Just back! Any Questions??

[allie5]

Arrived home yesterday after a 16 day holiday. Flew out BA from Gatwick and returned on Travel Cities European Aviation Jumbo. Stayed at a Villa off US 27 at Glenbrook. We had 10 day Disney Hoppers and ate at: CRT, Ohana, Garden Grill, 1900 Park Fare, Crystal Palace, Whispering Canyon Cafe, Hollywood & Vine, Tusker House, Boma and Beaches and Cream.

If anyone has any questions about the above or wants details of attendance levels, weather or anything else, I would be happy to help. I will get a trip report started in the next day or two!

Allie.

PS. Managed to ride Mission: Space...it was AWESOME!!

 

[tony64]

how was shrek 4d????
p.s. i thought Mission Space wa due to open 15th August????

 

[KayleeUK]

Welcome home Sounds like you had a fabulous time....can't wait for your TR

 

[cjc]

Please may I have your opinion of the Travel City European airline plane? How did it compare with BA? What was the food like? Seats? Did you experience their Sunshine First Package.
This and anymore advice on travelcity appreciated
Thanks
cj

 

[HeidSFost]

Looks like I was on the same return flight as you were

We flew back Sunshine 1st and there was only 5 of us in the cabin, really good service, and the seats were fabulous, would heartily recommend it.

One extra plus was the fact that the 40kg rule seemed to have slipped out the back door for us yesterday .. I was very sure that we were going to be charged excess but we weren't.

I have posted my TR in the TR section

Heid
xx

 

[allie5]

Sorry Tony, didnt do Universal this year as I have two under 3s and I dont think its a suitable park for littlies, hence I cant comment on Shrek 4D! I had heard rumours Mission Space had been opening most afternoons for "testing" and got there around 4.15pm. The ride opened at 4.25pm with 2 bays operational, however, our bay broke down whilst in the pre-show, so we had to wait for the only operational bay (2) for our ride. This ride is not for the faint hearted, claustrophobic or frail. It is very, very intense and I have experienced nothing like the initial "launch" before. I didnt feel "weightless" at any point, though others have mentioned they have. After the "launch" the ride was much more like a traditional "simulator" ride and maybe even a tad disappointing...I feel it needed another minute to make it REALLY great (maybe a re-entry sequence??) but having said that, it is still a great ride and not to be missed for the launch sequence alone! There is a fun after ride section with space games and a neat gift store with the obligatory Mickey in Space Gear merchandise!!!

CJC.....Flight out with BA was OK. The aircraft was a Boeing 777 and was roomy and comfortable. Seatback TVs with a good choice of movies inc Jungle Book 2 for the kids. However, there was a mix up on check in as I had reserved a Sky Cot...this showed up on the clerks screen and she said that only one of us was in that row with the rest of the party in another row (what I had expected so this was fine). HOWEVER, when we boarded the aircraft, I found that NONE of our seats was on the bulkhead. The Senior Flight Attendant immediately went to sort it out but to no avail. Basically, she had fouled up the seat allocation and we couldnt have the bulkhead. By now my son was getting pretty grouchy by now and was kicking up a fuss and the cabin crew came to my rescue....they managed to persuade a passenger in the bulkhead seat (without a baby) to swap with me, so DS got his Skycot after all. Couldnt fault the "customer service" from the BA crew about this. One small gripe, was that after the meal (served about 1.5 hours into the flight) there were no more drinks or snacks offered for the next 5 hours. You could walk up to request drinks and there were glasses of water and juice set out too. I felt though, this was a far to long and there needed to be either a drink and snack / ice cream / tea or coffee brought round to break up this long gap. The flight was on time and landed slightly early at Orlando at 2.40pm.

Return with European Aviation from Sanford. Check in was a pleasant surprise as we had had a horrendous time checking in with MyTravel last year (nearly 3 hours). This year there was no line, so we checked in immediately. I asked for bulkhead seats and was again, surprised to be given them for the whole party. It turned out the plane (747-200) was less than half full and we could sit anywhere we wanted. As we have two littlies, we could not travel Sunshine First as they dont allow children in those cabins. We didnt need too anyway as we had whole rows to sleep accross if we wanted! I did notice that the Sunshine First passengers luggage came out first on the carousel and they had a seperate check in desk (again, not needed on this flight!!).

