Just got back. Any questions?

[mad madam mim78]

Just got back from a great trip. While its fresh if anyone has any questions feel free to ask. Here's some details:

2 adults 3 kids
PoR for 7 nights
Regular dining plan
Went to all the parks and Halloween party
Ate at chef mickeys, sci-fi, Tony's, rose and crown, crystal palace, sunshine seasons, rainforest cafe, garden grill, and riverside mill foodcourt.

Ask away. I will help all I can.

 

[THEJOEL]

Just got back from a great trip. While its fresh if anyone has any questions feel free to ask. Here's some details:

2 adults 3 kids
PoR for 7 nights
Regular dining plan
Went to all the parks and Halloween party
Ate at chef mickeys, sci-fi, Tony's, rose and crown, crystal palace, sunshine seasons, rainforest cafe, garden grill, and riverside mill foodcourt.

Ask away. I will help all I can.

Please give me a review of Rose and Crown. We are eating there for the first time this trip.

 

[coozieman]

How's Mickey?

 

[WedgieSock]

Please give me a review of Rose and Crown. We are eating there for the first time this trip.

Interested in this too

 

[mousecrazy]

How was the your room at POR for five? Was the extra bed comfortable?

What are the ages of your kids? And what was their favorite experience during the week? What was their favorite meal?

Anything you would change now based on hindsight?

 

[mad madam mim78]

Please give me a review of Rose and Crown. We are eating there for the first time this trip.

I picked Rose and Crown for the view during the fireworks (which was SPECTACULAR by the way). I had a 7:20 ADR and wasn't seated until 7:40 (which was fine because we wanted to make sure we got to stay during the fireworks). Fireworks started right at dessert so it couldn't be more perfect timing and we had a front row seat. It was the longest we waited to be seated for any of our ADR's though. The food and wine festival was going on so I will chalk it up to that.

The food was ok. I will say I was happy to see steak and fish on the kids menu instead of the same ole PBJ and Mac n Cheese.

I ordered the steak and fish and so did DH. The steak was meh. Probably would have been better had they not over cooked it but I was way to hungry to send it back. I thought the fish was really good. Better than the steak IMO. For dessert I had the sticky toffee pudding and DH had the queens cake. Both were excellent.

Our server was very sweet and funny. I had no problems with the service. I guess my piece of advice would be don't get the steak haha. We were on the dining plan so we felt like we had to get the most expensive thing on the menu to squeeze every bit of value out of it and even though the steak is usually the most expensive thing it's not always the best.

 

[mad madam mim78]

How's Mickey?

He was his perfect Mickey self!!!

 

[nkereina]

I picked Rose and Crown for the view during the fireworks (which was SPECTACULAR by the way). I had a 7:20 ADR and wasn't seated until 7:40 (which was fine because we wanted to make sure we got to stay during the fireworks). Fireworks started right at dessert so it couldn't be more perfect timing and we had a front row seat. It was the longest we waited to be seated for any of our ADR's though. The food and wine festival was going on so I will chalk it up to that.

The food was ok. I will say I was happy to see steak and fish on the kids menu instead of the same ole PBJ and Mac n Cheese.

I ordered the steak and fish and so did DH. The steak was meh. Probably would have been better had they not over cooked it but I was way to hungry to send it back. I thought the fish was really good. Better than the steak IMO. For dessert I had the sticky toffee pudding and DH had the queens cake. Both were excellent.

Our server was very sweet and funny. I had no problems with the service. I guess my piece of advice would be don't get the steak haha. We were on the dining plan so we felt like we had to get the most expensive thing on the menu to squeeze every bit of value out of it and even though the steak is usually the most expensive thing it's not always the best.

Just wanted to throw in my two cents about R&C... we ate there in September. We were also seated late for our ADR - our ADR was for 7:35 but weren't sat until about 8:10. It actually took a good 20 minutes in line just to check in to our ADR! But we were fine because we also wanted to be there for Illuminations. We were sat on the upper patio and unfortunately had an obstructed view of Illuminations due to the awning over the lower patio. We were invited to move wherever we wanted, but we were only missing a few of the higher fireworks.

Service was very quick for us. We both ate fish and chips and also had the cheese platter. All of it was good. Thought R&C was good but will try other places before we consider returning.

