back from 14 days WDW/ 2 days NYC

[disneyholic family]

we got back yesterday from 14 days at WDW and 2 days in New York City...

we had a wonderful time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

lots of highlights, no lows that i can remember...

there were 6 of us, DH, me, DD and husband, DS and wife...

we stayed at the Pop Century which really pleasantly surprised me...

i can't see any reason to spend more to stay anywhere else...
especially given how many activities they have at the resort...plus a good food court...

the food court had great selections and very good quality..

as for TS, we ate at:
Yak & Yeti - outstanding lunch!!
Crystal Palace - disappointing lunch (DD got sick and ended up very violently losing her lunch in adventure land, and we were all sick afterwards) - surprising as we've always had good experiences at CP
Tusker House - good lunch (ate at 1 for the reserved seating at nemo)
50's Prime Time - excellent lunch and really fun/active server
Sci Fi - lunch - outstanding vegetarian selection - we ate here 3 times...also great milk shakes
Coral Reef - lunch - outstanding salmon, good service - we ate here twice
Rose and Crown - dinner - outstandning salmon, excellent service and good viewing for illuminations
Whispering Canyon Cafe - dinner - good food, great service
Chef Mickey - dinner - surprisingly good food, great service - chef matt was especially helpful
1900 Park Fare - good food, great service - the one and only Chef TJ is unsurpassed - i have a bunch of pictures of him - i'll post them later...

CS, we ate at Earl of Sandwich (3 times), Columbia Harbour House, Cosmic Rays, Pecos Bill, Pop Century food Court, ABC Commissary, Tangerine Cafe (Morocco)

snacks all over the place...

we had an outstanding time in all the parks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

as for NYC - saw the Book of Mormon and loved it..
and did some shopping and wandering!!

 

[chocolateMinnie]

sounds like a great trip - shame about cp though - we've always had great meals there too.

 

[wayneg]

Glad you enjoyed your trip after questioning the value before you went. I know its expensive to go now but I still think its the best value holiday you can have.

Our last morning was spent by the hotel pool, about 60-90 mins, we were bored silly, the pool was great when we had Lily with us but us 3 alone, boring! We have a week off in Oct and were considering a week in Spain/Greece.... but I don't think we would enjoy it anymore.

 

[disneyholic family]

Glad you enjoyed your trip after questioning the value before you went. I know its expensive to go now but I still think its the best value holiday you can have.

Our last morning was spent by the hotel pool, about 60-90 mins, we were bored silly, the pool was great when we had Lily with us but us 3 alone, boring! We have a week off in Oct and were considering a week in Spain/Greece.... but I don't think we would enjoy it anymore.

it seemed to me that the service across the board has improved....
it seemed to be getting back to the level of service i remember from years past...

the pop century was really interesting to me...
we didn't spend any time at the pool, but every single time we passed the pool (on the way to and from our rooms) there were games and contests going on at the pool - all day long....
it really seemed like a very fun resort...
also, there were outdoor movie nights - not every night, but most nights...

definitely a lot of value for money....and the food court was really good as well...

and the service too....
we got the building i requested, and everything we asked for was done immediately and with a smile...

our trip was different than trips past....some days we stayed in the parks the entire day - from opening to closing....we've never done that in the past, but it was the kids choice...they wanted to get most park bang for their buck so that's what we did......and enjoyed it despite the extreme heat..


in addition to the 4 parks, we also did both BB and TL and DQ....
we would have liked to do more of every park, but 14 days just isn't enough time (no matter what the non-disney people think about that statement)..

and we weren't able to do our usual fishing, biking, boating, horse-riding...there just wasn't enough time.

i forgot to mention we spent a half day at IoA for harry potter (we took rooms at the royal pacific to get early entry)...

but other than that, it was all disney all the time!!

 

[dixonsontour]

Sounds like you all had a fantastic time

 

[disneyholic family]

by the way, thanks to hurricane irene, our flight home was tremendously oversold so DD and i were upgraded to business class (DSIL and DH were already business class)..
as a result, the flight home was wonderful....lovely flatbead seat and i actually slept for about 7 hours!!

so it was lucky for us that so many people had been stranded in new york over the weekend and had to be pushed into our flight (among others) to get home...

 

[disneyholic family]

i forgot to mention we also managed to see cirque de soleil and again loved it as did the newest members of our family!!!

