afwdwfan
DIS Dad #460
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2010
I mean, really? They had the gate open, with nobody manning it... and then run you out of the park when you go in looking for an event that you have purchased access to? At least put up a sign or something so people know!Eventually we were discovered by a cast member who told us that we were absolutely not supposed to enter the park until we were met by a guide at the front gate. We all walked all the way back out of the park again, just to wait another five minutes for a guide who was running late, just to walk all the way back in again. #Disneyefficiency
Hmm... go figure.Balancing, it turns out, is one of the most important things when you're learning to surf. (Who woulda' thought!? )
You say you don't know what to expect... I say that is exactly what I expect.The first wave I took, I didn't know what to expect. After all, I'd never tried surfing before. I tried to pop up, failed, fell off the board, got tossed around a bit, and felt completely winded and exhausted
I'm glad you thought it through and gave it another shot. From the looks of your pictures it looks like you were starting to get it figured out!The shore looked so far away, and by the time I got to dry land I felt tired, nauseas, and sure I wouldn't be trying again. But as I waited for my second turn, a funny thing happened. I started brainstorming about all the things I could have done differently to improve, and I started feeling determined to give it another shot. And I did! Each time I tried, I did a little better, had a little more of an adrenaline rush, and felt more and more excited to try again.
That's awesome! I was starting to wonder where all the pictures came from.There was a nice man who was there with his family but wasn't actually surfing. He had a camera and said he just enjoyed photographing the classes. At the end of the class, he offered to send us all his photos if we gave him our email addresses. I expected to receive a dozen photos or so, with maybe a couple of me and N. It ended up being hundreds! Some of his photos were very good, and most of what you see in this update is thanks to him.
Really? Not cool! I just wouldn't want to have to go somewhere all wet after being in the pool. Especially if that somewhere is a restaurant.After the class was done, I was a little peeved to find out that we weren't allowed to change out of our wet things before leaving. Apparently, since we hadn't bought a waterpark ticket, and the park was about to open, we had to be immediately escorted out and weren't given the courtesy of a quick visit to the changing rooms. We would just have to be a little soggy then when we headed to our next destination. Surfing works up quite the appetite, so we were on our way to one of our favourite breakfast spots...
But you're Canadian, so you bring your own maple syrup everywhere you go right???Our favourite server, Theresa, wasn't there that day, and I also wasn't able to get real maple syrup from the kitchen that day.
Good call.I decided I wanted a frozen lemonade, the ultimate summer Disney drink.
I guess N dodged a bullet. He'd have been buying some pins after picking the wrong trivia category if that CM didn't have pity on you.Before I could choose, N ruined my chances by picking general Disney for me, even though I know an awful lot about princesses! I didn't get the trivia question right (it had multiple correct answers to guess and I only came up with a few of them) but I think the CM took pity on me because she let me do the mystery trade anyway just for trying.
What pin did you get? Was it a good one or a dud?
That works too...Our ride on AS2 (<-- lol)
Ok... I'm a little mixed here. I feel for the parent, because I've been in the parks/left the parks with irrationally behaving children and that isn't fun.When we got on the tram to go back to our car, there was a cranky mom sitting in our row with a small girl (maybe 5 years old?) who seemed to be upset and pouty that they were leaving the park. The mother seemed to be getting fed up and had reached the point of Mom-is-officially-done-coddling. She turned to the daughter, gestured to the people on the tram, and snapped, "There's nothing to do here! That's why everyone is leaving!" It seemed that the daughter was upset that they would be going to Universal and not returning to DHS, because then the mother tried to drag us into the matter by asking if we'd ever been to Universal before, and which park was more fun. We mostly stayed out of it.
But don't play this game. I'd have started going on and on about how awesome DHS is just out of spite. Have you seen Lightning McQueen's Racing Academy yet?? No? Turn around and get off this tram now, you can't skip that!!!!
Not to mention the fact that the 5 year old probably can't even ride 3/4 of the rides at Universal.
Rightfully so... if they want to bill it as their flag ship resort and charge the prices they charge, it should be held to a higher standard and should meet that higher standard!I did find, however, that because I had such high expectations of the Grand, I was probably more critical of our room/stay than I would have been elsewhere.
Ok, I'm typically non-confrontational. I'd have handled it the way you had. After that wait to get seated, get drinks, get food... yeah, I'm hungry and I just want to eat and I don't have any confidence in that point that I'd still be awake by the time I get a steak back.Then he made me feel kinda guilty for not having told him earlier when he could have done something about it, but service had been so slow that I honestly hadn't really been interested in waiting for another steak to be cooked.
And If the server had tried to guilt me, that's when confrontational me would have come out and pointed out those very details. I can only bottle it up so long.
I'm sorry that it wasn't a great experience. Like you, I've only heard good reviews of this place, up to now anyway. I'm glad that N enjoyed his meal, but it really is a shame that you didn't get something better. And in any case, whether the food is good or not, waiting 30+ minutes after ADR time to be seated and another 30+ minutes to get drinks and bread service it isn't a good experience and a poor way to start things off.I would be willing to give Yachtsman another shot in future, based on N's meal, and on the many positive reviews I've heard, but we haven't worked too hard to fit it into our plans again yet, and I definitely wouldn't do it at a time when I had anywhere else to be afterwards.