Just got back from WDW, 1st trip as adults a few thoughts

[timandheather]

We just got back from our 2 week WDW/Orlando vacation to celebrate our 5 year anniversary and my birthday. Overall we had a Magical trip.
Our first 2 nights we stayed at a Hilton garden Inn and went to Sea World on 11/27. We had a great time at Sea World! They have very good Christmas shows on weekends and we both highly recommend Christmas at Sea World.

On 11.28 we headed to WDW. Our package was 9 nights at the CBR, 10 day park hopper with the Deluxe dining plan.
Thoughts on the Resort!
Pros
very quite.
nice guests.
nice lush tropical grounds.
Fun, festive common area "Port Royal"
Clean rooms
Cons
-We checked in at 9 am on the 29th and our room was not ready so we had them send a text message when it was ready, we headed to the parks. Originally we where going too check out the resort around noon but decided to close out MK. We arrived at our resort after a long day at MK and walked into our room it was clean but had a strong cat urine order. We then drove back to the custom house to get a different room, boy oh boy that was like asking for gold! Finally they got a manager who switched us rooms, this room was clean and odor free. Was not very happy on how long it took to get a room change.
-The beds where horrible, they seemed to be over 10 years old
-Bus system we did have a car and used the bus system twice it took 3x longer then if we used our car. Glad we had a rent a car, that was a gripe with other guest at our resort

Thoughts on the Parks

Pros
almost everything! WOW we had a blast. We loved all of the parks.
-Bang for your buck, Low wait times, 5 star service, Cast members where great, Shows, Christmas shows/decorations, attractions, rides, MVMCP.
-Most fellow guests where great! PoP Warner Kids where great when we ran into them in the parks. We did have a issue with one group that had a flag on PoTC chanting stuff not in English and throwing coins at the boat in front of them.

Cons
-Weather it was COLD! Our first 2 days where in the 80's then it fell to the 60's with lows in the 30's.
-Electric Motor Carts Control, DH got his foot ran over by one of those after illuminations and the next day we just stayed at the resort as his foot was very sore. The lady who ran it over it was very apologetic,, concerned and nice. Our big complaint is not the people on the carts as they should be allowed to enjoy the parks but it is that Disney should have a separate area for those scooters to exit the parks after the closing firework shows.


Thoughts on Disney Dining
-Pros Over all the food was great as well as the service. We did do some 2 credit "Cali grill, Narcoses, Candle light package "Le Cellar", CRT, Hoop Dee Doo"
Top 3 would be
1. Cali Grill-nice meal, great service and a great view of MK
2. Olivia’s Cafe-Food was out standing and the service was great! We where talking to the server about the park we where going to the next day DHS, he surprised us with 4 TSM fast passes!
3.Mama Melrose
Other good ones 50's prime time, Garden Grill, Tokyo Dining, liberty tree, 1900 park fare, Boma, CP, Cape May, Le Cellar, Tutio Tula, Norway, Ohana breakfast.

Bottom 3.
1. Maya Grill- This was my birthday dinner what a disappointment we both ordered prime rib it was cold! Service was awful she did not even recognized my birthday even desert was bad rock hard churros
with melted ice cream. Then to make matters worse the server tired to pull a fast one on us with the tip after we gave her cash for the tip the room charge had a 20%tip on there. That took 30 min to remove that charge, the experience at Olivia’s cafe made up for the Maya grill.
2. Chef Mickey’s-We liked the character interaction! But the Food was cold aswell as the service.
3. Tony’s town square food was awful cold chicken parm, soggy salad however our server Bruce was great.

Narcoses was also a disappointment not worth the 2cr!

Over all the deluxe dining plan was too much food but I will say the servers -Maya Grill and Chef Mickey’s all deserve at least the 18% gratuity. You have a question about Disney they will find the answer for you.

Finally one last thing was this, we had 4 dining credits left over due to canceling the Yachtsman steak house as that was the day after my husbands foot got injured. We ordered Pizza at the resort and DH mistakenly pd Cash for that. Our checked out date was Dec 7th to where we returned to the Hilton for 2 more nights leaving us with Dec 8th a free day. Originally we where going to the beach but with an extra day left on our ticket we went to AK, then Epcot. We asked if we can use our 4 remaining dining credits for that free day and no one would budge on the policy all dining credits expire at midnight of your check out date! We found that to be crummy and it defiantly left a sour taste in our mouth. After learning of this policy we bought a family there dinner at a CS.

