TiffFromTX
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2019
- Messages
- 164
Long, Detailed Disney Trip Review October 18-21st
I like to do a thorough review start to finish of all kinds of small details, for whatever might help someone. Last year, we went twice – one trip with me, my 3 kids (ages 14-26) and my son’s fiancé. We did the Poly for a week. It was magical. Being a hermit, I felt I’d finally found my place – my bubble – everyone was happy, everything went well basically (a minor blip w/poly’s elevators being small for a scooter, but otherwise loved it).
I also took my Mom to F&W festival last year for a 4 day trip. That time we stayed at Beach Club – club level and Disney was perfect, once again.
This time it was a trip with my daughter from Friday the 18th of October to Monday the 21st. It was a vacation full of disappointments and also learning lessons on how to handle them and make the best of situations. I’m going to tell y’all all of the little things that went wrong to add up to entire days full of that let down feeling – because if it were just 1-2 small things, that’d be different. After watching the DisUnplugged shows lately, I had hoped they were wrong about the quality of Disney declining, but this time, it was lacking.
So here it goes:
Day 1 (Arrival):
I couldn’t WAIT to go back! We had a 4:50 AM pick up scheduled with “On Time Taxi” (who I used both times previously). Well, 5:17 arrives and they’re still not showing up OR answering texts or calls. So I had to wake my exhausted son up and have him take us. Bad start to our trip but we made it, so we let it go. (Taxi texted later with “my driver messed up.”).
We fly American Airlines first class from DFW to MCO every time. I’m overweight, don’t want to spill over into someone else’s seat (I don’t think I would, but just in case), so I prefer it. The last times it was always great – the most comfy seats, good meals, movies and video screens, pampering, etc.
We get on this flight and it’s a different plane! No video screens, uncomfortable seats, and granola and yogurt for breakfast. Eh. Okay. I was only annoyed because I wouldn’t have paid $700 each for that. I’d have sat in regular seating. The flight attendant scolded my daughter (age 15) loudly to go sit down when she got up to go to the restroom – didn’t scold the others, just my daughter, as if she was a toddler (it embarrassed her and she didn’t want to go again even when she could). There was very slight turbulence, nothing big, and others were going, so she thought it’d be okay. But okay – we’re headed to Disney, so we let it go.
We landed and went to Magical Express and unlike the two previous times, we had to wait forever. Not a big deal if you don’t have osteoarthritis in your knees, but I do. So it was kind of grueling. They were late – about 45 minutes (the value and moderate lines moved a few times) and nobody explained anything. But we finally got on, felt like, “Okay, now we’re in the Disney bubble – let the fun begin!” The Magical Express ride itself was fast and the driver was nice. We had the first stop. Yay!
Grand Floridian was our destination – I’d always wanted to stay there. We arrived and checked in and wow! Pete wasn’t wrong like I thought he would be. The attitude of the reception was snarky right off the bat. It was a man and when I’d ask a question, he seemed put out like I’d annoyed him. My daughter turned to me and said, “Mom…what’s happening? Why is this trip starting off so bad? What’s WRONG with everybody this time?” I had no idea. We kind of laughed nervously about it but figured the whole trip wouldn’t be like that, surely.
I told her, “We never know what others are going through – let’s just go hit Epcot and have fun.” Gold Mobility Scooter was late arriving, even though I’d texted them when we were leaving MCO. Maybe 20-30 minutes late, but then the Minnie Van for scooters dept. was also dragging on. Took them 20 minutes to even pick up the phone. Weird! Then it was another 40 before they arrived to take us. But okay, lol, we were on our way.
We got to Epcot and headed to the F&W festival (planned to use all of our deluxe dining snack credits up there) and first up is the Irish area for the warm chocolate pudding. We scan our band, and … she tells me to enter a PIN. Huh? I don’t have a PIN. I didn’t do a PIN before I don’t think. I just scanned. She said the check in at our resort should have had me set a PIN. Nope. I then paid cash and we went and sat down to try to fix this. Called customer service. On hold/talking to them for almost an hour. Ends up I have to log in and do it myself on the site.
Back to having fun. F&W was extremely crowded this time. It wasn’t last time. But that’s okay. We tried lots of food. We took pictures. The Canada bridge (I think?) where it goes up and you can take a pic of the flowers behind you was blocked off. The older gentleman taking pictures in the Japan area was SO grumpy. I started to wonder at this point if maybe some company-wide email had gone out that made everyone mad or something. Other cast members were lovely – from photographers to F&W people.
