We are back home and settled and I thought I'd take a few minutes to share the good (and the not so good) details of our December trip.
We started our vacation at the Nick Hotel, where we stayed for 3 days. I'll keep my review of our time there brief since this is the dis boards...but I thought I'd share a bit for those that were curious. A detailed review will be on tripadvisor. The room was great. We loved the space. The kids had thier own bedroom with bunk beds, a tv and a playstation 2. We brought our own games from home for them to play. We had a seperate bedroom w/ a queen size (very comfortable) bed. There was a nice living area, a microwave & fridge and a good sized bathroom. The pool and water park were fun. Nothing spectacular but nice for us as swimming in the winter in KS is not an option. The water park park (slides, water dump, etc..) is a lot like other indoor waterparks like Great Wolf Lodge - this is just all outside. There was also a pool side pooltable, basketball and free mini golf (that is a very, very basic course). All said it was fun for a few days. Any longer and I think we would have been bored but it was a great way to relax before heading to WDW. The food choices were very limited -pizza hut, subway and burgers/hot dogs were available in the food court. There was a lot for kids to do like 4D movies ($10 for a unlimted pass/wristband for your whole stay), free evening entertainment and shows, and pool side activities. The kids LOVED it all and are looking forward to returning.
On our last day at Nick Hotel we rented a car. NOTE: Renting a car when stay anywhere other than Disney is a great idea! It cost us about $50 to get from the airport to Nick Hotel. When we wanted to go to Gatorland it would have cost about $60 round trip from Nick Hotel. The car rental we got for 1 day was $40 and on a weekly rate it would have been a great value! We took our rental car to do some grocery shopping, run some errands and go to Gatorland. Gatorland was great for a few hours of fun. We were there for about 4 hours and saw all we needed to see. We probably won't return only because I'd imagine that it doesn't change much. We all enjoyed it though and were glad we went.
On 12/7 we began our time at WDW. We checked into POR around 8:30 in the morning.
This was a surprise trip for our kids. They thought we were coming home on 12/7. Instead on the evening of 12/6 we gave them both a gift bag containing WDW 2008 t-shirts, thier lanyards and pins, some new pins (ordered off ebay) and new autograph books. They were soooo excited!!!!
First things first: The Resort - This was our first stay our POR after several trips at Pop Century and one at CBR. We stayed in building 16 (room 1636). The room was nice. Very rustic and exactly we expected based on pictures we had seen. I requested an upper floor corner room, which we got, and we really like it. Initally we were a bit disappointed as we had paid for a water view room and we were told at check in that "a number of cheerleading squads were already checked in and had blocked out the water view rooms were there open." (I don't know if this is true or not but that is what we were told. In the end it didn't matter. Our room was great. Only about a 3-4 minute walk to the bus stops and main building and honestly we weren't in the room enough to have enjoyed a water view room if we had one! The main building was good. We got 2 of the refillable mugs and used them each day (one for hubby and I and one for the kids). I was a little disappointed in the food court. The make your own pasta and salad options were great! But some of our basic favs (like cheesy fries) from Pop Century were not offered. Also, you had to go to the bakery counter for any dessert option (were on the dining plan) which added to your time in line. Finally, and this may be a change at all resorts but.... At Pop they always had a great selection of Twinings tea bags and they had frozen soda. Neither were available at POR. The check in process went smoothly and we never had much of a wait in the lobby for anything we needed. Mousekeeping was great and arranged the kids toys everyday. One evening we came back to the room and before we opened the door my husband said to the kids in a not so happy voice, "who left the tv on.." - we opened the door to discover that all the toys and stuffed animals were camped out on the beds watching tv
Very cute!!! The resort itself is beautiful. Sadly because it was somewhat chilly during our trip and we were exhausted after our days in the park, we didn't really get to "take it all in." We did take a boat ride to DTD one night and saw how spread out the resort really was. The mansion side was beautiful from the water!! The gift shop was okay. Same offerings as at other resorts. The castmembers were all friendly and helpful, if a bit slow. I'd imagine that during peak seasons it can be really, really slow. The pools were great. Because of the weather we didn't get to spend too much time in them but we did have a quiet pool right behind our room that we swam in a couple times and we went to the main pool once. The water slide was fun for the kids and the hot tub was nice. They did have free lifejackets in the main building for anyone who needed them. The pools weren't as "heated" as I would have liked, but they were okay. Bus service was good. We never waited more than 5-10 minutes for a bus and we never had any issue getting back to the resort quickly.