The plane was obviously quite old as there were no seat back TVs but a projector showing the films (Die Another Day, Big Fat Greek Wedding). The crew were very friendly (much nicer than Virgins "beauty queens"!!) and drinks were free. I didnt feel uncomfortable asking for drinks like on some airlines! The food wasnt too bad..barbeque chicken breast, wedges and veg, choccie brownie and salad.

Even though the Travel City agents on the phone had told me their aircraft dont have Skycots, I was given one on this flight.

Apart from one incident, I would have rated this flight a 9/10. As I mentioned, the aircraft was quite old and at one point a member of the cabin crew spotted something "wrong" with the wing or engine. He got the Captain down to take a look and there was a lot of chin rubbing and an pointing. I am a terrible flyer and this scared the **** out of me I can tell you. We were about an hour from Gatwick and I spent that in a cold sweat of fear. I was far to nervous to find out what the problem was, but we landed safely, half an hour early. Due to this incident, I wouldnt be keen on using this airline again (Im sure it was only something trivial) but it shook me up a quite a bit. I would prefer to fly on something more modern! Couldnt fault the cabin crew, service or efficiency though!

Hedi......we paid out for 40kg baggage and I think there was so much empty space on that flight we could have brought back the entire Wal-Mart!! Wasnt that wait at Gatwick on the tarmac a right pain??!!!


Any more Questions??
Allie.

 

[HeidSFost]

Allie,

Oh god that wait was terrible wasn't it? Apparently I fell back to sleep about 20 odd minutes into it and my mum jolted me awake and told me I was snoring<g>.

I didn't know about the hoohaa with the wing, it was a very bumpy flight though - but seeing all the fireworks was good. I am not a nervous flyer at all, in fact the more turbulence we have on a flight, the happier I am, but I can imagine how it would have made a more nervous person feel .

I think I would definitely fly with them again though.

Sanford Airport was wonderful, and I would certainly tell people to use The Guest Gouse Lounge there.

Heid
xx

 

[thefoxes]

Hello Allie,


At what park is the Mission Space ride ?


Thanks

 

[allie5]

Mission: Space is at Epcot, next to Test Track.

 

[trashcanman]

We're all interested in Mission Space!! My question is - you say it opened at 4.25, was there a long queue when you got there, how long did it take to clear the queue and are you aware of what time the ride closed??

Sorry, thats 3 questions!!

 

[Bug Juice II]

Glad you both had a good flight back to the UK.

allie5, were you sitting at the back of the aircraft ? To start with the only people in the cabin ?

There was anything wrong with the wing or engine that I heard about.

C

 

[allie5]

OK, Mission Space! The day I rode was a Monday. A small crowd of about 70 people had gathered outside the entrance to the ride. There were about 10 CMs behind the rope and the planets were spinning. Every few mins one of the CMs would make this announcement: "Mission Space opens on August 15th. You will be able to enjoy the ride from that date. By standing here you are waiting for the chance that the ride may open for testing. We cannot guarantee this will happen. Some people have been standing here for two hours but we still cannot guarantee the ride will open". This gets rid of some stragglers and the crowd stayed fairly consistant at about 70 people. It was a blazing hot day and there was no cover from the sun which also put more people off I think. I decided to give it 15 mins due to the heat. Lucky for us it opened in 10! I would guess it was open for about 45 minutes, but as one of the bays broke down, they may keep it open longer on other days. I dont think they want masses of people to ride it, and its all kept fairly low key. The line time is quite long......there were only 50 or so people in front of us and we had a 40 min wait (but only 2 bays out of 4 were open).

Bug Juice.....we were in Seats 21 DEFG which were the middle bulkhead seats slightly infront of the wing. Were you on the flight too?? The "problem" whatever it was, was played down, I was probably only one of a handful of people who saw the pilot looking out of the window, due to where I was sitting.

 

[Bug Juice II]

I was right at the back of the aircraft. There was a baby there as well, thought it might have been your group.

Guess not

 

[UKANGEL]

Thanks Allie for all the good info on the flight, my parents are flying out in March on Sunshine First so will let them know its good!

 

[Debs Hill]

I would love to know what you thought of O'hana and Whispering Canyon....food, atmosphere, did you need PS.....as we are travelling with an an almost 3 yr old in November! Many thanks

 

[jwhiting]

Allie,
Luckly old you on Mission Space, I went to Epcot last Wednesday and went back periodically but to no avail. No CM's about each time we went to take a look, such a shame but it sounds wicked and I'm glad you got the chance to ride it.

