Trip report for the Wine and Dine 5K - who really uses their ankle for these things anyway???

Well, we have been to Disney and back again... I'm really bummed to be home right now. This was a great trip and I am so ready to to ANOTHER runDisney event.

Thursday - I was up and at Starbucks at 5:40am. I was tired and needed all the caffeine I could get. I still had about a 30 minute drive to Kerry's and I was more than ready to be on the way. We got the car loaded and hit the road a little after 6. We made a couple stops, Florida Welcome Center for OJ of course, lunch in St Augustine at Krystal (she had never been and wanted to stop) and a gas and caffeine stop just outside of Orlando. We decided to head straight to the Expo. We picked up our packets and headed over to the Jolsten's Center to pick up our t-shirts. I decided to stop in the New Balance stand to check out their shirts, I really liked the one I got in February so I wanted to see what they had. Well guess what they had??? The Ariel shoes I wanted so badly in February but could not get because I wasn't in the "virtual queue". I can not even begin to tell you how happy I was that they just let me buy them! No issues, nothing. I told her the shoe, the size and I checked out.

By this time it was getting to be close to 2pm. I had not received a text to let me know our room was ready. (notice a trend?) So we drove on over to POP and sure enough the room was ready. There will be an email sent this time. I was told that they don't save phone numbers to accounts. I asked "why is there a space to enter a phone and email address for notices of rooms being ready if you don't "save" them?" I couldn't get an answer from the CM checking me in or the supervisor. I did get my 2 room requests. 60's section with a lake view. OK, so I could see bits of the lake thru the trees but hey, we were never there to look at the lake lol.

After we got all of our stuff dropped in the room we headed to Petals to have a cocktail before heading to dinner. The CM at the bar was wonderful and it was a beautiful Disney day.

We headed to the room to get ready for dinner. I decided to rely strictly on Disney transport this trip (to my dismay). We arrived at Disney Springs with about an hour and a half to spare in which we spent window shopping and selecting dessert at Amorette's. Dinner was at Morimoto's. We opted to sit outside after much debate, the inside is beautiful and adds to the experience but it was perfect outside. We were seated and the table was very wobbly and we asked to move to the other 2 top by the railing. This changed our server and the original girl gave us the eye the rest of the night. Really? Another party asked to be moved from that table too. It wasn't the leg, they tried to fix it but the table just needs to be replaced. We each ordered a sushi roll to start (Spicy Tuna and California) and I ordered the pork belly bao and Kerry had the Pad Thai. It was all ok. I wasn't blown away. The rolls were very basic and overpriced in my opinion. The bao was ok, one was better than the other. I'm all for some fat in my pork belly but this only has one little sliver of pork and the rest fat. I pointed it out to the server and nothing... The pad thai was good... nothing special. I guess I didn't order the right things.

We walked over to World of Disney for shopping and then to Amorette's for dessert. Kerry had the Mickey Mousse and I got the Dancing with Pavlova. Wow were these delicious! I want to go back to try more! We sat outside people watching while eating and some performers appeared. They were painted all gold and were "statues" when people would come up and have their pics taken in front of them, they would change poses, take the guests hats/sunglasses and other things. They were really good.

It was starting to get really late and we had a 4am wake up call for the race. Back to Pop to hop in bed and get some good rest. Big day tomorrow!

Friday

We had a 4:00am wake up alarm! And a 4:15am and a 4:30am just in case lol. We were dressed and ready in no time and at the bus stop by about 4:45. We arrived at Animal Kingdom with plenty of time to stand in one of the lines for a picture. We didn't wait for Mickey and Minnie because the line was massive. We were in our corral and ready. I was starting to stress a little about the ankle and the fact that what we thought was the back of the corral was the front, yea, we entered last and was pulled out from that end. I'm sure the people who thought they were in the front were unhappy. All in all, we decided we ran at least half of the race. I didn't have any major issues with the ankle just some pain (later in the evening was the worst).

After the race we headed to POP to change for the day. Epcot was on our list for Food and Wine. We hopped on Nemo and walked around the aquarium for a bit before our Soarin fastpass. Kerry loved the new one! It was finally food and wine time. We made our way around the world with a bit of a break at the Chase Lounge. When we got to the International Gateway we went ahead and headed over by boat to Hollywood Studios.

While there we grabbed a Starbucks to keep us going for the evening (the early wakeup call was wearing on us) watched Beauty and the Beast, The Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Frozen and rode Star Tours before staking out a spot for the Star Wars Galactic Spectacular. We sat front and center at about 7pm with our BB-8 and Chewy drinks and popcorn. WOW, I''m not a "crazy" SW fan but this show IS SPECTACULAR!!!! The closer you are the better. You feel the ground shake when the AT-AT is walking, you feel the heat from the flames, the lasers are flying over your head. It is just awesome! We stuck around a bit after to let some of the crowds clear out. We met Chewbacca before heading for the buses. We were more than ready to get in bed and get some sleep!