All told we were really pleased with POR, but we probably will either return to Pop Century or try someplace different next time. For the price difference from Pop to POR we didn't really think it was worth the extra $$.
Pop Warner: Let me start by saying that yes - we were a little hesitant about going during Pop Warner. In the end though it was no big deal. At POR there were mainly cheerleading groups and they were all okay. There were a few times that we were on a bus with a group that was very loud and screaming cheers, but we just kept a good attitude about it. I remember what it was like to be that age and have that energy and enthusiasm. The football teams we did see were all very well behaved. We did see some of each in the parks, but as others reported, not that many. As I'll describe later (see crowds) we will not return at this time of year, but that has NOTHING to do with Pop Warner.
Crowds: This is where we were honestly disappointed with our trip. We have apparently been more spoiled than I had realized. Our prior trips were in late August, late April and mid-Feb, and we had never seen ANYTHING like the crowds we saw the week we were there in December. We tried to go with the flow and the very first day we adjusted our plans to help accomodate the crowds. We added park hopper ($50 per person) and started going to a non extra-magic hours park every morning. That helped ALOT but there were just still a lot of people. During our past trips we have always been able to do everything we wanted time and time again. We have been known to ride Soarin and Test Track 4-5 times in a singloe day at Epcot each using fast passes. This time we we only managed to ride Soarin twice during the whole trip. Most days the fast passes were gone by 2-3 in the afternoon!! (dh and kids rode Test Track ALOT using the single rider line which helped ALOT - regular wait time was usually 45 minutes or more and they made it through the single rider line in 10-20 minutes each time.) Toy Story Mania we only got one fast pass for. They were gone by noon everyday that we were there (if not earlier). In the grand scheme of things I'd imagine that the crowds were not that bad. I think is all about expectations. We had an expectation that we'd have expereinces like we had before, and that was just way off base. We will not return at this time of year again. (Although we were glad to have gone once to see the Christmas decorations.)
Holiday Stuff: It was all wonderful!!! The Osborne lights were by far our favorite. It was amazing. All the deocrations were great though. We didn't get time to check out all the resorts, but we did go to the Grand Floridian and it was nice.
Toy Story Mania & Space Ship Earth : these 2 are the only that I'll review as they are the only new/changed attractions since our prior trips. Toy Story Mania is GREAT!!! I can't wait to get back in a few years after the "newness" has worn off and get to ride it again and again. We all loved it. We got to go on it 3 times this year (once with fast pass and twice waiting in line). The ride itself was exactly what we expected after reading other reviews and seeing pics. The line was great. We are not a "wait in line" family. We typically use fast passes for our whole trip and prior to this trip we had never waited for than 20 mins for anything at WDW ever (again we have been very, very spoiled due to the times of year we have gone...). We decided to go ahead and wait for TSM though and it was a 90 minute wait. We actually made it through in about 75 minutes and honestly - it went quick. We had great conversations with the families around us which helped to pass the time, plus there was TONS to look at. We were amazed at the theming in the queue area. It was really fun. (Granted probably after a few times it gets a bit old but for one or two waits it was great!) The ride itself if really clever and fun. It was easier for the kids than the older buzz ride as you can see exactly what we are shooting at and how many points it is worth. The graphics are great. I wish we had been able to go more than we did.
Spaceship earth (the ball ride as my son calls it) was great. The changes are good. We enjoyed the old version too. The best part of the new attraction is the room at the end. It is like another "innovations" area with lots of fun, educational and interesting hands on activities. We spent about an hour in there with the kids having a great time playing the different games.
Dining: We had great meals as usual.
50's prime time was wonderful. For the first time ever I had the pot roast and all week I wished we could go back so I could get it again. It was super yummy!!! I honestly could have eaten 2 plates of it (again 5 months pregnant
). The service was great. My husband enjoyed the fried chicken (but liked mine better). For dessert I had the angel food cake with strawberries and blueberries (with added whipped cream) and it was honestly my favorite dessert of the trip. Super good whipped cream and it tasted like a wonderfully fresh strawberry shortcake!
