OurLaughingPlace
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2014
- Messages
- 3,830
I thought I'd post a 'just back' thread as I've enjoyed reading ones posted by other people
August 17-September 2nd
DH, myself, 2 teenage DD's
August 17th- stayed at MCO Hyatt, just because we love the airport hotel (love to swim on rooftop hotel, shop in stores, watch airplanes) and we arrive refreshed and ready to go the next day at Disney.
August 18th-22nd Contemporary garden wing, standard view - amazing rooms, including 1L Dasani water, lovely toiletries, great view of monorail, close to pool and 10-15 minute walk to the Magic Kingdom. Seriously, the proximity to the MK and the huge rooms were awesome. This was our first time at Contemporary and we loved it. Could be our favourite resort now.
August 22nd- 26th Beach Club standard view- loved stormalong bay and the walk to Epcot. When we were here, we went into Epcot every evening. We've stayed her a few times and keep returning for the atmosphere, SAB and walk to Epcot / boat to DHS. Keep thinking we will walk to DHS, but then decide it's too hot!
August 26th- September 2nd Port Orleans Riverside preferred room- free dining. We usually stay at POFQ, but chose PORS for the free dining bounceback offer last year (POFQ was not included)
We ate OOP at...
T-Rex- huge servings, Landry card members
Trails End- probably our favourite of the trip! This was our first time here. Fried chicken, ribs, baked potato bar, salmon, salads all amazing. Great service here. This is now on our must do list for every trip. We took boat from Contemporary and it was very enjoyable.
Garden Grill- fantastic fruit, warm fresh sticky bun, hot platter. Service here was excellent. We had a late breakfast here and saw the characters multiple times and never felt rushed.
Le Cellier- went for salad, soup and poutine for lunch - excellent!
Via Napoli- third time here, and I finally liked it! We had margarita pizza and white pizza and shared them. So delicious. We always go because youngest DD picks this place, but I've always been 'meh' about it. Now I finally get it! Plus, the blood orange fresca was so refreshing!
Sci Fi- oreo shakes terrific! DD17 likes the vanilla coke; we all had burgers / fries. I had the veggie burger with sweet potato fries and it was very good.
Beaches and Cream - ice cream for supper. We had No Way Jose x3 and a strawberry shortcake
Free Dining
Tusker House breakfast- great food; rushed character interaction; amazing juice; server seemed very busy
'Ohana breakfast- terrific view of Magic Kingdom, late breakfast (11:15 reservation) so lots of character interaction; I requested turkey bacon so this was really nice; Mickey and Stitch waffles - yum; terrific juice; excellent service
Crystal Palace pre-park opening breakfast (8:05am reservation for a 9:00am opening)- always a must do; we love characters here; we were the second family to enter restaurant; made to order omelette station is fantastic and we always make sure we get some pooh's puffed french toast; we paid when we sat down and had seen all 4 characters and were on our way to Splash Mountain by 8:45am
BOG lunch- loved our meals of braised pork, quiche, french onion soup, potato leek soup
BOG dinner- DH and DD's had steak and loved it! I had pan seared chicken - best meal of the trip for everyone! We also had a great server here and we purchased the $5 souvenir Beauty and the Beast cups for neices and nephews back home
Chef Mickey's dinner- we had opening dinner reservation; enjoyed all of the food; characters were a lot of fun; it is very loud here, but we always like it. I know it doesn't get a lot of love here, but it's always a must do meal for us
Akershus breakfast- enjoyed the cold buffet bar before hot platter (like it used to be; last year we had fruit and cinnamon buns, I think, delivered to the table, but it's back to the buffet before family style platter). Princesses were very good. Great food; ok service
50's Prime Time dinner- awesome server- she was really into her role! We had the fried chicken, the sampler, the salmon and the chicken pot pie - all delicious! We had cheesecake and peanut butter layer cake 'to go' as we were so full. We were so full because we started with the PB&J milkshakes!
We obviously love breakfasts - we like to have the day to 'walk off' our big breakfast.
We also ate at Captain Cook's, Contempo Cafe x 2, Wolfgang Puck Express x 3, PORS x 3, Pinnochios, Columbia Harbor House, Yorkshire Fish and Chips x 2, Boardwalk Bakery, France Bakery
Snacks - Dole Whips, Coffee Floats, Plaza All American Sundaes, Ample Hill Creamery, ice cream to go from Beaches and Cream, refillable popcorn bucket, kaki gori from Japan,
Favourite stores- Japan Pavilion, World of Disney and Tren D @ Disney Springs,
Special Events - Epcot dessert party for Illuminations (with tables and chairs), set up by our magical TA company, including a private ride on Soarin' after park closed. Fabulous evening.
Special Events- Pirates and Pals Fireworks Cruise - ended up that the boat was being repaired
; so, instead they set us up outside Contemporary with chairs / tables, desserts, still met Hook, Smee and Pan *** then we were fully refunded all of our money! That was awesome!
