March Break at CR – with stops at Poly, GF, WL, BW, BC, YC, MK, Epcot, HS, DD, and TL

[mamasha]

please more reviews

 

[JanetMom]

More reviews are coming. I've been sidetracked by long weekend fun with family and friends, but I'll be back with more tomorrow morning!

Doing a trip report is a lot of work, but I've missed doing it the past two days. It is a great way to relive the trip!

Here's a teaser...

There were orchids everywhere on the 14th floor. They were all so beautiful. They even put fresh orchids in the rooms, which is a very nice touch. It was hard to get a good picture but here is one that was put in our room on Day 5.

 

[JanetMom]

The evening of Day 5

After the afternoon at Epcot it was back to the CR. For supper we went to The Wave…of American Flavours. I really liked this place. The food and atmosphere were great. They offered a flight of organic beers, so of course my husband gave it a try. If I had to pick just one restaurant at the CR, it would be the Wave.

After supper we all had some energy left so we headed out to the Magic Kingdom. My husband and I wanted to see the parade and my son wanted to go off on his own to the Haunted Mansion. We all enjoyed ourselves.

I love how the CMs that are around for crowd control will play with the guests while everyone waits for the parade to begin. We watched the kids taking turns jumping rope while we waited.

It was hard to figure out what was “the best” spot to catch the parade. We arrived well before the start time, but many spots were already taken. We knew we wanted to be near the park entrance so we could leave easily, so after much debate and indecision, we decided to take a spot right by the Car Barn. It was a good spot to watch the crowds while we waited, and we knew we were just inches away from the start of the parade.

I was very excited when I could see the glow of the Spectro lights behind the gates.

It is difficult to get good shots of the Spectro parade, but here are a few that I like.

It was fun seeing each float come into view and I loved how the cast members in the parade were already in character even though they hadn't passed through the Car Barn gates.

This shot is a bit blurry, but it does come with a nice story. Before the parade began, I was watching a grandmother and granddaughter (approx. 4 years old) waiting beside us. They both were clearly exhausted and it was sad watching their interaction, because every time the little girl moved, her grandmother snapped at her for some reason or other. All I could hear was “Sit still”, “Behave”, “If you unravel that slinky one more time I’m taking it away”, “Don’t do that”, “Sit still”, etc. I felt so bad for the little girl and it was clear that everyone’s day had been too long.

Well, then along came Cinderella and Prince Charming. Prince Charming looked right into the eyes of the little girl and gave her a little wave. She just sighed, swooned and melted right on the spot. It was so clear that negativity of waiting for the parade was forgotten and all that mattered was that Prince Charming waved at her. It was a great Disney moment.

That’s all for Day 5. Next up – rope drop!

 

[JanetMom]

Day 6 – Rope drop begins the day, Downtown Disney ends it.

For this day we decided to try to get to rope drop. We had been a bit frustrated by the size of the crowds so we thought getting there for rope drop would help us find a time when the crowds were a bit thinner (we were wrong about that.)

It was so great to arrive as the characters were putting on the show from the train. I loved that – such a nice way to start the day. We watched the end of the show and then excitedly entered the Magic Kingdom. And, it was as crowded as ever!

This is Main Street at 8:00 a.m.

We still hadn’t found a good time to do a second run of Space Mountain so we headed straight to Tomorrowland with the intention of riding SM or getting some fast passes. We changed our minds – the line up was crazy! It was unbelievably long and hard to tell who was lined up for a fast pass and who was lined up for standby.

We all decided we did not want to spend one of our last days in a two-hour line up so we went on the People Mover instead. This is a shot I took from the People Mover. It may be hard to tell without the context, but most of the people in this picture are in line for Space Mountain. The line went well past the Monsters Inc. Laugh show.

After the People Mover we headed over to Philharmagic which was a nice walk-on and then it was off to the Haunted Mansion. Sadly, Adventureland was still closed, so we decided to do Small World one more time. By now it was after 9:00am so it was off to the Haunted Mansion. For some reason no one was in a roller coaster mood so we skipped Thunder and Splash Mountains and chose to head over to Pirates of the Caribbean. Pirates is always a fun ride, but part of me is still sentimental for the old version without Johnny Depp. The next stop was the Jungle Boat Cruise. The line up was way longer than it looked, but they kept us moving along so it wasn’t too bad. We had a great captain who made sure we had a fun cruise.

At some point we made it through the castle to admire the mosaics some more.

Soon the morning passed us by and it was time to hop on a boat and head over to the Grand Floridian Café for lunch. We are early people, which means we arrive everywhere before we need to. So, we arrived 30 minutes before our ADR, which gave us time to look around the lobby. It really is a beautiful hotel. It is a touch more formal that we would like, but I think we would enjoy spending some time just relaxing in the lobby. Here are some random shots taken while we enjoyed the comfy lobby sofa.

