A Mix of tips and recent experience...

[Jollean]

Ok so I am on my 12 day vacation of a life time in Walt Disney World as we speak! We have not even been in our room one night and I already have collected many pieces of feedback that I thought worthy of sharing.

1.Magical Express lost our luggage. So make sure to pack swimsuit, tooth brush, small bottle of lotion (no more than 50ml), clothes for next day (include shorts cuz I wore jeans and now I have nothing cool for tomorrow).
2. Treat the Disney Staff nice. Wow I am amazed at how pissed people get and take it out on their staff. The Disney staff are very nice and I feel for them. I know it is not their fault they lost my luggage and taking it out on them doesn't help the situation. In fact takes away from the magic!!
3. Garden Grocer delivered as agreed. So nice to have cases of water and cereal for breakfast in the room. We are a long walk from the food court and we are big fans of eating in privacy so this was the best suggestion we took from DIS was garden grocer!
4. All Star Music Resort is nice! Read a lot of bad reviews online and was a little worried. The atmosphere is busy but fun. The ambiance is great in the evenings. Food was great at the food court (although only day 1) we had a $9.00 roast chicken meal with mash potatoes, gravy and green beans. I felt better not eating fries and the meal was quite good for $9.00.
5. So far have seen a Possum and one large Frog along the pathways at the hotel thought that was pretty neat.
6. The walk to everywhere is far. We are in the last building and last room farthest from the front. I could see how some would not like this. I have had to make at least 6 trips to the front tonight so far...thank goodness I needed to make up for the fact I left the treadmill at home.
7. The weather said rain in the forecast and although we only got in at 6pm it was dry and warm. Actually just perfect, not so hot that you can't sleep but warm enough to wear shorts and swim at 10pm at night.

We spend our first two days at Universal and Adventure Island so we will let you know more as we go along here.

 

[aldango]

Yay! This is all good info. I hope the rest of your trip is awesome

 

[kalaim@charter.net]

Thanks! We leave next week, so it's great to get some really up to date info! Especially on the weather too!

And we are staying at All Star Music!

 

[Jollean]

Ok so here is todays tips and updates...

We spent today at Universal. One thing I liked about this was that going early gave us a chance to adjust to travelling and schedules etc at a Non Disney park. Universal has lots of attractions but we did not HAVE to ride them all. It turned out good as once the sun came out it was hard for us to adjust to the heat a bit. So we left early. We will plan differently tomorrow for sure and by our first day at WDW we will be pro's.

Here are our tips.
1. If you can avoid bags at Universal. They have some rides that make you use lockers. Drove me nuts to wait in line to put your stuff in a locker just to ride a ride.
2. Be at the park at opening, it was dead and by 12pm it was crammed.
3. Simpsons ride is looking good almost ready!!
4. It was $40.00 to Unioversal from Magical Express
5. Universal Food was exspensive. $35.00 for pizza and 2 chicken finger meals. ouch!
6. Magical Express delivered our luggage at 1am to our releif although I am very tired today.
7. Take a cab to Premiere outlet mall. Went to Discount Disney Store and bought most of my gifts and we have not even been to WDW yet. But we got some fabulous sweatshirts and stuff for half the cost. Now instead a small gift my friends and family get a nice one! Now that I know what they have there I can go to the parks and not think...will I find that cheaper at that discount store...

Again want to add how great the staff are at this hotel. They are great. Our rooms were cleaned and in great shape. Had an evening swim and enjoyed finding Nemo by the pool!

Stay tuned we will keep u posted on more in the moment tips!

 

[ittybittybabynurse]

Thanks so much for the tips! We are leaving in 19 days, can't wait!

 

[tmonferdini]

How much was the cab ride to the outlet mall?

 

[TMWilson7196]

I'm glad you finally got your luggage. Have a great trip.

 

[Jollean]

Hi Tmon - The cab ride to Premium was about 15.00 to DTD or 28 from Universal.

 

[Jollean]

Ok so latest update... We have done Down Town Disney, Adventure Island, Magic Kingdom and Epcot. We are on our first day off and so glad to have it! Lots to share about all.

