Just Back! Some of my comments. And no crowds!

[remark44]

Hi Everyone, I just got home from the World. Here are some of the details.

Dates: Aug 29-Sept 3.

Resort: Pop Century - Loved the theming. Room was small but it was ok for family with 2 small kids. I could see needing a larger space when I have older kids. Only downside was Pop Food Court. It was packed all the time. This was the busiest place the entire trip.

Parks: MK, DHS, BB, TL and Seaworld

Weather: Hot but not unbearable. Rain two evenings and one day off and on. Rain day we were in MK. This kept the crowds low and we walked on every ride!

Crowds: NONE! I could not believe how light the crowds were. We walked on every ride at every park. We never waited for a bus, boat, monorail or train. The longest line was to meet the Fairies for 45 minutes and this was at 8pm.

Food: FREE DINING! Favorite place - Boma (Yummy!). Least favorite place - 1900 Park Fare (dinner). Food was mediocre at best and charaters were not very good. Step sisters were ok, but step mother, cinderella and prince were terrible. Also really enjoyed 50s Prime time, Wolfgang Pucks Express (2 times), Ghirdelli's for dessert, Cape May Cafe for character breakfast. We also loved the Hoop Dee Doo Review! Food was really good and show was fun.

MK: As stated above it rained off and on this day. But we did as many inside rides as we could in the morning. After lunch the rain stopped long enough to do everything else. Disappointed that TTA was still closed. But no lines was great! See below for small Magical Moment at lunch.

HS: We did Toy Story first thing in the morning. We were off the ride by 9:20 and I went to the Fastpass machine, there was nobody there! I looked at the cast member and asked if the machines were broken! He couldn't believe it either. DD10 loved Animator's Studio. She did 2 drawing classes and would have stayed all day if we let her. But the best part was the number of characters that were inside Animator's Studio. Up characters, Incredibles, The Queen, Mary Poppins, Goofy and Max, Handy Manny, Frozone, Pinnochio and Geppeto, Sorcerer Mickey. We also enjoyed the Block Party Bash.

Waterparks: We liked BB better. But DD10 liked the wave pool at TL. I however got knocked around on one wave and scraped up my elbows and back. I was done after that.

Magical Moment: Ok this is kind of small but I have to tell about it. We went to lunch at Columbia Harbor House. A cast member comes up to us and says he is going to make our day. (Alright, I can't wait to hear what it is ). Well he brings us to a roped off area upstairs called the "Captain's Quarters". The big deal was he brought the food to us and cleaned up after us. The table had all of the condiments right there instead of having to get them ourself. Now I am not putting down the fact that we got picked for this. The problem with it was the cast member made a huge deal out of this. He kept saying isn't this a great Magical Moment? He made a point of telling us we could go to Guest Services and tell them what a great job he did. He was really fishing for a compliment. So it was nice but it probably would have been a bigger deal for someone else.

Other stuff: DD5 loved pin trading . And so did I. We also made our own autograph books, with help from the DISigns board! The characters loved them and so did the cast members. It got great reactions.

Overall we had a great time and this was a perfect time to go.

Happy planning all.

[figmentgirl]

What a wonderful trip!

Sounds like you had fun with your family and no crowds at all is fantastic!

I had a similar experience when I went in September a few years ago it is such a nice time to go. Unfortunetly, mid-March won't be so forgiving but we'll have fun anyway. It's DISNEY!!!

[Tomh]

Nice TR.

We haven't made it home yet, will be home tomorrow night. I'm posting from the hotel right now (I guess I'm addicted).

We agree the crowds were low, lower than I expected. We were in AK the day you were in MK (two years, two days in AK, rain on and off most of the day both times).

We tried a few new places to eat, and found some that we really enjoyed. The Liberty Tree Tavern was a pleasant surprise, much better than we expected. The same goes for the Plaza Restaurant. I had the chicken salad, which was HUGE, and tasty.

At AK, we got to the FOTLK QUITE early for the show. The CM told us it was quite a while before the show, but we told her that we would wait, it had rained on and off for some time. We missed seeing Flights of Wonder due to the rain (they canceled the show), and we missed Finding Nemo because we got there a few minutes too late, so we wanted to make SURE we got in to see FOTLK. The CM started chatting with DS5, and then asked him his name. She then told him that if he brought us back to the other entrance at 1:00, and told the person there his name, we could get in. What a delight it was getting in the VIP entrance, and getting front row seating for the show, which was fantastic. That was our magic moment of the trip.

The only time we had to wait for buses was at park closing. Unfortunately, it seemed that POR had the LONGEST line at every park, and often we would see two or three buses pull up to the POFQ stop while we were still waiting for one bus to come to the POR stop. One night at MK we were so tired, and the POFQ bus was only half full, with at least three buses worth of people waiting for the POR bus that we decided to just grab the POFQ bus, and then catch the water launch over to POR, however the bus driver was nice enough to drop us (and perhaps two other families that did the same thing) off at POR.

All in all, good weather, light crowds, good food, a great time.