Toby'sFriend
The thing about growing up with Fred and George is
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2001
- Messages
- 7,418
I'm sorry that I don't have time to do a full trip report, but here are the high and lowlights of my trip. All in all - a great time was had by everybody.
The participants
Myself - age 33
DH - age 34
DS #1 - age 11
DS #2 - age 8
We had a Tiffany Towncar driver pick us up at the airport and drive us to Disney. They scheduled a grocery stop for us and he took us to an Albertson's. I was very pleased and would use this service again.
Our first hotel was the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I had faxed in a request 3 days before AND called CRO with our requests. Needless to say - none of our requests were noted on the computer. We were able to get a non-smoking room, but no rooms with bunk beds were available. This was a shame, because my boys will not share a bed so they took turns sleeping on the floor. Otherwise - the resort is simply beautiful. We ate at Boma's one night and it was a wonderful meal. If you stay here, plan alot of time for looking around the resort because there are many many things to do and see. Everybody liked the Animal Kingdom Lodge, but I don't think we will stay there again. It is rather secluded and away from everything and it takes longer to "get to the action." It's nothing against the resort itself, it's just that we go to Disney to be at the parks, and we prefer to be closer to the parks. I'll definately be back to eat at Bomas again though.
Our second hotel was the Beach Club. Dreams Unlimited handled this reservation for me and they had made my room requests. Again, the front desk clerk seemed unaware that I had asked for anything. At this hotel a full balcony was rather important to us - because we like to put the kids to bed and sit outside for awhile. Thankfully however, she was able to find me a perfect room that overlooked the lagoon. I couldn't have asked for a better room! The Beach Club is my favorite hotel for several reasons. It is upscale - but not in an overly pretentious way. I had considered moving to an offsite hotel after they dropped early entry, but I'm glad we didn't. Thankfully we had the daybed here, so nobody ended up on the floor.
Unfortunately, my only real complaint about the trip happened at the Beach Club. My father had been very very ill over recent years, and he passed away during the middle of the night on Tuesday. My mother called the hotel to talk to me. One of the front desk clerks inquired whether or not my mother knew that it was 3:00am in Florida and Mom explained why she was calling. Right before the desk clerk put Mom through to me she said "And have a magical day!" to Mom and it kind of upset her even more. I know that they are trained to say that to every caller, and it probably came out of her mouth without her even thinking, but I wish she hadn't of done it.
The parks -
We only spent 7 hours of the whole trip at the Animal Kingdom. We did everything at least once and most of the rides we did twice. The only thing that we needed Fastpass for was the safari - which was a blast. Our driver had a very hard time convincing a giraffe to move out of the road so we could continue at one point, it was very funny. The park was fun, but nobody was very interested in going back again. I was really glad that there is alot of educational stuff available at this park, we picked up many things to put in the kid's school reports which should make their teachers happy. On the trip back I heard one lady remark that the park doesn't seem to be worth the same admission price as the other parks and I would have to agree. However, what is there is very well done. Hopefully over the next few years Disney will add a few more things.
The Magic Kingdom was the most crowded of the parks, but very manageable with FastPass. DS #1 rode Space Mountain more times than I can count. At one point on a rainy day, Splash Mountain had no lines for about 3 hours. We put on our ponchos and rode it over and over and over. At one point DS #2 was alone in a front seat, and the picture of his little body tensed for the fall all by himself was adorable. The picture lady was waiting for him as he came down the walkway, because she had seen it and wanted to meet him. She really tried to get me to buy it, but I was feeling cheap at the time and didn't. Now I wish I had it! One day we walked into the park right as the 3pm parade was coming by and walked right up to the curb for front row seats. Perfect timing and very light crowds - it doesn't get any better. We usually aren't parade people because I don't like fighting crowds, but we all really enjoyed that parade. I also saw Tinkerbell's flight for the first time this trip and now I know what I want for a future career! Where do I apply?????? That looks like so much fun!
