Dizneefamily+4
Wish I could live in Cinderella's Castle!
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2011
- Messages
- 1,942
We just returned last Wednesday from an 8 day stay at the Poly. Loved the Poly as usual. We only had one monorail issue the entire time, which I think is pretty darn good based on everything I've read on the boards lately. The express monorail was down one morning when we were heading to Epcot (by walking to the TTC from the Poly) for early magic hours. They diverted us to a bus stop at the TTC. We eventually made it to Epcot - later than we'd planned, but still before extra magic hours opening.
Bus service to non-monorail parks and DDD at a monorail resort was as per usual. In other words, it royally stinks! It's one reason why actually prefer our mod stays to deluxe. In our experience, bus service from the mods is 100x better than deluxe bus service.
On to the parks. We always go in August. Lines/crowds were about the same as past years. With our usual strategy of getting there at rd & efficient use of fp, we never waited in a sb line that was longer than 20 min. We rode everything we wanted to ride, including headliners, multiple times per day. I'm even ashamed/proud to say that our kiddos rode EE 12 times this trip.
Weather was fabulous. Tropical Storm Dorian dissipated, then rebuilt, but thankfully moved in another direction. We had a few showers here and there, but no total wash-outs. One night we came out of RnRc and it was storming - heavy rain, thunder, constant lightning. The streets were literally flooded. We just hung out a bit, rode a couple more rides and when the rain stopped, made our way out. The temps were even manageable than prior years for the most part. Towards the end of our trip, it got a bit hotter and more humid, but the evenings were actually kind of cool - I even enjoyed a HOT mocha from the Starbucks on Main St. because I was cold!!!
We ate lunch twice at BOG. On the way down, my dh received an email (which we found on layover in Detroit) inviting us to test fp+ for BOG lunch. We tried it. Enjoyed the experience and the lunch itself was pretty good too. We did have an issue with payment though the 2nd time. They charged our room instead of our ddp QS credits. They told us to just take it to the resort's guest services and they would roll it to our credits. So dh took care of it when we got back to the resort for our mid-day break. Now fast forward to later in the day at Epcot. We had started the day at MK, planned to hop to Epcot and ride Soarin (using a priority fp from an issue we had on a previous trip,) eat in France, and finish the night at MK. When we went to eat in France, it turned out that the CM that fixed our dining plan from BOG accidentally erased the rest of our credits!
We paid oop and had to have it fixed again. It delayed our return to MK a bit as it required a stop at the Poly on our way back to MK.
One day, we were first in line at one of the Mickey Heads before rd at Epcot. I'm the family fp runner, so when we got in (at 8:45,) I did my thing and pulled our fp for Soarin (first at the machines
. Somehow, dh and the kids were coming down the steps right as I came out of the fp distribution spot and we wound up being 1st to ride. Still not sure how that happened. 
I enjoy Soarin MUCH better when riding in row 1 and not seeing dangling feet!
Every trip, we always manage to find something new that we'd never done before. We once again managed to find lots of new things to try. I'll start with the Enchanted Tiki Room. Dh and I have always avoided it. This trip, it was starting to rain, so we ducked in. OMG, that's something that we need never do again! I still can't get that dang song out of my head.
At Epcot we tried the Sum of All Thrills. LOVED it!!! Dd8 and dh rode together and my ds12 and I designed ours. Ours actually wound up being pretty lame.
Also in Epcot, we did pick-a-pearl. My dd got an 8 mm silver pearl and my ds got a 7.5mm shiny white one. They loved it and wow, what a ceremony - they can still count to 3 in Japanese! Our biggest new adventure was the entire DHS. Dh and I hadn't been there since our honeymoon in 1997 when it was still MGM. We really enjoyed the park. We hopped a lot on this trip and wound up doing DHS twice as half days. That was plenty. TSMM was actually a lot more fun than I would've thought. But I REALLY loved RnRc. It just might be my new fave! ToT? I chickened out with ds. Dh and dd loved it.
Another first for us was the Wishes Dessert Party. That was awesome! We had great seats and those desserts were totally yummy! My kids wanted to know if we could do it again the next night. Sorry guys, mom stalked the ressie site for weeks before August ressies opened to get THIS party!
As far as reports of rude CMs, I do have to say that we noticed that it wasn't all as sunshine and rainbowsy as usual, but it wasn't terrible. Didn't notice anything all that alarming anywhere actually.
