Overall we had a great time and pretty much stuck to our overall planned itinerary. We were worried about tour groups due to recent past trip reports, but we did not see one tour group the entire trip. We stayed at CBR and had an easy and quick check in. We had a 2nd story corner room in Aruba which was a nice size and very clean.
The only day we tried WDW transportation was Monday and after waiting an hour at night after Wishes and Spectromagic for a bus and holding up a sleeping 8 year old (we were the last of 5 or 6 stops) we took our rental car the rest of the trip. We did use the monorail to hop parks a couple days and that was quick and easy.
We were told upon check in that our meal credits were on each card, but that was not the case, they were all pooled. The child credits and adult credits were combined and when we were given receipts, there was not any differentiation between adult/child meal credits left.
The highlights of our trip were getting to wake up Tinkerbell, riding in the front of the monorail a few times and trying out the new rides, shows and restaurants since our last trip.
The only thing that continues to surprise me is the people that have no regard for waiting in lines or that push their kids in front of your kids at shows/parades when there is all of 6 inches to the rope and your own children. We made sure to get spots early, and have no problem sitting so people behind us can see. However, we had 3 kids at different parades and shows jump in front of us while we were trying to videotape and take pictures. I've got one child's hand waving in every single picture I took during the MK parade and another one's head during Cinderellabration. We were pleased that CM's seem to be cracking down on line savers during meet and greet sessions at MK. On the other hand, at MGM it was awful. We were 3rd in line at one time for meeting a Power Ranger and a whole group showed up for the line saver in front of us and we ended up 11th. I have a lot of patience and let it go, even though there was only 5 minutes for them to sign and we were in the soaring heat. The same family did it to us at Al's Toy barn and I finally told my son loudly that I couldn't believe how rude and inconsiderate some people were when there was a long line behind us (this time they just went from one character straight to the one next to them without getting in line). The mom turned around and said "sorry I didn't know there was a line." So instead of telling her group of kids to get to the back of the line, she told them to hurry and get the autographs and pose. The CM's there didn't really seem to care if there people cutting in lines.
Our trip itinerary was:
8/22 MK with meals at Cosmic Rays and Liberty Tree Tavern
8/23 AK with meals at Donalds Breakfastsaurus, lunch at restaurantasaurus (air conditioning!) and dinner at the Crystal Palace
8/24 MK with meals as Cosmic Rays; parked hopped to Epcot when it rained, then returned to Chef Mickey's for dinner
8/25 Epcot; meals at Princess Story book breakfast; park hopped to MK to see parade and then back to Epcot for Garden Grill dinner
8/26 Boys did Albatross Pirate Adventure at Yacht club (they LOVED it). Husband and I went to Epcot during their 2 hour trip. Went to MGM for the day with lunch at Pizza Planet and dinner (Fantasmic package) at Hollywood and Vine.
8/27 Went to pool at CBR and had lunch at DTD at Wolfgang Puck's. We still had meal credits left so we got food for the plane at Earl of Sandwich.
Our favorite meals were at Liberty Tree Tavern, Crystal Palace and Garden Grill. We had good service everywhere except Chef Mickey's. The best character interaction was at the Garden Grill. We were so worried about it being awful due to bad reviews, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. We did tip an additional 5% to each waiter for TS meals since our first waitress said the meal plan tips only 15%.
We would never do either the PSB breakfast or Donald's breakfastsaurus again. We just felt it wasn't worth the money for the food. It also seemed to take a large chunk of our morning time, when it would have been better spent riding rides while the crowds were low. We had to wait each time for a good half hour to get seated, then another half hour for the characters to get to our table. We were at each one about an hour and a half. We were skipped twice at PSB and had to sit in an empty room (everyone else was done and gone) for the princesses to return to our table.
We had very good service at Hollywood and Vine, but really didn't like much of the food except the rice and flank steak. We figured that getting the guaranteed seating at Fantasmic was worth it though.
This was our first time using the meal plan and will most likely do it again. We had more than enough food, and at times we skipped lunch or shared because there was so much. We had to throw away our dessert a couple times because we were too full to eat it and it melted.
