Here's a jot list of comments from our last stay (and answers to some previous questions), we're home now, so sad. I am sure I forgot some stuff I thought I'd like to mention here. It is a long list, but maybe it can answer some other questions and I am sure a few of you will be more excited than before!
Where's that cup of wine to go?
- This was one of the few trips that we really didn't want to leave, ever. You know the trips you take that when it is over, you knew it was and were ready to go home. Not a chance this time. Sitting here still wishing I walk out of the door to the hallway of the resort, or open my eyes in the morning to the ceiling fan in the room. Just a great vacation.
- CM's were all great. Loved talking with Sarah since from same area or so. All of them were helpful and always welcoming.
- We were originally checked into the room right next to the lounge. This room was mentioned before. It is a bit bigger than the room we switched to. It has a day bed and a tiny balcony. The other had a big balcony and no daybed. The balcony & location were well worth giving up the lumpy daybed! The location of the first room is ok if you like being in the center of everything, and having everyone look in your room every time you open the door. The balcony faces the lounge, so no privacy there at all. On top of that, every morning, we saw luggage, baby carriages and so forth piled in front of the room. Many guests must not care or notice that could be another guest's room. Combining that to the lounge would be great.
- The morning of checkout we realized the fridge turned off on us. It had things in it. The freezer or rotating knob inside was set to "off". We think it may have been an old fridge, because it had a different setup on the door than the fridge in our first room.
- We asked for waters, or a cup of wine to go a lot. They didn't have plastic bottles one day, and they only gave what you asked for - which is perfectly fine.
- SAB pool is beyond awesome! We loved just sitting there floating along, daughter on slide, son played volleyball. The seats were mostly taken all of time, but we hardly saw the people go to them. You can really get some speed on slide if you try. Not too much shade though if you just want to sit outside and not be in the sun.
- Had anniversary dinner at Yachtsman. Wow, that tasted awesome. As we told the staff, the steaks were better than Canada. They loved it. I didn't mention how Canada's sides are better though.
- Being able to walk to Epcot, eat lunch anywhere and return when we wanted was great.
- We usually drink Riesling occasionally, but pinot seemed to be new evening requirement.
- We seemed to spend as much on average a day as we usually do on a Disney trip, even though we were on CL. Now we did have dinner and Yachtsman & desserts at Narcossess in one evening, so that may skew results a bit. In addition to more food intake, there was a significant increase in alcohol intake as well. We never really drink as much as we did this last trip. A drink here or there, during the trip seemed to have a few drinks a day, since they were there and free, harder to resist. Not saying we drank till we passed out, but instead of 2-4 drinks a week, it was like 2-4 a day.
- The boat to MGM/Hollywood studios was nice. We planned on only getting lunch at Sci Fi (great anniv pic there sharing cosmic oreo), but spent more time there and enjoyed it.
- Was lucky enough to meet Teena & her family as they were leaving and quickly wish her and her hub a happy anniversary. Met up with her later in the visit and chatted. Nice chat, hope I didn't embarrass your coworker too much, she really turned red!
- Went to Jellyrolls one night. It was fun. Later in the night they started playing more recent songs and we started to feel a bit old, but we closed the place down. Wow, 2 AM is quiet there! Nothing like college years any more! Saw lots of bunnies around though (too bad all tiny actual bunnies for the guys reading).
- It was cool being able to let kids do the marshmallow fire and then go to Epcot and pool and do everything by themselves for the first time. We went to Jellyrolls and they did their thing, just texting us when they changed where they were.
- The robes in club level were not soft, but were a nice addon.
- We can see the need for refurb, many minor things that could use sprucing up, like door knob backing not staying on the handle, and other minor stuff here or there. I've seen a ton worse, so no real biggie. Some of the buttons on the elevators didn't work as simply as you'd expect. Like I said, nothing major, just you can see the need is there. I could even see them waiting another year or two, the stuff was so minor I saw.
- Club level was nice, but not sure worth extra for us. If we had the extra cash to give away, or got another awesome deal, then maybe it is. For us, the club level value was not really there. It was great, and we liked it, just not sure if worth the cash. We were happy with the CMs that were there, but stories of past efforts and current not so much lack of effort, but sense of exhaustion from some CM is there. I really don't want to put them down, they were great. But someone mentioned how they said their kids needed something at bedtime, and every day the fridge had them, or stuff like that. We didn't see it, and any opportunity we gave was not taken. Again, they were great, just that extra mile was not taken. Maybe we had too high of expectations. It was far from being "The Bradbury", and although they were all nice and did their jobs well, no CM was Michael J. Fox. ("For Love or Money" movie reference)
- Be Our Guest was awesome. Food and atmosphere. We ate dinner in the music box room. They had a bunch of open tables in that room. It was nice and peaceful. I heard they only used 2 rooms during dinner. They had all 3 open. Maybe that is why there are now times available for ADR.
- We had towel animals on 2 days. The swans making a heart on one day was cool and made for a nice anniversary picture, even if a few days earlier. We moved them to the desk to view while there, too bad the next day they were gone! We would have liked to have them the entire stay. Sadly, on our actual anniversary day (we did tell CM's which day it was) there were actually no animals or anything. Again, not a biggie, but no extra mile as mentioned before.
- I am not sure who mentioned it, but asking for wine in a to go cup = great idea, makes the magic kingdom that much more magical!
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It was HOT! We knew it would be hot, and deal with the heat usually being South of there, but it was REALLY HOT. It only rained one day, the other days just baked! The pool was perfect for dealing with that.
- The bounce-back offers excluded any dates we remotely had a chance of returning. So no use for us, o well. There were TONS of dates excluded, seemed like every weekend.
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There were no groom ears! I mean none ANYWHERE! We asked in all the parks, shops, everything. They were all out! Tons of bride ears. We just wanted a picture for the anniversary. How can you run out of something like that in the entire facility? It was a bit perplexing.
- Club lounge had no labels on food, CM said the menu was changing soon. One "mealtime" was almost empty for offerings, had one small tray of stuff was brought out every so often and so many guests, everyone took one item and it was gone instantly. Very slim pickin's that day.
- Looking at the photopass photos, we got 2 sets of pictures from some other families. It looks like all of ours were there at least.
- Glad I read about the fake elevator. The first day we got there a couple commented how they've been there all week and that elevator never opened. I showed them why and it was funny.
- The elevators are fast! After tower of terror, you almost get ready to grab on!
- I don't think we are poor, nor very well off, pretty much standard middle class. At times we felt pretty out of place, like in Yachtsman and the whole club level experience.
- Pretty sure that the Beach Club's pool and location has knocked Wilderness Lodge out of our favorite place we've stayed at now.
Waaaaa its almost 5pm and no lounge to get a drink and sit back at the pool, back to food shopping, getting ready for open house and school to start up.
......
Disney knows how to brighten my day!
back!
. By the time I helped him straighten everything out, I was too tired to pack my own bag.
), you can't redeem them in Marketplace itself (and the person I spoke with was a trainer for cashiers, so she was someone with a clue) but there is a PP desk just outside the Marketplace where you're supposed to be able to. The sign there says it's staffed from either 5:00 or 5:30 to 9:00 and I did see people there. I ended up redeeming mine at the cinema (I think) in MK, and I have to admit it was frustrating -- I waited over 20 minutes in line while people dithered over which picture to choose and then when it was my turn, it took 30 seconds to hand them the voucher, get my card, and leave. If you don't need the PP+ card right away, it might be worth it to wait until there's no line!
Now I need to head on back to the beginning pages and catch up on all that is new..or that I have forgotten...LOL.. 
... Dee I know there is whole lot of great info there! 