OP - how often did you guys buy meals/snacks outside of the dining plan? On our last two trips, we did deluxe dining and have had lots of leftover credits but I am worried with regular dining plan, we'll be buying a lot out of pocket which we want to avoid. How often would you say you bought out of pocket? FWIW, we are just two adults, no kids. Thanks!

 

[mad madam mim78]

How was the your room at POR for five? Was the extra bed comfortable?

What are the ages of your kids? And what was their favorite experience during the week? What was their favorite meal?

Anything you would change now based on hindsight?

I'm not going to lie...fitting 5 into the trundle room at PoR is cramped. We had stuff on every surface of that room. The A/C unit, table, fridge, toilet, coat rack, shelving. Stuff was EVERYWHERE. Luckily it's not a big deal to me. I'm all about saving money so I can deal with the clutter to save some cash. I still highly recommend it for a place to lay your head. If you spend lots of time in the room?......not so much.

My kids are 9(boy) 5 and 5 (twin girls). My son loved the trundle. Said it was comfy and it was nice to have a bed to himself. Girls slept in a queen and me and DH had a queen.

I asked the kids what their favortie thing was and it was a unanimous "CHEF MICKEYS!!" so their favorite experience WAS a meal.

Chef Mickey's is all about the fun and the characters. The food was so-so. The only thing that blew my mind were the mousse and oreo bon bons or whatever they call them. Delicious! Server seemed tired and disenchanted. I guess I don't blame her.

Man to see their faces light up when their favorite characters came around was awesome. Even my son who hates getting his picture taken couldn't say no to Mickey when he motioned for him to stand by him for a pic. Oh the star power!!!!!!

The best part was the napkin twirling and boy did my kids twirl napkins. Watch your drinks and eyeballs.

My son said a close second was Rose and Crown for the fireworks. It was awesome. No buts about it.

Hmmmm....hindsight. We had an absolute rough start. By day 2 I was ready to strangle my kids and throw them in the car and start the 12 hour drive home. I think I had my hopes too high of making the perfect vacation and making my kids uber happy. All they did was complain. About everything. I start thinking "I can't believe I wasted my money on this!"

I realize now we have and "adjustment period". By the third day everyone was in the swing of things and happy and having a good time. There was still a little complaining, but less melting down. I guess in hindsight I would ease up on my expectations. It's not all the happy dancing and smiles you see in the commercials.

 

[mad madam mim78]

Just wanted to throw in my two cents about R&C... we ate there in September. We were also seated late for our ADR - our ADR was for 7:35 but weren't sat until about 8:10. It actually took a good 20 minutes in line just to check in to our ADR! But we were fine because we also wanted to be there for Illuminations. We were sat on the upper patio and unfortunately had an obstructed view of Illuminations due to the awning over the lower patio. We were invited to move wherever we wanted, but we were only missing a few of the higher fireworks.

Service was very quick for us. We both ate fish and chips and also had the cheese platter. All of it was good. Thought R&C was good but will try other places before we consider returning.

OP - how often did you guys buy meals/snacks outside of the dining plan? On our last two trips, we did deluxe dining and have had lots of leftover credits but I am worried with regular dining plan, we'll be buying a lot out of pocket which we want to avoid. How often would you say you bought out of pocket? FWIW, we are just two adults, no kids. Thanks!

DH and I agreed that the regular dining plan just did not allow enough food to keep us from being hungry. We would eat breakfast and after walking the parks by noon I was STARVING. Ice cream and brownies just wasn't cutting it. I even had all of our ADR's set fairly early and it was like "I'm not gonna make it till 5!!!" We fought it though. I would get one snack and wait until dinner. I think DH even gave up a couple of his snacks for the kids. Next time I think I will buy boxes of donuts to put in the room for breakfast and use our CS credit to get lunch (that's a better deal anyway because you get dessert with lunch).

To answer your question though I think I bought 2 OOP snacks. One was the mickey carmel chocolate popcorn and it wasn't on the DP and second was a milkshake for DH. We used every single credit easily.

PS I consider us average weight and build.