In closing we will return to WDW in the near future but will probably stay offsite as we get good rates on Hilton properties.
Thanks to this site for all of the wonderful information! We would of been SOL without this site and the Unofficial guide to WDW.

 

[kymom99]

Glad you had a nice trip. The fastpasses for TSM was an awesome treat! We have been to Disney 4 times and CBR is my fav resort. I will say that I found the beds to be great. We were in Martinique. What section did you stay in? I also thought the buses were pretty good in June. Maybe they run them more frequently during summer.

 

[topmonkeygirl]

We just got home about an hour ago and it was so cold this past week but we had a blast. Very short wait times, longest I think was about 15 minutes for astro orbitor. We made dinning reservations for Hollywood And Vine for breakfast before the park opened then headed straight to TSM the line was longer for fast pass than it was to get on the ride. We waited like 10 minutes top. We were not impressed with Cali Grill at all, the food was O.K. but we loved Narcoossee's. Glad you had a great time. So did we. It was also our 5th anniversary, our Christmas present, and our vacation all rolled into one.

 

[timandheather]

Glad you had a nice trip. The fastpasses for TSM was an awesome treat! We have been to Disney 4 times and CBR is my fav resort. I will say that I found the beds to be great. We were in Martinique. What section did you stay in? I also thought the buses were pretty good in June. Maybe they run them more frequently during summer.

We where in Barbados! Rooms where great, looked like they where remodeled recently the beds where the only down fall.

 

[timandheather]

We just got home about an hour ago and it was so cold this past week but we had a blast. Very short wait times, longest I think was about 15 minutes for astro orbitor. We made dinning reservations for Hollywood And Vine for breakfast before the park opened then headed straight to TSM the line was longer for fast pass than it was to get on the ride. We waited like 10 minutes top. We were not impressed with Cali Grill at all, the food was O.K. but we loved Narcoossee's. Glad you had a great time. So did we. It was also our 5th anniversary, our Christmas present, and our vacation all rolled into one.

Glad you had a nice time happy anniversery! We did magic hours at DHS on night we did TSM 5x from 11-12. We love that ride!

 

[rndmr2]

Sounds like you had a great trip!

FYI-- I believe the guests at the Hilton in DTD get all the perks of onsite guests.

 

[plutolovr]

We asked if we can use our 4 remaining dining credits for that free day and no one would budge on the policy all dining credits expire at midnight of your check out date! We found that to be crummy and it defiantly left a sour taste in our mouth. After learning of this policy we bought a family there dinner at a CS.

I don't understand why this left you with a "sour taste" in your mouth. It's Disney's policy, their resort, their rules. Your Dining Plan is tied into your room reservation and room key, once your key expires (midnight of the day you check out) you account is zeroed out and cleared out of the system. There would be no way to access dining credits. Castmembers are not miracle workers, especially with the new system being implemented. They have enough headaches right now.

 

[timandheather]

I don't understand why this left you with a "sour taste" in your mouth. It's Disney's policy, their resort, their rules. Your Dining Plan is tied into your room reservation and room key, once your key expires (midnight of the day you check out) you account is zeroed out and cleared out of the system. There would be no way to access dining credits. Castmembers are not miracle workers, especially with the new system being implemented. They have enough headaches right now.

I do understand its there policy but I know many retailers that will make exceptions! Why cant Disney. We asked two diffrent cast members it was a flat out NO without any explaination so when we return we will not use the DP or even stay on site. We where new to the DDP ect so we thought this would not be a big deal!

 

[kathy884]

We just got back from our 2 week WDW/Orlando vacation to celebrate our 5 year anniversary and my birthday. Overall we had a Magical trip.
Our first 2 nights we stayed at a Hilton garden Inn and went to Sea World on 11/27. We had a great time at Sea World! They have very good Christmas shows on weekends and we both highly recommend Christmas at Sea World.

I'm glad that you had a great trip and enjoyed SeaWorld too. This is my family's favorite park. Twice we've done mini trips to SeaWorld (each just three nights) and stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn, the same property you were at. We think it's a great little property with terriffic staff and so convienent to SeaWorld.

