Trip Report! Part 1

Two Canucks Walt Disney World Adventure!

2 Magic Your Way Tickets, Park Hoppers Pass with the Water Parks and more option for 5 days!

Motel: Super 8, Buffalo

Airline: JetBlue non stop to MCO

Resort: All Star Movies

Dates: August 27th-Sept 6th 2012

Parks Visited: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom,
Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon, Downtown Disney and Sea World

Well we are finally back from our 10 stay at WDW. It was quite a build up to the vacation. At first we were not sure whether we were going to drive or fly down. In the end, we decided to drive to Buffalo, stay over night at the Super 8 Motel and fly out the next morning. Now not all of this trip report is going to be good. I have a few complaints about some things. But I figure that it what a trip report is for. To help other learn from our experiences. So they can make their vacations as magical as possible.

The drive to Buffalo was okay. There was about an hour and a half wait at the US border. Which we were expecting, since it was close to the Labour Day holiday.
We made to the Super 8 Motel in Buffalo and the receptionist there tried to argue with me that we had not booked a long term parking room. When in fact I had book the room well in advance. And I also called prior to leaving just to make sure.
Needless to say from the look, stay and atmosphere of the Super 8 Motel, we would not stay there again. I cannot complain too much because the price was right. But I think next time we will look else where and pay a bit more.

So the morning after our motel stay we were up very early because we were excited to leave and get started on our Disney vacation. The motel did offer a breakfast bar of cereals, yogurts, juices, milk, make your own waffles and other foods. We took the complimentary shuttle to the Buffalo airport, and went through security with no problem.
Our flight was with JetBlue. Only 2 hours non stop to MCO. We boarded easily. The staff was polite and friend. The snacks were great and the trip was smooth.

When we got to the Orlando airport, we went straight to the Magical Express and were disappointed to find that we did not get a chance to board the big blue bus like we had expected. Instead they were using bright yellow Mears buses. Now this wouldn't have been a problem, except for the fact the bus was dirty, smelly and over all disgusting. The arrival video you get on the bus still played, but it was choppey and in black and white. Not at all what I expect from starting our Disney vacation.
To top off this first impression of Mears....the drive got -lost- on Disney property... completely disregarding the signs the directed him to our resort. And adding an extra 40 minutes to the drive while he tried to figure out where he was going.
So we finally make it to the All Star Movie Resort after our drive stopped to ask for directions.

I had done the pre-online check in. As well as called to book our preferred room. So I go stand in the empty line area for the online check in and get ignored for 10 minutes but the more then enough receptionist standing around. It wasn't so much that I minded waiting if they were busy. It was the fact that they saw me standing there, looked right at me, looked away and turned to serve someone else in another line. Finally I spoke up and was able to get us checked in.

We were in the Mighty Duck building. Room 3721, on the ground floor. It was a much quieter area away from the main pool. My husband and I were also very happy to see that this resort was not as large as the Pop Century(which we had stayed in previously). Less walking which was great. Opening the door to our room though, we find two beds. Not the one king sized bed I had requested and payed the preferred room fee for. We called the front desk and they said there was nothing they could do since all of the king bed rooms were booked. "Call back in the morning." was their answer. At this point we were just so tired and so frustrated since we had never had this back of an experience with Disney that we just let things be for the night and stayed in the room.

With everything that had happened so far, we decided to make the best of things and hit Downtown Disney to look around. We got on Disney's free transportation to DTD and walked around three stores and then of course with weather being like it was during Aug 28th, it rained. And when I say rain, I mean poured. We had brought umbrella with us, but it wasn't helping. We got soaked, but laughed it off and headed back to the resort for some much needed sleep!

After a whirlwind first few days of our trip, we were up bright and early the next morning, Aug 29th, to visit Animal Kingdom. We had a great time at this park, despite the muggy heat. But it's Florida and the weather was to be expected. The park attendance was not too high that day and we managed to get on all of the ride we wanted without much of a wait.
I forgot to mention that we had booked the trip with the Free Dinning Plan promotion and had the Quick Service Dinning plan.
For lunch we ate at the Flame Treehouse in AK. The ribs and chicken were good. I just would have preferred a better side dish then baked beans and cole slaw.

We still had lots of time that day after lunch so we decided to hit Blizzard Beach. A first for both my husband and I since we had never been to a Disney's water park before. The water slides were a great way to cool off. and we enjoyed ourselves. After that we headed back to our resort for dinner. The food court at the All Star Movie resort had lots of selection and also the refillable mugs that came with our stay were great.

Back at our resort that morning I had called to try and get us another room and was met with the same response. I was not impressed and finally asked to speak to a supervisor and indeed was able to get us a proper room for the next morning. We just had everything packed up(which wasn't much since we didn't really unpack in a room we didn't want) and left our stuff by the door while we went to the park the next morning.

The weather after the hurricane scare during this trip was great. It was hot and sunny. Maybe a few clouds and only rained in the evening but by that time we were usually in the pool so it didn't matter.

The next morning we went to check out Hollywood Studios and got to ride the new Star Tours ride. We are both avid Star Wars fans and that was a huge highly. No lines so we rode it a few times.
While we were gone, the resort moved out stuff into our new room 3715, with a king sized bed! Finally we were able to unpack fully and I was able to decorate my window and door!



I only saw one other door decorate while we were there. >.< But that didn't stop me. I had planned on decorating and I was gonna do it!

That night we headed to Epcot and were able to see Illuminations Reflections of Earth. It was an amazing show and I would recommend it to anyone visiting the park!

Part 2 Coming Soon!