Just back - lots of good days but also bad.

[Boo :)]

Just thought I would share my experiences with the nice people on here. First off the hotels, OKW. It is quite simply the nicest, quietest and spacious resort on property. So ten days in OKW was fantastic. But we left OKW for POP due to money/flights etc, I've stayed at all of the all stars but it was our first time at POP. First off the hotel was fine, we had a room close to the lobby, everything was looking dandy. Then we got into the room, dead bugs (ok can expect it), the bathroom wasn't clean and then I went to jump into bed and saw there was blood on the sheets. Ok if it was down in a corner I wouldn't have known about it. But it was in the middle just below the pillows. Come on if you were putting a sheet on the bed you would have noticed.

Onto the crowds, I thought Labour day was the only holiday we overlapped but for the last couple of days of the vacation it was packed. I've been to Disney many times and it was the busiest I'd seen it. A long queue OUTSIDE stitch! for example. Obviously the amount of people meant that people pushed while walking round, barged past while taking photos and my pet hate from this vacation, queue jumped. Not the normal kind you'd think though. Ok so bare with me here, you're in the queue for TSM and the person in front stops to take a picture, the queue moves along and that person is still taking a picture. It may be just me but I'd wait for them to be done and then move along. There's nowhere to go lol. Anyway so a guy is taking a picture and the couple behind us say excuse me, push their way past me and my family, through the photo the guy is taking and stop at the queue. This happened to me 3 times.

Finally, the price of everything. Simply put if you didn't have the dining plan you couldn't afford to eat every meal in disney. We didn't have a car so apart from a couple of hours out, shopping, universal etc, we ate every meal in disney. They're astronomical. We had a fantastic first 10 days but after moving our luck seemed to change. It came to a point on the last day that I just wanted to leave. It overwhelmed me at the end. It may be because I've just got home and am still a bit miffed but I can honestly say that I will not be visiting WDW again.

Don't get me wrong if the holiday had ended on day 10 I would have come on here with a great experience but the final days did me in.

Rant over.

 

[Eliza32]

So, you have learned that 14 solid days of Disney is too much for you. It is for us too, so we break it up with a day at the beach, a day at Port Canaveral etc.

You were always going to notice a big difference between OKW and POP. We always stay at POP and we love it, but then we don't know any different. We have never had cleanliness problems there, but I guess that's just luck - stuff can go wrong anywhere

There are always crowds at Disney, queue jumpers and other stuff at all times, you just need to ignore it and move on.

Maybe next time (I am sure there will be a next time...eventually) you should consider having a car so that you can eat off site, and maybe do a few other things to break up the intensity of the Disney stuff. The money you save on dining will easily pay for the car over 2 weeks.

 

[madmumof2]

I love Florida, mad on it, but even I couldn't do Disney for 14 days. We're also doing Universal, Islands of Adventure, Seaworld, Discovery Cove, Cocoa Beach (our wedding), and we're staying in a villa so we have our own space away from all of the touristy things.

We stayed at POP last time and absolutely loved it, we had no problems. I would stay there again in a heartbeat.

You maybe did too much? We have a rest day every few days too where we'll stroll around Kissimmee, go shopping or just spend the day in the villa pool, I think that's essential personally especially if you have young children.

 

[joolz1910]

We are planning 14 days at Disney...
I am hoping that by taking it at a slower pace, we will avoid burn-out. We are staying at OKW, so I am lloking forward to a peaceful resort.

 

[MichelinMan]

I think going from OKW to POP spoiled it - I firmly believe you should leave the best until last on a holiday (which is why I am planning Renaissance at SeaWorld for 6 nights, then 4 nights RPR, and finishing off with 11 nights at the Poly for our next trip).

