Klinger13
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2015
Just returned from a fantastic vacation and since I loved reading people's "Just back" reports, I thought I'd share my own. We had the 4-day military salute tickets w/ park hoppers & more so we did 4 days in the parks and 1 day at Typhoon Lagoon. Arrival day we arrived in the afternoon so just did pool & dinner out and departure day, we had to board the Tragical Express at 7:10am so that was really just a travel day.
Resort - we stayed at the Poly on a "magical deal" and loved it. We had a standard room reserved and ended up in Fiji, 2nd floor facing Luau Cove. It was a beautiful view and spacious room. The laid back vibe was just our style, DD5 LOVED the splash pad & the lava pool and I think we were all spoiled by the numerous transportation options there. Being able to boat, monorail, bus and walk to the GF & TTC were all great options during our stay.
Transportation - Speaking of transportation options, we only had 2 minor issues while there. One night at Epcot, the monorail was down so we had to bus to the TTC and go back to the Poly from there. Thankfully this was before Illuminations so we didn't have a long wait for the bus. Then on Saturday afternoon we were trying to get back to the Poly from Disney Springs and after waiting for 45 minutes with no Poly bus in sight, we jumped on a Contemporary bus and took the monorail from there. But other than those 2 minor blips - all of the busses, boats, and monorail were speedy and we never waited more than a few minutes.
Dining - We tried a bunch of new places and were not disappointed. Many of the reservations we had, we grabbed day of, day before, or week before so don't give up on looking for an ADR. Our favorite meal was California Grill dinner on our arrival night. Between the cheese plate and the filet of beef, we were over the moon and the Cucumber Fizz is probably the most refreshing boozy drink I've ever had. And since we had an early reservation (5:50pm) we were seated earlier than our reservation. We found that to be a trend almost everywhere we went with early dinner reservations, including 'Ohana. We liked 'Ohana but it was probably just too much food for us, so we'd probably opt for the Twilight Feast room service version for 1 next time. We did BOG PPO breakfast and we really liked it. And it got us on the first 7DMT train of the day so that made it even better! We also had BOG dinner (really enjoyed that), LTT lunch (another winner), and Chef Mickey's breakfast (I know that place gets dinged a lot on the boards but breakfast was great - hot, fresh, no messes that I've read about, and DD was in awe of the Fab 5.) Were some of these places expensive? Yup! But we knew that going in so there wasn't sticker shock. We also did a number of counter service - snacks & drinks in Epcot, Captain Cooks, sushi from Kona Island, Cosmic Rays - we really had nothing to complain about at any of them. We ordered groceries from Garden Grocer and that was fantastic - just waters, beer, breakfast foods, snacks - it was great to come back to the room for a break and have things to nosh on.
Breaks - we adored our afternoon break since it was so hot! DH was thankful for a nap and DD & I got to cool off in the room & the pool so everyone felt refreshed before heading back out to the parks for/after dinner.
Attractions - Oh man we had a blast! Wait times were fabulous, so we could take advantage of multiple rides on our favorites, and often we found we didn't have to wait as long as the posted wait time. We're not really rope-droppers, usually arriving about a half hour or so after rope drop, though we did do the BOG PPO which gave us a nice start to our first morning. We knocked out so many rides at MK that morning after breakfast, it was totally worth it to us. At Epcot, we went on Friday night and Sunday afternoon and wait times were great too - we did Soarin 3x (twice we only waited 15 minutes while posted wait times were 25-30 minutes and once we waited about 30 minutes, which was right on target.) We did FEA twice, once with FP and once stand-by. For the stand-by posted wait 60 minutes, waited about 45 minutes which was just enough time for DD to nap on my shoulder in the A/C. At DHS, Star Wars fireworks were AWESOME and we really liked the stage show as well! We had originally booked the SW dessert party but cancelled about a week before the trip and we still found great spots showing up about 25-30 minutes before the show. (We could have even popped into the center area with less time than that but our feet were ready for a rest so sit & wait we did.) AK - we only spent one morning there but our longest wait was to meet Russell & Dug, maybe 20 minutes or so.
CM's were great! Weather was hot, but we've been having a lot of hot weather here in NJ this year so it wasn't much different than being at home. Most days had a very brief downpour but by some dumb luck we missed EVERY rain shower by either taking our afternoon break or being in an attraction and by the time we got out the skies had cleared.
