TravelRachael
Formerly JesseTravels
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2005
- Messages
- 14
Well here I am back from my third Disney trip in 6 years. While everything is fresh in my mind I will type away.
Stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter. I loved it!! We booked a standard room and sent a fax down 2 days before arrival. Requested bldg. 5 or 2 and said I did NOT want a ground floor.
We got bldg. 5, 3rd floor, room 5343. We had a great view of the open courtyard and the river. I loved the room location and would stay there again. Everything here was good, the service, the room, the food court (even though we never ate there-we used the refillable mugs all the time)
Kids loved the pool! and they swam every day.
Being the first on and off the bus was a BIG PLUS. My friend stayed at Riverside and she was not happy with the amount of walking that she had to do to get to the bus stop and the food court.
The meals:
Best meal of the trip: Jiko at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Excellent-excellent! I had chicken & a flat bread appetizer. DH had lamb-- kids had salmon off the kids menu. We loved it all.
Second best: California Grill at the Contemporary. 9:20 Seating, perfect for seeing the fireworks, I had some awesome asparagus soup and the most excellent fish-black grouper-DH had some kind of steak but it was so good.
this was closely followed by the Brown Derby, which also had excellent food (cobb salad-beef medallions-grapefruit cake!) the only downfall to this meal was the table next to us decided it would be okay for their boys to RUN IN CIRCLES around the table while people were trying to eat. Many tables around us were exchanging looks and this family was just totally oblivious to the distraction that their children were to everyone in the restaurant. Finally one of the waiters told them to keep the kids out of the aisle, but they didn't really heed his advice. The grandmother finally took the kids outside while the parents were sipping on their coffee and arguing with the waiter over their bill.
Best Lunches:
Best lunch of my trip: Poolside at the Dolphin! My mother was staying here so we went to meet her at her pool and had lunch with her there. What a nice selection of wraps and sandwiches. Plus the waitress was going around with free samples of margaritas!
Second best lunch: Columbia Harbor house in the Magic Kingdom, I had a great ham sandwich with slaw on it and a bowl of clam chowder. Very good.
Also had some great lunch at Tusker House in Animal Kingdom. Excellent rotissarie chicken and excellent salads. Also ate at Peco's Bills on our first day and I love their fixins bar, the kids love the chese for their fries.
Worst Meals:
French Bistro in Epcot. Our waiter CEDRIC was a pill. He complained to us from the beginning that he was not getting enough help from the girls (who clear the table and pour the water) while we felt bad for him, the second and third time he complained about it was enough for us. We ordered a bottle of wine and he brought a glass over to our mother, we all assumed it was for her to taste. So she did and nodded to him in approval, like okay bring the bottle. When no bottle appeared we asked him, where is our bottle of wine? He said, oh sorry, I thought you wanted one glass, no we said a bottle please. Oh no worrys he said, I won't charge you for the one glass. Okay.
Guess what is on the bill? The bottle plus the one glass, okay buddy, she did drink the one glass, but YOU SAID, no charge. When we asked him about it he said, well you drank it so you have to pay. OK, whatever. We paid.
The food was okay but not as good as last time, and my husband ordered the snail appetizer and they came in shells and TWO of his snail shells were EMPTY. (they only give you 4) so he told the waiter CEDRIC, who told him, he was wrong the snails were deep inside. We ended up cracking them open, no snails. Again, whatever. Last visit this place was the highlight of our trip, this time, not so great. Thanks Cedric I won't forget you.
Worst lunch: Sci Fi in MGM. First, I'm sorry I dont like to have to turn around to talk to people while I'm eating. Yes I know it's cool to sit in that atmosphere but I don't like the way you sit. The food was average and not the best for the price. I had a salad which was crap and the appetizer (spinach-artichoke) which was average to poor. My DH had the bbq chicken sandwich which he said was big and good. Our kids always ordered off the kids menu and I can't remember what they got!
The crowds:
It was crowded, however we got everything we wanted to do-done, just by being at the park at opening. Never went for early entry or late extra magic, we didn't need it. We were at AK when it opened and walked onto EE, got fast passes to ride again, walked over to Safari, walked on and did Kali, then back to EE. Same with Epcot, we just got there at 9:00AM opening, walked right on to Soarin (just stay to the right of the crowd--and I LOVED LOVED LOVED it that the cast memebers form a human chain by holding hands and keeping the crowd at a walking pace so all the pushers and shovers couldn't get ahead) and then walked on to Test Track. Oh yeah, we also ate a crappy breakfast at Electric Umbrella. 4.99 for a bagel with sausage & egg that had like the smallest piece of egg you ever saw and it wasn't even tasty. That was the only day we even ate breakfast but that was just because we were going to Typhoon Lagoon and wanted to eat before we got there.
