MK and Epcot trip report - good and bad

Stevegriswold

Mouseketeer
Joined
May 27, 2007
Messages
337
Trip report for Mk and Epcot July 2007

Just back from our trip to WDW. What a great time. Here are the bullet points:

Resort: Port Orleans River Side (Water view room 8740)
Paid $264.00 TOTAL with tax for two nights

Good:
Room is close to the pool and close to the main lobby building with food etc.
You are on Disney Property and get Disney transportation and are close to all the activities.

Neutral:

Rooms are ok, nothing spectacular. Water view is kind of pointless. The window is in the front of the room, so you have the blinds closed so people walk by your room at day are not looking in. Basically a motel setup with outside entry and AC units under the window. No patio to sit on and look at a view. No carpeted halls, shops, dining etc in your building. You are basically in a motel and everything else is located in a main building. But for a motel style it clean, and themeing is very nice.

Bad:
Not worth the money for a motel room. We got a great deal so for us it was worth it, but for the rack room rate it is not worth it for me.

Parks:
Magic Kingdom:


I have been at least 100-200 times in the past, but left my job at Disney about 7 years ago, and have only been back for one day at AK since then. So for not going for 7 years I was surprised at the lack of new things at MK.
But then again when I worked at Disney, they opened AK, Downtown Disney, tons of resorts, water parks, etc and every few months there was something opening.

This was our first trip with our two year old daughter so it was really for her to get to see Disney. So we looked at everything from her perspective and did all the little kid rides.
So that was tons of fun. We also took turns on the roller coasters and the other person would take her to a shop or something else during that time.

Laugh Floor: walked on 20 min wait.

New Monsters Inc show in tomorrow land.
The reviews on this board for this show are awful, so I was very pleasantly surprised when we went to this show and it was pretty funny and well done. Plus the wait was only like 20 mins. in peak season.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Walked on 20 min wait

Same ride with 3- 4 Jake animatronics figures added. So nothing really new here, but still a good ride for kids.

Space Mountain – 80 min line, had fast pass 10 min wait.
Forgot how fun that ride is.

Small world and Buzz Light year – We had Fast passes for both of these and on both rides the Fast Pass Line was much longer than the regular line. This was especially noticeable on It’s a Small World. They hold the fast pass line up at a merge point and only occasionally let the fast pass people merge with the regular line. Both of these rides we could have easily gotten on quicker without the fast pass.

FireWorks at 10 PM at MK (Dreams) -
Very good show, you really need to find a place and camp out and make sure it is a spot with no an inch of space in front of you or else you will have people at the last minute standing in front of you.

Spectro Magic Parade - 9 PM at MK –
Wow that parade is still going on. I remember that parade from working there and also as a kid, seemed more magical then. Out two year old love it, so hope she enjoyed it as much as I did when I was younger. I also remember the electrical light parade which they are also still running at Disneyland Paris or Disneyland China now.
I think this is great for kids and first timers to Disney, but could be replaced with something since it has been running for so long now.

Day 2 EPCOT: Arrived at 8:30 AM got in on early magic hours for about 30 mins.

Test Track- wait during extra magic hours 20-30 mins, did fast pass, 10 mins: Still lots of fun.

Soarin – Wait during extra Magic Hours 30 mins, did fast pass, 10-15 mins. I had heard a lot of hype so to me this did not live up to what I was expecting. It was cool, but the motion was not as real and something like back to the future when that ride was new and clean and running smoothly. Seeing the row of peoples feet dangling in front of me from the car above us kid of kills the hang glider effect they are going for.

Day 2 SICK at EPCOT
Our daughter got sick while waiting in the Land Ride que. So that was not fun. She was sleeping while we did Test Track and Soarin so we took turns and one of us skipped the ride. We were wondering why she seemed crabby and was taking a nap. So I get barfed on in the Land que. My wife changes her and cleans her up. I clean up as best as I can. She comes back out and wants to be held and as soon as I pick her up I get barfed on two more times.

The only thing I think that was disappointing was there was no help, offered to get her back to the Disney hotel we were staying at, so it took as a while to make it out of Epcot having to top and barf every 5-10 mins along the way. At the exit gate we were told to there was no other transportation back to the hotel other than the bus, and no Epcot tickets offered if she felt better the next day to come back. So it was a long wait for the bus and trying to track down cast members to clean up barf as we waited there, then a difficult ride back on the bus. A frequent guest to Disney on the bus told us to stop at the hotel front desk and let them know she was sick, we were only at the park and hour and a half etc. They once had a sick child, got balloons sent to their room, had someone check up on them, got their admission covered for a later day, etc. So we waited in line, as she got sick again, finally got the front and were told the only DR avail. if off property at a walk in clinic, No transportation avail., other than cabs., and all tickets to the parks are non refundable.