So now we're home, all wishing we were back at the Poly, and starting to think about when to again. If you're heading down soon, have a blast!!
Resort - we stayed at the Poly on a "magical deal" and loved it. We had a standard room reserved and ended up in Fiji, 2nd floor facing Luau Cove. It was a beautiful view and spacious room. The laid back vibe was just our style, DD5 LOVED the splash pad & the lava pool and I think we were all spoiled by the numerous transportation options there. Being able to boat, monorail, bus and walk to the GF & TTC were all great options during our stay.
Transportation - Speaking of transportation options, we only had 2 minor issues while there. One night at Epcot, the monorail was down so we had to bus to the TTC and go back to the Poly from there. Thankfully this was before Illuminations so we didn't have a long wait for the bus. Then on Saturday afternoon we were trying to get back to the Poly from Disney Springs and after waiting for 45 minutes with no Poly bus in sight, we jumped on a Contemporary bus and took the monorail from there. But other than those 2 minor blips - all of the busses, boats, and monorail were speedy and we never waited more than a few minutes.
Dining - We tried a bunch of new places and were not disappointed. Many of the reservations we had, we grabbed day of, day before, or week before so don't give up on looking for an ADR. Our favorite meal was California Grill dinner on our arrival night. Between the cheese plate and the filet of beef, we were over the moon and the Cucumber Fizz is probably the most refreshing boozy drink I've ever had. And since we had an early reservation (5:50pm) we were seated earlier than our reservation. We found that to be a trend almost everywhere we went with early dinner reservations, including 'Ohana. We liked 'Ohana but it was probably just too much food for us, so we'd probably opt for the Twilight Feast room service version for 1 next time. We did BOG PPO breakfast and we really liked it. And it got us on the first 7DMT train of the day so that made it even better! We also had BOG dinner (really enjoyed that), LTT lunch (another winner), and Chef Mickey's breakfast (I know that place gets dinged a lot on the boards but breakfast was great - hot, fresh, no messes that I've read about, and DD was in awe of the Fab 5.) Were some of these places expensive? Yup! But we knew that going in so there wasn't sticker shock. We also did a number of counter service - snacks & drinks in Epcot, Captain Cooks, sushi from Kona Island, Cosmic Rays - we really had nothing to complain about at any of them. We ordered groceries from Garden Grocer and that was fantastic - just waters, beer, breakfast foods, snacks - it was great to come back to the room for a break and have things to nosh on.
Breaks - we adored our afternoon break since it was so hot! DH was thankful for a nap and DD & I got to cool off in the room & the pool so everyone felt refreshed before heading back out to the parks for/after dinner.
Attractions - Oh man we had a blast! Wait times were fabulous, so we could take advantage of multiple rides on our favorites, and often we found we didn't have to wait as long as the posted wait time. We're not really rope-droppers, usually arriving about a half hour or so after rope drop, though we did do the BOG PPO which gave us a nice start to our first morning. We knocked out so many rides at MK that morning after breakfast, it was totally worth it to us. At Epcot, we went on Friday night and Sunday afternoon and wait times were great too - we did Soarin 3x (twice we only waited 15 minutes while posted wait times were 25-30 minutes and once we waited about 30 minutes, which was right on target.) We did FEA twice, once with FP and once stand-by. For the stand-by posted wait 60 minutes, waited about 45 minutes which was just enough time for DD to nap on my shoulder in the A/C. At DHS, Star Wars fireworks were AWESOME and we really liked the stage show as well! We had originally booked the SW dessert party but cancelled about a week before the trip and we still found great spots showing up about 25-30 minutes before the show. (We could have even popped into the center area with less time than that but our feet were ready for a rest so sit & wait we did.) AK - we only spent one morning there but our longest wait was to meet Russell & Dug, maybe 20 minutes or so.
CM's were great! Weather was hot, but we've been having a lot of hot weather here in NJ this year so it wasn't much different than being at home. Most days had a very brief downpour but by some dumb luck we missed EVERY rain shower by either taking our afternoon break or being in an attraction and by the time we got out the skies had cleared.
So now we're home, all wishing we were back at the Poly, and starting to think about when to again. If you're heading down soon, have a blast!!
Thanks for sharing!
