ChallengerHK1
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2015
My girlfriend Suzanne and I were in WDW from the 14th through the 19th, and I wanted to write a quick review, more like some notes, really of what we encountered.
First, I want to thank the people on the disAbilities section, who answered a lot of questions for me. This was my 30th trip to WDW, but I’ve never before traveled with anyone who had any mobility issues, and those folks helped me a great deal in helping to make Suzanne’s first trip a positive one. I was fearful that her back would give her problems, and I had built into the schedule a “day off” after each park day, with the assumption that we could go to the pool, Disney Springs, or another resort for meals on those days. As it turns out, I wish I had taken one more day in the parks, because her back was fine the entire trip.
We stayed at Port Orleans-Riverside. It was my first time there, and while it was nice, and the theming was fun, I don’t think I’ll stay there again. I had been warned that the place is huge, and indeed it is. The walk back to our room at the end of the day was tiring. If I want an experience similar to that again, I’ll stay at French Quarter. Having the boats to take us to Disney Springs was convenient, and we used them several times.
As a side note, there was a resort-wide power outage Thursday morning, which appears to have lasted about an hour. I don’t know if this is common there or not, but I’ve never encountered a power outage at Disney, and I was surprised that there are no back-up generators for such a large complex. The cast members were making due, but basic things were going by the wayside. They were unable to keep making coffee, for instance, so whatever coffee was in the urns at the food court that morning was what was available for a couple of hours.
Arrival night, we boated to Disney Springs and had dinner at Portobellos. This was among several restaurants that I’ve never tried before. I was pleasantly surprised. The pasta was perfectly al dente, the flavors were nice, and we discovered a new drink, the Mediterranean Mule, which I’ve been tasked with finding the recipe for.
Day 1 was at Epcot. I got Suzanne a wheelchair, and it made all the difference in the world. While she is self-mobile, long distances do her in quickly. Using the chair, we were able to stay in the park until late afternoon. We saw Soarin’ first, then, after breakfast, I had booked the Behind the Seeds tour. She loves gardening, and both of these were a highlight for her. I had done Behind the Seeds about 15 years ago, and at the time it had had stairs, so I was surprised when they let us take the wheelchair through the tour. Although there were some tight turns, in general there were no problems. Later we toured the World Showcase, and, since this was the penultimate day for the Food and Wine Festival, we samples several delicacies. I wanted her to see both the Voices of Liberty and the American Adventure, my two favorite things at Epcot, and she loved them both.
After a couple of hours in the room, we went to Disney Springs for dinner. Since I wasn’t sure how her back would respond, I had not made reservations, figuring that in a worse-case scenario I could get us something from the food court at POR. Instead, we went to Rainforest, because we were hungry and it was the first thing we came to when getting off the boat. It was as I would expect Rainforest to be.
Day 2 was a day off. Early, we went to Disney Springs for a little shopping, then we came back and got in the pool. That night we had ADRs at the California Grill.
I have commented in one of the restaurant threads that there are times when, yes, you need to be able to get a specific reservation at a certain location for a certain day, and this was one of those times. We were seated slightly before the fireworks, so we ordered some drinks, then headed outside for the show. After the show finished, I proposed to Suzanne. This had been my plan, and I wanted it to be at the CA Grill, after the fireworks, on a day when I was fairly sure that her back would support the trip, so no other day, time or place would do. And yes, she said yes.
Day 3 was meant to be a split park day. As you’ll see that didn’t work out. We started early in the morning at Hollywood Studios. I had booked FastPass for Toy Story, Indiana Jones and Lights Motors Action!. Toy Story was almost a bust. Suzanne enjoyed it, but I had neglected to think about how jerky the movement is between the different screens, and it almost did her back in. On the other hand, she loved the two stunt shows. We at lunch at the Prime Time, and she dug that too.
We went to Watto’s Grotto to see if there was anything interesting, and this is where the day took a turn. While asking about stock on a top for Suzanne, the CM casually mentioned that the park was closing in two hours. Since this was early afternoon, I asked why it was closing. She told me that there was an awards presentation for CMs. This is all well and good, and I’m glad they show their people some kind of appreciation, but I would also have thought they’d show similar appreciation to the guests. There was no notice to the guests about the early closure, no signs in the resorts or at the park, no announcements on the bus, zilch. I checked MDE, and 1) Animal Kingdom was closing at its usual time, i.e., fairly early in the day, and 2) Magic Kingdom was closing early for the Christmas Party. I knew that we weren’t going to be able to argue with them to keep parks open late just for us, so we made a plan B, and had dinner at Artist Point. I can’t say that I was blown away, but it was good. Both of us had fish, and the flavors were subtle. Next time I’ll try something more flavorful.
After returning from our trip, I called Disney to let them know that I was unhappy that they had chosen to have three out of the four parks closing early on the same day. After a short go around, in which the CM attempted to convince me that I should have been checking the computer to find out about closures (ridiculous) they finally agreed to comp us two tickets to Hollywood Studios for the future with no expiration.
Wednesday was also a day without plans, but between the wheelchair and the pool, and in spite of me taking her on Toy Story, her back was doing great. We decided to have an entertainment day. We saw Spectre in Disney Springs, had a quick sushi dinner at Splitsville, and then went to La Nouba.
