60 During 50 – (pseudo) Live Trip Report Day 8 - Final Report
Here we go….Final day of my ‘birthday’ trip…
First off, I must apologize for the delay in getting to this. No excuse, but it took a little to get my act together after returning home.
My plan was to get up and get my things packed up and ready to go, take my bags to Baggage Check, then head out to EPCOT to get the ‘Tiny World’ and ‘SuperZoom’ photos, if available. Well, the first part worked out…
Since EPCOT opens at 10am, I went without an alarm and woke up around 7:30am. Put the coffee on, showered and prepared to pack up to leave. No problems. Checked, double-checked and even triple-checked that I got everything, finished my coffee and got ready to head out around 9am.
Opened the door to the room and my heart sunk…It was pouring down rain! Okay, maybe ‘pouring’ was a stretch, but it was a steady, cold rain that made me want to close the door and climb back into bed. LOL Temperature was in the low 50’s. Sorry, but that is just not conducive to heading over to the park just to get a couple photos before jumping on a bus to the airport.
Suffice it to say, this was not the highlight of my trip – sitting in the food court of All Star Movies, playing on the laptop, waiting for the Mears Connect bus to arrive. The bus did arrive on schedule and got me to the airport in plenty of time to make my flight. I will still swear by Southwest Airlines for my trips!! The flight actually arrived 35 minutes early!! Not bad for something that was scheduled to be a 2 hour 15 minute flight anyway!! (I think the pilot had a date for the evening! LOL)
Got down to the baggage area and called the hotel I stayed at to come pick me up and waited for my bag. Timing was just about perfect. Bag came around the carousel, I went outside to wait for my ride, in 29 degree weather, and within 5 minutes was on my way to my vehicle. No problems on the roads getting home, so I was able to get the car unpacked and relax for a little while before bed.
[Yeah, I know….TMI!!! LOL]
“Final totals and a recap”
I’ll keep this short…It was not the best trip for me, but I did get most of what I wanted to do accomplished without too many high wait times.
After my initial AP problem, the first few days were very nice. Temps in the 70’s during the day and dropping into the low 50’s overnight. Just about perfect for me. Once the rain moved in, on my EPCOT day, the temps dropped and the winds started. Still, other than the one day of rain, it wasn’t too bad until the last day of the trip when it rained all day again. Was it just coincidence that the rainy days were my EPCOT days? LOL
As much as I complained throughout my daily reports of my aches and pains, I tried not to let that slow me down too much. I often failed at this, but I tried. Hahahaaa I did NOT, however, allow that to change my attitude toward Cast Members or other visitors! They deserve respect and gratitude for all they do to keep our trips ‘magical.’
That said, I had heard a number of comments about CMs not being the most pleasant of late, but I had none of that. Every CM, whether they were a ‘greeter,’ ‘ride assistant,’ ‘merchandise,’ or even the bus drivers, was very pleasant to me. For the first few days, when I work my ‘birthday button’ around the parks, I received many greetings and well wishes. Even the last few days without the button, many CMs greeted me with ‘Good Morning’ or ‘Have a Magical Day’ style greetings. I had honestly thought that they upped the ante on pleasantries for the 50th! LOL
Crowd levels were actually much higher than I had anticipated for the middle of January and that lead to higher standby queues. Not many, during my entire trip, were under a 60 minute wait. No, I do not blame this on Genie+ or Individual Attraction Selections. It was just THAT busy.
On that note, I did NOT purchase Genie+ or any Individual Attraction Selections during this trip. I DID ride Rise of the Resistance (twice – on different days,) and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure during the ‘early’ 30 minute resort guest ‘perk.’ I also hit Flight of Passage twice, also on different days, in that window. Wish the ‘window’ would go back to a full hour, but it DID make a big difference in hitting the most popular rides without long waits, IF you got there early enough. Much past 8:15am (9:15am for EPCOT) and you are going to wait 30 minutes or more for the top rides.
Got to see a number of cavalcades during this trip. They may be short and only have a few characters, but they are very welcome sights.
Can’t give much of a report on the food, as I only had one table service meal during this trip. I splurged on Le Cellier and enjoyed it immensely. Food was excellent, if a bit pricey, and the service and attitude was stellar. It even seemed a little ‘less dark’ than on other occasions.
For my room…It was serviceable. A noticeable size difference from Pop, where I normally stay, but enough for one person. I was in the Might Ducks section, which was quite the walk from the food court/merchandise location and buses. In a lot of cases, it would have been a quicker walk from the All Star Music bus drops to the room. I carried a shoulder bag with me during the day in which I kept my refillable mug and a 30oz. bottle for refreshment, so I would just wait and get off at the ASMo stops so that I could refill everything before I went back to the room.
Still don’t have much positive to say for resort Mousekeeping, though. Supposedly they have 90 minutes per room to do their thing, but if it takes 90 minutes to empty trash cans and replace towels they are really slacking off. How long would it take to run a Swiffer Wet across the floor once in a while? Or even a dry (dust) mop? But, everything worked and they was no mold or mildew.
For my first trip in over 3 years, I cannot complain about anything to do with Disney, except for the FUBAR with the AP voucher from Day 1. Hoping on my next trip to see some of the construction completed, but from what I could see I’m not betting on it. LOL Tron and Guardians are coming along, but seem to have a long way to go. The center section of what used to be Future World is a mess right now. What is the deal with routing everyone the longest way possible to get out of EPCOT after HarmoniUS?????? I swear they make you walk over a mile to get 200 yards to get out of the park.
Okay…that’s a wrap for this trip. Hopefully, I will be able to wrangle another trip for the INTERCOT 25th in October and be in better physical shape to deal with it! LOL
If you are on facebook and come across my feed, I will be posting albums of pics - MagicShots, Videos, and still shots by park - in the next few days (hopefully!)
Stay tuned….
