Just back. Some good, bad, and ugly notes from my recent trip

[norybell]

My dog likes to chew on my iPad. I realize she's probably overqualified, but if you could put her in touch with Disney IT, she could make some positive changes.

My 18-month-old has had the iPad swipe mastered for at least six months now...maybe he could head up a Disney IT team?

Thanks for the detailed report, glad you had a good trip!

 

[RalphinSC]

Just remembered, one more to add to both the Good and the bad lists. Be Our Guest lunch with a fastpass.

The lunch itself goes over in the "Good". The sandwiches are better than Earl of Sandwich IMO and my Roast Pork was by far the best "counter service" meal I had all week. The cupcakes were awesome. And, if I'm not mistaken, this is the ONLY restaraunt in the MK that allows for free refills on drinks at their drink stations (kinda of why I like Backlot Express in Hollywood Studios). Always get one for the road, because it's HOT out.

The "bad" comes from the whole Fastpass experience. We arrived in a frazzle to being with after another "session" of trying to get our magicband straightened out with guest relations. We were feeling rushed because our "reservations" were at 2pm and we wanted decent parade viewing for the 3pm Festival of Fantasy parade (add that to the "good", that parade is incredible!). Well we checked in, they scanned our order and told us to head to see Bertrand. Well, we found Bertrand, who told us to get into the line to order. I stated we had already ordered and confirmed our order, we just needed to pay and sit. Well apparently I was far from right on that, because we STILL had to stand in a 15 minute line so we could get to the register and be told that they DIDN'T have our order in the system and we would need to re-order. Well, we had shunned looking at the menus because we ordered a good month prior. So we were once again scrambling and trying to figure out what we wanted. The order wasn't exactly what we planned, but it worked out well enough.

It did all end up OK, because we finished a hurried lunch at about 2:50 and managed to find a spot right on the hub behind some people. My brother called and in a stroke of luck, he had staked out a front row spot about thirty feet away across the street. We sent my son over to him so the little guy could sit down front and really see well and the DW and myself enjoyed good views from a couple of rows back.

So great experience with the lunch itself, the whole fastpass and pre-ordering process though was a complete wash. Still would enjoy to eat there again though, but I'd temper my expectations about what was meant by "fastpass" and pre-ordering...

 

[shyjade]

This happened to us last year. Although we had ordered online and were on the dining plan, we had to stand in line with everyone else and place our order a second time.

 

[heart]

My dog likes to chew on my iPad. I realize she's probably overqualified, but if you could put her in touch with Disney IT, she could make some positive changes.

hahahahahahahahahaha

 

[TandLMommy28]

Always good to hear a realistic review! Thanks for sharing all the details!

 

[Mimi Q]

Thank you for taking the time to post this. Headed down 2 weeks from today.

 

[gaudioli]

What's the Star Wars Galactic breakfast? Is that a 'star wars weekend' thing only?

 

[gaudioli]

What is the Star Wars galactic breakfast? Is it only offered on Star Wars weekends?

 

[Mjkre]

We had a similar recent problem with the friends and family link. It changed my daughter into my friend's husband--gave him all her passes, adrs, resort reservations, tickets, magic bands --everything that was hers became his. She disappeared from the account, he was in my family and he was not even going on trip! Ugh. Three days later, after many hours on phone, IT finally fixed most of it--except her customized magic band (now deactivated completely), her Be Our Guest FP and her 7dMT fp! Gone! New magic bands are on the way. They have also said they will have some special pass waiting for her to get her on 7DMT ride but my confidence is not high at this point. Nothing can be done to fix Be Our Guest.

Luckily, for us , it happened pre-trip. If it had happened while we are there, the three day fix would have ruined our trip for sure!

On another note, in Feb, the magical experience switched my two daughters. I normally would have had one just use the other's bands, but one was going to parks and the other was not. It took about 24 hours to fix. Plus random moments of one or all bands not opening our doors.

Like the op, I do take the approach that it could be worse, and try to work out around minor problems. That way I don't let the stupid annoying stuff become big-my-vacation-stunk kind of problems!

 

[Lauren79]

I could not stop laughing after I read part of your post. We were at Disney a couple of years ago and stayed at Pop Century. We stayed in a preferred room in the 60s section. Every time we would leave our room, there would be this awful smell, as you so eloquently described. After much investigation, our kids concluded that we had a smelly bush outside our room. It actually became a silly and memorable part of our vacation. We still talk about it to this day, in fact my daughter brought it up randomly at dinner the other night. I just had to share that with you!

