I returned a week ago from a 5 night stay here. It was my first ever trip staying at a Disney resort, and I brought my Mother in Law for her first ever Disney trip, just the two of us. DH and I are experienced Disney peeps, but the resort thing was totally new. Add to that both MIL and I were on ECVs for mobility issues, and I was a bit concerned how we would do with Disney transport only. (I'm accustomed to scooters, it was her first time).
First I'd like to say THANK YOU for such a thorough and awesome thread. I have lived on this thread since I booked the holiday last May, and it took a lot of the guesswork and uncertainty out of everything.
We both LOVED the resort. So much so that I said to DH that in future I would rather spend 5 or 6 nights here than the 2-3 nights we had planned to stay at Poly in future. I loved the theming, the atmosphere, the CM's (speaking of which I need to find the info on how to send a special thank you to CMs who made our stay awesome).
Our beds were fine (and with my back I'm fussy about my bed). We managed to move the table and one chair up by the bed (beside the door) which gave us room for both scooters by the plug where the table normally lived. The second chair sat in the bathroom area. We had plenty of room still with that arrangement.
I didn't get the room request I had faxed by touring plans, but did get the building, floor and close to transport and not too far from the food court, just the opposite side of the building from the request. It was fine.
I wish we had a longer stay (coming from the UK), but this was what the budget could stretch to for the surprise trip. It would have been nice to take advantage of some of the facilities or have a crash morning.
We had no issues with buses and scooters. We did rope drop most days and EMH. I got us to the bus stop for 7am on the EMH days and we were about the first there. We managed to get both
scooter on the buses, only having to wait once for the next bus as spaces were already taken. The Epcot EMH bus was full, and there were several scooters and wheelchairs in the queue. We got the first bus, but I did request that they try and get another asap. I felt bad for those who had to wait. The morning CMs helping at the bus stops were great.
One night they combined the two PO resorts as it was one of the last buses, and they did change it to drop FQ last so they didn't have to empty the bus for us to get off first.
I thought the food court was awesome. The MYO spaghetti, the beniegts (sp?) the breakfasts, lunch, I had no issues with the food that we did have at different times of day.
Seriously I could go on. We did have an issue our last night. Two giant bags of trash left outside our room. I called housekeeping and the night shift manager from housekeeping came by personally to apologise that they had been missed and took them away. A couple of things in the room kept getting left by mousekeeping (some cutlery I had brought back from the food court, and a takeaway box that I left on the desk rather than putting in the trash) that I would have thought they would have taken away, but no big deal, and when I left a note asking for extra toiletries she left us loads.
I went hoping to enjoy it, expecting the bus service to put me off, and thinking it would be a one and done and that DH and I would continue to rent a house off site for similar (if not cheaper), and instead I left having had such a great experience that I definitely want to do it again. We couldn't afford the full two weeks we stay, but for the first 5 nights it would be awesome.
Oh, a side note, the Magicbands were still the old style (we arrived Feb 27th) and they said that's all they'd seen for foreign guests picking up,at the hotel. I do know another hotel had given out the new ones a week previously. Not sure what the situation is now.
So, thanks again for all the great insight given here. I'll still be stopping by. I'm sorry to read others did not have the same experience we did. But I'm so glad I was able to give my MIL her dream trip of a lifetime and that staying at POFQ was a huge part of it.
