Hey, all. This is my first time posting, but I have been a long time reader. I just wanted to post my experience. (pardon my lack of the lingo, though
I stayed at the resort from 5/2 to 5/8 (just got home today). My boyfriend and I stayed at Casista 3 and really enjoyed the building, despite some others concerns about this particular building. We were just around the bend from the quiet pool, and had a view of the water. We spent the first night taking in the resort (lots of oohing and aahing) and got set up with our refillable mugs (which we completely got our money's worth in drinks!!)
We had previously visited in Feb and stayed offsite and let's just say I'll never stay offsite again. We're medical students and literally live off of loans, so we spent a lot of time researching and planning our trip in order to get the biggest bang for our buck. For us, that excluded the meal plan. I was worried that was a bad idea, but we kept our receipts, and we only spent more than the cost of the meal plan on one day (during our trip, the meal plan would have cost 38 dollars per day per person). We typically ate one big meal a day, and had "brunch" in our room (granola bars, etc).
The best part of this vacation was the lack of crowds. We were able to sleep in and go to the parks after lunch and still get everything done, especially since we took advantage of the Disney Extra hours. In fact, when we visited Magic Kingdom, we were at the park from 2 pm until 11pm, and rode Space Mt. 3 times, Thunder Mt 3 times, Splash Mt 3 times, Buzz Lightyear ride, the Indy speedway ride, Winnie the Pooh
thumbsup2 ), Lilo and Sitch, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, and a couple of other small things, saw the fireworks, and had a sit down dinner in that small time. Literally, the longest wait time was 20 minutes.
My little secret for you guys? The Magic Kingdom Fireworks. Well, in Feb, we watched them "straight on" , with the castle in front of us. This time, we stood on the side on a little bridge not too far from where the Haunted Mansion is. Though the view was slightly limited, we didn't mind, since it was the same show. However, standing on the side, we saw some different things: there were different images displayed on the side of castle than the front. One time, there were hearts. Another time, there was the giant magic mirror (mirror, mirror, on the wall). That was really cool. I'll be posting pics later, with the help from my boyfriend. He was able to capture the image of the castle in the water and the pics look fabulous!
Oh, so more about the resort. Since we're night owls, we would come home from the parks and go to the quiet pool around midnight, and normally had the pool to ourselves. Sadly, we never got to go down that infamous slide at the Dig Site, but hey, that gives me more motivation to return, right?
We ate at the Pepper Market twice, and both times, the portions were so huge, that a lot of food was wasted. I would really recommend splitting food between families. This way, you can try a little bit of everything, save money, and not waste food.
Downtown Disney was an absolute blast and an absolute must! Remember, the buses go there, too.
Oh, and if you get a rental car, check out the Premium Outets by SeaWorld (less than a 20 minute drive from the resort). We found some REALLY great deals on name-brand apparel.
Nothing much left to say about the resort except the service was superb, the room was comfortable, and the atmosphere was very relaxing. Thanks to all who have previously posted, as we made the decision to stay at this particular resort because of you!