Aliceacc
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2007
- Messages
- 13,463
OK, time for my post trip breakdown.
We were a group of 11: my 5, my brother in law and his wife and 2 grown kids, and my sister in law and her husband. The whole group hadn't been together in the same place in years, since SIL lives in CA and the rest of us are in NY. We were at the Yacht Club, everyone else at the Carribean Beach.
In no particular order:
- We loved the Yacht Club. We had previously stayed at the Beach Club, so we knew what we were getting into. (But, with the summer special, we were able to save $1000 by switching to the YC. No brainer.) Yes, it was a few steps further from Epcot.But it was lovely. I had been concerned about breakfast, but we were able to get coffee and pastries at the Ale and Compass off the lobby. I do wish there were a Marketplace kind of place, where the kids could get a soda during the day without going to the pool area-- that was my one real criticism of they YC. But we had a great time there, no complaints of any substantial nature.
My kids, once again, loved Stormalong Bay. My older daughter got a real kick out of the never ending volleyball game, though at times it got a little rough with a group of guys spiking a bit to hard for a friendly game. But at night, it was particularly friendly, and she loved being part of it.
Both girls also got their hair wrapped for about $30 apiece-- their hair falls just at or below their shoulders. But they really love doing that on vacation, so it was money well spent.
- Once again, we were on the DDP. Our one trip without it we really missed it, so I was glad to be using it again. It fit our needs perfectly. Yesterday afternoon, we found ourselves with 2 extra counter service meals, and 6 snack credits. So my husband went down to Hurricane Hannah's, and bought lunch for 2 people on line there. And we got 2 sodas, and some munchies with the snack credits.
- Dining: Our meals were:
* Chef Mickeys-- we always start our vacation there.
* Coral Reef. I don't care what the reviews say, we like it there, And Arthur, our waiter, was wondeful. He was funny and sweet, and we reallly enjoyed talking with him.
* Cape May for dinner: this is one of my 2 most favorite meals at WDW. By that time all 11 of us were together, and we had a delicous meal. Everyone enjoyed it immensley, even my non-seafood eating kids.
* Be Our Guest dinner: my other most favorite restaurant. I had the Shrimp and Scallops in puff pastry, and it was fabulous!! I had a taste of my niece's mussels, and they too were wonderful. As a special treat for my 25th anniversary, we were treated to some of The Grey Stuff, and I'm now addicted. Fortunately, one of the desserts was a chocolate cookie with more of The Grey Stuff on top... yum!!!!
* Tusker House Breakfast: We had a 10:30 am ADR, and that worked out really well. (For starters, it allowed my son to sleep in while my daughter and husband did Everest.) By about 11 am, they were transitioning to lunch, so some in our party did more of a brunch, sampling both meals. The character interaction was great.
* Be Our Guest lunch, thanks to a Fastpass. Thanks to the recommendatins here, I had the braised beef, and it was wonderful. But my 2 daughters really didn't find anything much to eat--one ordered the ham and gruyere cheese, and discovered that the hates gruyere. The other, I admit, likes what she likes and didn't find anything she really wanted. So she had some fries and dessert and got a Mickey Bar after lunch. Not exactly Parenting 101 material, but she didn't go hungry.
* Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party. This was my Christmas gift to the group, and it went over really well. As luck would have it, there was LOTS of heat lightening in the area, so Tink didn't fly. But it was breathtakingly beautiful to see it behind the castle, so a great tradeoff. The desserts were great, and the CMs very accomodating. My one disappointment was that the Photopass Photographer wasn't there as they had been in the past. Still, a lovely evening.
* Hollywood Brown Derby: My one disappointment. I will never eat there again. I had the duck. I've learned only to order it in GOOD restaurants, since it's too easy to cook badly. My serving was VERY salty, with the center cut rare, bordering on raw. I figured it was just me, until my husband, who ate a little more of his than I did, spent the night getting sick-- I'm fairly sure it was the duck, since I had been naseous enough to skip the Frozen fireworks.
My daughter had requested the steak medium, with no sauces. It came very rare, so she sent it back for more fire, no problem. But then it came smothered in sauces, so she ate her mashed potatoes and no steak.
My 30 year old niece has severe allergies to a number of things. Here, as at the other restaurants, the chef was kind enough to come out and talk about what she could eat. She had a bite of her entree, and knew there was some sort of dairy in it. She let the waitress know, and the chef reassured her that there was no dairy. Her body's reaction told her otherwise, and that was yet another meal that went uneaten.
My brother in law and his family love this restaurant, and go there every trip. And the allergy thing has never been an issue before. But it was a big issue this time.
- I do have to say that the chefs were wonderful about the Allergies. At every restaurant we went to, the chef came out and let my niece know what they could make that she would enjoy. Even at the dessert party, the chef came out with a binder full of photos, and pointed out what was dairy free. He also came out with a platter of food for her, including things like caramel popcorn, that would fit with her dietary requirement. I've never seen such incredible attention. We had, of course, noted it on the reservation, and mentioned it each time we checked in for a meal.
