traylorc
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2009
- Messages
- 1,905
Just returned from an overall wonderful trip to the World. My wife and I had the pleasure of taking my mother and my sister's family for their first trip to WDW. Here are some random thoughts about our vacation....
- We stayed at the Poly, this was the second stay for my wife and I. I understand the Poly is not for everyone, but we absolutely love staying there. There were 12 of us in all, so we were considered a Grand Gathering. A Poly representative greeted us by name as we got off the Magical Express Bus. We were walked into the resort, given the traditional leis, and they gave us our choice of oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies.
- We used the on-line check in service and it there were no issues. After entering the resort I had my folders and tickets in my hand in less than two minutes.
- If I had a couple of minor criticisms about the Poly they would be the air conditioning units and toilets are very loud. Flushing the toilet sounds like a jet engine...not very pleasant for sleeping family members if you have to use the facilities during the night.
- Everyone in the group loved eating at 'Ohana...it was the hands down favorite meal of the vacation. In particular I loved the pot stickers, noodles, pork, pineapple bread, and bread pudding.
- As good as 'Ohana was, I also loved Kona Cafe. The Sticky Wings at Kona are my absolute favorite...man I love those wings!
Kudos to Flametree Barbeque, Earl of Sandwiches, Sci Fi Dining, and La Hacienda...we had great meals at those places as well.
- Sunshine Seasons continues to provide the best variety and bang for your buck as it relates to eating. Their food court approach offers everything from rotissaire chicken and pork chops to noodles, to salads, to sandwiches. The average meal per person was $11-$15...not bad for Disney.
- For the first time we tried Whispering Canyon. I thought the food was pretty good....many of us got the skillet and overall the barbeque was pretty good. Not as good as some of the barbeque I have had while living in Texas or visiting Kansas City, but still pretty good. As many have mentioned on the boards, this place is LOUD. If you do not like or mind a loud environment, you likely will not enjoy your dining experience. I did not mind the noise, and I knew in advance about the "service". However, our waitress was so caught up in "performing" for other tables that we routinely did not see her for long stretches of time. It literally took 30 minutes once I requested the check to actually get the check, process my credit card, and hand my card back to me. If you go to Whispering Canyon, be prepared that your server may be struggling, wannabe actor/actress that is just waiting to put on a big show for their five minutes of fame.
- In the past I have been a supporter of Cosmic Ray's in MK. We ate their twice this trip, and both times were unspectacular. My wife and I visited Cosmic Ray's during our last trip (we were on our own). The food seemed better and there were no issues ordering since we both ordered the same thing. Fast forward to the present, and this time we went with 8 people (the other four people on our trip were doing their own thing). I absolutely dislike how they have this restaurant structured. Everything is broken up into 3 Bays. You can order burgers in one bay, chicken sandwiches in another, and combos like chicken/ribs in a third bay. As you can imagine, with 8 people our orders were across the board which required multiple people to wait in multiple lines in order to get our food. Can you say "pain in the butt"? On top of that, the food was mediocre. I ordered some ribs that were absolutely disgusting.
- I found Yak and Yeti to be okay...but I expected more.
- The renovated Star Tours was fantastic...by far our favorite ride of the trip. We rode about 7 times, and we loved the fact that each ride was a little bit different. SO much better than the old Star Tours ride.
- After seeing the Main Street Electrical Parade all I have to say is this....PLEASE BRING BACK SPECTRO MAGIC!!! Oh man....the music that accompanies MSEP is repetitive, mind numbing, and extremely annoying. IMHO the music was so horrible it totally prevented me from enjoying the show. I will take Spectro Magic every day of the week and twice on Tuesday.
- If you have not tried the Sum of All Fears you are missing out on a great experience. You get five minutes to design your own roller coaster or jet plan ride. You want to go upside down?? No problem. You want multiple barrel rolls?? No problem. You want to take off straight up in the air and then go into a rapid nose dive?? No problem. The Sum of All Thrills is definitely worth checking out.
