Pirate & Pals was GREAT, I would highly recommend this if you have a little pirate in your household and/or a fan of Peter Pan. You start the night in the Contemporary Resort where you meet Hook & Smee and raid the snack bar for loot and treasures. Hook was very in character - in fact, he "captured" me and my DD6 duelled him to rescue me! Now, some kids seemed to be quite scared of Hook and were in tears so you want to make sure your child will like this meet-n-greet and not be traumatized by it. Then, you set sail with a pirate captain and see the Electrical Water Pageant followed by Wishes in front of Magic Kingdom. Amazing view!!! After the fireworks and on the way back to the Contemporary, the captain plays a trivia game and the kids win prizes for correct answers (in the end, everyone won something). The trivia centers around The Little Mermaid, Pirates of the Carribbean (the ride, not the movie) and finally Peter Pan. And then, when you dock, Peter Pan shows up as a special surprise for a meet-n-greet. Fantastic all in all!
My Disney Girl's Perfectly Princess Tea Party was also a highlight. My DD3 attended and there were about 12 other girls. I would say the average age is about 5 years so your 11 year old may feel too old but then again, it likely depends on her - I heard many on the Disboards say 3 was too young, but I know my daughter loved it and felt like a true princess that day and for me, that was worth it. It is very sweet and the girls are truly treated like royalty with many gifts - a Disney Girl doll that looks like Aurora (can't buy her in the parks, this is exclusive to the tea party), a charm bracelet, a tiara, a certificate for the doll, a real rose, a thank you note from Aurora and a princess scrapbooking set. It is expensive at $250 for an adult and child but worth it if you can work it into your vacation budget.
The cabins were actually great - I had heard bad things about the transportation but the buses were amazing. It was very quick to all of the parks. It does not feel isolated at all. You are right across from The Contemporary and beside Wilderness Lodge. As soon as you get in the boat, you can see Magic Kingdom and I did like being so close to that park. The boat ride is only 10 minutes. Epcot and Hollywood Studios were maybe 10-15 minutes in the bus and AK was more like 20 - all much quicker than I heard/expected. We did have a golf cart and I would recommend that. Although the internal buses also appeared to be running continuously, personally I would have found it annoying to have to catch a bus to go swimming or over to the campfire or to the bus/boat stop in the mornings. The main pool is not in the cabin loops but was a quick jaunt in the golf cart. Apparently there is a quiet pool in one of the cabin loops but we never made it there as we liked the main pool. It was never crowded. It is huge and has a great water slide as well as a little splash pad with mini-slides. It was not noisy at the cabins, in fact it was great that we never had to worry about hearing other people in the halls or flushing toilets or anything. The only thing I didn't like is that despite the kitchen and extra bedroom there is limited closet/drawer space so we never really unpacked, just kind of lived out of the suitcases which made it feel slightly cramped. I was expecting it to feel more spacious being a one-bedroom cabin. Also it could use a counter-service meal option bc the dining is limited there. That said, we enjoyed it and the kids LOVED it there. The bunk beds were a hit!
Hope that helps!
