Our 9 days at CSR and our first trip to WDW
- Thread starter B9erSteve
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B9erSteve
Disney Dad
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2005
- Messages
- 3,485
Typhoon Lagoon-- I had planned on two rest days that we would spend at the waterparks. Since the rain had interfered with one day, we still had another. We choose Typhoon Lagoon. Since I have little ones, the park was probably not as fun as it would have been with older children. But let me run down a few mistakes that I made. 1) Bring towels from the resort. They are the same towels as are used at the waterpark. So when done you can dump them in the waterpark bins. 2) Don't buy the sandbuckets when entering the park. When you buy your lunch, get a kids meal. You get a bucket and shovel. If you have one that is young enough to have a kids meal then they will be just as entertained by the bucket and shovel as any of the other sand toys avail. 3)Never enter the tide pool without securing your sunglasses! I looked forever and never found out what happened to mine.
As a family we drifted about the perimeter of the park in innertubes. This Rocks! My kids loved the child waterslides. But all in all, if I was to give advice to anyone with kids as young as mine... Skip the waterparks. It was fun, don't get me wrong. But if you are staying at any of the nicer resorts, then you have much the same opportunity for fun right in the comfort of your own resort and you can save on the ticket upgrade. Besides, I could have taken the time to do my laundry as well. As it was I was up until 1 am doing laundry because I couldn't find any other time to do it.
The Luau-- After the waterpark we cleaned up and cruised on over to the Polyneisian for a Luau. I've said this a million times this trip. Advance planning pays off! We had great seats for Hoop-dee-doo and we had equally great seats for the Luau. For the uninitiated, the way to get to the Poly is to take a bus to MK then board the monorail to the Poly. On the way we passed through the Contemporary Resort. I can remember dreaming about staying at that resort when I was a kid. The Luau was pretty much the same food as the Hoop-dee-doo, Ribs and Chicken. Cooked with a Polynesian flair. The show was fun. It dealt with keeping cultural traditions alive. The Firedancer was impressive. I saw him burn himself once on the back of the right hand. From where I could see it appeared only first degree, but it must have really smarted! Still he completed his show with little interruption. All of the dancers were wonderful and we had a great time. Afterward we took the monorail to the Grand Floridian. What a marvelous resort! One day I will have to plan a stay there.
Disney Dining Plan-- I promised that I would post my results to the Dining plan. If you are a breakfast eater then you will need to budget extra money for that. Because I am a three meal/day person I budgeted $600 extra and only spent about $300 (that includes some airport meals and extra snacks.) Since the DDP cost me $640 I spent a total of $940 on meals for 9 days. (The dining plan only covered 8 of those days.) Now, the actual amount of all the reciepts for food that I have total $1217. The DDP saved me $277 for about a 23% savings. Not bad. However, this savings would have been far larger had I not taken advantage of so many of the Dining experiences that run 2 TS. As far as service goes I found that it really was server dependant rather than DDP dependant. The service that we got at Tony's was superior and I left an extra tip. The waiter at Cindy's was also very helpful and I rewarded him for that. The Waitress at Hollywood and Vine was not so attentive (and all she had to do was fill drinks) so she just got the guaranteed tip that DDP offers.
Back to MK, the grand meltdown-- By this day my daughter had her fill of theme parks. She could not get happy no matter what. Even a three hour nap did not improve things. I had a dinner planned at Cinderella's Castle so we stayed long enough for that. We were pleasantly surprised when the photo op turned out to be Cinderella herself! (I was told when I made the ressies that it would be the Fairy Godmother) It was a great dinner in a beautiful location. I highly recommend this if you are unable to secure Princess Breakfast reservations. The little girls about our table were absolutely in heaven. I could tell that more than a few of them had spent the afternoon in the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.
Maya Grill--For some reason I was only charged for 1 TS for Cindy's at dinner. This gave me an extra TS. It just so happens that The Maya Grill is a TS restaurant. And they have this great morning buffet breakfast. Now this turned out to be a deal for Disney since the price for this Buffet is crazy low compared to any other meal of it's type on Disney property. The tab came to $38.48 for my wife and I with our son. They did not charge us for our toddler daughter. The food was great. Although, I would recommend on arriving well prior to the 11 am cut off time. A couple that were seated next to us arrived at 11:40 and had pretty slim pickin's.
Wrapping it up--We just got home and I have been reflecting back on the trip. Not much I would have done differently. But I have ideas about our next trip.
1) Back to CSR (If I don't drive my 5th wheel) We will definately be planning more rest time at the resort.
2) I will definately pack an extra peice of luggage. The return home puzzle was positively painful.
3) Spend more time at MK and AK but less at MGM and Epcot. The former were interesting beyond my expectations and the latter were not really what I had expected.
4) It will be May when we return. This was great! Low crowds, and good weather.
5) I will do the Disney Dining plan again but spend less of the TS credits on Signature dining and more on really good dinners.