We took advantage of fast pass and the baby swap cards as much as possible and got to go on all the rides we wanted.
I'd be happy to answer any questions
The only day we tried WDW transportation was Monday and after waiting an hour at night after Wishes and Spectromagic for a bus and holding up a sleeping 8 year old (we were the last of 5 or 6 stops) we took our rental car the rest of the trip. We did use the monorail to hop parks a couple days and that was quick and easy.
We were told upon check in that our meal credits were on each card, but that was not the case, they were all pooled. The child credits and adult credits were combined and when we were given receipts, there was not any differentiation between adult/child meal credits left.
The highlights of our trip were getting to wake up Tinkerbell, riding in the front of the monorail a few times and trying out the new rides, shows and restaurants since our last trip.
The only thing that continues to surprise me is the people that have no regard for waiting in lines or that push their kids in front of your kids at shows/parades when there is all of 6 inches to the rope and your own children. We made sure to get spots early, and have no problem sitting so people behind us can see. However, we had 3 kids at different parades and shows jump in front of us while we were trying to videotape and take pictures. I've got one child's hand waving in every single picture I took during the MK parade and another one's head during Cinderellabration. We were pleased that CM's seem to be cracking down on line savers during meet and greet sessions at MK. On the other hand, at MGM it was awful. We were 3rd in line at one time for meeting a Power Ranger and a whole group showed up for the line saver in front of us and we ended up 11th. I have a lot of patience and let it go, even though there was only 5 minutes for them to sign and we were in the soaring heat. The same family did it to us at Al's Toy barn and I finally told my son loudly that I couldn't believe how rude and inconsiderate some people were when there was a long line behind us (this time they just went from one character straight to the one next to them without getting in line). The mom turned around and said "sorry I didn't know there was a line." So instead of telling her group of kids to get to the back of the line, she told them to hurry and get the autographs and pose. The CM's there didn't really seem to care if there people cutting in lines.
Our trip itinerary was:
8/22 MK with meals at Cosmic Rays and Liberty Tree Tavern
8/23 AK with meals at Donalds Breakfastsaurus, lunch at restaurantasaurus (air conditioning!) and dinner at the Crystal Palace
8/24 MK with meals as Cosmic Rays; parked hopped to Epcot when it rained, then returned to Chef Mickey's for dinner
8/25 Epcot; meals at Princess Story book breakfast; park hopped to MK to see parade and then back to Epcot for Garden Grill dinner
8/26 Boys did Albatross Pirate Adventure at Yacht club (they LOVED it). Husband and I went to Epcot during their 2 hour trip. Went to MGM for the day with lunch at Pizza Planet and dinner (Fantasmic package) at Hollywood and Vine.
8/27 Went to pool at CBR and had lunch at DTD at Wolfgang Puck's. We still had meal credits left so we got food for the plane at Earl of Sandwich.
Our favorite meals were at Liberty Tree Tavern, Crystal Palace and Garden Grill. We had good service everywhere except Chef Mickey's. The best character interaction was at the Garden Grill. We were so worried about it being awful due to bad reviews, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. We did tip an additional 5% to each waiter for TS meals since our first waitress said the meal plan tips only 15%.
We would never do either the PSB breakfast or Donald's breakfastsaurus again. We just felt it wasn't worth the money for the food. It also seemed to take a large chunk of our morning time, when it would have been better spent riding rides while the crowds were low. We had to wait each time for a good half hour to get seated, then another half hour for the characters to get to our table. We were at each one about an hour and a half. We were skipped twice at PSB and had to sit in an empty room (everyone else was done and gone) for the princesses to return to our table.
We had very good service at Hollywood and Vine, but really didn't like much of the food except the rice and flank steak. We figured that getting the guaranteed seating at Fantasmic was worth it though.
This was our first time using the meal plan and will most likely do it again. We had more than enough food, and at times we skipped lunch or shared because there was so much. We had to throw away our dessert a couple times because we were too full to eat it and it melted.
We took advantage of fast pass and the baby swap cards as much as possible and got to go on all the rides we wanted.
I'd be happy to answer any questions