Adventure Island
Mixed feelings on this park. My husbands favourite and lots of interesting scenery but it was hot and way to crowded. It was loud and made for a more thrill crowd.
One tip DO NOT miss the Spiderman Ride. This ride is the only ride in their park that has Disney beat. It is truly an amazing ride.

DisneyQuest
This is definetly the place for those who like video games. My husband and dughter liked it and me not so much. We unfortunetly witnessed someone smacking their kid a few times accross the face as security came in. Disney Quest was definetly not Magical but ask my daughter about it and she would go back in a heart beat.
Tips:
Drinks are exspensive. Bring your own or buy their refillable mug. It is $4.00 ish and $1.00 to refill. If you can share buy just one and share. The non refillable cup is smaller and costs $3.00.
Have the Teryaki Fajita. It was really great. Totally did not expect to have something that was not greasy and tasted so good.
We were in DQ in the evening and it was not that busy. Anytime there was a game you wanted to play you just waited one round and it would be empty quickly.

That was one day....

 

[Jollean]

Ok so on to our first Disney day...Magic Kingdom...


This is truly my favourite park of all. We went for Morning EMH and got in a few rides early. We were smart and Fast Passed a major ride and then got in line for another. By 2:00 we had been on a good chunk of all major rides. (Splash, Space, Buzz, Stitch, Thunder Mountain etc.) We had lunch at 11am and was glad as we beat the line ups and had a table. By 12pm the park was HOT and packed. Our legs were so tired and the crowds getting a bit frustrating, so we decided to try a nap and come back. MAN AM I GLAD WE DID!!! Napping made the difference between an overwhelming day to a truly great all around day. Our feet were regenerated, we were less tired and ready to get in some late night hours. This meant we got in a huge amount of rides in the evening.

Magic Kingdom Tips
The benefit of staying at a disney resort shows up here. Going back for a nap is easy and really makes your day feel less insane and painful. The bus system is efficient and you never wait long.
Go early. You do seriously get a lot done in the first few hours and crowds are brutal in the afternoon and it is so HOT then too. Think about this...You might decide well we will take a break in the afternoon and sit and eat. Well if you want and ice cream, pop hanmburger, toy from a store in the efternoon you will wait for EVERYTHING! You wait to buy something, you wait for a seat etc. This was such a good time to sneak out.
For the fireworks we hid over by Peter Pan area. You do not get to see what it going on in front of the castle but you can get chairs and open space to watch the fireworks comfortable from above. Also after we were able to move to more rides such as Its a Small World with no waits while the front of MK cleared out.

That is all I can think of for Mk now...

Disney All Star Music Updates
We have not eaten at the food court too much as we eat mainly at a park so for those who have concerns about the food court don't you wont be there much.
Our Garden Grocer order was absolutly wonderful. In fact I wished we had ordered more we will run out this week and still have a week to go. We are often too tired to stop and get a pop in our cups and know we have pop in the room waiting in the fridge, which is great.
They have laundry services here which is great. $1.25 for laundry soap. Bring your own from own and save a few pennies here.
Plan for a day off at your hotel. We are so glad we did. Changes this to a more relaxed and enjoyable holiday with the break. We ate breakfast from the food court outside near the pool and it was LOVELY! It was nice not to get up at the crack of dawn to make it to a park too.
So far our Mousekeeping has not left us any towel animals I think it is based on who you have for a Mousekeeper. Ours is new.
There are some school groups here at the hotel but they are not disturbing us in anyway and they have a lot security and leaders keeping them organised.

Hotel is still great on day 5.

 

[DisneyMOM09]

Can't wait to read more about your trip! I think you have just sold me on ASMu! Hope you are enjoying your vacation!

 

[PrincessAlways]

Sounds like you're having a great trip so far!! Thanks for sharing your thoughts while you're there!

 

[KayLuvsMickey]

This is wonderful! I booked the ASM for our friends joining us for a magical gathering in Sept! I didn't know anything about it when we booked it for them. I feel better now!

