all good.

We headed out toward mainstreet and I looked at Hans phone only to find out it was only 7pm...not 8 like I thought :blush: Oops...no wonder the CM got snippy. Oh well, we all make mistakes, so we used one of our extra passes for the new Little Mermaid Ride. IT was OK, Cindy loved it...the boys hated it, I thought it was OK. By the time we got off, it was ACTUALLY time to sit for the parade.

Looking back we should have skipped the Little Mermaid and went straight to mainstreet, because when we got there it was PACKED. I had an idea of where I wanted to sit but there were no spots available. We were all tired from the 2 days of travel and running around the magic kingdom, so this is where the meltdown occurs.

As I'm looking for a spot I hear from a party member "we can just sit somewhere else...unless that is it will deviate from your plan, we don't want you to get angry" Well this comment makes me angry, but all I say is "fine". Apparently this was the wrong thing to say as then I was accused of having attitude etc. So here we are in the middle of mainstreet hashing it out about who's giving who attitude and what is and isn't appropriate to say. I'm told that "I'm ruining everyone's vacation and I need to calm down" which clearly upsets me more. So needless to say We were not happy by the time we actually found a spot. However the meltdown apparently helped because we were good after that...



Oh and the Parade was great, here's the reaction of Cindy's first time seeing a float


(she'll kill me if she knew this was here :lmao: - but in my defense, she told me to take a pic of her reaction)

Following the Parade and a wonderful Wishes show (as always), we headed back to the monorail only to decide the line was MUCH to long. So we took the ferry over to the Poly and walked to the TTC, then ALL the way back to the car.

Let me tell you, we slept like baby's that night!!

Up next - DHS, Star Wars, More rides for Goofy (surprise, surprise he actually likes them!) Mamma Melrose and Fantasmic!
 
We left MK a bit early ( official park close was midnight I believe and we were back at the room by 11) because we had an early day tomorrow. I was hoping for "rope drop" at DHS, well we were close. I had planned on being there by abour 7:15, we actually showed up by 7:45 and missed opening by only 15 minutes.

Since we were running a few minutes late I decided in the car that I would run and get us FP at Toy Story and the rest of the crew could meet me at The Great Movie Ride after. We got through bag check and into the park without many issues. The only thing is that other than myself (who insisted on having her KTTW in her hand before going through bag check) everyone was fiddling and trying to find their cards, AFTER being called forward to the gates :headache:. THEN they put them away...umm hello I thought I said I was getting FPs and they all definitely knew by now that I needed their cards. So after asking (in a fairly snippy tone I'll admit, as I hadn't had any breakfast yet), and finally receiving I took of to TSM.

I made it in record time only to find...MAYBE 100 people there, hmm it seemed a lot more busy than it actually was. Oh well score one for us, I ended up for PF for about 10:30am, not too bad. As I headed back to The Great Movie Ride I wondered where exactly they would be. I had asked they meet me RIGHT in front, on the star walkway, but sure enough they were off to the side around the corner almost at the diner *sigh*. Oh well.

So I asked what everyone would like to do today and I was met with "how should we know, we don't have a map." SERIOUSLY...ok "why not?" "Because you didn't tell us to get one, you rushed us to this ride and we didn't think you'd like it if we stopped" Oh dear lord. It's barely 8am and already we're starting. I say alright then, go get a map, right there under the hat "no we have you we don't need one" ...oh boy.

So Han suggests we head to Star Tours before it gets too busy...great idea we get on twice in a row wit 10 minute standby :cool1: But now what??? I suggest we go meet some characters...which we did but I found out was a big mistake





After the Ewok Chipmunks we head over to TSM where Han had the high score in the car, and that hour! After that we did some more rides. We walked onto ToT and got a FP for RnR. Here's where we encounter our first and last extremely rude CM of our trip. We get off ToT and go to see our pic, wellsome lady'ss hands are cover Han's face. No big deal, hey it happens. We were debating on whether to add the pic to our Photopass + when Han says to the CM I dunno my face is covered to which we get the response "what do you want me to do about it?" ...umm nothing? It was just a comment :confused3 While this CM was very pushy "are you taking it or what?" "The picture sucks you know?" "Sucks to be you buddy"...yes the CM actually said that. well we added it on and got out of there quick. I was in no mood to deal with a cranky CM.

We leave TOT, rode RnR...both of which Goofy loved right away. Then we headed to Darth's Mall for some shopping and some magic Photopass Pics









AFter the Pics I asked "so what should we do now?" and was answerd with a round of "I don't care's". BAH...frustrated. OK then more characters it is...but wait. Goofy and Cindy have no desire to meet Star Wars Characters, or want anything to do with Star Wars Weekends. So I called them out, you could have said something before we came. "But it was part of you..." I know I know, my plan...god for bid we deviate from the plan slightly right? :headache:

So instead of characters we head to backlot tour, where I hear Goofy and Cindy complaining to Han that they can't do what they want. I know right?!? I can't read minds and I don't know doesn't help when I ask what they want to do. Well I was pretty quite for most of the ride, but when we got of and I was pulled out of the movie props area because "common we've done what you wanted all day. This is our vacation too and you're not letting us do anything..." well the crap hit the fan, right in the middle of the store. I was ANGRY. How dare they accuse me of not letting them do anything when they wouldn't even tell me what they wanted. Long story short, I had "attitude", they weren't "communicating", we're ruining your "plan" and that's making you angry...Man oh Man. For anyone that heard us (namely myself and Cindy duking it out) my apologies. Clearly They were not prepared for Han and my style of touring, yet they STILL wouldn't give any input. So we leave back lot and were walked around a bit too cool off. We stop at a Photopass photographer and she says "ok everyone, smile! Pretend you like each other"...this is the picture she snapped



coming up...did we kill each other? What's for lunch? Did Leia get to see anymore characters? And did Mamma Melrose redeem themselves???
 