The Grand Floridian Café was really nice. My husband loved his Grand Floridian burger. I would definitely eat there again.

After lunch we took the monorail back to the CR where we all settled in for a nap. I must admit that this was the day where we foolishly tried to act like tough Canadians and totally under-dressed for the weather. We dressed for a nice spring day wearing short sleeves and boy did we freeze. Being cold was another reason we all wanted to get back to our room and cuddle under the luxurious warm bedding.

For supper we had an ADR at the House of Blues. We were looking forward to going to Downtown Disney to do some shopping and looking forward to seeing the House of Blues and maybe hearing some music. I took this picture as we arrived at the restaurant as we were excited to be going there.

And then our excitement was squashed…. House of Blues was closed for a private function. We were a bit stunned. I walked up to one of the staff who was setting up and explained that we had a 5:30pm ADR. He just said “Sorry, we tried to call everyone. We are closed for a private function.” He offered us a discount on a future meal, but that didn’t help us much. We were disappointed and hungry.

When we left the House of Blues our son wanted to see what Disney Quest was like so we went in to explore. My husband and I were tired so we just sat and waited while our son roamed around. In the end he wasn’t that impressed with the place. He felt that since every game was included in the admission people didn’t have any reason to stop playing so it took too long to wait for his turns at the games. He is a quiet polite person so he would never ask anyone to move along but would rather quietly wait his turn, which didn’t seem to be the most effective approach at Disney Quest.

We weren’t sure where to go next so we decided to try Raglan Road or Earl of Sandwich. At Raglan Road the wait time was 90 minutes or we could get an immediate seat on the patio. We chose the patio. The service and food were great. At one point I went inside to take a look and they had some great entertainment. On a future trip I would love to come back to an inside seat at Raglan Road.


After supper we headed to the stores to buy some souvenirs. The stores were really crowded, but we managed to find a few things to bring home. After shopping we went to the buses, which again were really crowded. The whole experience felt more like rush hour in Toronto than a relaxing vacation. We decided that next time we will try to do our Downtown Disney shopping in the morning hours rather than the evening.

After making it back to the hotel we enjoyed a drink and dessert on our wonderful balcony.

That’s all for day 6 – Next up our last full day.

 

[tinkgurl]

Hey! We were at the MK for rope drop that day! And we are probably somewhere in that Space Mountain line!

 

[JanetMom]

How long did the line take?

 

[tinkgurl]

How long did the line take?

We had to wait a few minutes for them to start letting people go in and as you can see it was long, so Fiance ran up and got us fast passes and met back up with me. Honestly, once we got inside, we walked right up to the loading area! I think the most we waited was 25-30 minutes.

 

[mamasha]

Day 4 –
And then we returned back to the room where I enjoyed some reading on the balcony.

For supper that night we ordered up room service and enjoyed it on our balcony, along with some extra food from the lounge.

Is there a lock up high on the balcony door? That is the only thing that makes me a little nervous about the room.

 

[JanetMom]

We had to wait a few minutes for them to start letting people go in and as you can see it was long, so Fiance ran up and got us fast passes and met back up with me. Honestly, once we got inside, we walked right up to the loading area! I think the most we waited was 25-30 minutes.

I knew it! Clearly we should have been more patient and joined that line. Oh well, there will be other opportunities to ride Space Mountain in the future!

Is there a lock up high on the balcony door? That is the only thing that makes me a little nervous about the room.

There is nothing to be nervous about. There are two locks on the balcony door, one lower down and one near the top. It took each of us some time to figure out how to get both of them unlocked at the same time. It would be difficult for a child to figure this out.

Another bit of reassurance. Whenever the housekeeping staff (including turndown staff) were in the room they made sure that both locks were secure on the balcony. We were very casual about leaving the door unlocked, but they always made sure both locks were set when they were in the room.

As long as all the adults in your room know to lock the balcony door when they come in off the balcony, you will be safe.

 

[JanetMom]

Day 7 – One last chance to do anything we wanted

For our last full day we did not make any pre-trip plans as we wanted this day to be free for anything we wanted to do but hadn’t had the chance to yet, or liked so much we wanted to do it again.

For breakfast we decided to check out the Contempo Café. We were getting a bit tired of the lounge breakfast offerings and we felt we should eat at the Contempo at least once. Our food was fine and reasonably priced, but it was really crowded when we arrived. We had to wait a bit for a table and then shared it with another couple as there was nowhere else for them to sit. It was all fine, but I must admit that not having to deal with crowds at breakfast is one of the best parts of staying CL.

After breakfast I took some more shots of the wonderful mural.

