Memorial week Trip report; DVC / Disney (Totally awesome dudes)

[bapvoeller]

We bought into SSR in March and just got back from our first DVC trip. We spent 3 nights in SSR and 2 nights at Vero Beach. To sum up or experience in a few words it was great!!! I can say that I am very happy with our decision to purchase DVC. We just did a commando trip to Disney and Universal over Spring Break, and this time we decided to do a more relaxed approach. There are three of us me(old good looking one), DW(older better looking one), and DD (age 6 beautiful Stitch/Princess). Here is our trip report for SSR and Disney. This is our first try at doing a trip report, and we tried to give our honest opinion about the different experiences we did. I will put the trip report for Vero Beach in another post.

SSR Resort - We did our usual drive trip to Orlando and arrived at SSR on Sunday around 2:00pm, but we had to wait until about 3:00 before our room was ready. We had requested Congress park with a DTD view and that’s what we received. We were in room 1712. It had a good view of DTD and was close to the bus stop. Before purchasing DVC we normally stayed at CBR or offsite. The studio room was much nicer than the rooms at CBR. For us the studio room layout worked great. The bedroom being away from the doors was a real plus. This makes the rooms much quieter. The couch instead of another bed was also really nice for us. This gave us setting room and my DD slept on the couch without it having to be made into a bed. The balcony is also another big plus.. We all enjoyed sitting on the balcony and enjoying the sites. Since our niece came with us on our spring break trip, we stayed offsite in a 3 bedroom condo. The condo was large and nice but the traffic outside Disney property has become a big problem. I-4 was a mess at spring break and on our trip over to VB. I was much happier staying on property and not having to deal with off property traffic issues. As you can see, I was very happy with our room and resort.

Night time view from balcony

DDP and Dining Invitations - We go to Disney a lot and have never done the DDP. We normally like the flexibility of eating when and where we want, but we decided to do the DDP this time since we were only going to be there for 3 nights. We thought it was a good value for this trip since we did 3 character meals, but it definitely took away from the spontaneity on this trip. We had to plan our character meals well in advance. If you don’t visit Disney very much and are interested in riding the rides and seeing the shows, I wouldn’t do the DDP. You spend a lot of time eating at TS meals , and you have to get ADR’s well in advance for most TS places. If eating one TS meal a day is an important part of your vacation then DDP can save you money. We enjoyed the DDP, but we made the character meals a big part of this vacation. My wife came up with the thought of giving invitations to my DD for the 3 character meals we did. She printed them up at home on the computer and gave them to her on the day of the meal. This was a big hit with our DD. She thought we were receiving special dining privileges since we just joined DVC.

Invitation to Ohana

Sunday Night MK & Crystal Palace - We were planning on staying up late on Sunday night, so we all took a nap before we went to the park. My DD received an invitation to dine with and friends at Crystal Palace while she was napping. She was so excited when she woke and read the invitation. We headed to the park around 6:30 for our 7:50 reservations. It took about 10 minutes for a Magic Kingdom bus to arrival. We checked in for our dinner reservations around 7:35 and was seated around 8:05. This was our first time to eat at Crystal Palace. We thought the food was ok. DW loved the Whiskey Soaked Chocolate Cake, I think she ate enough to get a buzz. We had to eat very slow to see all the characters. It was about 9:30 before we had seen all the characters. My DD enjoyed the characters and had a good time. After dinner we rode rides. It was late magic hours so we stayed at the park until 2:00 am. We were able to ride most of the rides except space mountain. The line was at least one hour long even at 2:00 am in the morning.

DD at Crystal Palace

Monday DTD and SSR - We slept to about 9:30 after being at MK until 2:00. We must be getting to old to stay at the park this late. We didn’t feel good all day Monday and used this day to recoup. We walked to DTD for lunch and ate at Wolfgang Puck’s express. The walk from Congress park to DTD is really short. Especially if you take the nature trail. We thought the food at Wolfgang’s was a little better than average. DW thought crème brulee was TDF . My DW stayed at DTD to shop and me and my DD went back to SSR to swim. The walk to the main pool from Congress park wasn’t bad either. We both enjoyed the main pool and it’s slide. We ate at the Artist Palette that evening. My wife had the brie turkey sandwich which was awesome. I had the chicken artichoke pizza, and I thought it was good. My DD really enjoyed her Mac-n-Cheese. We all thought the Artist Palette’s food was very good.

Tuesday MGM, Epcot & Akerhaus – Got to MGM when it opened. DD and I love TOT. The line was very long right after it opened. We got a fastpass for TOT and decided to eat some breakfast with our snack credits. DD did pin trading with CM’s and one little boy. MGM in the morning has some great pin trading. DD and I rode TOT and it was great as usual . My DD is too short for RRC so we didn’t do this ride. We did the Indiana Jones show and we thought the show was ok. Nothing else in MGM thrills us that much so back to SSR we went. We decided to walk to DTD and eat at Earl of Sandwich. All of us thought that the food here was ok at best. I doubt we will eat there again. When we got back to our room my DD had received another invitation to dine at Akerhaus with the Princesses . We took a nap as usual and headed to Epcot around 6:00 this time. We rode mission space and walked through the flower gardens. The flower gardens were really beautiful. We rode the refurbed Mexico ride which is much better than before, and checked in for our 8:10 reservation around 7:40. We were seated around 7:50. This character meal is very organized unlike Crystal Palace. We all thought the food was very good. I had the Salmon, DW had the Kjottkaker (kind of a meatloaf) TDF according to her, and DD had pizza as usual, and we all thought the food was very good. There is a cold bar with salads and other things that was very good. The smoked Salmon on the cold bar was excellent, and my DD loved the peal and eat shrimp. They gave us 3 different desserts. Two were really good and the rice cream was fair. My DD had her picture taken with Belle, her favorite, as we came in. Four more Princesses came to the table as we were eating (Ariel, Snow white, Aurora, Cinderella). My DD had a great time at this character meal. We had seen all the characters in about 30 minutes. The Princesses did seem a little rushed and didn’t spend much time at each table, but I thought this dinner was very organized. Much better than Crystal Palace on Sunday night. It was late magic hours at Epcot that night so we stayed to ride rides. The lines for (test track and Soarin) where around one hour even with the extra magic hours. We did honey I shrunk the audience and the nemo ride with no wait.