Well we haven't killed each other yet...so that a plus :thumbsup2 Instead we felt it was time for lunch. the boys wanted a turkey leg so off we went. Cindy and I definitely do not want turkey legs, so we debate what to eat while the boys order. We decide on Studio Catering Co. The guys grabbed a table while we went to order. And let me just say it was an excellent choice, I had the buffalo chicken sandwich and Cindy had the turkey club (or the Caesar wrap...:confused3) either way we were VERY pleased with our choices, we ate everything up (except the bit of my sandwich I was WAY to full to finish so Han ate it...I did have room for my cheesecake however :goodvibes).

We were just finishing when I dropped my fork and was off like a shot calling to Han "hurry...bring the camera!!" Why you may ask? well these guys of course!



These were some of the best Stormtroopers I've ever met! I had on my Join the Dark Side shirt and my R2-D2 mickey ears. The troopers didn't like that they were conflicting sides on one person (Jedi/Dark) so after looking at me for a few minutes they took my ears off and threw them to Han then turned with guns ready. I tried to apologies but they wouldn't have any of it :lmao: So finally i said "well maybe you could have your boss talk to merchandising, I wanted stormtrooper or vadar ears but they don't exist!" This changed their mood. I got a pat on the back as if for reassurance that they would get right on it and they were more than happy to take a pic. (remember this little argument they had with me, there were more to come!)

After our Stormtrooper encounter we went back to finish lunch. After we spent the rest of the afternoon doing nothing and just taking in the sights, basically just some aimless wandering and exploring...oh and finding Han an Indiana Jones hat, and me a Stitch Star Wars Pin.

After just wandering around for quite some time (4 hours to be exact), doing some shopping and just general wandering, we headed over to Mamma Melrose for our dinner. I ate her in the past and I wasn't too impressed, however we wanted the Fantasmic! seating so here we were again. And I'm VERY glad we came back, dinner was excellent. The boys steak was cooked perfectly, I had the sea food dish (or "ocean in a bowl as the server so eloquently put it) and Cindy's pasta was awesome. We ate everything up and even forced down dessert! So so so good!!

Here's Cind and I at dinner :thumbsup2


Following dinner (it was about 6pm) we decided to head over to the Art of Animation building to see some characters. Well Mickey's line was WAY to long, (and we'd be having breakfast with him in a couple days), and Ralph and Vanellope's line had just closed. So Cindy and I sent the boys to find some more FPs, and we went to wait for Mr. Incredible and Frozone



After our encounter with The Incredibles, we went outside to wait for the boys. Who came back with ToT FPs for 8pm. Sweet deal, we had to head to Fantasmic! for 8:15ish, perfect timing...or not! By 8pm the FP line for ToT was out to the Fantasmic! entrance :eek:!!! They estimated a 60 minute wait...for a FP that's just ridiculous. We were told we could use them after the show with no penalty, so instead we headed straight to Fntasmic!

Good thing we did. My ankle had been bothering me that day, only after we had sat did I realize it was swollen to twice it's normal size. It hadn't really "hurt" just discomfort all day, now however, it was KILLING me. We figured the sitting would help so we enjoyed another wonderful Fantasmic! experience. Cindy had never seen it and had decided it is her favourite night time show!! :thumbsup2

After the show I went to stand...and well apparently my ankle was having none of that, so I had to kind of hop, using Han for support up the steps and out of the theater. When we hit flat ground I was able to put some pressure on it, enought to hobble out on my own, mind you extremely slowly. SO due to my ankle and the fact that were exhausted, we didn't return to ToT and instead went back for a rest...and to ice my ankle before tomorrow. I clearly learned my lesson and decided to wear my running shoes instead of flip-flops tomorrow!!!

Coming up - Islands of Adventures, How was Leia's ankle? Why are the other glad they listened to me? and What did we think of Boma??
 
Hi All, for those reading I didn't forget about you I promise...for those not reading, well I guess it doesn't really matter because you're not reading (I probably should have thought that through... hmm:scratchin)

Anyway, This TR will have to be put on hold until I get my laptop fixed. There was a little accident with the cat (she's fine) knocking the laptop off the counter and cracking the screen pretty good, every thing else seems fine. The problem is that I can't access any of my pics as I've been uploading them to photobucket as I needed them. And with no screen it's gonna take a bit to move files etc

So in other news I put out some resumes yesterday hoping to find a job in my field (veterinary technician) as I just graduated - the ceremony is Wednesday and this trip was my grad present to me!! I begged CMs at Animal Kingdom to give me a job...clearly no luck there :sad: well maybe one day. Hey I can dream right? :rolleyes:

Oh and I'm also in contact with disney over issues regarding my ADR's and the fact that only 2 included Han's dairy allergy and what happened to the rest of my requests. This call lead into the My Disney Experience discussion that's I started on the planning boards, so we shall see where that leads :rolleyes2

Anyway just wanted to post and say that I definitely haven't forgotten about my readers, and to ask you to please bare with me...

And because I don;t think I used enough smilies in this post, here ya go
:lmao::cool1::dance3::rotfl::happytv::moped::beach::artist::drive::clown:pixiedust::coffee::cheer2::laundy:

K I'm done not I swear!!
 

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