VACamm
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2012
- Messages
- 1,577
We just got back late last night from 10 GLORIOUS days at Walt Disney World. We stayed at the Coronado Springs Resort and we had an amazing time... just fantastic. I am absolutely exhausted from our vacation, and I wish I was still there. 
We had 8 day park tickets (not hoppers) and had made 9 ADR's in advance for our meals since we were on Disney Dining. Some thoughts from our trip:
1. Rope Drop Frenzy!! We made it to Rope Drop EVERY SINGLE DAY for 8 days straight. Actually we were 30-45 minutes early every single day for 8 days. We absolutely will never ever ever ever go to WDW without making Rope Drop again. We got SO MUCH done in the mornings before lunchtime while the wait times were still low... and before the afternoon crowds came in. We would head to, for example Splash Mountain and ride it with zero wait... then on the way off the ride we would grab a fast pass for Splash Mountain for later.... then walk over to Big Thunder Mt Railroad and ride it with a 2-3 minute wait. We got loads done with little to zero waits in the first 2-3 hours ever single day.
2. FP - Yes Please!!! Fast Passes are amazing! We always had a fast pass in our hands for something.... We commented so many times during our trip about how we are so confused why people will wait for 90 minutes for Space Mountain and not grab a FP for a 5 minute wait instead?? It blows my mind that people will wait in those long lines!
3. Wait Limits!!! 20 minutes was our limit for waiting for a standby line. Even though we were in the parks during the crazy busy Summer Season, we never waited more than 20 minutes for ANY RIDE whatsoever. By going at Rope Drop and using FPs we absolutely didn't wait in long lines. If we wanted to ride on Buzz Lightyear and it had a 75 minute wait, we would grab a FP and go ride the People Mover or CoP until our FP was ready.
4. Tap those cards!!! We really loved the new KTTW cards!! It was so easy to tap the card on our door at Coronado to get in... or to tap to pay for food or purchases in the gift shops. It was super easy!! We did not have ANY problems with any of our cards the entire vacation... we zipped into the parks every single day with them and they seem much quicker since 2 people could tap at the same time!
5. RAIN!! Yes it rained 7 out of our 10 days.... most days it was for 10-15 minutes... but one day it was a crazy heavy downpour for about 3 hours... we used ponchos and umbrellas and didn't mind it at all. The parks really cleared out !! We mainly wear flip flops into the parks... so we didn't mind walking through puddles one bit.
6. Rides Down!! We had a lot of bad luck with rides breaking down on us and we had to sit there for awhile before we started back up again.... here is the list of the rides (some more than once) that we were on that broke down while we were on them: Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Carribean, Its a Small World, Little Mermaid, Spaceship Earth, Dinosaur, Space Mountain, and the People Mover. Actually we were evactuated from the People Mover and given anytime FPs which was fun and interesting to be walking way up high on the track! We were also given anytime FPs for Dinosaur and Space Mountain because the rides went down when we were about ready to board them.
7. Food!!! Omgosh we ate soooo much food over 10 days in WDW. We had some GREAT meals and some BLAH meals. I will order my favorite table service meals from MOST favorite to LEAST favorite:
- Ohana character breakfast: Hands down our favorite table service meal of the 10 days. Terrific breakfast foods.... yummy coffee... and Lilo, Stitch, Pluto, and Mickey were super fun!
- Be Our Guest dinner: Loved the atmosphere... loved the dessert.... my meal was so-so (scallops and shrimp)... but meeting Beast was priceless!
- Via Napoli dinner: Delicious food and amazing dessert... I got those donut things that you dip in the warm chocolate... OMGOSH delicious!
- Mama Melroses dinner: We eat here every visit and we LOVE LOVE LOVE the food! The Calamari is terrific, the Pasta is terrific... and the SANGRIA is to die for!
- Tusker House character lunch: I loved the buffet foods... it was really good. The character interaction was terrific too!
- Crystal Palace character dinner: My family always loves this buffet... its tradition for us! The food is tasty and tons of it!! Pooh and friends spend a lot of time with each table and we always enjoy it.
- Yak and Yeti dinner: It was not my favorite at all. My chicken dish was disgusting.... the dessert was delicious though!!!! Everyone else liked their meals... I must have ordered the wrong thing. The atmosphere of the restaurant was really cool though... I thought it was well done.
- Sci Fi dinner: Meh. Food was ok.... burgers and sandwiches... I think my husband got a steak. My sons love the atmosphere so we go every time we visit WDW. My youngest son loves the cheezy movies and the ice cream sundaes!
- Akershus character dinner: Did not like the cold bar (lots of cold fish), did not like my meal (my meat was super fatty and gross) ... the desserts were good... and the Princess interaction was good. But, I won't be returning anytime soon for sure.
