1st timers include me (mom), DH, DD14, DD12 and DS8.
First let me say thanks to everyone for all their help. I don't know how I could have planned this trip without all the great advice I received. I started planning in January for a end of May trip that was eventually moved up end of April due to other family commitments. The hotel choice was the biggest one - onsite vs. offsite, value vs. moderate (deluxe wasn't an option unfortunately). We started with travel books and narrowed it down to Holiday Inn Kids Suites, then Embassy Suites, then Vistana Resort before finally deciding on the Vistana Villages ... until I found out they do not guarantee non smoking rooms. DD has asthma so this is a must. Many more nights on the computer reading these boards until midnight! DH begs me to make a decision. It wasn't until I started reading the Pop Century thread that I finally made my decision. I booked 2 connecting rooms at the Pop Century using a room only code found on Mousesavers. Only $72 per night per room. We are driving and I am dreading the 22 hour drive but thanks to a tv/vcr in the van it goees very smoothly. The kids watch movies and there is no fighting at all. I bought the "Along the I-75" book and the time passed very quickly. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is driving.
I could write for hours about how much we loved the Pop Century. I have read over and over how people find the rooms at the Pop small, but I have to say that I didn't find them small at all. Now granted we had 2 rooms, but I still found the rooms to be a decent size. I have travelled on business a lot and have stayed at Sheratons, Hiltons, Best Westerns etc... and I didn't find the Pop rooms that much smaller. If anyone has ever stayed at the Royal York in Toronto... those rooms are small!!! The beds were super comfortable and the rooms were very clean. Housekeeping was great (no towel animals all week though). For those of you who have looked at that 360 degree view of the Pop rooms and are freaked out - don't worry the rooms are much bigger then what they apear on that video! I never heard people in the next room although I did hear water running above us.. but don't you find that you hear that in all hotels? We were on the ground floor, building 2 in rooms 2126 and 2128. The pool was just around corner as was the ice machines and vending machines. I have also heard lots of complaints about parking but our rooms were very close to the parking lot which made unloading the van easy and fast. We were only a few minutes walk to the Food Court and buses. We checked in on Sunday at 11:00 am and our rooms were ready! Check in was a breeze. They had us booked in the 70's section, but when I told her that I requested the 50's section at the time of booking and also faxed my request in 3 days prior to arrival, she was able to switch us to the 50's section. We unloaded our van and walked around the resort. I took a ton of pictures on my new digital camera... the icons in each decade were so much fun. You really have to see them to appreciate them... pictures do not do them justice. Feeling my age when kids say "what's an 8-track Mom?". We purchased our refillable mugs and I had to laugh because when we went to fill them for the first time what do I see but a lady filling up her All Stars mug! I wanted to say "hey you can't do that" ... but I didn't. Menu looked great in the food court, but we didn't eat one single meal there. We ate breakfast in our room every morning and lunch and dinner was always eaten at the parks or offsite restaurants. The menu looked great and the prices seemed reasonable. The gift shop was excellent and we spent a bundle in there.
Monday morning we woke up to bright sunshine and headed off to Animal Kingdom at 8:30 am. Busing was excellent ... we never waited more than 5 minutes all week except for the ride home from Magic Kingdom. AK was great... Bugs Life and the Lion King show were definintely the highlights. Our Safari driver was not great - it all seemed very rehearsed and very predictable. Not too many animals out that day either. Dinosaur was closed for rehab so that was a bit disappointing. We put on our rain ponchos to do the water ride... surpised at how many people yelled "cheater" as we walked off the ride. Sorry people but didn't really want to walk around in wet jean shorts for the next 2 hours!!! We didn't really have to wait to ride anything except for the Safari ride so we had finished the park by 1:30 pm. We decided to take the bus to MGM. We loved this park and actually didn't get to see everything. My DS8 rode the RRC and loved it. This was his first "real" roller coaster! Next we headed over to TOT. We all liked the ride, but I found it was over way too fast. I wanted to do it again, but ran out of time. For lunch we went to 50's Prime Time Cafe (no PS)... got right in. Our waitress was fun, but from what I could tell she was not as "in character" as some of the others. My DD14 was speechless when she told her to get her elbows off the table and to sit up straight. I didn't tell them ahead of time what the restaurant was about. It was fun and lunch was very good. I split the chicken sandwich with my DD and it was excellent. Another great tip I picked up on this board was about the portion sizes. Definintely split meals if you are not big eaters... the portions are very big. DS8 LOVED Indiana Jones. The Muppets 3D was great. Fantasmic was wonderful... we didn't even sit down until 7:45 and we got excellent seats. It took a while to get back to the bus station with everyone leaving at the same time, but we only waited about 5 minutes for a bus back to the Pop. We had a quick swim in the bowling pin pool and fell fast asleep. Epcot is tomorrow.. Mission Space here we come! Woke up to cloudy weather, but still a warm day. I