Just got back!!!

[CrazyDisneyMommy1]

We had 16 wonderful days at Disney. We stayed offsite again and loved every minute of it. We ate at Tusker House, Hollywood & Vine, Kona Cafe, Rainforest Downtown Disney, Wolfgang Puck Cafe, Whispering Canyon Cafe and many other offsite places. We would go back to all of the above places, except Hollywood & Vine did not think it was worth the price. The weather was warm and humid which we enjoy and some rain to cool it off now and again. We caught the last day of the Star Wars weekend. My son and husband really liked this. I thought the new Toy Story ride was great. I like it better than Buzz as it is something new and fun!!! We took the wagon ride at Fort Wilderness camp ground. We took the late one and stopped with a great veiw of the MK fireworks with the music piped in. My kids and us thought this was terrific. We rented a boat for the 5 of us to tour around Seven Seas Lagoon and The Bay this was something new for us as well. This is our third trip in 14 months and we bought annual passes as we will be going at Christmas and hopefully next Spring. Great time had by all

 

[cudworth]

Sounds like you had a great trip. How were the crowds? What time of the day did you ride toy story & how long was the wait time? We get to the World on Aug 14th for 9 nights.

 

[drag n' fly]

Sounds like a picture perfect trip. You guys should really consider DVC

 

[CrazyDisneyMommy1]

The crowds were not to bad. We were at Toy story at 11 a.m. one day and the fast passes were all gone. The longest wait I saw was 80 minutes. We went another day at 12 p.m. and we got fast passes for 7:30 p.m.. We went in the single rider line twice with our kids and both times one of us got to ride with one of our kids. The stand by line was 60 minutes and we did the single rider line in 25 minutes. We also rode it another time when there was a 9p.m. and 10:30 p.m. fantasmic. We rode it during the 9 p.m. show. The single rider line was closed, and the stand by line said 40 mins. but we only waited 20 mins. We then went to the late fantasmic show and it was only about 1/3 full it that gives you any idea how busy it was. We went to a late show at xmas and it was 3/4 full. If you know how to work the fast passes you won't have to wait to long. We never waited more then 25 mins. for any ride. We actually have become spoiled and if the ride says longer then 30 mins, we will not go on it. We will go another day or get fast passes for later. Rockin and Tower were usually only 20 to 40 mins as well. Splash was usually 50 to 60 mins mid day. But again if you use your fast passes right you can ride almost anything with in 15 to 20 mins.
Have a great time in August.
Thanks for the idea of DVC. But I don't know if we can beat the prices we have paid for the times we have stayed.
2005: $50.00 per night beautiful timeshare in Mystic Dunes, plus we split some of that with a relative, so it only worked out to $35.00 a night for our family of 4
2007 May: $115 per night for a gorgeous 3000 sq ft home 6 bedrooms and we split that with inlaws and it only cost us $40.00 per night for our family of 4.
Xmas 2007: $100.00 per night for a nice 3 bedroom condo. This was the one we spent the most on as it was Christmas and just the four of us.
July 2008: $50.00 per night for a great 3 bedroom condo and split it with inlaws, so $25.00 for our family of 4.
So I think with the possible raising prices of flights, we will stay with what we have been doing so we can still see the mouse 2 or 3 times a year.
But I really do appreciate the idea of DVC, so thank you.
2007

 

[momto1disneyfan]

Sounds like you had a great trip. How were the crowds? What time of the day did you ride toy story & how long was the wait time? We get to the World on Aug 14th for 9 nights.

Where are you staying while in disney. We are staying at Pop and are going down on August 11th for 11 nights

 

[drag n' fly]

The crowds were not to bad. We were at Toy story at 11 a.m. one day and the fast passes were all gone. The longest wait I saw was 80 minutes. We went another day at 12 p.m. and we got fast passes for 7:30 p.m.. We went in the single rider line twice with our kids and both times one of us got to ride with one of our kids. The stand by line was 60 minutes and we did the single rider line in 25 minutes. We also rode it another time when there was a 9p.m. and 10:30 p.m. fantasmic. We rode it during the 9 p.m. show. The single rider line was closed, and the stand by line said 40 mins. but we only waited 20 mins. We then went to the late fantasmic show and it was only about 1/3 full it that gives you any idea how busy it was. We went to a late show at xmas and it was 3/4 full. If you know how to work the fast passes you won't have to wait to long. We never waited more then 25 mins. for any ride. We actually have become spoiled and if the ride says longer then 30 mins, we will not go on it. We will go another day or get fast passes for later. Rockin and Tower were usually only 20 to 40 mins as well. Splash was usually 50 to 60 mins mid day. But again if you use your fast passes right you can ride almost anything with in 15 to 20 mins.
Have a great time in August.
Thanks for the idea of DVC. But I don't know if we can beat the prices we have paid for the times we have stayed.
2005: $50.00 per night beautiful timeshare in Mystic Dunes, plus we split some of that with a relative, so it only worked out to $35.00 a night for our family of 4
2007 May: $115 per night for a gorgeous 3000 sq ft home 6 bedrooms and we split that with inlaws and it only cost us $40.00 per night for our family of 4.
Xmas 2007: $100.00 per night for a nice 3 bedroom condo. This was the one we spent the most on as it was Christmas and just the four of us.
July 2008: $50.00 per night for a great 3 bedroom condo and split it with inlaws, so $25.00 for our family of 4.
So I think with the possible raising prices of flights, we will stay with what we have been doing so we can still see the mouse 2 or 3 times a year.
But I really do appreciate the idea of DVC, so thank you.
2007

