Just Back from ASMU!

[Atlanta WDW Fan]

Just got back from the ASMU, 8-8 through 8-13. It was great! We were blessed right from the start. We arrived at 10am on Monday and were able to check into our room. Our CM told me it was in Calypso, so I was excited to hear we had a preferred location since I had only booked a standard room. Then she said it was on the ground floor, even better I thought, I was really excited now. My DW, DS, and I walked over to the room. I put the key in the door and discovered we had been upgraded to a Family Suite! It was awesome!
We had brought a cooler with some sandwich makings from the house so the fridge was a nice amenity to have. We really loved this suite! Awesome location with the pool right out of front door, close to the food court, just great. It has been six years since our last trip and I still love the ASMU! I'll have more to report soon!

 

[heaven2dc]

What a great start to your trip - upgraded to a family suite! I've always wanted to stay at ASMu but never have. Can't wait to read more! (My DBFF's daughter & grandson were there 8/6-8/13 staying at Beachclub Resort and haven't heard anything back other than Disney wasn't her cup of tea but her son enjoyed the trip so am glad it wasn't a total failure after all my hard work in planning & paying for most of this trip )

Now to sit back and wait for some good reading

 

[Atlanta WDW Fan]

After checking in, we moved into our suite. We spent most of the afternoon hanging out at the Calypso pool. They are doing organized games and playing music there now as most of you probably know. It was the first time I had experienced it and it was great. Really made the atmosphere around the pool enjoyable. Later we change clothes and headed over the Poly to have some dinner from Captain Cooks and enjoy the fireworks on the beach. It was our first use of our free dining plan. It took us a minute to figure out the touch screen order system, and get the meal "paid for", but we finally got the hang of it! The CM at Captain Cooks was very helpful. My DW and I ordered the Double Cheeseburgers and DS had the kids hamburger. They were delicious! Had a great grilled flavor and my chips were tasty. Wishes was fun to watch from the beach and there were a lot of people enjoying the show with us. We appeared to be the only ones having a pic-nic though, and several people commented on how cute we were! Yeah, it's true, we are. More later!

 

[bettyann29]

great start to a trip! cant wait to hear more...

me and DH wew at ASMU in May and really loved it.. it's one of my favorites as far as values go.. however we werent upgraded, you lucky duck!

 

[Atlanta WDW Fan]

This was our EPCOT day. We wanted to take advantage of EMH because we had tickets to Mickey's Backyard Bar B Que that night. We of course were closely watching the path of hurricane Ike and trying to plan accordingly. Since our DS is only 4.5 and was on his first trip, we tried to skew all of our plans to suite him. As a side note, he was so cute as we pulled into the All Star Resort campus. He was saying, "Daddy, look at those footballs, they're huuuge!" Any way back to EPCOT, we headed for The Land to eat some breakfast, and it was very good. Then onto The Seas with Nemo and Friends and Turtle Talk with Crush. There was no line at all for Nemo! My wife made the comment that we were running in the line que. We enjoyed the ride, but I was expecting a little more excitement. However, Turtle Talk is awesome! What cool technology, pure Disney fun and magic. Got to go to work now, I'll complete Day Two later!

 

[MousekaMaddi]

fabulous start, hurry back, your fans await u

 

[MEK]

what an awesome upgrade you got on your room! I love AsMu. I think its my favorite value and I would love to get upgraded to a family suite. Nice!

 

[Atlanta WDW Fan]

Our EPCOT day continues... We strolled around the Future World and did a few fun things like Space Ship Earth. DS really enjoyed going up in the "big ball". Then we were getting a little hungry and decided to hit the Cafe St. Angel for lunch. It was really good! We sat by the water and enjoyed a nice breeze while we wait. We knew we didn't have a lot of time to browse in the afternoon but wanted to walk around the World Showcase and catch some of the entertainment. My son and I are both drummers so I wanted to him to the see the Japanese drummers and the fife and drum corps. Those ladies in Japan really know how to play those drums, it was very entertaining! Then we walked down to the American Adventure for the Fife and Drum Corps. It was surprisingly moving for me, especially when they talked about our military. After our stroll around the world it was time to head back to the hotel. DW and DS both took naps while I hung out at the pool. What a blast! I really love the Calypso pool. It is a very fun atmosphere.

Backyard Bar B Ques report next!