We then went to ride Soarin – got front row and it was scarier to me than the other rows. But fun! We had a fast pass for this. Afterwards, we went to ride Spaceship Earth. This is a good scooter ride because there’s a separate entrance so you bypass the line. We rode this and it broke down temporarily while we were on it. We just sat waiting and it started working again.
After that, we went to ride Test Track. We waited in a line for about 40 minutes, got to the door you enter to design the car, and inclement weather shut the entire ride down. Dang it!
On our way to dinner, we saw a woman slap the you know what out of the man she was with – HARD in the face. Very uncomfortable. There were way more people loudly cussing (I cuss, but I don’t yell it in public around kids) this time around, way more drunks, etc. Gross.
We went on to dinner at Coral Reef (always our favorite) and asked if they could get us in early (we planned to go on back to the hotel afterwards). I told the guy we would go wash our hands while he found out (he had to ask someone) and he said, “Ooooo…kkkkk” and if I’d just said something really incredulous. By now, we feel like we’re in the Twilight Zone. It’s opposite world or something. Everyone has a stick up their butt. And we’re trying REALLY hard not to have the same. LOL
We got to be seated, got a great table right next to the aquarium, and…the menu has changed! Noooo! LOL! The sunflower brittle salad is gone so we got some mushroom lobster-style salad. It was nasty – bland and watery and the avocado puree was tart and gross. The entrée of chicken and risotto that was to die for is gone and in its place is…chicken with …bread pudding! Eew. It was so foul. The Baileys and Jack dessert is still amazing. My daughter’s key lime dessert was partially good. Part of it she didn’t care for.
The waiter was nice, but when we ordered steak and chicken, he said, “Why do you come to a seafood restaurant and not order seafood?” Um, okay. Because we love the ambiance and used to love the risotto. It was the best risotto I’d ever had.
We leave and catch a Minnie Van back to the Grand Floridian. The drivers were great the entire time, by the way. Our room was Boca Chica 8425 (4th floor) – lagoon view and we could see a side view of the fireworks. It was nice. But honestly, my thoughts about this property changed. Pete wasn’t lying when he talked about the massive amounts of carts driving everywhere and construction and maintenance happening. It’s all over the place, and noisy, which detracts from the serenity and beautiful scenery.
The room wasn’t better than the Poly or Beach Club. Just the same, basically. I felt the property was WAY less personal than the other 2 properties. At Poly, you’re doted on big time like family. Smiling faces, people to help answer questions at any time. At Beach Club, the same – the captain and other workers are there to meet your needs. GF felt like a vast, empty resort when it came to helpful cast members. Except for the elderly bell hop on the last day who was wonderful. The others were always standing there talking to each other, ignoring guests – or nowhere to be found. So you’re on your own a lot, trying to track down a person if you need a question answered.
When we got situated in our room, we discovered a tropical storm was heading in for the next day, which meant most of the rides would close and our day would suck on Saturday rain-wise. We had park hopper tickets and had planned to go to Animal Kingdom (with lunch at Tiffins) and then Magical Kingdom (with a Be Our Guest reservation).
So instead, we canceled those reservations and had planned to have a resort day. It was a big let down – we only had 3 nights, 4 days and so far, it was hard to keep up a pleasant demeanor, but we did it because of that whole “a bad day at Disney is better than a good day anywhere else” mentality.
Day 2:
Woke up after sleeping in to heavy rain, and went to breakfast at the Grand Floridian Café. Once again, one of the best meals on property. Daughter had a Mickey Waffle with the toppings and I had the best pancakes I’ve ever had on Earth with turkey sausage. YUM!
Because my daughter was feeling kind of let down (as was I but I didn’t want to show it), I made her a custom facial appointment for noon at the Grand Floridian Senses Spa. It was GREAT!
I should have gotten one, but I just stayed with her (required for underage guests). She was SO happy with it. Relaxing, beautiful, and worth the $180.
And guess what? While we were in there, the rain cleared up! So we decided to head back to Epcot JUST to ride Test Track (because I really wanted to). We got there and wanted to get a drink before getting in line and asked the kiosk guy to change 1 deluxe dining credit into 3 snack credits. Never had a problem before, but he said he saw ZERO dining credits on my plan. Told me to go to guest services.
So another 45 minute wait there while they called the Grand Floridian and ultimately told me the kiosk guy didn’t know what he was talking about, and they did it for me. We go get in line at Test Track and we’re halfway through when…it breaks down. And we’re halfway in line, on a scooter, and everyone before and after us sits down in the aisle. So we have no way out. We’re stuck. Another 1.5 hours later, we finally ride it.
