Day three
I had a rough night last
night trying to sleep. I woke up twice
during the night. First time I woke up, it was around
Let me mention what my alarm
plays. I have two sound stream stations
through Shoutcast, Magicalthemeparks,
and Magicalthemeparks 2. The first one plays soundtracks from rides,
shows, etc. The second one plays
background audio tracks you hear around the parks. For my alarm, I have it wake up by playing
the ride sound tracks. When I want to go
to sleep, I have it play the background sound one.
Thought I had a
I finally got out of bed,
showered, dressed, took all my electronics from their overnight charging and
placed it in my backpack and I left my room for the bus stations. I rolled to the Magic Kingdom bus station at
7:55 just in time to miss the bus. I wait for the next one.
So I am the first person in
handicap line. While sending out a email saying
the bus station is empty, it quickly fills up again to almost being full.
Surprised it filled up that fast.
A family behind me needs two handicap slots on the bus. Most buses can only
handle 2. A bus pulls in and the driver starts to setup the handicap
seating, lowering the bus, opening the ramp, etc. I asked the person handling
bus traffic about wait times. He told me the next bus was 7 minutes away
and the trip itself was 15 minutes. Since I had 30 minutes to my adr at cp. I was going to let the other party get in front
of me. The bus that pulled in could handle all three, so no problems.
After bag check, I had to go to the left where they check those pre
Here is my video of me once
off the bus heading to the
As everyone knows, the
While getting my second plate of food, someone by mistake cleared my
table. My server had to get me more utensils and chocolate milk.
After a couple of trips to
the buffet, including desserts, I had enough.
Not stuffed, but satisfied.
I have till
I head to City Hall, wait my
turn to be taken care of at the counter.
I say I need the new handicap pass, DAS.
They ask what my problem is. I
can’t stand in long queues. They aren’t
allowed to ask me too much more. At that
point I am told, all queues can now handle scooters or
wheelchairs. Fine..
ok. So I head
back up Main Street, head towards Tomorrowland by the
Plaza Restaurant. As my usual touring
strategy, I head to do Buzz Lightyear first. I get to the person handling the entrance for
the attraction and I am told… I can’t enter the standby queue with my scooter;
I need to transfer to a wheelchair.
Well, I can’t take my
scooter, I can’t wheel myself in a wheelchair, what can I do? I see the wait time as being 5 minutes. I can handle standing that short period of
time. It is basically just walking the
queue.
My score
After Buzz, I head to
Carousel of Progress next. I am told the
next theater is being reserved for a tour group. I would have to wait 7 minutes
for the next theater. Later
for this.
Next is Winnie the Pooh. I have the same problem as I did at Buzz, I
can only use the standby line. My
scooter can’t go on the standby line. I have to transfer to a wheelchair, but I
can’t wheel myself in a wheelchair. The
standby line wait is 30 minutes. So what
can I do? I can’t stand for 30 minutes.
I can’t wheel myself in a wheelchair.
I can’t use my scooter. So does
that mean I can’t ride?? Thank you the
new DAS system. In a tone that shows my
anger, not at the CM, but at the system which just gave me the middle finger.. what can I do? I ask. He tells me, if I had a DAS pass, he can hand
write a return time that I can use the shorter
So I head back to City Hall,
trying to keep my anger in check, but I am pissed. Buzz ride is a favorite ride, I can do that
multiple times per day, and I can’t ride it unless the standby line is short. That just fuels my anger.
I make it back to City Hall,
waiting my turn again when a CM comes over to me, if she can help me. I explain the situation, I have problems
standing. I can’t wheel myself in a wheelchair and the lines can’t handle my
scooter. Now I can’t say this in a nice
way, but she outright lies to me. She
says all the queues can now handle scooters AND wheelchairs. I tell her no, the first two rides I go to, I am told I can’t use my scooter. That I can’t wheel myself in a wheelchair, I
am by myself. She asks me what
attractions. I tell her Buzz and Winnie
the Pooh. She starts to explain to me
the rules regarding DAS, which I knew already.
She takes my photo, and in a minute, I have my DAS pass.
Now this is a strange
part. The conversation starts in City
Hall, but she quickly has me following her outside of City Hall by the
ramp. I think she doesn’t want others to
hear about me getting the DAS. It seems
it is easier to get hit by lightening then getting issued a DAS pass.
The rules for DAS are
this. When you roll up to the FP
entrance to a attraction, they look at the current
wait time, and doing the math in their mind, they have you return to the FP
line entrance in the time you would have waited if you entered the standby
line, minus 10 or 15 minutes. They mark
it in the DAS pass, your attraction and return time. You can only have one open FP return
time. Once you return they cross out the
line where it shows you used it. If the
standby line is shorter then 15 minutes, you can just enter the FP line to do
the ride.
I head over the Pirates of
the
And here is my video of the
attraction.
I then head to nearby Tiki Room. The
problem is this. The preshow
is outside with the handicap line being in the front row. I have the canopy on the scooter which can
block our people’s view of the preshow. Mindful of that, I get
close enough to see the preshow, without blocking anyones views.
But a problem arises when another wheelchair party is behind me. I luck out as the preshow
is ending and the workers are allowing handicap parties to enter the main
theater. Again, the canopy on my scooter
is a problem. The CM opens the exit
doors, allows me to park my scooter just outside, and I sit in a normal seat
and enjoy the show.
Here is my video of the
Enchanted Tiki Room.