I noticed someone asked about Shrek 4D on this thread as well. Don't even mention Shrek 4D to me!!! Went to Universal on a Monday, didn't arrive until 10.00am and all fast passes were sold and the stand by queue was 120mins. As we were staying on IDrive and had 7day tickets for Universal/IOA we thought we'd nip back during the week and just go on Shrek 4D. Three times we did this and every time it was broken, we were not happy bunnies. Therefore Shrek 4D was the only ride we missed out on during our trip, gutted especially after hearing good reviews for it.

Apart from that, the rest of trip went really well, I'll try and get round to posting a trip report, but if anyone has questions please let me know. We did all Disney, Universal, KSC and both Busch Parks.

Not jet lagged at all......

Regards

Julian

 

[WDWfan uk]

A belated welcome back Allie and Heid

Thanks for the detailed review of Mission Space - I think I'll give this a miss! (Although my DH and sons can't wait to ride!)

 

[kevin harrison]

Julian, did you get the room upgrade you were promised ? Rosen Plaza have promised me a suite if they have one available.

Glad everyone had a good time

 

[allie5]

Debs.....quick reviews of Whispering Canyon and `Ohana for you!

We arrived at the Wilderness Lodge to be greeted by the unfriendliest security guard on the planet. He wouldnt beleive we had ressies and kept saying "youre not on my list"......funny as he hadnt even asked our name!! In the end I got REALLY stroppy with him and asked to speak to his superior and told him he could explain how he made 5 guests late for their PRE BOOKED lunch. This did the trick, and he let us in. Wilderness Lodge was bigger than I expected and not quite as nice as I imagined. It was a little rough around the edges (toilets werent too clean etc etc). The Whispering Canyon Cafe is right in the lobby and very easy to find! As we had booked lunch, there were no really wild antics going on, but our server Charlie, really made it a fun time. At one point we were the only ones in the restaurant, but we didnt feel uncomfortable at all. In fact, Charlie encouraged us to take our time and sit out the storm that started over lunch! DH asked for a longer straw and was given an enourmous one that DD played with for the rest of the meal. We didnt do the "ketchup" thing though. We all had the skillet meal and that was a good choice. We had warm corn bread to start that was a little like sponge cake, but still good! Then the skillet arrived in double quick time. There were ample portions of ribs, chicken, sausage, roasted potatoes, corn and barbeque beans. Also each of us were given little pots of coleslaw too. The ribs and potatoes were our faves and Charlie bought us extra servings of these. Even my 9 month old baby had a good go at the chicken and potatoes here! DD loved the corn and ribs. DH was very impressed that the milkshakes were on free refills here, and managed a couple of flavours!! This meal ranked pretty high as a family meal....we were made really welcome and the food wasnt gourmet, but good hearty fare! We did consider going back for dinner, but on our way back (we went to MK after lunch) we noticed the place gets WILD for dinner......it was total chaos. Kids on hobby horses running around (all supervised) and it was LOUD! It might be fun for older kids (over 5s) but we didnt think it was suitable for our two yet!!

I can sum up `Ohana in one word. Perfect. We loved it. In the end it was just Dh and myself as the baby wasnt handling the late meals so well. We got a table by the window that overlooked the Castle and it was amazing. The kids games here arent as wild as the Whispering Canyon and it wasnt so loud. They had coconut races and dancing for the kids, which was fun but not too obtrusive. The starter platter was brought round which consisted of chicken wings (utterly delish), rice (yum), veggies, (tasty), prawn wontons (to die for) and 3 dipping sauces...peanut (heavenly), fruit (OK) and BBQ (mmm). Then the servers came round with skewers of prime rib (lovely, but is served medium rare, so you will need to ask if you want it cooked more), turkey breast, pork and my fave, enourmous shrimp. All the items were perfect, and even DH who cannot stand any meat that hasnt been incinerated enjoyed the rib. Our server asked if we wanted any of the platter items topped up and which skewers we would like brought over. I could only manage one round of each, though DH had more turkey and pork! For dessert, you could choose off of the menu, or they bring round pineapple with a caramel dipping sauce which, again, was perfect! I also had an Island Sunset cocktail, which was totally scrummy! We did this meal right at the end of the holiday...if we had had the chance we would have gone back. It was far and away the best meal we had and will DEFINATELY be returning in the future!

 

[KayleeUK]

Allie

Did you see Goofy's Country Dancin' Jamboree at the Diamond Horseshoe Saloon? What did you think of it?

Thanks