Saturday

It's going to be a long day kids! We tried to sleep in a little and managed it a bit. We were up and ready to go to make it to Epcot around 10. We wanted to hit a few more spots that we missed and since the Grand Marnier slush machine was down yesterday (the horror!) we had to have one of those. Epcot was much busier this Saturday than I remember it being 2 weeks prior. People everywhere. But we sucked it up and moved on. We made it around to France with a few stops and found a table after getting our slushes! We sat for a while people watching, talking to the folks at the table next to us and making runs to the close booths. I caved and tried the lemon slush, it is not my thing. I'm sticking with the Gran Ma ones! It's a Charleston thing and I can't deviate lol.

We decided it was about time to head to Animal Kingdom so we finished making our way around the WS. A stop in MouseGears was on the list and problems started for the day. 2 weeks ago, my parents used our AP for the discount everywhere we went with no issues. At Tusker House, dad gave our CM his credit card along with Joe's ID and AP card and we had no issues. At MouseGears, Mom was paying for her Pandora charm with her credit card and I showed the CM my id and AP card with no problem. Today however, the CM checking us out looked at me and said "Are YOU paying?" when I said to her that we had no issues with this 2 weeks ago she stated "that is how we are trained." I ended up paying for Kerry's purchase and leaving with a bade taste in my mouth.

A quick stop at POP for a nap and clothing change and we were off to AK. We got on the bus and there was only one other person on it. We started talking to her and believe it or not, she was from Summerville! Just about 10 minutes from me and where I use to live! We talked and talked and ended up walking thru AK together until finally going our own ways. What a small world! It was now about 2:30, we had late lunch/early dinner ADR at Yak & Yeti for 4pm. We grabbed coffee and just roamed around. Harambe was alive with music and dancing, the safari line was over an hour wait, shops were packed and people were in general just HAPPY! We decided to watch the 3:30 Flights of Wonder, I had never seen the show before and it was 25 minutes, exactly enough time to waste before our ADR. It was ok, I was expecting more I guess. They did have a problem with a wayward hawk that was pretty new to the show. A guest in the front section put their hands up to try to touch the bird as it flew over. The hawk turned and flew out of the stadium to a nearby tree. After a few minutes of the host improvising and the trainer desperately trying to get the bird back we were back on track. For about 2 minutes. This time when the bird flew to the next spot, he flew into the bamboo and actually fell down. It was not a good day for that hawk. The trainer had to climb the hill on the side and down to get the bird to bring it out.

We made it to Y&Y right at 4. Perfect. There was 2 other parties waiting and by the time we were seated probably 20... that place got packed fast! We shared the Ahi Tuna Nachos and were so full we didn't order anything else! Those nachos are out of this world!!! We relaxed a bit before heading to our Mickey and Minnie meet and greet!

Mickey loved my race shirt and we were running in place for a bit and Minnie was loving Kerry's ears. From here, the one thing Kerry wanted to do was meet Dug. And this leads us to the next problem... We walk up to the line and the CM tells us it is closed. Kerry asked if we could please get in line and she said "no" very sternly. When I asked when they were coming back, she said "they are DONE for the day" We stepped to the side to look at the times schedule and yes, the meet and greet was until 5:30 and it was 5:25. While we were standing there, 4 people walked into the line. Then 4 more and then 2. When I asked, she said "they were with a couple that was already in line." I asked if this line holding was the reason we could not get in line and she did not answer me. I sent an email about this incident. This isn't the first time that has happened to me. It also happened at the character spot a couple trips back...

We left a little sad about the encounter and headed for DinoLand, we strolled around Dinosaur and spoke with the CMs there about the ride and the refurb and made our way towards Everest. Kerry is not a fan but we rode and had a blast! After we made our way back to Africa for our safari. We had our first boozy dole whip (dark rum) and danced with the performers! When we headed over for our FP we were still about 20 min early but they let us go anyway. We saw lots of action. No really... action... the lions were having an intimate moment on the TOP rock! The driver tried to get around this and when he said "lions are nocturnal therefore they are more active in the evening hours' all of the "adults" in the jeep started laughing. Needless to say it was an interesting safari. We did see lots of animals even the hippos were out of the water!

It was time to head out, we were going to MK for fireworks and EMH. We stopped for a few to watch the Star Wars fireworks from the bridge leaving Africa. They looked awesome over Everest! We waited quite some time for the bus but it was nothing compared to later...

We arrived at MK with enough time to take pics of the Christmas tree stroll the Confectionery and find a spot to sit for a bit. Luckily I did get to check in before my phone died and somehow Robyn found us! We had a nice little chat, a hug and a pic! So glad I got to see you one more time!!! The fireworks were fantastic as usual and the castle, oh my the castle. It is beautiful as it but with the Christmas lights, there are no words.