Tokyo Dining was great too. The service was good and we had a really fun, freindly family to share dinner with. The food was very typcial Japanese Steakhouse food, which we really like. I had the filet which was yummy and melt in your mouth tender. DH had the steak and shrimp which he loved. The desserts were good too. I had the fruit tart which I loved and DH had the green tea pudding which sounded odd but tasted really good. (just like sweet green tea but the texture of pudding...) The kids had the chicken teriyaki and the shrimp and they loved both. This was our second favorite meal of the week.
Boatwrights: We had dinner scheduled here and I had the filet while DH had the jumbalya. Both were yummy. Nothing spectacular but no complaints either. Due to our own sleepiness we ended up skipping our last table service meal on our last night and used the credits for breakfast at Boatwrights on the morning we left. Again it was good but nothing amazing to talk about. I had an omlette and hubby & the kids had pancakes. The service that morning was great. We were in a hurry and they really accomodated that.
O'hana: We were disappointed in this meal. We had been before and loved it but this time it was just so/so. The noodles were sticky and fairly cold. The wings were okay but not great. The meats were in general disappointing. Since I'm pregnant I had to have my meat well done, which meant I ended up with one piece of steak which was so burnt I could barely eat two bites of it. The shrimp were good but not cleaned (they had the little vein or whatever in the back which grosses me out...). The turkey was okay and we never got to try the pork despite asking twice. The dessert was good but really sweet! In the end we all agreed we won't come back. In hind sight I wish we had gone to Kona. We've been there before too and loved it! I think the worst abou this meal at O'hana was the service. It was just really, really bad.
Liberty Tree Tavern : Yummy as always! We are soo sad that this character dinner is going away. It has always been a favorite of ours. The food was good, the characters were good, the service was good...we loved it all! I'll miss it during future trips.
Last but by far not least : Hoop De Doo Review - We LOVED this. The food was okay (nothing to write home about) but the show was great. I have honestly NEVER seen my kids (7 & 9) laugh as hard as they did at this show. It was a hoot. Yes it was a bit corny but all 4 of us cracked up at several points and were all very, very entertained. We would go back in a heartbeat. (NOTE: my daughter disagrees with me about the food. She said the fried chicken there is the best she has ever had, and she loved the cornbread. Her review is probably more reliable than mine as my tastebuds are a bit off being pregnant.) Getting over to the show was easy enough. We took the bus to MK and then the boat to Wildressness Campground. It took about 40 minutes total time from our room to Hoop de Doo Review. Also, they say to arrive 30 minutes early. We had category one seating for the 9:30 show and arrived only about 5 minutes before the show started and it was no big deal. We were a bit worried but it worked out okay. One other note for dining plan users : they credits for this meal are deducted from your account when you pick up the tickets (which for us was on day 2 of trip). This resulted in serious confusion for me when we had our next table service meal and I saw the # of credits we had remaining. Just thought I'd share to avoid someone elses confusion
All Else: We had a great trip - I mean really...we were in WDW - how could we possibly complain!! I can't wait till we can return!
Sadly this will probably be our last trip to WDW for several years. We will wait till our new addition (a little girl due in mid-May) is about 3-4 years old. Then we'll get to start the magic all over again with her
As I sign off I want to take a very sincere and heartfelt moment to say THANK YOU to disboards and everyone here. Since I discovered my passion for WDW 4 years ago this site has been a huge help and benefit to me. Every question I've ever had I have been able to get anwered here. Every moment of boredom I've had has been eased looking over the various topics here. Reading others reviews - watching wedding video clips that made me cry (yes -I cried...in fact I'm a bit teary now to be honest). And yes - my company has paid me for endless hours of disboard reading (shhhhh - don't tell). For those of you who currently post on here - THANKS for everything!! You have all contributed to my own love of WDW and my family's enjoyment of our trips. I couldn't have planned them as well as I did without this site. For those of you who are new to disboards or are still lurking - I hope you get as much out of this site as I have.
Much love and Happy Holiday wishes to all of you!!!
((If I have left out details that you are curious about please feel free to pm me or ask...))