We usually stay offsite like you're thinking about doing next time (We go for a condo resort for longer stays and find like you found that we use our car even when we're on Disney property unless we're staying at a monerail resort (Just so much faster than the Disney tranportation) And as much fun as it is to be at a monerail resort unless someone else is paying (My husband has had a few four day seminars that he had to attend at the Contemporary), with our limited vacation budget a monerail resort just isn't worth it to us (too expensive). We love SeaWorld / Disney / Orlando, but think offsite offers the best value (an exceptional value in my opinion for the quality of accomodations you can get for the price you pay).

 

[POOHsie]

I do understand its there policy but I know many retailers that will make exceptions! Why cant Disney. We asked two diffrent cast members it was a flat out NO without any explaination so when we return we will not use the DP or even stay on site. We where new to the DDP ect so we thought this would not be a big deal!

It seems like your enjoyed your anniversary/birthday trip. I know I am ready to go again. The Maya Grill story is just terrible. Both the cold food and the double tipping. I will have to watch for that tipping scam on my future trips.

Remarking on your thoughts. Many retailers make exceptions, like accepting a return item without a receipt. The same retailer will not keep the store open 'til midnight for you when the store really closes at nine. So there are exceptions that will be considered, and there are exceptions that cannot be made. You were given an explanation of why you couldn't use your dining credits after your check-out date. The explanation is that the dining credits expire at midnight on the check-out date. That explanation should suffice. The Dining Plan is good, and I have never read of another guest who complained about not being able to use dining credits after they expired. You should reconsider your hurt feelings about this.

You complained about slow Disney bus travel, but would willingly volunteer to stay next time off-property. Sorry, no time savings there vs Disney buses. You have no complaint.

Sorry about your husband's foot. I have a scooter myself. Epcot after Illuminations is dark and dimly lighted. There is no practical way to separate out the wheel people. Two things for you to consider.

1. If DH hurt his foot from a scooter encounter, and was down for a whole day, perhaps your DH didn't have good, protective footwear on. I collided with a man who had sturdy athletic shoes on and although I ran over the front of his foot, he was not hurt. BTW, he walked into my scooter in broad daylight, he didn't look and see me coming.

2. In general, the scooter person might be to blame for a collision, or it could be the walker's fault for not seeing the scooter. It's hard to really tell in the dim night lighting. Bottom line, let's all be careful out there and take it easy in dense crowds.

 

[Jonell]

Sorry about your husband's foot. I have a scooter myself. Epcot after Illuminations is dark and dimly lighted. There is no practical way to separate out the wheel people. Two things for you to consider.

1. If DH hurt his foot from a scooter encounter, and was down for a whole day, perhaps your DH didn't have good, protective footwear on. I collided with a man who had sturdy athletic shoes on and although I ran over the front of his foot, he was not hurt. BTW, he walked into my scooter in broad daylight, he didn't look and see me coming.

Not to be rude but I don't think that anything but maybe steel toe work boots will protect your feet when you are being run over by a scooter. Those scooters are heavy. Anyways, I don't thing many people take into consideration being run down by a scooter when selecting comfortable footwear for WDW.

 

[POOHsie]

Jonell, you are not rude. And I don't wish to argue. I feel that your opinion about steel toed boots being your only protection from a scooter wheel is false. The heaviness of a scooter is distributed by the 3-4 wheels on it. I have had two encounters between my scooter and a walking person. Both people had athletic shoes on that my tire had tried to ride up the side of and failed. The tire glanced off the stiff, high side of the shoe. On the other hand, a sandal or simple Keds sneaker would be very easy to run over.

I realize how heavy a scooter is. I use mine in my daily life. In my last paragraph, I stated that scooter encounters can be blamed on the scooter driver or the walker. So the walker may not be "run-down" by a scooter, as you say, but the walker may have "run-in" to the scooter by not looking where he/she was going.

Wear whatever shoes you choose for personal comfort, but it's better to wear sturdier shoes for comfort and protection in crowds. WDW sidewalks are full of all sorts of things besides scooters. There are those Pargo utility/luggage trucks, trash and landscaping trucks, food carts, stock carts, Segways, and lots and lots of people of all ages and abilities. It's a congested jungle on the Disney sidewalks!

 

[timandheather]

Jonell, you are not rude. And I don't wish to argue. I feel that your opinion about steel toed boots being your only protection from a scooter wheel is false. The heaviness of a scooter is distributed by the 3-4 wheels on it. I have had two encounters between my scooter and a walking person. Both people had athletic shoes on that my tire had tried to ride up the side of and failed. The tire glanced off the stiff, high side of the shoe. On the other hand, a sandal or simple Keds sneaker would be very easy to run over.