 

[Jollean]

Yeah for those that may have heard ASM was nothing more than a Motel I beg to differ. I have stayed in some pretty plain motels and Disney is a 5 star in comparison. The mood in the evenings is magical and Disney puts a lot of effort into creating a lot of fun by the pool. Did you know it has a little near pool bar! So any adults wanting to wind down with a cool one can. For the amount we are paying per night and all the benefits this hotel is an EXCEPTIONAL deal.

Would I like to try something different yes for sure each hotel will have it's owns treasures and benefits but unless you are have extremely high taste ASM should not dissapoint you. But maybe my taste is very beer bottle bank account ish..haha!

 

[cmmc]

I'm so happy I found this thread - real time, up to the minute tips! We're going on Apr 26 for 7 days, first trip to WDW for all of us.

If you're using DSL at ASM, would you mind running a speed test? There's this guy who is tracking how fast the Disney internet service is (see http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1764186).

If you're staying at a WDW resort right now and using the in-room internet service would you mind running a brief speed test and posting your results?

To run a simple test Click Here, put in the 407 area code and click "go".

(If you're so inclined, more detailed speed tests can be found at DSL Reports).

When you're done please post your results in Kbps making sure to note the resort and whether you're using a wired or wireless connection.

As you might have guessed, I'm trying to survey the internet speeds throughout the WDW resort. This is because the last time I paid the $10 fee to use it (at CSR) it was testing out at an unbearably slow 190Kb per second. I thought that was a rip-off.

Coincidentally, this past Wednesday the FCC declared that anything below 768Kbps doesn't meet today's definition of broadband/high-speed internet. If Disney is providing speeds below that threshold they need to start calling it by the FCC's new designation of "first generation data" instead. Here's a link to the story:

200K Ain't "High Speed" Anymore

Anyway, thanks for your help and let's see what we get.

My nephew has multiple disabilities, including autism - he uses the computer for entertainment and also to decompress for the day. If speeds are going to be unbearably slow, then we won't bring down his computer. But it would be good to know and we can try to figure out something else for him.

Thanks.

Catherine

 

[Jollean]

I clicked the link. I am an avid internet user although I am not playing any games while I am here but am finding the speed to be good. Uploads are good, video clips are not choppy and opening a page quick. Hope that helps!

 

[cjstarr]

Jollean you would be doing a lot of us a real service if you could take a minute to run a speedtest. It is been a question of debate for some time as we have heard a lot of different things said.
The link will only take a few seconds to run and post.
Click on; Click to start MySpeed

http://www.wugnet.com/myspeed/speedtest.asp

The report below is what we are looking for.

Your download spead is 4.04Mbps
Upload speed is 424Kbps
Round Trip Time: 9ms
Max pause: 1281ms

Thank You

Charles

 

[Jollean]

Download: 4.81 mbps
Upload: 4.76 mbps

 

[Jollean]

QOS: 77%
Round Trip: 53 ms
Max Pause: 94ms

 

[Jollean]

Ok I have had some pool time and have some updates on Epcot from yesterday. It was EMH till late in the evening and we went early as well. Let me just say this park is HUGE and you really need two days to do it all. We barely made it to 2:00 and then back to the hotel for a nap and swim. We did make it till mid night later tho.

EPCOT is easy to get lost in. Turn around once and you dont know which way you are. Always look for the Epcot Ball and you know that is where the main enterance is.
We ate at the Coral Reef restaraunt. We had no reservation. Went at 11:30 and got in in 20 Min. It was our most exspensive meal so far on this trip but by far one of the high lights of our trip. Really enjoyed the atmosphere and watching very large fish swim by as we ate. We took our time had coffee and really made sure to get a lot out of it. For kids the pirate drink is pretty darn good and they get a Tinkerbell or Pirate glow light with it. But it does cost $6.95
For funnel cake fans head to America! Mmmm...
We did not have enough time to make it through the Worlds part sadly and we cannot make it all day and night without a rest so I wish another day there. It does not have the magic of the Kingdom but has some fantastic rides. You also need a lot more time to explore as there is a lot here.
Fireworks are great and not hard to get a great view.
EMH evening was great we walked onto everything after the fireworks. Make sure to get your bracelet for the rides before the fireworks!

Epcot was good but theme here take 2 days for it.

Another random tip...remove all park maps from pockets before doing laundry....heheheh