micksn
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2010
- Messages
- 1,096
We got back on Sunday and thought I'd offer some reflections on our trip with DH and DD (17) 
OKW
We had a fabulous studio room in building 16 on Millers Road. Great position for buses, quiet and main pool, hospitality house and boat to DTD. Lovely view from balcony, clean and comfy with excellent mousekeeping services.
I did online check in and requested Millers Road and phoned about 5 days before and requested buildings 15,16, 17 or 18. I mentioned that it was our anniversary while we were there which may have helped and we got a lovely card and pins to wear on the day.
Weather
Best weather in 4 trips at the same time of year. Very few storms and lots of sunshine, great for afternoon's at the quiet pool
Restaurants
We were on DDP and had some great meals. Loved Chef de France, Tutto Italia and Raglan Road. Be Our Guest was my favourite had window seat in ballroom next to falling snow, good food and service and wine in the magic kingdom
We also did a lunch there using FastPass which worked really well and was very tasty.
Magic bands/FP+
Loved our magic bands, very comfy and easy to use. I want one at home too! I had pre booked FP+ for all our mornings and it worked really well. Made for a more relaxing time and meant less back tracking across the parks. We got there for rope drop in the first week and did a headliner attraction first then we had later starts in the second week which worked well.
We didn't manage to get a fourth fast pass at all. My Disney experience didn't work for this and the kiosks in the parks were difficult to locate and not convenient. We had some evening Fastpasses when we had been to a water park or had a pool morning, but otherwise we queued or concentrated on food and fireworks.
Universal
Booked a one day trip to Universal for myself and DD. We used dreams unlimited which included Mears transfers. Mears were great, pick up at 7.30 and arrived at 7.50. It was easy to collect tickets and we got in line for Forbidden journey by 8.10. Queues for everything were short in Islands of adventure we dod FJ, Dragon Challenge, Cat in Hat, Hulk, Spiderman and Jurrasic Park by 11.00.
We then got train to Universal which was amazing!!! Loved the detail and the scenes from the window. Diagon Alley looked great, but queue for Gringotts was 3 hours. We decided to only do this if less than 2 and we wanted to do rides in Island of adventure as well. Never mind something for next time!
We did Simpsons ride which was good, but not great - I don't mind simulators, but I like something else as well. So we got train back to IOA which was a slightly different experience. Loved the Britishness of Kings cross station - we were tempted to get the 1.33 train back to Newcastle
Thomas Cook
Flights were on time both ways, we had plenty of leg room, but seats not the comfiest. Food was fine going out, but poor on return. IFE was ok on way out paid £3 for DD to have premium as standard was very limited. On return they didn't have the return package, blamed a technical fault so we got Premium for free!
First time using Orlando it definitely took longer through immigration, but Magic Express was good and nice not to have to pay for transfers.
We had a great time, very relaxing and stress free. Would love to return, but probably not for a while DD hopefully starts uni next year. Never mind - will have to plan some DLP trips instead
OKW
We had a fabulous studio room in building 16 on Millers Road. Great position for buses, quiet and main pool, hospitality house and boat to DTD. Lovely view from balcony, clean and comfy with excellent mousekeeping services.
I did online check in and requested Millers Road and phoned about 5 days before and requested buildings 15,16, 17 or 18. I mentioned that it was our anniversary while we were there which may have helped and we got a lovely card and pins to wear on the day.
Weather
Best weather in 4 trips at the same time of year. Very few storms and lots of sunshine, great for afternoon's at the quiet pool
Restaurants
We were on DDP and had some great meals. Loved Chef de France, Tutto Italia and Raglan Road. Be Our Guest was my favourite had window seat in ballroom next to falling snow, good food and service and wine in the magic kingdom
We also did a lunch there using FastPass which worked really well and was very tasty.Magic bands/FP+
Loved our magic bands, very comfy and easy to use. I want one at home too! I had pre booked FP+ for all our mornings and it worked really well. Made for a more relaxing time and meant less back tracking across the parks. We got there for rope drop in the first week and did a headliner attraction first then we had later starts in the second week which worked well.
We didn't manage to get a fourth fast pass at all. My Disney experience didn't work for this and the kiosks in the parks were difficult to locate and not convenient. We had some evening Fastpasses when we had been to a water park or had a pool morning, but otherwise we queued or concentrated on food and fireworks.
Universal
Booked a one day trip to Universal for myself and DD. We used dreams unlimited which included Mears transfers. Mears were great, pick up at 7.30 and arrived at 7.50. It was easy to collect tickets and we got in line for Forbidden journey by 8.10. Queues for everything were short in Islands of adventure we dod FJ, Dragon Challenge, Cat in Hat, Hulk, Spiderman and Jurrasic Park by 11.00.
We then got train to Universal which was amazing!!! Loved the detail and the scenes from the window. Diagon Alley looked great, but queue for Gringotts was 3 hours. We decided to only do this if less than 2 and we wanted to do rides in Island of adventure as well. Never mind something for next time!
We did Simpsons ride which was good, but not great - I don't mind simulators, but I like something else as well. So we got train back to IOA which was a slightly different experience. Loved the Britishness of Kings cross station - we were tempted to get the 1.33 train back to Newcastle
Thomas Cook
Flights were on time both ways, we had plenty of leg room, but seats not the comfiest. Food was fine going out, but poor on return. IFE was ok on way out paid £3 for DD to have premium as standard was very limited. On return they didn't have the return package, blamed a technical fault so we got Premium for free!
First time using Orlando it definitely took longer through immigration, but Magic Express was good and nice not to have to pay for transfers.
We had a great time, very relaxing and stress free. Would love to return, but probably not for a while DD hopefully starts uni next year. Never mind - will have to plan some DLP trips instead
