We bought DVC in September 2020 after spending many vacations in Disney World. We had banked points and plenty of vacation time after going nowhere last year.
Stay 1 - our welcome home trip was at Beach Club. We stayed in a studio, and enjoyed our first vacation at this resort. The proximity to Epcot is hard to beat. The kids loved the pool. We opted for outdoor dining only since the kids couldn’t be vaxxed at that point. Many restaurants and attractions were closed or closed early. For example, Friars nook was open for dinner but closed at 5 pm. Ok, fine, we knew what we were getting into. It sucks but it was the deal we made.
Stay 2 - our first stay at Riviera and our first time in a 1BR! We loved the resort. We enjoyed all the extras a 1 bedroom offers over a studio. The quick service was very good. The kids loved the skyliner and we found it to be far superior to waiting for a bus. We never had to wait and I never had to stand with a double stroller on a crowded bus. We found the main pool to be a bit too crowded, I wish it were a bit bigger. Still no indoor dining, but more options were available and with a full kitchen we did take advantage of more meals in the room. The crowds were low, very low! We did everything we wanted, multiple times if we wanted. This was a great trip!
Then the crowds returned and Genie made its debut.
Stay 3 - back to a favorite resort but our first stay in a Boulder Ridge studio. DME was the worst ever. It was packed in the queue area so I wonder how many busses were running, it was slow to get us a bus, slow to load people, slow to load luggage. It took forever from touchdown to room. The room needed to be updated YEARS ago. The sofa bed was terrible, the queen bed was ok, at best. Housekeeping did towels one day but ignored the beds and did not restock the shampoo, etc. We had a beverage cooler instead of a mini fridge, which was a disappointment as we will use the freezer portion.
We still did outdoor dining as were still waiting on one more kid to be eligible for a vaccine. Tbh, I’m kind of over the quick service options. I wish a better quality restaurant like BOG still did QS. I’d like to see a sandwich shop somewhere. It could even be order the meats/cheese and go top it the rest yourself with a toppings bar like Pecos Bill. The average burgers and chicken strips are everywhere…just looking for more variety.
We did buy one LL and it worked well. We did Genie+ one day and found it to be just ok. We did the early morning hours at Epcot and that was worth the effort. MK early morning hours got us on one ride but it was so much more crowded waiting to get into the park and then again to get past the roped off areas. End result is I think early morning can be worth it but probably more if you’re trying to avoid genie or LL for a very specific attraction. We found the deluxe late hours to be awesome. We tore through many attractions in only two hours. Beyond those two hours the park was packed. We were doing fewer attractions than usual. We spent more time at the resort doing the pool and resort activities as a result of not wanting to wait so long for the rides.
The ability to use gift cards was on and off the whole trip. Sometimes it worked at one stand but the one next to it did not work. This is frustrating since we purchase DGC at a discount.
Much of the park is back to normal but I still find much is lacking. For example, we find the new Lion King show is not worth seeing. The blue card perks are small or non existent. I’ve never done a Moonlight Magic party. Waiting 20 minutes for our turn to get into Figments lounge for a free coke and animal crackers is just ok and certainly not worth the premium of a blue card. Mobile order lacks customization options I’d prefer. The app pushed me a notification saying my window started but when I clicked the notification to read the whole thing, it sent that I said Im here. I wasn’t and due to a ride stoppage, I didn’t make it, so it said since you said you were here and didn’t arrive we canceled your order and charged you the full amount. This ended up working out ok but very annoyed at it. We did the mobile checkout at one store because the lines were long but I feel now that I should not participate in doing the stores job. Hire the staff you need. Pay them what you need to in order to find the workers. I ended up having to wait in a line anyway to have them cross me off the tablet as showing them a QR code that wasn’t scanned. I don’t know why I had to do that. They know I paid, I know I paid, just let me go.
I think I need a break from Disney until we can find an appropriate alternative to DME (not Uber for car seat reasons and probably not Mears after that last showing), and until we are ready for everyone in our party to do indoor dining. But also, given my own perception of what I want on a vacation and at what cost, Disneys recent changes have largely left a sour feeling towards the parks. I don’t want to beat down the door 30 minutes early and get up at 7 am and do Genie all day long. We had a case of wanting to change parks and had an issue with the reservation because it was in a bucket that didn’t allow modify. We had to cancel and rebook instead. We had a situation where we went to a park in the evening after going to our reserved park and the system said we were not allowed in because of this. CM had to call someone over. Same situation going on at the point of entry next to us. They fixed it but it’s a problem they caused. I think Im much more open to considering a different use of points going forward. A crazy thought for someone who has been going regularly since 1993, and just bought DVC last year.