Special Events- Early Morning Magic at MK August 21st- fabulous! Peter Pan down the whole time, so we were given all day FP at PP, Pooh, IASW, Tea Cups and 7DMT - great perk. We rode mine train 6-7 times total I believe. The breakfast was really good. Fresh fruit, good frittata, even chicken sausages, fresh pastries, juice, bacon, really friendly CM's. We would definitely do EMM at MK again. Especially nice because we were staying at Contemporary and could walk there in the morning / no problem getting to MK by 7:30am.
10 day hopper tickets (we usually buy base tickets, but for free dining we needed to buy hoppers and we actually did use them well)
Started our 10 mornings at...
4 days MK (1/2 days)
1 day AK (AM, break, PM for late night safari)
3 days DHS (1/2 days)
2 days Epcot (1/2 days)
*** hopped 4 evenings to Epcot
10 days parks out of 17 days. We spent about 6 hours in a park when we went in, then enjoyed Disney Springs 3 evenings as well as resort pools.
Best transportation ever. Only 2 longs waits in 17 days. Once was a 20 minute wait at PORS to go to Epcot (saw 4 MK buses go by) and a 45 minute wait at Epcot in the afternoon to return to PORS. Otherwise, we NEVER waited more than 3-4 minutes for a bus. Often bus was there when we walked up to bus stop. Monorail working every time we tried to ride it during our 4 night stay at Contemporary.
No problems, other than Pirates and Pals Fireworks Cruise (but as I said, they refunded our money and still gave us the desserts such as ice creams, lemonade, popcorn, cake, cotton candy, as well as a seated viewing area).
CM's were good; a few were outstanding; no problems
Parks were very clean.
First 8 days we had no rain - this is very rare. We go every August and usually have rain every day. But, it did rain our last couple of days (Hermine); however, we seemed to avoid most of it. One day we got drenched but it was on our way out, so it was kind of fun! It was actually the best weather we've had (we've gone to Disney the last 9 years in August every year). We had several breezy days that helped with the heat. We also use frogg toggs.
Some people have mentioned less air conditioning on buses - we definitely noticed this - we love air conditioning, but I do know that some people found the buses too cold.
Flight home a bit bumpy, due to Hermine.
Amazing trip. Home at 2:00am today - tired and missing Disney already.
Planning for next year (booked bounceback while there
)
ETA- we LOVED FEA (rode it twice, at rope drop from International Gateway) and Soarin' was terrific! Crowds were great!
August 17-September 2nd
DH, myself, 2 teenage DD's
August 17th- stayed at MCO Hyatt, just because we love the airport hotel (love to swim on rooftop hotel, shop in stores, watch airplanes) and we arrive refreshed and ready to go the next day at Disney.
August 18th-22nd Contemporary garden wing, standard view - amazing rooms, including 1L Dasani water, lovely toiletries, great view of monorail, close to pool and 10-15 minute walk to the Magic Kingdom. Seriously, the proximity to the MK and the huge rooms were awesome. This was our first time at Contemporary and we loved it. Could be our favourite resort now.
August 22nd- 26th Beach Club standard view- loved stormalong bay and the walk to Epcot. When we were here, we went into Epcot every evening. We've stayed her a few times and keep returning for the atmosphere, SAB and walk to Epcot / boat to DHS. Keep thinking we will walk to DHS, but then decide it's too hot!
August 26th- September 2nd Port Orleans Riverside preferred room- free dining. We usually stay at POFQ, but chose PORS for the free dining bounceback offer last year (POFQ was not included)
We ate OOP at...
T-Rex- huge servings, Landry card members
Trails End- probably our favourite of the trip! This was our first time here. Fried chicken, ribs, baked potato bar, salmon, salads all amazing. Great service here. This is now on our must do list for every trip. We took boat from Contemporary and it was very enjoyable.
Garden Grill- fantastic fruit, warm fresh sticky bun, hot platter. Service here was excellent. We had a late breakfast here and saw the characters multiple times and never felt rushed.
Le Cellier- went for salad, soup and poutine for lunch - excellent!
Via Napoli- third time here, and I finally liked it! We had margarita pizza and white pizza and shared them. So delicious. We always go because youngest DD picks this place, but I've always been 'meh' about it. Now I finally get it! Plus, the blood orange fresca was so refreshing!
Sci Fi- oreo shakes terrific! DD17 likes the vanilla coke; we all had burgers / fries. I had the veggie burger with sweet potato fries and it was very good.
