grandma jan
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2005
- Messages
- 203
Trip Summary by Subject
Transportation to and from Orlando..American Airlines .Always a good flight!!!! The pilots are always friendly and informative and so were the Stewards. They had no control over the weather and made up the time lost as they could. They did a good job!!!! A
Our resort..Coronado Springs Resort Beautiful grounds, we never saw a drop of trash anywhere other than the trash bins!!! Bell services was always prompt and sometimes early!!! Mousekeeping was excellent, they left the kids numerous towel animals and they ended up with 5 of them to take home. Yes you can take them home, I asked!!! Every evening when we got back to our rooms the windows were decorated and so were the beds, with the kids stuffed animals and also pictures that we had left on the table!!! A+ to mousekeeping!!!!
You can get a life jacket, to use at the pool, for the length of your stay!!! You cannot take it to the water parks because you can get them there for no charge also!!!
The main pool here is huge and was never crowded when we went!!! Plenty of room for everyone!!! We only got to use it one day but I was told it was like this everyday!!! The water slide was great and the kids and I enjoyed it!!
The hot tub, at the main pool, was also huge and full of people!! I would have enjoyed this if we had the chance to use it!!!
The quiet pool was right outside our building and we never got a chance to use it!!! Right by the pool was a laundry room and we did use that!! It was very convenient for us!!
We were in Cabanas B rooms 8681 and 8682, they faced the parking lot and that was fine with us!!! We just had a short fight of stair to be at our room each night!! We had bus stop 4 with a less than 2 minute walk from our room!!! We could also take the bus to the Main Building and that saved time and energy!!!
Each of our rooms had a fridge and we only used one for milk and soft drinks!! This made it easy to have breakfast some mornings!! We would get the boxes of donuts, snack credit on the dining plan, and have breakfast as we got ready to go!!! Panchitos gift shop had milk and drinks, very expensive though!!! We had brought lots of snack stuff too!!
The bus service for this resort is absolutely wonderful!!! We did not share busses with any other resort!! We always had a seat with the exception of the one night we stayed for Wishes at MK and that was expected!!!
There were plenty of busses coming thru our stop everyday for each park and DTD!! The only morning was for our ADR at Animal Kingdom at 8:05. It seemed like it took forever for a bus to get there!!! We did make it on time though!!! So A+ for the bus service!!!!
Now for the Smoking Areas here... There was one outside the laundry room but no seats, this worked when it was raining because it was under the eaves of the building!!! The one I used every morning was right in front of the quiet pool, on the main walkway around the lake. There were benches and I used this every morning!!! During the day this was in full sunlight and got extremely hot!!
There were smoking areas at the Main Building too, facing the lake and they were very nice!!! You can smoke at the Main Pool also, to the side of the bar with tables and chairs.
I was never inconvenienced at all!!!
Meals..We were on the Dining Plan .Here is the list of resturants we ate at with my ratings for food, service and character interaction. Keep in mind that none of us are picky about our food!!!
Pepper Market Mill---Food A---Service A
Chef Mickeys dinnerFood A---Service A---CharactersA+
Donalds Breakfastosaurus----Food A---Service ACharacters A...paid oop for this one.
Boma dinner-----Food A++++-----Service A++++ Loved this one!!
Cinderellas Royal Table breakfast..Food A++Service A+++++ Characters A+++++ paid oop here to. Loved this one!!!!!
Columbia Harbor house CS Food A ..Service A always a table available
Crystal Palace dinner Food A Service A .Characters A
Pizza Planet Lunch CS Food B Service B .hard to find a table
50s Primetime .Food A+ Service A++
Sunshine Seasons Lunch CS ..Food A+ Service B (long lines) too crowded
LeCellier dinner ..Food A+++++ Service A loved this one!!
Typhoon Tillys Snack Shack lunch CS .Food A Service A
Typhoon Tillys lunch CS Food A Service A
Hollywood and Vine dinner Food F++++ Service B.....bad food!!! Yuck!!!