- I am a huge fan of Soarin...I just love the ride. But the black dust / dirt / specks on the screen is very distracting and takes away from the overall experience. Disney really needs to get that fixed, and to be honest, it may be time to revamp that ride to include new scenery. I would love to see Disney revamp Soarin so it's like Star Tours where you have an opportunity to get different scenery each time you rode.
- Best brownies at WDW: 1a) Main Street Bakery 1b) Sunshine Seasons (this little beauty has chocolate chips sprinkled on top) 2) Earl of Sandwich
- The Kilauea Torte (chocolate cake with a hot fudge center) and the Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cake (which has a peanut butter center and is sprinkled with Reese's pieces) are two of the best deserts at the World. They can be found at Kona Cafe and Sci Fi Dining Respectively.
- One of the reasons we stay at the Poly is because I want to minimize the amount of time I have to spend on buses. I love the speed and convenience of the monorail. I dislike Disney's new policy of only having the monorail operational one hour after the park closes if there is extra magic hours. This makes no sense to me....you offer extra magic hours, and then make it more difficult for folks to get home. Doesn't this somewhat discourage folks from staying until close during EMH? We were in Epcot the last night of our trip, and it literally took 40+ minutes for our bus to arrive. We will think twice about staying at parks late with EMH if Disney maintains this policy.
- The Spirit of Aloha Show as exactly as many Disboarders described it. The first half of the show was incredibly cheesy...I mean roll your eyes in the back of your head cheesy. The second part of the show was great, particularly the fire dancer. The food was average...very average. When you add it all up, IMHO it's definitely not worth the $55+ bucks per person. Although I must admit I didn't mind watching the Hula dancers! Nonetheless, you would be better off saving your money and going to Sunshine Seasons or Earl of Sandwiches. For entertainment instead of the Hula Dancers you can watch your significant other do the "we saved some cash, and had better food, by not going to the Spirit of Aloha show" dance.
- I have finally succumbed to the addiction that is pin trading. But I swear I can stop doing it any time I want...
- One of my goals for this trip is to take as many pictures as possible so I can create a nice photo DVD for my family. Mission accomplished...I took approximately 5,500 pics during my trip. That equates to over 155 gigs of space on my portable hard drives. My Nikon D700 is currently in intensive care....
- Speaking of pics, I have to be honest I was NOT impressed with Disney Photopass Photographers. I elected to use the Photopass folks as I knew I would be taking plenty of pictures, and therefore wanted to have myself included in a few of the shots. Also, I wound getting a deal where I only had to pay $90, versus the typical $150 they charge for the photo CD. I figured I would give the Photopass folks a chance...however, out of the 75+ pics they took I was amazed how many of those shots were either not properly exposed or blurry. To be fair, routinely the Photopass folks are taking pictures in the worst times of the day. Mid day and early afternoon are brutal times to be taking pictures as the chance to have overexposed pictures is the greatest. However, we had some pictures taken early in the morning (before or a little after 8:00am) and many of those pictures are either overexposed or underexposed. If you are a person that is not caught up in the nuances of photography....in other words you don't worry about having a properly exposed or composed shot. If you are a person who simply wants pictures of your family at WDW, then Disney Photopass is probably a good option. However, if properly exposed pictures are important to you then the whole Photopass experience may not be worth your time...or at the very least have the Photopass folks take a picture using your camera. If you have a SLR I would place it in Program (point and shoot mode) before giving it the Photopass folks.
- If you are like me and like to take pictures during the "dark rides" ala Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, and Space Ship Earth. Please be curteous to fellow guests and DO NOT USE YOUR FLASH! Not only will your pictures look terrible (the flash essentially strips away all the "mood" lighting) but it ruins the ride experience for other guests. If you want to take pictures during these dark rides without a flash, I recommend getting a SLR camera with good ISO performance and a fast lens (f/1.4, f/1.8, or f/2.8). I
- If you are interested in going on the Kilimanjaro Safari in Animal Kingdom, try to get on this ride first thing in the morning. We went on the Safari twice right after rope drop and the animals were very active and I was able to get a lot great pictures. This is the exact opposite of what happened when we went on the Safari during our last trip and did not go on the Safari until closer to 11:00am.
- Next WDW trip tentatively scheduled for August 2014.
