The Morthens Do Orlando (and the Caribbean) - Dec 2010

[mushu mama]

Can't wait to hear how the surprise goes too... welcome to the forum Jeanette

[JLarock4]

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... 1256598959
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... 1256598959

I hope the photos speak for themselves! The blog link that Sandie posted will have an update posted on Monday through the MouseForLess website. It was a great surprise!

[mushu mama]

Fantastic photos -/

Thanks for sharing.

[churros]

Excellent Sandie and Jeanette!

[KeithS]

8th January: After breakfast at Chef Mickey's we head to the dock - to board the Disney Magic. At 3pm we have a cruise meet with our online friends.

Hey - Sandie is off on her cruise today. I notice the weather is fine and around 23 degrees, so it looks like it'll be a great trip!

[ajp]

Yes they will have a great time on the cruise I'm sure. It was great reading about the surprise in Sandie's friend's blog. The girls really made the most of their time by the look of the photos.

[JLarock4]

The surprise was a big hit but I won't spoil the details for Sandie to fill you all in. I do have the third and final entry for the blog posted on the MouseforLess site. http://www.themouseforless.com/blog_gue ... -part-iii/

Enjoy!
Jeannette

[KeithS]

Thanks Jeannette - it sounds like it was a terrific time for you all. Glad you were able to pull off the surprise so successfully!

[KeithS]

14th January: and we are at Disney's private island Castaway Cay.

Lucky ducks - they'll be there tonight

[ajp]

They're now back on the ship having dinner and preparing themselves for packing and disembarkation procedures. That is an exciting process .

[sandie]

Yes we are back! Same day as Colin but we came cattle class and a crappier airline!

Sorry I never got to update as much as i promised but once we got to Disney $10 a day for internet was a joke and 75 cents a minute on the cruise was even worse!

I will try and add snippets of stuff over the next few days.

Firstly: Delta. The airline was fine - it wasn't their fault we were delayed on the way over and their ground staff did the best the could to get us to where we needed to go. But the cabin crew is a different manner - if you are going to fly delta I suggest you lock yourself in a room full of menopausal women for a day to acclimatise to the service you will get! Not one of the flight attendents was under fifty and they were mean, mean, mean women! On the flight that left Atlanta at midnight the flight attendent at the front of the plane yelled at John to move to his seat more quickly - the poor kid had been in planes and airports for 41 hours by this time, so he ran down teh ailse to our seats in the last row where he got a lecture from another attendent on having patience - he cried and Peter stepped into the galley area and told Miss Cranky Pants exactly what we thought of her customer service skills!

The movies they offer are slightly older than the other airlines too and what they promise in their inflight magazine does not get delivered.

Rumours: Strong rumour amongst cast members is that Disney is about to announce a new AK continent - Australia. It may already be on the 'net I haven't looked but a numebr of people in various positions volunteered the information to me.

WDW at Christmas - yes it is beautiful but I have been in early December before and i am sure there were more decorations. The OSbourne Family Lights however are not to be missed! The crowds were manageable as long as you don't need to get on every attraction.

New Attractions for Us: Toy Story Mania is very good - but not worth a three hour wait!!!! We only rode it once and that was the day we got to the Studios prior to opening. Five minutes after rope drop we got fast passes for 3.30 pm. By 9.45 am they were gone for the day! In Epcot the Sum of all Thrills is an unsung hero - we have all our ride designs saved on cards so when I figure out how I will post some of them. John did the Jedi Training Academy - he was within the age range but he is 5'8" so he looks like he is 16. A family behind us thought he was a plant and kept waiting for something funny to happen. He was literally at least twice the size of any other participant. He enjoyed it though. Space Ship Earth - I know its not new but it was down for rehab last trip. Not sure i like the new version - the little movie is fun but it seems like some of the effects are gone including the chariot that used to ride through the back drop of the roman scene, also the narration seems a bit lame now but John loved it and we did email the movies we made home to ourselves - a hint though - if you poke out your tongue you do not make it to the public viewing area - you are replaced with a "disneyfied" family member! The Haunted Mansion - I love the changes to the wall paper and the addition of the stairways however the new bride in the attic storyline is not as enjoyable to me as the original storyline. John did make a comment that they should have made the husbands look like the five siging headstones.

Spending the week with Jeanette and the girls was awesome - not sure what her highlight was but my best bit was the down time we had during our Grand Afternoon Tea at the Grand Floridian and especially the practice NYE fireworks at the Magic Kingdom on the 30th!!! Best Disney Fireworks I have ever seen.