Then we head via Monorail to the Magic Kingdom. We had no fast passes, and the things she wanted to ride were closed, so we just walked around, ate some snacks and enjoyed the atmosphere. I finally got to try a cattail (not really impressed but I loved the cotton candy – unique flavors) but she loved the Mickey pretzel and churro she got.
We took the monorail back to the Grand Floridian and somehow, the scooter wouldn’t work so I had to get PUSHED off the monorail and into the resort. Talk about humiliating. LOL! Of course, the freaking thing started working when we entered the resort, but then I worried it would happen again.
We had dinner at Citricos and OMG we had perfect service and perfect food. We could see the fireworks out the window, too. It was amazing start to finish. We both had the Salade Verte for our appetizers – incredibly good. Perfect greens. I had a Chicken Mediterranean - Creamy Polenta, Tomato Fondue, Spring Vegetables, Chicken Jus and I asked for mashed potatoes on the side, in case I didn’t like the polenta. They were both good. Cooked perfectly.
My daughter had the Oak grilled beef filet - Potato Purée, Broccolini, Cipollini Jam, Bordelaise. Again, cooked perfectly. We both had the Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée with Assorted Berries for dessert. It’s not a normal sized Crème Brûlée – it’s a BOWL. And it’s amazing. We left so much food on the plates.
We ended up pretty happy that day – aside from some technical difficulties on rides and with credits and some bad weather, we enjoyed this day. This was a good “make the best of what happens” kind of day – even though we missed AK and our signature dining plans, we ended up having fun.
The only bad thing we noticed at MK was how many people either fully ignored their crying kids, who were walking a good 10-40 feet behind them OR they’d grab them by the neck, yell at them to stop crying and be happy, and just …blech – kids are so tired and hot and parents seem to have no patience with them.
We bought some of the amazing bath bombs at The Basin at the GF and used them in our baths that night. They’re incredibly good.
Day 3:
Woke up super early and since I knew we’d have more dining credits than we’d use (this trip was a bust for that), I called down to the reception to ask them to go ahead and change 2 credits into 6 snack credits. The lady was very rude and said, “I can’t do that! The place you eat at has to do that!” So I said, “Oh, okay – yesterday they couldn’t, I had to go to guest services and they had to call y’all, so I just figured I’d bypass the middleman and get it done myself.” “NO!” she said. So okay, I just figured the kiosk person would do it later.
We caught a Minnie Van to Hollywood Studios for extra magic morning hours and I’m SO glad we did this! My daughter got to repeatedly ride Tower of Terror and Rock n Rollercoaster again and again during this time. (We arrived at 7 so we had a good 2 hours).
While she was riding, I went to get a coffee and oops! Once again, they have NO idea how to do the change from dining to snack credits. So I paid cash and they sent me BACK to guest services, where a huge man was cursing and yelling and other people were telling him he was a jerk and that angered him even more.
Another 30-40 minutes go by, while the guest services lady initially tells me to go back to the kiosk and I told her no, they said they didn’t know how to do it, I told her I tried getting the GF to do it, she says they HAVE to do it, so after waiting forever, she finally gets them to do it.
SO much time was wasted this trip on technical difficulties.
One reason I’m so glad we did morning hours was because right when the park opened, BOTH RNR and TOT broke down. The Star Wars and Toy Story lands were already at high ride times. Star Wars land was okay. I think it’d be much better if they had way more characters walking through it – and the original ones, not the later ones. It wasn’t anything jaw dropping to me, but it probably is for big fans.
We went to lunch at Mama Melrose. They got us in a little early and the service and food were both incredible. I got the Mama’s Caesar Salad (yum) and my daughter for the Margherita Flatbread. I got the Mama’s Italian Pasta as my entrée (Spaghetti tossed with Roasted Garlic, Tomato, fresh Basil, and Asiago-Herb Crostini) and she got Wood-grilled Chicken and Penne Pasta - House-made Four-Cheese Sauce garnished with Pecorino Romano Cheese and Parsley.
For dessert, I got the Chocolate and Cherry Tort - Ghirardelli Creamy Chocolate infused with Morello Cherries served with Cherry Coulis topped with Whipped Cream and she got the vanilla gelato (boring, but she was so full lol).