By noon each day the parks were so crowded we had to go back to French Quarter and chill in the pool. Take a nap. Back out for dinner and some park action.
My complaints:
the resort bus system. How many times we were waiting for a bus or at a bus stop when people come up way later than you and push their greedy way onto the bus before others who were waiting longer. I saw this soooooooo many times. I think they should make you line up for busses, but that is just my opinion.
I truly felt sorry for the folks at Riverside who always got picked up last and by that time it was standing room only on the bus. I always offered up my seat (so did DH) to any child or elderly person. We were in the minority.
Here is another pet peeve and I know it is a touchy subject, but getting wheelchairs on the busses takes a ridiculous amount of time, IMO. They really should improve that system. For the benefit of all guests and I don't have the answers but it seemed to just take so long each time?
Even though this was my third trip, it was the first time we did not rent a car. I would NEVER do this again, I just felt using the bus transportation was too limited and too time consuming. And getting resort to resort (since our mother was at a different resort was a pain)
Bibbity Bobbity Boutique:
My DDs did this -they got the middle package (hair-nails-makeup) I thought it was really, really nice. We got some great shots, and they both did the Diva look so they get a hairpiece to take with them. It was nice. I recommend it. Also, just an FYI, we tried to tip in the boutique but the Fairy Godmother in Training told us they don't accept tips, and they were really great to the girls. Many little girls in there getting the full treatment, gowns ect, but most of the older girls were just doing the hair &/or nails.
Magical Express:
You think they want you there early? YES. Why? Well first our pick up was scheduled for 8:10AM-but we didn't get picked up until 8:30. Then off to Old Key West to pick up more passengers. Arrival at MCO at 9:00. In line to check in at Air Tran for almost 1 hour. In line for security for 45 minutes. Running to gate with minutes to spare. Flight was 11:08 AM. At least while hubby was in line for security I jumped out of line and grabbed some chick fil-a sandwiches for us to eat on the plane.
Overall, a great trip with the family! Perfect weather, 3 hours of rain, my first time to Typhoon Lagoon and it was fun! We bought the photo pass CD (99.99) after I added all my borders in Toon town and I am very happy with our pictures. Everyone who looks at the couple I got printed for .15 each at Walgreens keeps saying, wow you got some excellent family shots (not realizing that we didn't take them ourselves)
I got some great pics of the DDs after BibbityBobbityBtqe, with a professional non Disney backround, (we got these taken in the photo store in DTD) and they also went on the photo pass cd and I am getting one made into an 8X10 for next to nothing.
Stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter. I loved it!! We booked a standard room and sent a fax down 2 days before arrival. Requested bldg. 5 or 2 and said I did NOT want a ground floor.
We got bldg. 5, 3rd floor, room 5343. We had a great view of the open courtyard and the river. I loved the room location and would stay there again. Everything here was good, the service, the room, the food court (even though we never ate there-we used the refillable mugs all the time)
Kids loved the pool! and they swam every day.
Being the first on and off the bus was a BIG PLUS. My friend stayed at Riverside and she was not happy with the amount of walking that she had to do to get to the bus stop and the food court.
The meals:
Best meal of the trip: Jiko at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Excellent-excellent! I had chicken & a flat bread appetizer. DH had lamb-- kids had salmon off the kids menu. We loved it all.
Second best: California Grill at the Contemporary. 9:20 Seating, perfect for seeing the fireworks, I had some awesome asparagus soup and the most excellent fish-black grouper-DH had some kind of steak but it was so good.
this was closely followed by the Brown Derby, which also had excellent food (cobb salad-beef medallions-grapefruit cake!) the only downfall to this meal was the table next to us decided it would be okay for their boys to RUN IN CIRCLES around the table while people were trying to eat. Many tables around us were exchanging looks and this family was just totally oblivious to the distraction that their children were to everyone in the restaurant. Finally one of the waiters told them to keep the kids out of the aisle, but they didn't really heed his advice. The grandmother finally took the kids outside while the parents were sipping on their coffee and arguing with the waiter over their bill.
Best Lunches:
Best lunch of my trip: Poolside at the Dolphin! My mother was staying here so we went to meet her at her pool and had lunch with her there. What a nice selection of wraps and sandwiches. Plus the waitress was going around with free samples of margaritas!
Second best lunch: Columbia Harbor house in the Magic Kingdom, I had a great ham sandwich with slaw on it and a bowl of clam chowder. Very good.
Also had some great lunch at Tusker House in Animal Kingdom. Excellent rotissarie chicken and excellent salads. Also ate at Peco's Bills on our first day and I love their fixins bar, the kids love the chese for their fries.
