Despite careful planning, this was the worst trip to Disney we've done...and that includes the one in '08 when we showed up on a whim.
It started with a failure on our part. We worked late into the night to make sure everything would be ready so that we could just grab our bags and leave. Which is a good plan if your alarm doesn't have a snooze. So, 40 minutes later than we thought we were out the door.
The first few hours of the road trip were uneventful. We were making good time but since there were other cars on the road as we went around the Baltimore and the DC beltway, we hadn't made up any time. Then north of Emporia, VA, the state police happened. We didn't get a ticket, we got a stupid. We were driving along when traffic began to slow and eventually stop. We were in very slow, stop and go traffic for about 10 minutes when we came upon a sign warning about an emergency ahead. We spend the next hour going a mile or two. We see a crew dash past on the shoulder with signs and pylons. I try to keep my perspective. Up ahead someone is having a far worse day than we are...but I'm really getting frustrated. Finally we get encouraged when motion becomes consistent, slow but consistent.
That's when we realize that it's because we are being detoured off of I-95. All of the traffic from I-95 is being sent to some two lane road in the middle of no-where VA. Great. So we finally get on the exit ramp only to find that there is no "detour." No sign, no indication where to go, just...get off the road. We make a quick right to check maps and gain bearings. This road does go south and does have another exit back on to I-95. GREAT! As we get turned around, we go over the I-95 overpass (with a police officer blocking the on-ramp) and see that traffic below is us MOVING. WHAAAAAA? We decide that the officer will surely re-open the ramp at any moment so we turn back around and head back to the ramp...where he still sits. So we turn around again and this time I slow and roll down a window to ask him if he was going to re-open the ramp since obviously the road was now open and I'm very angrily waved off. So we proceeded with the "B" plan in place and went for another 10 miles or so down a two lane and got back on I-95. We were now 2 hours behind with three states left to cross.
All set-backs tallied, we rolled into Jacksonville, FL at 10:30pm, NOT the 8:00pm we had originally planned on. Still! We are in Jacksonville and a short drive away from the most magical place on earth! We slept in a bit, deciding that we would forgo some morning park goodness in favor of sleep. Our math put us at Disney by 10:30am and that would give us plenty of time to get checked in, get to the park and meet up with Jen & Josh in time for our lunch date at 12:20pm. We had clearly never dealt with staying at a Disney resort.
We arrived at Disney's Pop Century right on time and were encouraged by there being a separate line for people who had done the on-line check-in process. At this point they just needed to hand out information, keys, explain the few ins and outs, collect a signature and done. With four people ahead of us, we thought we might get some park time in anyway. At 10:45 the line had yet to move. There were three cast members working check-in and we were at the front of the line by 11:15. That's not a misprint nor an exaggeration. We spent 45 minutes in line behind FOUR people.
We are much relieved to finally get to the counter. It's 15 minutes to the park, so maybe we'd at least get to ride something. The nice woman took our information and told us our room wasn't ready and that was fine, check-in isn't until 3pm but we just wanted to check-in so that we could get into the park. This was not good enough for Disney. They are going to put you into a room unreasonably early even if it takes all day. So she picks up a phone to talk to people in house keeping to find out what rooms were ready. This is another 10 minutes gone. So, she hands us our key as well as a circled map as directions to our building. Notice she didn't explain anything about the resorts, or tickets or transportation...this will bite us in the ass later.
Disney resorts being huge we decide to get a bell cart. Complication: All of the real bell carts are in use by the luggage delivery service...who can deliver my luggage to my room sometime in the next hour or so. I look at my watch and um, that's no good. So, we sign our life away for the use of a hand truck. We then spend a few minutes trying to figure out the vague signs (remember we have no clue where our building is) to find our room. We find our tiny and dingy room. The bed is a bit sway-backed but feels okay, the carpeting very short napped and deeply stained and the bathroom grout has apparently never been scrubbed. We quickly toss suitcases into a corner and go to the safe to secure our valuables...which unless your valuables are a pair of iPads or half a ream of legal sized paper, you are SOL, even my smallest camera lens would not fit. We aren't feeling the value in the value resorts. It's about 11:45 so we will head straight to Disney Hollywood Studios.
That part all went according to plan. We arrived without incident, met Jen & Josh, had a great lunch at 50s Prime Time Cafe, a favorite for a good "homestyle" meal and a fun experience. Thanks to Jen's formidable skills at Fastpassery we got a lot of fun in before we had to leave to make our dinner reservations. We arrived a few minutes early and we were quickly seated at our last minute second choice of a restaurant.
Usually we like to kick our trips off at 'Ohana. This is a "family style" all-you-can-eat. It's an endless parade of veggies and meat cooked over a roaring fire with some fun entertainment. This year they went to a cheaper cut of pork and took several of the dipping sauces off the service and as the final insult, they messed with the heaping bowl of broccoli that is usually one of the courses...and I'm SO GLAD they did or we would have never gone to Kona Cafe.
Kona is the flip side of 'Ohana. It's small, it's quiet and it has a fairly sophisticated menu. It quickly leaped into the top five restaurants I'd instantly recommend for visitors. I had the Togarashi Spiced Ahi Tuna, which comes with an interesting veggie/starch presentation. Your veggies are at the center of a tempura fried sushi roll. So you have a lovely crispy roll that is filled with rice and some perfectly cooked vegetables. Doreen had the Kona Coffee Rubbed Pork Chop which also delivered huge flavor.
At this point we breathed a sigh of relief that our troubles were behind us. We had half a day of park hopping and fun with friends, two really fine meals and our troubles were behind us...but we underestimated the whole value resort experience.
That will be in part 2.
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