- Magic Bands: what a phenomenal thing!!! The technology is just amazing. There were only 2 or 3 small glitches, when someone in our party had trouble getting into a park. They called over one of the roving IPad CMs, and settled it in no time at all.
- FP+: While I can see the disadvantages, I have to say that I'm on the side of this being a good thing, at least for our group. My 16 year old son struggled with both the heat and the early rope drops. Having a FP+ for later in the day meant that there were times when he could sleep in and still get on to Soarin' or one of his other top rides. And the 4th FP+ is great-- Monday we got on to Haunted Mansion at about 2 pm.
- Frozen stuff at DHS. My husband and 2 older kids went off to do TOT and RnR, so my daughter and I wandered into the Frozen thing, sorry I forget what it's called. It was just after rope drop, and we were among the first ones there. So she built a snowman with no wait. (Though after the winter we just had, I'm not sure she really needed to build another snowman.) Then she went ice skating, and had the ice pretty much to herself for 45 minutes. It was a lovely time, and I'm so glad we found it early in the day.
- August heat: As always, it was intense. We had 2 cases of water delivered to our room (1 to each of the other families) and it was a huge help. As were the Mistymate misters we always bring along. I wouldn't go in summer without either of those two things.
For some reason, the water fountain water tasted incredibly metallic to me; I've never noticed it in the past. But after a few days, it got to where it was no longer worth drinking for me, and I used snack credits for "smart water" instead of refilling my water bottle. One of the snack kiosk CMs recommended it over regular water as long as I was using a credit anyway, and I figured it couldn't hurt.
We hit rain twice: on our first afternoon and Monday night while we were at dinner. So glad we had ponchos with us!!
- Shopping: As always, we went a little nuts on souvineers. I got a night shirt, a $20 watch (with a $50 purchase) and my first Alex and Ani bracelet, as long as I was getting one for each of the girls anyway. Our favorite family souvineer was my daughter's 24 or 26 inch Stitch stuffed animal; he was quite a hit at both airports. (Shipping him would have cost $30, so instead, he was her carryon.) We shopped to our heart's content, using the gift cards we had been stockpiling for birthday and Christmas gifts.
That's all that occurs to me at the moment.
We were a group of 11: my 5, my brother in law and his wife and 2 grown kids, and my sister in law and her husband. The whole group hadn't been together in the same place in years, since SIL lives in CA and the rest of us are in NY. We were at the Yacht Club, everyone else at the Carribean Beach.
In no particular order:
- We loved the Yacht Club. We had previously stayed at the Beach Club, so we knew what we were getting into. (But, with the summer special, we were able to save $1000 by switching to the YC. No brainer.) Yes, it was a few steps further from Epcot.But it was lovely. I had been concerned about breakfast, but we were able to get coffee and pastries at the Ale and Compass off the lobby. I do wish there were a Marketplace kind of place, where the kids could get a soda during the day without going to the pool area-- that was my one real criticism of they YC. But we had a great time there, no complaints of any substantial nature.
My kids, once again, loved Stormalong Bay. My older daughter got a real kick out of the never ending volleyball game, though at times it got a little rough with a group of guys spiking a bit to hard for a friendly game. But at night, it was particularly friendly, and she loved being part of it.
Both girls also got their hair wrapped for about $30 apiece-- their hair falls just at or below their shoulders. But they really love doing that on vacation, so it was money well spent.
- Once again, we were on the DDP. Our one trip without it we really missed it, so I was glad to be using it again. It fit our needs perfectly. Yesterday afternoon, we found ourselves with 2 extra counter service meals, and 6 snack credits. So my husband went down to Hurricane Hannah's, and bought lunch for 2 people on line there. And we got 2 sodas, and some munchies with the snack credits.
- Dining: Our meals were:
* Chef Mickeys-- we always start our vacation there.
* Coral Reef. I don't care what the reviews say, we like it there, And Arthur, our waiter, was wondeful. He was funny and sweet, and we reallly enjoyed talking with him.
* Cape May for dinner: this is one of my 2 most favorite meals at WDW. By that time all 11 of us were together, and we had a delicous meal. Everyone enjoyed it immensley, even my non-seafood eating kids.
* Be Our Guest dinner: my other most favorite restaurant. I had the Shrimp and Scallops in puff pastry, and it was fabulous!! I had a taste of my niece's mussels, and they too were wonderful. As a special treat for my 25th anniversary, we were treated to some of The Grey Stuff, and I'm now addicted. Fortunately, one of the desserts was a chocolate cookie with more of The Grey Stuff on top... yum!!!!
