Howellsy
:)
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2005
- Messages
- 715
...and I already want to go "home" to Disney!
We had an amazing two weeks at SSR. I'd wanted to go to the DISmeet but we had a meal booked and I believe we did the Illuminations Cruise that night too.
There were a few new experiences for me on this trip though, not all of them positive sadly, the first one being my trip to CentraCare!
It starts with me buying the Mickey Mouse Croc slip on shoes which people who've been recently have probably seen in the shops. Sadly it Floridian rained all over them and the sizing ticket on the top inside bit of the shoes stuck to my feet and eventually blistered them. At the time it didn't seem that bad but two days later and after 14 hours on my feet at Universal my right foot had swollen so much I couldn't walk on it. So four hours and $218 later I was sent away from CentraCare with antibiotics and a pile of plasters - not a good way to spend my Epcot day! It got worse two days later when my girlfriend ("accidentally") stood on my flip flop and ripped the plaster off - I was in so much pain I ended up in a wheelchair to get me back to the bus stop at MK!! I have to say, I have total sympathy for people who have to use wheelchairs in Disney now, it's not an experience I would want to repeat and I definitely appreciated how lucky I was that I only needed it for one evening.
The next new experience was the Illuminations boat cruise which was fantastic. It was $350 for a 10 seater although there were only 6 of us in it. Free Coke, Sprite, water and crisps and an amazing view of the fireworks underneath the UK-France bridge. Not sure if it's worth the $55ish dollars we paid each but $35-40ish each is probably about right.
An update on WWoHP crowds in August - still pretty horrendous. We got to IoA on Monday 15th at 7.50am (park opened at 9am) and weren't even the first or second family in line. They opened at 8.30am and we got in line for Forbidden Journey at 8.45am with a posted wait of 45 minutes. It was easily the best ride I've ever been on - incredible for someone like me who grew up talking about the books' releases on forums, queued at midnight for all the books and films and waited overnight to meet the actors at the premiere!
However, as much as I loved it, it has totally ruined my IoA/US experience. The attractions at IoA and US are some of my favourite but due to the insane increase in usual August crowds we seemed to be constantly queuing and didn't even get to see some attractions, which has never happened before. Also, several attractions broke down and Universal did little in the way of appeasing the crowds. The posted queue was 20 minutes - we actually queued 70 minutes by the time they started the ride. The cleanliness of these parks are also definitely gone downhill - the one set of toilets we went in were completely covered in rubbish and about half of them were blocked. You'd think the money they must be making from HP could pay for a better quality!
This was our first stay at SSR and we absolutely loved it! We've also stayed at Pop, Polynesian and the Caribbean Beach, and my parents have stayed at Riverside but we all agreed Saratoga was our favourite. The bus service in the first week was excellent and although in the second week it seemed to worsen (two or three half an hour waits) it was still great. The one thing I did notice which really annoyed me was the amount of people who got on a Saratoga bus to get to DTD. I don't think it's fair for guests at Saratoga to have difficulty finding a seat because the bus is full of non-resort guests. Following the unbelievable crowds after the breakdown of the monorail on the 20th, I would say 70% of our bus weren't staying at SSR, although I could understand a little bit more given the difficulty that so many people had in getting back that night.
Sorry for the ginormous post, I didn't even realise I had that much to say! If anyone has any further questions just ask away
We had an amazing two weeks at SSR. I'd wanted to go to the DISmeet but we had a meal booked and I believe we did the Illuminations Cruise that night too.
There were a few new experiences for me on this trip though, not all of them positive sadly, the first one being my trip to CentraCare!
It starts with me buying the Mickey Mouse Croc slip on shoes which people who've been recently have probably seen in the shops. Sadly it Floridian rained all over them and the sizing ticket on the top inside bit of the shoes stuck to my feet and eventually blistered them. At the time it didn't seem that bad but two days later and after 14 hours on my feet at Universal my right foot had swollen so much I couldn't walk on it. So four hours and $218 later I was sent away from CentraCare with antibiotics and a pile of plasters - not a good way to spend my Epcot day! It got worse two days later when my girlfriend ("accidentally") stood on my flip flop and ripped the plaster off - I was in so much pain I ended up in a wheelchair to get me back to the bus stop at MK!! I have to say, I have total sympathy for people who have to use wheelchairs in Disney now, it's not an experience I would want to repeat and I definitely appreciated how lucky I was that I only needed it for one evening.
The next new experience was the Illuminations boat cruise which was fantastic. It was $350 for a 10 seater although there were only 6 of us in it. Free Coke, Sprite, water and crisps and an amazing view of the fireworks underneath the UK-France bridge. Not sure if it's worth the $55ish dollars we paid each but $35-40ish each is probably about right.
An update on WWoHP crowds in August - still pretty horrendous. We got to IoA on Monday 15th at 7.50am (park opened at 9am) and weren't even the first or second family in line. They opened at 8.30am and we got in line for Forbidden Journey at 8.45am with a posted wait of 45 minutes. It was easily the best ride I've ever been on - incredible for someone like me who grew up talking about the books' releases on forums, queued at midnight for all the books and films and waited overnight to meet the actors at the premiere!
However, as much as I loved it, it has totally ruined my IoA/US experience. The attractions at IoA and US are some of my favourite but due to the insane increase in usual August crowds we seemed to be constantly queuing and didn't even get to see some attractions, which has never happened before. Also, several attractions broke down and Universal did little in the way of appeasing the crowds. The posted queue was 20 minutes - we actually queued 70 minutes by the time they started the ride. The cleanliness of these parks are also definitely gone downhill - the one set of toilets we went in were completely covered in rubbish and about half of them were blocked. You'd think the money they must be making from HP could pay for a better quality!
This was our first stay at SSR and we absolutely loved it! We've also stayed at Pop, Polynesian and the Caribbean Beach, and my parents have stayed at Riverside but we all agreed Saratoga was our favourite. The bus service in the first week was excellent and although in the second week it seemed to worsen (two or three half an hour waits) it was still great. The one thing I did notice which really annoyed me was the amount of people who got on a Saratoga bus to get to DTD. I don't think it's fair for guests at Saratoga to have difficulty finding a seat because the bus is full of non-resort guests. Following the unbelievable crowds after the breakdown of the monorail on the 20th, I would say 70% of our bus weren't staying at SSR, although I could understand a little bit more given the difficulty that so many people had in getting back that night.
Sorry for the ginormous post, I didn't even realise I had that much to say! If anyone has any further questions just ask away
