Our Trip-finally About This Page:

[Disneybound!]

Well, it's taken me a while to get on, but here I am! We did the World 9-8 to 9-15, at least that's what we planned. We stayed at ASMo... what can I say? They were wonderful! I don't care if they're a "budget" hotel, I thought the rooms and the service were great!! We had a wonderful time until Tuesday, for those who do the math, that was 9-11... We were at AK, and the Festival of the Lion King was just starting. As with other reports since then, a man came out, we thought he was part of the show, and told us what had happened. At first the audience was stunned, no one believed it! We hadn't watched the news that morning and were absolutely clueless. Everyone was calm, though subdued, as we all filed out. The cm's were terrific in trying to handle the large, hot, shocked crowd. I think the only problem we had was the busses, since we were at the ASMo, so there were a LOT of people waiting. We took advantage of the passes they were giving out too. We went swimming in the hotel pool till the rain came, for which they then closed the pool because they thought they saw lightning! Needless to say, there was a large number of people mulling around with nothing to do!
Apparently, all the staff available from the parks were shuffled around to the hotels to help, so it didn't end up too bad, at least for us, of course. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img] They had free coloring sheets and crayons for the kids, free trading pins and lots of staff and people to trade with, and other things they'd set up for the guests to do. As I said, both the hotel and park cm's I thought handled everything with patience, compassion, and calm.
As for the rest of our trip, well, tropical storm Gabrielle blew over, so we got lots of rain the rest of our trip, but we managed to see most of what we had planned.
One last, unexpected glitch, for which the hotel was extremely helpful with...our flight out on 9-15 ended up being cancelled, and we couldn't get out till the next day. Once we showed them our new itinerary they put us up with compimentary rooms for 1 more night! I've nothing but good things to say about ASMo!!!
Given the circumstances, not a bad 1st Disney trip. Next time will be better!! Ruth

[tikibird]

Ruth,

Thanks for posting, and glad to hear you had a good trip, all things considered.

I agree about the All Stars - I think they are a great value, and am looking forward to staying at ASMu again.

As for the 11th and it's aftermath, it sounds like Disney did a wonderful job in clearing the parks, and accomodating guests as needed following.

[JoanneC]

Thanks for the report. Yes, next time will be better, I'm sure.

Every time I read a report from people who were there on 09/11, I am more and more impressed with Disney. They really seemed to try hard to do the best the could in such a horrible situation.

[HiddenMickey]

Hey, I've been wondering when you'd report back. Welcome Home! Did your kids enjoy themselves? Did you enjoy pin trading (I remember you planned to try it)? Anything you learned while you were there that you didn't know before you left? Glad you had a good time, and the ASMo was a great place to stay. -HiddenMickey