 

[Atlanta WDW Fan]

After a relaxing afternoon at the pool, it was time to head to Fort Wilderness for Mickey's Backyard Bar B Que. Due to the benefit of all you can drink free beer, we opted for taking transportation. We grabbed the Magic Kingdom bus and headed for the center of the world. There was a resort launch loading for the campground so we ran to catch it. We just made it! There was one more couple behind us before the cut the line off. Luckily, they were running a larger boat than normal to accommodate the crowds. After arriving the Ft. Wilderness marina we walked over to the pavilion. It is part of the remains of the old River Country water park. I wish I had seen the River Country when it was still operational. I wonder if they will ever do anything with that old location? We were greeted by a cast member who took our picture then sent us on our way. The buffet lines were just opening up when we arrived. The food was great. A CM told us the ribs served were the exact ones they serve at the Hoo De Doo Revue. I enjoyed everything. They had some very fresh watermelon that was melt in you mouth!

The show was a lot of fun. They had a great band with a talented young
lady singing. There were a lot of characters in the show and the kids were invited to come up to the dance floor to interact with them. They did not do much visiting to the tables themselves however, probably due to the size of the crowd.

We have done the Luau at the the Polynesian, the Hoo De Doo Revue, and now Mickey's Backyard Bar B Que. My wife and I really enjoyed the Luau when we saw it a few years ago. But honestly, despite all the glowing reviews of the Hoo De Doo, it's not really my kind of show. I thoroughly enjoyed this show! The food was great, and kept flowing right till the end. The all you care to drink beer and wine was definitely a bonus for the parents in the house. And even though I have read reviews on the Dis from folks that did not like the atmosphere, all I can say is, "hey, it's a Disney Bar B Que, what were you expecting?"

We would definitely do this show again. Very fun evening for all of us!

 

[Atlanta WDW Fan]

Today was originally going to be a two park day for Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. But with Ike swirling away a few hundred miles south of us, we know the weather was going to be challenging at best. We had ADR's at Hollywood and Vine for Playhouse Disney characters. DW and I had eaten there six years ago and found it fine at that time. Lately all of the reviews I have read on the Dis we pretty discouraging. I tried to stay positive however. Because of our lunch reservations and the threatening weather, we opted to drop Animal Kingdom all together and head directly to Hollywood Studio for the Playhouse Disney Live on Stage, Little Mermaid, and what ever we could fit in before the deluge started. We made it into Playhouse Disney and Little Mermaid just fine and that was about all we got accomplished. We had lunch and it was well....ok at best. Our first important lesson was learned, don't even attempt character meals in the park. They take up too much of your valuable park time, and are just to rushed and busy to justify the cost. Once again, thank you Disney for free dining! The Hollywood and Vine food was not bad, but certainly not worth what it would have cost us in my opinion.

During our meal the bottom fell out, and the wind picked up, and we decided to ride it out in the restaurant to see what would happen. It did eventually slow to a drizzle so we put on the ponchos and headed out to the park. They were just lining up for the parade and we decided to stake out a spot. About 2 minutes before show time, they announced that due the weather there would be no parade that day. That was enough for us, we just headed back to our comfy suite at the All Star. We had sandwiches for dinner then later went for a relaxing walk over the the All Star Movies to check it out. I believe they have a remodeled Food Court there and it looks really nice. It is very roomy and quite impressive. Still not not enough for me to book there, I am very partial to the All Star Music, but a nice amenity for sure. I'm hoping when the work is completed at the Music it will be just as nice. We had one more days park admission left that we were saving form the Magic Kingdom of course, I'll let you know what happens next time!
Talk to you then.

 

[Atlanta WDW Fan]

It was a dark and stormy night....well it was raining outside. We were enjoying the space of our family suite and watching the latest on Hurricane Ike on TV. The forecast for Orlando on Thursday; Partly cloudy, 70% chance of rain. The forecast for Friday; Partly cloudy, 20% chance of rain, our mind was made up for us. We would postpone our Magic Kingdom day until Friday. There was a slight problem however. We had advanced reservations for breakfast at the Crystal Palace on Thursday, and at O'hana on Friday. So first thing Thursday morning we walked down to the concierge in the lobby and asked about changing our plans. I was a little skeptical about changes due to every single person at every resort enjoying the Free Dining plan in September. Gladly we were met with a very friendly CM Frank, who was glad to help us reschedule. He also gave us a nice little insider tip. It seems that the high-end hotels hold back a certain number of reservations for their top dollar customers. A practice that makes perfect sense by the way. But the good news is this, they release those reservations at 7:00 am and at that point they are available to anyone on the reservation system. So, back to our CM Frank. We told him our situation and that we wanted to see if we could get into Chef Mickey's, or O'hana for breakfast. He was able to get us into Chef Mickey's that night for dinner, and into O'hana for a late breakfast! Score! So, it goes to show, try anyway, no matter how booked things appear to be.

I'll give you the report on these two character experiences on our next visit. See ya then!

