and the resort was beautiful as usual. This was our third year in a row there.
We weathered Fay just fine...actually had the MK all to ourselves on Tuesday (or so it felt...we never waited for any ride all day long...they were letting people just stay on the rides and keep going if they chose!)
You would have never known that a storm was blowing around the resort - they kept it very clean and picked up, even while it was happening.
The Pepper Market was great as usual...we ate there 3 times during the week, and never had a bad meal. We also tried the Maya Grill for the first time, and found it lovely as well. Their selection for the kid's meals was the best out of any on property that we encountered. Both of my kids actually were allowed Cheese Sticks as appetizers on the
DDP...it was more than enough to share for the 4 of us. The only thing that I was not a huge fan of was the oak-fired method they used to grill the steaks. It seemed very overwhelming for the beef, but for some reason the fish was great on the oak planks.
Bussing was very good - we only had one long wait at Epcot one night, but I think we had just missed a bus, and it was just prior to Illuminations starting, so the big push to get visitors out of the parks hadn't started yet. We did notice that both the parks and the resort seemed much busier than we were used to at the beginning of our week, but I chalk that up to the fact that we normally vacation at the very end of August into Sept...crowds are just normally less at that time. Even so, we utilized fastpass as much as we could and didn't ever wait longer than 30 minutes for anything while we were there...can't complain about that!
One of the big reasons we have for continuing to return to CSR is because we've always gotten really great service there. This year we had a very bad experience with housekeeping. Every other year, we have had our room kept well stocked with soap, shampoo, etc and had our room spotlessly cleaned. This year, our housekeeper completely missed us our first day - and we were in the parks all day long. The next couple of days, we had used all of our shampoo and soap (we travel very light due to airline constrictions) and she did not leave more. I left her a note the next morning, and she did restock...but managed to leave our door WIDE open all day long. We didn't return to the room until after 11pm that night, so obviously it was left gaping open for a very long time. The very next day, my 6 year old DS got sick (too much junk food and sun during the day) and threw up in bed. I called housekeeping for new sheets - they promised to run them right up to us, and never arrived. I called again - and still no sheets.
I put the kids in the clean bed, and my DH and I slept on top of the bedspread that night. When she did clean - it wasn't a great job...it didn't look like the vacuum was ever run, and I could tell the floor of the bathroom was never mopped the entire week we were there. I know that these things are completely dependent on which housekeeper you are assigned to, but it does put a damper on an otherwise great vacation.
I do still love the resort, but I'd have to think very long and hard about returning there again. We may end up finally trying something else!
However, I think I'll ask for 1st floor when I get there and see what happens!! C'MON TICKER, WE'RE ALMOST THERE!!!!!