 

[RalphinSC]

What's the Star Wars Galactic breakfast? Is that a 'star wars weekend' thing only?

It was a special character breakfast offered at Hollywood Studios from early may until last week. It coincided roughly with Star Wars Weekends but it was a stand alone dining experience and we booked ours for a Monday morning (not a SWW day). The breakfast was at the Sci-Fi drive in and featured Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Greedo, Stormtroopers, and Jawas. There was also a character dinner at Hollywood and Vine featuring Jedi Mickey and friends.

Overall, really high opinions of the dining experiences (except for cost maybe, especially the breakfast cost). Disney has a gold mine with the Star Wars IP and hopefully this short run of the character dining leads to a permanent character dining experience.

 

[RalphinSC]

We had a similar recent problem with the friends and family link. It changed my daughter into my friend's husband--gave him all her passes, adrs, resort reservations, tickets, magic bands --everything that was hers became his. She disappeared from the account, he was in my family and he was not even going on trip! Ugh. Three days later, after many hours on phone, IT finally fixed most of it--except her customized magic band (now deactivated completely), her Be Our Guest FP and her 7dMT fp! Gone! New magic bands are on the way. They have also said they will have some special pass waiting for her to get her on 7DMT ride but my confidence is not high at this point. Nothing can be done to fix Be Our Guest.

Luckily, for us , it happened pre-trip. If it had happened while we are there, the three day fix would have ruined our trip for sure!

On another note, in Feb, the magical experience switched my two daughters. I normally would have had one just use the other's bands, but one was going to parks and the other was not. It took about 24 hours to fix. Plus random moments of one or all bands not opening our doors.

Like the op, I do take the approach that it could be worse, and try to work out around minor problems. That way I don't let the stupid annoying stuff become big-my-vacation-stunk kind of problems!

My wife went back a couple of nights early from the parks and I swapped bands out with her just so I could set up extra fastpasses without the hassle. So it was frustrating enough that I WILLINGLY switched to a pink, Minnie Mouse bedazzled band

Just tried to make do with whatever we could. Not glad on your behalf but at least assured to know that we weren't the only people experiencing this problem and hopefully Disney can fix it.

All I can say is to be careful with linked reservations on MDE.

 

[RalphinSC]

I could not stop laughing after I read part of your post. We were at Disney a couple of years ago and stayed at Pop Century. We stayed in a preferred room in the 60s section. Every time we would leave our room, there would be this awful smell, as you so eloquently described. After much investigation, our kids concluded that we had a smelly bush outside our room. It actually became a silly and memorable part of our vacation. We still talk about it to this day, in fact my daughter brought it up randomly at dinner the other night. I just had to share that with you!

Pop Century.......

Land of the Smelly Bush!

To be fair, it didn't ruin anything at all for us. It was just a smell and something we came to avoid and mitigate.

 

[RalphinSC]

Thank you for taking the time to post this. Headed down 2 weeks from today.

Have fun!

 

[dfisher9]

Memory Maker, linking and ride photos. I went on an extended family trip and my brother purchased a Memory Maker package and linked it to us. We ended up with over 300 photos from the trip, including all the ride photos. The newly rolled out RFID transmitters for the ride photos worked wonderfully. You never had to stop and identify a picture, it just automatically loaded to you memory maker. The only pictures we had to manually load were our Jedi Training Academy pictures and our Star Wars Galactic Breakfast pictures. All photopass photographers had RFID scanners with them so they could link your pictures to your band. Worked like a charm.

I bought a Memory Maker as well and am going on an extended family trip with three rooms of people all linked via MDE Family and Friends. Did ride photos from both rooms show up automatically, even when your brother didn't ride? If it did, that would be great since my sister and I are splitting the cost and they will be riding on their own some days.

 

[RalphinSC]

I bought a Memory Maker as well and am going on an extended family trip with three rooms of people all linked via MDE Family and Friends. Did ride photos from both rooms show up automatically, even when your brother didn't ride? If it did, that would be great since my sister and I are splitting the cost and they will be riding on their own some days.

It worked wonderfully, and we have a great example to prove it. My brother bought the MM package and linked both myself and my Uncle to it. He left to go home on the 10th, my Uncle the 13th, and my family the 16th. AFTER he got home, he could log into his Memory Maker from his home computer and get pictures from rides we had ridden almost instantly. I am not kidding, I got a phone call walking out of Space Mountain on my last day, it was my brother laughing at the silly picture pose I had just made about four minutes earlier on the ride. It worked that well, that fast, and that wonderfully. We will DEFINITELY be doing Memory Maker on future trips!