 

[disneyholic family]

one more thing before i head off to bed....
as i mentioned before the trip, i ordered a ton of stuff to be delivered to the hotel for us....
it all arrived and was waiting for us when we checked in.....

there were 7 different packages waiting for us, so i joked that i should get the medal for most deliveries....the CMs at the front desk said that was nothing...
the most they'd seen was a brit with 30 packages waiting for them on check in!!!!!!!!

 

[disneyholic family]

one more thing - we LOVED the minivan we had from alamo!!!!!!

absolutely brilliant - a town and country with only 6,000 miles...
and a back up camera (like Wayne had)....

wonderful ride, huge and roomy, with tons of bells and whistles...

and all for a total of only £330 for two weeks....

i used the UK alamo website to reserve the car.....i am so thrilled i got it for that rate....can't believe it!!! and with the free tank of petrol and 3 free drivers....just perfect!!!!

the only glitch - i did the advance online registration, and i was supposed to then only have to use the kiosk, but when i put in the credit card at the airport kiosk, it claimed my rate was actually £600 - so i went to the desk and the woman manually corrected it to be the rate i'd received from alamo uk..

and when i brought the car back, i checked to see what i was charged and it was in fact the rate i'd been promised £330

 

[2Tiggies]

Welcome home Beth! So good to know you had a good time. Awesome news about the flight upgrade too

Did the flights from Chile land on time? I remember you worrying about that.

Regarding the Value resorts, I still think they have the best family entertainment. I remember a few years ago I initially had some reservations after booking All Star Music but I worried in vain. My DD LOVED all the activities that were constantly on the go around the main pool from 10 am through until 9 or 10 pm when they ended each night with a movie at the pool.

i forgot to mention we also managed to see cirque de soleil and again loved it as did the newest members of our family!!!

Guess what? I just booked my tickets for this the other night. DD announced on Monday morning that she would love to go and I wasted no time booking them. I have always wanted to see it and she has expressed no interest at all. So looking forward to it.

 

[Pegasus928]

Welcome home Beth - and thanks for sharing your views with us.

Looking forward to seeing the pics

 

[VailaTigger]

Welcome back! SO glad all the flights went well, and all your planning worked! We stayed at Pop last year and loved it too.
Did you get to take a look at the new resort next door?

 

[disneyholic family]

Welcome home Beth! So good to know you had a good time. Awesome news about the flight upgrade too

Did the flights from Chile land on time? I remember you worrying about that.

Regarding the Value resorts, I still think they have the best family entertainment. I remember a few years ago I initially had some reservations after booking All Star Music but I worried in vain. My DD LOVED all the activities that were constantly on the go around the main pool from 10 am through until 9 or 10 pm when they ended each night with a movie at the pool.



Guess what? I just booked my tickets for this the other night. DD announced on Monday morning that she would love to go and I wasted no time booking them. I have always wanted to see it and she has expressed no interest at all. So looking forward to it.

yes their flight into NYC was on time...they made it to their connecting flight to orlando - which then proceeded to have a mechanical difficulty of some kind, delaying them by 2 hours out of NYC....but they eventually made it...

i hope you love Cirque as much as we do!!! i'm sure you will - they are all so talented it's scary!!!!

 

[disneyholic family]

which reminds me - something i never knew about kennedy airport: Kennedy Airport has a FASTPASS in immigration!!!!

i never knew that..

backing up - on our initial flight into NYC, our flight was an hour late..

when we were about 3 hours out of NY, when it was clear we weren't going to be able to make up any more time, i told the head of the cabin crew that our flight was at 8 AM (we were arriving at about 6:20 - which means landing at 6:20, then you have to taxi to the gate, so by the time you're out of the plane, it's about 6:45)..

so the pursor said there was no way we'd make our flight...
but in any case, he told the pilot, who faxed ahead to New York that there were people on board who were late for their connecting flight..

he told us to be sure to use the express immigration service - something i never knew existed..

as it turned out there were about 50 people on board who were late for their connections..

as we left the plane, there was a woman from immigration with these big orange cards in her hand - she kept saying "anyone with a flight before 9 AM take a card and continue to the express line...

given our flight was at 8 AM we took a card and started the kennedy airport mini-marathon....
racing from the very far away gate to immigration...

when we got there, there was a sign for the quick service line....it was between the foreigner line and the US citizen line....you needed the orange card to get into the line...

at the front of the line, there was a person directing people to the next open line...you told him what you were - foreigner or US, and he directed you to the appropriate line.....i told him 3 US and 1 alien, so he sent us over to the alien area, to the next line..