8. Coronado Springs!!! LOVED IT! I can now say that I've stayed at all 4 moderates and I think that CSR is now my favorite! Yes its a huge resort. Yes theres a convention center there. Yes it has 4 bus stops. However... its absolutely breathtaking and the walk from the buildings to El Centro is really not that bad! We stayed in Casitas 4101 which is on the 1st floor in building 4. The bus stop was directly outside of our door and we were the first bus stop to be picked up and the first to drop off so we ALWAYS had a seat. The Pepper Market and the Cafe Rix were terrific and the food was good... we ate breakfast there almost every day. I filled our refillable mugs several times a day at Cafe Rix or at the Pool Bar at the Dig Site. Casitas building 4 has the bus stop, the Gym, and the quiet pool right there.... perfect location. I think it took about 4 minutes to walk to El Centro and about 6 minutes to walk to the Dig Site. Not a bad walk at all... you walk 30x that each day in the park!!
9. Bus Service!!!! We had really good luck with busses from CSR over the 10 days.... we only had 2x that we had to wait longer than 3-10 minutes for the bus (our normal waits). One night heading from CSR to Epcot we waited 35 minutes for a bus.... and one day headed back from MK to CSR we waited about 30 minutes. We were hot and miserable waiting and it was annoying but oh well... you can't contol the busses
10. Stollers - GRRRrrrrr!!!! I personally got run over by 2 strollers in the MK... and it HURTS!! And people don't even say 'I'm sorry'!! Geesh!! Really annoying.
11. Main St Electrical Light Parade and Wishes!!!! What an amazing and glorious creation! We had terrific seats on the curb directly in front of Cinderellas Castle which I guarded for 2 hours before hand.... while my husband kept bringing me Starbucks Iced Coffees I didn't mind sitting there though... and my kids and husband had perfect front row seats to the parade and the fireworks.
12. Starbucks!!! I am a coffee-holic and must have coffee several times a day. The new Starbucks is terrific... short waits in line and great coffee. The signs are teeny.... so it absolutely does not take away from the ambiance of Main St or the Bakery at all contrary to popular belief of some people.
13. New Fantasyland!!! Disney did it right and its PERFECTION! Loved the new Little Mermaid ride.... sure its not fast and or a roller coaster... but it tells the story of the Little Mermaid in the CLASSIC Disney way... the animitronics were great. We got snacks in Gastons tavern and that whole area is really fun! We saw Gaston and had some LaFous brew (frozen apple juice concoction). The Big Top Circus are was so well done and I was very surprised because I thought it was going to be super cheezy.... nope it was great! We rode Dumbo and got sprinkled on at Casey Jr and shopped under the Big Top. I can hardly wait for 7 Dwarves Mine Train to be finished because it looks HUUUGE! It was neat to be able to see it being built for sure and I got lots of pics.
14: Classic Walt!!!! I am huge into Classic Disney attractions and we were sure to hit most of them. Our favorites this trip were CoP, Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Hall Of Presidents, Its A Small World, Peter Pan, and Pirates of the Carribean.
15: Fantasmic!!!! A must do for our family every trip .... I always get major goosebumps when the Indian Canoes come around and that amazing music is playing. LOVE IT!
16. Pool Time !!!!! We made rope drop 8 DAYS STRAIGHT.... and did a lot of rides, attractions, and shows for 4 hours straight..... then we would eat lunch in the parks and hop a bus back to CSR every day for major pool time at the Dig Site pool. They had pool games for the kids for hours and fun music and terrific margaritas. We would cool off and regroup and rest our bodies before we headed back to the park about 5:00 for our dinner reservations. After dinner we would stay in the parks until fireworks or close to park closing most nights .
17. Downtown Disney!!! One night we were in AK and had just eated dinner at the Yak and Yeti. We decided to hop in a cab and ride to Downtown Disney for a couple of hours. The cab ride was $21+tip with was very reasonable to me and saved us a hour of bus hopping to get to DD. We had a blast in World of Disney and the Lego Store and listened to music and just sort of hung around for a couple of hours. I will say that DD was absolutely packed.... wall to wall people and very HOT.
18. Animation Academy!! We had never done this, and made it a point to try it this time. We really thought it was a lot of fun... we got to draw Pluto I highly recommend doing this if you've never done it.
19. Shows!! Disney Shows are so special and we were so lucky to have seen so many this trip: My 2 favorites that we watched were Beauty and the Beast at DHS and Festival of the Lion King at AK.
20. CM's!!! While we did have some terrific CM interaction this vacation.... we experienced probably about 5-6 rude and cranky CM's which was very sad to me. I know it was very hot and sticky and humid... maybe thats why?? I'm not sure... but I didn't let it ruin my vacation!!
