ADP - Live From Disney World

[DVCsince02]

Thanks for another great trip report and travel safely!

 

[jennz]

From Sarah - thank you for the pictures of It's a Small World! They're very pretty. I'm honored. Did you have fun on the ride?

 

[annie1995]

Thank you for taking us on your trip!! Its always sad to see them end. Have a safe flight home and I'm looking forward to your wrap up of everything

 

[Verandah Man]

Safe travels home, thanks for taking us along on your vacation!!!

 

[alebisi]

[/B]

Safe travels home, thanks for taking us along on your vacation!!!

this is soooo off topic I've just entered on the B.O.B can I ask what is this about? can you PM me? maybe I'm at Disney by that date. Thanks so much.

ADP: I'm so sorry is your last day, is very hard to leave Disney, I just have to say congratulations! I L.O.V.E. your trip report, so far the best I've read. Thank you for bringing me the magic all over again (even if I'm not in Orlando).

 

[Verandah Man]

[/B]

this is soooo off topic I've just entered on the B.O.B can I ask what is this about? can you PM me? maybe I'm at Disney by that date. Thanks so much.




ADP: I'm so sorry is your last day, is very hard to leave Disney, I just have to say congratulations! I L.O.V.E. your trip report, so far the best I've read. Thank you for bringing me the magic all over again (even if I'm not in Orlando).

Just sent you a PM about B.O.B......

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

Aaron...you're probably home by now. Hope you made it safely and have already started planning the next one!!!

 

[tammydel]

Hope you've had (or are having) a safe and smooth trip home. Thanks for sharing your family's trip with us.
Tammy

 

[Tracy0729]

Thanks for the pictures of OKW. Have a safe trip home Tracy

 

[ADP]

Tuesday, July 22nd

Hi Everyone,

We are back in Indiana. Everything went very well this morning with our departue. Magical Express worked out great, the resort flight check-in desk worked great, our flight was on time and went very well. Our luggage was waiting for us in the bag claim area in Indianapolis.

Bell Services at Old Key arrived at 6:15AM to take our luggage to the front. I went with it to the airline check-in desk while Kim and Anna finished breakfast in the room and double-checked everything. Checking in at the airline check-in is very convenient. I told the Cast Members my flight number and airline. They checked my ID and printed out our boarding passes. They tagged our luggage and I never saw it again until we arrived at our home airport.

The Magical Express bus was right on time at 6:50AM. We made one additional stop at Saratoga Springs and then headed for the Orlando airport. When we arrived we retrieved our carry-on items and headed straight for the security line. Looking at the size of the Airtran check-in line on level 3 it was a good thing we had already received our boarding passes and checked our luggage or else we may have been waiting a while. It was very long.

Bottom line, the Magical Express process worked very well. The resort check-in service worked like a charm as well.

While we waited for our Magical Express bus to arrive I snapped a few photos of the lobby area at Old Key West.

Sitting area

Front desk check-in/check-out

Our Magical Express motor coach was very comfortable. Here's the final photo I took of our trip. Our Magical Express motor coach as we walked away.

Here are some of my thoughts about this trip:

Transportation:
Our transportation was excellent the entire trip. We had very good luck all the way through with wait times. I don't think we waited more than 25 minutes for a bus, boat, or monorail the entire trip. Most of the transportation Cast Members were very nice and courteous. One thing I did notice this trip is the air conditioning in all of the vehicles seems to have been turned down. It wasn't as cool in the vehicles as it usually is. We honestly didn't mind though. We always thought the transportation vehicles were too cold inside.

Our Magical Express experience was again positive. It was on time, efficient, and comfortable. If you plan on staying on Disney property your entire trip you should take advantage of it while its still a free service.

Theme Parks:
The parks remain crowded in my opinion. Even though crowds were less than we expected its still a crowded experience. Fastpass and a good park strategy did help; however, I still did see wait time of 90 to 120 minutes. It would be crazy to wait in line that long for an attraction.

One other observation was strollers. The number of Disney strollers has signicantly decreased. I believe due to the severe price increase There is more space in the walkways. If Disney's intent was to reduce their strollers in the parks it has worked. Although the walkways are still crowded it does help not to have to zig zag past those big plastic strollers. A number of guests are buying the $50 Kolcraft umbrella strollers as well. They are much smaller than the Disney strollers.

The parks were very clean. We didn't notice any places with trash or needing paint touch-ups. The bathrooms were clean as well. The attractions ran smoothly with no breakdowns while we were in line or on board.

Most park cast members were kind and polite. We did run into the occassional few who were a bit grouchy, but otherwise our experiences with them was terrific.