Worst Meals:
French Bistro in Epcot. Our waiter CEDRIC was a pill. He complained to us from the beginning that he was not getting enough help from the girls (who clear the table and pour the water) while we felt bad for him, the second and third time he complained about it was enough for us. We ordered a bottle of wine and he brought a glass over to our mother, we all assumed it was for her to taste. So she did and nodded to him in approval, like okay bring the bottle. When no bottle appeared we asked him, where is our bottle of wine? He said, oh sorry, I thought you wanted one glass, no we said a bottle please. Oh no worrys he said, I won't charge you for the one glass. Okay.
Guess what is on the bill? The bottle plus the one glass, okay buddy, she did drink the one glass, but YOU SAID, no charge. When we asked him about it he said, well you drank it so you have to pay. OK, whatever. We paid.
The food was okay but not as good as last time, and my husband ordered the snail appetizer and they came in shells and TWO of his snail shells were EMPTY. (they only give you 4) so he told the waiter CEDRIC, who told him, he was wrong the snails were deep inside. We ended up cracking them open, no snails. Again, whatever. Last visit this place was the highlight of our trip, this time, not so great. Thanks Cedric I won't forget you.
Worst lunch: Sci Fi in MGM. First, I'm sorry I dont like to have to turn around to talk to people while I'm eating. Yes I know it's cool to sit in that atmosphere but I don't like the way you sit. The food was average and not the best for the price. I had a salad which was crap and the appetizer (spinach-artichoke) which was average to poor. My DH had the bbq chicken sandwich which he said was big and good. Our kids always ordered off the kids menu and I can't remember what they got!
The crowds:
It was crowded, however we got everything we wanted to do-done, just by being at the park at opening. Never went for early entry or late extra magic, we didn't need it. We were at AK when it opened and walked onto EE, got fast passes to ride again, walked over to Safari, walked on and did Kali, then back to EE. Same with Epcot, we just got there at 9:00AM opening, walked right on to Soarin (just stay to the right of the crowd--and I LOVED LOVED LOVED it that the cast memebers form a human chain by holding hands and keeping the crowd at a walking pace so all the pushers and shovers couldn't get ahead) and then walked on to Test Track. Oh yeah, we also ate a crappy breakfast at Electric Umbrella. 4.99 for a bagel with sausage & egg that had like the smallest piece of egg you ever saw and it wasn't even tasty. That was the only day we even ate breakfast but that was just because we were going to Typhoon Lagoon and wanted to eat before we got there.
By noon each day the parks were so crowded we had to go back to French Quarter and chill in the pool. Take a nap. Back out for dinner and some park action.
My complaints:
the resort bus system. How many times we were waiting for a bus or at a bus stop when people come up way later than you and push their greedy way onto the bus before others who were waiting longer. I saw this soooooooo many times. I think they should make you line up for busses, but that is just my opinion.
I truly felt sorry for the folks at Riverside who always got picked up last and by that time it was standing room only on the bus. I always offered up my seat (so did DH) to any child or elderly person. We were in the minority.
Here is another pet peeve and I know it is a touchy subject, but getting wheelchairs on the busses takes a ridiculous amount of time, IMO. They really should improve that system. For the benefit of all guests and I don't have the answers but it seemed to just take so long each time?
Even though this was my third trip, it was the first time we did not rent a car. I would NEVER do this again, I just felt using the bus transportation was too limited and too time consuming. And getting resort to resort (since our mother was at a different resort was a pain)
Bibbity Bobbity Boutique:
My DDs did this -they got the middle package (hair-nails-makeup) I thought it was really, really nice. We got some great shots, and they both did the Diva look so they get a hairpiece to take with them. It was nice. I recommend it. Also, just an FYI, we tried to tip in the boutique but the Fairy Godmother in Training told us they don't accept tips, and they were really great to the girls. Many little girls in there getting the full treatment, gowns ect, but most of the older girls were just doing the hair &/or nails.
Magical Express:
You think they want you there early? YES. Why? Well first our pick up was scheduled for 8:10AM-but we didn't get picked up until 8:30. Then off to Old Key West to pick up more passengers. Arrival at MCO at 9:00. In line to check in at Air Tran for almost 1 hour. In line for security for 45 minutes. Running to gate with minutes to spare. Flight was 11:08 AM. At least while hubby was in line for security I jumped out of line and grabbed some chick fil-a sandwiches for us to eat on the plane.
Overall, a great trip with the family! Perfect weather, 3 hours of rain, my first time to Typhoon Lagoon and it was fun! We bought the photo pass CD (99.99) after I added all my borders in Toon town and I am very happy with our pictures. Everyone who looks at the couple I got printed for .15 each at Walgreens keeps saying, wow you got some excellent family shots (not realizing that we didn't take them ourselves)
I got some great pics of the DDs after BibbityBobbityBtqe, with a professional non Disney backround, (we got these taken in the photo store in DTD) and they also went on the photo pass cd and I am getting one made into an 8X10 for next to nothing.
