stitchaholic
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2009
- Messages
- 964
I haven't written a trip report in some time , and although this will not a be a complete trip report , it will be the highs and lows , and a place to rant dissapointment in corporate Disney .
Although we have a trip a planned at OKW this coming October with the whole family , I decided to bring the kids for a 4 night trip over March break , we stayed at ASMu , this was my first mistake , don't get me wrong , it was fairly clean , and the staff were very nice , but we are used to staying DVC , we usually rent points , and have not stayed in a value since our first trip 6 years ago . It was shoebox small , and since I did not pay for a preffered room , we were far from the bustops , which made us quite unhappy at the end of the day.
Another mistake , was not making dinning plans , I decided last minute that I would like to add on the DDP , once i checked in ,I was told that they cannot add it , it has to be added 3 days before arrival , ok , this really started my rant for corporate Disney .... their reasoning is that they absolutly need to know beforehand so they can expect how many DDP's in the restaurants ? what ? It is my problem if I planned too late and cannot get in to certain restaurants because of poor planning , but at least allow me to pour out my hard earned $ and try .... , there was no budging , I do have to say that the manager at ASMu that day really worked hard to try and get us the plan , he went above and beyond , this was not a CM issue , but more of a corporate snag ...., he was great though , and felt so bad that he gave us each a refillable mug for the troubles , I thought that was really sweet and customer oriented , too bad corporate Disney cannot adopt that outlook .
We still made some last minute ressie's to some of our favorite places , we had breakfast at Park Fare , a breakfast at Ohana and a lunch at Beaches and Cream . We enjoyed somewhat the freedom of eating what we wanted , when we wanted , but it did make me realize after a while that the dinning is part of the experience for us , and is another mistake I will not make again , I did not like last minute running around from busy place to busy place trying to find a place to sit down and eat .
My son is being diagnosed with bipolar disorder , so this trip proved to be challenging , a few meltdowns at the end of the day were enough to convince me to rent a car 2 days in . This was a great decision , also a must for future Disney trips , just saves so much time since we are veterans and like to park hop several times a day .
The night we went to DTD was where my dissapointment in Disney really kicked in , a wall of realization hit me like a ton of bricks ... , every store , every stand had the same stuff for sale , everywhere everything was the same , then we went to Goofy's , I was excited to create a fudge cookie for my other half back at home , but to my surprise there are no more big Oreo's to dip
, when I asked the CM why , she shook her head sadly and told me that they no longer make their own fudge , it is contracted out , so they can no longer make the cookies , she said that Disney was trying to make all the stores hold the same merchandise 
, the cast members that have been there for a long time show the dissapointment in these decisions , I too am dissapointed , part of the love of Disney comes from the uniqueness of the little gems that pop up in different parts of the world .
Thankfully , our last day and night were great , we spent the day in DHS ,and then left for our desert party reservation . Upon arrival , they gave us all a light up tink or buzz , saying that it was new just so that we get something special for attending , that was a nice touch , however , it would be great if they could turn off the tomorrowland music on the terrace and pump through the sound from the castle show instead .
The deserts at the party are standard fare , nothing spectacular , but its nice to have something to nibble on while having a great view of the castle show , light show and fireworks . The lightshow on the castle is so beautiful , it warmed my shrinking heart for Disney , I even teared up a bit , it was a great night .
We have never stayed at OKW , we took a drive through on our last day ,it looks very peaceful and like a great resort to have some down time in ,I am looking forward to our October trip for that , but I think we will taking a break from Disney after that trip , if they do not provide anything new to discover , and strive to make all shops and restaurants generic ,I don't see the point , it is another piece of the magic destroyed by the great Iger and the board of bean counters .
Although we have a trip a planned at OKW this coming October with the whole family , I decided to bring the kids for a 4 night trip over March break , we stayed at ASMu , this was my first mistake , don't get me wrong , it was fairly clean , and the staff were very nice , but we are used to staying DVC , we usually rent points , and have not stayed in a value since our first trip 6 years ago . It was shoebox small , and since I did not pay for a preffered room , we were far from the bustops , which made us quite unhappy at the end of the day.
Another mistake , was not making dinning plans , I decided last minute that I would like to add on the DDP , once i checked in ,I was told that they cannot add it , it has to be added 3 days before arrival , ok , this really started my rant for corporate Disney .... their reasoning is that they absolutly need to know beforehand so they can expect how many DDP's in the restaurants ? what ? It is my problem if I planned too late and cannot get in to certain restaurants because of poor planning , but at least allow me to pour out my hard earned $ and try .... , there was no budging , I do have to say that the manager at ASMu that day really worked hard to try and get us the plan , he went above and beyond , this was not a CM issue , but more of a corporate snag ...., he was great though , and felt so bad that he gave us each a refillable mug for the troubles , I thought that was really sweet and customer oriented , too bad corporate Disney cannot adopt that outlook .
We still made some last minute ressie's to some of our favorite places , we had breakfast at Park Fare , a breakfast at Ohana and a lunch at Beaches and Cream . We enjoyed somewhat the freedom of eating what we wanted , when we wanted , but it did make me realize after a while that the dinning is part of the experience for us , and is another mistake I will not make again , I did not like last minute running around from busy place to busy place trying to find a place to sit down and eat .
My son is being diagnosed with bipolar disorder , so this trip proved to be challenging , a few meltdowns at the end of the day were enough to convince me to rent a car 2 days in . This was a great decision , also a must for future Disney trips , just saves so much time since we are veterans and like to park hop several times a day .
The night we went to DTD was where my dissapointment in Disney really kicked in , a wall of realization hit me like a ton of bricks ... , every store , every stand had the same stuff for sale , everywhere everything was the same , then we went to Goofy's , I was excited to create a fudge cookie for my other half back at home , but to my surprise there are no more big Oreo's to dip
, when I asked the CM why , she shook her head sadly and told me that they no longer make their own fudge , it is contracted out , so they can no longer make the cookies , she said that Disney was trying to make all the stores hold the same merchandise , the cast members that have been there for a long time show the dissapointment in these decisions , I too am dissapointed , part of the love of Disney comes from the uniqueness of the little gems that pop up in different parts of the world .Thankfully , our last day and night were great , we spent the day in DHS ,and then left for our desert party reservation . Upon arrival , they gave us all a light up tink or buzz , saying that it was new just so that we get something special for attending , that was a nice touch , however , it would be great if they could turn off the tomorrowland music on the terrace and pump through the sound from the castle show instead .
The deserts at the party are standard fare , nothing spectacular , but its nice to have something to nibble on while having a great view of the castle show , light show and fireworks . The lightshow on the castle is so beautiful , it warmed my shrinking heart for Disney , I even teared up a bit , it was a great night .
We have never stayed at OKW , we took a drive through on our last day ,it looks very peaceful and like a great resort to have some down time in ,I am looking forward to our October trip for that , but I think we will taking a break from Disney after that trip , if they do not provide anything new to discover , and strive to make all shops and restaurants generic ,I don't see the point , it is another piece of the magic destroyed by the great Iger and the board of bean counters .