6) I was juggling both the camera and video. This meant that while I thought that I got a particular moment on film, it was in actuality video. I think that I will share this chore next time with my wife. I might even get into a few of the pictures. I kept remembering the Disneyland trip that we took with my father just before he died. The only picture of him on that trip was one of me on his shoulders with his back turned to my Mom.
As a family we drifted about the perimeter of the park in innertubes. This Rocks! My kids loved the child waterslides. But all in all, if I was to give advice to anyone with kids as young as mine... Skip the waterparks. It was fun, don't get me wrong. But if you are staying at any of the nicer resorts, then you have much the same opportunity for fun right in the comfort of your own resort and you can save on the ticket upgrade. Besides, I could have taken the time to do my laundry as well. As it was I was up until 1 am doing laundry because I couldn't find any other time to do it.
The Luau-- After the waterpark we cleaned up and cruised on over to the Polyneisian for a Luau. I've said this a million times this trip. Advance planning pays off! We had great seats for Hoop-dee-doo and we had equally great seats for the Luau. For the uninitiated, the way to get to the Poly is to take a bus to MK then board the monorail to the Poly. On the way we passed through the Contemporary Resort. I can remember dreaming about staying at that resort when I was a kid. The Luau was pretty much the same food as the Hoop-dee-doo, Ribs and Chicken. Cooked with a Polynesian flair. The show was fun. It dealt with keeping cultural traditions alive. The Firedancer was impressive. I saw him burn himself once on the back of the right hand. From where I could see it appeared only first degree, but it must have really smarted! Still he completed his show with little interruption. All of the dancers were wonderful and we had a great time. Afterward we took the monorail to the Grand Floridian. What a marvelous resort! One day I will have to plan a stay there.
Disney Dining Plan-- I promised that I would post my results to the Dining plan. If you are a breakfast eater then you will need to budget extra money for that. Because I am a three meal/day person I budgeted $600 extra and only spent about $300 (that includes some airport meals and extra snacks.) Since the DDP cost me $640 I spent a total of $940 on meals for 9 days. (The dining plan only covered 8 of those days.) Now, the actual amount of all the reciepts for food that I have total $1217. The DDP saved me $277 for about a 23% savings. Not bad. However, this savings would have been far larger had I not taken advantage of so many of the Dining experiences that run 2 TS. As far as service goes I found that it really was server dependant rather than DDP dependant. The service that we got at Tony's was superior and I left an extra tip. The waiter at Cindy's was also very helpful and I rewarded him for that. The Waitress at Hollywood and Vine was not so attentive (and all she had to do was fill drinks) so she just got the guaranteed tip that DDP offers.
Back to MK, the grand meltdown-- By this day my daughter had her fill of theme parks. She could not get happy no matter what. Even a three hour nap did not improve things. I had a dinner planned at Cinderella's Castle so we stayed long enough for that. We were pleasantly surprised when the photo op turned out to be Cinderella herself! (I was told when I made the ressies that it would be the Fairy Godmother) It was a great dinner in a beautiful location. I highly recommend this if you are unable to secure Princess Breakfast reservations. The little girls about our table were absolutely in heaven. I could tell that more than a few of them had spent the afternoon in the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.
Maya Grill--For some reason I was only charged for 1 TS for Cindy's at dinner. This gave me an extra TS. It just so happens that The Maya Grill is a TS restaurant. And they have this great morning buffet breakfast. Now this turned out to be a deal for Disney since the price for this Buffet is crazy low compared to any other meal of it's type on Disney property. The tab came to $38.48 for my wife and I with our son. They did not charge us for our toddler daughter. The food was great. Although, I would recommend on arriving well prior to the 11 am cut off time. A couple that were seated next to us arrived at 11:40 and had pretty slim pickin's.
Wrapping it up--We just got home and I have been reflecting back on the trip. Not much I would have done differently. But I have ideas about our next trip.
1) Back to CSR (If I don't drive my 5th wheel) We will definately be planning more rest time at the resort.
2) I will definately pack an extra peice of luggage. The return home puzzle was positively painful.
3) Spend more time at MK and AK but less at MGM and Epcot. The former were interesting beyond my expectations and the latter were not really what I had expected.
4) It will be May when we return. This was great! Low crowds, and good weather.
5) I will do the Disney Dining plan again but spend less of the TS credits on Signature dining and more on really good dinners.
6) I was juggling both the camera and video. This meant that while I thought that I got a particular moment on film, it was in actuality video. I think that I will share this chore next time with my wife. I might even get into a few of the pictures. I kept remembering the Disneyland trip that we took with my father just before he died. The only picture of him on that trip was one of me on his shoulders with his back turned to my Mom.
barbeml
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2002
- Messages
- 5,422
You did a fabulous job for a WDW first timer! I read your report (every word) because we are going to CSR for the first time in October. Thanks for all the details. I agree, May is spectacular...DH and I were at POFQ last May. We always go in the fall, so it was a nice change.
Very please with your comments on CSR. Thanks for posting!
Very please with your comments on CSR. Thanks for posting!
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