I had told Suzanne that the saddest day in the world was the day you leave Disney, and on our departure day, she agreed. I also told her that the way you get over that sadness is to start planning your next trip.
First, I want to thank the people on the disAbilities section, who answered a lot of questions for me. This was my 30th trip to WDW, but I’ve never before traveled with anyone who had any mobility issues, and those folks helped me a great deal in helping to make Suzanne’s first trip a positive one. I was fearful that her back would give her problems, and I had built into the schedule a “day off” after each park day, with the assumption that we could go to the pool, Disney Springs, or another resort for meals on those days. As it turns out, I wish I had taken one more day in the parks, because her back was fine the entire trip.
We stayed at Port Orleans-Riverside. It was my first time there, and while it was nice, and the theming was fun, I don’t think I’ll stay there again. I had been warned that the place is huge, and indeed it is. The walk back to our room at the end of the day was tiring. If I want an experience similar to that again, I’ll stay at French Quarter. Having the boats to take us to Disney Springs was convenient, and we used them several times.
As a side note, there was a resort-wide power outage Thursday morning, which appears to have lasted about an hour. I don’t know if this is common there or not, but I’ve never encountered a power outage at Disney, and I was surprised that there are no back-up generators for such a large complex. The cast members were making due, but basic things were going by the wayside. They were unable to keep making coffee, for instance, so whatever coffee was in the urns at the food court that morning was what was available for a couple of hours.
Arrival night, we boated to Disney Springs and had dinner at Portobellos. This was among several restaurants that I’ve never tried before. I was pleasantly surprised. The pasta was perfectly al dente, the flavors were nice, and we discovered a new drink, the Mediterranean Mule, which I’ve been tasked with finding the recipe for.
Day 1 was at Epcot. I got Suzanne a wheelchair, and it made all the difference in the world. While she is self-mobile, long distances do her in quickly. Using the chair, we were able to stay in the park until late afternoon. We saw Soarin’ first, then, after breakfast, I had booked the Behind the Seeds tour. She loves gardening, and both of these were a highlight for her. I had done Behind the Seeds about 15 years ago, and at the time it had had stairs, so I was surprised when they let us take the wheelchair through the tour. Although there were some tight turns, in general there were no problems. Later we toured the World Showcase, and, since this was the penultimate day for the Food and Wine Festival, we samples several delicacies. I wanted her to see both the Voices of Liberty and the American Adventure, my two favorite things at Epcot, and she loved them both.
After a couple of hours in the room, we went to Disney Springs for dinner. Since I wasn’t sure how her back would respond, I had not made reservations, figuring that in a worse-case scenario I could get us something from the food court at POR. Instead, we went to Rainforest, because we were hungry and it was the first thing we came to when getting off the boat. It was as I would expect Rainforest to be.
Day 2 was a day off. Early, we went to Disney Springs for a little shopping, then we came back and got in the pool. That night we had ADRs at the California Grill.
I have commented in one of the restaurant threads that there are times when, yes, you need to be able to get a specific reservation at a certain location for a certain day, and this was one of those times. We were seated slightly before the fireworks, so we ordered some drinks, then headed outside for the show. After the show finished, I proposed to Suzanne. This had been my plan, and I wanted it to be at the CA Grill, after the fireworks, on a day when I was fairly sure that her back would support the trip, so no other day, time or place would do. And yes, she said yes.
Day 3 was meant to be a split park day. As you’ll see that didn’t work out. We started early in the morning at Hollywood Studios. I had booked FastPass for Toy Story, Indiana Jones and Lights Motors Action!. Toy Story was almost a bust. Suzanne enjoyed it, but I had neglected to think about how jerky the movement is between the different screens, and it almost did her back in. On the other hand, she loved the two stunt shows. We at lunch at the Prime Time, and she dug that too.
We went to Watto’s Grotto to see if there was anything interesting, and this is where the day took a turn. While asking about stock on a top for Suzanne, the CM casually mentioned that the park was closing in two hours. Since this was early afternoon, I asked why it was closing. She told me that there was an awards presentation for CMs. This is all well and good, and I’m glad they show their people some kind of appreciation, but I would also have thought they’d show similar appreciation to the guests. There was no notice to the guests about the early closure, no signs in the resorts or at the park, no announcements on the bus, zilch. I checked MDE, and 1) Animal Kingdom was closing at its usual time, i.e., fairly early in the day, and 2) Magic Kingdom was closing early for the Christmas Party. I knew that we weren’t going to be able to argue with them to keep parks open late just for us, so we made a plan B, and had dinner at Artist Point. I can’t say that I was blown away, but it was good. Both of us had fish, and the flavors were subtle. Next time I’ll try something more flavorful.
After returning from our trip, I called Disney to let them know that I was unhappy that they had chosen to have three out of the four parks closing early on the same day. After a short go around, in which the CM attempted to convince me that I should have been checking the computer to find out about closures (ridiculous) they finally agreed to comp us two tickets to Hollywood Studios for the future with no expiration.
Wednesday was also a day without plans, but between the wheelchair and the pool, and in spite of me taking her on Toy Story, her back was doing great. We decided to have an entertainment day. We saw Spectre in Disney Springs, had a quick sushi dinner at Splitsville, and then went to La Nouba.
I had told Suzanne that the saddest day in the world was the day you leave Disney, and on our departure day, she agreed. I also told her that the way you get over that sadness is to start planning your next trip.
