Ladyleslie68
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- May 14, 2014
- Messages
- 26
I've never posted on here before but I've been following these boards for over 18 months while I planned my family's vacation! Now that I'm back (we went May 3-9) I thought I would pass along my impressions/suggestions and help others who may be in the planning stages! So I know people post reports day by day but I figured I'd just throw stuff out there!
I traveled with DH, DS (age 6), DD (age 4) and my parents. We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge - LOVED IT! SO beautiful and so convenient for traveling to MK. Even the buses we used to take to the other parks were very fast. NOTE: I had brought Disney GC to use to pay my room charges etc. and when I went to check out they said they had already charged my credit card (and of course I can't use my GC to pay my credit card) so if you are planning on doing this, I would advise that you let the front desk know before they check you out and give you an itemized receipt). This was hanging on my door when I woke up on check out day.
So here are my comments in no particular order:
CRT (Breakfast)- Awesome, amazing, good food...princesses spent lots of time with my kids signing autographs and taking pictures.
Anna/Elsa- Was in the park early due to CRT and when we got out we were right at the rope by the carousel. I did not have a FP for A/E but I thought, hey, we are here at the rope, how hard could it be. When they let the public in, you would have thought they were giving something away for free....the crowd surged towards us and it was all I could do to hang on to my kids' hands. We were pushed with the crowd who ran around the carousel and by the time we all got through the small entrance ropes, they told me where I was standing was at least a 2 hour wait. SO we got out of line. It was unlike anything I've ever seen...crazy...
Anna/Elsa merchandise - it changed daily...Sir Mickeys had stuff on Sunday and then different stuff on Tuesday. I found an Elsa shirt on Wed. at Epcot in Norway.
Columbia Harbor House - Get CS choice!! Highly recommend the chocolate cake for dessert!
Whispering Canyone Cafe (Dinner) - Good food, was not overly loud or obnoxious...fun!
Liberty Tree Tavern (Lunch)- Awesome! Pot roast was amazing! Loved the ooey gooey toffee cake!!
Coral Reef (Dinner) - Food was just okay. I was sort of disappointed. I had wanted short ribs and got there and it was no longer on the menu. Had the salmon which was dry. Furthermore they had no alternatives for my picky eater kids - most places always offered chicken nuggets even if it wasn't on the menu - here the waiter said no. I WILL say that the views of the aquarium were awesome and there were divers in the tank who were interacting with us which was fun. The chocolate wave dessert was to die for!!
Ohana (Dinner) - Awesome...lots of fun....great waitress...very attentive. Hadn't been there when they'd had the chicken so I didn't miss not having it.
Chef Mickeys (Breakfast) - Tons of fun...great interaction with the characters.
H&V (Lunch) - Great options on the buffet...great interactions with the characters.
Tangierine Cafe (Morroco) - Great food - the Lamb schwarma was awesome!
Flame Tree BBQ - Great food...ribs were awesome!
Pirates and Pals Fireworks Cruise - Great time...great snacks ahead of time....well worth the money.
I realize I keep using the word great but it truly was a magical vacation.
Memory Maker - Feel it was well worth the money. Tons of photographers around but i found we had to wait in line lots of times to get them to take our picture. We had an issue on the last day - the pics that they took at Chef Mickeys did not make their way to my account even though they had scanned my magic band. I called the Memory Maker people and gave them the date/time we were there and she found the pics and downloaded them to my account. Awesome!
Weather - It was 92 and sunny every day (low humidity). Was told it was warmer than normal for that time of year.
Crowds - Had followed Touring plans and picked that week for being the #5 week to go in terms of crowds...well if that was low/medium crowds, I'd hate to see what crowded is! The parks were SLAMMED! Even MK - now to be fair, the week before we got there was horrible weather wise - they had just had 3 days of torrential rains so by the time Sunday the 4th hit and the sun came out, people came out of the wood work. I will say that Epcot, HS and AK were a bit better but MK was slammed even on recommended days.
Rides - My son (6) loved Spaceship Earth, Peter Pan, Soarin, the Haunted Mansion and the People Mover. My daughter (4) loved IASW, Peter Pan and anything to do with Ariel!! When I asked her what the best part was, she said the pool! Thanks kid...we could have stayed at a Holiday Inn and used that pool! LOL. Toy Story Midway Mania was a lot of fun too!!
Disney Visa Card Holder Picture Oppty - Found it very easily at Innovations in Epcot. You never know who will be behind the curtain. We had Minnie and Pluto! Very fun. Have to redeem your free photos on the way out at the camera shop and of course since i had memory maker, I got all the shots anyway in my account.
Pick a Pearl at Japan in Epcot - Note: If you want to have it put in a setting, they ask you to come back in an hour and a half which was a lot since I went back to Future World and then had to go back to Japan later on when I was tired of walking! But I did it anyway and got a beautiful pearl ring (DH and I were celebrating our 13th anniversary).
Meal Plan - We took the regular dining (CS, TS and snack). It really is a lot of food....I didn't believe it but it is....the portions are big in most cases so you could split and if you don't, just make sure you plan giving yourself plenty of time between meals. I had scheduled lunch around 12 and dinner at 5 and we just weren't hungry yet lots of times.
Hmm...did I forget anything? Oh yeah, we can't wait to go back!!! So much we didn't get to do!!
