stayed for two weeks from 21st October at Port Orleans riverside, family of five, children aged 18,11,9
Flights were via Atlanta with Delta, cost £2400 for the five of us, food was typical airplane food, entertainment was fine, everyone found movies to watch, Atlanta was easy and the flight got in early flying both ways, overall good value.
Resort
We have stayed here before, good value as it could accommodate all five of us in one room, we like the boat trip down to Downtown Disney. As with all resorts you can spend some time waiting for buses, which can make you late for dinning reservations.
Food
I was concerned at the cost of this, if I bought a dining Plan it was around £1500 for quick service and £2500 for better plan, one table and one quick service meal.
My concerns with dinning plan,
My 11 year old would be charged adult rate, but in reality would eat off the kids menu
We would be more interested in the starters than desserts
If we took the quick service, we would not want to eat fast food for two weeks.
Have had a tot up of what we spent over the two weeks on food and drinks $1907 about £1200 ( includes some tips, not all as paid some cash) much better than the dining plan!!!
Instead I ordered from garden grocer, beer for hubby and eldest son, lots of soft drinks and water to take to park, cereals, milk, fruit, cookies, snacks and crisps. Total of this £100. (not added to above total) I did have to request a fridge on arrival and it was delivered next morning, I believe this saved us a lot on breakfasts and snacks
Got five refillable mugs, although we used them less this time, due to the drinks I ordered from Garden Grocer and the fact there was a coffee machine in the room. (cost of these included in above total)
We ate at the following restaurants, T Rex,Fultons Crab House, Planet Hollywood, Rainforest Cafe (animal kingdom), 50's Prime Time Diner, Sci-Fi diner, Boat Wrights (in resort), Character Breakfast at crystal palace, Sanaa (animal kingdom lodge) highly recommend! Table service meal in Universal.
We also had a few donuts/snacks, kids had some sweets, alcohol at Epcot food and wine festival, quick service meals and a couple of evenings we just got pizza and pasta at resort.
We also used discount vouchers received from Disney travel company at a couple of restaurants.
Parks
We had 4 days out of disney, hired a car which we collected from Dolphin hotel, spent a day at Discovery cove, very expensive but worth it, at least it included food and drink all day.
Used the discovery cove pass to go to Sea World, this was pretty quiet, I don't think I would go again, just spent half a day here.
Spent a day in Universal, got tickets slightly cheaper through eBay (someone had to cancel holiday due to illness)
One morning we went and did the free boggy air boat trip (voucher from Disney travel company, who I booked with) this was good fun, nice to see landscape rather than built up theme park areas, we did see an aligator and were able to hold a baby one, so would recommend.
Also fitted in some retail therapy!!!
I spent a long time planning this trip with advanced dining reservations and we spent on average a day and a half at each of the four parks and half a day at both the water parks, we also found time for crazy golf, swimming in the resort pool and toasting marshmallows at the resort campfire (my two younger boys thought this was great fun, especially as you can eat as many as you like).
Personalised our magic bands in advance, these were fab, one of the children had an issue with getting into the park on day two (fingerprint I think) but this was sorted in under two minutes by cast member at hand with iPad. Somewhat of a shock going back to the real world and not having magic band for charging etc.
The fast pass + again worked well for us, some I booked before leaving the UK, on a couple of occasions we even changed them whilst at the park with only a few minutes to go before we were due to use. Spent less time waiting for rides this visit, so very happy with this service.
My Disney experience is great when it's working, but at times it just would not load in the parks on the free wifi, I guess due to the amount of other people using it at the same time.
WORD OF WARNING
Unless you want to feel like you have taken a bath do not ride Kali River Rapids. Every part of me was wet, the driest part was my hair, it was necessary to buy a towel when we got off to try and get some of the water off, this was not fun, even if we had taken the rain capes that day I still think our shoes would have been soaked. The worst of it was the ear bashing I got from the rest of the party for suggesting going on this ride as they were all soaked and miserable. Even though it was a warm day, I did not dry off all day and we had to go to lunch at Sanaa still very wet. My leather belt stained my top, which I have not been able to get out, so would not say the ride was worth getting that wet for, a bit wet is fun, this was not fun. Funnily, lots of clothes and flip flops for sale near this ride, I resent being soaked for Disney to use this as an opportunity to increase sales on clothing!
Can recommend the fairfx card, the exchange rate was better than I could get elsewhere I was able to load it when the rate was better, easy to top up, avoided bank lousy exchange rate and fees for using a debit card, simply left my debit card for charging at reception and went and paid it off every so often with the fairfx card. Excellent idea, also helps you keep an eye on what your spending as its easy to get carried away.
One observation, I don't think the cast members were as jolly as on previous visits, and no longer have interesting information or singing from bus drivers!!!