I realize how heavy a scooter is. I use mine in my daily life. In my last paragraph, I stated that scooter encounters can be blamed on the scooter driver or the walker. So the walker may not be "run-down" by a scooter, as you say, but the walker may have "run-in" to the scooter by not looking where he/she was going.

Wear whatever shoes you choose for personal comfort, but it's better to wear sturdier shoes for comfort and protection in crowds. WDW sidewalks are full of all sorts of things besides scooters. There are those Pargo utility/luggage trucks, trash and landscaping trucks, food carts, stock carts, Segways, and lots and lots of people of all ages and abilities. It's a congested jungle on the Disney sidewalks!

I appreciate your comments but it was last weekend when it was warmer my DH did have sandals on he joked saying he should of went with his basketball shoes. The lady who ran over his foot was going at a good speed and was not paying attention, she took full responsibility for this accident The scooter was not a small one it was a heavy duty gray one, still today his foot is sore from this and may go to the Doctor this week.

About the Dining plan that did not ruin our vacation by no means it just will defer us from the plan next time we visit. I am glad we made a families day with our extra 4 credits.

As for the Tip issue make sure you read your receipts carefully to where it showed all zeros if you leave cash as a tip.

 

[lisateaches]

Sounds like a good trip. Glad you could make someone's day with your CS meal. You have a right to feel however you want, whether it is right or wrong in other's opinions. That's what they are opinions, feelings... and you have a right to them.

 

[disneymom3]

You complained about slow Disney bus travel, but would willingly volunteer to stay next time off-property. Sorry, no time savings there vs Disney buses. You have no complaint.)

I'm sorry, but what is that supposed to mean? She does have a complaint which she plans to handle in a way she is comfortable with. We have stayed both on and offsite and I will tell you that without fail it takes us less time to drive in ourselves from offsite than to wait for the busses. Except for MK. We have stayed at WL. the Poly, AsMu, and BC. Walking into Epcot from the BC was awesome as was riding the monorail from the Poly to MK. Other than that, give me my car.

 

[ChickenCarlos]

I am glad we made a families day with our extra 4 credits.

.

How did another family get to use them, but you could not?
It sounds like you had a great time. So you would say that Mama Melrose is much better than Tonys??

 

[shelemm]

There are plenty of offsite hotels only 5 minutes away from WDW by car, so staying onsite and waiting for the bus can definitely be longer. Have done both and prefer the car.

 

[timandheather]

How did another family get to use them, but you could not?
It sounds like you had a great time. So you would say that Mama Melrose is much better than Tonys??

After we checked out on the 7th and been told all credit will expire at midnight. We had 10 credits left used 6 and the remaining credit where used for the other family. After our table service we went to a CS and told a family we have 4 credits to burn what would you like.


Mama Melrose IMHO is much better then Tony’s. I had a vodka sauce penne dish, DH had the steak was very tasty. Mama Melrose kitchen is in the restraunt so you know that the food is fresh. Tony’s it seemed our Chicken Parm was last night leftovers, garlic toast was even rock hard and cold.

 

[ChickenCarlos]

After we checked out on the 7th and been told all credit will expire at midnight. We had 10 credits left used 6 and the remaining credit where used for the other family. After our table service we went to a CS and told a family we have 4 credits to burn what would you like.


Mama Melrose IMHO is much better then Tony’s. I had a vodka sauce penne dish, DH had the steak was very tasty. Mama Melrose kitchen is in the restraunt so you know that the food is fresh. Tony’s it seemed our Chicken Parm was last night leftovers, garlic toast was even rock hard and cold.

WOW, that was really nice of you, We have ADR for both Mama's and Tony's i hope we do not get cold food. maybe i just wont get the chicken parm. how was the other meal from Tony's was that any better?

 

[timandheather]

WOW, that was really nice of you, We have ADR for both Mama's and Tony's i hope we do not get cold food. maybe i just wont get the chicken parm. how was the other meal from Tony's was that any better?

we both got the chicken parm. both cold! Our lunch was at 2:10 and we where thinking they pre made the chicken in the morning to around noon, then they make a dinner batch at 3. If we ate around noon we probably would of had a different experience.

On the positive with Tony’s our server Bruce was great and the Tiramisu I had for dessert was to die for.