Beaches and Cream lunch .Food A+++ Service A+++ best burgers and the Kitchen Sink. Paid oop for this one to.
Cantina de San Angel dinner CS .Food B .Service B crowded and hard to find a table
Whispering Canyon dinner .Food A+++ Service F++++++++++..we will try this again and will ask for a good server!!!
Liberty Tree Tavern dinner ..Food A++ Service A++ Characters A+++++
Ohanas ..Food A+++++++ Service A+++++ Characters A++++++
I paid for 3 meals because we had more ADRs than we had credits for I compared prices on Allears.net and made my decision on what to pay for based on that. We came out ahead using the Dining Plan!!!!
For Snack Credits we got Donuts, Dole Whips, School Bread, Numerous drinks, Fruit Tarts, Cinnamon roles, and several Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches and other things I can not remember!!!! BOY DID WE EAT GOOD!!!
Even with all this food I lost 5 pounds on this trip!!!! DDI did not fare as well as me!!!
The only complaint we had with the Dining Plan was the choices for children!!! Sometimes the dessert was a cookie and the rest of us had cake or ice cream and DGS2 did not think it was fair!!! We would share our desserts with him at that point!!! The food choices were too much the same at all meals with the exception of the buffets and Lecellier!! DGS2 really enjoyed having a steak for a change. I really wish they would change this back on the Dining Plan. We will see what happens with it for 2008!!!
Downtown Disney .. The kids loved it and I am always a little disappointed!!! The Memories shop had very little for scrapbooking!!! Nothing new other than the 2007 Scrapbook which is the same as the 2006 only difference is the year!!! I could not find one that was post bound either!!!! I found more at Michaels and JoAnns locally!!!!
The big Disney Store was just too crowded for me with small isles and hard to keep up with all the kids!!! We all did like the Toy Store and the boys loved building their own light sabers!!! DGD did find a charm bracelet there too that she could pick out her charms!!!
It is neat to see the Lego Sculptures but they always stay the same. After 3 trips they are nothing new for me anyway!!! I do like Goofys Candy store though!!!
Pin Trading ..I bought lanyards and pins for everyone before the trip. This was the first time they had done this!!! I created monsters!!!! The kids all loved trading pins especially DGS2!!! Each night they would put the new pins they bought or traded for into their new pin bag and leave the old ones on the lanyards to trade the next day!!! The last day we only had 2 pins left!! This included all of my tradable pins as well as DS2 and DDIs!!! While we were in HISK playground I kept feeling something on the bottom of my shoe when we walked out!! I stopped and there was a pin that someone had lost!!! I was really glad that my Crocs have a thick sole on them!!!!
The CMs were all gracious about trading and DGS2 was never turned down by anyone!!! We let him do most of the trades!!!
The Water Parks ..This was a first for all of us. Typhoon Lagoon is our favorite!!! The stairs to the slides are not as steep as Blizzard Beach and the Wave Pool is much more fun too. Hands down favorite of all is the Shark Reef at TL!!!!! Blizzard beach is nice but we just think there is more to do at TL!!!!!
The Parks .Magic Kingdom Always the best of Disney!!! The rides all looked clean and fresh. The improvements to Pirates were wonderful!!! The Pirate Tutorial was a lot of fun as well. The new Laugh Factory was fine just not quite what we expected!! We did not notice anything needing repair!!! We never got stuck on any of the rides!! The CMs were all friendly and helpful!! I can honestly think of nothing negative at this park!!!
Animal Kingdom .We had a wonderful time here too!!! Expedition Everest was down for awhile but the kids did get to ride it before the day ended!!! The new Nemo show was amazing!! We enjoyed all of the trails and all of the animals looked well cared for!!! Rafikis Planet Watch was a nice surprise and we all enjoyed that too!!! This park also was clean and fresh too!! The only down side is that the walkways are too narrow here and that makes it feel really crowded when it is not!!!
