Just back... any ?

[aliwolly]

Just got back Thursday evening from a week long trip to the World...

Stayed in Pop Century using the Dream Maker + Silver plan, hit every park except for Typhoon Lagoon, spent hours in DisneyQuest, did a lot of shopping Downtown, saw Cirque, saw the Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show, had many fabulous meals, toured most of the deluxe resports, and sampled all forms of Disney Transportation. Oh, and were able to pretty much walk onto all rides, with our longest wait being about 15 minutes on a Sunday afternoon in the Magic Kingdom.

Pics from our trip can be found at aliwolly.photosite.com

Had a fabulous trip thanks to the many kind words of advice on these boards, and am willing to answer any questions and give any advice.

Ali

 

[danny1649]

Sounds like you had a magical trip.What meal was your favorite on this trip?Was new atrraction at MK open,Lilo and Stitch?Was COP open?Was Wonders of Life open in Epcot. Thanks Danny

 

[aliwolly]

Hi Danny!

COP was open... we unfortunately got "stuck" on it and had to see the second stop (in the 20s?) twice. That song gets a little irritating after a while...

Stich was not open, nor did it really appear to be anywhere near open. When you looked down from the TTA, the front of it didn't look anywhere near complete. I think I read somwhere (allearsnet?) that the AP previews are in November? Not sure. But I'm sure it'll be open by the time you get there in December (lucky!).

Wonders of Life, much to my boyfriend's dismay (he's a nurse), was not open. So no bodywars.

Our favorite meal of the trip was at Fulton's Crab House. We went there on Saturday night before we saw Cirque, and it was just a FABULOUS dinner. We were on the Silver plan, and therefore had to spend 2 wishes a piece on dinner - so we spent $68 a piece or $136 total for food (including tax and tip), and that turned out to be a pretty great value as our food bill came out to be near $200! Our waiter, Gabe, was excellent. He was very knowledgeable about the menu and happily described everything on the menu and gave us recommendations when we asked for them.

While we were deciding on our starters, Gabe brought out Fulton's Crab Boursin (a cream cheese and crab spread) and flatbread "complements of the chef", which was excellent (and the recipe was on the back of the seating card). I started with the sesame seared tuna (on Gabe's reccomendation), and it was excellent. I could have made a (light) meal out of it. The boyfriend started with the fried calamari, which was out of this world. Absolutely the best calamari we'd ever had. No tentacles, just strips... and incredibly sweet and tender. For dinner, I had the Australian Lobster tails, which were large and sweet. Much better than any of the maine tails I get up around here. The boyfriend had the filet mignon and king crab legs, which he was also very pleased with. For dessert, I had the Key Lime Pie which was outstanding, and the boyfriend had the Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee, which was also very good.

I'm not sure if it was the excellent food or the outstanding service that made that meal our favorite of the trip, but either way, that was the meal that all others got compared to for the rest of the trip.

Other excellent meals and service were had at the Hollywood Brown Derby (had the best appetizer of the trip there: the portobello ravioli), and the California Grill (Snake in the Grass sushi was excellent and the oak fired fillet was oustanding... not to mention the view!!).

Ali

 

[phabric]

We are also stay at the Pop and doing Dream Maker +Silver Package Oct 26-3l/04.
.
What did take for your wish with the Dream Maker part? I was thinking of the $25 Hollywood Planet. We are doing House of Blues before Cirque du Soleil and thought maybe a snack after the show. Is there a time limit on the Planet wish. Do you have to decide what you want to do with your Dream Maker part when you check in. Do they give you a voucher or is on your card.

What did you do with your wishes. We plan on a dinner each night, Cirque du Soleil, 2 tours, Hoop Do Do show.

What was the lanyard set like. Can you choose the pins or are already on the lanyard and they just hand them to you.

 

[CJK]

Welcome back! Sounds like a magical trip! What did you think of Spirit of Aloha? We're considering seeing it during our next trip. We're 2 adults with no kids. Would you recommend it?

 

[ErinInCT]

Did Tink fly during Wishes?