Wow! Travelling as a group and splitting costs makes the flights not seem so painful. Glad to hear staying offsite works great for you

 

[cudworth]

Thank you. There will be 14 of us so we will have to work the fastpasses.

 

[photolover]

The crowds were not to bad. We were at Toy story at 11 a.m. one day and the fast passes were all gone. The longest wait I saw was 80 minutes. We went another day at 12 p.m. and we got fast passes for 7:30 p.m.. We went in the single rider line twice with our kids and both times one of us got to ride with one of our kids. The stand by line was 60 minutes and we did the single rider line in 25 minutes. We also rode it another time when there was a 9p.m. and 10:30 p.m. fantasmic. We rode it during the 9 p.m. show. The single rider line was closed, and the stand by line said 40 mins. but we only waited 20 mins. We then went to the late fantasmic show and it was only about 1/3 full it that gives you any idea how busy it was. We went to a late show at xmas and it was 3/4 full. If you know how to work the fast passes you won't have to wait to long. We never waited more then 25 mins. for any ride. We actually have become spoiled and if the ride says longer then 30 mins, we will not go on it. We will go another day or get fast passes for later. Rockin and Tower were usually only 20 to 40 mins as well. Splash was usually 50 to 60 mins mid day. But again if you use your fast passes right you can ride almost anything with in 15 to 20 mins.
Have a great time in August.
Thanks for the idea of DVC. But I don't know if we can beat the prices we have paid for the times we have stayed.
2005: $50.00 per night beautiful timeshare in Mystic Dunes, plus we split some of that with a relative, so it only worked out to $35.00 a night for our family of 4
2007 May: $115 per night for a gorgeous 3000 sq ft home 6 bedrooms and we split that with inlaws and it only cost us $40.00 per night for our family of 4.
Xmas 2007: $100.00 per night for a nice 3 bedroom condo. This was the one we spent the most on as it was Christmas and just the four of us.
July 2008: $50.00 per night for a great 3 bedroom condo and split it with inlaws, so $25.00 for our family of 4.
So I think with the possible raising prices of flights, we will stay with what we have been doing so we can still see the mouse 2 or 3 times a year.
But I really do appreciate the idea of DVC, so thank you.
2007

I am new and would like to know more how the fastpass strategy works. Could you please elaborate? We have 2 little kids and will be there during the Free Dining from Aug 27-Sep 4.

I also booked the Hollywood & Vine Fantasmic package but now I am not thrilled to hear that the food was not good. I wanted to book at Mama Melrose but it was full.

Thanks!

 

[striker3636]

Photolover: We are kind of hijacking this thread (sorry), but:

We have eaten at H&V 2 times, and were pleased each time. We all have different tastes and preferences, but it was fine for us. We found that the kids options weren't really huge, but as they are able to select food from the adult area as well, this wasn't a big deal for us. They have always had the basics for kids (mac and cheese, meatballs, mashed potatoes, chicken nuggets, etc), and my kids just add in other things from the rest of the selections. We chose H&V the first time as it was the cheapest option for preferred seating for Fantasmic. In the end it has worked well, as we book an ADR for around 4 (just after the parade) and we have a light/snacky lunch that day. We watch the parade go by just a block up from H&V, then hop back for an early supper. We then have time for a few more things before Fantasmic. I wouldn't be concerned about H&V, but if you want to research it some more, look into the dining boards for reviews, or look at the reviews on the all ears site.

Fastpasses enable you to get passes for a different line which usually has much shorter lines than the standby line. On busy days or at popular rides these are a must and can save you a lot of time. There are all kinds of ways you can use them to help you see all the things you want to without standing in line forever. Go to the Parks attractions and strategies thread...there will probably will be threads on these , or search them.

