Just Back 5/21-5/30, abbreviated report

[PIRATEGIRL007]

We just returned, were at WDW from 5/21-5/30. Stayed at POR, 2 adults, 2 kids, had regular DDP.

POR- lovely resort, excellent bus service, possibly best we have ever had. Pool was great, quiet pool was never quiet, it was busy often too. Room was clean and mousekeeping great all week. Check in was quick, staff friendly. Had room in AB lodge 15, upstairs, close to bus stop about 7 min walk from main pool and food court. Ate at food court once dinner twice breakfast, great food, breakfast is busy and lines are pretty long. Would not recommend breakfast if you are in a hurry to get to the parks in the morning. Had no complaints at all, will stay there again.

Crowds- it was crowded to me. We usually go in the fall when its slow. I would rate the crowds between 7-9 (on scale of 10) most days. I do use UG crowd calendar and found the new scale to be dead on for most days. We tried to hit best parks most days but had to deivate for SWW, which was a madhouse, crazy busy. FP ran out for most things in each park by afternoon/early evening. TSM ran out one morning by 10 am! It was far more crowded than I had expected and what others had said from years past. Ran into a few vets (and Dissers) and they agreed that this was busier than yeats past. One Disser has been everyyear that week (her bday) for past 14 years and said this year was insane busier than before. Saw tons of people from Nashville, TN and New Orleans, LA. I'm thinking floods and oil spill has ran people out of town to other vacation destinations and that may have been why we saw so many people from those places.

Weather It was HOT! But not humid, so still bearable, and not nearly as bad as September. It was hot like you are sweating by the time you walk to the bus stop at 9 in the morning. Drank lots of water and tried to take breaks mid day at the room or pool. Rain was forecasted most of the week and tuesday-sat over 60% chance. We saw rain on Friday night at Downtown Disney around 10pm for about 20 minutes and Saturday night at Epcot/MK from about 430-7pm. Other than that we were dry all week. It got cloudy and looked like it would pour a couple of the other days but we missed it. Did get reports from friends in other parks that they were getting rained on but we always seemed to pick the right park. But even with that the rain never lasted long.

Star Wars Weekends Was a madhouse. We went 3 different days. Sat/Sun first weekend and Friday 2nd weekend. There were crowds around ST area, the backlot area (charecter greetings), TSM area, everywhere when the parade went thru and after the Hoopla show it got crowded everywhere again. FP ran out on TSM & RnR early all these days, ToT didn't run out one of them. We waited about 40 min to meet Vader (went first thing in morning), waited 30 to meet Boba Fet (mid morning), waited 20 to meet Disney charecter (got Goofy, wanted Donald; around noon), and caught a few others roaming around. The lines moved slow for the charecters as multiple autographs and photo poses seemed to make it worse. For the roaming charecters they were neat and stayed true to charecter but were hard to catch. Adults would jump in front of the kids to get thier picture and after a pic or two the charecter would roam again. Hard to explain to a 4yr old who patiently waited his turn why the charecter took off on him or why a 35 year old cut him off. Parade at 1140 was neat, we got a spot about 30 min before in some shade near the hat. Good view and we were able to see, only had a few parents throw thier screaming (lierally) children down in front of mine at the last minute. Hyperspace Hoopla was a joke. We arrive about 50 min before the show and couldn't get close to the stage. Too many adults/twenty somethings jockeying for spots. There is no way kids can see the show, so we waited a few min to see if it got better and then left. Looks like the key is arrive before the last Jedi Trianing show (I want to say around 530) and just sit it out. That stage and area are not the best for viewing anything and are way too small for the crowds it generates. We also waited about 20+ min to get into the exclusvie merchandise store which was a huge waste, unless you are getting the pins or the art cells there is no reason to wait, most of the other stuff is in the other shops. They really need a bigger space that can allow more people in the shop and need to re-organize the layout. It was hard to move in there b/c of the merchandise displays more so than the gobs of people. DH and I would visit SWW again alone but I would not take my kids. Too many crowds, too many adults setting bad examples, and too many disappointments.