Thanks for taking the time to read!! Feel free to ask any questions.
- We stayed at the Poly, this was the second stay for my wife and I. I understand the Poly is not for everyone, but we absolutely love staying there. There were 12 of us in all, so we were considered a Grand Gathering. A Poly representative greeted us by name as we got off the Magical Express Bus. We were walked into the resort, given the traditional leis, and they gave us our choice of oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies.
- We used the on-line check in service and it there were no issues. After entering the resort I had my folders and tickets in my hand in less than two minutes.
- If I had a couple of minor criticisms about the Poly they would be the air conditioning units and toilets are very loud. Flushing the toilet sounds like a jet engine...not very pleasant for sleeping family members if you have to use the facilities during the night.
- Everyone in the group loved eating at 'Ohana...it was the hands down favorite meal of the vacation. In particular I loved the pot stickers, noodles, pork, pineapple bread, and bread pudding.
- As good as 'Ohana was, I also loved Kona Cafe. The Sticky Wings at Kona are my absolute favorite...man I love those wings!
Kudos to Flametree Barbeque, Earl of Sandwiches, Sci Fi Dining, and La Hacienda...we had great meals at those places as well.- Sunshine Seasons continues to provide the best variety and bang for your buck as it relates to eating. Their food court approach offers everything from rotissaire chicken and pork chops to noodles, to salads, to sandwiches. The average meal per person was $11-$15...not bad for Disney.
- For the first time we tried Whispering Canyon. I thought the food was pretty good....many of us got the skillet and overall the barbeque was pretty good. Not as good as some of the barbeque I have had while living in Texas or visiting Kansas City, but still pretty good. As many have mentioned on the boards, this place is LOUD. If you do not like or mind a loud environment, you likely will not enjoy your dining experience. I did not mind the noise, and I knew in advance about the "service". However, our waitress was so caught up in "performing" for other tables that we routinely did not see her for long stretches of time. It literally took 30 minutes once I requested the check to actually get the check, process my credit card, and hand my card back to me. If you go to Whispering Canyon, be prepared that your server may be struggling, wannabe actor/actress that is just waiting to put on a big show for their five minutes of fame.
- In the past I have been a supporter of Cosmic Ray's in MK. We ate their twice this trip, and both times were unspectacular. My wife and I visited Cosmic Ray's during our last trip (we were on our own). The food seemed better and there were no issues ordering since we both ordered the same thing. Fast forward to the present, and this time we went with 8 people (the other four people on our trip were doing their own thing). I absolutely dislike how they have this restaurant structured. Everything is broken up into 3 Bays. You can order burgers in one bay, chicken sandwiches in another, and combos like chicken/ribs in a third bay. As you can imagine, with 8 people our orders were across the board which required multiple people to wait in multiple lines in order to get our food. Can you say "pain in the butt"? On top of that, the food was mediocre. I ordered some ribs that were absolutely disgusting.
- I found Yak and Yeti to be okay...but I expected more.
- The renovated Star Tours was fantastic...by far our favorite ride of the trip. We rode about 7 times, and we loved the fact that each ride was a little bit different. SO much better than the old Star Tours ride.
- After seeing the Main Street Electrical Parade all I have to say is this....PLEASE BRING BACK SPECTRO MAGIC!!! Oh man....the music that accompanies MSEP is repetitive, mind numbing, and extremely annoying. IMHO the music was so horrible it totally prevented me from enjoying the show. I will take Spectro Magic every day of the week and twice on Tuesday.
- If you have not tried the Sum of All Fears you are missing out on a great experience. You get five minutes to design your own roller coaster or jet plan ride. You want to go upside down?? No problem. You want multiple barrel rolls?? No problem. You want to take off straight up in the air and then go into a rapid nose dive?? No problem. The Sum of All Thrills is definitely worth checking out.
- I am a huge fan of Soarin...I just love the ride. But the black dust / dirt / specks on the screen is very distracting and takes away from the overall experience. Disney really needs to get that fixed, and to be honest, it may be time to revamp that ride to include new scenery. I would love to see Disney revamp Soarin so it's like Star Tours where you have an opportunity to get different scenery each time you rode.
