rachael95
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 11, 2000
- Messages
- 622
Cast:
Me - 29 (for another month)
DH - 35
We decided to do Disney in addition to visiting my sister and her husband over Christmas at their new house this year. We needed a vacation badly.
We flew down on Independence Air from Knoxville $39 each way for each of us so with taxes the total for two of us to fly was about $196. WhoooHOOO!
Just a note, Independence Air is a great airline. I highly recommend them if you're flying. We were on a small jet - only 2 seats, an aisle and then 2 seats. But it felt like we were in first class. We had a choice of drinks (when we chose bottled water, the flight attendent said, here take two, they're small) then gave us a choice of snacks from bags of cookies, peanuts, pretzels to Quaker Oats fruit bars. After that, we get a hot towel. More info go to flyi.com.
We stayed in the Dolphin. Got the $129/night rate except for the last night we were there and that was $149/night. It was actually cheaper doing it with the standard discount than using our APs. The Dolphin is really nice and they were really great when they found out I was allergic to the feather pillows. They sent someone up at 11:30p.m. to replace my pillows (I'd tried to sleep on the feathers and just couldn't handle it) and then the next day we got replacements for DH pillows since I couldn't stand the feathers being that close. We had a great view - room 9041, could see the boat and also the fireworks from PI. Could definitely hear the fireworks from Epcot, but were blocked from seeing them by a wing of rooms on the other side.
We didn't want to do much at Disney. Both of us are more of a take it slow kind of vacationer. So we had our list of Must DOs and did get those done. Other than that, we slept late and enjoyed the Dolphin. DH was very happy for the high speed internet (though if you're used to cable modem, it's more like Medium speed internet) and we find it funny that normal Disney hotels don't have that yet. We figure they want you spending as little time in your room as possible so you're spending Money in the parks.
Mainly we like Disney for the dining. We also make sure we go during off times. It's always less crowded and it's nice being able to pay lunch prices and get enough food to last all evening (but be hungry enough for a late dessert).
At Alfredo's DH got the Fettucini Alfredo and I got the Chicken Parmesan. Both were excellent. I am not a huge pasta fan because it's very hard to find it Al Dente but they always make pasta even I like so that I finish every bite on the plate.
Next Day was LeCellier, this was disappointing. The food was wonderful as always, the service stank. (posted a review of that already). But I bought the Disney World cook book and made the Cheddar Cheese soup for New Year's eve. The soup is why I go to Le Cellier. Though, it could also be the fact that I use the pretzels as my spoon and I can't eat the soup until I have eaten through about 3 pretzels by myself... Both of us got the French Dip sandwich with the Aus Jus and I can honestly say it really was worth the $14 for the sandwich. It was delicious. The hot potato salad is also very good. Of course, we had to get DH favorite here which is the Maple Creme Brulee. This is the only creme brulee I've ever found that I like. It's extremely good. We were full, but had to agree to not split one for fear of a fight. We can get away with splitting the soup.
After that, we ate at Boma for breakfast twice and Fresh in the Dolphin once.
Fresh is good. Everything is fresh and the orange juice they serve makes Tropicana not from concentrate taste like the 99 cent for a gallon fake orange juice you get at the gas station. It was a little expensive though and for the money, I'd rather go to Boma.
Boma is one of our favorite places for breakfast. The Frunch is just so good. And they'll make an omelette for you just like at Fresh.
As for the Parks, our two Must DOs were Fantasmic and Tower of Terror. Which worked out really well. We usually try to go to the last showing of Fantasmic when we're there and always show up at least 1 hour ahead of time. When it's Fantasmic night, that also means it's hot dogs in the stands for dinner. So we split 3 hotdogs between the 2 of us and 2 waters - $15 not too bad. The hotdogs are a pretty good size too. Plus, we had enough room to drive over to Pizzeria Uno for the peanut butter cup ice cream dessert. And since we showed up an hour and a half early for Fantasmic, we got to run in and do ToT before show time. Surprisingly enough, right when we went to ToT, the wait went from 60 minutes to 15 minutes. (it was really more like 25 minutes but we still had plenty of time before Fantasmic.)
Aside from these, we walked around and looked at the decorations. We only went to Epcot and MGM this trip though. They're our two favorite parks. Osborne lights were really neat and it was fun trying to figure out which had belonged to the Osborne family. Also fun listening to parents telling their kids that no, this was not Ozzy Osbourne's festival of lights.
All in all though, it was relaxing and that is what we needed. It was also a help that because we had High speed internet at the hotel we could log on and look at the web cam DH set up in our cats' favorite sleeping spot in the living room. Always makes things easier when we could check on them through out the day. Even though you have someone come over, it's always better seeing for yourself.