PPS - I hope that all the MouseFest folks had a great time. We saw several of you during the last couple days of our trip.
We started our vacation at the Nick Hotel, where we stayed for 3 days. I'll keep my review of our time there brief since this is the dis boards...but I thought I'd share a bit for those that were curious. A detailed review will be on tripadvisor. The room was great. We loved the space. The kids had thier own bedroom with bunk beds, a tv and a playstation 2. We brought our own games from home for them to play. We had a seperate bedroom w/ a queen size (very comfortable) bed. There was a nice living area, a microwave & fridge and a good sized bathroom. The pool and water park were fun. Nothing spectacular but nice for us as swimming in the winter in KS is not an option. The water park park (slides, water dump, etc..) is a lot like other indoor waterparks like Great Wolf Lodge - this is just all outside. There was also a pool side pooltable, basketball and free mini golf (that is a very, very basic course). All said it was fun for a few days. Any longer and I think we would have been bored but it was a great way to relax before heading to WDW. The food choices were very limited -pizza hut, subway and burgers/hot dogs were available in the food court. There was a lot for kids to do like 4D movies ($10 for a unlimted pass/wristband for your whole stay), free evening entertainment and shows, and pool side activities. The kids LOVED it all and are looking forward to returning.
On our last day at Nick Hotel we rented a car. NOTE: Renting a car when stay anywhere other than Disney is a great idea! It cost us about $50 to get from the airport to Nick Hotel. When we wanted to go to Gatorland it would have cost about $60 round trip from Nick Hotel. The car rental we got for 1 day was $40 and on a weekly rate it would have been a great value! We took our rental car to do some grocery shopping, run some errands and go to Gatorland. Gatorland was great for a few hours of fun. We were there for about 4 hours and saw all we needed to see. We probably won't return only because I'd imagine that it doesn't change much. We all enjoyed it though and were glad we went.
On 12/7 we began our time at WDW. We checked into POR around 8:30 in the morning.
This was a surprise trip for our kids. They thought we were coming home on 12/7. Instead on the evening of 12/6 we gave them both a gift bag containing WDW 2008 t-shirts, thier lanyards and pins, some new pins (ordered off ebay) and new autograph books. They were soooo excited!!!!
First things first: The Resort - This was our first stay our POR after several trips at Pop Century and one at CBR. We stayed in building 16 (room 1636). The room was nice. Very rustic and exactly we expected based on pictures we had seen. I requested an upper floor corner room, which we got, and we really like it. Initally we were a bit disappointed as we had paid for a water view room and we were told at check in that "a number of cheerleading squads were already checked in and had blocked out the water view rooms were there open." (I don't know if this is true or not but that is what we were told. In the end it didn't matter. Our room was great. Only about a 3-4 minute walk to the bus stops and main building and honestly we weren't in the room enough to have enjoyed a water view room if we had one! The main building was good. We got 2 of the refillable mugs and used them each day (one for hubby and I and one for the kids). I was a little disappointed in the food court. The make your own pasta and salad options were great! But some of our basic favs (like cheesy fries) from Pop Century were not offered. Also, you had to go to the bakery counter for any dessert option (were on the dining plan) which added to your time in line. Finally, and this may be a change at all resorts but.... At Pop they always had a great selection of Twinings tea bags and they had frozen soda. Neither were available at POR. The check in process went smoothly and we never had much of a wait in the lobby for anything we needed. Mousekeeping was great and arranged the kids toys everyday. One evening we came back to the room and before we opened the door my husband said to the kids in a not so happy voice, "who left the tv on.." - we opened the door to discover that all the toys and stuffed animals were camped out on the beds watching tv
Very cute!!! The resort itself is beautiful. Sadly because it was somewhat chilly during our trip and we were exhausted after our days in the park, we didn't really get to "take it all in." We did take a boat ride to DTD one night and saw how spread out the resort really was. The mansion side was beautiful from the water!! The gift shop was okay. Same offerings as at other resorts. The castmembers were all friendly and helpful, if a bit slow. I'd imagine that during peak seasons it can be really, really slow. The pools were great. Because of the weather we didn't get to spend too much time in them but we did have a quiet pool right behind our room that we swam in a couple times and we went to the main pool once. The water slide was fun for the kids and the hot tub was nice. They did have free lifejackets in the main building for anyone who needed them. The pools weren't as "heated" as I would have liked, but they were okay. Bus service was good. We never waited more than 5-10 minutes for a bus and we never had any issue getting back to the resort quickly. All told we were really pleased with POR, but we probably will either return to Pop Century or try someplace different next time. For the price difference from Pop to POR we didn't really think it was worth the extra $$.