Now, I have to say that even though we had a great trip, we're going to take a year off. This was our 6th trip in 9 years, with the last 3 being annually. All the souvenirs were the same, the mugs have now been the same in these last 3 trips, and we're going to wait for fp+ to roll out and get working
sick
and for the mine coaster to be done.
Sorry for the long report, but I've been reading so much negativity that I wanted to share our (mostly) positive views!
Bus service to non-monorail parks and DDD at a monorail resort was as per usual. In other words, it royally stinks! It's one reason why actually prefer our mod stays to deluxe. In our experience, bus service from the mods is 100x better than deluxe bus service.
On to the parks. We always go in August. Lines/crowds were about the same as past years. With our usual strategy of getting there at rd & efficient use of fp, we never waited in a sb line that was longer than 20 min. We rode everything we wanted to ride, including headliners, multiple times per day. I'm even ashamed/proud to say that our kiddos rode EE 12 times this trip.
Weather was fabulous. Tropical Storm Dorian dissipated, then rebuilt, but thankfully moved in another direction. We had a few showers here and there, but no total wash-outs. One night we came out of RnRc and it was storming - heavy rain, thunder, constant lightning. The streets were literally flooded. We just hung out a bit, rode a couple more rides and when the rain stopped, made our way out. The temps were even manageable than prior years for the most part. Towards the end of our trip, it got a bit hotter and more humid, but the evenings were actually kind of cool - I even enjoyed a HOT mocha from the Starbucks on Main St. because I was cold!!!
We ate lunch twice at BOG. On the way down, my dh received an email (which we found on layover in Detroit) inviting us to test fp+ for BOG lunch. We tried it. Enjoyed the experience and the lunch itself was pretty good too. We did have an issue with payment though the 2nd time. They charged our room instead of our ddp QS credits. They told us to just take it to the resort's guest services and they would roll it to our credits. So dh took care of it when we got back to the resort for our mid-day break. Now fast forward to later in the day at Epcot. We had started the day at MK, planned to hop to Epcot and ride Soarin (using a priority fp from an issue we had on a previous trip,) eat in France, and finish the night at MK. When we went to eat in France, it turned out that the CM that fixed our dining plan from BOG accidentally erased the rest of our credits!
We paid oop and had to have it fixed again. It delayed our return to MK a bit as it required a stop at the Poly on our way back to MK.One day, we were first in line at one of the Mickey Heads before rd at Epcot. I'm the family fp runner, so when we got in (at 8:45,) I did my thing and pulled our fp for Soarin (first at the machines
. Somehow, dh and the kids were coming down the steps right as I came out of the fp distribution spot and we wound up being 1st to ride. Still not sure how that happened. I enjoy Soarin MUCH better when riding in row 1 and not seeing dangling feet! Every trip, we always manage to find something new that we'd never done before. We once again managed to find lots of new things to try. I'll start with the Enchanted Tiki Room. Dh and I have always avoided it. This trip, it was starting to rain, so we ducked in. OMG, that's something that we need never do again! I still can't get that dang song out of my head.
At Epcot we tried the Sum of All Thrills. LOVED it!!! Dd8 and dh rode together and my ds12 and I designed ours. Ours actually wound up being pretty lame. Also in Epcot, we did pick-a-pearl. My dd got an 8 mm silver pearl and my ds got a 7.5mm shiny white one. They loved it and wow, what a ceremony - they can still count to 3 in Japanese! Our biggest new adventure was the entire DHS. Dh and I hadn't been there since our honeymoon in 1997 when it was still MGM. We really enjoyed the park. We hopped a lot on this trip and wound up doing DHS twice as half days. That was plenty. TSMM was actually a lot more fun than I would've thought. But I REALLY loved RnRc. It just might be my new fave! ToT? I chickened out with ds. Dh and dd loved it.Another first for us was the Wishes Dessert Party. That was awesome! We had great seats and those desserts were totally yummy! My kids wanted to know if we could do it again the next night. Sorry guys, mom stalked the ressie site for weeks before August ressies opened to get THIS party!
As far as reports of rude CMs, I do have to say that we noticed that it wasn't all as sunshine and rainbowsy as usual, but it wasn't terrible. Didn't notice anything all that alarming anywhere actually.
Now, I have to say that even though we had a great trip, we're going to take a year off. This was our 6th trip in 9 years, with the last 3 being annually. All the souvenirs were the same, the mugs have now been the same in these last 3 trips, and we're going to wait for fp+ to roll out and get working
sick and for the mine coaster to be done.Sorry for the long report, but I've been reading so much negativity that I wanted to share our (mostly) positive views!
