Welcome back, Sherry E. I love your trip report! Such fantastic details! I have to take notes myself in order to remember anything by the time we get home! It sounds like you had plenty of good times at the park but it's too bad about the disappointing stuff. We have never stayed in a Disney property but I do know I would be pretty aggravated if I had spent that much money and had the sort of problems you did with the room. On the bright side, hopefully the smelly water was just sulfur and not toxic! I do agree that PPH is not the best choice at the end of a long day. It's a long way back there!
You had some great dining reviews to keep in mind. I am definitely going to have top look for the hostess CM from Texas at Blue Bayou and see if she can pull any strings for us!
I got a good laugh out of your near "Love Connection" while waiting in line for Toy Story Mania! November will be our first time to ride it so I hope we enjoy it as much as you did. Glad to hear that the targets are easy to hit.
In response to your question "is TOO much never enough, or does a little go a loooong way?" I'm not sure I have an accurate answer but I do know we push ourselves to total exhaustion just to get the most out of our time while we are at the park. At the end of our 2 weeks I am so ready to go home..... but at the same time, still always ready to go back! I can honestly say there is no other place I would rather go on vacation.
Thanks for sharing! Can't wait for the pictures!
Thanks for the kind words, Marie! I am either the type who gets total writers block OR I start writing and can't be stopped!! It just floooooows! I was on a roll!
I think my friend envisions the PPH walk as being much farther than it is, but nonetheless, we still got much more accomplished when staying at the GCH last year. PPH is the least expensive of the three hotels but it STILL costs much more than many people think it is worth. It is not cheap, even during 'discount periods.' So to have a piece of furniture jutting out and asking to be banged into and poopy water coming from the bathroom faucet is not okay for a DLR hotel. However, I am discovering in my Have you Ever Sent A Complaint? thread that DLR is not always the greatest when handling hotel and restaurant complaints. Surprisingly, their attitude and customer service is sometimes lacking. In my opinion, I feel like if someone tells you that your food made them sick, you should immediately comp them for the meal or offer another free meal. That seems like good business to me. However, as posters are revealing in that Complaint thread, it usually does NOT happen that way! I mean, I LOVE the Mouse and all things Disney, and that will never change, but they did set the bar for themselves in customer service and they have always risen above every other non-DLR place in that department. I hate to see them not living up to their own standards and basically doing nothing to make it right with the guests.
Yes, by all means, play the Texas card if you happen to see Alyssa (or Lyssa, whatever her name was!), the hostess from Texas at Blue Bayou!! She was a little on the 'cold' side to people until these Texas folks came up to her! If you can make that work for you and get seated sooner, go for it! I don't know for sure that she helped them get seated sooner, but to us, it seemed suspicious! I really think that, with as popular as Blue Bayou is, DLR needs to start setting up real reservations for them and dispose of the PS system there (just in BB). They overbooked guests. That wait is too long, the room is hot, we couldn't sit down, everyone was packed in. And hour is too long to wait to be seated anywhere unless I am getting an excellent table by the water - which we did not! And $36 for a steak is too much for me to pay unless I am getting an awesome waterside table! Then again, we were there at night, on a Saturday. Maybe it would not be as bad, say, during the day, on a Wednesday?? Who knows? Clearly, BB has a lot of devotees so they must be doing something right!!
Yes, that family in the TSMM line was funny. Now, I am far from being a sexpot or anything. In fact, I was probably looking about as schlumpy as I could get at DLR (have to be comfortable). Seriously. I am also, more or less, Pooh-sized right now (but working on it)!! But maybe I look motherly or something. When the two adult sons were chatting, I could tell one of them was kind of making excuses to talk to me and I didn't know why. I thought that maybe it was because he was sick of talking to Dad and Grandma and needed to chat with someone closer to his own age. But, when they got OUT of the line after the ride broke down temporarily, the Dad was the one who dropped some sort of hint to both of us about leaving his e-mail address with us (we didn't take it)! So I wasn't sure if he was trying to get his son(s) hooked up or if they had been trying to find someone to fix Dad up with to get him out of their hair!!! In any case, it all seemed very diabolical, so I wanted no part of such debauchery!!
I felt really guilty when I was having my moments of "Okay, I am over this...this is getting old..." at DLR last weekend, because it was not the fault of DLR, and though the crowds were pretty thick, they were not as bad as I have seen them, say, in December, for example. I always look back at a trip after it is over to see how it can be improved the next time, to maximize our rest and entertainment. Sometimes I think it may be necessary to stay a full week at DLR just to be able to really take the time to see all the details/things I want to see and look in all the stores for those hidden gems, etc., but still be able to rest a lot. I know without rest, my friend is an unhappy camper. She could rest all day! And after a while, I just get discouraged and think, Well, this is turning out to be a bust. There has to be a happy medium - a good balance between rest and activity that can be reached - where I don't end up feeling exhausted but like I missed out on a lot. Two days is really not enough during a crowded season. Three days isn't even really enough when you take mid-day rests. The only answer I can come up with is to extend the trips and make them longer (when money allows - not now!). Stretch them out by a couple of extra days. That way, there is enough time to do everything without having to cram a bunch into a couple of days, miss a bunch of stuff and burn yourself out!
Great trip report! Thanks for sharing. I can't wait to see the pictures!
Thank you! I know you also had a less than wonderful Blue Bayou experience and a good Goofy's experience, such as we did! Did you end up having breakfast with Shamu in Sea World? I can't wait to see your photos, too!
I was just looking at my PhotoPass pictures last night and applying all the nifty borders, inserting characters and all that! I turned 58 photos into 100 photos just by making different versions of each picture! The $60 CD price is really a GOOD bargain. Almost too good to be true! I don't know if I am getting the CD or if my friend is getting it or if we are both getting one, but once that is worked out then I can start posting. I also took some 35mm pics at Goofy's, etc. on an old camera but those will have to be developed. One thing I noticed is that some of the PhotoPass photgraphers were very proficient and their pictures came out great. Others didn't take such great pictures and I could have done a better job! But it is nice to be in everything this time. Usually, I don't get in too many photos because I am the one taking them! I cannot wait to get back to DLR - even if just for one day - to see the holiday decorations and take more PhotoPass pictures!!!
And I just LOVE those gingerbread men with Mouse ears that are sold throughout the parks! So cute! Gingermice!!!