 

[bluejasmine]

We use regular DDP and always use CS for lunch you definitely get more bang for your buck! We pay OOP for breakfast my daughter and I are typically happy with fruit and yogurt or oatmeal or fruit and a pastry. Only time we use CS for breakfast, is when we have some left over b/c there was a day we just didn't eat lunch for some reason..

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[lovbeinmom]

Will add my two cents about dining plan....we have the FREE regular plan (2QS 1Snack) and had trouble using all of them. I do bring snacks with us like nuts and trail mix. We find that we do not eat as much ad normal at Disney.

I think it all depends on you! In the past we also have taken bagels and cream cheese to keep in the room for breakfast. These are easy to keep and can be toasted in cafe if needed.

We are both a little pooh sized with a picky nine year old.

 

[mad madam mim78]

Just wanted to throw in my two cents about R&C... we ate there in September. We were also seated late for our ADR - our ADR was for 7:35 but weren't sat until about 8:10. It actually took a good 20 minutes in line just to check in to our ADR! But we were fine because we also wanted to be there for Illuminations. We were sat on the upper patio and unfortunately had an obstructed view of Illuminations due to the awning over the lower patio. We were invited to move wherever we wanted, but we were only missing a few of the higher fireworks.

Service was very quick for us. We both ate fish and chips and also had the cheese platter. All of it was good. Thought R&C was good but will try other places before we consider returning.

OP - how often did you guys buy meals/snacks outside of the dining plan? On our last two trips, we did deluxe dining and have had lots of leftover credits but I am worried with regular dining plan, we'll be buying a lot out of pocket which we want to avoid. How often would you say you bought out of pocket? FWIW, we are just two adults, no kids. Thanks!

Yeah I guess I should add we aggressively tour the parks. We move at a swift pace and push 100lbs in a stroller. Take that into account.

 

[Sparkie]

Please give me a review of Rose and Crown. We are eating there for the first time this trip.

Just wanted to add my opinion, if I may. We love the Rose and Crown. But we prefer the Lunch menu. On the lunch menu we have now tried 5 of the 8 entrees and 3 of the apps.

Apps: Cheese plate- delicious
Scotch Egg- delicious
Shrimp Cocktail- good but nothing special

Entrees: Bangers and Mash- DELICIOUS
Cottage Pie- DELICIOUS
Corned Beef Sandwhich- good but nothing special
Fish and Chips- Delicious
Plowman's Lunch- probably traditional lunch but cold and yucky
Deserts: Sticky Toffee Pudding- Delicious

 

[mousecrazy]

I'm not going to lie...fitting 5 into the trundle room at PoR is cramped. We had stuff on every surface of that room. The A/C unit, table, fridge, toilet, coat rack, shelving. Stuff was EVERYWHERE. Luckily it's not a big deal to me. I'm all about saving money so I can deal with the clutter to save some cash. I still highly recommend it for a place to lay your head. If you spend lots of time in the room?......not so much.

My kids are 9(boy) 5 and 5 (twin girls). My son loved the trundle. Said it was comfy and it was nice to have a bed to himself. Girls slept in a queen and me and DH had a queen.

I asked the kids what their favortie thing was and it was a unanimous "CHEF MICKEYS!!" so their favorite experience WAS a meal.

Chef Mickey's is all about the fun and the characters. The food was so-so. The only thing that blew my mind were the mousse and oreo bon bons or whatever they call them. Delicious! Server seemed tired and disenchanted. I guess I don't blame her.

Man to see their faces light up when their favorite characters came around was awesome. Even my son who hates getting his picture taken couldn't say no to Mickey when he motioned for him to stand by him for a pic. Oh the star power!!!!!!

The best part was the napkin twirling and boy did my kids twirl napkins. Watch your drinks and eyeballs.

My son said a close second was Rose and Crown for the fireworks. It was awesome. No buts about it.

Hmmmm....hindsight. We had an absolute rough start. By day 2 I was ready to strangle my kids and throw them in the car and start the 12 hour drive home. I think I had my hopes too high of making the perfect vacation and making my kids uber happy. All they did was complain. About everything. I start thinking "I can't believe I wasted my money on this!"

I realize now we have and "adjustment period". By the third day everyone was in the swing of things and happy and having a good time. There was still a little complaining, but less melting down. I guess in hindsight I would ease up on my expectations. It's not all the happy dancing and smiles you see in the commercials.