Pop Warner: Let me start by saying that yes - we were a little hesitant about going during Pop Warner. In the end though it was no big deal. At POR there were mainly cheerleading groups and they were all okay. There were a few times that we were on a bus with a group that was very loud and screaming cheers, but we just kept a good attitude about it. I remember what it was like to be that age and have that energy and enthusiasm. The football teams we did see were all very well behaved. We did see some of each in the parks, but as others reported, not that many. As I'll describe later (see crowds) we will not return at this time of year, but that has NOTHING to do with Pop Warner.
Crowds: This is where we were honestly disappointed with our trip. We have apparently been more spoiled than I had realized. Our prior trips were in late August, late April and mid-Feb, and we had never seen ANYTHING like the crowds we saw the week we were there in December. We tried to go with the flow and the very first day we adjusted our plans to help accomodate the crowds. We added park hopper ($50 per person) and started going to a non extra-magic hours park every morning. That helped ALOT but there were just still a lot of people. During our past trips we have always been able to do everything we wanted time and time again. We have been known to ride Soarin and Test Track 4-5 times in a singloe day at Epcot each using fast passes. This time we we only managed to ride Soarin twice during the whole trip. Most days the fast passes were gone by 2-3 in the afternoon!! (dh and kids rode Test Track ALOT using the single rider line which helped ALOT - regular wait time was usually 45 minutes or more and they made it through the single rider line in 10-20 minutes each time.) Toy Story Mania we only got one fast pass for. They were gone by noon everyday that we were there (if not earlier). In the grand scheme of things I'd imagine that the crowds were not that bad. I think is all about expectations. We had an expectation that we'd have expereinces like we had before, and that was just way off base. We will not return at this time of year again. (Although we were glad to have gone once to see the Christmas decorations.)
Holiday Stuff: It was all wonderful!!! The Osborne lights were by far our favorite. It was amazing. All the deocrations were great though. We didn't get time to check out all the resorts, but we did go to the Grand Floridian and it was nice.
Toy Story Mania & Space Ship Earth : these 2 are the only that I'll review as they are the only new/changed attractions since our prior trips. Toy Story Mania is GREAT!!! I can't wait to get back in a few years after the "newness" has worn off and get to ride it again and again. We all loved it. We got to go on it 3 times this year (once with fast pass and twice waiting in line). The ride itself was exactly what we expected after reading other reviews and seeing pics. The line was great. We are not a "wait in line" family. We typically use fast passes for our whole trip and prior to this trip we had never waited for than 20 mins for anything at WDW ever (again we have been very, very spoiled due to the times of year we have gone...). We decided to go ahead and wait for TSM though and it was a 90 minute wait. We actually made it through in about 75 minutes and honestly - it went quick. We had great conversations with the families around us which helped to pass the time, plus there was TONS to look at. We were amazed at the theming in the queue area. It was really fun. (Granted probably after a few times it gets a bit old but for one or two waits it was great!) The ride itself if really clever and fun. It was easier for the kids than the older buzz ride as you can see exactly what we are shooting at and how many points it is worth. The graphics are great. I wish we had been able to go more than we did.
Spaceship earth (the ball ride as my son calls it) was great. The changes are good. We enjoyed the old version too. The best part of the new attraction is the room at the end. It is like another "innovations" area with lots of fun, educational and interesting hands on activities. We spent about an hour in there with the kids having a great time playing the different games.
Dining: We had great meals as usual.