 

[aliwolly]

Phabric - We chose the leave a legacy tile at Epcot for our Dream Maker option. We figured that we'd be eating so much with doing dinner every night with our wishes that we wouldn't be looking for anymore food, and the mini-golf and poster just didn't seem like that great a value. Plus, I'd never buy a legacy tile on my own, but having it included in the package made it an option and since this was the first of (hopefully) many trips to the World for the boyfriend and I together, we went for it. I can't wait to visit it when we go back next year! The Dream Maker option is given to you as a paper voucher that has the day after your last day of your stay printed on it as an expiration. The voucher is good for any of the options, so you don't have to decide right away... just before the end of your trip!
This is how we used our wishes: Dinner every night, with 3 nights at places that required 2 wishes per person for dinner (Fulton's Crab House, The Flying Fish Cafe, and The California Grill), the Spirit dinner show, Cirque du Soleil, Keys to the Kingdom tour, hour long boat rental (one of the small ones... a searaycer?), and I'd planned to do a spa treatment with the last wish but just didn't feel like it, so I got the Mickey Mouse/frame memory box (which is nice, but not very big... I'm using it to store/display my pins). If we do the Silver plan again, I'll have to go on a crash diet before we leave for the World so I won't feel so bad about the weight I'll gain eating all that food! We were able to maximize our wishes at all the restaraunts (saving at least $20 a meal) but it is certainly a lot of food!!!
The lanyard sets were ok... very inexpensive black lanyards with plastic clips and generic/small character pins (we got Goofy in an old-style car and Mickey in a convertable). We couldn't choose them, they were in a drawer under the register and handed to us when we gave them our voucher for it. But, the lanyards for sale at the shops are all kind of expensive anyway, so it's good to have one to start with, and you can trade your pins with cast members if you're not thrilled with them. And it's really sneaky of Disney to give these to you... it's such an easy way to get you hooked into buying pins!

CJK - We did have a magical trip!! (I'm so very sad about going to work tomorrow...) We liked the Spirit show well enough... It wasn't outstanding, but it wasn't bad either. It was a nice way to spend a night. The food was good (not great, but good), as was the service. There's a (thin) plot line to the show, which really could be done without. The best parts of the show are when the actual dancing goes on. Oh, and the fire twirling guy was the high light of the show (though he did drop it about five times). I've got pictures from the show starting on this page in my resorts album and if you've got a reasonably fast connection you can download a 8 second clip of the fire guy by right clicking here and selecting the save target option. I've never seen the Hoop de Doo show, so I can't compare them, but we chose this show because we didn't have kids and thought it would be more our speed. We enjoyed it, but it wasn't so great that we want to go back and see it again. You can make a very nice night of it by doing the show and then walking over to the Poly's beach and relaxing on the hammocks under the stars (which is what we did). I'd say that if you've never seen Polynesian dancing etc, go for it, enjoy the show and then relax on the beach.

ErinInCT - No, Tink did not fly. I was really dissappointed because she's my favorite and it sounds like such a cool effect!! I didn't realize that it's a person that does the flying until we were on the Keys to the Kingdom tour and our tour guide described how the effect is done to us. She didn't tell us why she wasn't flying while we were there, though... I hope I see her next year!

Ali

 

[phabric]

Thanks for all the information, it was very helpful.

Where did you stay at the Pop. We don't care where we stay as it is only the 2 of us without a car.

Did you try the food court. I might try it for breakfast some mornings.

 

[CJK]

Thanks for the info! It's certainly a wonderful help as we make our dining decisions! Enjoy your wonderful memories!

 

[TLHB70]

I would also like to know what you thougt about the hotel. We will be going Veteran's Day week. We are staying at the Pop Century too. We have stayed at other value, moderate and even deluxe hotels. We prefer the value just because we are NEVER at the hotels, but we spend all of our time in the parks. So we just don't spend as much on the hotel. Of course, we always stay on property though so the value resorts have been our favorites. What did you think about the Pop Century? Was the food court nice? What stop is it on the bus route? (In relation to the other value resorts?)

 

[Herbie]

Please tell me more about the leave a legacy tile. I know what and where they are, but how do you go about doing it? Do you make a reservation? does it take a while?

 

[aliwolly]

Regarding the Pop: We really lucked out with our room. We ended up in the 50s building number one on the second floor. I think I've heard that the 50s buildings are usually considered "preferred" because they are so close to the food court, but I only requested (and paid) the standard rate. The walk to the food court (which was nice... always clean, and very large) was very short and we would cut through the building to enjoy the air conditioning on the way to the bus stop. The gift shop is large and has Potato Head peices, though not nearly the selection that Once Upon a Toy had. The food at the food court was average food court fare... We had breakfast there nearly every day... the breakfast was alright, but I think I've had better at Denny's, and that's saying something...

I'd requested a King bed and they had one available for us, in a handicapped accessable room, which meant that although we didn't get a tub, we did get a bonus refridgerator! I guess they have the fridges in the handicapped rooms because there might be medication that needs to be chilled. We were thrilled with the bonus fridge! The room was nice... on par with the Allstar Music room I stayed in 4 years ago. Another nice bonus about Pop is that it has its own bus stop, so you don't stop at any other resorts.

