Hi all, and thanks to everyone here who helped with my questions before we left for Orlando in mid-August. We arrived back yesterday morning.
I didn't make any notes, so these are my as-they-come-to-me highs and lows -
Highs -
magicbands and MDE -
it was soooo easy using these, for our room key, charging to our room, paying for BOG pre-ordered lunch, I really missed my band when we moved offsite! MDE for FP and wait times was great, very rarely the wifi in the parks dropped out but i found that just walking off a little way got it back and reconnected. We modified our FP's a lot while there, and when we returned to the WDW parks at the end of our trip, booking new FPs a day ahead worked really well for us. I also bought magicband skins before we left the UK, we all put them on our hotel-issued magicbands and we got sooo many positive comments from CMs at the parks and guests alike when we had them on. They're a great souvenir of the trip too.
BOG lunch, Bubba Gumps dinner, Chuys dinner -
most of our food was decidedly so-so, especially in the parks, but these 3 stood out as outstanding meals for us. We decided to book BOG for lunch on our last park day too, as we'd enjoyed our first meal so much.
Harry Potter at Universal parks -
wow wow wowity wow - these areas, and the Hogwarts Express, amazing. Just walking through the queue lines at Forbidden Journey and Escape from Gringotts, and riding the Hogwarts Express, I could have done that all day! We watched 2 sisters have their wands chosen for them at Ollivanders in Hogsmeade, I got chills when their wands chose them. The gift shop there was brill too, we spent ages in there checking out all the wands and other merchandise.
Universal's Cabana Bay hotel -
Loved loved loved it! Wish we had stayed longer here, I loved every little thing about the theme of the hotel, its apparently over 2,000 room capacity but it felt much more intimate than that. The pool area was stunning, always tonnes of sunbeds available, beautiful white sand, zero-entry pool, lazy river, and not far to the dining area where you could refill your resort cups with soda, water, hot drinks, even icees, big thumbs up for the Cabana Bay!
Uber cars -
This is a car and driver service, all internet based, and it was absolutely brilliant - worked out way cheaper than hiring a car or using the local taxis, and we didn't wait any longer than 14 minutes for a car to reach us (that was once only, near the end of the Epcot park day, usually is was more like 5 minutes). The fares were about a third of the Mears taxi prices, and our drivers were great.
Wildlife at All Stars Sports -
on our first night we saw a racoon, and on our 2nd evening there we saw an armadillo, both of them casually strolling along the pathway near the shrubs at the main pool area. It was a double-take moment both times for my girls!
Lows
Indirect flights outbound -
i'm not a fan after our experience. We only started arranging our trip in Feb this year, so we couldn't afford any of the direct flight prices we found. I read up and decided on an indirect flight from Manchester to Chicago, then to Orlando from there. We had 3.5 hours to make our connection at Chicago - and it took 3.5 pretty stressful hours. Immigration was well over an hour, then we had to take an internal tram to another terminal at Chicago, then we were in the security line there for again, well over an hour. We quickmarched to our gate, and 2 minutes later were called to board for Orlando. I found the airport and airline staff there uninterested and not particularly helpful I have to say, and I don't have a lot of confidence that we'd have been treated any differently had we actually missed that connection to Orlando.
Our homeward-bound indirect was fine - arrived on time at JFK from Orlando, and didn't have to change terminal to catch our next flight to Manchester. No security to go through, only issue for my teens was, no free Wifi - oh the drama!
Rosen Inn at Pointe Orlando -
I think we were completely spoiled by our hotel rooms at All-Stars Sports and then Cabana Bay, Rosen Inn was our last hotel of the trip, its location is brill but our room was not, really. The bedroom and vanity area were fine, but the bathroom wasn't particularly clean, nor was it cleaned at all well in our time there. The hairdryer (attached to the wall) power outlet didn't work, neither did the majority of the outlets in the bedroom. The AC unit was very noisy too. The pools were also very busy every time we looked out on them (never had time/weather conditions to use them though).
Final thoughts -
I'm really glad we went, and we all had a great time. My initial thoughts are that I'd return for the Harry Potter attractions and I think the Universal resort expansion will be a real draw to the area once the new hotel and waterpark are built. But I don't think I'd return to do Disney, although we liked WDW we weren't blown away with everything there, exceptions to that being the Lion King show and Expedition Everest at AK, we did those as much as we possibly could on our trip. We all were wowed by Fantasmic at HS and we saw all the other WDW show fireworks and the MK parades too (apart from the Frozen ones at HS, to be honest the focus on Frozen there put us off HS visits). Once was enough for us, for all the other fireworks shows WDW had to offer, would have liked to watch Fantasmic again, but we didn't get around to it in the end.