We left after that since everything kept breaking, and went on a Minnie Van to Magic Kingdom. I made the mistake of riding Big Thunder Mountain when I’m way too scared of even baby rollercoasters (which this is), but I did it. LOL! The ride had a long wait but because I was in a scooter, he gave me a return time for like 15 minutes to meet him at the scooter entrance. Nice!
I did finally find a turkey leg and we got one – almost $13 and we both ate a couple of bites and threw it away. It was tasty, but just too much food. We decided to wait in the long Jungle Cruise line and when we asked where to park it, he said, “Would you like a fast pass?” And then he told the FP line girl “they’re with me” and we went right on through – a 2 min wait instead of 45. Nice again!
After that, we decided to return to the resort to change for the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and eat dinner first at the Grand Floridian Café. We bought a couple of cupcakes to try later but when we got back, all the frosting had slid off of them. LOL The spice cake one was very good.
Again, incredible meal and service at the GFC. We both got the fried mozzarella for our appetizers. The artichoke relish was very good – unique. I got the Buttermilk Fried Chicken without the bacon vinaigrette (I don’t eat bacon) and it was mouthwatering. So good. My daughter got the Sirloin Steak and Scallops with Cheesy Potato Gratin, Asparagus, and Scampi Butter Sauce with Roasted Tomatoes. It was beautiful and she said very tasty. (She doesn’t eat scallops though).
For dessert, she had the Chocolate Fondue with Fresh Fruit, Angel Food Cake, and Campfire Marshmallows and I had the Mickey Dome - Cookies and Cream Mousse. It was good but we were so miserably stuffed, we didn’t eat much.
We caught the monorail back to the party (my t-shirt said “A Girl Has No Costume” – a game of thrones reference and hers was the toy story aliens). She didn’t care about candy (she got 2 pieces all night), but she wanted to ride a TON of rides, so that’s what we did – ride after ride after ride, with 5 min waits on all of them – loved it!
The only one she regretted riding was Space Mountain. She’s ridden it before, but it’s fully blacked out during the party and she physically hurt afterwards from the jerkiness and not being able to see any twists and turns I guess. She felt fine the next day.
We rode Haunted Mansion (it broke while we were on it), It’s a Small World (nice scooter entrance to bypass lines), and Peter Pan’s Flight (another scooter entrance) and man is that higher than I thought! LOL. She rode Seven Dwarf’s Mine Train (broke while on it), and I sat outside watching the poor line lady take abuse from rude guests who kept trying to cut in line under the ropes. She rode Splash mountain (also broke while she was on it). The People Mover was COOL! That’s more my style of ride. The dancing stage with Monsters, Inc. characters with kids was adorable!
The best parts of this party, to us, were the ambiance of the entire park – transformed so neat – and the short ride lines. We headed back to the resort when the party was over and got a good night’s sleep.
Day 4:
The bellhop was incredibly nice. An older gentleman who really took pride and enjoyment in his work. When we tipped him he said “thank you for taking care of me.” We went to do resort airline check in. Tipped the baggage girl and she didn’t even crack a smile, say thank you or anything. Just stuck it in her pocket and stared at us. Ok. Just more grumpy attitude we encountered.
We went to meet scooter pick up guy, who was on time, and returned it. Then checked out. The person who took care of us was nice. Went to breakfast at GF Café – which was, once again great with service and food.
This time, my daughter had pancakes and I had the Grand Breakfast with the cheesy hash casserole – so good.
We had until 2 PM to catch our bus so we decided to resort hop to Contemporary and the Poly on the monorail. Walking into the Poly, once again, everyone was friendly and nice and welcoming – a 180 from the GF attitudes. Contemporary isn’t my style of resort at all, but we bought a couple of gifts and left.
Went back and stayed in the GF lobby until the Magical Express, which was about 15 minutes late but no big deal. We took our American Airlines flight back and the plane WAS the good kind – with video screens, amazing seats, and a yummy dinner (I had a vegetarian pasta and my daughter had a beef dish). They served hot towels and a warm cookie and nuts and drinks.
All in all, would we do it again? Yes. I loved being with my baby girl. Was I disappointed in the technical errors and crappy attitudes? Yes. Disney is expensive. One thing I loved about going there was that bubble feeling of happiness everywhere – that was missing. Too much wasted time (and money since our signature dining credits got turned into mostly snack credits).
Oh well. Nothing can be perfect 100% of the time. I’ll hope for better next time. And I think for now, I’ll only do Beach Club - club level. It’s within walking distance of Epcot and Hollywood Studios and the monorail is so crowded, loud and smelly, that once you can say you’ve done it, you’re good.
