Willsdad01
Addicted to the Mouse
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2009
- Messages
- 2
Please forgive me as this is only the second thread I've ever started. This is a trip report from our 3rd consecutive year to Disney. Typically, we have visited over fall break in October, but decided to take advantage of the 7/4 promotion and use it to celebrate our wedding anniversary and a 10th birthday.
Weeks prior to leaving, I read many reports on CBR where we were booked. Knowing that it would be warmer and that we also have a 4yr old, I was able to get our resort changed to POFQ. Let's start there...
POFQ- This is a wonderful resort! Our last visits were at the Poly and Boardwalk Villas. We utilized the Online Check-In service. It was a snap. Our room was ready at 10:30am. Our room was clean, but I would say a little work needs to be done on the grout and caulk in the shower area, but overall it was good. The beds are OK, nothing special. I was surprised when we turned on the TV and couldn't find the classic Disney cartoons. I called the front desk and they said they no longer offered the classics in the rooms. Wow. Big mistake as my kids LOVED those cartoons. Plus, it really showed them what started it all. My 4yr old loved Steamboat Willy. The food court at the resort was good. We tried the Chicken Taco Salad, Chicken Caesar, Steak Sandwiches, and Beniets. All were wonderful, with the exception of the chicken on the caesar. It was a little too squishy for my liking. The concierge service was great. Very nice people. This resort is a favorite due to it's size. I believe you could be in any building and only have a 5 minute walk to the bus and food court.
Celebrate!...well, with a little confusion. On the day of my son's 10th b-day, he chose MK and the Fast Pass option for 6 rides. We used three early on and decided, after talking with a couple of cast members, to come back in the evening and use them during EMH. Well, that didn't work so well. There seemed to be much confusion over Fast Passes in general during EMH. Several people were inconvenienced by a break down of Thunder Mtn. They were given fast passes and told to return at any time, including EMH. Additionally, we were at Splash Mtn trying to figure out what to do as they didn't want to honor our b-day fast passes or several others who were waiting. I'm surprised by the amount of confusion. This is their main promotion right now. Plus, restaurants were running behind and passing out fast passes to people and telling them they could be used during EMH.
Bus Service...wow, what a change from the last two years. Every year I have been impressed with minimal wait times, but this year that's not the case. Example, we saw three Epcot buses visit our resort stop, then didn't see another bus for 20 minutes. One day at AK, we boarded our POFQ bus after it completely unloaded, then completely reloaded to standing room only and the doors closed and announced we were on our way to PO. Suddenly, we made a stop at Blizzard Beach. No one got on or off. After EMH on June 12th, the bus stop lines at MK were halfway up the walk to the exit. I've never seen crowds that large. It was difficult to maneuver to our stop due to the massive amount of people. It was like this throughout the week. While waiting for our bus at DHS on Sunday, June 14th, we saw 5 Epcot buses before seeing one POFQ bus.
Crowd & Heat: This will be our last visit in June. In comparison to October, crowds were too big for what we like to do. I know you can do touring plans which are great for dealing with large crowds, but we like to be a little less planned and like to make sudden decisions on what to ride. October is perfect for that. The heat was also difficult. It reached 93 and 95 while there and this is early June. Needless to say, we would rush to get things done by early afternoon and head back to the resort. Wait times for Splash Mtn were 60-70 minutes most of the week. BTMRR was anywhere from 40 to 112 minutes. Dumbo reached 40, HM was around 20-30. I honestly was somewhat disappointed too that so much was under construction. Something is being done to the exterior of Small World making a cramped walking area worse. Several facades had the "replica" tarp over the front. Additionally, I wish people would settle down with the whole Fairy thing. My wife stood in line from about 9:30 until they opened Toon Town at 10am. People apparently jogged and some ran to get in line even after cast members asked them not to due to safety of kids. Epcot, AK, and DHS were also busy. DHS with Star Wars was extra busy on the 13th. So busy we just left.
Overall, we had a great trip but learned what time of year to visit and also what our tolerance was for crowds. To us, it's worth taking the kids out an extra day or two in October. I will say our trip was made extra special by a magical surprise of two stuffed Pluto's and two figurine sets for my kids when we arrived back at our room late Sunday evening. You see, I talked with the Concierge about the mix up on the b-day celebration. As a parent and also someone who participated in their main promotion, I felt it wasted our time (40 minutes total at 10:30PM) and also made my son second guess his decision to choose the Fast Passes over taking the $75 gift card. Basically, two FP for Splash Mountain went to waste as well as Mickey's Philharmagic. He's 10 and this is the first time he's made a big decision. In my mind, I appreciated his effort to include all of the family in his special day, not just take money for souvenirs. We were also rewarded with extra Fast Passes by our hotel manager. I so appreciated her effort to make things straight, but still wonder how Disney could have had such confusion about birthday fast passes during EMH. Oh well. We can't wait for our next trip which will be October of 2010. I hope this report has helped someone else in their planning.
