TnTWalter
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2005
- Messages
- 3,102
First let me say I posted while we were there but it disappeared. I just went to read it and nothing....Bummer!!
Resort in general:
The resort is beautiful. The location is fabulous....it feels like you're at a tropical resort but then you can see the castle and the monorail so you know it's WDW which is even better!
Everyone was friendly and helpful. The rooms were clean. We received Mickey Ear towel animals on the bed at check-in. Rooms were turned down every night. Whenever we had a need, it was met quickly, friendly and efficiently. We enjoyed the water pageant from the beach.
The rooms are a little 'brady-ish' but I knew that going in. I thought they were fun and tropical. There were 5 of us in a room and it was good sized. The beds were comfy [especially loved the pillows], 2 of our kids traded off in the daybed and had no problems. I would guess not so comfy for a grown-up. Bathroom was nice. Those toilets are like little jet engines...watch your small children. LOL. Fridges can be turned colder for drinks and nice to have available.
The pool was great. Kids were in heaven. I liked that it wasn't too deep anywhere [my kids are 8,6,5] and I could spot them easily...they LOVED the slide. Also a nice little spray area.
They also enjoyed digging in the sand at the beach. There were never crowds or pool chair hogs or any issues. Didn't see trash overflowing, etc.
They don't have that cool coconut drink anymore at the pool bar. boo hoo. But I survived!
Concierge:
We were given some pixie dust
and were upgraded to HAWAII Concierge! As we checked in, the CM said 'Oh, it looks like you've received a complimentary upgrade to concierge.' It was a nice treat. The location was the best feature. You are close to everything.The concierge lounge was nice. It sprinkled one night so we watched Wishes from the 2-story window [they dim the lights]....Getting an espresso or latte all day long was fantastic. The light breakfast convenient and yummy [mmm mmm hawaiin bread] and the desserts and alcoholic drinks a plus....we didn't take advantage of the appetizers but I'm sure they were great as well. The chefs and servers were so nice and helpful. We didn't use any other concierge perks so can't review that. Everyone was super friendly at the front desks of Hawaii.
Edited to add...you could take alcoholic beverages to your room....beer, wine, yummy fruity mixed drink, and I think later they also had 'after dinner' type drinks. My parents indulged in this a little more and often had wine and appetizers on their balcony. A nice bonus.
Our room was the first one past the elevator so very close to the lounge entrance on the 3rd floor, you would just walk down the stairs to the food and drink area.
I think making later dinner ressies if you are adults only or have older children would be great. You could do appetizers and wine/beer and then head out to your 8pm dinner.
Transportation:
Monorail was fun and easy. We walked many nights from the TTC to our room...kids grumbled a couple times about it but it really wasn't bad. It was just as far as walking from the Monorail ramp down from the Grand Ceremonial Hall to your building.
The bus system is a little hard after having convenience of monorail. We just missed a bus to MGM and waited while 2 to AK and 2 to DTD came by before ours did, took 20 minutes....AK we did monorail to bus, etc. but didn't do that well...took almost an hour. LOL. So much for beating the sytstem. We had a good laugh [I was irritated about the MGM but the AK was so silly on our part it was funny...and the kids loved all the rides we got. LOL]. I think if you know when the buses are coming or go early enough and hang out, no problems.
One night we were given a dream and had the MK to ourselves and a few thousand of our closest friends from 10:00-11:30...it was awesome! The ride home took a while though because it was so late...one monorail had problems so they sent it away and then hoards of people pushed past us and crowded like sardines on the next monorail...we were irritated until the next monrail pulled right up and there were only about 20 or so of us left...Ha Ha. Karma people! LOL.
[same thing happened on a ferry....captain literally crammed everyone but me and 2 of my kids on the ferry...it was packed! he said sorry it will be about 10 minutes and left us. I was actually worried about getting on...do they even have that many life vests? etc.]. The kids really wanted to ride the ferry and we weren't in a hurry so we sat to wait...and the next ferry came 2 minutes later and there were 10 total on it.
It was a nice ride. Didn't take too long and was quaint.Our Location:
The room was quiet; definitely noticed that it was quiet inside [good soundproofing] could only hear people running by the room. The balcony was private and great for tucking in the kids and having a little wine and romance with hubby
We were 3rd floor garden view. If you walked out on the balcony you could hear the volcano pool [you could look to your right and see it], but it wasn't bad after bedtime when we sat out there.
We walked by the quiet pool and those rooms were really 'remote', nice for couples. There were rarely people in this pool, they were at the volcano pool.
Restaurants:
Capn Cooks was nice. We only ate there once [at parks] but it was yummy and nice tropical setting. Kids had more options besides just chicken tenders here [nice change. LOL]. And getting a dole whip was GREAT. Yummo!
We had dinner at Kona. Food was good. It was very loud and crowded though so I wasn't sure if I would 'have to' go back unless staying there....
We had our last breakfast at O'hana for the characters. Food was ok. Character interaction was nice. Our table was kind of remote with no view [kind of towards the interior] but no biggy. Our last breakfast there was better, we were more in the middle of everything and the view of the pool and castle fantastic.
I loved running in the morning along the trails and the gym at GF was close and more than adequate. Only 'crowded' one day [I got up a little later].
My parents really enjoyed the resort.
I would recommend this resort to anyone and would stay there again for sure. Although I still also enjoyed POP century and would love to stay at other resorts. [one with stormalong bay when kids are older sounds cool].
To the magical pixie dust wizard.....Thank you!!!!!!
Trish