21. We are home now.... boooooo. I'm already planning our next trip in my head ... bring on the discount codes!!!
We had 8 day park tickets (not hoppers) and had made 9 ADR's in advance for our meals since we were on Disney Dining. Some thoughts from our trip:1. Rope Drop Frenzy!! We made it to Rope Drop EVERY SINGLE DAY for 8 days straight. Actually we were 30-45 minutes early every single day for 8 days. We absolutely will never ever ever ever go to WDW without making Rope Drop again. We got SO MUCH done in the mornings before lunchtime while the wait times were still low... and before the afternoon crowds came in. We would head to, for example Splash Mountain and ride it with zero wait... then on the way off the ride we would grab a fast pass for Splash Mountain for later.... then walk over to Big Thunder Mt Railroad and ride it with a 2-3 minute wait. We got loads done with little to zero waits in the first 2-3 hours ever single day.
2. FP - Yes Please!!! Fast Passes are amazing! We always had a fast pass in our hands for something.... We commented so many times during our trip about how we are so confused why people will wait for 90 minutes for Space Mountain and not grab a FP for a 5 minute wait instead?? It blows my mind that people will wait in those long lines!
3. Wait Limits!!! 20 minutes was our limit for waiting for a standby line. Even though we were in the parks during the crazy busy Summer Season, we never waited more than 20 minutes for ANY RIDE whatsoever. By going at Rope Drop and using FPs we absolutely didn't wait in long lines. If we wanted to ride on Buzz Lightyear and it had a 75 minute wait, we would grab a FP and go ride the People Mover or CoP until our FP was ready.
4. Tap those cards!!! We really loved the new KTTW cards!! It was so easy to tap the card on our door at Coronado to get in... or to tap to pay for food or purchases in the gift shops. It was super easy!! We did not have ANY problems with any of our cards the entire vacation... we zipped into the parks every single day with them and they seem much quicker since 2 people could tap at the same time!
5. RAIN!! Yes it rained 7 out of our 10 days.... most days it was for 10-15 minutes... but one day it was a crazy heavy downpour for about 3 hours... we used ponchos and umbrellas and didn't mind it at all. The parks really cleared out !! We mainly wear flip flops into the parks... so we didn't mind walking through puddles one bit.
6. Rides Down!! We had a lot of bad luck with rides breaking down on us and we had to sit there for awhile before we started back up again.... here is the list of the rides (some more than once) that we were on that broke down while we were on them: Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Carribean, Its a Small World, Little Mermaid, Spaceship Earth, Dinosaur, Space Mountain, and the People Mover. Actually we were evactuated from the People Mover and given anytime FPs which was fun and interesting to be walking way up high on the track! We were also given anytime FPs for Dinosaur and Space Mountain because the rides went down when we were about ready to board them.
7. Food!!! Omgosh we ate soooo much food over 10 days in WDW. We had some GREAT meals and some BLAH meals. I will order my favorite table service meals from MOST favorite to LEAST favorite:
- Ohana character breakfast: Hands down our favorite table service meal of the 10 days. Terrific breakfast foods.... yummy coffee... and Lilo, Stitch, Pluto, and Mickey were super fun!
- Be Our Guest dinner: Loved the atmosphere... loved the dessert.... my meal was so-so (scallops and shrimp)... but meeting Beast was priceless!
- Via Napoli dinner: Delicious food and amazing dessert... I got those donut things that you dip in the warm chocolate... OMGOSH delicious!
- Mama Melroses dinner: We eat here every visit and we LOVE LOVE LOVE the food! The Calamari is terrific, the Pasta is terrific... and the SANGRIA is to die for!
- Tusker House character lunch: I loved the buffet foods... it was really good. The character interaction was terrific too!
- Crystal Palace character dinner: My family always loves this buffet... its tradition for us! The food is tasty and tons of it!! Pooh and friends spend a lot of time with each table and we always enjoy it.
- Yak and Yeti dinner: It was not my favorite at all. My chicken dish was disgusting.... the dessert was delicious though!!!! Everyone else liked their meals... I must have ordered the wrong thing. The atmosphere of the restaurant was really cool though... I thought it was well done.
- Sci Fi dinner: Meh. Food was ok.... burgers and sandwiches... I think my husband got a steak. My sons love the atmosphere so we go every time we visit WDW. My youngest son loves the cheezy movies and the ice cream sundaes!
- Akershus character dinner: Did not like the cold bar (lots of cold fish), did not like my meal (my meat was super fatty and gross) ... the desserts were good... and the Princess interaction was good. But, I won't be returning anytime soon for sure.