Resorts:
Our resort stays were very good. I was very happy with our accomodations; especially at the Wilderness Lodge Villas. The Polynesian grounds and room were wonderful. We spent the afternoons, in most cases, at the resorts. The grounds were very well taken care of. We saw maintenance teams trimming bushes, cutting shrubs, and painting exteriors. The rooms at the Polynesian are very big for a standard resort room. Of course, being in a 1 bedroom villa at the Wilderness Lodge and Old Key West does kind of spoil you.

Dining:
I can't really put my finger on it, but the food during this trip was probably the worst we've experienced in a while. I'm not trying to put a damper on anybody else's upcoming trip, but what we experienced this past week was somewhat disappointing. Our best meal of the trip was breakfast at The Wave and then dinner at Trails End. The food at the other restaurants was disappointing, or at least not what we were used to. The counter service locations were not too bad. Pretty much what we've experienced in the past, but the table service locatiions were not up to par.

Service at the restaurants was hit and miss. Some servers were tough to find. Some even completely forgot a request like refilling a glass. Others were very good. They did what you would expect and even went out of their way to be kind. The server(s) at The Wave were simply the best. I can't explain why they just were very good. The Wave wasn't very crowded when we dined there, but it still was a nice change of pace to have great service.

Other Observations:
The prices of souveniers continue to rise. To me $40 for a Disney T-shirt is too high considering the quality of the T-shirt. Wind shirts, pullovers range anywhere from $60 to $90 depending on the logo style. I hope this is not a continual trend.

Avoid the parks in the afternoon during the summer months. I can't say it enough. I noticed a huge difference in our moods and park enjoyment when we stayed in EPCOT all afternoon yesterday. The previous 6 days we left the park around 1:30 and returned around 6:30. During the 5 hours in between we relaxed, enjoyed the resort, did some swimming, and had some lunch. It made all the difference in the world. During those 5 hours on most days it rained on and off. We pretty much avoided the rain and thunder during the afternoon when we were out of the parks. By the way, I took my pedometer with me on this trip and I walked a total of 37 miles. Although I'm pretty tired from a lack of sleep my body feels pretty good considering the amount of walking we did.

Thanks to all of you for your kind words during this live report. It's been fun! Until next time, see you right here on the DIS.

Next Trip Home:
October 18th - 21st - Walt Disney World - Food & Wine
October 21st - 25th - Universal Orlando - Hard Rock Hotel

 

[hannah's dad]

Aaron - thanks for the thorough, informative, and fun reports...You've set a high standard for live trip reports and have inspired me to do one next March.

 

[annie1995]

It was a pleasure reading your trip report!!! I honestly can't wait till you go again . Glad you had a nice trip!!!

 

[UrsulasShadow]

Wonderful trip report! I think it's amazing that the whole time you're on your vacation, you're thinking about what you can report back on. I'd never be able to do it, I'm afraid...most times I'm so preoccupied with what I'm doing, I forget to notice the larger picture.

 

[alaskanmommy]

Soooooooo bummed your live report is over, Aaron! Great job, I especially liked your last hurrah, about ME, transportation, airline check-in, etc. We thought the Disney transportation last time was great. Oh man, I hope the dining will improve before we get there in November! That's too bad, we always look forward to the dining on property. Sounds like everybody better start saving up mucho $$$$$$ for Disney clothing in the future. Will the increases ever end??!?
Anyway great report, and hope you and your family made it home safely, and aren't too sad you are no longer at Disney.

~Megan

 

[MenashaCorp]

Well thought out, fun trip report. Made us all feel a bit like we were with you.

Glad you made it back safely to Circle City.

 

[stitchlover]

Thank you so much for your live report. It was nice to revisit all the sites and attractions through you. It helps get me through the next 200 some odd days until I'm there again.

 

[ShesAPirate]

Thanks for another great report, ADP! It really made not being there a tiny bit more tollerable

 

[alebisi]

great trip report Aaron! I'm looking forward for your next trip! (hope it includes another live trip report)

 

[ericafny]

Aaron - what a great report, I thouroughly enjoyed it!

I was also able to pick up some tips for my upcoming trip. Too bad the food wasn't as great as you usually remember it to be. I notice the same thing year after year as well. We are having lunch at the Wave so I am looking forward to that after reading about your experience.

 

[Tonya2426]

Thanks for doing the TR!! We just got back from our Disney adventure and I used your TR to adjust our evening plans one day. I got a chance to get online during one of our afternoon breaks and used your Toy Story Mania wait time info to readjust our evening plans - it was like having a personal assistant in the park.