We spent alot of time at Disney/MGM. Fantasmic is by far the best fireworks show right now IMHO. My sons still loved the Indy Adventure show, but I wish they would change it a little. It has been the same way for so long now - I feel like I could recite the lines myself. We forced DS #1 to do Tower of Terror - he is mortally terrified of it. Thankfully he made it through alive and so far is nightmare free. DS #2 loved the Rock n Roller coaster and rode it 4 or 5 times. For some reason being upside down isn't so bad when you are in the dark! It is a great ride and I was surprised that the lines for it never got very long. When we were walking around the park one time, a cast member came out of a building and begged us to come inside and meet Mickey. He said that poor Mickey had been all alone for about 20 minutes with nobody to talk to -- so we came inside and got a great picture of DS #2 with Sorcerer Mickey. DS #1 is waaaaayyyy to cool to get his picture taken with Mickey, but he did finally agree to shake Mickey's hand. I wish they didn't grow up so fast!
At EPCOT the only real wait for anything was Test Track which was consistently about 40 minutes. Unfortunately, they don't have Fastpass working for this right now. We found that the lines decrease dramatically at around 5:30pm to 6:00pm every night when I assume many people are probably eating - that is when we usually rode it. The crowds at the Food and Wine festival booths on Saturday and Sunday were very long, so we saved that for later in the week when we were able to just walk up to any booth. My kids did the EPCOT passports on one evening. The crowds were very light that night and all of the Cast Members at the countries spent a ton of time talking to my sons and writing in their books. I really appreciated that. At the end of the night, while we were waiting for Illuminations, we put the stickers into their books. Unfortunately, DS #2's book had 2 sets of stickers for Mexico and Norway, and no stickers for Italy, China, or Japan. We took it to the shop by the International Gateway entrance before we left and she opened up another pack and gave him the missing stickers. These are a great souvenir!
I'm not sure if this was a part of the Food and Wine festival, but they had a booth at the World Showcase where you can buy these plaster ornaments and decorations and things and paint them yourself - then they glaze them for you. My sons did a few Mickey heads and a pig and other things -- they cost about $7 each and are great presents. What Grandma wouldn't want a hand painted Mickey Head with Silver Glitter smeared across his face and signed by her grandson????
Pin Trading - I can live without it. DS #1 became very interested in it and we spent hours scouring the racks for rare pins. I did find out that the Mickey shaped American Flag pins really aren't all that rare - most of the pin stations have a supply hidden in their cash register drawers...they are just rarely put on display. If you want one, make sure you ask a Cast Member.
Pirates Cruise - DS #2 did this and loved it! I can see why it is getting so popular. Most of the kids were in the 4 to 7 year old range and my son was probably one of the older kids there. He hasn't stopped talking about this yet - he loved it so much. I walked around the Grand Floridian while he was cruising, they were constructing a huge gingerbread house as part of the decorations in the lobby - it was fascinating to watch them put it up and the smell made me very hungry!
The Cast Members - I did notice a definate change in the CM's. I talked to several of them and they do seem to be worried about the future. When the crowds were light they made a great effort to give everybody personal attention. When the crowds got busy they seemed to get frustrated about not having enough people there to serve everybody. As a whole though, I think they are doing a great job.
The food
We had more great meals than not so great. By far our best meal of the trip was the Flying Fish on the Boardwalk. We also ate at the Coral Reef, which I've heard a few bad things about recently. It wasn't as good as the Flying Fish, but we all liked it. We also ate at the California Grill, which is still very good. I don't think it was quite as good as our previous meal there, but still a great restaurant and the view is incredible! We were right by the window and Cindy's castle is lovely at night! Our disappointments included a Winemaker's Dinner which was part of the Food and Wine festival. Neither my husband or myself, or really anybody at our table liked the food much. However, one couple had been at a dinner the previous week and she said it was great. So I guess it was a luck of the draw kind of thing. We also ate at the Sci Fi Drive-in and I don't think we'll go back there again. The place was really empty, but they still stuck another couple in the "trunk" of our car. They couldn't talk to each other without interrupting our conversations and vice-versa. The food was awful - simply horrible. Oh well - that place is such a great concept, I wish they would improve it.
One really great deal we had was the Connections Vouchers that we had for Beaches and Cream. I wrote about this on the Budget Board if anybody is interested. We saved alot of money using those vouchers.