MGM Starwars Weekend was great. Lots of characters and lots of fun. The park seemed crowded on that side but once away from Star Tours it was not bad at all. We got to see Beauty and The Beast show this time and it was wonderful!!! The Narnia exhibit left a lot to be desired but for what it was it was ok. Again the park was clean. The CMs friendly and helpful!!!
EPCOT..FUTURE WORLD The new Nemo ride was wonderful!!! Everything was clean and fresh here too!! Nothing bad to say at all!!!
EPCOT ..WORLD SHOWCASE ..Extremely enjoyable visiting with the CMs from other countries!!! Nice and clean. The train in Germany needs some work done on it as only one car was running while we were there. The only down side here was with a guest who was extremely drunk and I did not include him in my TR!! Everyone should know their limits especially at WDW!!!
Transportation ..The bus service was excellent!!! We used the monorail, the ferry boat and boats to and from Wilderness Lodge. All were wonderful. No problems anywhere!!!! We also used Magical Express and this was so convenient for us and never a problem!!!
In all we had an exceptional trip!!! We never waited more than 20 mins for any ride and that was just one time at Pirates!!! We did not take breaks except for our first day at MK! I know it seems like we did all of this commando style but we took long breaks with our lunches and never really rushed at any of the parks!!
I had made out itineraries for each day and we would review them each morning and go from there. We made changes as we went thru the day and still everything worked great for us!!! Tour Guide Mike is the only way to go to get all of this done!!! We knew when, how and why to do the things we wanted!!! This was the 3rd year I have followed his advice and everything worked as he describes on his website!!! I have nothing but the highest praise for Tour Guide Mike!!!!
Now I am off to start planning my trip for 2008!!!
Thank you all for reading my trip report!!! If you have any questions about anything I will be happy to answer them!!!!
Have a Magical Day!!!!
Jan
Transportation to and from Orlando..American Airlines .Always a good flight!!!! The pilots are always friendly and informative and so were the Stewards. They had no control over the weather and made up the time lost as they could. They did a good job!!!! A
Our resort..Coronado Springs Resort Beautiful grounds, we never saw a drop of trash anywhere other than the trash bins!!! Bell services was always prompt and sometimes early!!! Mousekeeping was excellent, they left the kids numerous towel animals and they ended up with 5 of them to take home. Yes you can take them home, I asked!!! Every evening when we got back to our rooms the windows were decorated and so were the beds, with the kids stuffed animals and also pictures that we had left on the table!!! A+ to mousekeeping!!!!
You can get a life jacket, to use at the pool, for the length of your stay!!! You cannot take it to the water parks because you can get them there for no charge also!!!
The main pool here is huge and was never crowded when we went!!! Plenty of room for everyone!!! We only got to use it one day but I was told it was like this everyday!!! The water slide was great and the kids and I enjoyed it!!
The hot tub, at the main pool, was also huge and full of people!! I would have enjoyed this if we had the chance to use it!!!
The quiet pool was right outside our building and we never got a chance to use it!!! Right by the pool was a laundry room and we did use that!! It was very convenient for us!!
We were in Cabanas B rooms 8681 and 8682, they faced the parking lot and that was fine with us!!! We just had a short fight of stair to be at our room each night!! We had bus stop 4 with a less than 2 minute walk from our room!!! We could also take the bus to the Main Building and that saved time and energy!!!
Each of our rooms had a fridge and we only used one for milk and soft drinks!! This made it easy to have breakfast some mornings!! We would get the boxes of donuts, snack credit on the dining plan, and have breakfast as we got ready to go!!! Panchitos gift shop had milk and drinks, very expensive though!!! We had brought lots of snack stuff too!!
The bus service for this resort is absolutely wonderful!!! We did not share busses with any other resort!! We always had a seat with the exception of the one night we stayed for Wishes at MK and that was expected!!!