 

[wayneg]

We do 21 days at OKW in the summer no problem, could very easily stay longer but without a car not sure how many I could do without it feeling repetative. A car is a must for our trips but we do many things away from Disney.
I also couldn't move down to a value, well I couldn't stay in a value again, once was enough 12 years ago, looked around all the values and they do nothing at all for me.
As for cost, we don't eat in Disney without DDP, far too expensive for me. Had the odd meal at Trails End and paid OOP but thats the cheapest buffet onsite and a couple of meals at Boma when they were paid for by someone else. Offsite dining for me but then again we always have the car.

 

[dixonsontour]

Thanks for your honest review.

I think maybe the issue was moving from a deluxe resort you loved to a value with no ddp? If you had done it the other way around then it might not have been such a contrast.

Food for thought for me as we need to book our last night somewhere else due to change of flights. I was wondering about Pop, maybe not?

No availability at art of animation mermaid room or else i'd have gone for that.

 

[madmumof2]

Thanks for your honest review.

I think maybe the issue was moving from a deluxe resort you loved to a value with no ddp? If you had done it the other way around then it might not have been such a contrast.

Food for thought for me as we need to book our last night somewhere else due to change of flights. I was wondering about Pop, maybe not?

No availability at art of animation mermaid room or else i'd have gone for that.

POP is fab, we loved it and if I had it my way we'd be staying there this year but the vote was a villa lol which I love as well so not all bad, our own pool, own bedrooms, can't complain!

 

[dixonsontour]

I do like the look of pop and fancy trying the tie dye cheesecake.

 

[iuki]

When we checked in at POFQ, we noticed the bedding to be dirty. We called mousekeeping. The supervisor and and another mousekeeper both showed up and changed all the bedding, including the bedspread. They apologized, and we gave them a $5.00 tip. I hope you called mousekeeping and that they took care of the problem.

As far as crowds go, that's a given.

Hopefully you'll give it another try. However, I do realize that you have to come a long way.

Take care.

 

[irenep]

What a shame that your last few days spoiled your trip

I've stayed at all the other Disney budget resorts in the past but not POP but we did go through it on the ME...from that quick visit I decided it wasn't for me- just too hectic

Give it a while and maybe the happy memories will banish the bad ones!

 

[disneyholic family]

Just thought I would share my experiences with the nice people on here. First off the hotels, OKW. It is quite simply the nicest, quietest and spacious resort on property. So ten days in OKW was fantastic. But we left OKW for POP due to money/flights etc, I've stayed at all of the all stars but it was our first time at POP. First off the hotel was fine, we had a room close to the lobby, everything was looking dandy. Then we got into the room, dead bugs (ok can expect it), the bathroom wasn't clean and then I went to jump into bed and saw there was blood on the sheets. Ok if it was down in a corner I wouldn't have known about it. But it was in the middle just below the pillows. Come on if you were putting a sheet on the bed you would have noticed.

Onto the crowds, I thought Labour day was the only holiday we overlapped but for the last couple of days of the vacation it was packed. I've been to Disney many times and it was the busiest I'd seen it. A long queue OUTSIDE stitch! for example. Obviously the amount of people meant that people pushed while walking round, barged past while taking photos and my pet hate from this vacation, queue jumped. Not the normal kind you'd think though. Ok so bare with me here, you're in the queue for TSM and the person in front stops to take a picture, the queue moves along and that person is still taking a picture. It may be just me but I'd wait for them to be done and then move along. There's nowhere to go lol. Anyway so a guy is taking a picture and the couple behind us say excuse me, push their way past me and my family, through the photo the guy is taking and stop at the queue. This happened to me 3 times.

Finally, the price of everything. Simply put if you didn't have the dining plan you couldn't afford to eat every meal in disney. We didn't have a car so apart from a couple of hours out, shopping, universal etc, we ate every meal in disney. They're astronomical. We had a fantastic first 10 days but after moving our luck seemed to change. It came to a point on the last day that I just wanted to leave. It overwhelmed me at the end. It may be because I've just got home and am still a bit miffed but I can honestly say that I will not be visiting WDW again.