Weeks prior to leaving, I read many reports on CBR where we were booked. Knowing that it would be warmer and that we also have a 4yr old, I was able to get our resort changed to POFQ. Let's start there...
POFQ- This is a wonderful resort! Our last visits were at the Poly and Boardwalk Villas. We utilized the Online Check-In service. It was a snap. Our room was ready at 10:30am. Our room was clean, but I would say a little work needs to be done on the grout and caulk in the shower area, but overall it was good. The beds are OK, nothing special. I was surprised when we turned on the TV and couldn't find the classic Disney cartoons. I called the front desk and they said they no longer offered the classics in the rooms. Wow. Big mistake as my kids LOVED those cartoons. Plus, it really showed them what started it all. My 4yr old loved Steamboat Willy. The food court at the resort was good. We tried the Chicken Taco Salad, Chicken Caesar, Steak Sandwiches, and Beniets. All were wonderful, with the exception of the chicken on the caesar. It was a little too squishy for my liking. The concierge service was great. Very nice people. This resort is a favorite due to it's size. I believe you could be in any building and only have a 5 minute walk to the bus and food court.
Celebrate!...well, with a little confusion. On the day of my son's 10th b-day, he chose MK and the Fast Pass option for 6 rides. We used three early on and decided, after talking with a couple of cast members, to come back in the evening and use them during EMH. Well, that didn't work so well. There seemed to be much confusion over Fast Passes in general during EMH. Several people were inconvenienced by a break down of Thunder Mtn. They were given fast passes and told to return at any time, including EMH. Additionally, we were at Splash Mtn trying to figure out what to do as they didn't want to honor our b-day fast passes or several others who were waiting. I'm surprised by the amount of confusion. This is their main promotion right now. Plus, restaurants were running behind and passing out fast passes to people and telling them they could be used during EMH.
Bus Service...wow, what a change from the last two years. Every year I have been impressed with minimal wait times, but this year that's not the case. Example, we saw three Epcot buses visit our resort stop, then didn't see another bus for 20 minutes. One day at AK, we boarded our POFQ bus after it completely unloaded, then completely reloaded to standing room only and the doors closed and announced we were on our way to PO. Suddenly, we made a stop at Blizzard Beach. No one got on or off. After EMH on June 12th, the bus stop lines at MK were halfway up the walk to the exit. I've never seen crowds that large. It was difficult to maneuver to our stop due to the massive amount of people. It was like this throughout the week. While waiting for our bus at DHS on Sunday, June 14th, we saw 5 Epcot buses before seeing one POFQ bus.
Crowd & Heat: This will be our last visit in June. In comparison to October, crowds were too big for what we like to do. I know you can do touring plans which are great for dealing with large crowds, but we like to be a little less planned and like to make sudden decisions on what to ride. October is perfect for that. The heat was also difficult. It reached 93 and 95 while there and this is early June. Needless to say, we would rush to get things done by early afternoon and head back to the resort. Wait times for Splash Mtn were 60-70 minutes most of the week. BTMRR was anywhere from 40 to 112 minutes. Dumbo reached 40, HM was around 20-30. I honestly was somewhat disappointed too that so much was under construction. Something is being done to the exterior of Small World making a cramped walking area worse. Several facades had the "replica" tarp over the front. Additionally, I wish people would settle down with the whole Fairy thing. My wife stood in line from about 9:30 until they opened Toon Town at 10am. People apparently jogged and some ran to get in line even after cast members asked them not to due to safety of kids. Epcot, AK, and DHS were also busy. DHS with Star Wars was extra busy on the 13th. So busy we just left.
Overall, we had a great trip but learned what time of year to visit and also what our tolerance was for crowds. To us, it's worth taking the kids out an extra day or two in October. I will say our trip was made extra special by a magical surprise of two stuffed Pluto's and two figurine sets for my kids when we arrived back at our room late Sunday evening. You see, I talked with the Concierge about the mix up on the b-day celebration. As a parent and also someone who participated in their main promotion, I felt it wasted our time (40 minutes total at 10:30PM) and also made my son second guess his decision to choose the Fast Passes over taking the $75 gift card. Basically, two FP for Splash Mountain went to waste as well as Mickey's Philharmagic. He's 10 and this is the first time he's made a big decision. In my mind, I appreciated his effort to include all of the family in his special day, not just take money for souvenirs. We were also rewarded with extra Fast Passes by our hotel manager. I so appreciated her effort to make things straight, but still wonder how Disney could have had such confusion about birthday fast passes during EMH. Oh well. We can't wait for our next trip which will be October of 2010. I hope this report has helped someone else in their planning.