* Tusker House Breakfast: We had a 10:30 am ADR, and that worked out really well. (For starters, it allowed my son to sleep in while my daughter and husband did Everest.) By about 11 am, they were transitioning to lunch, so some in our party did more of a brunch, sampling both meals. The character interaction was great.
* Be Our Guest lunch, thanks to a Fastpass. Thanks to the recommendatins here, I had the braised beef, and it was wonderful. But my 2 daughters really didn't find anything much to eat--one ordered the ham and gruyere cheese, and discovered that the hates gruyere. The other, I admit, likes what she likes and didn't find anything she really wanted. So she had some fries and dessert and got a Mickey Bar after lunch. Not exactly Parenting 101 material, but she didn't go hungry.
* Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party. This was my Christmas gift to the group, and it went over really well. As luck would have it, there was LOTS of heat lightening in the area, so Tink didn't fly. But it was breathtakingly beautiful to see it behind the castle, so a great tradeoff. The desserts were great, and the CMs very accomodating. My one disappointment was that the Photopass Photographer wasn't there as they had been in the past. Still, a lovely evening.
* Hollywood Brown Derby: My one disappointment. I will never eat there again. I had the duck. I've learned only to order it in GOOD restaurants, since it's too easy to cook badly. My serving was VERY salty, with the center cut rare, bordering on raw. I figured it was just me, until my husband, who ate a little more of his than I did, spent the night getting sick-- I'm fairly sure it was the duck, since I had been naseous enough to skip the Frozen fireworks.
My daughter had requested the steak medium, with no sauces. It came very rare, so she sent it back for more fire, no problem. But then it came smothered in sauces, so she ate her mashed potatoes and no steak.
My 30 year old niece has severe allergies to a number of things. Here, as at the other restaurants, the chef was kind enough to come out and talk about what she could eat. She had a bite of her entree, and knew there was some sort of dairy in it. She let the waitress know, and the chef reassured her that there was no dairy. Her body's reaction told her otherwise, and that was yet another meal that went uneaten.
My brother in law and his family love this restaurant, and go there every trip. And the allergy thing has never been an issue before. But it was a big issue this time.
- I do have to say that the chefs were wonderful about the Allergies. At every restaurant we went to, the chef came out and let my niece know what they could make that she would enjoy. Even at the dessert party, the chef came out with a binder full of photos, and pointed out what was dairy free. He also came out with a platter of food for her, including things like caramel popcorn, that would fit with her dietary requirement. I've never seen such incredible attention. We had, of course, noted it on the reservation, and mentioned it each time we checked in for a meal.
- Magic Bands: what a phenomenal thing!!! The technology is just amazing. There were only 2 or 3 small glitches, when someone in our party had trouble getting into a park. They called over one of the roving IPad CMs, and settled it in no time at all.
- FP+: While I can see the disadvantages, I have to say that I'm on the side of this being a good thing, at least for our group. My 16 year old son struggled with both the heat and the early rope drops. Having a FP+ for later in the day meant that there were times when he could sleep in and still get on to Soarin' or one of his other top rides. And the 4th FP+ is great-- Monday we got on to Haunted Mansion at about 2 pm.
- Frozen stuff at DHS. My husband and 2 older kids went off to do TOT and RnR, so my daughter and I wandered into the Frozen thing, sorry I forget what it's called. It was just after rope drop, and we were among the first ones there. So she built a snowman with no wait. (Though after the winter we just had, I'm not sure she really needed to build another snowman.) Then she went ice skating, and had the ice pretty much to herself for 45 minutes. It was a lovely time, and I'm so glad we found it early in the day.
- August heat: As always, it was intense. We had 2 cases of water delivered to our room (1 to each of the other families) and it was a huge help. As were the Mistymate misters we always bring along. I wouldn't go in summer without either of those two things.
For some reason, the water fountain water tasted incredibly metallic to me; I've never noticed it in the past. But after a few days, it got to where it was no longer worth drinking for me, and I used snack credits for "smart water" instead of refilling my water bottle. One of the snack kiosk CMs recommended it over regular water as long as I was using a credit anyway, and I figured it couldn't hurt.
We hit rain twice: on our first afternoon and Monday night while we were at dinner. So glad we had ponchos with us!!
- Shopping: As always, we went a little nuts on souvineers. I got a night shirt, a $20 watch (with a $50 purchase) and my first Alex and Ani bracelet, as long as I was getting one for each of the girls anyway. Our favorite family souvineer was my daughter's 24 or 26 inch Stitch stuffed animal; he was quite a hit at both airports. (Shipping him would have cost $30, so instead, he was her carryon.) We shopped to our heart's content, using the gift cards we had been stockpiling for birthday and Christmas gifts.
That's all that occurs to me at the moment.
Glad to hear you loved Cape May Cafe! We have an ADR there. Thanks for posting about your stay! 
We stayed at BC, summer of '08 and had a blast! Loved the convenience of walking to Epcot!