View of some of the flower gardens

DD with Ariel

Wednesday Ohana – DD receives invitation to eat breakfast with Lilo and Stitch (Ohana Breakfast). We are checking out today heading to Vero Beach. We get to the Poly around 10:15 for our 10:50 reservation. We check out the resort since this is our first time to the Poly. We always thought we would like to stay at this resort but it didn’t appeal to us. We checked in around 10:30 and were seated around 10:50. We were given a table right by the window with a great view of Cinderella’s Castle at MK. The characters at the breakfast were awesome. We got to see Mickey, Pluto, Lilo and Stitch. Stitch is one of my DD favorite characters. Mickey was extremely playful. The food at breakfast was good. We thought that this was the best of the three character meals we did. The food was better at Akerhaus but the characters were much more playful here.

Ohana Breakfast with Pluto

To sum it up, it was a very different vacation experience at WDW than we have had in the past. We are usually not into the dining and go crazy for the rides and shows when in the parks. The diversity of experiences you can have at WDW is what makes it so GREAT!!! We already have ressies for Christmas at OKW!

 

[bapvoeller]

Added pictures to the report.

 

[Dizneydaz]

Great report-especially for your first time!

DDP and Dining Invitations - We go to Disney a lot and have never done the DDP. We normally like the flexibility of eating when and where we want, but we decided to do the DDP this time since we were only going to be there for 3 nights. We thought it was a good value for this trip since we did 3 character meals, but it definitely took away from the spontaneity on this trip. We had to plan our character meals well in advance. If you don’t visit Disney very much and are interested in riding the rides and seeing the shows, I wouldn’t do the DDP. You spend a lot of time eating at TS meals , and you have to get ADR’s well in advance for most TS places. If eating one TS meal a day is an important part of your vacation then DDP can save you money. We enjoyed the DDP, but we made the character meals a big part of this vacation. My wife came up with the thought of giving invitations to my DD for the 3 character meals we did. She printed them up at home on the computer and gave them to her on the day of the meal. This was a big hit with our DD. She thought we were receiving special dining privileges since we just joined DVC.

I love the idea of the invitations-I think I'll borrow it for our next trip. DD still hasn't figured out how she gets postcards (and 1 letter) from the characters before we go (thanks FGMs! )

You're right, having DDP can reduce some of the spontaneity of your trip, but if you decide to to it again, you can reduce the amount of TS you eat if you do some of the 2 TS meals-like Calif. Grill or Narcoossee's. We've done this before, and it's worked well for us. My DD is 7 and taking her to some of the nicer restaurants has never been a problem. We're doing 10 nights in Sept. and we have several 2 TS planned.

DD at Crystal Palace

Your DD is very cute!

Monday DTD and SSR - We ate at the Artist Palette that evening. My wife had the brie turkey sandwich which was awesome. I had the chicken artichoke pizza, and I thought it was good. My DD really enjoyed her Mac-n-Cheese. We all thought the Artist Palette’s food was very good.

I've read several good comments about Aritist Pallette and I think we'll have to check it out on our next trip. We always need some new ideas to use up our CS credits.

DD and I love TOT. The line was very long right after it opened. We got a fastpass for TOT and decided to eat some breakfast with our snack credits. DD did pin trading with CM’s and one little boy. MGM in the morning has some great pin trading. DD and I rode TOT and it was great as usual . My DD is too short for RRC so we didn’t do this ride.

It's great that your DD loves ToT. Mine has ridden it a few times but doesn't really like it. She too is too short for RnR, but she's also told me she's not ready to go upside down yet, even though she loves roller coasters!

We all thought the food was very good. I had the Salmon, DW had the Kjottkaker (kind of a meatloaf) TDF according to her, and DD had pizza as usual, and we all thought the food was very good. There is a cold bar with salads and other things that was very good. The smoked Salmon on the cold bar was excellent, and my DD loved the peal and eat shrimp. They gave us 3 different desserts. Two were really good and the rice cream was fair. My DD had her picture taken with Belle, her favorite, as we came in. Four more Princesses came to the table as we were eating (Ariel, Snow white, Aurora, Cinderella). My DD had a great time at this character meal. We had seen all the characters in about 30 minutes. The Princesses did seem a little rushed and didn’t spend much time at each table, but I thought this dinner was very organized.

I completely agree with your assessment. The food is good, very organized, but the princesses do seem rushed. I've found this true for all 3 meals (B,L., & D.)

[To sum it up, it was a very different vacation experience at WDW than we have had in the past. We are usually not into the dining and go crazy for the rides and shows when in the parks. The diversity of experiences you can have at WDW is what makes it so GREAT!!! We already have ressies for Christmas at OKW!

I'm so envious-we've done WDW once at Christmas time and it is beautiful. It was cold when we were there (so no water parks ) but the decorations, and the holiday feeling, are wonderful.

Can't wait to read about Vero Beach! Keep 'em coming.

 

[Eeyore's Tiara]

I absolutely loved the invitation to dinner that you gave your daughter. It really got me to thinking about what I could do for my girls.

And I appreciate the description of the dvc rooms. It's always great to hear it from someone that doesnt have anything to gain by what they say.

I wish there were more!