SCgoofy64
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2001
- Messages
- 57
Hotels
Just back from a 10 night trip on Jun 6th. We had an absolutely great time. We stayed at the Quality Inn Maingate West, what a dump. We bid on Priceline for this room and it was rated a 2 star but the quality was not very good. Rundown rooms and not very well maintained, needs an update. Next was 2 nights at Laqunita Inn Lakeside, also 2 star priceline, this place was great well maintained room great condition and grounds well kept. We then had 5 nights at Boardwalk Villas, the Boardwalk was great. Excellent condition, the best I have seen it, someone always touching up paint, cleaning, etc., great stay. The last 2 were at Dolphin. I just love the Dolphin the whole place, pool area, lobby, rooms and especially beds. All resort cast members were great, never encountered a bad attitude or lack of Disney Magic.
Theme Parks
I do have to say that I have been going to Walt Disney World since 1972 when I was 8 years old. I have been spending approximately 30 days a year at WDW for the past 6 years and maybe since we spend so much time in the parks we may notice things the first time visitor will never ever notice. The Magic Kingdom was so special to me and has always been my favorite park until now. The MK was the most dirtiest I have seen ever. The ques into Philarmagic were covered in trash inside the building, not just a napkin here or a cup there but massive amounts of trash. Same with Big Thunder trash all over queue, melted ice cream bars on ledges and in between rocks. Even on main street trash blowing around. Very very disappointed. I was telling my kids when I was young you would see tons of people just cleaning, picking up trash all the time I would say see that piece of trash blowing there it would not be there in the old days someone would scoop it up right away. The other disappointing thing was how the posted standby times for the biggies, Splash, Space, BTMRR, Buzz, etc. would almost always be half as short as stated, is this because they want everyone to use FASTPASS??? We noticed this in Nov 2002 and again in early April 2003 but waited on move proof before I actually posted that info. I know these times are not the most accurate but consistently they would be a lot shorter than posted. A few times I knew the lines were longer than posted like at POC. It had a posted time of 15 minutes yet only 1 side was open and the line was all the way almost outside, about a 30-45 with only 1 side open. The Magic Kingdom was still special but I definitely noticed a decline in upkeep. One more major item at the MK was the cast members have definitely changed a bunch from the total service oriented days. I would say about only 50% of them had that Disney attitude, the other half did not. Here is the bad, we were leaving Tom Sawyer Island and cast member was relieving another cast member, looked liked a hourly manager, anyway the oncoming cast member starts talking to the other guy and all off a sudden he says BULL**** thats great I mean loud I think the other cast member said he got promoted or something but at least 5-6 families within 25 ft heard the comment. I have never ever in my life heard a cast member swear on stage. Even the family in front of us said something, I said did I hear what I think I heard and she was like yep. It was pretty amazing. My wife did go to City Hall to inform them of our displeasure with the upkeep and also the swearing cast member. She got the typical response send a complaint to this address/email card. She did call them on excuse for the upkeep issue. The cast member stated that the park was older and harder to keep up but she said then why is the queue for Philarmagic a mess?? Isnt this your newest attraction? Another strange thing which could be just conciendence is that every day we were there and there was an enight later, May 31, Jun 2, Jun 4, Splash Mountain was down. Very strange because when we showed up for enight on Jun 2, it was up and running even though the status on the big board said temporarily closed. Are they trying to get resort guest to pay for enights since Splash is closed and you can ride it on enight. It just seemed very strange that everyday there was an enight Splash had a problem, didnt it just come out of a major rehab recently???
All other parks were in good to great condition, I think one bathroom at EPCOT needed some attention. It was strange to see how good these parks were compared to the FLAGSHIP Magic Kingdom.
As I stated before we did notice a lot less attention to detail in the upkeep and maintenance but its Walt Disney World and is still the best. I just wish everyone knew what it was like in the old days. You can see that the bottom line is what drives WDW right now. Make the most money as fast as you can.
FOOD
All food was great. We ate at mostly counter service, in the room a few times, and off site a few times. We did use the Quick and Casual Vouchers at Beaches and Cream and was fantastic. Instead of splitting the double burgers we just asked for extra buns and plates and separated ourselves. Our best meal was when we were at BWV we purchased some steak and sides and grilled out and timed it so we could watch Illuminations and Wishes from our balcony on the 5th Floor.
OVERALL
This was our best vacation ever and we are going back for Labor Day, bid on Skyauction and won a 3 Bedroom at Cypress Point for $265 for the week. Eventhough they have lost some of the focus of the past and the Disney standard has slipped some it is still the best out there and we will return to the most magical place on earth.