I like to do a thorough review start to finish of all kinds of small details, for whatever might help someone. Last year, we went twice – one trip with me, my 3 kids (ages 14-26) and my son’s fiancé. We did the Poly for a week. It was magical. Being a hermit, I felt I’d finally found my place – my bubble – everyone was happy, everything went well basically (a minor blip w/poly’s elevators being small for a scooter, but otherwise loved it).
I also took my Mom to F&W festival last year for a 4 day trip. That time we stayed at Beach Club – club level and Disney was perfect, once again.
This time it was a trip with my daughter from Friday the 18th of October to Monday the 21st. It was a vacation full of disappointments and also learning lessons on how to handle them and make the best of situations. I’m going to tell y’all all of the little things that went wrong to add up to entire days full of that let down feeling – because if it were just 1-2 small things, that’d be different. After watching the DisUnplugged shows lately, I had hoped they were wrong about the quality of Disney declining, but this time, it was lacking.
So here it goes:
Day 1 (Arrival):
I couldn’t WAIT to go back! We had a 4:50 AM pick up scheduled with “On Time Taxi” (who I used both times previously). Well, 5:17 arrives and they’re still not showing up OR answering texts or calls. So I had to wake my exhausted son up and have him take us. Bad start to our trip but we made it, so we let it go. (Taxi texted later with “my driver messed up.”).
We fly American Airlines first class from DFW to MCO every time. I’m overweight, don’t want to spill over into someone else’s seat (I don’t think I would, but just in case), so I prefer it. The last times it was always great – the most comfy seats, good meals, movies and video screens, pampering, etc.
We get on this flight and it’s a different plane! No video screens, uncomfortable seats, and granola and yogurt for breakfast. Eh. Okay. I was only annoyed because I wouldn’t have paid $700 each for that. I’d have sat in regular seating. The flight attendant scolded my daughter (age 15) loudly to go sit down when she got up to go to the restroom – didn’t scold the others, just my daughter, as if she was a toddler (it embarrassed her and she didn’t want to go again even when she could). There was very slight turbulence, nothing big, and others were going, so she thought it’d be okay. But okay – we’re headed to Disney, so we let it go.
We landed and went to Magical Express and unlike the two previous times, we had to wait forever. Not a big deal if you don’t have osteoarthritis in your knees, but I do. So it was kind of grueling. They were late – about 45 minutes (the value and moderate lines moved a few times) and nobody explained anything. But we finally got on, felt like, “Okay, now we’re in the Disney bubble – let the fun begin!” The Magical Express ride itself was fast and the driver was nice. We had the first stop. Yay!
Grand Floridian was our destination – I’d always wanted to stay there. We arrived and checked in and wow! Pete wasn’t wrong like I thought he would be. The attitude of the reception was snarky right off the bat. It was a man and when I’d ask a question, he seemed put out like I’d annoyed him. My daughter turned to me and said, “Mom…what’s happening? Why is this trip starting off so bad? What’s WRONG with everybody this time?” I had no idea. We kind of laughed nervously about it but figured the whole trip wouldn’t be like that, surely.
I told her, “We never know what others are going through – let’s just go hit Epcot and have fun.” Gold Mobility Scooter was late arriving, even though I’d texted them when we were leaving MCO. Maybe 20-30 minutes late, but then the Minnie Van for scooters dept. was also dragging on. Took them 20 minutes to even pick up the phone. Weird! Then it was another 40 before they arrived to take us. But okay, lol, we were on our way.
We got to Epcot and headed to the F&W festival (planned to use all of our deluxe dining snack credits up there) and first up is the Irish area for the warm chocolate pudding. We scan our band, and … she tells me to enter a PIN. Huh? I don’t have a PIN. I didn’t do a PIN before I don’t think. I just scanned. She said the check in at our resort should have had me set a PIN. Nope. I then paid cash and we went and sat down to try to fix this. Called customer service. On hold/talking to them for almost an hour. Ends up I have to log in and do it myself on the site.
Back to having fun. F&W was extremely crowded this time. It wasn’t last time. But that’s okay. We tried lots of food. We took pictures. The Canada bridge (I think?) where it goes up and you can take a pic of the flowers behind you was blocked off. The older gentleman taking pictures in the Japan area was SO grumpy. I started to wonder at this point if maybe some company-wide email had gone out that made everyone mad or something. Other cast members were lovely – from photographers to F&W people.
