DisneyNutinNJ
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2009
- Messages
- 86
HI everyone.. DW and I just got home last night from our latest 7 day/6 night trip to the World. We had a wonderful time "celebrating" our first anniversary and the birth of our first little one, though they were 2 and 6 months early, respectively. To help answer some questions and hopefully organize what you're looking for, I'm breaking down my "review"
TRANSPORTATION:
Well, you have to GET there first! We flew Southwest out of PHL on Friday 8/21 VERY early in the AM. Great flight down, especially with our hilarious flight attendant, James. DME was also great again, and after maybe a 10 minute wait at MCO, we were off to CBR. Now, for the Disney buses to the parks, for the most part they were about par for the course. I wasn't too happy with the waits sometimes (about 40 minutes for a DAK bus one morning) and they need new brakes, or drivers who can handle them, since I think that our little one will be a bobblehead now from all the shaking on the road.
ACCOMMODATIONS:
We stayed at Caribbean Beach, in Jamaica and had a Nemo Room. It was a room...no more, no less. I frankly was NOT a fan... it was too big, the theming wasn't the greatest, IMO, and we both said we won;t be there again. on the upside, the air conditioning was nice and cold, which felt great in the afternoon. We're not pool people, so aside from walking through there, we didn't spend any time there. Old Port Royale was servicable, we only ate there twice. I got the Beef and Blue sandwich first day, which was great, but ordered a disgrace of a cheesesteak later in the week that was absolutely abominable. Which gets me to the next item...
DINING:
We DID do the DDP and loved it again, with one exception (coming later). ADRs worked perfectly, and we had TS which included: CP for dinner (we got the heart glitter); Kona for lunch; Mama Melrose for dinner; Tusker House for a breakfast; San Angel Inn for a lunch; Garden Grill for a dinner. We did our QS/CS when we felt hungry, and enjoyed all the food, aside from that despicable cheesesteak We did have to laugh at some of the many many meltdowns (especially the excuses) you saw from people trying to walk up to TS locations and trying to make the reservations the same morning with Guest Relations or the Concierge. We saved up all our snack credits until the end, and did some damage at Goofy's
CROWDS & WEATHER:
Crowds were there but manageable. We purposely avoided EMH wherever possible and this DID help quite a lot. I got the feeling people were not really park hopping like they used to I did notice a great number of foreign visitors though... lots of British accents!! I know we went during the first week of school for many, so Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were heavier than the rest of the week. Our longest wait time was about 35 minutes for TSMM, and we did Fastpass it, so we got 2 rides. We did NOT really do any of the other E-tickets though, except I rode ToT twice on a FP and standby wait of 5 minutes, and RnR in the single rider line... took me about 10 minutes. MANY of the posted wait times GROSSLY exaggerated the actual waits.
For the weather... It's Florida. It's August. It was exactly what we expected.
SPECIAL EVENTS:
We took more time to relax and resort hop and take tours this time around. We took the KTTK tour on Saturday morning and LOVED it. Our guide was Patrick, and while he was a little long winded sometimes, his knowledge of WDW and the company in general was extensive. While the walking did get to my wife after a while, we were able to catch breaks where we could I also loved that the tour lasted longer than advertised We also got some insider tips about the SM refurb too It's going to be WELL worth the wait I think, if what we heard is true!!
We took the Behind the Seeds tour on Sunday with Danny. He was a proud "bug guy" but the tours of the greenhouses were fantastic as well. I was so glad we were able to do this as LWTL is our favorite ride and we were very disappointed to miss it! (Yes, we are more about the old, educational EPCOT... you can have your TT and Mission Space) Again, the tour was much longer than the advertised hour but you never knew it!
Finally, on Tuesday we attended the Wishes Dessert Party. It was packed, but you didn't know it, it was VERY well organized. All the desserts were appetizer portioned (for lack of a better comparison) and quickly replenished when low...with the exception of the fresh fruit which decimated by the vultures every time as soon as the plate hit the buffet The fireworks themselves were good. There was no Tinkerbell (it was pouring!) and the rest were just fireworks to me, but I know DW loved it! I was more there for the desserts
THE AFTERMATH:
My only disappointments were that on Thursday, when we went to Mouse Gear, the EPCOT shirt I wanted, (the one with all the old logos) was pulled overnight to make room for the Halloween merchandise...(DON'T get me started on Halloween decorations in August...OR the big crane over the Castle setting up Xmas lights all week ). So, I never got my shirt. The second disappointment was having to come home!!! We did have a great flight back on Southwest, again, thanks to James, the same flight attendant we flew down with...and our front row seats .
Anyone with specific questions about anything, feel free to ask, either here or in a PM, and I will answer ASAP. As an FYI, we did NOT ride the following, so I cannot answer specifics about these E-Tickets:
BTMRR; Peter Pan; Test Track; Mission Space; Maelstrom; KRR; EE.