After tiki
room, I did jungle cruise using the handicap pass. Since the wait time was less
than 15 minutes, 10 to be exact, they let me right on. Felt sorry for the skipper,
except for me, seemed everyone else was ignoring him.
Shack across from the boat dock on Jungle Cruise.
Here is my video of the
Jungle Cruise.
I then head over to Be Our Guest for my
It took them a couple of minutes to find my fp+
reservation. But once they did, they just told me to wait on the next line
crossing the bridge. It seemed another
family got on the wrong line and wasted time, and now they seem to have a
problem gaining back the time they lost by cutting in front of some people on
the correct line. The CM didn’t seem to
go with it. I don’t know the resolution
as I am making slow progress.
It took me about 13 minutes to wait on the line and pay for my food using my
Magic Band to use a quick service meal credit.
It took me a bit to find a empty table. They were
cleaning a table for four. So I waited for that table.
It seems to be taking along time for my food. See they track you to your Magic
Band to know where you are sitting. I watch one server after another pass me
by. About 20 minutes after paying for
the meal, i get my food.
Fries were barely warm, the sandwich.....eh. last year
I thought it was better. Really disappointed.
Now I wanted more soda to
drink. There was a cleaning crew working
on the next table. So I left my baseball
cap on the table as I went to the soda fountain machines, just in case they see
a empty table and clean it like this morning at
The cupcake with the ‘gray
stuff’… well the dishes lie, its ok, but not delicious
:)
After lunch, I have two fp+'s
scheduled, Jungle Cruise, which I did already, and the
I felt a better need to decompress for two hours then keep going. So I went
back to my room till my adr at Grand Floridian Cafe
after 5.
Here is my video of me
leaving Be our Guest heading towards the Pop Century
Bus station.
new longer buses sitting at Magic Kingdom
That is me sighing in the
beginning. Just
starting to get worn down a bit.
I make it back to my room by
After relaxing in my room for
a bit, I head back out to catch a bus back to the
Video of me
leaving bus area going towards the Resort Monorail loop, just in time to miss
the monorail :)
And
boarding the monorail itself with a little help.
I park my scooter just
outside the café on the porch. The
weather looks like a pending rain storm.
I start off with a favorite,
Onion Soup.
entrée is of course, New York Strip Steak.
While eating I see the
outside windows that it is pouring outside.
And for
dessert… Boston Cream
Pie
After dinner,
and it stopped raining, I entered the
Here is my video of holding
one of my digital cameras in the same hand as the car’s joystick.
Then I rode the TTA. And here is that video.
Anyone recognize a old song from a defunct attraction at the end of the
video? Making me wish I had
something???? :) After I left the TTA,
I passed a Fast Pass Plus kiosk. I
scanned my bands and it allowed me to reschedule the two missed FP+’s from this after
Here is my video of the
Haunted Mansion.
I head back to Tomorrowland. I see
people queuing up to get into the terrace area where they have the dessert
party. I know it is reserved seating, so
its not like you get their early for a better table,
so I am sitting in the unused Noodle station sitting area. Better then standing on a
line for nothing.
wearing
my Magic Band
The line does seem to grow,
and I can see it is close to opening time, so I get up, leave my scooter parked
outside and slowly make my way to the entrance.
It is
You check in, they give you a
band, scratch you name off the list and escort you to a table.
This is my third time doing
the Wishes Dessert Party.. and
probably my last time too. My third bad experience doing it. The first time I just hurt my right calf
muscle. I wanted to record the show and
broadcast it live. So I stood by the railing to get a good location. But it really hurt to stand that long. And you are not allowed to bring a chair to
the railing for some safety reason.
The second time I was seated
after it started already. I was seated
between two parties.. and one
stunk to high hell, like a garbage dump.
I kept hoping for a change to the wind so I wouldn’t be down wind of
this gentleman. It was a very hot day,
plus 90 degrees, and this person was wearing real thick black pants, looked
like rubber, long sleeve shirt with another shirt over it.
The problem
this time. Well first, I had no intention of standing by
the railing. Since the area is covered,
that means the roof will block my view, but I didn’t really care. The problem this time was lighting.. the lack of lighting. As soon as I am shown my table, it complain.. its so dark. My small table was against a beam. The person
who showed me to my table also said because of safety issues, you can’t move a
chair to the railing, they expect people to stand at the railing, even
encourage people to stand. I remember my
first time doing this. A son moved a
chair near the railing for his elderly mother to sit on, and workers quickly
descended on them explaining they cant do this.
The nearest light to me was about 6 feet away,
and it wasn’t all that
bright. Here is a photo I took of
something I was trying to eat.
It got to the point where I
had a dessert that had three types of fruit on it. Two I was able to
identify, raspberry and blueberry. The
third I just couldn’t tell at all. At
that point I saw a worker walk by me. I complained… this is just too dark. She said hold on,
she will get the manager of the party.
The manager of the person I
think is the manager is walking by me. I
wave her down, thinking.. can
she even see me. I complain, its just too dark.
She apologizes, but there is nothing she can do, cant
move me, and such. Out of frustration, I
make a motion with my hands, I just give up.
The fireworks start and I
just sit and enjoy what I can. I accept
the disaster and try not to let it upset me.
I get one the new articulated
buses heading back to Pop. They had some workers helping coordinate the
guests in the queues. This coordinator apologized about having to make me
wait for another bus. I told him, don’t worry, I understand. I really
do. They may take away things from people in scooters or wheelchairs, but
they will never address in the inequities about the transportation issues
between able body guest and those who need help getting around the parks.
Its life and I accept it.