We then went to ride Soarin – got front row and it was scarier to me than the other rows. But fun! We had a fast pass for this. Afterwards, we went to ride Spaceship Earth. This is a good scooter ride because there’s a separate entrance so you bypass the line. We rode this and it broke down temporarily while we were on it. We just sat waiting and it started working again.
After that, we went to ride Test Track. We waited in a line for about 40 minutes, got to the door you enter to design the car, and inclement weather shut the entire ride down. Dang it!
On our way to dinner, we saw a woman slap the you know what out of the man she was with – HARD in the face. Very uncomfortable. There were way more people loudly cussing (I cuss, but I don’t yell it in public around kids) this time around, way more drunks, etc. Gross.
We went on to dinner at Coral Reef (always our favorite) and asked if they could get us in early (we planned to go on back to the hotel afterwards). I told the guy we would go wash our hands while he found out (he had to ask someone) and he said, “Ooooo…kkkkk” and if I’d just said something really incredulous. By now, we feel like we’re in the Twilight Zone. It’s opposite world or something. Everyone has a stick up their butt. And we’re trying REALLY hard not to have the same. LOL
We got to be seated, got a great table right next to the aquarium, and…the menu has changed! Noooo! LOL! The sunflower brittle salad is gone so we got some mushroom lobster-style salad. It was nasty – bland and watery and the avocado puree was tart and gross. The entrée of chicken and risotto that was to die for is gone and in its place is…chicken with …bread pudding! Eew. It was so foul. The Baileys and Jack dessert is still amazing. My daughter’s key lime dessert was partially good. Part of it she didn’t care for.
The waiter was nice, but when we ordered steak and chicken, he said, “Why do you come to a seafood restaurant and not order seafood?” Um, okay. Because we love the ambiance and used to love the risotto. It was the best risotto I’d ever had.
We leave and catch a Minnie Van back to the Grand Floridian. The drivers were great the entire time, by the way. Our room was Boca Chica 8425 (4th floor) – lagoon view and we could see a side view of the fireworks. It was nice. But honestly, my thoughts about this property changed. Pete wasn’t lying when he talked about the massive amounts of carts driving everywhere and construction and maintenance happening. It’s all over the place, and noisy, which detracts from the serenity and beautiful scenery.
The room wasn’t better than the Poly or Beach Club. Just the same, basically. I felt the property was WAY less personal than the other 2 properties. At Poly, you’re doted on big time like family. Smiling faces, people to help answer questions at any time. At Beach Club, the same – the captain and other workers are there to meet your needs. GF felt like a vast, empty resort when it came to helpful cast members. Except for the elderly bell hop on the last day who was wonderful. The others were always standing there talking to each other, ignoring guests – or nowhere to be found. So you’re on your own a lot, trying to track down a person if you need a question answered.
When we got situated in our room, we discovered a tropical storm was heading in for the next day, which meant most of the rides would close and our day would suck on Saturday rain-wise. We had park hopper tickets and had planned to go to Animal Kingdom (with lunch at Tiffins) and then Magical Kingdom (with a Be Our Guest reservation).
So instead, we canceled those reservations and had planned to have a resort day. It was a big let down – we only had 3 nights, 4 days and so far, it was hard to keep up a pleasant demeanor, but we did it because of that whole “a bad day at Disney is better than a good day anywhere else” mentality.
Day 2:
Woke up after sleeping in to heavy rain, and went to breakfast at the Grand Floridian Café. Once again, one of the best meals on property. Daughter had a Mickey Waffle with the toppings and I had the best pancakes I’ve ever had on Earth with turkey sausage. YUM!
Because my daughter was feeling kind of let down (as was I but I didn’t want to show it), I made her a custom facial appointment for noon at the Grand Floridian Senses Spa. It was GREAT!
I should have gotten one, but I just stayed with her (required for underage guests). She was SO happy with it. Relaxing, beautiful, and worth the $180.
And guess what? While we were in there, the rain cleared up! So we decided to head back to Epcot JUST to ride Test Track (because I really wanted to). We got there and wanted to get a drink before getting in line and asked the kiosk guy to change 1 deluxe dining credit into 3 snack credits. Never had a problem before, but he said he saw ZERO dining credits on my plan. Told me to go to guest services.
So another 45 minute wait there while they called the Grand Floridian and ultimately told me the kiosk guy didn’t know what he was talking about, and they did it for me. We go get in line at Test Track and we’re halfway through when…it breaks down. And we’re halfway in line, on a scooter, and everyone before and after us sits down in the aisle. So we have no way out. We’re stuck. Another 1.5 hours later, we finally ride it.