There were plenty of busses coming thru our stop everyday for each park and DTD!! The only morning was for our ADR at Animal Kingdom at 8:05. It seemed like it took forever for a bus to get there!!! We did make it on time though!!! So A+ for the bus service!!!!
Now for the Smoking Areas here... There was one outside the laundry room but no seats, this worked when it was raining because it was under the eaves of the building!!! The one I used every morning was right in front of the quiet pool, on the main walkway around the lake. There were benches and I used this every morning!!! During the day this was in full sunlight and got extremely hot!!
There were smoking areas at the Main Building too, facing the lake and they were very nice!!! You can smoke at the Main Pool also, to the side of the bar with tables and chairs.
I was never inconvenienced at all!!!
Meals..We were on the Dining Plan .Here is the list of resturants we ate at with my ratings for food, service and character interaction. Keep in mind that none of us are picky about our food!!!
Pepper Market Mill---Food A---Service A
Chef Mickeys dinnerFood A---Service A---CharactersA+
Donalds Breakfastosaurus----Food A---Service ACharacters A...paid oop for this one.
Boma dinner-----Food A++++-----Service A++++ Loved this one!!
Cinderellas Royal Table breakfast..Food A++Service A+++++ Characters A+++++ paid oop here to. Loved this one!!!!!
Columbia Harbor house CS Food A ..Service A always a table available
Crystal Palace dinner Food A Service A .Characters A
Pizza Planet Lunch CS Food B Service B .hard to find a table
50s Primetime .Food A+ Service A++
Sunshine Seasons Lunch CS ..Food A+ Service B (long lines) too crowded
LeCellier dinner ..Food A+++++ Service A loved this one!!
Typhoon Tillys Snack Shack lunch CS .Food A Service A
Typhoon Tillys lunch CS Food A Service A
Hollywood and Vine dinner Food F++++ Service B.....bad food!!! Yuck!!!
Beaches and Cream lunch .Food A+++ Service A+++ best burgers and the Kitchen Sink. Paid oop for this one to.
Cantina de San Angel dinner CS .Food B .Service B crowded and hard to find a table
Whispering Canyon dinner .Food A+++ Service F++++++++++..we will try this again and will ask for a good server!!!
Liberty Tree Tavern dinner ..Food A++ Service A++ Characters A+++++
Ohanas ..Food A+++++++ Service A+++++ Characters A++++++
I paid for 3 meals because we had more ADRs than we had credits for I compared prices on Allears.net and made my decision on what to pay for based on that. We came out ahead using the Dining Plan!!!!
For Snack Credits we got Donuts, Dole Whips, School Bread, Numerous drinks, Fruit Tarts, Cinnamon roles, and several Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches and other things I can not remember!!!! BOY DID WE EAT GOOD!!!
Even with all this food I lost 5 pounds on this trip!!!! DDI did not fare as well as me!!!
The only complaint we had with the Dining Plan was the choices for children!!! Sometimes the dessert was a cookie and the rest of us had cake or ice cream and DGS2 did not think it was fair!!! We would share our desserts with him at that point!!! The food choices were too much the same at all meals with the exception of the buffets and Lecellier!! DGS2 really enjoyed having a steak for a change. I really wish they would change this back on the Dining Plan. We will see what happens with it for 2008!!!
Downtown Disney .. The kids loved it and I am always a little disappointed!!! The Memories shop had very little for scrapbooking!!! Nothing new other than the 2007 Scrapbook which is the same as the 2006 only difference is the year!!! I could not find one that was post bound either!!!! I found more at Michaels and JoAnns locally!!!!
The big Disney Store was just too crowded for me with small isles and hard to keep up with all the kids!!! We all did like the Toy Store and the boys loved building their own light sabers!!! DGD did find a charm bracelet there too that she could pick out her charms!!!