So we spent Sunday all day in the room going though towel after towel as she got sick. We did try again by calling the front desk Port Orleans River Side and asking for the manger on duty, basically the same story, you can take a cab to a walk in clinic, no refunds for tickets.

Anyway, it’s not Disney’s fault we had a sick child, but we figured it was no loss to them to give us tickets for our last day to go back to Epcot if she felt better, we had dining reservations etc. so it was money lost to them.

The next day our daughter did feel better but we decided not to buy two more tickets to EPCOT and just stayed at Port Orleans and relaxed.

Cast Members:

Most were great, We only had two instances out of many many castmembers we saw and we look for this kind of stuff. The real shocker was the lack of doing anything at all for us as resort guest and theme park guests when we had a sick child at EPCOT.

But again overall All castmembers we met excpet for a few were excellent. Which was amazing since I know what these people get paid still and know the massive amount of outsourcing that has been happening there since I left.

Here are just the negative experieinces. We had many many positive cast experiences. We had some cast members at the Rain Forest Café (3rd party) but still should follow Disney customer service guidelines. Basically the waiters were arguing about what tables they wanted to wait on, which guests looked like they would tip and which ones looked like they would not, etc. One castmember was upset he did not get the table he wanted to wait on and did not think they woul contribute to the insurance money he needed to pay.

Then at the Pin Trader shop in Downtown Disney you could tell we were interrupting the three cast members day that were chatting about something when we were waiting to pay.

Times change. I remember when I worked at the Grand Floridian Hotel for 3-4 years. Our Moto was “GRAND” Guest Requests Are Never Denied. And let me tell you that was followed to the T. I remember a guest requesting Pepsi in their Mini Bar. Coke is the Sponsor at Walt Disney World. I drove out to 7/11 and bought a 12 pack of Pepsi and delivered it to their room, not a big deal, a free 12 pack of Pepsi, but every little request we tried to cover and go above and beyond. So I think of things like that from 10 years ago, and then I think about the “Dreams” promotion Disney has going on now and how it is suppose to be cast members doing little special things for guests. Then I think about how we paid to stay on property, had a sick child, and spent only an hour and a half in Epcot and basically were brushed off, as she sat there barfing in front of them. I have to think we must just have not talked to the right people at Epcot and the manager at Port Orleans River Side, maybe was just having a bad day.

But we will be back, hopefully no sick the next time.
 
Did you really expect them to refund your tickets? I know it is wishful thinking, but come one. And the Pepsi thing that you did? Did your manager know about that? I don't see them allowing a cast member to do that when they have such a big contract with Coke. You must have been the ideal, bend-over backwards, CM that everyone hopes for.
 
Did you really expect them to refund your tickets? I know it is wishful thinking, but come one. And the Pepsi thing that you did? Did your manager know about that? I don't see them allowing a cast member to do that when they have such a big contract with Coke. You must have been the ideal, bend-over backwards, CM that everyone hopes for.

Yeah, kind of too much to expect, I agree. Just really wanted to see Epcot and basically walked in the gate and turned around one hour and a half later and had to walk out. People get free shopping passes for basically that amount of time to go into Epcot for free, so was hopeful that we could go back the next day if she felt better. But Disney did nothing wrong so not their fault. They get their $80 or so per person if you are there a min or all day, but they miss out of dinner, a plush figment and a few other items we prob. would have bought, which is nothing to a massive company like Disney.

Besides our child getting sick, which was not Disney's fault, we had a GREAT time, and will be back.
 
Oh, Also have to tell you about Disney's Magical Express.

IT IS GREAT!!

The post here had me worried about this service, but for us it was great!

We got to Orando at 8 AM. It was so nice not having to go to baggage claim, so that saved us prob. an hour. We walked right to the bus pickup which was easy to find. We were the only people there so we checked in within seconds they put us on a bus and they drive us to Port Orleans River Side. We had the entire bus to ourselves. So we got the the hotel, checked in with no wait, and then jumped right no the MK bus as it pulled up. So at 9:30 AM exactly we were on Main Street at MK. That's awesome.

So from the airport arrival time, to the hotel, checking in at the hotel, and then standing on Main Street at MK took 1 hour and 30 minutes. WOW that is awesome.

We went back to our rooms late at night. It was also super nice not having to go back to the front desk to get room keys, you just call the desk and the keys we had were already activated so we went right to our rooms from the park. We got to our room and the bags were there. So nice not having to call a bellman at midnight and stay up waiting for your bags.

On the way home same deal. It was great!
Bus pickup was at 6:30 PM, and 6:30 PM on the dot the bus showed up, we got on, we stopped at Saratoga, which was on the way anyway and picked up a lady and her child. So we basically had the entire bus to ourselves again and went right to the airport. Arrived at the airport at 7:30 PM, Perfect.
 

