The Cursed Transportation Trip

[disneyeater]

This is a report of the trip we just took in May where none of our transportation seemed to go right. In the end it was a great trip, but not without a few bumps along the way. Here is a preview of the trip report and you can see the full report with pictures at the link below:

http://4parks1blog.com/my-trip-reports/

The Great
Kouzzina and Cali Grill: Both meals were spectacular.
The rooms: This was my first stay in DVC and we had a 2br. I may never go back to a studio again as the extra space was perfect after a long day.
Mother’s Day: We brought my Mom and my wife’s G-Mom with us and not only had a great time with them but actually planned a special event I will tell you more about (it’s a tease to keep you coming back for more people)

The Terrible
Flights: Both ways including sitting on a plane for 2 hours before switching to a new one and a lack of jetway upon landing
Monorail: Multiple stops and delays evertime we were on one.
The Heat: It was sooo hot it was almost funny.

The Good and Bad
Nanny: Brining my wife’s grandmother along proved to be both good and bad. She seemed to have a great time as the kids did with her, but she blew our scheduling to shreds much to her own demise. We had planned a lot of downtime knowing she was coming but we ended up missing much of it and the things we wanted to do because of slow starts and pride.

The full trip report is linked above with pictures and stories including pictures of the test track lounge and of the Mother’s Day suprise, so check it out.

In the mean time, I will expand my “The Good and Bad” thoughts on the above.
We brought my wife’s grandmother along (Nanny) and she had a great time. So did we. I just want to make it clear that I do not for one second regret bringing her along and we will all cherish the memories made on this vacation.
That said, I want to expound a little on the bad I was referring to. It bascially came down to two things:

The first was just pure exhaustion. Anyone who has been to WDW can surely appreciate that and for a great grandmother it is obviously amplified. We knew this was going to be an issue so we wanted to get her a wheel chair which she refused to accept for the first two days. Then, once we got her one, she would often refuse to sit in it for one of two reasons. Either it was the morning so she felt fine and wanted to walk or my 11 yo would make any comment about being hot or tired and she would hop right out and insist on pushing her instead. There was no arguing with her about either of these things. Both of course resulted in her being exhausted by the end of the day despite the wheelchair and she ended up missing two breakfasts (which I had already paid for on the DDxP) and one of the park days.
We even took a picture of how ridiculous it seemed.

The second was getting to rope drop. This may not sound like a big deal, but considering how I planned this trip, it was. You see, I knew she would be tired (hence the reason we wanted to get the wheelchair) and I set up to have a lot of down time in the room or by the pool so we wouldn’t push her too much. That was all predicated on hitting rope drop so we could get done the rides much faster.

You see, as long as I have known Nanny, she has been the type to wake up early….like 5am early. I figured she would be a little later based on being tired, but getting up wasn’t necessarily the problem.

The first day we told her we needed to be out the door by 8:30 to catch the monorail so what time did she need to get up. She said 7:30. She got up at 7:30 and we didn’t leave until 9:45 despite all the rest of us being ready at 8:15. I chalked it up to a rough morning based on our flying troubles the night before (more to come on that).

So the next morning she gets up 2 hours before we need to leave. Still late. The pattern continued every morning. It had nothing to do with her getting up, just getting ready. She was even late for her 10am massage in the hotel. I got up at 6:30 that morning and she was already up.

The issue was she would just not get ready. She would drink coffee and talk to the kids and watch TV and not start getting ready until 30 minutes before we had to leave, and it took her much longer than 30 to get ready.

What happened was it ended up cutting out a bunch of rides and a bunch of relax time because we were waiting in longs lines and dragging from being there during the hottest part of a 95 degree day instead of back at the hotel like I had planned.

[DisneyFreak]

The Terrible
Monorail: Multiple stops and delays evertime we were on one.
The Heat: It was sooo hot it was almost funny.

Hey DE, welcome to Disney Secrets.

We were there over Mother's Day Weekend and didn't notice any problems with the monorails but have read that Disney was conducting some tests or were having trouble with the electrical system on the express track between TTC and The Contemporary.

You're not kidding it was hot!!! This has been the warmest May since moving here 5 years ago.

Looking forward to reading more of your TR.

[daveann]

Really interesting trip report
It is difficult with older people isn't it

[arkvilla]

Welcome to Secrets DisneyEater, I enjoyed your trip report so far.

We took Jai's mum twice when we first visited ( before we bought our villa) we stayed in a villa on Westridge and she enjoyed the time there so much, playing in the pol with the boys etc.

As for parks, she really entered into the spirit of things but she did get tired and it slowed us down alot - especially the second trip and it did lead to some stilted moments between Jai and his mum and she did lose her sense of humour as time went on and she got more tired

She hasn't been back since we bought our villa but we're hoping she might go with Jai's brother and his family

Again, we're glad we did it as we have the emories and so does she but we won't take her again.

Sandra

[disneyeater]

Hey DE, welcome to Disney Secrets.

We were there over Mother's Day Weekend and didn't notice any problems with the monorails but have read that Disney was conducting some tests or were having trouble with the electrical system on the express track between TTC and The Contemporary.

You're not kidding it was hot!!! This has been the warmest May since moving here 5 years ago.

Looking forward to reading more of your TR.

Hey, thanks. If you click the link at the top of my original post you can view the entire trip report and all the pictures.