Just Back! Learn from my Experiences/Mistakes 4/15-4/23

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I just returned from another great Disney trip. Our dates were 4/15-4/23. We did a split stay, the first couple nights at Port Orleans Riverside and the rest at All Star Sports.

I just wanted to share some things with everyone in case they can help you plan your trip!

Food:

-We tried Yak and Yeti, we'd been there before but not for about 3 years. It was the best meal we had all trip! They've trimmed their menu down to one page and really focused on those items and wow, does it show! I had the dragon roll for 2 as my dinner, and it was really good. My boyfriend got the chicken tikka masala and it was seriously out of this world. I cannot recommend Yak and Yeti enough.

-Some of you may be surprised, but our second best meal was Nine Dragons! I really want to have the General Tso's Chicken Dumplings right now...soooo good. I had the kung pao shrimp and it was excellent and had a very smokey flavor. My boyfriend had the sweet and sour pork which he enjoyed, but he admitted mine was better.

-Flower and Garden food booths: I don't think we had a bad dish here. I remember the DIS Podcasters saying that they thought the food quality was better than at the Food and Wine and I agree with that.

-we also tried the Skipper's Canteen. We thoroughly enjoyed the food, that mac and cheese was so amazing. I can also see how the food wouldn't be for everyone.

Hotels:

We did make one big mistake here. If you are going to switch resorts mid trip, always switch up. We went from Port Orleans Riverside down to All Star Sports which seemed like a sizable downgrade and difference.

We stayed in the Alligator Bayou rooms which must have been renovated pretty recently. I really enjoyed the little bed that folds down from under the TV and the Princess and the Frog artwork was so cute. I liked how rustic the room looked and got a kick out of the wood 'paneling' in the shower.

The resort was quiet and very peaceful and beautiful. We didn't really use the buses here a lot and preferred to drive. I know lots of people like buses at WDW, but we never seem to have good luck with them.

The All Star Sports, on the other hand, was not peaceful or beautiful. Don't get me wrong, I like parts of Sports and usually don't mind staying there. We were there the weekend of a pretty big dance competition. We didn't have any problems with loud people at night, but it is kind of odd to be walking around your resort and have to dodge dance/cheer groups practicing.

We also didn't use the buses here much. We were about as far as you could get from the bus stop even though I'd put 'close to transportation' on my online check in application.

Fastpass +:

It worked out for the most part. Though, my opinion might stem from the fact that we had a much more relaxed trip than usual and focused on things other than rides. Disney had just allowed people to start booking their 4th FP online, which was both helpful and annoying.

Helpful because we park hop a lot and this way we could get a fast pass before even being in our evening park. It was also good because we couldn't constantly check for better fast passes.

It was annoying because I believe there is less fastpass availability with this online booking, since you don't have to be in the park to book I think this meant that any available fastpasses were taken pretty quickly.

RunDisney:

We participated in the 10k Dark Side race. We managed to somehow earn ourselves a spot in Corral B, which was so nice because it wasn't very crowded and we could actually find running room.

The course was ok, we got to run through Future World and a bit of DHS. It ended at WWOS which was kind of boring, but understandable since that doesn't interfere with the operations of any parks.

I was very disappointed in the characters on course. If you don't count the characters before the race, there were an exact total of 3 Disney sponsored characters on the course: Chewbacca (who you can meet in DHS), R2 and Darth Vader. The 501st was there for the event and they saved the day, but it isn't like Disney had to pay them so I still felt let down by the lack of characters on course. RunDisney had also set up a couple backdrops for pictures. There was one with the Emperor's chair and I stopped to ask if the Emperor was on a break and I was told no, it was just his chair.

Crowds:

It is just a fact of life that Disney doesn't have any low crowd times anymore. Sure, you might get lucky and chance upon a random dead week, but it is tough to plan for. I really don't think the crowds were even that bad for this trip, what made it worse was it seemed that Disney was running rides with much less capacity than they should. For example, we were in line to ride Dinosaur and it was taking longer than advertised. We got to the loading area and saw that only one side of vehicles were loading. I have never seen an entire side of that ride shut down, and I've been on Dinosaur half an hour before close when it was a walk on. Many rides just weren't loading all vehicles and it was pretty sad and frustrating.

