What a great time to go, crowds were low.
We drove up from Naples last Saturday and arrived about 4:30. Our standard view 1BR, 3121, was ready. It was to the right of the elevator at the end of the second hallway, about 22 doors from the elevator. Our balcony extended from the bedroom area past the living room, with a view of the canal across the street from self parking, very nice for standard view. It was set up a little differently from every other 1BR we have stayed in. The closet in the entryway was neither to the right or left of the door, it was around the corner from it and the entry area was long enough that it had a second ceiling light. I thought the closet was larger than usual. The luggage fit with no problem, usually we are jamming it between all the stuff in there, this had room to spare. I found a few other things that were different with this room. There was no soap holder in the shower and the ledge inside the shower was too narrow to hold any products. Everything had to be kept on the outside ledge which was kind of strange while you were showering. Also, the shower was very high. I like a towel over the shower top so I can dab at my eyes while showering, and even on my tip toes at 5'8", I had difficulty reaching the top of the shower and there was hardly any clearance to fit the towel over it. Strange, but I did think this room was larger than usual. The last difference I noticed was the placement of the bedroom door. It appeared to be in the same place as usual, but I felt like all I did all week was open and close that door any time I went into the closet or the jacuzzi area. It was constantly in the way. Other than those those oddities, the room was in good shape, and we saw a magnificent rainbow from the balcony before we went out to dinner.
We drove over to Artist Point and both had the plank salmon. Delicious! The server was sweet, but not very efficient. At the end of the meal we got our bill using the new dining plan for the first time. It was eye opening! With the new dining plan, unless you are paying cash, be prepared for a long drawn out bill paying process. First you get the bill with everything you ordered on it, and with a suggested 18% and 20% tip on it. You have to let them know how much you are going to tip, then they take the single bill back and separate it into three bills, 1) the dining plan bill, 2) the tip bill with the tip that you told them you were going to give them printed on it with spaces for an additional tip and the total, and 3) the alcoholic beverage bill with the tip for it included (DDE) plus spaces for an additional tip and the total. You have to sign all three, then they need to know how you're paying the tip. Then they take the tip bill back and charge it to your room or credit card if you are not leaving cash. There are far too many trips to the back this way. You could tell most of them were embarrassed to ask, but it seemed to me that they had to know how you were paying the tip before they would let you leave. At breakfast this a.m., the server had to bring the cash tip to the back and then give us our final bill. He said he didn't believe he had to ask for the tip. It seems like a really poor system. I think they should have just charged more for the plans and included the tip. We were there at a slow time, imagine President's Week if the servers have to waste 15-25 minutes per table getting paid. Poor, poor, poor!
Also, there were incidents with the bill all week. On Monday, my sister and family flew in from NJ making us a group of seven, so the tip was automatically included from then on, and the service was not always great, but all the servers still got 18% including the server at the 1900 Park Fare buffet breakfast who made herself very scarce throughout the breakfast. She did not do a great job, and I'm sure she knew it. I don't think she wanted to take a chance with a smaller tip, so she just immediately brought us the dining plan bill and the 18% tip bill. It just didn't seem worth it to argue with a manager to leave her less, but she didn't deserve the $20+ tip she got.
My sister gave cash tips all week. At Yachtsman, I guess the server also wanted to cut out one of the steps, so since my sister had no charging on her room key, he just charged her tip to my room, he didn't bother asking how she was paying the tip. It was interesting.
Crazy as it was, with the deluxe plan we did eat at a lot of nice places. We ate a full breakfast every day (Cape May Cafe, Yacht Club Galley, Tusker House, 1900 Park Fare and Spoodles) and a 2 credit dinner (Artist's Point, Flying Fish, Brown Derby, Narcoossee's, and Yachtsman Steakhouse) every evening with the exception of Teppan Edo. There were no complaints about the food anywhere.