Next up we decided to take the monorail over to Epcot. In the past Magic Kingdom has always been our favourite park, but I think we are changing that to Epcot. The weather was really nice which made the fact that it was our last day all the more sad, but it was great to be wandering around Epcot in the sun.

When we arrived, my son and I wanted to ride Soarin’ so my husband offered to go get us Fast Passes for Test Track while we went to Soarin’. Well the line up was listed as 105 minutes and we didn’t want to leave my husband for that long so we skipped Soarin’ and headed over to Test Track to meet up with him. Although it was still early in the morning the Fast Passes for Test Track were for 3:45 p.m., so rather than wait until the afternoon we considered the stand by line but it was also really long. I really like the Test Track ride but I find all the loud noises in the line area to be a bit stressful. So, my son and I decided to try the single riders line. It was a great way to go. The line moves right along and although my son and I didn’t sit beside each other both our cars left at the same time so we were able to easily stick together.

Next we had to decide what to do for lunch. We considered the Rose and Crown, but it was quite busy. We tried to eat in the bar area, but for some reason it didn’t appeal to us, and so we decided to head over to the Big River Grill. We were still talking about our next trip being at the Yacht Club/Beach Club so we wanted to see how easy the walk is from Epcot to the boardwalk area. It is so close – a very quick, easy walk! Once again, we all enjoyed the Big River Grill.

We had checked out Stormalong Bay on our earlier visit to the area so we thought we should go look at the Boardwalk pool to compare. The Boardwalk pool area is so cute. I loved how they make the pool slide look like an old wooden roller coaster. I think SAB is better, but the BW pool area is pretty good too!

Once we had checked out the pool we headed out to the bus stop and got on a bus to the MK and then walked back to the hotel.

Well I have to go off to supper now, but tomorrow I’ll continue with the rest of Day 7.

 

[JanetMom]

Our last evening

Well it is time to get back to this report. I’ve been busy so I haven’t had time to finish it and I’ve been procrastinating because finishing the report makes it feel like my vacation is ending all over again.

Back at the hotel we decided to enjoy some more relaxing at the hotel. My son stayed in the room and my husband and I relaxed by the pool. After relaxing we all headed down for one more stop at the Arcade. Before we did that I took this picture of the balcony to try and show everyone how big it was.

All week we had been watching the park from our balcony and we always noted where the steam train was so we decided we should head over to the park to ride the train and, because it was such a nice way to start our trip, we decided to get supper at Liberty Tree Tavern. We didn’t have an ADR before our trip but Dorothy from the CL got us an ADR for 8:00pm. It was a bit later than we wanted, but we were happy to take whatever time she could get us.

Pictures of the train

View of the monorail from the train

We rode the train for a full loop and then stayed on to get over to Frontierland. We wandered around and then headed to LTT.

When we were finished dinner Spectromagic was coming by so we were able to watch the last half of the parade from the porch in front of LTT. After the parade our son went for one more trip through the Haunted Mansion and my husband and I watched Wishes. It was a very nice last evening in the park.

On the way out I took these pictures of the castle. I LOVE how the castle looks with all the lights. I couldn’t resist taking pictures to try and capture the beauty.

This one is my favourite

Well that brings us to the end of the last full day. Only a few moments left to share – coming up in the next update.

 

[heaven2dc]

The balcony at your resort is so huge! What a relaxing place to catch up on some reading

Epcot has always been a favorite of mine; however, HS is a close second. A lot of people find the layout of the park confusing but to me it is easier than MK for some reason (I know...I'm weird ) The last day is always tough and twice now I've gone to AK (mostly because it wasn't built for our first trip in 1997, and in Feb 2008 when my DBFF & I went, we had base tickets and stayed only 3 nights so we chose AK since we only had about 3 hours to devote to a park. The last trip in Dec 2008 I was solo for 4 days and enjoyed a pretty full day and then when my DD & GS joined me for the last 4 days, we went to AK as a last-day park). Which park would you recommend for a first day park for our upcoming trip (all my kids, only GS who will be 3 and I are arriving on 11/28/10 at the hotel around 12:00 p.m. but my son from CA won't get to BWV until 6 p.m.)? Since we can walk to Epcot and HS, it's a tough toss up.

 

[JanetMom]

The balcony at your resort is so huge! What a relaxing place to catch up on some reading

Epcot has always been a favorite of mine; however, HS is a close second. A lot of people find the layout of the park confusing but to me it is easier than MK for some reason (I know...I'm weird ) The last day is always tough and twice now I've gone to AK (mostly because it wasn't built for our first trip in 1997, and in Feb 2008 when my DBFF & I went, we had base tickets and stayed only 3 nights so we chose AK since we only had about 3 hours to devote to a park. The last trip in Dec 2008 I was solo for 4 days and enjoyed a pretty full day and then when my DD & GS joined me for the last 4 days, we went to AK as a last-day park). Which park would you recommend for a first day park for our upcoming trip (all my kids, only GS who will be 3 and I are arriving on 11/28/10 at the hotel around 12:00 p.m. but my son from CA won't get to BWV until 6 p.m.)? Since we can walk to Epcot and HS, it's a tough toss up.