Overall, we spent time in all the major parks, as well as DTD. We visited the Poly, Wilderness Lodge, Contemporary, and Saratoga Springs in our resort hopping.
TRANSPORTATION:
Well, you have to GET there first! We flew Southwest out of PHL on Friday 8/21 VERY early in the AM. Great flight down, especially with our hilarious flight attendant, James. DME was also great again, and after maybe a 10 minute wait at MCO, we were off to CBR. Now, for the Disney buses to the parks, for the most part they were about par for the course. I wasn't too happy with the waits sometimes (about 40 minutes for a DAK bus one morning) and they need new brakes, or drivers who can handle them, since I think that our little one will be a bobblehead now from all the shaking on the road.
ACCOMMODATIONS:
We stayed at Caribbean Beach, in Jamaica and had a Nemo Room. It was a room...no more, no less. I frankly was NOT a fan... it was too big, the theming wasn't the greatest, IMO, and we both said we won;t be there again. on the upside, the air conditioning was nice and cold, which felt great in the afternoon. We're not pool people, so aside from walking through there, we didn't spend any time there. Old Port Royale was servicable, we only ate there twice. I got the Beef and Blue sandwich first day, which was great, but ordered a disgrace of a cheesesteak later in the week that was absolutely abominable. Which gets me to the next item...
DINING:
We DID do the DDP and loved it again, with one exception (coming later). ADRs worked perfectly, and we had TS which included: CP for dinner (we got the heart glitter); Kona for lunch; Mama Melrose for dinner; Tusker House for a breakfast; San Angel Inn for a lunch; Garden Grill for a dinner. We did our QS/CS when we felt hungry, and enjoyed all the food, aside from that despicable cheesesteak We did have to laugh at some of the many many meltdowns (especially the excuses) you saw from people trying to walk up to TS locations and trying to make the reservations the same morning with Guest Relations or the Concierge. We saved up all our snack credits until the end, and did some damage at Goofy's
CROWDS & WEATHER:
Crowds were there but manageable. We purposely avoided EMH wherever possible and this DID help quite a lot. I got the feeling people were not really park hopping like they used to I did notice a great number of foreign visitors though... lots of British accents!! I know we went during the first week of school for many, so Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were heavier than the rest of the week. Our longest wait time was about 35 minutes for TSMM, and we did Fastpass it, so we got 2 rides. We did NOT really do any of the other E-tickets though, except I rode ToT twice on a FP and standby wait of 5 minutes, and RnR in the single rider line... took me about 10 minutes. MANY of the posted wait times GROSSLY exaggerated the actual waits.
For the weather... It's Florida. It's August. It was exactly what we expected.
SPECIAL EVENTS:
We took more time to relax and resort hop and take tours this time around. We took the KTTK tour on Saturday morning and LOVED it. Our guide was Patrick, and while he was a little long winded sometimes, his knowledge of WDW and the company in general was extensive. While the walking did get to my wife after a while, we were able to catch breaks where we could I also loved that the tour lasted longer than advertised We also got some insider tips about the SM refurb too It's going to be WELL worth the wait I think, if what we heard is true!!
We took the Behind the Seeds tour on Sunday with Danny. He was a proud "bug guy" but the tours of the greenhouses were fantastic as well. I was so glad we were able to do this as LWTL is our favorite ride and we were very disappointed to miss it! (Yes, we are more about the old, educational EPCOT... you can have your TT and Mission Space) Again, the tour was much longer than the advertised hour but you never knew it!
Finally, on Tuesday we attended the Wishes Dessert Party. It was packed, but you didn't know it, it was VERY well organized. All the desserts were appetizer portioned (for lack of a better comparison) and quickly replenished when low...with the exception of the fresh fruit which decimated by the vultures every time as soon as the plate hit the buffet The fireworks themselves were good. There was no Tinkerbell (it was pouring!) and the rest were just fireworks to me, but I know DW loved it! I was more there for the desserts
THE AFTERMATH:
My only disappointments were that on Thursday, when we went to Mouse Gear, the EPCOT shirt I wanted, (the one with all the old logos) was pulled overnight to make room for the Halloween merchandise...(DON'T get me started on Halloween decorations in August...OR the big crane over the Castle setting up Xmas lights all week ). So, I never got my shirt. The second disappointment was having to come home!!! We did have a great flight back on Southwest, again, thanks to James, the same flight attendant we flew down with...and our front row seats .
Anyone with specific questions about anything, feel free to ask, either here or in a PM, and I will answer ASAP. As an FYI, we did NOT ride the following, so I cannot answer specifics about these E-Tickets:
BTMRR; Peter Pan; Test Track; Mission Space; Maelstrom; KRR; EE.
Overall, we spent time in all the major parks, as well as DTD. We visited the Poly, Wilderness Lodge, Contemporary, and Saratoga Springs in our resort hopping.