Enough about the food! With the crowds so low, all week we were pretty much able to walk on almost any ride with somewhere between a 5-20 minute wait. One exception at MK was Peter Pan, where the wait was 45 minutes and beyond. At Epcot we got to go on Spaceship Earth even though the official opening is not until February. That was a treat! Ellen's ride was down early in the day (I guess someone stood up), but we got on later in the day. Also because of the low crowds, we were able to spend a whole day in both MK and AK. The longest we've been able to endure either place since the kids were little is half a day, but there wasn't that jostling, crushing feeling we usually find at those two parks. We actually stayed in MK all day until 5:00 when we had to leave for dinner and we had a great time going on things we've bypassed for years. At MGM, even though it was very manageable by day, we found Fantasmic to be standing room only. We were quite surprised by that.
Other tidbits: The cab fare from Grand Floridian to the Boardwalk was $13.50 plus tip. The self parking there is much farther away than at BW.
A heads up for anyone arriving by car this weekend. There are going to be 34,000 people there for the marathon and roads will be closed. Our bellman said last year he was stuck on a closed road for two hours trying to get into work. Call and ask which roads will be closed.
The kids used the quiet pool since the feature pool was closed, but they will shuttle you to Stormalong Bay if you want.
Anytime you pay down your bill, get a receipt. The kids had gift cards they didn't use so I gave them cash for them and went to the front desk the last night to put them toward my bill. Thankfully, upon starting the transaction I asked the girl what my balance was. It was $476. I gave her four gift cards, a reward card, and some Disney dollars totaling $225. She spent ten minutes swiping the cards, putting the info into the computer, etc. and then she says, "okay." I ask for a receipt. She says, "You'll get it under your door tonight." I say, "I'd like one now." (It's not like it was $10. She threw the cards into the key drop box, I have nothing that says I gave her a dime.) She hems and haws and I ask, "What's my balance now?" She looks at the computer and says, "$451." Obviously, there's a problem. She gets the manager, Ryan I think, and 25 minutes later the problem was fixed. My husband was fuming because the whole fiasco made us late for dinner but I wanted everthing credited before they charged my credit card. So annoying! My point: always get a receipt!
All in all we had a great trip, despite the little annoyances. We won't get to see everyone again until Easter, so what could be better than getting together at Disney, especially since they love it as much as we do. It was just an awesome time!
If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
We drove up from Naples last Saturday and arrived about 4:30. Our standard view 1BR, 3121, was ready. It was to the right of the elevator at the end of the second hallway, about 22 doors from the elevator. Our balcony extended from the bedroom area past the living room, with a view of the canal across the street from self parking, very nice for standard view. It was set up a little differently from every other 1BR we have stayed in. The closet in the entryway was neither to the right or left of the door, it was around the corner from it and the entry area was long enough that it had a second ceiling light. I thought the closet was larger than usual. The luggage fit with no problem, usually we are jamming it between all the stuff in there, this had room to spare. I found a few other things that were different with this room. There was no soap holder in the shower and the ledge inside the shower was too narrow to hold any products. Everything had to be kept on the outside ledge which was kind of strange while you were showering. Also, the shower was very high. I like a towel over the shower top so I can dab at my eyes while showering, and even on my tip toes at 5'8", I had difficulty reaching the top of the shower and there was hardly any clearance to fit the towel over it. Strange, but I did think this room was larger than usual. The last difference I noticed was the placement of the bedroom door. It appeared to be in the same place as usual, but I felt like all I did all week was open and close that door any time I went into the closet or the jacuzzi area. It was constantly in the way. Other than those those oddities, the room was in good shape, and we saw a magnificent rainbow from the balcony before we went out to dinner.
We drove over to Artist Point and both had the plank salmon. Delicious! The server was sweet, but not very efficient. At the end of the meal we got our bill using the new dining plan for the first time. It was eye opening! With the new dining plan, unless you are paying cash, be prepared for a long drawn out bill paying process. First you get the bill with everything you ordered on it, and with a suggested 18% and 20% tip on it. You have to let them know how much you are going to tip, then they take the single bill back and separate it into three bills, 1) the dining plan bill, 2) the tip bill with the tip that you told them you were going to give them printed on it with spaces for an additional tip and the total, and 3) the alcoholic beverage bill with the tip for it included (DDE) plus spaces for an additional tip and the total. You have to sign all three, then they need to know how you're paying the tip. Then they take the tip bill back and charge it to your room or credit card if you are not leaving cash. There are far too many trips to the back this way. You could tell most of them were embarrassed to ask, but it seemed to me that they had to know how you were paying the tip before they would let you leave. At breakfast this a.m., the server had to bring the cash tip to the back and then give us our final bill. He said he didn't believe he had to ask for the tip. It seems like a really poor system. I think they should have just charged more for the plans and included the tip. We were there at a slow time, imagine President's Week if the servers have to waste 15-25 minutes per table getting paid. Poor, poor, poor!