I'd go with HS for a first day. I like to keep the first day calm, since the travel is usually tiring, so HS would be a easy park to get to and it is fun to walk around. As much as I like to go to Epcot over and over, I love the fun atmosphere of HS and it would be a great place to go and get into the Disney spirit.

 

[Believeinfairytales]

Your castle pics turned out great!

 

[JanetMom]

Your castle pics turned out great!

Thanks! I never get tired of looking at them.

 

[JanetMom]

Our last morning

Well this is it, the last morning. That dreaded day where we needed to set an alarm to get up on time and had little to look forward to. We had to catch the ME at 10:15 am, so that left us with some time to grab breakfast in the lounge and slowly get ready and pack.

My husband was the first up. He managed to get a couple of nice sunrise pictures.

In this one there are two tiny dots in the sky on the left side of the picture. Those are hot air balloons that he saw off in the distance

This one captures the steam train

On our way out of the hotel, I had to take one more picture of the mural

Once we made it to the airport we had to practice being patient. The Orlando airport might have more shopping than Toronto, but Toronto seems to have more staff. On our way down to Orlando there were thousands of people in line at the Toronto airport and it only took about 15 minutes for us to check our bags. In Orlando, there were only two Air Canada flights to be managed and it took us more than an hour to check our bags.

Once the bags were checked we got some lunch in the food court and then went to our gate where we again had to wait as the plane before ours was late clearing the gate (just like when we landed.)

Eventually we made it home and settled back into our real life. Sigh.

So, now that the trip is over, here are some closing thoughts:

• We could have gone on more rides. We let the crowds get the better of us at times and we weren’t as willing to wait in line as we could have been.
• The CR is a gorgeous, wonderful hotel, but not as relaxing as other Disney Resorts. If it were a financial tie, we would likely choose WL over CR. All of that said, we think we will try the YC for our next trip. (After I get to try out CSR for a work conference in just 35 days!)
• As for the question many CL planners wonder about – is it worth doing the dining plan if you stay CL? I’m glad we decided not to do a dining plan and paid out of pocket. We like table service meals so we knew the regular dining plan wouldn’t give us enough credits and I thought the deluxe plan would cost more money than we needed to pay. In the end for three adults we paid ~$1400 for our food. This worked out cheaper than the deluxe dining plan. That money covered 10 table service meals, 2 signature meals, 1 room service, 2 counter service and only a few snacks. It really isn’t necessary to get snacks when you stay CL.
• My last thought – I want to go back NOW!

What are your thoughts?

• Should we stay YC next time? (We are thinking YC because we love the boardwalk area, want to use SAB and want to have a balcony to relax on.)
• What should I do when I go to CSR for a conference next month? I will only have two late afternoon/evenings to myself. How do I fill those two evenings? I will not be getting park passes or plan any ADRs, so I’m thinking the first night should be a light supper from the pool side bar so I can relax with a book by the pool, and for the last night I should head over to DDD and check out the Earl of Sandwich and wander around.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

JanetMom,
I enjoyed reading your whole review and looking at all those amazing pictures you posted, so it is getting me excited for my families next stay at the Contemporary for this August.

 

[mamasha]

Our last evening

Well it is time to get back to this report. I’ve been busy so I haven’t had time to finish it and I’ve been procrastinating because finishing the report makes it feel like my vacation is ending all over again.

.

OMG....I am sad, too. Thanks for thr great trip report! You took amazing pictures and really help me decide to upgrade. I don't know what photos I'll get (besides of my little kids) but maybe I'll have something interesting enough to write about and do a trip report, too.

 

[JanetMom]

JanetMom,
I enjoyed reading your whole review and looking at all those amazing pictures you posted, so it is getting me excited for my families next stay at the Contemporary for this August.

Thanks for reading. I truly enjoyed your posts leading up to our trip, so I'm glad I could share something back. I'll be thinking of you in August.

OMG....I am sad, too. Thanks for thr great trip report! You took amazing pictures and really help me decide to upgrade. I don't know what photos I'll get (besides of my little kids) but maybe I'll have something interesting enough to write about and do a trip report, too.

I'll be sure to read your report (and hope to see some pictures!)

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

JanetMom,
Are you also going to post your Contemporary Photo Only thread? Here is the link to it if you have not seen it before.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1747476