BUT... I do have to say that as this was my first trip as an "adult" going just with my boyfriend and not with my slew of younger siblings, I found that my theory of "not spending much time at the resort so why should I pay more" didn't really hold true... When I went with the little brothers, we were always heading to a park and by the time we got back for the night, we were exhausted. Going with the boyfriend was much more relaxing... we could determine our own schedule and get a lot more done thanks to the lack of little guys and the general lack of lines in the very quiet parks. So there was a lot more time available to relax... and Pop isn't necessarily the perfect place for that.

After visiting some of the deluxe resorts (yeah, I fell in love with the Poly, simply for its hammocks on teh beach), we decided that it'd be worth it to us to spend more money on a resort that had more to offer in the way of relaxation. Pop is great if you have kids and/or you're the type that seriously knows that you'll never want to be just relaxing in your room. But, for next time, the boyfriend and I are going to try renting DVC points and going to the Board Walk (Jellyrolls rules!). Oh, and you can't beat the transporation options at the resorts on the monorail or with boat/walking distance options. I'm not a fan of buses and although the trips were never more than 15 minutes long, it just seemed to take forever to get places by bus.

About the Leave a Legacy Tile: When you walk in to Epcot by the main enterance, on the right hand side there's a podium and behind it are a couple of photograph areas. All you do is walk up and let them know you'd like to have it done, fill out a release form, pay or hand them your voucher, and then they take you to the side and snap your picture. They show you the picture to make sure you like it, and then you're on your way. It seemed to be busier first thing in the morning (I guess people see it on their way in the park and get it done right away), but if it's busy, just try back later. It doesn't take long... about 10 minutes or so. They told us it would take about 3 months (!) to get the tile up, and that they'd send us a copy of it in the mail along with the location so we can hunt it out next time we visit. I can't wait to see it! It'll be even better when I have kids and I can bring them back to see it!

Ali

 

[TLHB70]

I totally agree about the deluxe for couples or people without children. My family consists of my husband, my two daughters - ages 6 and 9 - and myself. That is why we prefer the value resort. We don't spend any time in the rooms, except sleep time at night. We are always at parks riding with the kids all day so the value is the best way to go for us. Hopefully, some day, my husband and I will get to take a couples trip......just the two of us. Wow! I can't even imagine that now. However, when/if that ever happens we will definitely go with a deluxe!!! (The Poly would be first choice!) We would spend some relaxing time and a bit of romance too. However, for now, with kids, the value resorts are our choice.
I am so glad to know that you get a bus all to yourself at the Pop Century!!!!! So, you don't pick up guests at any other value or moderate resort?
That is cool!

 

[aliwolly]

Exactly. The Pop bus is all on its own. Which is really nice at the end of the night... no other stops, just straight on to the Pop (and to the pool/bed).

 

[cooldisneymom]

Loved your pics!!! Thanks for sharing!!! Glad you had a great time!!!

 

[perfectmatch300]

Seems like you had an awesome trip! Loved your pictures! Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

 

[5dizneynutz]

Great pictures!! What kind of camera did you use?

 

[aliwolly]

Thanks!! My camera was new for the trip... A Canon PowerShot S1 IS that I purchased at Best Buy about a week and a half before the trip and played with constantly during that time so that I could learn it.

I really love the camera... It's 3.2 megapixels, which seems low for today's cameras, but as I rarely make any prints larger than a 5x7, I wasn't really looking for any more megapixels than that. It's got a 10x zoom with Image Stabilization, which is really helpful when you've zoomed all the way out (and helpful to me in general... I'm apparently twitchy or something... my pictures with my old camera - a Kodak DC4800 - always came out blurry).

The camera has all sorts of modes and it allows you to shoot in full manual, aperature priority, or shutter speed priority as well for more control over your shots. I'm really new to the whole manual settings thing, but this camera is fun to play with.

Oh, and it also has a video clip mode, which takes videos in TV quality, and the length of the video is pretty much only limited to the amount of memory available. The camera uses compact flash memory and can use the new microdrives (though those are really expensive...). It's not a tiny camera, but it's compact and fun and gets the job done.

Ali

 

[5dizneynutz]

Thanks, we're thinking of buying a digital camera by our next trip in June and I'm totally lost about which one to choose. Your pictures are great and very clear even in very close-up shots. I'll have to take a look at that model.

 

[K9pal]

We saw Wishes on 9/15 - Tink DID fly for that one. She doesn't start the show like she used to, but flies several minutes into it.