50's prime time was wonderful. For the first time ever I had the pot roast and all week I wished we could go back so I could get it again. It was super yummy!!! I honestly could have eaten 2 plates of it (again 5 months pregnant
). The service was great. My husband enjoyed the fried chicken (but liked mine better). For dessert I had the angel food cake with strawberries and blueberries (with added whipped cream) and it was honestly my favorite dessert of the trip. Super good whipped cream and it tasted like a wonderfully fresh strawberry shortcake! Tokyo Dining was great too. The service was good and we had a really fun, freindly family to share dinner with. The food was very typcial Japanese Steakhouse food, which we really like. I had the filet which was yummy and melt in your mouth tender. DH had the steak and shrimp which he loved. The desserts were good too. I had the fruit tart which I loved and DH had the green tea pudding which sounded odd but tasted really good. (just like sweet green tea but the texture of pudding...) The kids had the chicken teriyaki and the shrimp and they loved both. This was our second favorite meal of the week.
Boatwrights: We had dinner scheduled here and I had the filet while DH had the jumbalya. Both were yummy. Nothing spectacular but no complaints either. Due to our own sleepiness we ended up skipping our last table service meal on our last night and used the credits for breakfast at Boatwrights on the morning we left. Again it was good but nothing amazing to talk about. I had an omlette and hubby & the kids had pancakes. The service that morning was great. We were in a hurry and they really accomodated that.
O'hana: We were disappointed in this meal. We had been before and loved it but this time it was just so/so. The noodles were sticky and fairly cold. The wings were okay but not great. The meats were in general disappointing. Since I'm pregnant I had to have my meat well done, which meant I ended up with one piece of steak which was so burnt I could barely eat two bites of it. The shrimp were good but not cleaned (they had the little vein or whatever in the back which grosses me out...). The turkey was okay and we never got to try the pork despite asking twice. The dessert was good but really sweet! In the end we all agreed we won't come back. In hind sight I wish we had gone to Kona. We've been there before too and loved it! I think the worst abou this meal at O'hana was the service. It was just really, really bad.
Liberty Tree Tavern : Yummy as always! We are soo sad that this character dinner is going away. It has always been a favorite of ours. The food was good, the characters were good, the service was good...we loved it all! I'll miss it during future trips.
Last but by far not least : Hoop De Doo Review - We LOVED this. The food was okay (nothing to write home about) but the show was great. I have honestly NEVER seen my kids (7 & 9) laugh as hard as they did at this show. It was a hoot. Yes it was a bit corny but all 4 of us cracked up at several points and were all very, very entertained. We would go back in a heartbeat. (NOTE: my daughter disagrees with me about the food. She said the fried chicken there is the best she has ever had, and she loved the cornbread. Her review is probably more reliable than mine as my tastebuds are a bit off being pregnant.) Getting over to the show was easy enough. We took the bus to MK and then the boat to Wildressness Campground. It took about 40 minutes total time from our room to Hoop de Doo Review. Also, they say to arrive 30 minutes early. We had category one seating for the 9:30 show and arrived only about 5 minutes before the show started and it was no big deal. We were a bit worried but it worked out okay. One other note for dining plan users : they credits for this meal are deducted from your account when you pick up the tickets (which for us was on day 2 of trip). This resulted in serious confusion for me when we had our next table service meal and I saw the # of credits we had remaining. Just thought I'd share to avoid someone elses confusion
All Else: We had a great trip - I mean really...we were in WDW - how could we possibly complain!! I can't wait till we can return!
Sadly this will probably be our last trip to WDW for several years. We will wait till our new addition (a little girl due in mid-May) is about 3-4 years old. Then we'll get to start the magic all over again with her
As I sign off I want to take a very sincere and heartfelt moment to say THANK YOU to disboards and everyone here. Since I discovered my passion for WDW 4 years ago this site has been a huge help and benefit to me. Every question I've ever had I have been able to get anwered here. Every moment of boredom I've had has been eased looking over the various topics here. Reading others reviews - watching wedding video clips that made me cry (yes -I cried...in fact I'm a bit teary now to be honest). And yes - my company has paid me for endless hours of disboard reading (shhhhh - don't tell). For those of you who currently post on here - THANKS for everything!! You have all contributed to my own love of WDW and my family's enjoyment of our trips. I couldn't have planned them as well as I did without this site. For those of you who are new to disboards or are still lurking - I hope you get as much out of this site as I have.
Much love and Happy Holiday wishes to all of you!!!
((If I have left out details that you are curious about please feel free to pm me or ask...))
PPS - I hope that all the MouseFest folks had a great time. We saw several of you during the last couple days of our trip.