The Polynesian Resort vs Port Orleans Riverside: Yes its nice staying at a hotel on the monorail and the rooms are huge but they have two big downfalls - 1. the sinks, shower etc are all in one room. At a moderate two people can be doing hair and washing teeth whilst a third is showering or weeing - not so at the more exopensive hotel this increased getting ready time heaps. Also the counter service eating place was far more restricive than the moderate. If it was just Peter and I we would consider staying there again but with 4 of us not so sure. Also if you book a garden view room be aware that this may mean a room overlooking the service road and underneath the monorail. However in their defence we checked in at 10 am and Eloise was so sick it was borderline whether we took her to the hospital and we just needed to get her to lie down so we would have taken anything. By Sunday John was sick and spent most of the day in bed and Sunday night I almost called an ambulance for myself - we are calling it the Mexico flu - you should have seen our brave faces at the airport coming home we were so scared they would ban us from flying!

Merchandise: was boring. A lot of it was the same as 3 years ago. I bought myself a few pairs of earrings, new ears and Della's Duffy outfits and that was really it. On previous trips I have spent thousands so something must be wrong - I tried to spend my money but I could find nothing I wanted plus every shop seemed to have the same merchandise. AND the Muppet store has been taken over by Princesses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cast Members: Some ride CM's seemed to be not happy about being at work - there was often a lack of magic. CM's is customer service roles like Guest Relations and hotels etc were magic but some of those coal face workers had no heart. On the second last day We were talking to an older couple on the monorail who were dressed like tourists. Turns out thay have worked at WDW for almost 30 years each and they said they have noticed a difference in the last couple of years and that corners are being cut with fewer staff being employeed. The husband was in maintenance at the studios and the wife worked in the candy store in Frontierland. This was reflected in other areas as well such as cleaning - quite often the ashtrays in the smoking areas were overflowing onto the ground and the toilets were often a bit dirty. Also we left the Magic Kingdom one night around 11pm and they were pressure cleaning Main Street - the park was open for another hour so what happened to waiting until the guests leave before doing the heavy duty cleaning? I had noticed a lot more older workers and had thought it may had something to do with the gfc but Jeanette thinks its the "snow birds" coming down to their Winter jobs.

Disney Moments: One day the four of were standing in line chatting to the lady behind us about how the weather was destroying her citrus farm. Peter told her I was a huge Haunted Mansion fan and she told us that her Dad was on the construction team and that they modeled one of the ghosts on him! She also worked for about 10 years supplying the horse shoes for Disney's horses before she went into farming. Watching the three girls together was also awesome and the day we stopped to watch the flag retreat ceremony was very special. The night the 5 of us girls had dinner at Crystal palace was a treat - you know my great love of Pooh so all day I had been saying to the girls lets tell little kids wearing Winnie shirts that they have poo on their clothes. This continued at dinner with Jeanette being hugged by a poo and poo being on the floor etc etc but was topped off beautifully by the girl at the next next table saying to the bear himself: "Hi Pooh, I have you on my undies".

Food: A big highlight was the day we tried to eat our way around the world: From memory it was pizza and canoli in Italy, desserts in Germay (caramel and a choc dipped strawberry), potstickers in China, School Bread in Norway, Nachos and Churros in Mexico, Teppanyaki in Japan and finally pastries and crepes in France. The five girls did it all and the boys arrived for the last two courses only. The girls were dissapointed we missed Morocco, Canada, UK and USA but our stomachs had a limit. I kept track of the numbers and even though we had 5 counter service meals left on our last day (I gave them away to another family) we still came out financially ahead. The last two days in WDW after the cruise we were paying out of pocket and $48 for a takeaway lunch really hurts. Boma was as good as it always is as was Nine Dragons. Off site we still enjoyed Cracker Barrel heaps and Mythos at Islands of Adventure was nice for Christmas lunch. One thing Disney lacks is enough places selling scooped ice cream - never fear though Peter found a local Baskin Robbins, I don't like ice cream that much but it was also a dunkin' donuts so I was happy!


I will do the cruise later I promise!

[ColinA]

No sight of you while were there, next time. Was your flight rough in places or do Delta take a different path.

[mushu mama]

As alway... a very entertaining account of your travels Sandie... -/ -/ -/ glad you are home safe and sound.

[ajp]

Pretty good summary Sandie. Couple of comments:

I think we saw your plane come in, around 8:30ish was it?

I agree about the amount of elderly working in the parks. It's everywhere. But I'm not sure if you noticed closer, the elderly don't work the weekends, but the younguns do.

Agree on the Osborne Lights. Worth price of admission alone.

Can't wait to hear about your time on the cruise.

[KeithS]

Thanks for the great report Sandie - I'll have some comments later but for the meantime, I hope you are all feeling a lot better - nothing worse than feeling really sick when overseas!