coozieman
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2007
- Messages
- 304
Just got back last night after a 5 day - Father and son (DS9) trip - accomodations provided by Pop Century:
Pop Century Review: Stayed at all 3 All Star resorts and after staying at Pop - I will never stay anywhere else when going Value - definately 2 notches up from those 3 resorts:
Day 1 - Epcot
Day 2 - Hollywood Studios Have to say that up until this trip - this was #9- HS was always my least favorite park. After this trip - it moved up to #2. Planned all of the show times in advance - and was able to see each and every one of them:
Day 3 - Animal Kingdom - DS isn't a thrill rider, so going into the park the day's plan didn't include EE or Dinosaur, which meant a pretty laid back day:
Day 4 - Magic Kingdom. A friend came up from Daytona and his brough his grand daughter - who happened to be dressed in the most beautiful pink Minnie dress - which gave her over 100 compliments. She was beaming from morning till night..
Fantasyland Expansion -
Overall I rate this year's trip a solid 4 1/2 out of 5. Food, bus transportation, crowd levels, Cast Members all were top notch! Turn the AC back up in the indoor rides & shows and I wouldn't have anything to complain about this year! Thanks Walt!
....and already beginning to plan my grand daughter's first visit next August!
Pop Century Review: Stayed at all 3 All Star resorts and after staying at Pop - I will never stay anywhere else when going Value - definately 2 notches up from those 3 resorts:
- Stayed in the 60's Section - Building 4 - Lake View. Not a preferred location by Disney's category, but a 2 minute walk to the pool and Classic Hall
- Food Court was decent. Found out via the Chef that the "chicken" in the Oriental Chicken Salad isn't chicken, but processed/soy. Yuck! Returned that in a heartbeat and for the most part ate pizza whenever dining there.
- Staff - 5 Stars. Friendly as friendly as could be!
- Mousekeeping - 4 stars. Would have gotten a 5 star rating but no animals and on 2 different days they tossed my "plush" toilet paper I brought from home (hate the 1 ply!)
- NEVER waited longer than 10 minutes for any Bus, plus the distance to HS, Epcot and DD was less than a 10 minute ride - MK and AK was about 15ish
Day 1 - Epcot
- Having Test track down is definately noticeable on other attraction wait times. Got our Soarin FP at 10:30 with a 5:30 return time. Nemo had about a 15-20 minute wait ( never had a wait before - and have always gone in August)
- Agent P mission is awesome!! My son (and I ) had a blast. A big kudos to the Imagineers on this one. I had no idea to what to expect and was totally impressed with all of the clues that appear throughout the country. You gotta love technology!
- Took the boat ride from Hollywood to Epcot that morning ( free tix all week via an Imaginneer friend but had to meet up where he was working that day) Never saw this side of Disney and encourage everyone to do so that hasn't taken this relaxing 20 minute ride.)
- Garden Grill - eh. 2nd year we ate hear and pobably the last. Had we not had 1/2 price dining plan - would have been totally teed off at the lack of the food quality. However, character interaction is stellar and love Chip, Dale, Pluto and the Mistro
- Read a few weeks ago in a post that they have turned the AC down at Spaceship Earth - well it's definately true. They turned it WAY down. Used to be a great relief from the Summertime heat - which it still is - but no where close to what it used to be, my guess is that it's a 5-7 degree difference from where it used to be.
Day 2 - Hollywood Studios Have to say that up until this trip - this was #9- HS was always my least favorite park. After this trip - it moved up to #2. Planned all of the show times in advance - and was able to see each and every one of them:
- Lights, Motor, Action - please shoot me if I ever go back in there again. Saw it 4 years ago - figured we would give it another try. Still a big time snooze fest in my opinion
- American Idol - we loved it! Saw an afternoon show - tried to see the finale, but we were too late. Very cool to see - as we are AI fans in this house.
- Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Always stayed away from this for some reason - but finally broke down and we loved it! Def a must see
- Backlot Tour - what backlot tour?
- Indy - enough said. This never grows old in our family!
- Star Tours. Rode a few times with 3 different endings. DS was "the rebel spy" appearing up on the screen. He got a huge kick out of that.
- Muppets - hope this is next on the redo list. LOVE the Muppets - but this show needs a major redo IMO. Just don't find any humor in it and its really not 3D....eh - can't win em all!
- SCi Fi Diner - what a gem! 1st time here and had a great time. $13.95 burgers and fries rocked, waitress on roller skates was a hoot, theming was fabulous and we loved the old 'B" flicks. Def beats Pizza Planet!