Then we head via Monorail to the Magic Kingdom. We had no fast passes, and the things she wanted to ride were closed, so we just walked around, ate some snacks and enjoyed the atmosphere. I finally got to try a cattail (not really impressed but I loved the cotton candy – unique flavors) but she loved the Mickey pretzel and churro she got.
We took the monorail back to the Grand Floridian and somehow, the scooter wouldn’t work so I had to get PUSHED off the monorail and into the resort. Talk about humiliating. LOL! Of course, the freaking thing started working when we entered the resort, but then I worried it would happen again.
We had dinner at Citricos and OMG we had perfect service and perfect food. We could see the fireworks out the window, too. It was amazing start to finish. We both had the Salade Verte for our appetizers – incredibly good. Perfect greens. I had a Chicken Mediterranean - Creamy Polenta, Tomato Fondue, Spring Vegetables, Chicken Jus and I asked for mashed potatoes on the side, in case I didn’t like the polenta. They were both good. Cooked perfectly.
My daughter had the Oak grilled beef filet - Potato Purée, Broccolini, Cipollini Jam, Bordelaise. Again, cooked perfectly. We both had the Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée with Assorted Berries for dessert. It’s not a normal sized Crème Brûlée – it’s a BOWL. And it’s amazing. We left so much food on the plates.
We ended up pretty happy that day – aside from some technical difficulties on rides and with credits and some bad weather, we enjoyed this day. This was a good “make the best of what happens” kind of day – even though we missed AK and our signature dining plans, we ended up having fun.
The only bad thing we noticed at MK was how many people either fully ignored their crying kids, who were walking a good 10-40 feet behind them OR they’d grab them by the neck, yell at them to stop crying and be happy, and just …blech – kids are so tired and hot and parents seem to have no patience with them.
We bought some of the amazing bath bombs at The Basin at the GF and used them in our baths that night. They’re incredibly good.
Day 3:
Woke up super early and since I knew we’d have more dining credits than we’d use (this trip was a bust for that), I called down to the reception to ask them to go ahead and change 2 credits into 6 snack credits. The lady was very rude and said, “I can’t do that! The place you eat at has to do that!” So I said, “Oh, okay – yesterday they couldn’t, I had to go to guest services and they had to call y’all, so I just figured I’d bypass the middleman and get it done myself.” “NO!” she said. So okay, I just figured the kiosk person would do it later.
We caught a Minnie Van to Hollywood Studios for extra magic morning hours and I’m SO glad we did this! My daughter got to repeatedly ride Tower of Terror and Rock n Rollercoaster again and again during this time. (We arrived at 7 so we had a good 2 hours).
While she was riding, I went to get a coffee and oops! Once again, they have NO idea how to do the change from dining to snack credits. So I paid cash and they sent me BACK to guest services, where a huge man was cursing and yelling and other people were telling him he was a jerk and that angered him even more.
Another 30-40 minutes go by, while the guest services lady initially tells me to go back to the kiosk and I told her no, they said they didn’t know how to do it, I told her I tried getting the GF to do it, she says they HAVE to do it, so after waiting forever, she finally gets them to do it.
SO much time was wasted this trip on technical difficulties.
One reason I’m so glad we did morning hours was because right when the park opened, BOTH RNR and TOT broke down. The Star Wars and Toy Story lands were already at high ride times. Star Wars land was okay. I think it’d be much better if they had way more characters walking through it – and the original ones, not the later ones. It wasn’t anything jaw dropping to me, but it probably is for big fans.
We went to lunch at Mama Melrose. They got us in a little early and the service and food were both incredible. I got the Mama’s Caesar Salad (yum) and my daughter for the Margherita Flatbread. I got the Mama’s Italian Pasta as my entrée (Spaghetti tossed with Roasted Garlic, Tomato, fresh Basil, and Asiago-Herb Crostini) and she got Wood-grilled Chicken and Penne Pasta - House-made Four-Cheese Sauce garnished with Pecorino Romano Cheese and Parsley.
For dessert, I got the Chocolate and Cherry Tort - Ghirardelli Creamy Chocolate infused with Morello Cherries served with Cherry Coulis topped with Whipped Cream and she got the vanilla gelato (boring, but she was so full lol).