--Rachael
Me - 29 (for another month)
DH - 35
We decided to do Disney in addition to visiting my sister and her husband over Christmas at their new house this year. We needed a vacation badly.
We flew down on Independence Air from Knoxville $39 each way for each of us so with taxes the total for two of us to fly was about $196. WhoooHOOO!
Just a note, Independence Air is a great airline. I highly recommend them if you're flying. We were on a small jet - only 2 seats, an aisle and then 2 seats. But it felt like we were in first class. We had a choice of drinks (when we chose bottled water, the flight attendent said, here take two, they're small) then gave us a choice of snacks from bags of cookies, peanuts, pretzels to Quaker Oats fruit bars. After that, we get a hot towel. More info go to flyi.com.
We stayed in the Dolphin. Got the $129/night rate except for the last night we were there and that was $149/night. It was actually cheaper doing it with the standard discount than using our APs. The Dolphin is really nice and they were really great when they found out I was allergic to the feather pillows. They sent someone up at 11:30p.m. to replace my pillows (I'd tried to sleep on the feathers and just couldn't handle it) and then the next day we got replacements for DH pillows since I couldn't stand the feathers being that close. We had a great view - room 9041, could see the boat and also the fireworks from PI. Could definitely hear the fireworks from Epcot, but were blocked from seeing them by a wing of rooms on the other side.
We didn't want to do much at Disney. Both of us are more of a take it slow kind of vacationer. So we had our list of Must DOs and did get those done. Other than that, we slept late and enjoyed the Dolphin. DH was very happy for the high speed internet (though if you're used to cable modem, it's more like Medium speed internet) and we find it funny that normal Disney hotels don't have that yet. We figure they want you spending as little time in your room as possible so you're spending Money in the parks.
Mainly we like Disney for the dining. We also make sure we go during off times. It's always less crowded and it's nice being able to pay lunch prices and get enough food to last all evening (but be hungry enough for a late dessert).
At Alfredo's DH got the Fettucini Alfredo and I got the Chicken Parmesan. Both were excellent. I am not a huge pasta fan because it's very hard to find it Al Dente but they always make pasta even I like so that I finish every bite on the plate.
Next Day was LeCellier, this was disappointing. The food was wonderful as always, the service stank. (posted a review of that already). But I bought the Disney World cook book and made the Cheddar Cheese soup for New Year's eve. The soup is why I go to Le Cellier. Though, it could also be the fact that I use the pretzels as my spoon and I can't eat the soup until I have eaten through about 3 pretzels by myself... Both of us got the French Dip sandwich with the Aus Jus and I can honestly say it really was worth the $14 for the sandwich. It was delicious. The hot potato salad is also very good. Of course, we had to get DH favorite here which is the Maple Creme Brulee. This is the only creme brulee I've ever found that I like. It's extremely good. We were full, but had to agree to not split one for fear of a fight. We can get away with splitting the soup.
After that, we ate at Boma for breakfast twice and Fresh in the Dolphin once.
Fresh is good. Everything is fresh and the orange juice they serve makes Tropicana not from concentrate taste like the 99 cent for a gallon fake orange juice you get at the gas station. It was a little expensive though and for the money, I'd rather go to Boma.
Boma is one of our favorite places for breakfast. The Frunch is just so good. And they'll make an omelette for you just like at Fresh.
As for the Parks, our two Must DOs were Fantasmic and Tower of Terror. Which worked out really well. We usually try to go to the last showing of Fantasmic when we're there and always show up at least 1 hour ahead of time. When it's Fantasmic night, that also means it's hot dogs in the stands for dinner. So we split 3 hotdogs between the 2 of us and 2 waters - $15 not too bad. The hotdogs are a pretty good size too. Plus, we had enough room to drive over to Pizzeria Uno for the peanut butter cup ice cream dessert. And since we showed up an hour and a half early for Fantasmic, we got to run in and do ToT before show time. Surprisingly enough, right when we went to ToT, the wait went from 60 minutes to 15 minutes. (it was really more like 25 minutes but we still had plenty of time before Fantasmic.)
Aside from these, we walked around and looked at the decorations. We only went to Epcot and MGM this trip though. They're our two favorite parks. Osborne lights were really neat and it was fun trying to figure out which had belonged to the Osborne family. Also fun listening to parents telling their kids that no, this was not Ozzy Osbourne's festival of lights.
All in all though, it was relaxing and that is what we needed. It was also a help that because we had High speed internet at the hotel we could log on and look at the web cam DH set up in our cats' favorite sleeping spot in the living room. Always makes things easier when we could check on them through out the day. Even though you have someone come over, it's always better seeing for yourself.
--Rachael