Also, there were incidents with the bill all week. On Monday, my sister and family flew in from NJ making us a group of seven, so the tip was automatically included from then on, and the service was not always great, but all the servers still got 18% including the server at the 1900 Park Fare buffet breakfast who made herself very scarce throughout the breakfast. She did not do a great job, and I'm sure she knew it. I don't think she wanted to take a chance with a smaller tip, so she just immediately brought us the dining plan bill and the 18% tip bill. It just didn't seem worth it to argue with a manager to leave her less, but she didn't deserve the $20+ tip she got.
My sister gave cash tips all week. At Yachtsman, I guess the server also wanted to cut out one of the steps, so since my sister had no charging on her room key, he just charged her tip to my room, he didn't bother asking how she was paying the tip. It was interesting.
Crazy as it was, with the deluxe plan we did eat at a lot of nice places. We ate a full breakfast every day (Cape May Cafe, Yacht Club Galley, Tusker House, 1900 Park Fare and Spoodles) and a 2 credit dinner (Artist's Point, Flying Fish, Brown Derby, Narcoossee's, and Yachtsman Steakhouse) every evening with the exception of Teppan Edo. There were no complaints about the food anywhere.
Enough about the food! With the crowds so low, all week we were pretty much able to walk on almost any ride with somewhere between a 5-20 minute wait. One exception at MK was Peter Pan, where the wait was 45 minutes and beyond. At Epcot we got to go on Spaceship Earth even though the official opening is not until February. That was a treat! Ellen's ride was down early in the day (I guess someone stood up), but we got on later in the day. Also because of the low crowds, we were able to spend a whole day in both MK and AK. The longest we've been able to endure either place since the kids were little is half a day, but there wasn't that jostling, crushing feeling we usually find at those two parks. We actually stayed in MK all day until 5:00 when we had to leave for dinner and we had a great time going on things we've bypassed for years. At MGM, even though it was very manageable by day, we found Fantasmic to be standing room only. We were quite surprised by that.
Other tidbits: The cab fare from Grand Floridian to the Boardwalk was $13.50 plus tip. The self parking there is much farther away than at BW.
A heads up for anyone arriving by car this weekend. There are going to be 34,000 people there for the marathon and roads will be closed. Our bellman said last year he was stuck on a closed road for two hours trying to get into work. Call and ask which roads will be closed.
The kids used the quiet pool since the feature pool was closed, but they will shuttle you to Stormalong Bay if you want.
Anytime you pay down your bill, get a receipt. The kids had gift cards they didn't use so I gave them cash for them and went to the front desk the last night to put them toward my bill. Thankfully, upon starting the transaction I asked the girl what my balance was. It was $476. I gave her four gift cards, a reward card, and some Disney dollars totaling $225. She spent ten minutes swiping the cards, putting the info into the computer, etc. and then she says, "okay." I ask for a receipt. She says, "You'll get it under your door tonight." I say, "I'd like one now." (It's not like it was $10. She threw the cards into the key drop box, I have nothing that says I gave her a dime.) She hems and haws and I ask, "What's my balance now?" She looks at the computer and says, "$451." Obviously, there's a problem. She gets the manager, Ryan I think, and 25 minutes later the problem was fixed. My husband was fuming because the whole fiasco made us late for dinner but I wanted everthing credited before they charged my credit card. So annoying! My point: always get a receipt!
All in all we had a great trip, despite the little annoyances. We won't get to see everyone again until Easter, so what could be better than getting together at Disney, especially since they love it as much as we do. It was just an awesome time!
If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