All in all - it was a great trip and I'm glad we went. A great big Thank-you to everybody on these boards who helped me to plan it.
Now I have to get the kids caught up on their homework!
The participants
Myself - age 33
DH - age 34
DS #1 - age 11
DS #2 - age 8
We had a Tiffany Towncar driver pick us up at the airport and drive us to Disney. They scheduled a grocery stop for us and he took us to an Albertson's. I was very pleased and would use this service again.
Our first hotel was the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I had faxed in a request 3 days before AND called CRO with our requests. Needless to say - none of our requests were noted on the computer. We were able to get a non-smoking room, but no rooms with bunk beds were available. This was a shame, because my boys will not share a bed so they took turns sleeping on the floor. Otherwise - the resort is simply beautiful. We ate at Boma's one night and it was a wonderful meal. If you stay here, plan alot of time for looking around the resort because there are many many things to do and see. Everybody liked the Animal Kingdom Lodge, but I don't think we will stay there again. It is rather secluded and away from everything and it takes longer to "get to the action." It's nothing against the resort itself, it's just that we go to Disney to be at the parks, and we prefer to be closer to the parks. I'll definately be back to eat at Bomas again though.
Our second hotel was the Beach Club. Dreams Unlimited handled this reservation for me and they had made my room requests. Again, the front desk clerk seemed unaware that I had asked for anything. At this hotel a full balcony was rather important to us - because we like to put the kids to bed and sit outside for awhile. Thankfully however, she was able to find me a perfect room that overlooked the lagoon. I couldn't have asked for a better room! The Beach Club is my favorite hotel for several reasons. It is upscale - but not in an overly pretentious way. I had considered moving to an offsite hotel after they dropped early entry, but I'm glad we didn't. Thankfully we had the daybed here, so nobody ended up on the floor.
Unfortunately, my only real complaint about the trip happened at the Beach Club. My father had been very very ill over recent years, and he passed away during the middle of the night on Tuesday. My mother called the hotel to talk to me. One of the front desk clerks inquired whether or not my mother knew that it was 3:00am in Florida and Mom explained why she was calling. Right before the desk clerk put Mom through to me she said "And have a magical day!" to Mom and it kind of upset her even more. I know that they are trained to say that to every caller, and it probably came out of her mouth without her even thinking, but I wish she hadn't of done it.
The parks -
We only spent 7 hours of the whole trip at the Animal Kingdom. We did everything at least once and most of the rides we did twice. The only thing that we needed Fastpass for was the safari - which was a blast. Our driver had a very hard time convincing a giraffe to move out of the road so we could continue at one point, it was very funny. The park was fun, but nobody was very interested in going back again. I was really glad that there is alot of educational stuff available at this park, we picked up many things to put in the kid's school reports which should make their teachers happy. On the trip back I heard one lady remark that the park doesn't seem to be worth the same admission price as the other parks and I would have to agree. However, what is there is very well done. Hopefully over the next few years Disney will add a few more things.
The Magic Kingdom was the most crowded of the parks, but very manageable with FastPass. DS #1 rode Space Mountain more times than I can count. At one point on a rainy day, Splash Mountain had no lines for about 3 hours. We put on our ponchos and rode it over and over and over. At one point DS #2 was alone in a front seat, and the picture of his little body tensed for the fall all by himself was adorable. The picture lady was waiting for him as he came down the walkway, because she had seen it and wanted to meet him. She really tried to get me to buy it, but I was feeling cheap at the time and didn't. Now I wish I had it! One day we walked into the park right as the 3pm parade was coming by and walked right up to the curb for front row seats. Perfect timing and very light crowds - it doesn't get any better. We usually aren't parade people because I don't like fighting crowds, but we all really enjoyed that parade. I also saw Tinkerbell's flight for the first time this trip and now I know what I want for a future career! Where do I apply?????? That looks like so much fun!