I didn't make any notes, so these are my as-they-come-to-me highs and lows -
Highs -
magicbands and MDE -
it was soooo easy using these, for our room key, charging to our room, paying for BOG pre-ordered lunch, I really missed my band when we moved offsite! MDE for FP and wait times was great, very rarely the wifi in the parks dropped out but i found that just walking off a little way got it back and reconnected. We modified our FP's a lot while there, and when we returned to the WDW parks at the end of our trip, booking new FPs a day ahead worked really well for us. I also bought magicband skins before we left the UK, we all put them on our hotel-issued magicbands and we got sooo many positive comments from CMs at the parks and guests alike when we had them on. They're a great souvenir of the trip too.
BOG lunch, Bubba Gumps dinner, Chuys dinner -
most of our food was decidedly so-so, especially in the parks, but these 3 stood out as outstanding meals for us. We decided to book BOG for lunch on our last park day too, as we'd enjoyed our first meal so much.
Harry Potter at Universal parks -
wow wow wowity wow - these areas, and the Hogwarts Express, amazing. Just walking through the queue lines at Forbidden Journey and Escape from Gringotts, and riding the Hogwarts Express, I could have done that all day! We watched 2 sisters have their wands chosen for them at Ollivanders in Hogsmeade, I got chills when their wands chose them. The gift shop there was brill too, we spent ages in there checking out all the wands and other merchandise.
Universal's Cabana Bay hotel -
Loved loved loved it! Wish we had stayed longer here, I loved every little thing about the theme of the hotel, its apparently over 2,000 room capacity but it felt much more intimate than that. The pool area was stunning, always tonnes of sunbeds available, beautiful white sand, zero-entry pool, lazy river, and not far to the dining area where you could refill your resort cups with soda, water, hot drinks, even icees, big thumbs up for the Cabana Bay!
Uber cars -
This is a car and driver service, all internet based, and it was absolutely brilliant - worked out way cheaper than hiring a car or using the local taxis, and we didn't wait any longer than 14 minutes for a car to reach us (that was once only, near the end of the Epcot park day, usually is was more like 5 minutes). The fares were about a third of the Mears taxi prices, and our drivers were great.
Wildlife at All Stars Sports -
on our first night we saw a racoon, and on our 2nd evening there we saw an armadillo, both of them casually strolling along the pathway near the shrubs at the main pool area. It was a double-take moment both times for my girls!
Lows
Indirect flights outbound -
i'm not a fan after our experience. We only started arranging our trip in Feb this year, so we couldn't afford any of the direct flight prices we found. I read up and decided on an indirect flight from Manchester to Chicago, then to Orlando from there. We had 3.5 hours to make our connection at Chicago - and it took 3.5 pretty stressful hours. Immigration was well over an hour, then we had to take an internal tram to another terminal at Chicago, then we were in the security line there for again, well over an hour. We quickmarched to our gate, and 2 minutes later were called to board for Orlando. I found the airport and airline staff there uninterested and not particularly helpful I have to say, and I don't have a lot of confidence that we'd have been treated any differently had we actually missed that connection to Orlando.
Our homeward-bound indirect was fine - arrived on time at JFK from Orlando, and didn't have to change terminal to catch our next flight to Manchester. No security to go through, only issue for my teens was, no free Wifi - oh the drama!
Rosen Inn at Pointe Orlando -
I think we were completely spoiled by our hotel rooms at All-Stars Sports and then Cabana Bay, Rosen Inn was our last hotel of the trip, its location is brill but our room was not, really. The bedroom and vanity area were fine, but the bathroom wasn't particularly clean, nor was it cleaned at all well in our time there. The hairdryer (attached to the wall) power outlet didn't work, neither did the majority of the outlets in the bedroom. The AC unit was very noisy too. The pools were also very busy every time we looked out on them (never had time/weather conditions to use them though).
Final thoughts -
I'm really glad we went, and we all had a great time. My initial thoughts are that I'd return for the Harry Potter attractions and I think the Universal resort expansion will be a real draw to the area once the new hotel and waterpark are built. But I don't think I'd return to do Disney, although we liked WDW we weren't blown away with everything there, exceptions to that being the Lion King show and Expedition Everest at AK, we did those as much as we possibly could on our trip. We all were wowed by Fantasmic at HS and we saw all the other WDW show fireworks and the MK parades too (apart from the Frozen ones at HS, to be honest the focus on Frozen there put us off HS visits). Once was enough for us, for all the other fireworks shows WDW had to offer, would have liked to watch Fantasmic again, but we didn't get around to it in the end.
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We cancelled our BOG lunch but both our dinner and breakfast there were superb.