love sun so I was a bit disappointed in the weather. Epcot was fun and we had a good day. The weather was cloudy and we had light rain throughout the day. We rode Test Track 3 times ... this is a great ride for everyone. Next we decided to do Mission Space but the ride was down due to "technical difficulty". The CM told us that our Fast Passes would be good all day so we went off to do other things and came back in about 1 hour. Ok... here is the Mission Space scoop for all those people just not sure. I was determined to ride this thing even though I hate spinning rides. All five of us get in line and they put me, DD14 and DD12 in one line and DH and DS8 in another line. We are just about to get into the capsule when I look over and NO DH and DS8... the guy in their line yells out "they bailed". Now DD12 is freaking out thinking she doesn't want to go on this ride. Before she has time back out, the capsule opens and in we go. This is a very intense ride. I wish I didn't know that the capsule was spinning because that was definintely in the back of my mind. But, I kept focused and looked straight ahead and kept my eyes open the whole time. We survived MS but I definitely have the attitude "been there, done that .. no need to do it again". We meet up with DH and DS8 and I pray that DH doesn't ask me to ride it again with him. Luckily he didn't mention it. We didn't feel quite right for the next 1/2 hour or so and we all had to take a tylenol because it gave us a headache. The kids weren't overly impressed with the World Showcase, but I liked it a lot. My DS wanted a $54 pack of Yug-i-oh cards from the Japan gift shop and when I refused he was not a happy camper for the rest of the world tour. Being the proud Canadians we are, we had to buy Beaver Tails in Canada...yummy! The fireworks were great other than a very rude lady telling me that she had this spot "saved". Excuse me but how do you "save" a piece of pavement? We took our time exiting the park after the fireworks checking out the gift shops. We are very tired and our feet hurt. Thank God the bus arrives quickly. We all sleep well tonight. Tomorrow is Wednesday and we are off to Typhoon Lagoon. Stay tuned.
First let me say thanks to everyone for all their help. I don't know how I could have planned this trip without all the great advice I received. I started planning in January for a end of May trip that was eventually moved up end of April due to other family commitments. The hotel choice was the biggest one - onsite vs. offsite, value vs. moderate (deluxe wasn't an option unfortunately). We started with travel books and narrowed it down to Holiday Inn Kids Suites, then Embassy Suites, then Vistana Resort before finally deciding on the Vistana Villages ... until I found out they do not guarantee non smoking rooms. DD has asthma so this is a must. Many more nights on the computer reading these boards until midnight! DH begs me to make a decision. It wasn't until I started reading the Pop Century thread that I finally made my decision. I booked 2 connecting rooms at the Pop Century using a room only code found on Mousesavers. Only $72 per night per room. We are driving and I am dreading the 22 hour drive but thanks to a tv/vcr in the van it goees very smoothly. The kids watch movies and there is no fighting at all. I bought the "Along the I-75" book and the time passed very quickly. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is driving.
I could write for hours about how much we loved the Pop Century. I have read over and over how people find the rooms at the Pop small, but I have to say that I didn't find them small at all. Now granted we had 2 rooms, but I still found the rooms to be a decent size. I have travelled on business a lot and have stayed at Sheratons, Hiltons, Best Westerns etc... and I didn't find the Pop rooms that much smaller. If anyone has ever stayed at the Royal York in Toronto... those rooms are small!!! The beds were super comfortable and the rooms were very clean. Housekeeping was great (no towel animals all week though). For those of you who have looked at that 360 degree view of the Pop rooms and are freaked out - don't worry the rooms are much bigger then what they apear on that video! I never heard people in the next room although I did hear water running above us.. but don't you find that you hear that in all hotels? We were on the ground floor, building 2 in rooms 2126 and 2128. The pool was just around corner as was the ice machines and vending machines. I have also heard lots of complaints about parking but our rooms were very close to the parking lot which made unloading the van easy and fast. We were only a few minutes walk to the Food Court and buses. We checked in on Sunday at 11:00 am and our rooms were ready! Check in was a breeze. They had us booked in the 70's section, but when I told her that I requested the 50's section at the time of booking and also faxed my request in 3 days prior to arrival, she was able to switch us to the 50's section. We unloaded our van and walked around the resort. I took a ton of pictures on my new digital camera... the icons in each decade were so much fun. You really have to see them to appreciate them... pictures do not do them justice. Feeling my age when kids say "what's an 8-track Mom?". We purchased our refillable mugs and I had to laugh because when we went to fill them for the first time what do I see but a lady filling up her All Stars mug! I wanted to say "hey you can't do that" ... but I didn't. Menu looked great in the food court, but we didn't eat one single meal there. We ate breakfast in our room every morning and lunch and dinner was always eaten at the parks or offsite restaurants. The menu looked great and the prices seemed reasonable. The gift shop was excellent and we spent a bundle in there.
