Vaughn4380
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2009
Just got back from a seven night stay (June 1-8). I find it helpful when others have posted "mini-TR" threads, so I thought I would do the same. Here we go in no specific order:
- We stayed at AKL, the place was well kept and the staff was friendly and helpful. This is my favorite resort and I am extra critical of the staff and condition of the resort. No complaints here. I even saw staff vacuuming the air ducts in a hallway, now that is some attention to a little noticed location. We paid for a standard view, but our "standard view" still included a pretty good view of the sunset savannah. We made no room requests and were happy with what we got.
- We noticed the overall demeanor and attitude of the guests and staff members was much better than our previous trips. We had no line cutters or rudeness this trip AT ALL, which I am sorry to say has not been our experience on previous trips. We moved our trip dates up a few weeks compared to previous trips and I am wondering if the earlier time made a difference. I mean, other guests were actually walking around smiling and would say “hello” when you approached them. This is how Disney should be.
- Temps were downright pleasant compared to our usual late June/early July time periods of previous trips.
- Yak and Yeti Restaurant is one of our favorites. This trip I got the ribs for the first time and they were excellent! Highly recommended.
- Bus service was great, I think we waited ten minutes for a Studio bus once. Otherwise the wait was never noticed. The drivers were more courteous than I remember in previous trips as well, often saying hello and engaging in conversation.
- The monorails are looking “well used”, I think at this point they have been in operation five years longer than the previous model and they are starting to show the wear and tear. Plastic panels were chipped, cracked, and dirty. Seats and carpet showed signs of hard use as well. For a signature feature of the resort, it might be time for Disney to consider upgrading or replacing the current fleet.
- We ate at the California Grill for the first time since the refurb, this used to be my wife’s favorite place to eat and often we scheduled a late dinner to catch the fireworks from the observation location. Well after the refurb, the place is much louder than before the refurb. We were seated in the main dining area and we had trouble hearing each other across the table due to the ambient noise from the other guest conversations and the kitchen (and my wife can be LOUD when needed). It was stupid loud in there. Additionally, our server did not know the menu very well and had no clue about the wine list. He was also not very good in general, often leaving water and sodas empty for a long period of time. This turned off several members of our group that had never eaten there before. Not sure if he was new or just not a good waiter, but it effected the whole experience. We will probably give it one more chance but if the experience is not better, we won’t be back.
- Magic bands worked flawlessly for the room and charging to our account. Neat idea for those uses. Very nice to go to the pool and not have to worry about where to hide the key. However, FP+ was a complete failure for us. After the first day my wife's magic band quit working for park entry and fast passes. When we stopped by guest services at the MK they said they had to "reload" or "re-connect" her park ticket to our account. After they did this, she lost all of her fast passes for the remainder of our trip. Since we had made them months in advance, there was no way to get her back into our planned fast passes. This was in addition to the inability to add additional fast passes from our phone app after the first three were used (which we found out at Disney is how the system was designed on purpose). My family also prefers to "wing it" when we go, often choosing which park we are going to the night before. The need to plan out months in advance which park we were going to or forgo the use of fast passes (at least for the popular attractions) was absolutely despised by our family.
- Standby lines were not bad at all. Peter Pan had a 25 minute wait at 8 PM one of the nights we were there, so we just stood in line for a lot of things even though the fast passes weren’t working for us. Compared to our usual travel times in the past, this was a nice surprise. I think the Dwarf’s mine train was 80 minutes most of the time we were there, but we had enough people in our group that didn’t want to do coasters that we never tried to wait for it. Everything else was downright reasonable.
- The cinnamon rolls at Gaston’s are freakishly huge! How much are they? Like $4? And they hang over the plate and stand like 5 inches tall? I saw several kids order one and their eyes about shot out of their head when they saw them. Very cool treat for a reasonable price. Easily shareable for two (or three) people if you are wondering.
- Cape May does have all you care to eat crab legs. This was a favorite of our travel group, most of whom do not like buffets.
- Overall a good trip, the only real problem was the FP+ system and my wife’s magic band. Other than that, this was an earlier time of year for us to go and the parks just felt different (almost like there was less tension in the air if that makes sense). While there were crowds, there were no pushy guests, my ankles were never hit by a scooter or stroller (which always happened when we went in July), overall it just felt like the Disney World I remembered as a kid. We will probably try to go as early in the summer as possible from now on. This trip was the first week my wife was off for the summer (she is a teacher), usually we wait a few weeks then go in July.