After the fireworks, we headed towards Tomorrowland... BIG MISTAKE. For some reason people were not moving at all. I could hear people yelling, and Cast Members telling people not to move. We never found out what happened but it was a mess. People pushing and shoving, I was hit by several strollers. Just a big cluster. We finally made it thru the mess, stopped at the rest room and beelined it to 7DMT. The wait time said 60 min but we were in line a little less than 30.

We rode Ariel, Pirates and Great Goofini. We had pretzels and we sat on a bench enjoying the non-existent crowds. It was wonderful. I wanted to stay until they kicked up out but instead we took more castle pics, made the super slow, keep looking back at the castle walk down main street and walked out of the park a little after 1am. We should have stayed. When we got to the bus stop, it was a ZOO. They had opened up 2 of the stops for POP there were so many people. We waited almost 25 minutes before the first bus showed. We didn't get on. The 2nd bus showed about 5 minutes after. We didn't get on. At this point people were getting a bit feisty. 20 more minutes go by, then a little longer then one of the extended buses showed up. His sign said All Star Sports but assured us we were going to POP. Finally around 2am we arrived at the resort.

I have learned my lesson, I will never solely rely on Disney Transport again. It was just too much waiting around for me.

I stopped by the front desk and put some of the trip expenses on my CC instead of mine and Joe's account and headed to bed! I also cancelled our breakfast ADR for the morning. We knew there was no way we would be up, ready, packed and to breakfast at 9:15... LOL

So remember the little incidents... They added up to quite a few over the last couple of trips. I finally took the time to sit and email to Disney. I normally just pass things off as CMs having a bad day, busy days, etc but as I said in the email, "seems like things are slipping"

I have 4 main issues in the email. I got the obligatory "thank you, we received your email" computer generated response. A few days go by and I think to myself "hummmmm no one has responded". That was on Sunday. Not long after my phone rang but I was napping and didn't get up. It was CM Bonita calling me. She also sent me an email. I responded to her email with a date and time for her to reach me. I also received an email from her with my charging statement from the runDisney trip.

Today, I got her call...

I spoke with Bonita for about 30 minutes. She told me that my email was very well written and she appreciated my honesty and feed back. She stated the one thing that really struck her was that I thought things were slipping a bit. A lot of little things are adding up to big things. Bonita assured me that my email was going to several different departments and I may be getting a couple more calls.

She also asked when we would be back. I told her January and that we were staying off property. She said "keep my number and when you are on the way down call me, I will set up your fastpasses!"

All in all I felt really good about the call. Not only did we talk business but we shared a couple personal stories and I felt like she actually cared about me and the issues at hand. I know things won't change overnight but hopefully it gives CMs and the higher ups some feedback to work with.

Anywho, just wanted to let you all know how well it was handled! Have a magical day!

All 3 portions (both rooms at AKL) and POP, I didn't receive a test stating our rooms were ready. We had to check in all three times even though I completed the online check in. Bonita said all of my info was there so there is some sort of glitch. Luckily we only waited about 5 minutes to check in for POP so it wasn't awful but a bus arrived while we were at the county and the line was about 30 deep when we left. That would have upset me, I like skipping check in for that reason.

I didn't receive my bill at the end of our runDisney stay. It is usually in my email when I wake up on check out day. Kerry had hers... Bonita didn't have an explanation for that one.

Dug/Russell - Kerry really wanted to meet Dug, it is all she has talked about leading up to the trip. This one was explained in the trip report...

***From here, the one thing Kerry wanted to do was meet Dug. And this leads us to the next problem... We walk up to the line and the CM tells us it is closed. Kerry asked if we could please get in line and she said "no" very sternly. When I asked when they were coming back, she said "they are DONE for the day" We stepped to the side to look at the times schedule and yes, the meet and greet was until 5:30 and it was 5:25. While we were standing there, 4 people walked into the line. Then 4 more and then 2. When I asked, she said "they were with a couple that was already in line." I asked if this line holding was the reason we could not get in line and she did not answer me.***

Bonita stated sometimes kids have to get out of line and rejoin their party, when I told her it was ALL ADULTS she gasped. She wasn't happy about that one.

Then there was the AP discount issue. My parents used it with us NO PROBLEMS at all, when I tried to let Kerry use it the CM wasn't the friendliest. Bonita said it is for the AP holder only but CMs take it into their own hands and usually fod and beverage is more lenient.

It's a lot of little things that aren't really huge deals but when you start thinking about them, it tends to weigh on you. Hopefully something positive will come from it all.

Yeah, it was really annoying since we were still standing there and people just kept getting in line. The CM didn't have much more to say to us unfortunately...