samogram
Cast Member
Posts: 166
Registered: Aug 2002
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Posted 11-26-02 08:44 PM
Part 8—The end of the trip and some final thoughts
The morning we were to leave WDW, we took our time. DH and I did a little shopping (okay, a lot of shopping) and gathered up the rest of the crowd.
DH & I went to check out thinking it should be no trouble at all since we had no other charges and had paid ahead of time. We were to get a refund for the horrible mangling of our reservation, but since they had called us twice about that, we didn’t think that should be a problem. Wrong! So wrong…. The CM at the counter said our refund would be mailed to us because she didn’t know what to do about it. Now, I don’t know about you, but when someone says they don’t know what to do with my money I get very uncomfortable when they say they will mail it to me. Checkout took longer than check in. Sheesh!
Our next stop was Cocoa Beach. DH was going to meet up with a childhood friend who lives in Miami that he hadn’t seen since 30 years ago. Sunday, we went to Kennedy Space Center and came very close to seeing a space launch. And then on Monday, we met the phenomenon know as “Red Tide.” Yuck.
We drove home through Georgia, Tennessee and Arkansas and I’m happy to say the trip was uneventful.
Some thoughts and comments on WDW: The few little things that went wrong were so minor compared to all the magic and the fun. It was a great trip and lived up to my expectations. Overall, the CMs were just great. The ones who weren’t just wonderful didn’t come close to the surly treatment I’ve received from other service workers in other places so it’s barely worth mentioning.
DD, SIL and Sam and Molly liked All Stars best. I liked Port Orleans-Riverside well, enough, though it doesn’t feel as “resorty” as All Stars. I probably would have liked PO-R better if we had received the rooms we had reserved.
Food courts are lifesavers before nine in the morning and after nine at night or at other unconventional hours and the food and the variety wasn’t bad either.
SIL was fascinated that you could walk off and leave a stroller full of stuff or for that matter my scooter with the basket full of stuff and not have to worry about it disappearing. DD was amazed at the cleanliness and couldn’t believe that they actually power wash the sidewalks and streets at night. The cleanliness of WDW is really noticeable when you go outside the world to somewhere like SeaWorld for example and it isn’t as clean. SeaWorld wasn’t filthy by any means, but it just didn’t sparkle like WDW.
I was pleasantly surprised at how accessible everything was to me with my scooter and in general, how friendly and helpful the CMs were. I was afraid to try riding the buses, having heard horror stories and one night on the monorail, I sat beside another scooter rider who told me about sitting waiting on the bus for 15 minutes in order to get on one with a lift and then watched as the driver loaded everyone else on and then told her there was no more room for her. When we went to Kennedy, my husband watched the whole lift procedure and we really can’t figure out why the drivers are so resistant to using them. Other passengers can board while the driver is doing the lift and I can’t see why it would hold anyone up very much. But also at Kennedy, I had someone try to discourage me from using the lift and taking my own scooter until I said, “Well, I guess I don’t have to go.” That’s Southern lady subtle speak for “Oh, you mean you aren’t going to accommodate me?” The problem with my kind of disability is that I can get up off the scooter and walk a little, but I don’t always know how far and if I don’t know, you can bet some fully able person does. I remember when I thought nothing of walking from the capitol building in Washington D.C. all the way down to the Lincoln Memorial around to the Viet Nam Memorial and all the way back up to the capitol again. I wouldn’t have thought some of the “little wayses” the CM described were very far either. Oh, and I got pretty good at the “Oh-look-a-scooter-I-think-I-can-can-beat-it-across-the-street. I tried really hard not to hit anyone under four feet tall, though.
I love the interactions with the characters and am in awe of how well and truly they stay in character. Those special events accounted for a lot of the magic of our trip. Everyone who ever wrote that grannies and grandpas would never forget the look on their grandchildren’s faces couldn’t have told a truer truth. I won’t forget the profile of those two precious faces as they watched Fantasmic! and I watched them.
Thank you to all of you who gave such wonderful advice and wrote such wonderful trip reports. At Common Ground, I don’t feel quite as nutty as I do out here in the world where people don’t live for their Disney moments every day.
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons; for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
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