Dining Plan DH and I have done DDP several times (free usually) this was our first time with the kids and I don't think we will do it again. Spent alot of time eating in charecter resturants and dining. Yeah they were good cool breaks but it took up alot of touring times. We ended up with 8 QS credits left and 9 snacks. That was after a trip to Goofy's Candy shop at DTD and using our snacks for drinks and whatever else we wanted all week. The last night we got back to POR late (b/c we had to do a different bus route b/c some prima dona and her big huge couldn't fit on the bus *i'm not kidding* stroller), so we missed the gift shop closing by about 5 minutes. I was not happy and had to spend all our snack credit in the food court (which was mostly closed) so our only choice was chips or rice krispie treats. We were leaving at 7am the next day and I expected the food court to open at 6 so we could have breakfast (based on my prior research) they had several signs stating they didn't open till 7am. So we traded all our QS credits in for continental meal which is 2 drinks and 1 snack. Still not best deal since we were flying, hard to take 16 drinks with you. Next morning food court was open at 630 when we were on our way to ME pickup, but didn't matter as I had already used our credits the night before b/c they had open time posted at 7am. I think the heat and our TS meals kept us so full we just couldn't use the credits and we won't do DDP with the kids again. I'm not sure if we will do it for just adults either, as we have always ended up with extra snack credits and 1 or 2 CS credits to use before we left. It's alot of pressure to get the 'best deal' out of the credits and make sure you use them all since you paid for them. We may try QS plan in the future though.

Dining I will do full dining review on the dining board later but for this report. First rating is food, second overall experience: (added ratings)
Prime Time (lunch): A - / A
Mama Melrose (dinner, F! package): B+/ D **Horrible service, seated 35 min late with no apologize or being told upfront, server was not even sub par, worse than that. We waited over 20 min for a dessert menu, another 10 on dessert and he never did fill our drinks during that time. If we weren't already late to Hyperspace Hoopla I would have spoke with the manager, but as it was we were running 30 min behind time I wanted to get there and we didn't get to see the show as a result of being behind and not securing a spot. F! ticket was great though, will do package again, just not at MM.
Chef Mickey (dinner): C/A
Le Cellier (dinner): A+/A
Askerhus (breakfast): B/B+
Crystal Palace (dinner): A/A
Garden Grill (dinner): C-/B
Kona (breakfast): A+/A+
Boma (dinner): A-/B (super long buffet lines and ran out of food alot, not as good as in the past food wise, we love ribs night on Wed, but couldn't get it this time)
1900 Park Fare (dinner): A/ A+

Refurbs and attraction updates: TSM new games were loaded, Muppets 3D looks phenominal since upgrade, didn't get to ride RnR but DH and DD didn't notice any changes, we had the 'cowboy' scene on Great Movie Ride, Space Mtn was up and down throughout the trip; we did get to see it with the lights on from TTA a highlight of the trip for DH and I; Splash Mtn looked great, no changes though;TSM broke down one day when we were there for a few hours, wait times were in the 2+ hour range all day after that.
Yeti was still dead as a doornail althought the guy in front of me swears he saw it move (I rode it several times, its dead but I can see how an inexperienced eye can think it moves). Kilomanjaro Safari was having major backup issues 2 days, once a truck brokedown and other times animals in the road, FP cue was backed up out to the regular entrance.

Rare/Unsual Charecters It was training season so extra special charecters out. We saw at AK Gathering Spot: Bolt, Rabbit (from Pooh), 2 country bears, Marie, and Briar Bear. Saw Charming and Donald at International Gateway. On Saturday we weren't over there and missed it by a few minutes but friends saw Capt Jack, Max, and a few other rare ones there, I was so jealous. In Animation Building around 5pm saw Jasmine, Hook and Smee, Daisy and Donald, Chip and Dale. Saw no one rare/unusual in MK.

Thats all for now, if work slows down this week or next I'll try to get around to a full report and full dining reviews.

 

[Brave teacher]

Thanks for your review of your trip.

We were there at the same time. We thought crowds were wonderful as was the weather.

I completely agree with you based on our experience with SWW. We have been before and been able to do A LOT more in the same amount of time than what we were able to do this trip. I much rather the SWW merchandise in the warehouse it was in last summer than how it is set up this year. Just the exit was horrible as it exits directly into the line for Vader. The character lines in the AM seemed much worse this year compared to last year.

I look forward to see if you can get around to a full report later.

 

[Goofy442]

My DH feels the same way all we did was eat, and when it's that hot no one feels like having something to eat. Thought about going for Star Wars weekend but I think we will skip that all together. Thanks for the info.