walkerford
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2001
Finally managed to gain enough energy to post up the highs and lows of our two weeks at Old Key West. We arrived back last Saturday but I'm sure I am still operating on Eastern Standard Time!
Here' sjust a few random thoughts on the highs and lows of our latest Disney dose...
To get the lows out of the way...
Fast Pass + !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No, No, No, No, No etc etc etc.
As you can tell I'm not a fan... I'm afraid I found the whole experience a complete pain. This was our first holiday with the magic band experience , our 12th visit in total to the world. I simply cannot get my head around the fact that I am now expected to know what I want to do, almost to the hour weeks in advance of actually doing it. Before if we wanted to ride on something times in a day then we could do that , get there for rope drop, grab a fast pass, ride , hop to another park etc etc. Now, no chance!
FP now means that rides which never had a queue before now have lengthy queues, for instance on one day the stand by for space ship earth was listed as 55 minutes!
There is no back up, on the day I had a FP booked for illuminations it disapeared , infact all of my selections disappeared when I changed a time on MDE. Very sympathetic CM who stated she was inundated with problems , but inspite of her sympathy could do nothing to get the illuminations FP reinstated.
I'm sorry but for me its just too much and I just cannot imagine how a lot of people new to the Disney experience could possibly manage.
Some people think the system needs tweeking, as for me it needs binning!
The Magic bands were very hit and miss, on the first morning my wife, daughter and sons worked to get into MK for a 8am Crystal Palace ADR, mine didn't, the cast member couldn't fix it and I ended up at Guest Services for 45minutes, thus missing the whole point of a quiet walk down main street before the crowds. Again very sympathetic cast member , but again nothing that could immediately be done.
I quite liked the bands operating the door of the room and being able to charge, but the negatives massively outweighed the positives.
Downtown Disney
Avoid like the plague!! We were there via bus our second night, hoardings everywhere, we were planning on coming back to OKW via the boat, having realised there was no service at Market Place we made it via the hoarded walkways to West Side , before waiting in a long queue for the boat back, having reached the front, service was suspended ( lightning in the area - obviously no ones fault) Just thinking we would get a bus from West Side , there weren't any , the thought of trailing the mile back to market place was too much and we ended up getting a taxi..
Now I know that ther is a massive amount of work going on and I'm sure in time it will be lovely , but at the moment it is just all too much and definately not Disneyesque and more like a building site..
Mama Melrose.
Just very poor, poor service, poor food, just poor. As DVC members we are not eligible for "free" dining plan and it just seems more and more that table service is being dummed down because, well because they can.
To be fair I complained via e mail ( I'm British - never done that before) and I received a very quick call back and the vast majority of the bill was refunded.
The Heat!
I know, I know it was August its always red hot, this time however at times it was just brutal, with lack of afternoon thunderstorms which always seem to 'cool' things off a bit..
Rubbish
I always used to tell everyone, never see any rubbish at Disney World, not this year, bins overflowing, rubbish in full sight of CM's just left there, its a little thing but it was little thing that always seemed to matter.
Dear me, how downbeat am I sounding?!
Sorry , sorry, sorry...
The Highs... at last I hear you exclaim....
Old Key West.
As a last minute ( 6 weeks out) booking we could only get OKW for the full 14 days. The resort is just so relaxing and not so much in your face Disney, our 2 bed villa was massive and the kids loved having their own room to chill out in. Time spent by all 3 pools, particularly loved the quiet pool late at night watching the MK fireworks in the distance.
Magic Kingdom.
You still can't beat MK. The whole atmosphere, particularly as we all walked down main street at 2 am after extra magic hours and took photos in the 'white lights'. The new fantasy land is well done and is pure Disney, the kids loved SDMT, made me sick but then most things do!
Memory Maker.
Paid for in advance , it was an end of day tradition for us to catch up with the photos , particularly the extra magic ones. Still cant quite work out how the photos from the rides 'magically' appeared on our bands.. Very neat.
Sweet Tomatoes.
We eat here on several occasions. Situated at Crossroads, we paid $30 for the 4 of us for unlimited fresh salad, soups, pizzas, breads and soft drinks, fantastic value and so nice to eat something a little less processed.
Dreamliner Airline.
By far the best airline I have been on, excellent entertainment system , back of each seat with what seemed like unlimited films, tv , games. a lot more leg room in economy, large windows which dimmed, nice lighting etc etc. Alas on the way back the flight was delayed by nearly 5 hours which somewhat took the gloss of it!
Top of The World Lounge.
As DVC members staying on points we could gain access to the lounge at the top of Bay Lake Tower. Lovely little bar area and a patio outside with a gorgous view over the magic kingdom, wishes music piped in as the fireworks go off in the distance. Seeing the perspective of how far away from the castle the fireworks actually are set off from was really interesting.
Mini Golf - Fantasia and Winter /Summer.
Really enjoyed our down time here, even managed to see a snake on the fairways course! Really well done and just something a little different.
Well there we go.. Almost seems like a year ago now, but isn't that always the way. Two weeks with those that matter most with memories filed away.
Sorry if the negatives seem to outweigh the positives, they most definately didn't but just for the first time there were things which didn't seem to fit in with the Disney escapism that I so love.