8. Coronado Springs!!! LOVED IT! I can now say that I've stayed at all 4 moderates and I think that CSR is now my favorite! Yes its a huge resort. Yes theres a convention center there. Yes it has 4 bus stops. However... its absolutely breathtaking and the walk from the buildings to El Centro is really not that bad! We stayed in Casitas 4101 which is on the 1st floor in building 4. The bus stop was directly outside of our door and we were the first bus stop to be picked up and the first to drop off so we ALWAYS had a seat. The Pepper Market and the Cafe Rix were terrific and the food was good... we ate breakfast there almost every day. I filled our refillable mugs several times a day at Cafe Rix or at the Pool Bar at the Dig Site. Casitas building 4 has the bus stop, the Gym, and the quiet pool right there.... perfect location. I think it took about 4 minutes to walk to El Centro and about 6 minutes to walk to the Dig Site. Not a bad walk at all... you walk 30x that each day in the park!!
9. Bus Service!!!! We had really good luck with busses from CSR over the 10 days.... we only had 2x that we had to wait longer than 3-10 minutes for the bus (our normal waits). One night heading from CSR to Epcot we waited 35 minutes for a bus.... and one day headed back from MK to CSR we waited about 30 minutes. We were hot and miserable waiting and it was annoying but oh well... you can't contol the busses
10. Stollers - GRRRrrrrr!!!! I personally got run over by 2 strollers in the MK... and it HURTS!! And people don't even say 'I'm sorry'!! Geesh!! Really annoying.
11. Main St Electrical Light Parade and Wishes!!!! What an amazing and glorious creation! We had terrific seats on the curb directly in front of Cinderellas Castle which I guarded for 2 hours before hand.... while my husband kept bringing me Starbucks Iced Coffees
I didn't mind sitting there though... and my kids and husband had perfect front row seats to the parade and the fireworks. 12. Starbucks!!! I am a coffee-holic and must have coffee several times a day. The new Starbucks is terrific... short waits in line and great coffee. The signs are teeny.... so it absolutely does not take away from the ambiance of Main St or the Bakery at all contrary to popular belief of some people.
13. New Fantasyland!!! Disney did it right and its PERFECTION! Loved the new Little Mermaid ride.... sure its not fast and or a roller coaster... but it tells the story of the Little Mermaid in the CLASSIC Disney way... the animitronics were great. We got snacks in Gastons tavern and that whole area is really fun! We saw Gaston and had some LaFous brew (frozen apple juice concoction). The Big Top Circus are was so well done and I was very surprised because I thought it was going to be super cheezy.... nope it was great! We rode Dumbo and got sprinkled on at Casey Jr and shopped under the Big Top. I can hardly wait for 7 Dwarves Mine Train to be finished because it looks HUUUGE! It was neat to be able to see it being built for sure and I got lots of pics.
14: Classic Walt!!!! I am huge into Classic Disney attractions and we were sure to hit most of them. Our favorites this trip were CoP, Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Hall Of Presidents, Its A Small World, Peter Pan, and Pirates of the Carribean.
15: Fantasmic!!!! A must do for our family every trip .... I always get major goosebumps when the Indian Canoes come around and that amazing music is playing. LOVE IT!
16. Pool Time !!!!! We made rope drop 8 DAYS STRAIGHT.... and did a lot of rides, attractions, and shows for 4 hours straight..... then we would eat lunch in the parks and hop a bus back to CSR every day for major pool time at the Dig Site pool. They had pool games for the kids for hours and fun music and terrific margaritas. We would cool off and regroup and rest our bodies before we headed back to the park about 5:00 for our dinner reservations. After dinner we would stay in the parks until fireworks or close to park closing most nights .
17. Downtown Disney!!! One night we were in AK and had just eated dinner at the Yak and Yeti. We decided to hop in a cab and ride to Downtown Disney for a couple of hours. The cab ride was $21+tip with was very reasonable to me and saved us a hour of bus hopping to get to DD. We had a blast in World of Disney and the Lego Store and listened to music and just sort of hung around for a couple of hours. I will say that DD was absolutely packed.... wall to wall people and very HOT.
18. Animation Academy!! We had never done this, and made it a point to try it this time. We really thought it was a lot of fun... we got to draw Pluto
I highly recommend doing this if you've never done it. 19. Shows!! Disney Shows are so special and we were so lucky to have seen so many this trip: My 2 favorites that we watched were Beauty and the Beast at DHS and Festival of the Lion King at AK.
20. CM's!!! While we did have some terrific CM interaction this vacation.... we experienced probably about 5-6 rude and cranky CM's which was very sad to me. I know it was very hot and sticky and humid... maybe thats why?? I'm not sure... but I didn't let it ruin my vacation!!
21. We are home now.... boooooo. I'm already planning our next trip in my head ... bring on the discount codes!!!
Lots of good tips for others here planning their own trips.