- Best brownies at WDW: 1a) Main Street Bakery 1b) Sunshine Seasons (this little beauty has chocolate chips sprinkled on top) 2) Earl of Sandwich
- The Kilauea Torte (chocolate cake with a hot fudge center) and the Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cake (which has a peanut butter center and is sprinkled with Reese's pieces) are two of the best deserts at the World. They can be found at Kona Cafe and Sci Fi Dining Respectively.
- One of the reasons we stay at the Poly is because I want to minimize the amount of time I have to spend on buses. I love the speed and convenience of the monorail. I dislike Disney's new policy of only having the monorail operational one hour after the park closes if there is extra magic hours. This makes no sense to me....you offer extra magic hours, and then make it more difficult for folks to get home. Doesn't this somewhat discourage folks from staying until close during EMH? We were in Epcot the last night of our trip, and it literally took 40+ minutes for our bus to arrive. We will think twice about staying at parks late with EMH if Disney maintains this policy.
- The Spirit of Aloha Show as exactly as many Disboarders described it. The first half of the show was incredibly cheesy...I mean roll your eyes in the back of your head cheesy. The second part of the show was great, particularly the fire dancer. The food was average...very average. When you add it all up, IMHO it's definitely not worth the $55+ bucks per person. Although I must admit I didn't mind watching the Hula dancers! Nonetheless, you would be better off saving your money and going to Sunshine Seasons or Earl of Sandwiches. For entertainment instead of the Hula Dancers you can watch your significant other do the "we saved some cash, and had better food, by not going to the Spirit of Aloha show" dance.
- I have finally succumbed to the addiction that is pin trading. But I swear I can stop doing it any time I want...
- One of my goals for this trip is to take as many pictures as possible so I can create a nice photo DVD for my family. Mission accomplished...I took approximately 5,500 pics during my trip. That equates to over 155 gigs of space on my portable hard drives. My Nikon D700 is currently in intensive care....
- Speaking of pics, I have to be honest I was NOT impressed with Disney Photopass Photographers. I elected to use the Photopass folks as I knew I would be taking plenty of pictures, and therefore wanted to have myself included in a few of the shots. Also, I wound getting a deal where I only had to pay $90, versus the typical $150 they charge for the photo CD. I figured I would give the Photopass folks a chance...however, out of the 75+ pics they took I was amazed how many of those shots were either not properly exposed or blurry. To be fair, routinely the Photopass folks are taking pictures in the worst times of the day. Mid day and early afternoon are brutal times to be taking pictures as the chance to have overexposed pictures is the greatest. However, we had some pictures taken early in the morning (before or a little after 8:00am) and many of those pictures are either overexposed or underexposed. If you are a person that is not caught up in the nuances of photography....in other words you don't worry about having a properly exposed or composed shot. If you are a person who simply wants pictures of your family at WDW, then Disney Photopass is probably a good option. However, if properly exposed pictures are important to you then the whole Photopass experience may not be worth your time...or at the very least have the Photopass folks take a picture using your camera. If you have a SLR I would place it in Program (point and shoot mode) before giving it the Photopass folks.
- If you are like me and like to take pictures during the "dark rides" ala Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, and Space Ship Earth. Please be curteous to fellow guests and DO NOT USE YOUR FLASH! Not only will your pictures look terrible (the flash essentially strips away all the "mood" lighting) but it ruins the ride experience for other guests. If you want to take pictures during these dark rides without a flash, I recommend getting a SLR camera with good ISO performance and a fast lens (f/1.4, f/1.8, or f/2.8). I
- If you are interested in going on the Kilimanjaro Safari in Animal Kingdom, try to get on this ride first thing in the morning. We went on the Safari twice right after rope drop and the animals were very active and I was able to get a lot great pictures. This is the exact opposite of what happened when we went on the Safari during our last trip and did not go on the Safari until closer to 11:00am.
- Next WDW trip tentatively scheduled for August 2014.
Thanks for taking the time to read!! Feel free to ask any questions.
I couldn't agree more about Soarin' it is so annoying about the dirt on the film or screen or whatever the heck it is!