 

[Atlanta WDW Fan]

So...we head off to O'hana to enjoy the character breakfast we had originally scheduled for Friday. I have to say I love the Poly and will stay there one day. It is such a classy place and the fact that it is one of the original resorts makes it even cooler. Hard to imagine a time when WDW only had 3 resorts. Things sure have changed. Anyway, I digress. We get to O'hana for our late breakfast reservation. We get seated and begin enjoying the delicious fresh fruit on our table along with that famous pineapple bread. Honestly, I'm not a huge pineapple guy, so the bread didn't blow me away. The fruit was great though. This is the best character meal we had all week. Lots of time with the characters, awesome food, and great service. Speaking of the service, our waitress was Nati, she has been there for 34 years! She was great. It was cool to meet a CM who had been there since almost the very beginning. This was our first meal ever at O'hana and we loved it. I want to try a dinner there, maybe next fall when we are enjoying some more free dining.

We just kind of hung out the rest of the afternoon, did some pool time and generally relaxed. It began to rain a little that afternoon as well.

I was excited to finally get a chance to eat at Chef Mickey's. We have all looked down from the window of the monorail as we passed through the Contemporary. I have always wondered what it would be like to eat down there. Well we were about to find out. We grabbed the bus from the All Star to MK, then the monorail over to the hotel. It was still rainy, but not too bad. We were late however, and I was concerned about losing our place. They were great and got seated in just a few minutes. The character interaction at Chef Mickey's was quite good. We got to take plenty of pictures, get autographs, and generally cut up with characters. But I was disappointed with the meal. When our waiter was telling us about the food and the way it worked I got excited when he mentioned prime rib. But even that was nothing to write home about. Don't get me wrong, we ate and were certainly not hungry when we left, but for the amount of money it would have cost us out of pocket, not a good deal. I'm glad we were on the free dining plan for this one for sure. I did buy the picture they took of us. It was the only one we got all week that was worth buying.

A couple of thoughts:
1. After eating a character meal at Hollywood Studios, we have decided against doing anymore of these types of meals in the park. They are just way too time consuming to include in your park day.

2. Character meals in general, although fun, are not very good deals in my opinion. Of the ones we did, Mickey's Backyard Bar B Que, Playhouse Disney Play and Dine, O'hana, and Chef Mickey's, I enjoyed the Backyard Bar B Que the best by far. Keep in mind though, it was a "dinner show" and the cost was considerably more. It we had paid out of pocket it would have been $116.00 for our family of three.

Our MK day is next...I'll tell you this...it was great!

 

[happysmyly]

Thank you so much for sharing - I have really enjoyed reading your TR and next time I'm there DH and I are going to try the BBQ--sounds like something we would both enjoy--I'm adding it to the planning list even though the trip is probably a couple of years away

 

[Atlanta WDW Fan]

After several changes to the itinerary, it was finally our MK day. The DW and I were very excited to experience it through our DS's (4 1/2) eyes. We got up early and stopped by the McDonalds near the All Stars to pick up some breakfast. I was a little disappointed to find out they did not have a dollar value menu there, but life goes on. We got our food and headed for the TTC. I was determined to catch the opening ceremony. I don't believe I have ever seen it before. I had however seen a video on YouTube and wanted to have the whole MK experience. So...we made it! We stepped off the monorail just minutes before the ceremony began. It was a fun way to start the day. Our plan was to head straight to Fantasyland and try to get in all of the rides we wanted to do there first. The crowd was very light that morning so I felt good about our chances. I was not disappointed. We were able to walk right on to all the Fantasyland biggies with no wait at all. Our whole day the MK was pretty much the same way. We had a blast and my DS was loving the whole thing. It was a terrific cap to our week.

In conclusion, I have a couple thoughts. First, like I stated earlier, I think we will avoid any in park character meals in the future. Way too time consuming and my park time is just too valuable. Second, if you drive to WDW and stay in the park, you get free parking in the parks. Use this privilege! This is especially true if you plan on using Extra Magic Hours. You can get to the park so much earlier than the general public, that parking will be a breeze. We drove almost everywhere and the time saved by not riding the buses is a huge advantage. Sure, there are times when you may want to use the Disney transportation, that's what its there for. But, driving to the parks is a much better idea in my opinion. To just be able to go to your car and not wait for 45 minutes to get on a bus after the park closes is very nice.

Use your resort concierge, that's what they are there for. They have all the connections and know how to hook you up. After all, you are there to have a good time, and it's there job to see that you do. What can I say, WDW is the "High Church of Customer Service" in my opinion.

We booked a bounce back for next year. It included free Dining again and I could just not resist. Additionally, the Disney marketing worked, I have booked a Family Suite for next year. So their free upgrade this year, got them some extra money next year. But the suite is definitely worth it for us! Over all, another great trip to the world and we had a great time!