All in all great holiday.
Flights were via Atlanta with Delta, cost £2400 for the five of us, food was typical airplane food, entertainment was fine, everyone found movies to watch, Atlanta was easy and the flight got in early flying both ways, overall good value.
Resort
We have stayed here before, good value as it could accommodate all five of us in one room, we like the boat trip down to Downtown Disney. As with all resorts you can spend some time waiting for buses, which can make you late for dinning reservations.
Food
I was concerned at the cost of this, if I bought a dining Plan it was around £1500 for quick service and £2500 for better plan, one table and one quick service meal.
My concerns with dinning plan,
My 11 year old would be charged adult rate, but in reality would eat off the kids menu
We would be more interested in the starters than desserts
If we took the quick service, we would not want to eat fast food for two weeks.
Have had a tot up of what we spent over the two weeks on food and drinks $1907 about £1200 ( includes some tips, not all as paid some cash) much better than the dining plan!!!
Instead I ordered from garden grocer, beer for hubby and eldest son, lots of soft drinks and water to take to park, cereals, milk, fruit, cookies, snacks and crisps. Total of this £100. (not added to above total) I did have to request a fridge on arrival and it was delivered next morning, I believe this saved us a lot on breakfasts and snacks
Got five refillable mugs, although we used them less this time, due to the drinks I ordered from Garden Grocer and the fact there was a coffee machine in the room. (cost of these included in above total)
We ate at the following restaurants, T Rex,Fultons Crab House, Planet Hollywood, Rainforest Cafe (animal kingdom), 50's Prime Time Diner, Sci-Fi diner, Boat Wrights (in resort), Character Breakfast at crystal palace, Sanaa (animal kingdom lodge) highly recommend! Table service meal in Universal.
We also had a few donuts/snacks, kids had some sweets, alcohol at Epcot food and wine festival, quick service meals and a couple of evenings we just got pizza and pasta at resort.
We also used discount vouchers received from Disney travel company at a couple of restaurants.
Parks
We had 4 days out of disney, hired a car which we collected from Dolphin hotel, spent a day at Discovery cove, very expensive but worth it, at least it included food and drink all day.
Used the discovery cove pass to go to Sea World, this was pretty quiet, I don't think I would go again, just spent half a day here.
Spent a day in Universal, got tickets slightly cheaper through eBay (someone had to cancel holiday due to illness)
One morning we went and did the free boggy air boat trip (voucher from Disney travel company, who I booked with) this was good fun, nice to see landscape rather than built up theme park areas, we did see an aligator and were able to hold a baby one, so would recommend.
Also fitted in some retail therapy!!!
I spent a long time planning this trip with advanced dining reservations and we spent on average a day and a half at each of the four parks and half a day at both the water parks, we also found time for crazy golf, swimming in the resort pool and toasting marshmallows at the resort campfire (my two younger boys thought this was great fun, especially as you can eat as many as you like).
Personalised our magic bands in advance, these were fab, one of the children had an issue with getting into the park on day two (fingerprint I think) but this was sorted in under two minutes by cast member at hand with iPad. Somewhat of a shock going back to the real world and not having magic band for charging etc.
The fast pass + again worked well for us, some I booked before leaving the UK, on a couple of occasions we even changed them whilst at the park with only a few minutes to go before we were due to use. Spent less time waiting for rides this visit, so very happy with this service.
My Disney experience is great when it's working, but at times it just would not load in the parks on the free wifi, I guess due to the amount of other people using it at the same time.
WORD OF WARNING
Unless you want to feel like you have taken a bath do not ride Kali River Rapids. Every part of me was wet, the driest part was my hair, it was necessary to buy a towel when we got off to try and get some of the water off, this was not fun, even if we had taken the rain capes that day I still think our shoes would have been soaked. The worst of it was the ear bashing I got from the rest of the party for suggesting going on this ride as they were all soaked and miserable. Even though it was a warm day, I did not dry off all day and we had to go to lunch at Sanaa still very wet. My leather belt stained my top, which I have not been able to get out, so would not say the ride was worth getting that wet for, a bit wet is fun, this was not fun. Funnily, lots of clothes and flip flops for sale near this ride, I resent being soaked for Disney to use this as an opportunity to increase sales on clothing!
Can recommend the fairfx card, the exchange rate was better than I could get elsewhere I was able to load it when the rate was better, easy to top up, avoided bank lousy exchange rate and fees for using a debit card, simply left my debit card for charging at reception and went and paid it off every so often with the fairfx card. Excellent idea, also helps you keep an eye on what your spending as its easy to get carried away.
One observation, I don't think the cast members were as jolly as on previous visits, and no longer have interesting information or singing from bus drivers!!!
All in all great holiday.
on both Kali & Splash 