Monday morning we woke up to bright sunshine and headed off to Animal Kingdom at 8:30 am. Busing was excellent ... we never waited more than 5 minutes all week except for the ride home from Magic Kingdom. AK was great... Bugs Life and the Lion King show were definintely the highlights. Our Safari driver was not great - it all seemed very rehearsed and very predictable. Not too many animals out that day either. Dinosaur was closed for rehab so that was a bit disappointing. We put on our rain ponchos to do the water ride... surpised at how many people yelled "cheater" as we walked off the ride. Sorry people but didn't really want to walk around in wet jean shorts for the next 2 hours!!! We didn't really have to wait to ride anything except for the Safari ride so we had finished the park by 1:30 pm. We decided to take the bus to MGM. We loved this park and actually didn't get to see everything. My DS8 rode the RRC and loved it. This was his first "real" roller coaster! Next we headed over to TOT. We all liked the ride, but I found it was over way too fast. I wanted to do it again, but ran out of time. For lunch we went to 50's Prime Time Cafe (no PS)... got right in. Our waitress was fun, but from what I could tell she was not as "in character" as some of the others. My DD14 was speechless when she told her to get her elbows off the table and to sit up straight. I didn't tell them ahead of time what the restaurant was about. It was fun and lunch was very good. I split the chicken sandwich with my DD and it was excellent. Another great tip I picked up on this board was about the portion sizes. Definintely split meals if you are not big eaters... the portions are very big. DS8 LOVED Indiana Jones. The Muppets 3D was great. Fantasmic was wonderful... we didn't even sit down until 7:45 and we got excellent seats. It took a while to get back to the bus station with everyone leaving at the same time, but we only waited about 5 minutes for a bus back to the Pop. We had a quick swim in the bowling pin pool and fell fast asleep. Epcot is tomorrow.. Mission Space here we come! Woke up to cloudy weather, but still a warm day. I love sun so I was a bit disappointed in the weather. Epcot was fun and we had a good day. The weather was cloudy and we had light rain throughout the day. We rode Test Track 3 times ... this is a great ride for everyone. Next we decided to do Mission Space but the ride was down due to "technical difficulty". The CM told us that our Fast Passes would be good all day so we went off to do other things and came back in about 1 hour. Ok... here is the Mission Space scoop for all those people just not sure. I was determined to ride this thing even though I hate spinning rides. All five of us get in line and they put me, DD14 and DD12 in one line and DH and DS8 in another line. We are just about to get into the capsule when I look over and NO DH and DS8... the guy in their line yells out "they bailed". Now DD12 is freaking out thinking she doesn't want to go on this ride. Before she has time back out, the capsule opens and in we go. This is a very intense ride. I wish I didn't know that the capsule was spinning because that was definintely in the back of my mind. But, I kept focused and looked straight ahead and kept my eyes open the whole time. We survived MS but I definitely have the attitude "been there, done that .. no need to do it again". We meet up with DH and DS8 and I pray that DH doesn't ask me to ride it again with him. Luckily he didn't mention it. We didn't feel quite right for the next 1/2 hour or so and we all had to take a tylenol because it gave us a headache. The kids weren't overly impressed with the World Showcase, but I liked it a lot. My DS wanted a $54 pack of Yug-i-oh cards from the Japan gift shop and when I refused he was not a happy camper for the rest of the world tour. Being the proud Canadians we are, we had to buy Beaver Tails in Canada...yummy! The fireworks were great other than a very rude lady telling me that she had this spot "saved". Excuse me but how do you "save" a piece of pavement? We took our time exiting the park after the fireworks checking out the gift shops. We are very tired and our feet hurt. Thank God the bus arrives quickly. We all sleep well tonight. Tomorrow is Wednesday and we are off to Typhoon Lagoon. Stay tuned.
...I wish I hadn't told my kids about the servers in 50's Prime Time...it must have been so funny to see your DD when she was scolded (by someone other than Mom and Dad)
...keep the reports coming.