Stay 1 - our welcome home trip was at Beach Club. We stayed in a studio, and enjoyed our first vacation at this resort. The proximity to Epcot is hard to beat. The kids loved the pool. We opted for outdoor dining only since the kids couldn’t be vaxxed at that point. Many restaurants and attractions were closed or closed early. For example, Friars nook was open for dinner but closed at 5 pm. Ok, fine, we knew what we were getting into. It sucks but it was the deal we made.
Stay 2 - our first stay at Riviera and our first time in a 1BR! We loved the resort. We enjoyed all the extras a 1 bedroom offers over a studio. The quick service was very good. The kids loved the skyliner and we found it to be far superior to waiting for a bus. We never had to wait and I never had to stand with a double stroller on a crowded bus. We found the main pool to be a bit too crowded, I wish it were a bit bigger. Still no indoor dining, but more options were available and with a full kitchen we did take advantage of more meals in the room. The crowds were low, very low! We did everything we wanted, multiple times if we wanted. This was a great trip!
Then the crowds returned and Genie made its debut.
Stay 3 - back to a favorite resort but our first stay in a Boulder Ridge studio. DME was the worst ever. It was packed in the queue area so I wonder how many busses were running, it was slow to get us a bus, slow to load people, slow to load luggage. It took forever from touchdown to room. The room needed to be updated YEARS ago. The sofa bed was terrible, the queen bed was ok, at best. Housekeeping did towels one day but ignored the beds and did not restock the shampoo, etc. We had a beverage cooler instead of a mini fridge, which was a disappointment as we will use the freezer portion.
We still did outdoor dining as were still waiting on one more kid to be eligible for a vaccine. Tbh, I’m kind of over the quick service options. I wish a better quality restaurant like BOG still did QS. I’d like to see a sandwich shop somewhere. It could even be order the meats/cheese and go top it the rest yourself with a toppings bar like Pecos Bill. The average burgers and chicken strips are everywhere…just looking for more variety.
We did buy one LL and it worked well. We did Genie+ one day and found it to be just ok. We did the early morning hours at Epcot and that was worth the effort. MK early morning hours got us on one ride but it was so much more crowded waiting to get into the park and then again to get past the roped off areas. End result is I think early morning can be worth it but probably more if you’re trying to avoid genie or LL for a very specific attraction. We found the deluxe late hours to be awesome. We tore through many attractions in only two hours. Beyond those two hours the park was packed. We were doing fewer attractions than usual. We spent more time at the resort doing the pool and resort activities as a result of not wanting to wait so long for the rides.
The ability to use gift cards was on and off the whole trip. Sometimes it worked at one stand but the one next to it did not work. This is frustrating since we purchase DGC at a discount.
Much of the park is back to normal but I still find much is lacking. For example, we find the new Lion King show is not worth seeing. The blue card perks are small or non existent. I’ve never done a Moonlight Magic party. Waiting 20 minutes for our turn to get into Figments lounge for a free coke and animal crackers is just ok and certainly not worth the premium of a blue card. Mobile order lacks customization options I’d prefer. The app pushed me a notification saying my window started but when I clicked the notification to read the whole thing, it sent that I said Im here. I wasn’t and due to a ride stoppage, I didn’t make it, so it said since you said you were here and didn’t arrive we canceled your order and charged you the full amount. This ended up working out ok but very annoyed at it. We did the mobile checkout at one store because the lines were long but I feel now that I should not participate in doing the stores job. Hire the staff you need. Pay them what you need to in order to find the workers. I ended up having to wait in a line anyway to have them cross me off the tablet as showing them a QR code that wasn’t scanned. I don’t know why I had to do that. They know I paid, I know I paid, just let me go.
I think I need a break from Disney until we can find an appropriate alternative to DME (not Uber for car seat reasons and probably not Mears after that last showing), and until we are ready for everyone in our party to do indoor dining. But also, given my own perception of what I want on a vacation and at what cost, Disneys recent changes have largely left a sour feeling towards the parks. I don’t want to beat down the door 30 minutes early and get up at 7 am and do Genie all day long. We had a case of wanting to change parks and had an issue with the reservation because it was in a bucket that didn’t allow modify. We had to cancel and rebook instead. We had a situation where we went to a park in the evening after going to our reserved park and the system said we were not allowed in because of this. CM had to call someone over. Same situation going on at the point of entry next to us. They fixed it but it’s a problem they caused. I think Im much more open to considering a different use of points going forward. A crazy thought for someone who has been going regularly since 1993, and just bought DVC last year.
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