I traveled with DH, DS (age 6), DD (age 4) and my parents. We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge - LOVED IT! SO beautiful and so convenient for traveling to MK. Even the buses we used to take to the other parks were very fast. NOTE: I had brought Disney GC to use to pay my room charges etc. and when I went to check out they said they had already charged my credit card (and of course I can't use my GC to pay my credit card) so if you are planning on doing this, I would advise that you let the front desk know before they check you out and give you an itemized receipt). This was hanging on my door when I woke up on check out day.
So here are my comments in no particular order:
CRT (Breakfast)- Awesome, amazing, good food...princesses spent lots of time with my kids signing autographs and taking pictures.
Anna/Elsa- Was in the park early due to CRT and when we got out we were right at the rope by the carousel. I did not have a FP for A/E but I thought, hey, we are here at the rope, how hard could it be. When they let the public in, you would have thought they were giving something away for free....the crowd surged towards us and it was all I could do to hang on to my kids' hands. We were pushed with the crowd who ran around the carousel and by the time we all got through the small entrance ropes, they told me where I was standing was at least a 2 hour wait. SO we got out of line. It was unlike anything I've ever seen...crazy...
Anna/Elsa merchandise - it changed daily...Sir Mickeys had stuff on Sunday and then different stuff on Tuesday. I found an Elsa shirt on Wed. at Epcot in Norway.
Columbia Harbor House - Get CS choice!! Highly recommend the chocolate cake for dessert!
Whispering Canyone Cafe (Dinner) - Good food, was not overly loud or obnoxious...fun!
Liberty Tree Tavern (Lunch)- Awesome! Pot roast was amazing! Loved the ooey gooey toffee cake!!
Coral Reef (Dinner) - Food was just okay. I was sort of disappointed. I had wanted short ribs and got there and it was no longer on the menu. Had the salmon which was dry. Furthermore they had no alternatives for my picky eater kids - most places always offered chicken nuggets even if it wasn't on the menu - here the waiter said no. I WILL say that the views of the aquarium were awesome and there were divers in the tank who were interacting with us which was fun. The chocolate wave dessert was to die for!!
Ohana (Dinner) - Awesome...lots of fun....great waitress...very attentive. Hadn't been there when they'd had the chicken so I didn't miss not having it.
Chef Mickeys (Breakfast) - Tons of fun...great interaction with the characters.
H&V (Lunch) - Great options on the buffet...great interactions with the characters.
Tangierine Cafe (Morroco) - Great food - the Lamb schwarma was awesome!
Flame Tree BBQ - Great food...ribs were awesome!
Pirates and Pals Fireworks Cruise - Great time...great snacks ahead of time....well worth the money.
I realize I keep using the word great but it truly was a magical vacation.
Memory Maker - Feel it was well worth the money. Tons of photographers around but i found we had to wait in line lots of times to get them to take our picture. We had an issue on the last day - the pics that they took at Chef Mickeys did not make their way to my account even though they had scanned my magic band. I called the Memory Maker people and gave them the date/time we were there and she found the pics and downloaded them to my account. Awesome!
Weather - It was 92 and sunny every day (low humidity). Was told it was warmer than normal for that time of year.
Crowds - Had followed Touring plans and picked that week for being the #5 week to go in terms of crowds...well if that was low/medium crowds, I'd hate to see what crowded is! The parks were SLAMMED! Even MK - now to be fair, the week before we got there was horrible weather wise - they had just had 3 days of torrential rains so by the time Sunday the 4th hit and the sun came out, people came out of the wood work. I will say that Epcot, HS and AK were a bit better but MK was slammed even on recommended days.
Rides - My son (6) loved Spaceship Earth, Peter Pan, Soarin, the Haunted Mansion and the People Mover. My daughter (4) loved IASW, Peter Pan and anything to do with Ariel!! When I asked her what the best part was, she said the pool! Thanks kid...we could have stayed at a Holiday Inn and used that pool! LOL. Toy Story Midway Mania was a lot of fun too!!
Disney Visa Card Holder Picture Oppty - Found it very easily at Innovations in Epcot. You never know who will be behind the curtain. We had Minnie and Pluto! Very fun. Have to redeem your free photos on the way out at the camera shop and of course since i had memory maker, I got all the shots anyway in my account.
Pick a Pearl at Japan in Epcot - Note: If you want to have it put in a setting, they ask you to come back in an hour and a half which was a lot since I went back to Future World and then had to go back to Japan later on when I was tired of walking! But I did it anyway and got a beautiful pearl ring (DH and I were celebrating our 13th anniversary).
Meal Plan - We took the regular dining (CS, TS and snack). It really is a lot of food....I didn't believe it but it is....the portions are big in most cases so you could split and if you don't, just make sure you plan giving yourself plenty of time between meals. I had scheduled lunch around 12 and dinner at 5 and we just weren't hungry yet lots of times.
Hmm...did I forget anything? Oh yeah, we can't wait to go back!!! So much we didn't get to do!!
...and the information was helpful. Was concerned Wilderness Cafe would be too riotous and the food has received mixed reviews. You relieved that concern. We have FP for Anna /Elsa but I've been hearing about that chaos.Ugh! Sounds like you had a fun trip. Thanks for posting!