 

[CrazyDisneyMommy1]

We didn't think Hollywood & Vine's food was bad, we just did not think it was worth the price compared to some of the other places we ate.
As for the fast passes: as an example when we would go to MK we would go to Splash first, get fast passes and then ride it in stand by if it was less then 30 min. wait, then usually by the time we were done we could get fast passes for Thunder and ride it in stand by and then by that time we could get another set of fast passes. Now the fast passes can sometimes take 2 hours in between, but look at the bottom of your fast pass ticket to see when you can get more. Due to the fast passes not going to fast, we sometimes only had to wait 30 to 45 mins. before we could get another set. Then we would go to another area of the park and do the same thing. We would then take a break from the park for awhile with sometimes 5 or 6 sets of fast passes. We would go back to the same park and pretty much walk on or wait 10 mins to get on to all the rides we had fast passes for.

 

[jmann]

We ate at HV May 2007 and to be honest it was probably our least favourite.
It's not that it was bad just average and if we had not been on the dining plan I would have not been pleased paying cash for it. I felt the same about our lunch at the Crystal Palace and we did pay cash for that. I think for the money Disney charges in the restaurants some of the buffets could be better.
That being said we are eating at HV again in September because we wanted the Fantasmic package and that is all we could get.
I will say that the one meal I had read a lot of negative things about prior to going was at Tony's Town Square and it was one of the best we had during the whole trip.

 

[Alysa]

Glad you had such a great time!
My husband loved the Star Wars weekend too. I got my son the Darth Tater at world of Disney and now he calls Darth Vader "Mr. Tater Head" when he sees him (he's 2).
We are going to be going to Whispering Canyon Cafe - we are really looking forward to it - was it fun?

 

[photolover]

We didn't think Hollywood & Vine's food was bad, we just did not think it was worth the price compared to some of the other places we ate.
As for the fast passes: as an example when we would go to MK we would go to Splash first, get fast passes and then ride it in stand by if it was less then 30 min. wait, then usually by the time we were done we could get fast passes for Thunder and ride it in stand by and then by that time we could get another set of fast passes. Now the fast passes can sometimes take 2 hours in between, but look at the bottom of your fast pass ticket to see when you can get more. Due to the fast passes not going to fast, we sometimes only had to wait 30 to 45 mins. before we could get another set. Then we would go to another area of the park and do the same thing. We would then take a break from the park for awhile with sometimes 5 or 6 sets of fast passes. We would go back to the same park and pretty much walk on or wait 10 mins to get on to all the rides we had fast passes for.

Thank you so much for your explanation. It's an excellent strategy by using the fastpast. I can't believe how many things I learn from Disboards. I just can't find times to read through all the posts. Now I am kinda panicky ... it seems like I am the only one under-planning on this board!

 

[photolover]

Photolover: We are kind of hijacking this thread (sorry), but:

We have eaten at H&V 2 times, and were pleased each time. We all have different tastes and preferences, but it was fine for us. We found that the kids options weren't really huge, but as they are able to select food from the adult area as well, this wasn't a big deal for us. They have always had the basics for kids (mac and cheese, meatballs, mashed potatoes, chicken nuggets, etc), and my kids just add in other things from the rest of the selections. We chose H&V the first time as it was the cheapest option for preferred seating for Fantasmic. In the end it has worked well, as we book an ADR for around 4 (just after the parade) and we have a light/snacky lunch that day. We watch the parade go by just a block up from H&V, then hop back for an early supper. We then have time for a few more things before Fantasmic. I wouldn't be concerned about H&V, but if you want to research it some more, look into the dining boards for reviews, or look at the reviews on the all ears site.

Fastpasses enable you to get passes for a different line which usually has much shorter lines than the standby line. On busy days or at popular rides these are a must and can save you a lot of time. There are all kinds of ways you can use them to help you see all the things you want to without standing in line forever. Go to the Parks attractions and strategies thread...there will probably will be threads on these , or search them.

Thanks for your feedback about H&V. I hope my kids will like it. I don't have much choice because I would like to book the Fantasmic package and this is the only one available.

 

[CrazyDisneyMommy1]

Alysa: We all really enjoyed Whispering Canyon. It was alot of fun. I am trying to plan a family trip for 14 of us for xmas. I am hoping to go there again.

Photolover: Don't worry about all the planning, you will be just fine. We only pre booked 3 meals before we left. I would just go to the guest service at the parks when we entered and book something that day for a meal depending on where we would be and what we wanted to eat that day. We were able to always get something each time, even with it being on the busier side. I find it very hard to book everything ahead as we may switch where we are going depending on how we feel or the weather. You will have a wonderful time.