We left after that since everything kept breaking, and went on a Minnie Van to Magic Kingdom. I made the mistake of riding Big Thunder Mountain when I’m way too scared of even baby rollercoasters (which this is), but I did it. LOL! The ride had a long wait but because I was in a scooter, he gave me a return time for like 15 minutes to meet him at the scooter entrance. Nice!
I did finally find a turkey leg and we got one – almost $13 and we both ate a couple of bites and threw it away. It was tasty, but just too much food. We decided to wait in the long Jungle Cruise line and when we asked where to park it, he said, “Would you like a fast pass?” And then he told the FP line girl “they’re with me” and we went right on through – a 2 min wait instead of 45. Nice again!
After that, we decided to return to the resort to change for the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and eat dinner first at the Grand Floridian Café. We bought a couple of cupcakes to try later but when we got back, all the frosting had slid off of them. LOL The spice cake one was very good.
Again, incredible meal and service at the GFC. We both got the fried mozzarella for our appetizers. The artichoke relish was very good – unique. I got the Buttermilk Fried Chicken without the bacon vinaigrette (I don’t eat bacon) and it was mouthwatering. So good. My daughter got the Sirloin Steak and Scallops with Cheesy Potato Gratin, Asparagus, and Scampi Butter Sauce with Roasted Tomatoes. It was beautiful and she said very tasty. (She doesn’t eat scallops though).
For dessert, she had the Chocolate Fondue with Fresh Fruit, Angel Food Cake, and Campfire Marshmallows and I had the Mickey Dome - Cookies and Cream Mousse. It was good but we were so miserably stuffed, we didn’t eat much.
We caught the monorail back to the party (my t-shirt said “A Girl Has No Costume” – a game of thrones reference and hers was the toy story aliens). She didn’t care about candy (she got 2 pieces all night), but she wanted to ride a TON of rides, so that’s what we did – ride after ride after ride, with 5 min waits on all of them – loved it!
The only one she regretted riding was Space Mountain. She’s ridden it before, but it’s fully blacked out during the party and she physically hurt afterwards from the jerkiness and not being able to see any twists and turns I guess. She felt fine the next day.
We rode Haunted Mansion (it broke while we were on it), It’s a Small World (nice scooter entrance to bypass lines), and Peter Pan’s Flight (another scooter entrance) and man is that higher than I thought! LOL. She rode Seven Dwarf’s Mine Train (broke while on it), and I sat outside watching the poor line lady take abuse from rude guests who kept trying to cut in line under the ropes. She rode Splash mountain (also broke while she was on it). The People Mover was COOL! That’s more my style of ride. The dancing stage with Monsters, Inc. characters with kids was adorable!
The best parts of this party, to us, were the ambiance of the entire park – transformed so neat – and the short ride lines. We headed back to the resort when the party was over and got a good night’s sleep.
Day 4:
The bellhop was incredibly nice. An older gentleman who really took pride and enjoyment in his work. When we tipped him he said “thank you for taking care of me.” We went to do resort airline check in. Tipped the baggage girl and she didn’t even crack a smile, say thank you or anything. Just stuck it in her pocket and stared at us. Ok. Just more grumpy attitude we encountered.
We went to meet scooter pick up guy, who was on time, and returned it. Then checked out. The person who took care of us was nice. Went to breakfast at GF Café – which was, once again great with service and food.
This time, my daughter had pancakes and I had the Grand Breakfast with the cheesy hash casserole – so good.
We had until 2 PM to catch our bus so we decided to resort hop to Contemporary and the Poly on the monorail. Walking into the Poly, once again, everyone was friendly and nice and welcoming – a 180 from the GF attitudes. Contemporary isn’t my style of resort at all, but we bought a couple of gifts and left.
Went back and stayed in the GF lobby until the Magical Express, which was about 15 minutes late but no big deal. We took our American Airlines flight back and the plane WAS the good kind – with video screens, amazing seats, and a yummy dinner (I had a vegetarian pasta and my daughter had a beef dish). They served hot towels and a warm cookie and nuts and drinks.
All in all, would we do it again? Yes. I loved being with my baby girl. Was I disappointed in the technical errors and crappy attitudes? Yes. Disney is expensive. One thing I loved about going there was that bubble feeling of happiness everywhere – that was missing. Too much wasted time (and money since our signature dining credits got turned into mostly snack credits).
Oh well. Nothing can be perfect 100% of the time. I’ll hope for better next time. And I think for now, I’ll only do Beach Club - club level. It’s within walking distance of Epcot and Hollywood Studios and the monorail is so crowded, loud and smelly, that once you can say you’ve done it, you’re good.
