Hayes Family at WDW: Summary
This trip report covers our trip to WDW - December 10 -17.
Characters:
Terri - 34 year old mom and trip planner. I went to WDW several times as a child, and twice as an adult. My last trip was about 8 years ago.
Pat - 32 year old dad. Went to WDW twice as an adult.
Sarah - 5 year old daughter. 1st trip to Disney. Loves all princesses, especially Sleeping Beauty, eager to go on "fast" rides, prone to crying when she gets upset.
Sam - 3 year old son. 1st trip to Disney. Likes Captain Hook, very mischievous, extremely chatty, does not like rides that are too fast or scary but sometimes decides to go because he wants to be with Sarah.
As I said in my prologue, the hardest part of planning this trip involved making decisions. I thought I would let you know how the decisions I agonized over worked out:
Timing - The time of year was perfect. It was not crowded and we got lucky and had just beautiful weather. The timing in terms of the ages of my kids may have been improved by a waiting one year. If Sam was 4, I could have placed the kids in one of the Disney childcare clubs (I did not feel comfortable with in-room childcare) one evening. Pat and I could have used one night to ourselves.
Hotel - This would up being a great choice. Here are some specific comments:
Location/Transportation
The location was wonderful - we found it very easy to get to all the parks. Don't let having to take buses to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom scare you - we never waited more than 5-10 minutes for these on the way there or on the return. (However we found it really difficult to return from Hoop Dee Doo but so did everyone else - it took us 1 1/2 hours and three buses). Boats to Disney Studios, Boardwalk, and Epcot were fun and boat captains were some of the nicest people we met. Walk to Epcot is also pleasant.
Atmosphere
Great atmosphere - we toured the other deluxe resorts and my husband said Yacht Club was his favorite.
Service
This varied but was mostly good. Bell services, housekeeping, pool staff, Yacht Club Galley, and Room Service staff were good. However, guest services was awful. They were usually snotty and repeatedly gave us wrong information that inconvenienced us. Since I had done so much research I did not need them too much, but I feel bad for anyone who does. This is a large hotel and it is run like a large hotel - people were, for the most part, courteous, but we did not experience the friendliness that we did at the theme parks on the part of the staff.
Room
Very nice though we found it a little lacking for storage (ran out of drawer space). Kept very clean and had a nice view. We were in room 3135 and had a water view. From our balcony we could see the wedding area, the water between YC and Boardwalk, and the Boardwalk itself.
Pool
Excellent. My daughter wanted to leave the theme parks every day to go to the pool. We went to Stormalong Bay on many days and used the quiet pool one day.
Biggest Disappointment
Noise! The boats and fireworks were loud - it took my son and me a few days to be exhausted enough to sleep through the noise. I would be very careful about this if you are a light sleeper (a non-water view room facing the other way may help).
Best Thing
Pool - hard to describe how great this is. My runner up would be location - we found this to be a great location even though we went to Magic Kingdom more than the other parks.
Stroller - I wasted money buying a new stroller for the trip - Disney's were better suited to the parks, and we rented theirs almost every day.
Planning - Generally, my plans worked well. We were able to do almost everything. The one exception to this was Priority Seatings. I made too many plans for character meals, and was not quick enough to make new Priority Seatings when our plans changed. Still, I am glad I made these because the best meals we had were only possible because we had made the Priority Seatings.
Feel free to ask any questions - I will get back to you ASAP.
__________
Yacht Club, December 2000
This trip report covers our trip to WDW - December 10 -17.
Characters:
Terri - 34 year old mom and trip planner. I went to WDW several times as a child, and twice as an adult. My last trip was about 8 years ago.
Pat - 32 year old dad. Went to WDW twice as an adult.
Sarah - 5 year old daughter. 1st trip to Disney. Loves all princesses, especially Sleeping Beauty, eager to go on "fast" rides, prone to crying when she gets upset.
Sam - 3 year old son. 1st trip to Disney. Likes Captain Hook, very mischievous, extremely chatty, does not like rides that are too fast or scary but sometimes decides to go because he wants to be with Sarah.
As I said in my prologue, the hardest part of planning this trip involved making decisions. I thought I would let you know how the decisions I agonized over worked out:
Timing - The time of year was perfect. It was not crowded and we got lucky and had just beautiful weather. The timing in terms of the ages of my kids may have been improved by a waiting one year. If Sam was 4, I could have placed the kids in one of the Disney childcare clubs (I did not feel comfortable with in-room childcare) one evening. Pat and I could have used one night to ourselves.
Hotel - This would up being a great choice. Here are some specific comments:
Location/Transportation
The location was wonderful - we found it very easy to get to all the parks. Don't let having to take buses to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom scare you - we never waited more than 5-10 minutes for these on the way there or on the return. (However we found it really difficult to return from Hoop Dee Doo but so did everyone else - it took us 1 1/2 hours and three buses). Boats to Disney Studios, Boardwalk, and Epcot were fun and boat captains were some of the nicest people we met. Walk to Epcot is also pleasant.
Atmosphere
Great atmosphere - we toured the other deluxe resorts and my husband said Yacht Club was his favorite.
Service
This varied but was mostly good. Bell services, housekeeping, pool staff, Yacht Club Galley, and Room Service staff were good. However, guest services was awful. They were usually snotty and repeatedly gave us wrong information that inconvenienced us. Since I had done so much research I did not need them too much, but I feel bad for anyone who does. This is a large hotel and it is run like a large hotel - people were, for the most part, courteous, but we did not experience the friendliness that we did at the theme parks on the part of the staff.
Room
Very nice though we found it a little lacking for storage (ran out of drawer space). Kept very clean and had a nice view. We were in room 3135 and had a water view. From our balcony we could see the wedding area, the water between YC and Boardwalk, and the Boardwalk itself.
Pool
Excellent. My daughter wanted to leave the theme parks every day to go to the pool. We went to Stormalong Bay on many days and used the quiet pool one day.
Biggest Disappointment
Noise! The boats and fireworks were loud - it took my son and me a few days to be exhausted enough to sleep through the noise. I would be very careful about this if you are a light sleeper (a non-water view room facing the other way may help).
Best Thing
Pool - hard to describe how great this is. My runner up would be location - we found this to be a great location even though we went to Magic Kingdom more than the other parks.
Stroller - I wasted money buying a new stroller for the trip - Disney's were better suited to the parks, and we rented theirs almost every day.
Planning - Generally, my plans worked well. We were able to do almost everything. The one exception to this was Priority Seatings. I made too many plans for character meals, and was not quick enough to make new Priority Seatings when our plans changed. Still, I am glad I made these because the best meals we had were only possible because we had made the Priority Seatings.
Feel free to ask any questions - I will get back to you ASAP.
__________
Yacht Club, December 2000