Beaches and Cream - ice cream for supper. We had No Way Jose x3 and a strawberry shortcake
Free Dining
Tusker House breakfast- great food; rushed character interaction; amazing juice; server seemed very busy
'Ohana breakfast- terrific view of Magic Kingdom, late breakfast (11:15 reservation) so lots of character interaction; I requested turkey bacon so this was really nice; Mickey and Stitch waffles - yum; terrific juice; excellent service
Crystal Palace pre-park opening breakfast (8:05am reservation for a 9:00am opening)- always a must do; we love characters here; we were the second family to enter restaurant; made to order omelette station is fantastic and we always make sure we get some pooh's puffed french toast; we paid when we sat down and had seen all 4 characters and were on our way to Splash Mountain by 8:45am
BOG lunch- loved our meals of braised pork, quiche, french onion soup, potato leek soup
BOG dinner- DH and DD's had steak and loved it! I had pan seared chicken - best meal of the trip for everyone! We also had a great server here and we purchased the $5 souvenir Beauty and the Beast cups for neices and nephews back home
Chef Mickey's dinner- we had opening dinner reservation; enjoyed all of the food; characters were a lot of fun; it is very loud here, but we always like it. I know it doesn't get a lot of love here, but it's always a must do meal for us
Akershus breakfast- enjoyed the cold buffet bar before hot platter (like it used to be; last year we had fruit and cinnamon buns, I think, delivered to the table, but it's back to the buffet before family style platter). Princesses were very good. Great food; ok service
50's Prime Time dinner- awesome server- she was really into her role! We had the fried chicken, the sampler, the salmon and the chicken pot pie - all delicious! We had cheesecake and peanut butter layer cake 'to go' as we were so full. We were so full because we started with the PB&J milkshakes!
We obviously love breakfasts - we like to have the day to 'walk off' our big breakfast.
We also ate at Captain Cook's, Contempo Cafe x 2, Wolfgang Puck Express x 3, PORS x 3, Pinnochios, Columbia Harbor House, Yorkshire Fish and Chips x 2, Boardwalk Bakery, France Bakery
Snacks - Dole Whips, Coffee Floats, Plaza All American Sundaes, Ample Hill Creamery, ice cream to go from Beaches and Cream, refillable popcorn bucket, kaki gori from Japan,
Favourite stores- Japan Pavilion, World of Disney and Tren D @ Disney Springs,
Special Events - Epcot dessert party for Illuminations (with tables and chairs), set up by our magical TA company, including a private ride on Soarin' after park closed. Fabulous evening.
Special Events- Pirates and Pals Fireworks Cruise - ended up that the boat was being repaired
; so, instead they set us up outside Contemporary with chairs / tables, desserts, still met Hook, Smee and Pan *** then we were fully refunded all of our money! That was awesome!Special Events- Early Morning Magic at MK August 21st- fabulous! Peter Pan down the whole time, so we were given all day FP at PP, Pooh, IASW, Tea Cups and 7DMT - great perk. We rode mine train 6-7 times total I believe. The breakfast was really good. Fresh fruit, good frittata, even chicken sausages, fresh pastries, juice, bacon, really friendly CM's. We would definitely do EMM at MK again. Especially nice because we were staying at Contemporary and could walk there in the morning / no problem getting to MK by 7:30am.
10 day hopper tickets (we usually buy base tickets, but for free dining we needed to buy hoppers and we actually did use them well)
Started our 10 mornings at...
4 days MK (1/2 days)
1 day AK (AM, break, PM for late night safari)
3 days DHS (1/2 days)
2 days Epcot (1/2 days)
*** hopped 4 evenings to Epcot
10 days parks out of 17 days. We spent about 6 hours in a park when we went in, then enjoyed Disney Springs 3 evenings as well as resort pools.
Best transportation ever. Only 2 longs waits in 17 days. Once was a 20 minute wait at PORS to go to Epcot (saw 4 MK buses go by) and a 45 minute wait at Epcot in the afternoon to return to PORS. Otherwise, we NEVER waited more than 3-4 minutes for a bus. Often bus was there when we walked up to bus stop. Monorail working every time we tried to ride it during our 4 night stay at Contemporary.
No problems, other than Pirates and Pals Fireworks Cruise (but as I said, they refunded our money and still gave us the desserts such as ice creams, lemonade, popcorn, cake, cotton candy, as well as a seated viewing area).
CM's were good; a few were outstanding; no problems
Parks were very clean.
First 8 days we had no rain - this is very rare. We go every August and usually have rain every day. But, it did rain our last couple of days (Hermine); however, we seemed to avoid most of it. One day we got drenched but it was on our way out, so it was kind of fun! It was actually the best weather we've had (we've gone to Disney the last 9 years in August every year). We had several breezy days that helped with the heat. We also use frogg toggs.
Some people have mentioned less air conditioning on buses - we definitely noticed this - we love air conditioning, but I do know that some people found the buses too cold.
Flight home a bit bumpy, due to Hermine.
Amazing trip. Home at 2:00am today - tired and missing Disney already.
Planning for next year (booked bounceback while there
)ETA- we LOVED FEA (rode it twice, at rope drop from International Gateway) and Soarin' was terrific! Crowds were great!
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to leave, no matter how long or short!