Just back from a 10 night trip on Jun 6th. We had an absolutely great time. We stayed at the Quality Inn Maingate West, what a dump. We bid on Priceline for this room and it was rated a 2 star but the quality was not very good. Rundown rooms and not very well maintained, needs an update. Next was 2 nights at Laqunita Inn Lakeside, also 2 star priceline, this place was great well maintained room great condition and grounds well kept. We then had 5 nights at Boardwalk Villas, the Boardwalk was great. Excellent condition, the best I have seen it, someone always touching up paint, cleaning, etc., great stay. The last 2 were at Dolphin. I just love the Dolphin the whole place, pool area, lobby, rooms and especially beds. All resort cast members were great, never encountered a bad attitude or lack of Disney Magic.
Theme Parks
I do have to say that I have been going to Walt Disney World since 1972 when I was 8 years old. I have been spending approximately 30 days a year at WDW for the past 6 years and maybe since we spend so much time in the parks we may notice things the first time visitor will never ever notice. The Magic Kingdom was so special to me and has always been my favorite park until now. The MK was the most dirtiest I have seen ever. The ques into Philarmagic were covered in trash inside the building, not just a napkin here or a cup there but massive amounts of trash. Same with Big Thunder trash all over queue, melted ice cream bars on ledges and in between rocks. Even on main street trash blowing around. Very very disappointed. I was telling my kids when I was young you would see tons of people just cleaning, picking up trash all the time I would say see that piece of trash blowing there it would not be there in the old days someone would scoop it up right away. The other disappointing thing was how the posted standby times for the biggies, Splash, Space, BTMRR, Buzz, etc. would almost always be half as short as stated, is this because they want everyone to use FASTPASS??? We noticed this in Nov 2002 and again in early April 2003 but waited on move proof before I actually posted that info. I know these times are not the most accurate but consistently they would be a lot shorter than posted. A few times I knew the lines were longer than posted like at POC. It had a posted time of 15 minutes yet only 1 side was open and the line was all the way almost outside, about a 30-45 with only 1 side open. The Magic Kingdom was still special but I definitely noticed a decline in upkeep. One more major item at the MK was the cast members have definitely changed a bunch from the total service oriented days. I would say about only 50% of them had that Disney attitude, the other half did not. Here is the bad, we were leaving Tom Sawyer Island and cast member was relieving another cast member, looked liked a hourly manager, anyway the oncoming cast member starts talking to the other guy and all off a sudden he says BULL**** thats great I mean loud I think the other cast member said he got promoted or something but at least 5-6 families within 25 ft heard the comment. I have never ever in my life heard a cast member swear on stage. Even the family in front of us said something, I said did I hear what I think I heard and she was like yep. It was pretty amazing. My wife did go to City Hall to inform them of our displeasure with the upkeep and also the swearing cast member. She got the typical response send a complaint to this address/email card. She did call them on excuse for the upkeep issue. The cast member stated that the park was older and harder to keep up but she said then why is the queue for Philarmagic a mess?? Isnt this your newest attraction? Another strange thing which could be just conciendence is that every day we were there and there was an enight later, May 31, Jun 2, Jun 4, Splash Mountain was down. Very strange because when we showed up for enight on Jun 2, it was up and running even though the status on the big board said temporarily closed. Are they trying to get resort guest to pay for enights since Splash is closed and you can ride it on enight. It just seemed very strange that everyday there was an enight Splash had a problem, didnt it just come out of a major rehab recently???
All other parks were in good to great condition, I think one bathroom at EPCOT needed some attention. It was strange to see how good these parks were compared to the FLAGSHIP Magic Kingdom.
As I stated before we did notice a lot less attention to detail in the upkeep and maintenance but its Walt Disney World and is still the best. I just wish everyone knew what it was like in the old days. You can see that the bottom line is what drives WDW right now. Make the most money as fast as you can.
FOOD
All food was great. We ate at mostly counter service, in the room a few times, and off site a few times. We did use the Quick and Casual Vouchers at Beaches and Cream and was fantastic. Instead of splitting the double burgers we just asked for extra buns and plates and separated ourselves. Our best meal was when we were at BWV we purchased some steak and sides and grilled out and timed it so we could watch Illuminations and Wishes from our balcony on the 5th Floor.
OVERALL
This was our best vacation ever and we are going back for Labor Day, bid on Skyauction and won a 3 Bedroom at Cypress Point for $265 for the week. Eventhough they have lost some of the focus of the past and the Disney standard has slipped some it is still the best out there and we will return to the most magical place on earth.