the immigration guy was super fast....i was done first and went racing on to the baggage carousel, where shockingly our suitcases were just coming out (tagged business class and they actually came out first)...by the time the DH, DD and DSIL were out of immigration, i had all 3 suitcases and we raced on to the customs exit.....and then to the connecting desk, where we dropped our bags.....then continuing our run to the air train, to switch to terminal 8 (we arrived in terminal 4)....
we just made the train, got to terminal 8 and continued our dash to the check in desk for american....fortunately DH and DSIL were first class so we could get a real human being to help us (rather than a kiosk)...
when we stepped to her desk and she looked at the screen she said she had to quickly enter all our names or we'd be locked out of the flight....when we got to her desk she only had 5 minutes left before we would be locked out....
you have to check in 45 minutes before the flight or you can't fly with american...

anyway, we were in and now all we had to do was cross security....
hah...

not so easy....we got into the longest line i've ever seen......after about 10 minutes in line, i asked for a second time if we'd make our flight - and finally, the TSA person realized we wouldn't if we weren't moved ahead in line..
so she took us by the hand, and led us to the front of the line (past about 100 people - and that was the first class security line)..
some witchy new york woman looked at me and said snidely "next time why don't you arrive at the airport early like you're supposed to" - so i responded to her that i could only arrive at the airport, when the plane brought me there...
anyway, we got through security (doing the naked body scan thing) and raced to the gate.....

we got on board with a minute or two to spare....

anyway...

the point of the story is, kennedy has a fastpass!!! who knew?

by the way, we managed that change of planes in 1 hour - but i wouldn't recommend it as a time to shoot for....we were very lucky to have succeeded with so little time...

 

[disneyholic family]

another change from years past, WDW was absolutely overrun by europeans..

and i don't mean Brits - of which there were many....
i mean Europeans..

i have never seen so many French visitors at WDW ever....
we saw as many French as Brits!!

and almost as many italians...
and quite a lot of spaniards -as in from Spain, not South America - though there were many of those as well....

in fact, our second week there (the last week of August), i'd say we saw more foreigners at WDW than Americans...

i guess it must be the weak dollar that has enticed so many Europeans to venture across the water..

the same was true in NYC - absolutely swarming with europeans....

 

[disneyholic family]

about restaurant walk-ups - we we able to get into sci fi twice by walking up (no ADR)...

and while i was checking in at Rose And Crown, two walk up groups of 6 people were seated!!

on the other hand, 1900 park fare was way overbooked the night we were there and we had to wait over 90 minutes to be seated!!!
and that was WITH an ADR!!

 

[Scrap_Vamp]

Welcome home Beth

Really pleased to hear all the details of your trip - especially pleased that you enjoyed Book of Mormon - the cast are amazing aren't they?! They just released a new T-shirt on their website which they didn't have when we went, but sadly they won't ship to the UK - it is a women's one that says "Tomorrow is a Doper Phatter Latter Day!"

 

[disneyholic family]

Welcome home Beth

Really pleased to hear all the details of your trip - especially pleased that you enjoyed Book of Mormon - the cast are amazing aren't they?! They just released a new T-shirt on their website which they didn't have when we went, but sadly they won't ship to the UK - it is a women's one that says "Tomorrow is a Doper Phatter Latter Day!"

totally loved it!!! i'm so happy we saw it with the original cast - they are soooooooo talented!!!

 

[Scrap_Vamp]

totally loved it!!! i'm so happy we saw it with the original cast - they are soooooooo talented!!!

So were we We keep hearing rumours about it coming to London next year or 2013, but nothing concrete.

 

[disneyholic family]

attempting to post a picture..

as background to this picture - my very first trip to WDW was way back in 1974...
my best friend at university and i drove down to orlando from Baltimore at the end of our freshman year at Johns Hopkins...

well.....all these years later, my friend's daughter is a brilliant dancer and in the college program at WDW.....and she's special friends with Pluto...

and her special friend Pluto is in this picture - it was so much fun meeting my friend's daugther this way!!!!!
in this picture:
DH, DSIL, my very favorite Pluto EVER, me, DDIL, DS, DD, Goofy...

<a href="http://s895.photobucket.com/albums/ac152/batsheva_lerner/WDW%20August%202011/?action=view&current=DisneyPhotoImage177.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i895.photobucket.com/albums/ac152/batsheva_lerner/WDW%20August%202011/DisneyPhotoImage177.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>