We checked in to Hojo on July 24 and checked out on Aug 1. It was a FANTASTIC stay. We were bummed at first with having to wait until a little after 4 to check in and for the crib and a little closet issue, but those things turned out to be minor issues.
Kids Suite:
Fabulous spacing with the most comfortable KING pillow top bed. We literally slept as if we were on a cloud! Having 2 bathrooms, and 2 TVs were great. The rooms were so spacious for the 5 of us. Micro and fridge were super convenient. We took out the shelf and was able to fit two 1/2 gallons of milk (on the side) eggs, cheese, micro bacon, veggies and fruits plus room for water and ice packs. I purchased a micro egg cooker/bowl from Walmart and we made our own egg mc muffins in the morning and snack. We had groceries delivered from Vons which was so convenient. Saved so much money on water and snacks.
I was so worried about the walk....IT WAS NOTHING. Not one complaint from my 8 or 10 year old. We walked back for breaks everyday with no problem at all. We crossed the street and walked on the DL side to avoid both the people and car traffic.
Mimi's:
CONVENIENT, Terrific portions, very tasty and tons of coupons! I registered all of us and had 5 breakfast coupons and 5 free desserts. You can call ahead to take out. The breakfast ciabatta sandwich is so yummy!
Ranforest Cafe:
This was our favorite restaurant. I loved the chinese chicken salad. The portion was so huge that I could share it with DH. We ate here twice and made use of the $10 off coupon....shared one with the family next to us too
DL:
We were early birds and used Ridemax. With all the tips here - we never stood in line for longer than 10 -15 minutes. Literally!!! The longest wait we had was for Aladdin. We usually always walked on by using fastpasses and child switch. We left the park every day to take a break at the wonderful HOJO pirates cove.
We rode everything we wanted to, multiple times - with the exception of Toy Story Midway Mania - never made it on that one because we were not willing to wast our time in line (so spoiled.. I know
)
We watched bugs life, Crush, Alladin, Pixar parade, Celebrate parade and Electrical parade and loved them all! Pixar was the kids favorite.
Fantasmic Priority Seating:
THIS IS SO WORTH IT! I stood in line at 7:00 to get us front row seats while DH took the kids on more rides. We loved being able to sit on actual chairs and not be so cramped with everyone else. We ate all the grapes, crackers and cheese, but hardly touched the sweets. It was way too much and they should really consider having more fruit or a sandwich instead of all the sweets.
Character Buffets:
#1 - GOOFY's Kitchen!!!! We loved this. Food was excellent and largest variety. Character interaction was great. Worth the price and would definately do again.
#2 - Storytellers - The food quality was great, but the characters were minimal - would not do again
#3- Minnie and friends - Food was not good. Everything was bland and cold, but the character interaction was great. Would not do again
#4 - Lilo and Stich - So dissapointing. Food was terrible with such a limited selection. Characters were scarce - would definately not do again.
We were so close to getting APs...but at the last minute decided to wait to return until Cal Adventures is complete in 2011.
Any questions? Thank you to everyone for all of the tips and strategy information that you post. It made our stay so easy going and enjoyable without any stress. You could see the stress on some of the faces around us. People looked so disgusted standing in the long lines! If only they did their research on the DIS boards
Kids Suite:
Fabulous spacing with the most comfortable KING pillow top bed. We literally slept as if we were on a cloud! Having 2 bathrooms, and 2 TVs were great. The rooms were so spacious for the 5 of us. Micro and fridge were super convenient. We took out the shelf and was able to fit two 1/2 gallons of milk (on the side) eggs, cheese, micro bacon, veggies and fruits plus room for water and ice packs. I purchased a micro egg cooker/bowl from Walmart and we made our own egg mc muffins in the morning and snack. We had groceries delivered from Vons which was so convenient. Saved so much money on water and snacks.
I was so worried about the walk....IT WAS NOTHING. Not one complaint from my 8 or 10 year old. We walked back for breaks everyday with no problem at all. We crossed the street and walked on the DL side to avoid both the people and car traffic.
Mimi's:
CONVENIENT, Terrific portions, very tasty and tons of coupons! I registered all of us and had 5 breakfast coupons and 5 free desserts. You can call ahead to take out. The breakfast ciabatta sandwich is so yummy!
Ranforest Cafe:
This was our favorite restaurant. I loved the chinese chicken salad. The portion was so huge that I could share it with DH. We ate here twice and made use of the $10 off coupon....shared one with the family next to us too
DL:
We were early birds and used Ridemax. With all the tips here - we never stood in line for longer than 10 -15 minutes. Literally!!! The longest wait we had was for Aladdin. We usually always walked on by using fastpasses and child switch. We left the park every day to take a break at the wonderful HOJO pirates cove.
We rode everything we wanted to, multiple times - with the exception of Toy Story Midway Mania - never made it on that one because we were not willing to wast our time in line (so spoiled.. I know
)We watched bugs life, Crush, Alladin, Pixar parade, Celebrate parade and Electrical parade and loved them all! Pixar was the kids favorite.
Fantasmic Priority Seating:
THIS IS SO WORTH IT! I stood in line at 7:00 to get us front row seats while DH took the kids on more rides. We loved being able to sit on actual chairs and not be so cramped with everyone else. We ate all the grapes, crackers and cheese, but hardly touched the sweets. It was way too much and they should really consider having more fruit or a sandwich instead of all the sweets.
Character Buffets:
#1 - GOOFY's Kitchen!!!! We loved this. Food was excellent and largest variety. Character interaction was great. Worth the price and would definately do again.
#2 - Storytellers - The food quality was great, but the characters were minimal - would not do again
#3- Minnie and friends - Food was not good. Everything was bland and cold, but the character interaction was great. Would not do again
#4 - Lilo and Stich - So dissapointing. Food was terrible with such a limited selection. Characters were scarce - would definately not do again.
We were so close to getting APs...but at the last minute decided to wait to return until Cal Adventures is complete in 2011.
Any questions? Thank you to everyone for all of the tips and strategy information that you post. It made our stay so easy going and enjoyable without any stress. You could see the stress on some of the faces around us. People looked so disgusted standing in the long lines! If only they did their research on the DIS boards
YAY!
I always find that so funny that people can have two totally opposing opinions of the same experience. Like I always say, I think it all boils down to personal taste and preferences! But I am glad that Goofy's went over well for you.