- So glad I read up on Character Palooza. Got our pics/autographs with Hook, Queen of Hearts, Goofy with son Max. No wait for any of these - just pretty much walked right up. Also the standard Character Meet n Greets back there: Sorcerror Mickey, Pooh and friends, Handy Manny, Jake, Mr. Incredible and Frozone which was a 1st for us
Day 3 - Animal Kingdom - DS isn't a thrill rider, so going into the park the day's plan didn't include EE or Dinosaur, which meant a pretty laid back day:
- Let me start off my saying hot, hot, hot. Ungodly hot. DS has asthma and within an hour was having some issues. A quick few puffs and he was feeling better. Wanted to escape the heat so we headed into Yak n Yeti with no reservations. Walked right in and were seated within 5 minutes. Had sweet n sour and honey chicken - both were awesome!
- Made our way to a Bugs Life. Atypical 10 little kids screaming their heads off in terror - lol
- Our first visit to The Festival of the Lion King exceeded my expecations. Now i understand what folks mean that it's a must see!
- Flights of wonder - wasn't impressed, but a seat directly under the fan in the rear bleachers was a welcomed break from the heat
- A 2:30 downpour found a good chunk of folks heading for the exit - including us. Rained for a good 60+ minutes but stopped by the time we got back to POP and hung out in the pool for the rest of the afternoon.
- Decided to head back to HS for the evening and headed back to Character Palooza. Man o man - we hit the motherload this day: Hook and Queen of Hearts were repeated from the previous day but then the fun really began: Mulan, Mary Poppins and her Penquins, Belle, Genie, Jafar, Minnie and lo & behold Pinnochio and Gepetto. These 2 were a hoot and a half! They danced and played with DS and then I headed up for a picture and Pinnochio stopped to read my Grumpy shirt and started to laugh uncontrollably. He read it line by line then reached over, grabbed my nose and tried to pull on it - stating that I was a liar and my nose was destined to grow. He "unposed" - walked over to his Dad - grabbed him by his hand and pulled him in front of me. He fixed his glasses, bent down and also read my shirt - shaking his finger at me as I was also a liar. This lasted for almost 2 minutes and was THE highlight of the trip!
- Ended the day with my favorite night time show - Fantasmic. How anyone can rate this as a bad show is beyond me....
Day 4 - Magic Kingdom. A friend came up from Daytona and his brough his grand daughter - who happened to be dressed in the most beautiful pink Minnie dress - which gave her over 100 compliments. She was beaming from morning till night..
- Saw the Princesses and Mick and Minnie right away - getting all 6 done in less than 45 minutes
- In the next 2 hours we were able to ride Buzz, Stitch, People Mover, Laugh Floor and used our Fast Passes for Peter Pan, followed by my favorite Philharmagic. It's all about Rope Drop folks!
- While I had to make a quick trip back to change shoes (shame on me) the rest of my party rode Winnie - 45 minute wait. Glad I missed that!
- 3:00 Parade couldnt be missed - see it every year - but still love it. 4:00 Dinner resv. at Crystal Palace allowed us to miss the afternoon rain. Buffet was decent - turkey and salmon were awesome. Kids loved their choices along with Pooh and the gang. Finished off with some great Apple crumb dessert...
- Were able to get in Pirates, Alladin, Swiss Family and my 1st ride on Dumbo before the sky opened up once again, which continued until the end of the MSEP. A brief 10 minute pause and it started all over again. At this point we opted to not wait for Wishes and headed back before the masses ran for the busses.
Fantasyland Expansion -
- This is going to be fantastic!! Love, love, love the dualing Dumbos. The air conditioned interactive Big Top Tent is fantastic for the kids (and parents!) Casey's Splash pad was very well thought out and a great place to cool down. Parents - pack some extra clothes for the little ones because this isn't a mist area - its a soak area!
- The Mine ride is coming along - with the "shell" rising up high. Can't wait to see the finished product
- Eric's Castle in the distance is a tease right now. Going to be the "Eye candy" for this entire area
- Strollers, strollers, strollers - everywhere. With the construction walls up - things are definately a little tighter back in Fantaslyland. I swear the number of strollers out numbered the amount of people...
Overall I rate this year's trip a solid 4 1/2 out of 5. Food, bus transportation, crowd levels, Cast Members all were top notch! Turn the AC back up in the indoor rides & shows and I wouldn't have anything to complain about this year! Thanks Walt!
....and already beginning to plan my grand daughter's first visit next August!
The tip about Character Palooza is great and I can't wait to try it out in December.