Random highlights of the trip:

I got to meet Joe Rohde at AK on Earth Day. He had artwork available to purchase and get signed, all proceeds went to the conservation fund. I'm so glad I did this because he was so nice and genuine.

We took the World Showcase tour at Epcot and I have to highly recommend this if you are a fan of the Showcase. We learned so much about all the countries, it was amazing.

DHS really does seem like a shell of itself. I thought people were exaggerating when they said this exact thing, but I have to agree. We managed to do everything we wanted in the park on two separate days, one day we rope dropped it and rode TT twice, RRC, TSMM, GMR, ST and met a bunch of characters and had lunch at Sci Fi and were gone by 12:30. The other day we came over around 4 for characterpalooza and had trouble filling the time until Fantasmic and the SW fireworks (which we did by meeting characters, watching VOTLM, the Frozen show and riding TT and ST some more).

AK on Earth Day was very odd. The park was very packed and we kept hearing people asking about Rivers of Light. We actually ended up leaving midday because it was just too crowded.

I think we hit the jackpot on Orlando weather. I don't think we had more than one day go above mid 80s. There was very little humidity and it actually got a bit chilly at nighttime.

Anyone have any questions feel free to ask

 

[Sevey13]

Glad you liked Yak & Yeti. I might add it instead of a second visit to Flame Tree.

Question on Sports Transpo...you said you didn't use the buses there. How else did you get around, then? Walk? Did you have a car?

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Glad you liked Yak & Yeti. I might add it instead of a second visit to Flame Tree.

Question on Sports Transpo...you said you didn't use the buses there. How else did you get around, then? Walk? Did you have a car?

We had a rental car.

I've actually found sports to be one of the best resorts for buses. I've never had a very long wait for one. Only thing I don't like is that you can end up in a building very far from the bus stop. This trip we were in one of the farthest buildings so we just parked right outside the room and drove everywhere except for the Mk (which can be a pain to drive to).

 

[yulilin3]

So great to hear you had a good time, nice to see you and the bf again

 

[1971DBday]

Thank you for the updates!

 

[Mikie]

Thanks!
So interesting that the food at the Flower festival is better than the food at the food festival
Great tip about split stays. We're considering one for next trip and in all the thoughts of which resort, which category of room, which location within the resort, I might have overlooked which should go first!disappointing about the capacity shortage, but glad it sounds like an awesome trip overall!

 

[agavegirl1]

We also found Yak and Yeti to be underrated. On our first AK day, we did not have an ADR but noticed Yak and Yeti was taking walkups for lunch. We asked at the desk if this was indeed possible, and they said absolutely, walk-ups should be available on our MK afternoon on Thursday. I cancelled the Tusker House ADR I had for that day and we just walked up and were immediately seated. Great food.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

We are POR enslaved. We do try other resorts but our main vacation spot is POR AB. You are correct that trading down is difficult from POR. Not because values are poor but POR is so awesome. Staying at a value on arrival day gets me wishing for POR so we stopped doing that and taking the fee hit to just start out at POR and not move.

 

[MisWal]

We are so looking forward to our Yak and Yeti ADR in a few weeks! Glad to hear you had a great meal!

 

[AngiTN]

Food:

-We tried Yak and Yeti, we'd been there before but not for about 3 years. It was the best meal we had all trip! They've trimmed their menu down to one page and really focused on those items and wow, does it show! I had the dragon roll for 2 as my dinner, and it was really good. My boyfriend got the chicken tikka masala and it was seriously out of this world. I cannot recommend Yak and Yeti enough.

-Some of you may be surprised, but our second best meal was Nine Dragons! I really want to have the General Tso's Chicken Dumplings right now...soooo good. I had the kung pao shrimp and it was excellent and had a very smokey flavor. My boyfriend had the sweet and sour pork which he enjoyed, but he admitted mine was better.

RunDisney:

We participated in the 10k Dark Side race. We managed to somehow earn ourselves a spot in Corral B, which was so nice because it wasn't very crowded and we could actually find running room.

The course was ok, we got to run through Future World and a bit of DHS. It ended at WWOS which was kind of boring, but understandable since that doesn't interfere with the operations of any parks.