Small world and Buzz Light year – We had Fast passes for both of these and on both rides the Fast Pass Line was much longer than the regular line. This was especially noticeable on It’s a Small World. They hold the fast pass line up at a merge point and only occasionally let the fast pass people merge with the regular line. Both of these rides we could have easily gotten on quicker without the fast pass.

I didn't realize Small World has fastpass now. When did that happen?
 
Yeah, kind of too much to expect, I agree. Just really wanted to see Epcot and basically walked in the gate and turned around one hour and a half later and had to walk out. People get free shopping passes for basically that amount of time to go into Epcot for free, so was hopeful that we could go back the next day if she felt better. But Disney did nothing wrong so not their fault. They get their $80 or so per person if you are there a min or all day, but they miss out of dinner, a plush figment and a few other items we prob. would have bought, which is nothing to a massive company like Disney.

Besides our child getting sick, which was not Disney's fault, we had a GREAT time, and will be back.

I don't think it was too much to expect. They could see how sick your child was. Was it really going to hurt their pockets to give you another day in Epcot. Things like this really make me mad. Why people have to be so cheap. I also remember the days when Disney was way more generous. I sure do miss those days.
 
I liked your trip report. I'm going to WDW in a little less than a month, for 10 days, and am bringing our 3YO. We're taking the Magical Express and so might go a little heavy on our bags, since we won't have to carry them so much. I'll make sure to pack a few things to do in the hotel room in case our little one gets sick. I think we dream about the trip of a lifetime and too often, a dose of reality gets mixed in. I hope we get castmembers like you!

Dave
 
I didn't realize Small World has fastpass now. When did that happen?

Hi,

We did Small World and Peter Pan. It might have been Peter Pan that we got the fast pass for and then came back and watched the regular guests pass everyone in the fast pass line.

Steve
 
Steve sorry to hear about your little one getting ill at Epcot. One thing is for sure, when traveling with little ones and not so little ones is to expect the unexpected. We had a similar experience with our daughter not at Disney but at her birthday party this year. She ended up being fine, but spent the better part of her birthday running back and forth from the bathroom being sick while 12 of her friends at Build A Bear had a great time. Oh well....sometimes you just gotta laugh!
We absolutely love the POR, will be going back in October. Although the rooms are set up like a "motel", the facilities and the cleanliness of the property are nothing like a typical Best Western or Holiday Inn....far superior as far as I'm concerned!
Anyways hope your next visit has better memories for you and your family!
Cheer.
 
I really think there are some special cast members out there, a friend of ours went to DW and his daughter either got sick or very wet and they gave her her a whole new outfit for free.

I think they should be looking for situations like yours as it is the year of a million dreams and they do want you to come back right?

~Donna
 
Yeah, kind of too much to expect, I agree. Just really wanted to see Epcot and basically walked in the gate and turned around one hour and a half later and had to walk out. People get free shopping passes for basically that amount of time to go into Epcot for free, so was hopeful that we could go back the next day if she felt better. But Disney did nothing wrong so not their fault. They get their $80 or so per person if you are there a min or all day, but they miss out of dinner, a plush figment and a few other items we prob. would have bought, which is nothing to a massive company like Disney.

Besides our child getting sick, which was not Disney's fault, we had a GREAT time, and will be back.

4 years ago my dh had an epileptic seizure at AK. While dh was being loaded into an ambulance, CMs and managers were giving my kids stuffed animals, hats and tshirts. They also gave me 5 one day park hopper passes. So I know it has been done before. I am sorry your dd was so sick, the poor thing. :(
 
Did you really expect them to refund your tickets? I know it is wishful thinking, but come one.

One of the things in my mind that separates Disney from other companies and theme parks is the unbeatable customer service. At least that is thier reputation. As a guest at their resort hotel, and with the situation you described I am shocked that they didn't give you a pass to come back (and thus spend more money in the park) on another day. In my opinion that was very poor judgment and customer service on thier part. Many times customer service isn't always about the small monetary loss they experience at the current situation, but it is about the future monetary loss they risk losing for you as a customer of Disney in the future (which could include loss of hotel rooms, future park visits thus more park tickets, dinning shopping etc..) This is just my opinion, and maybe I am a bit old fashion, but I grew up going to Disney World, and that is what i come to expect from a company like Disney, it is something that makes them unbeatable and sets them apart from everyone else.
 












Receive up to $1,000 in Onboard Credit and a Gift Basket!
That’s right — when you book your Disney Cruise with Dreams Unlimited Travel, you’ll receive incredible shipboard credits to spend during your vacation!
CLICK HERE


New Posts





DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest DIS Tiktok DIS Twitter DIS Bluesky

Back
Top Bottom