Just went Feb-20-28 2009

[GregS00]

Wow, I can't believe that a week can go by so fast.....anyways here are some of our thoughts and opinions....this is our second family visit the first in 07 we stayed at shades of Green and on this trip we stayed at All stars music family suite (we have 4 kids 5-10 years old).

First the Resort: the family suites were great for what we needed- a clean comfortable place to stay sleep and head coniently travel to the parks from. The front desk was very efficient and handled any problems with at "no problem" attitude. Housekeeping only made the little towels animals once when we got there although I tipped them well each day they turned our air down on 40 degrees twice and left it that way so when we came back from the park it took forever for us to warm up.....i still don't know why they did that but it wasn't appreciated. The pool is nice kids loved it and it was well maintained and nicely warm. Overall....I would stay here again without a question. I can only complain about the bus service.....they really didn't have adequate transport ; the bus was only running about every 30 minutes so you can imagine the trouble that caused in getting to the parks and from the parks long bus lines long waits..

The Parks: Magic kingdom- was well maintained......cast members were very nice.....wishes and spectromagic were awesome as usual. HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS- was nice However TOY STORY MANIA is just that Mania we got there late around 10:00 with park opening at 9:00 and no fastpasses and the line was 2 hours by 11:00 we heard from another family that near opening time parents were having their kids run under the ropes to get back to TSM and the cast members were literally carrying kids back to the front and chasing them down...they said they had to slowly walk everyone back to keep the crowd from trampling.....glad I missed all the "fun"......actually we came back to the park during fantasmic near the end of the day and noticed that fastpasses weren't coming anymore and although the wait time said 70 minutes we did it in around 30. ANIMAL KINGDOM: nice as I remembered...lots of walking though. EPCOT: spent 2 days here really enjoyed it.

Park TIPS: If your going to see the fairies get to the rope line at toon land around 9:45 they say toon town and the fairies are closed until 10:00 but they will open up the land usually around 9:50....it can be crazy there we saw women taking their kids in their arms and literally running full speed to the fairy line within 10 minutes of opening the wait was 60 minutes....crazy crazy but if you are there when they drop the rope and just walk normally to the tent then you'll probably just have a 20-30 minute wait.
at EPCOT get your soarin fastpass first. Also with Fastpasses rides will take these at anytime AFTER the comback time Also keep track of when you can get another fastpass.....

DINING PLAN: we did the basic never had done this before and don't think I ever will again; heres why.....1st we just rarely eat to this expense level and to do it 7 times was just to much. 2nd the food we ate was just good but for nearly 30 dollars a plate it just wasn't high quality food...for instance compare the type of steak I could get at a local restraunt for 30 bucks and what I got at whispering Canyon .....no real comparison. We ate at Ohana-good but service was pathetic....Crystal palace----characters move through rather quickly but adequate I guess....meal not much better than Shoney's breakfast buffet......1900 park -------characters ok prince charming great with the little girls cinderella blows through like the wind food was ok but again NOT nearly as good as what I could get at a local resraunt for even less. BOMA----interesting food poor service long lines for the prime rib again I didn't feel like I got a 30$ meal. Whispering Canyon-----great ribs kids liked the atmosphere....still didn't feel like I got a 30$ meal. Tepen EDO- our best experience kids loved the chef and loved trying chopsticks food was good but again for 30$ for a piece of filet I've had much much bettter cuts of meat. Finaly Garden Grill----my how it has changed----food quality is way down from what it used to be here character experience is still great though..........overall food quality issues for the money and a biggie for me is that the tips are not included in the plan and by and large the service was very poor compared to what I could receive at a nice local restaurant I can only assume that it is because that we had a group of 6 and they automatically chagre 18% for this at Boma my friend was so dissatisfied with the service he only paid 10% and someone marked out what he intended and bumped it up to 18% so I guess you don't get to vote with your tip on the plan.......We found that for us the quick service plan may have been a better fit.

 

[MICKEY4EVER!]

I LOVE DISNEY! However, I agree with you on the meals. The quality you get for a thirty dollar a plate meal at Disney World is not much compared to what you would get at your local restaraunt. And when you're at Disney eating at some of the top named restraunts in the country (i.e. Planet Hollywood, Rainforest Cafe), you automatically expect more for your dollar.

Tip: If you are accustomed to salads that come loaded with cheese, meat, boiled eggs, croutons, tomato, carrots, etc. etc. then DO NOT ORDER A SALAD AT DISNEY! You will get lettuce. That is all. Perhaps a couple of pieces of diced tomato, but nothing else. It is nothing like what you would get at your neighborhood O'Charleys or Outback Steakhouse. That being said, most of the other food is okay, just not what you'd expect if you've never eaten there before.

And I'd never eat at Garden Grill again, but I'll agree with you that the character experiences are really good there. Chip grabbed my son who wasn't quite two at the time up in a big bear hug and stayed like that for several minutes. I think he'd have went to sleep like that if Chip had stayed there longer!

Overall, I think I prefer counter service over table service anytime. Their chicken fingers and fries are quite good and quite fast! Which gives you more time to explore the parks and ride the rides, which is ultimately more important than a good meal.

You can eat a good meal at home! You're not at Disney World every day!!!!

 

[2poohbears]

We were at ASMovies resort from FEB 21 through MAR 01. It's funny you should mention the bus issues because we were commenting on how much better we thought the bus service was this time around! We must have hit it just right every day, because we only waited for a bus once for 15 minutes. Every other time we were in line maybe a few minutes before a bus showed up! We think it's also time for them to spruce up the rooms at ASMovies...we were in the Dalmations building, and the walls were really dirty. I think I even saw mold on the ceiling in the bathroom. Housekeeping didn't seem to be as clean as we usually get, either. (We stay at ASMovies every trip, but usually in the Toy Story buildings).

I agree the food left a lot to be desired this trip. We even found Le Celier was disappointing! We're thinking we'll leave off the dining plan next time around - unless we would manage to get it for free. Our boys are getting older (they are 5 years old now), so the character meals are losing their draw---they'd rather be in the attractions at this point. We'll probably pick one or two TS restaurants that aren't as expensive, and then just do counter service the rest of the time.