I was very disappointed in the characters on course. If you don't count the characters before the race, there were an exact total of 3 Disney sponsored characters on the course: Chewbacca (who you can meet in DHS), R2 and Darth Vader. The 501st was there for the event and they saved the day, but it isn't like Disney had to pay them so I still felt let down by the lack of characters on course. RunDisney had also set up a couple backdrops for pictures. There was one with the Emperor's chair and I stopped to ask if the Emperor was on a break and I was told no, it was just his chair.

We too have become fans of Yak and Yeti and Nine Dragons. Surprising to me as I had my worse meal ever at the Yak and Yeti QS but the TS location is quite good

And that's a shame about the characters on the 10K
for the 5K we had Ezra and Sabine, R2D2, 2 Storm Troopers and something else it feels like I'm missing, in addition to the ones you had

We didn't stop for any since I was just on a roll and wanted to finished

DH and I are staying at POR for our first time next weekend. Looking forward to it

 

[momtotaryn]

Thank you for your review! Glad you enjoyed your trip!

 

[Mambo Junkie]

Thanks for the insights! If I didn't want the characters I would switch from Tusker to Y&Y

 

[webcreatrix]

DHS really does seem like a shell of itself. I thought people were exaggerating when they said this exact thing, but I have to agree. We managed to do everything we wanted in the park on two separate days, one day we rope dropped it and rode TT twice, RRC, TSMM, GMR, ST and met a bunch of characters and had lunch at Sci Fi and were gone by 12:30. The other day we came over around 4 for characterpalooza and had trouble filling the time until Fantasmic and the SW fireworks (which we did by meeting characters, watching VOTLM, the Frozen show and riding TT and ST some more).

Where was Characterpalooza? Our plans for our two days at HS are very similar!

 

[JimmyV]

-Flower and Garden food booths: I don't think we had a bad dish here. I remember the DIS Podcasters saying that they thought the food quality was better than at the Food and Wine and I agree with that.

Agree. I think Flower and Garden is now a better event than Food and Wine. The food was as good and perhaps better. And it is way less crowded. I literally (and I know that this is now the world's most overused word), but I mean literally did not encounter a single "line" at any booth. I walked up an ordered without a person in front of me 9 consecutive times over the course of a couple days. And the butterfly exhibit was neat. And the whole park just bursts with colors. Loved, loved, loved Flower and Garden.

 

[Ravensorrow]

Gotta do it....

O-H!

 

[Iowamomof4]

World Showcase tour? I must learn more about this!

 

[Sevey13]

We had a rental car.

I've actually found sports to be one of the best resorts for buses. I've never had a very long wait for one. Only thing I don't like is that you can end up in a building very far from the bus stop. This trip we were in one of the farthest buildings so we just parked right outside the room and drove everywhere except for the Mk (which can be a pain to drive to).

Cool. Booked that lunch at Yak & Yeti Very excited! Always wanted to try it and you've tipped me into the 'let's do it' category.

 

[LynJ]

Gotta do it....

O-H!

I-O!

(Not the person who started the thread, but also a Buckeye!)

 

[CarrieR]

I'm cracking up reading your TR - I could've written 85% of it myself. Trip dates? Check. Central OH? Check. Tried Y&Y for the first time? Check. (Friends have informed me that I need to bump another ADR so that we can return next trip!)

We were so lucky with the weather. It rained once - started just after we got under the bus awning at AK and stopped just before we disembarked at MK. It was a little hot walking the WS the last day, but only compared to the last week, not compared to, say, July.

The ride capacity thing was a major issue. I watched them transferring vehicles off on multiple rides despite the lines. We had an incident at AK where a CM voluntarily apologized (unprompted) for the wait at Safari, telling us, "Due to budget cuts, we can't run the number of vehicles we need to for the size of the line." This was earth day, mind you, and AK was as busy as we'd ever seen it - 105 minutes for Safari maybe 90 minutes before park close (when it's normally a walk-on.) We go over Christmas week and even then the park usually empties by late afternoon. I think a lot of folks had arranged to be there for ROL and then were unable to switch things out at the last minute.

Overall, crowds weren't bad, but wait times were weird. We often saw Jungle Cruise as the longest line at MK (95 minutes?!) and 7DMT down to 30-40 minutes at peak times. When does THAT happen?

 

[mindeola]

Sounds like you had a great time! I am so excited for our first Yak and Yeti meal in 14 days!