Mini trip report 5/1-9/2022

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There were 10 of us. It was hard coordinating. It was also a challenge because I wanted all of them to be able to use DAS with us. But we had to use one for each of my ticketed kids and that was too much for me mentally, while trying to monitor my kids stamina and needs. Plus, my pooh size fam was sitting for a meal every time I turned around. It was frustrating that we were on different eating schedules.

Overall we had a really good trip! What I would change is that next time we will have an off day between each park day. That was our plan, but we changed it last minute. We had only 2 park days in a row the whole trip, and on that 2nd day my super social child with a disability shut down. We just stayed home until afternoon. That was a nice thing about this trip, I planned to not plan. It resulted in us all being wide awake our first day. So we got to the parks at 8:15 and had a blast. There was just no way to get everyone up each day though. They all struggle with sleep and there’s no way in
-the ending of mr. toad- I’m waking one of them.

Next long trip we will only do 4 days. On day 5 my most socially affected child with a disability begged to not go. He just went the morning, stating “this is the best 10 days of my life.“ Proud Disney mom, my planning paid off, despite a couple of setbacks. We will have a 1 park day trip followed by a cruise next year.

My best day was the last when I took only my 6 yo and we just did what she wanted, with a bit of guidance. From 4-6:30 we rowed the canoes, visited the hundred acre woods, made an unplanned stop to Casey jr, rode dumbo and the carousel. I think we need to do a family day, but then each of us spend half a day with each kid separately, 1:1.

Staying at homewood suites was a mistake. I almost changed to residence inn and I should have. HS is getting pretty run down. Staff are still amazing, which is nice.

Food We tried a lot of table service this trip.

Amazing:
Ballast point DTD - fresh, good portion for the price.

Storeteller’s brunch - yummy food, lots of character interaction

Still good:
Boardwalk pizza & pasta
WOC Dessert party
Galactic grill
Dole whip
Skewers in Adventureland
Blue milk

Good but not a must do:
Rancho del zocalo

Grand pool side bar - Our arrival night we tried here. Nice atmosphere. Good chef (same as storyteller) helped with allergies.

Black tap shake

Good, but unlikely I’ll try again:
Lamplight - dirty cushions, expensive yet small portions of meh food. Amazing drinks.

Oga’s - I tried again but the music is too loud to have a conversation. Thankfully my kids were home with an aunt.

Uva We don’t always make it to DTD and this wasn’t a highlight.

Miss:
Princess brunch. Food is a weird mishmash and the mini Mickey waffles were the highlight. They made sure we saw each princess. Except they never had us meet Belle for story time. Reservation at 10:40 was too late IMO. The doll as the gift is dumb too. My kid doesn’t like dolls. Baby bro likes it though.

French market salad in a box is not my thing. Also I couldn’t request no chicken this way. They had good chicken and rice on allergy menu. Better than just burgers everywhere. I’m sad. This was probably my fave counter service before.

Award wieners - they used to have a veg sandwich. It’s now a yucky vegan dog.

Flo’s salad was still frozen in places and in general kind of yuck. Seemed very theme parkish, which up until now I didn’t experience at DLR counter service.

Salt & straw

Didn’t try hideaway due to long lines.

Good Uber eats (or something): Carolina’s Italian.

 

[evilmommie]

Great trip recap! I know you worked really hard on the planning. Happy y’all have fun.

 

[Pluto468]

Thanks for the great report! I like your idea of having an off day between parks and not over-planning. Too bad about Homewood Suites! Hopefully they will freshen up some time. Glad you had a nice time

 

[smartlabelprint]

Thanks for the great report! I like your idea of having an off day between parks and not over-planning. Too bad about Homewood Suites! Hopefully they will freshen up some time. Glad you had a nice time

Thanks. Our kids have disabilities and I thought they could handle 6 hours straight in the parks and be done for the day if we did daily breaks. Even that didn’t help. Our max in the park was about 4 hours.

 

[MonocularVision]

Hard to imagine how a hotel that is what… 5-6 years old is already run down? That’s a bummer because we have often stayed there.

 

[smartlabelprint]

Hard to imagine how a hotel that is what… 5-6 years old is already run down? That’s a bummer because we have often stayed there.

I know. I was really disappointed. They haven’t been doing maintenance. A lamp shade was torn, there was a huge rust stain in the tub from the grab bar, pillows were completely flat and on the bed I could feel the springs, the bedroom door handle only opened by pushing up, the patio door wouldn’t open when we first got there, somehow we were able to unlock it on days 2-9 but the last couple of nights we couldn’t and gave up, my parents room next door had cockroach(es) seen 2 days in a row. They didn’t call the first day but the problem wasn’t going away. Maintenance came and sprayed and no more issues with that. The bunk beds had so much dirt and crumbs around the base. The couch was super stained and yucky. The carpets in the room seemed clean and the staff was friendly as usual.

 

[smartlabelprint]

Another thing I didn’t remember about homewood suites…

The trundle under the bunk beds is really thin. It was ok for my baby. But even if the maintenance wasn’t an issue I won’t make my kids fight over that bed in the future. It felt like a sofa bed.

 

[SpringBreak]

Thanks for your honest review of HS. That's going to help a lot of people!

 

[DizMe]

They all struggle with sleep and there’s no way in
-the ending of mr. toad- I’m waking one of them.

THIS made my day

 

[smartlabelprint]

Thanks for your honest review of HS. That's going to help a lot of people!

You’re welcome. I cannot in good conscience recommend it anymore. I’m very sad. The staff are so friendly and helpful. I’m assuming a lot has been delayed due to the virus. Much like Disney it makes no sense that they wouldn’t have have used the extended closures / lower occupancy time to get everything in tip top shape.
The long walk was annoying, but in the past it balanced out for me with the amenities.

Also of note they had Wednesday evening reception again. It was at 5:30 pm. It was a park day for us though and we didn’t attend.

 

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The frozen cavalcade starts at town square (and I believe loops back). We followed the float toward the castle as I didn’t want to be in a crush of people once it was over.