Don't get me wrong if the holiday had ended on day 10 I would have come on here with a great experience but the final days did me in.

Rant over.

so sorry you didn't enjoy the end of your trip!

on the super crowded days- by any chance were you in the EMH parks on those days?

DD tried to go to the MK on an EMH day and she said she'd never seen anything like it - the park was heaving with people...wall to wall...she said they couldn't walk for people and that it was the most unpleasant park visit she'd ever had, ever ever..

so i was wondering if perhaps on the days you experienced the massive crowds, if they happened to be the parks that had either morning or evening EMH hours on those days..

as for length of stay, we find the longer we stay there the better...
2 weeks is ok, but 3 weeks is better and one year we actually stayed 28 days (with a 3 day cruise in the middle) and it was perfectly perfect in every way!! we could completely relax, do everything we wanted to do (fish, boat, bike, stroll aimlessly, etc etc)...

and as for Pop, we've stayed there twice...it's certainly not my first choice, but we had a good time there. The room was clean, the food in the food court wasn't bad, the staff was friendly. I'd rather be at OKW, but sometimes the budget doesn't allow it.

 

[tinkerpea]

I think it depends on what you want out of your holiday as to how long you can cope in Disney!

Our last trip was in 2010 and we stayed for 21 nights and ONLY did Disney!!!!
We did not have a car but we did get a taxi and go to the malls a few times plus Wallmart etc but mainly we did Did parks every day,

We enjoy staying at Disney and for the whole stay we was at AKL,BUT even if we had done the 3wks at POP we would all have been just as happy.
It was really lovely that we was able to go to Kidani and do pool side games and spend time at Jambo lodge (thats where we stayed) to see all the animals it was fab to walk around the whole place and i really can not wait to stay there again.
Never once did we find it was too much disney for us,We made sure to do waterparks and pool time but the boys wantedto visit a ride park as they called it pretty much every day even just for a few hours! We didnt do Universal that trip as the boys was inbetween heights for the god rides and they would have been really gutted!

Pop is actually a favourite of our boys and even i really enjoyed our 2 stays and we always go for at least 2wks! We found the place to be really clean so im sorry ot wasnt so great for you.

I know what you mean about food prices! The 1st yr i went as a family with my own children was the 1st yr i realised how much everything was as before the my parents had always paid for everything haha........Dh and 1 spent at least £1200 on food for the 2wks and we had twins aged 16months and a 3yr old!!

The next trip at Pop we bought the DDP and it was amazing! i loved eating at Disney restaurents every day not worrying about prices.plus all the snacks you can get9never realised at that time that pretty much anything under 4/5 dollars was a snack!
We then got the DDP free for the 21nights last trip and i new so much more about the planning ADR's and what fab things you could get for snacks and it really made the trip!

We go in 3wks for 3wks and this time we are 15nights at SSR 2nights at AOA and then 4 nights on I-drive to do Universal & seaworld again we have the DDP so we dont have to worry abput food prices and i really think good dining and not worrying about the prices can make or break a Disney holiday!.

 

[disneyholic family]

I think it depends on what you want out of your holiday as to how long you can cope in Disney!

Our last trip was in 2010 and we stayed for 21 nights and ONLY did Disney!!!!
We did not have a car but we did get a taxi and go to the malls a few times plus Wallmart etc but mainly we did Did parks every day,

We enjoy staying at Disney and for the whole stay we was at AKL,BUT even if we had done the 3wks at POP we would all have been just as happy.
It was really lovely that we was able to go to Kidani and do pool side games and spend time at Jambo lodge (thats where we stayed) to see all the animals it was fab to walk around the whole place and i really can not wait to stay there again.
Never once did we find it was too much disney for us,We made sure to do waterparks and pool time but the boys wantedto visit a ride park as they called it pretty much every day even just for a few hours! We didnt do Universal that trip as the boys was inbetween heights for the god rides and they would have been really gutted!