It is neat to see the Lego Sculptures but they always stay the same. After 3 trips they are nothing new for me anyway!!! I do like Goofys Candy store though!!!
Pin Trading ..I bought lanyards and pins for everyone before the trip. This was the first time they had done this!!! I created monsters!!!! The kids all loved trading pins especially DGS2!!! Each night they would put the new pins they bought or traded for into their new pin bag and leave the old ones on the lanyards to trade the next day!!! The last day we only had 2 pins left!! This included all of my tradable pins as well as DS2 and DDIs!!! While we were in HISK playground I kept feeling something on the bottom of my shoe when we walked out!! I stopped and there was a pin that someone had lost!!! I was really glad that my Crocs have a thick sole on them!!!!
The CMs were all gracious about trading and DGS2 was never turned down by anyone!!! We let him do most of the trades!!!
The Water Parks ..This was a first for all of us. Typhoon Lagoon is our favorite!!! The stairs to the slides are not as steep as Blizzard Beach and the Wave Pool is much more fun too. Hands down favorite of all is the Shark Reef at TL!!!!! Blizzard beach is nice but we just think there is more to do at TL!!!!!
The Parks .Magic Kingdom Always the best of Disney!!! The rides all looked clean and fresh. The improvements to Pirates were wonderful!!! The Pirate Tutorial was a lot of fun as well. The new Laugh Factory was fine just not quite what we expected!! We did not notice anything needing repair!!! We never got stuck on any of the rides!! The CMs were all friendly and helpful!! I can honestly think of nothing negative at this park!!!
Animal Kingdom .We had a wonderful time here too!!! Expedition Everest was down for awhile but the kids did get to ride it before the day ended!!! The new Nemo show was amazing!! We enjoyed all of the trails and all of the animals looked well cared for!!! Rafikis Planet Watch was a nice surprise and we all enjoyed that too!!! This park also was clean and fresh too!! The only down side is that the walkways are too narrow here and that makes it feel really crowded when it is not!!!
MGM Starwars Weekend was great. Lots of characters and lots of fun. The park seemed crowded on that side but once away from Star Tours it was not bad at all. We got to see Beauty and The Beast show this time and it was wonderful!!! The Narnia exhibit left a lot to be desired but for what it was it was ok. Again the park was clean. The CMs friendly and helpful!!!
EPCOT..FUTURE WORLD The new Nemo ride was wonderful!!! Everything was clean and fresh here too!! Nothing bad to say at all!!!
EPCOT ..WORLD SHOWCASE ..Extremely enjoyable visiting with the CMs from other countries!!! Nice and clean. The train in Germany needs some work done on it as only one car was running while we were there. The only down side here was with a guest who was extremely drunk and I did not include him in my TR!! Everyone should know their limits especially at WDW!!!
Transportation ..The bus service was excellent!!! We used the monorail, the ferry boat and boats to and from Wilderness Lodge. All were wonderful. No problems anywhere!!!! We also used Magical Express and this was so convenient for us and never a problem!!!
In all we had an exceptional trip!!! We never waited more than 20 mins for any ride and that was just one time at Pirates!!! We did not take breaks except for our first day at MK! I know it seems like we did all of this commando style but we took long breaks with our lunches and never really rushed at any of the parks!!
I had made out itineraries for each day and we would review them each morning and go from there. We made changes as we went thru the day and still everything worked great for us!!! Tour Guide Mike is the only way to go to get all of this done!!! We knew when, how and why to do the things we wanted!!! This was the 3rd year I have followed his advice and everything worked as he describes on his website!!! I have nothing but the highest praise for Tour Guide Mike!!!!
Now I am off to start planning my trip for 2008!!!
Thank you all for reading my trip report!!! If you have any questions about anything I will be happy to answer them!!!!
Have a Magical Day!!!!
Jan
It is so nice to see all your pics and hear about the magical time you had. I would like to travel with you too!