Hope my random thoughts are helpful, please feel free to ask any questions and I'll do my best to get them answered.
Take Care. Nigel
Here' sjust a few random thoughts on the highs and lows of our latest Disney dose...
To get the lows out of the way...
Fast Pass + !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No, No, No, No, No etc etc etc.
As you can tell I'm not a fan... I'm afraid I found the whole experience a complete pain. This was our first holiday with the magic band experience , our 12th visit in total to the world. I simply cannot get my head around the fact that I am now expected to know what I want to do, almost to the hour weeks in advance of actually doing it. Before if we wanted to ride on something times in a day then we could do that , get there for rope drop, grab a fast pass, ride , hop to another park etc etc. Now, no chance!
FP now means that rides which never had a queue before now have lengthy queues, for instance on one day the stand by for space ship earth was listed as 55 minutes!
There is no back up, on the day I had a FP booked for illuminations it disapeared , infact all of my selections disappeared when I changed a time on MDE. Very sympathetic CM who stated she was inundated with problems , but inspite of her sympathy could do nothing to get the illuminations FP reinstated.
I'm sorry but for me its just too much and I just cannot imagine how a lot of people new to the Disney experience could possibly manage.
Some people think the system needs tweeking, as for me it needs binning!
The Magic bands were very hit and miss, on the first morning my wife, daughter and sons worked to get into MK for a 8am Crystal Palace ADR, mine didn't, the cast member couldn't fix it and I ended up at Guest Services for 45minutes, thus missing the whole point of a quiet walk down main street before the crowds. Again very sympathetic cast member , but again nothing that could immediately be done.
I quite liked the bands operating the door of the room and being able to charge, but the negatives massively outweighed the positives.
Downtown Disney
Avoid like the plague!! We were there via bus our second night, hoardings everywhere, we were planning on coming back to OKW via the boat, having realised there was no service at Market Place we made it via the hoarded walkways to West Side , before waiting in a long queue for the boat back, having reached the front, service was suspended ( lightning in the area - obviously no ones fault) Just thinking we would get a bus from West Side , there weren't any , the thought of trailing the mile back to market place was too much and we ended up getting a taxi..
Now I know that ther is a massive amount of work going on and I'm sure in time it will be lovely , but at the moment it is just all too much and definately not Disneyesque and more like a building site..
Mama Melrose.
Just very poor, poor service, poor food, just poor. As DVC members we are not eligible for "free" dining plan and it just seems more and more that table service is being dummed down because, well because they can.
To be fair I complained via e mail ( I'm British - never done that before) and I received a very quick call back and the vast majority of the bill was refunded.
The Heat!
I know, I know it was August its always red hot, this time however at times it was just brutal, with lack of afternoon thunderstorms which always seem to 'cool' things off a bit..
Rubbish
I always used to tell everyone, never see any rubbish at Disney World, not this year, bins overflowing, rubbish in full sight of CM's just left there, its a little thing but it was little thing that always seemed to matter.
Dear me, how downbeat am I sounding?!
Sorry , sorry, sorry...
The Highs... at last I hear you exclaim....
Old Key West.
As a last minute ( 6 weeks out) booking we could only get OKW for the full 14 days. The resort is just so relaxing and not so much in your face Disney, our 2 bed villa was massive and the kids loved having their own room to chill out in. Time spent by all 3 pools, particularly loved the quiet pool late at night watching the MK fireworks in the distance.
Magic Kingdom.
You still can't beat MK. The whole atmosphere, particularly as we all walked down main street at 2 am after extra magic hours and took photos in the 'white lights'. The new fantasy land is well done and is pure Disney, the kids loved SDMT, made me sick but then most things do!
Memory Maker.
Paid for in advance , it was an end of day tradition for us to catch up with the photos , particularly the extra magic ones. Still cant quite work out how the photos from the rides 'magically' appeared on our bands.. Very neat.
Sweet Tomatoes.
We eat here on several occasions. Situated at Crossroads, we paid $30 for the 4 of us for unlimited fresh salad, soups, pizzas, breads and soft drinks, fantastic value and so nice to eat something a little less processed.
Dreamliner Airline.
By far the best airline I have been on, excellent entertainment system , back of each seat with what seemed like unlimited films, tv , games. a lot more leg room in economy, large windows which dimmed, nice lighting etc etc. Alas on the way back the flight was delayed by nearly 5 hours which somewhat took the gloss of it!
Top of The World Lounge.
As DVC members staying on points we could gain access to the lounge at the top of Bay Lake Tower. Lovely little bar area and a patio outside with a gorgous view over the magic kingdom, wishes music piped in as the fireworks go off in the distance. Seeing the perspective of how far away from the castle the fireworks actually are set off from was really interesting.
Mini Golf - Fantasia and Winter /Summer.
Really enjoyed our down time here, even managed to see a snake on the fairways course! Really well done and just something a little different.
Well there we go.. Almost seems like a year ago now, but isn't that always the way. Two weeks with those that matter most with memories filed away.
Sorry if the negatives seem to outweigh the positives, they most definately didn't but just for the first time there were things which didn't seem to fit in with the Disney escapism that I so love.
Hope my random thoughts are helpful, please feel free to ask any questions and I'll do my best to get them answered.
Take Care. Nigel
and hope they outweighed the "lows".
