Another "Just Back"

[rwdavis2]

Just back this past Saturday after 8 days staying at Boardwalk Villas. We rented points which netted out to $243 a night. We really liked the resort. The Staff was friendly, the resort clean, no real complaints. We just wished they would enforce the rules of no kids under 12 unattended in the hot tub.

Overall, an excellent trip. No issues with any cast members, lots of great food, and reasonable crowds most of the time. We arrived Friday on the 11th and went directly to Food and Wine. Had some good dishes but decided we would skip it in the future. We also loved the new version of Soarin which we rode twice during the trip. The Frozen ride is well done and liked it a lot. It appeared that Ellen’s Energy Adventure was down for most of the first 3 days we were there so we ended up never doing it. The Pixar short films were hilarious. Never ventured into either side of Innoventions.

We did EMM at Hollywood Studios on Saturday. Rode TSMM 3 times in a row then did the same for Star Tours. Breakfast was acceptable. We would do that again. We also did Great Movie ride at 9:00 before the line got too long. The Star Wars Spectacular was great and much better than the Jingle Bam that replaced it. The March of the First that occurring throughout the day is recommended.

After Sunday the park crowds were pretty good and with FP+ no long waits were necessary. But we don’t get in lines with more than a 20 minute wait anyway. MDE in the parks worked very well and never had a magic band problem. Flawless operation. We slept in most days and stayed later at the parks which was a change for us.

We ate at Sanaa, Jiko, California Grill (brunch), Flying Fish, and Frontera Cocina. I recommend them all but Flying Fish. The food was fine but overpriced even for WDW. Sanaa, IMHO is the best table service value if you like that type of cuisine. Not only great food we got out of there Friday for about $120 which included bread service, 2 entrees, dessert, 2 beers, and sharing dessert. The CA Grill brunch was amazing, the food and the view as well a continuous mimosas. It’s tough to justify the price because after tax and tip it’s about $100 per person including “free” valet parking. The parking is good for all day so we walked over to MK after brunch. I don’t think we would do brunch again.

We spent a day At Kennedy Space Center and if you are at all interested in this subject it’s a must do. Takes a little over an hour to get there and we spend 6 hours just touring it.

I’ve skipped lots of the mundane details as the parks have not changed that much (IMHO) since we went in 2012. But if you have a question just post it.

Again, a great trip with no complaints at all.

 

[L_MD]

Hey, what did you get at Frontera? I'm heading down and am super excited but everything seems so good. I'm leaning toward the carnitas with a side of mashed potatoes...and the atomic guacamole to start!

 

[rwdavis2]

Hey, what did you get at Frontera? I'm heading down and am super excited but everything seems so good. I'm leaning toward the carnitas with a side of mashed potatoes...and the atomic guacamole to start!

Went for lunch and had shrimp over rice in a very tasty sauce. Also started with the chips and "verde" guacamole. Excellent food and I doubt if you could go wrong ordering anything.

 

[summerw]

So Flying Fish was more than $120 for two adults? Or did you just think the food quality was too far below Sanaa's to warrant the price? Great report! Interesting on your F&W comment. I've never been. I don't recall many others saying that though. Makes me feel better since I'll probably never go that time of year.

 

[rwdavis2]

So Flying Fish was more than $120 for two adults? Or did you just think the food quality was too far below Sanaa's to warrant the price? Great report! Interesting on your F&W comment. I've never been. I don't recall many others saying that though. Makes me feel better since I'll probably never go that time of year.

At FF. we split one appetizer, had our own entrees, and split a dessert. Over $150 for an OK meal. A little over-use of salt in some things. I thought food quality was good at both places. But we like Indian-like cuisine a lot which biased our opinion.

We liked F&W but it's really a poor value for most items, especially drinks. The wine selections are mostly mass-produced, available anywhere wines that are pretty generic. (yes, I'm a wine geek) We are fortunate to live in an area (MD/DC/VA) where we can try virtually all of the cuisines that were there. The crowds were not much of an issue. We had no intent on attending until we found out that F&W would still be going on when we arrived on Friday. I'd never go on a Saturday/Sunday.

 

[TigerlilyAJ]

Any highlights from Kennedy? Any traffic or parking tips? We're going in 3.5 weeks.

 

[rwdavis2]

Any highlights from Kennedy? Any traffic or parking tips? We're going in 3.5 weeks.

We rented a car but my wife has a handicap tag so we had no parking issues at Boardwalk. The regular parking lot at Boarwalk looked like it always had open spaces. We either walked to Epcot or took a boat to Hollywood Studios. No traffic at all when driving to AK or TTC or the hotels.

If you're into the Apollo moon missions then Kennedy is awesome. We saw the vehicle assembly building. The Saturn/Shuttle launch pads and the new ones being built for the new launch system. A complete Saturn V rocket on its side along with a Lunar Module and Apollo Capsule. The shuttle Atlantis is there with the cargo bay open. Lots of great stuff and worth the trip.

 

[L_MD]

Went for lunch and had shrimp over rice in a very tasty sauce. Also started with the chips and "verde" guacamole. Excellent food and I doubt if you could go wrong ordering anything.

Thank you!