Thanks for your insight. I appreciate your honesty! And I will definitely take your experience to heart.

 

[judaloo]

We always pack granola bars and mini muffins etc. for breakfast in the room. We do CS lunch and table service for dinner. Occasionally we have a TS lunch, but rarely. We have never paid OOP for snacks, and actually find that we have extra credits at the end. We sometimes split CS meals as depending on where you go, they can be large. At the end, we usually have enought to get a nice CS breakfast on checkout day as well as a few snack credits that we use to buy fruit, etc. for the trip home. This has been the case with 2 adults and 3 kids, and this past year, 1 adult 3 kids (one of which is 10 and counts as an adult on dining plan)

 

[jennyjinx3]

I'm not going to lie...fitting 5 into the trundle room at PoR is cramped. We had stuff on every surface of that room. The A/C unit, table, fridge, toilet, coat rack, shelving. Stuff was EVERYWHERE. Luckily it's not a big deal to me. I'm all about saving money so I can deal with the clutter to save some cash. I still highly recommend it for a place to lay your head. If you spend lots of time in the room?......not so much.

My kids are 9(boy) 5 and 5 (twin girls). My son loved the trundle. Said it was comfy and it was nice to have a bed to himself. Girls slept in a queen and me and DH had a queen.

I asked the kids what their favortie thing was and it was a unanimous "CHEF MICKEYS!!" so their favorite experience WAS a meal.

Chef Mickey's is all about the fun and the characters. The food was so-so. The only thing that blew my mind were the mousse and oreo bon bons or whatever they call them. Delicious! Server seemed tired and disenchanted. I guess I don't blame her.

Man to see their faces light up when their favorite characters came around was awesome. Even my son who hates getting his picture taken couldn't say no to Mickey when he motioned for him to stand by him for a pic. Oh the star power!!!!!!

The best part was the napkin twirling and boy did my kids twirl napkins. Watch your drinks and eyeballs.

My son said a close second was Rose and Crown for the fireworks. It was awesome. No buts about it.

Hmmmm....hindsight. We had an absolute rough start. By day 2 I was ready to strangle my kids and throw them in the car and start the 12 hour drive home. I think I had my hopes too high of making the perfect vacation and making my kids uber happy. All they did was complain. About everything. I start thinking "I can't believe I wasted my money on this!"

I realize now we have and "adjustment period". By the third day everyone was in the swing of things and happy and having a good time. There was still a little complaining, but less melting down. I guess in hindsight I would ease up on my expectations. It's not all the happy dancing and smiles you see in the commercials.

How refreshingly honest!! And I thought only our family was like this! By day two we were also looking at early flights home due to our kids behavior! It leveled out, and by 2 - 3 days before we were due to go home all the bad memories were already starting to fade and we were thinking about our next trip!! Thanks for making us feel more normal!

BTW our next trip is at POR too, DH and I with our three DD's, 8,6,4!

 

[Eosphotog]

How refreshingly honest!! And I thought only our family was like this!

Day two was pretty rough for us too! Only I was the one with the meltdown.

Seriously, family. Get. Out. Of. Bed. We have a rope drop to go to. WHY ARE YOU STILL SLEEPING? UGH - now we've missed the bus. See what you've done?

 

[mad madam mim78]

How refreshingly honest!! And I thought only our family was like this! By day two we were also looking at early flights home due to our kids behavior! It leveled out, and by 2 - 3 days before we were due to go home all the bad memories were already starting to fade and we were thinking about our next trip!! Thanks for making us feel more normal!

BTW our next trip is at POR too, DH and I with our three DD's, 8,6,4!

That's so funny. At the beginning of the trip I vowed "we are NEVER coming back here!" and by the end of the trip I was looking for the bounceback offer.

What is wrong with us!!!!

 

[FantasiaMagic]

Overall how did you like PoR? Was your room close to the main area? How did you like the pool? Would you stay there again? How was the food there?

Did you take part in the F&W festival at all? If so how crowded was it when you went?

Also - Chef Mickey's is a personal fav of my family's also! We can napkin twirl like you wouldn't believe!

Thanks for your two cents about your trip! Glad you and your family had a good time!

~FantasiaMagic