We spent alot of time at Disney/MGM. Fantasmic is by far the best fireworks show right now IMHO. My sons still loved the Indy Adventure show, but I wish they would change it a little. It has been the same way for so long now - I feel like I could recite the lines myself. We forced DS #1 to do Tower of Terror - he is mortally terrified of it. Thankfully he made it through alive and so far is nightmare free. DS #2 loved the Rock n Roller coaster and rode it 4 or 5 times. For some reason being upside down isn't so bad when you are in the dark! It is a great ride and I was surprised that the lines for it never got very long. When we were walking around the park one time, a cast member came out of a building and begged us to come inside and meet Mickey. He said that poor Mickey had been all alone for about 20 minutes with nobody to talk to -- so we came inside and got a great picture of DS #2 with Sorcerer Mickey. DS #1 is waaaaayyyy to cool to get his picture taken with Mickey, but he did finally agree to shake Mickey's hand. I wish they didn't grow up so fast!
At EPCOT the only real wait for anything was Test Track which was consistently about 40 minutes. Unfortunately, they don't have Fastpass working for this right now. We found that the lines decrease dramatically at around 5:30pm to 6:00pm every night when I assume many people are probably eating - that is when we usually rode it. The crowds at the Food and Wine festival booths on Saturday and Sunday were very long, so we saved that for later in the week when we were able to just walk up to any booth. My kids did the EPCOT passports on one evening. The crowds were very light that night and all of the Cast Members at the countries spent a ton of time talking to my sons and writing in their books. I really appreciated that. At the end of the night, while we were waiting for Illuminations, we put the stickers into their books. Unfortunately, DS #2's book had 2 sets of stickers for Mexico and Norway, and no stickers for Italy, China, or Japan. We took it to the shop by the International Gateway entrance before we left and she opened up another pack and gave him the missing stickers. These are a great souvenir!
I'm not sure if this was a part of the Food and Wine festival, but they had a booth at the World Showcase where you can buy these plaster ornaments and decorations and things and paint them yourself - then they glaze them for you. My sons did a few Mickey heads and a pig and other things -- they cost about $7 each and are great presents. What Grandma wouldn't want a hand painted Mickey Head with Silver Glitter smeared across his face and signed by her grandson????
Pin Trading - I can live without it. DS #1 became very interested in it and we spent hours scouring the racks for rare pins. I did find out that the Mickey shaped American Flag pins really aren't all that rare - most of the pin stations have a supply hidden in their cash register drawers...they are just rarely put on display. If you want one, make sure you ask a Cast Member.
Pirates Cruise - DS #2 did this and loved it! I can see why it is getting so popular. Most of the kids were in the 4 to 7 year old range and my son was probably one of the older kids there. He hasn't stopped talking about this yet - he loved it so much. I walked around the Grand Floridian while he was cruising, they were constructing a huge gingerbread house as part of the decorations in the lobby - it was fascinating to watch them put it up and the smell made me very hungry!
The Cast Members - I did notice a definate change in the CM's. I talked to several of them and they do seem to be worried about the future. When the crowds were light they made a great effort to give everybody personal attention. When the crowds got busy they seemed to get frustrated about not having enough people there to serve everybody. As a whole though, I think they are doing a great job.
The food
We had more great meals than not so great. By far our best meal of the trip was the Flying Fish on the Boardwalk. We also ate at the Coral Reef, which I've heard a few bad things about recently. It wasn't as good as the Flying Fish, but we all liked it. We also ate at the California Grill, which is still very good. I don't think it was quite as good as our previous meal there, but still a great restaurant and the view is incredible! We were right by the window and Cindy's castle is lovely at night! Our disappointments included a Winemaker's Dinner which was part of the Food and Wine festival. Neither my husband or myself, or really anybody at our table liked the food much. However, one couple had been at a dinner the previous week and she said it was great. So I guess it was a luck of the draw kind of thing. We also ate at the Sci Fi Drive-in and I don't think we'll go back there again. The place was really empty, but they still stuck another couple in the "trunk" of our car. They couldn't talk to each other without interrupting our conversations and vice-versa. The food was awful - simply horrible. Oh well - that place is such a great concept, I wish they would improve it.
One really great deal we had was the Connections Vouchers that we had for Beaches and Cream. I wrote about this on the Budget Board if anybody is interested. We saved alot of money using those vouchers.
All in all - it was a great trip and I'm glad we went. A great big Thank-you to everybody on these boards who helped me to plan it.
Now I have to get the kids caught up on their homework!
