Our Tragic Trip About This Page:

[Ransom]

Our trip from Oct 11-24th was just tragedy after tragedy. Disney failed miserably!

First, we checked in to VWL and were given a HA room. There's practically no closet space in those rooms. Totally unacceptable! But the front desk said that was all they had, so we started our vacation on a sour note. Little did we know just how bad it would get!

(The truth is that they asked us if a HA room was OK, and I, not really knowing the difference other than that it had a "roll in" shower, said that was fine with me. Once we got there, we noticed that there was no closet space and very little drawer space. Since we're on-site for two weeks, that wouldn't do! We'd be living out of suitcases. A call to the front desk revealed they had no other rooms available at that time, but they offered to give us the first one that came along if we'd come back to the front desk. But I'd already called Bell Services to bring our bags to the room, so we had to wait a few minutes for them to arrive...at which time I doubled my usual tip and apologized to the bell services person for the unnecessary trip, since we would be changing rooms. He then offered to call the front desk, and luckily they found a room for us to get into immediately. So no tragedy at all; just an ignorant decision on my part whose consequences were handled smoothly by the cast members.)

That night, we tried to sleep. We'd only had a few hours' sleep the night before, so were really tired. But we couldn't go to sleep, because every ten minutes or so, the refrigerator would cycle and make a knocking noise! It sounded much like someone was knocking on the door, and took us a minute to figure out what it really was. Wouldn't you know we'd get the room with the broken refrigerator! And it took them three days to fix it! Totally unacceptable!

(Actually, we just lived with it until Wednesday morning, when we were going to the water park. Since those parks open at 10 AM, we felt we had plenty of time to call maintenance and see what they could do. After I called them, I walked over to Roaring Fork to get breakfast and bring it back to the room for DW and I to share. By the time I'd returned with that nice hot meal, two maintenance guys had come by, fixed it, and were already on their way down the hall!)

On the first Tuesday of our vacation, we ate breakfast at Crystal Palace, lunch at the Plaza, and dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern before going to MNSSHP. In all cases, I used the Tables in Wonderland card I'd purchased at the beginning of the trip last November 11th and had used throughout that two-week trip. I had no problem until we got to LTT. There, the server refused to honor the card! He said that it was expired, even though I bought it on November 11th of last year! What a crock. I was mortified to be called a cheater!

(Actually, the card did have an expiration date of November 11, 2008 marked on it...even though that was the day it was purchased! No one (including me) had ever bothered to look at the expiration date in the twenty or more times I'd used it since then. Of course a quick check with the manager at LTT let it slide. I then went back to the same window at MK's Guest Services where I purchased it and asked what could be done. Turns out the guy who made the keypunch error on my card last year is still working there, and his co-workers took pleasure in pointing the error out to him. He was embarrassed, so I just grinned and congratulated him on his clever joke and pointed out no one had noticed it in all this time. They reissued the card with the correct expiration date, we walked a few paces back to the turnstyle area and got our MNSSHP wrist bands, and we were back in action with minimal fuss.)

On the first Wednesday of our vacation, we went to Blizzard Beach. I bought tickets at the kiosk, but wasn't given a chance to get a DVC discount. They ripped me off!!

(Another dumb move on my part. I don't know why I was thinking you could get the discount at the kiosk. That makes no sense at all. Oh, well. I know it's only a few bucks, but hey, that's enough for a Mickey Treat! I did it right the next week at Typhoon Lagoon and went to the window to buy my ticket. Lesson learned.)

On the second Tuesday of our vacation, we were back at MK. In the afternoon, we were touring Tom Sawyer Island. As we left the escape tunnel at the fort, DW turned to take a picture, stepped in a depression in the path, twisted her ankle, and dropped the camera onto the hard concrete. I can't believe Disney doesn't keep their paths safe and level! The place is practically a death trap.

(Fortunately, DW's ankle was fine...but the camera was not. I put a little work into it at Aunt Polly's Dockside Diner, and was able to get the lens to move again, but the mode dial couldn't be brought back to life. After three years and four trips to WDW, it was time for a new camera. But that's not all bad. Having a newer camera will be good, next time. The only really sad thing is that DW loves taking pictures -- she took 1200 of them during the first week and a half of our trip -- and she couldn't take any for the rest of the trip. We considered getting a new camera overnighted to us (or even buying one of the ones sold at the camera centers), but ultimately decided against it given how few days we had left on our trip at that point (even "overnight" it would have arrived on Thursday since it was later in the day on Tuesday; and the ones in the camera center were overpriced and seemed to be last year's models). In the end, DW enjoyed seeing the park without a camera intervening, so it wasn't all bad after all.)

On Wednesday of our second week, we were at Typhoon Lagoon. After enjoying the slides in the morning, we had a nice lunch at Leaning Palms, then went to the wave pool to see what that was like. We waded out to about the 4' depth mark, and then a wave came. And it ripped DW's favorite scrunchie right out of her hair! We searched and searched for it, but were unable to find it. Needless to say, not one Disney employee lifted a finger to help us!

(It's all true, except we didn't ask for any help in finding it. Strangely, we found two other scrunchies, but not the one DW lost. We didn't realize the scrunchie could be ripped off by a wave when it hadn't even been budged by any of the rides or slides. We won't make that mistake again!)

In short, it was a terrible trip and I'm going to call Guest Relations, Member Satisfaction, and everyone else at WDW that I can think of and let them know about it!!

[mestitch]

Very interesting!

[Principessa_di_Fata]

Ok I laughed my head off. This is hilarious! I like the way you write!

[mojjo]

The tragedy...I'd demand a refund.....lol.

[B.M.]

I love it!

[KMB733]

That was really funny!!! Glad to see you have a good sense of humor about things.

[Jillybean]

I find the loss of the scrunchie to be the most tragic.

Great reading!

Jill

[jblondie1999]

I lost my glasses once at River Country going down the river rapids. While searching thru the water we found numerous items including a retainer, a couple bracelets, a flip flop, locker keys, and the funniest thing was a pair of women's bathing suit bottoms. Never did find my glasses there. We checked before we left the park that day and after going thru 3 boxes full of glasses....I found mine!

[nurse_mom]

Love the trip report. Honest and to the point!

[emtpej]

Oh the agony!

[HiddenMickey]

[goofysdtr]

Sorry about your "awful" trip! Wish I had the heart-ache of staying there for two weeks each year.

[dj1028]

What a complete nightmare...I would be shocked if you ever returned to WDW again...especially after that scrunchie fiasco!

[disney_duke]

Obviously one of the worst vacations EVER!!!! Great story, cute!
Seriously though, I'm right with ya on the fridge. That would drive me nuts!!

[Mauimouse]

Love it!