Pop is actually a favourite of our boys and even i really enjoyed our 2 stays and we always go for at least 2wks! We found the place to be really clean so im sorry ot wasnt so great for you.

I know what you mean about food prices! The 1st yr i went as a family with my own children was the 1st yr i realised how much everything was as before the my parents had always paid for everything haha........Dh and 1 spent at least £1200 on food for the 2wks and we had twins aged 16months and a 3yr old!!

The next trip at Pop we bought the DDP and it was amazing! i loved eating at Disney restaurents every day not worrying about prices.plus all the snacks you can get9never realised at that time that pretty much anything under 4/5 dollars was a snack!
We then got the DDP free for the 21nights last trip and i new so much more about the planning ADR's and what fab things you could get for snacks and it really made the trip!

We go in 3wks for 3wks and this time we are 15nights at SSR 2nights at AOA and then 4 nights on I-drive to do Universal & seaworld again we have the DDP so we dont have to worry abput food prices and i really think good dining and not worrying about the prices can make or break a Disney holiday!.

for us too, the DDP made it much more enjoyable..
even when i paid for the DDP (not free dining) it was better - even though it came out to be more expensive to buy the DDP than pay out of pocket..
but i would have been so bothered by the prices, it was worth it to me to pay in advance and just ignore the high prices.

 

[Stitch's Greatest Fa]

Er guys, are we sure Boo isn't a troll.....87 posts and the quote "I can honestly say I won't ever go to WDW again!" how many people have you ever met that have ever said that.

Apologies to all if you are a genuine poster Boo x

 

[madmumof2]

I don't think so, look at her previous posts, seems genuine to me. Troll posts are normally more 'shock factor' too

 

[kevin harrison]

The DDP is too restrictive and that is exactly what Disney want. In an ideal world they would rather you never left the site. Who in their right mind really wants to plan where they are eating for dinner months out for every evening?

Like others say, a car is a real godsend, there are fantastic places to eat outside Disney at far cheaper prices.

We stayed at Disney for one week and outside for another, really made a great contrast. A fortnight of Michael Mouse would drive anybody insane!

 

[Stitch's Greatest Fa]

The DDP is too restrictive and that is exactly what Disney want. In an ideal world they would rather you never left the site. Who in their right mind really wants to plan where they are eating for dinner months out for every evening?

Like others say, a car is a real godsend, there are fantastic places to eat outside Disney at far cheaper prices.

We stayed at Disney for one week and outside for another, really made a great contrast. A fortnight of Michael Mouse would drive anybody insane!

Hehe, whilst I agree entirely about the DDP, you can NEVER have enough mouse lol! I am soooooooo excited to be staying 2 weeks onsite again next year.

 

[madmumof2]

Who in their right mind really wants to plan where they are eating for dinner months out for every evening?

Obviously a lot of people, you only have to read a couple of threads on this very forum to know that.

 

[Boo :)]

Er guys, are we sure Boo isn't a troll.....87 posts and the quote "I can honestly say I won't ever go to WDW again!" how many people have you ever met that have ever said that.

Apologies to all if you are a genuine poster Boo x

Wow, I write an honest review and because I say I won't be going to WDW you think I'm a troll. Talk about being blinded by the mouse, everything isn't fantastic in Disney. I've been there around 8 times, 2 weeks a time, and this time we realised that for the money you pay etc there are other places we could be going. If an honest post is going to be presumed a troll I think I've had enough of this forum.

To answer other questions, the busy days we stayed away from the EMH. We moved from park to park on one of the days and they were both as bad as each other. The flags were at half mast and we were trying to work out whether we in the middle of a holiday or something.

As for doing too much I don't think we did. The only day we actually collapsed into bed was our day at universal. We did 8 till 8 and we were shattered. Other days we were pretty relaxed.

Thanks for the replies to my post anyway guys, but I think this will be the last on this forum. Best wishes.