Our Spring Break '05 Trip, Part 1

[disneylifer]

Just got back from the world last night… never wrote a trip report, but will
Give it a try. Usually I get pretty windy when I write, so I’ll break it up in to a
couple of different posts (maybe even a separate post with restaurant reviews
if anyone is interested).

Arrival/Day 1:

We arrived last Friday (the 18th) at the French Quarter right around check-in
time. I was going to try and keep track of likes and dislikes about the POFQ…
Have to say, I can’t find anything that I didn’t like about the FQ. If I had to
choose something that I liked least about it overall, I would have to say the bus
stop(s) arrangement, although this is very, very minor and petty (I’ll get into this later). Great Resort…. Very laid back and much more relaxed than any of the value resorts
that I have stayed in. Grounds are very nice with the mature trees and lush greenery.
Mousekeeping was very good and the kids (DS 13, DD 9) really enjoyed the pool.
If you are debating on which moderate to choose, I highly recommend the FQ.

Ok, after check-in (which was very fast) and a little while to relax from the trip and
unpack, we decided to go ahead and go to a park and redeem our AP vouchers and
hang out for a couple of hours. We took the bus to EPCOT and got our ap’s and rode
SE and Ellen’s Uof E. We then headed over to the World Showcase and browsed through
Canada and UK before heading back to the room.

Let’s go ahead and talk about the bus schedule from POFQ. Buses to MK are dedicated.
Straight from the stop at FQ to MK and vice versa. Buses to AK started at the FQ stop,
then stopped at all four of the PO Riverside stops, then Blizzard Beach before going to
AK. Coming back from AK they stopped at BB, then to FQ, then POR. Buses to MGM
started at FQ and stopped at the four POR stops, then to MGM. Coming back from MGM
the bus stopped at FQ first then went to POR. EPCOT was the same as MGM schedule,
Although once on the trip back to the resort, it stopped at the POR stops before going to
the FQ stop. I think the order of return stops might change depending on driver, day, etc.

So, at AK, MGM and EPCOT, you have a “Port Orleans” bus stop. At MK, there is one
bus stop for POR and one for POFQ. However, once, when the bus wasn’t very full, the
driver picked all of us up from both stops and stopped at both resorts.

Never took a bus from the resort to Dowtown Disney (took the boat… highly recommend), but the bus from DD to FQ went to POR stops first, then the FQ.

Overall on this trip, we had the best bus service that we have ever had. Never waited for any bus longer than ten minutes. A bit of trivia… the world currently has 487 busses and after this year’s purchases/retirement schedule, will have 517. Also, they employ over 2000 bus drivers.

Nuff on the buses… (told ya I got windy)

Day 2:

Saturday morning had 7:30 ps for Chef Mickey’s which we were of course late for. Got
to ps check-in about 7:40. In the past, if there weren’t many people on the MK bus, the driver will drop you off at the Contemporary on the way to the MK. We had too many people on ours this time so we had to go to MK and walk to CM. Teaches us for running late! Anyway, I had purchased a DDE card a couple of weeks ago and efficiently packed several copies of the email confirmation letter they send. On the fast walk to CM I realized I had forgotten to bring the letter! Darnit! When I check-in for our PS check-in,
I explain this to the cm who calls over the manager. He authorizes the 20% discount… this trip was like that… everything worked well, even when our plans got messed up.

Had a good breakfast at CM (didn’t seem crowded at all… hardly ever anyone waiting
for a table) and took monorail to MK. Had a great day at MK. Timing was great almost all the time on this trip. On the way back to fantasyland (Teacups), we stopped by Philharmagic and walked right in, with maybe a 2 minute wait in the holding area.

Did as much at MK as we have ever did in a day… did all of Fantasyland (got to ride IaSW on the first day opening after refurb), most of Tomorrowland, and much of Advntureland and Frontierland. Btw, it seemed like everything was up and running on
this trip (yes, CoP was up every time I as by it during our trip). Lines were very manageable overall. By using fastpass whenever we could and it made sense to, we never waited in a line over fifteen minutes. Ate lunch at Pinocchio’s
Village Haus. Somewhat of a family tradition since was the first place that wife and I ate
at when we first came to the world in ’88.

Decided to make it an early night and headed back to the room around 8:00. Got pizza
delivered to the room. Got to agree with many posters on the pizza… had resort pizza a
couple of years ago and enjoyed it. Not so this trip…while the toppings were ok, the crust was chewy and tough. Something has definitely changed. If you are starved and just wanting some pizza, go ahead. Otherwise, especially if you are a pizza lover, pass on the resort pizza.

Day 3:
Started off with AK. We enjoy AK, but it is probably our least favorite park. This trip
we decided that we were going to approach everything with a bit more leisure than usual.
Instead of trying to conquer everything at every park, we were going to do what we wanted allow for some time for things such as spending time at the pool, Downtown Disney, etc. So, we went to AK and did Tough to be a Bug, the safari, primeval whirl,
Dinasour, and let the kids do triceratops spin. While waiting for a fastpass time on Dinosaur, we went and watched the Festival of Lion King (for the first time). Great show.
Sorry we have not done it before. Recommend to everyone.

Went back to the room around 3:00 and let the kids swim for a bit before our 6:30 ps
at Teppanyaki Dining Rooms at Japan in the WS. Checked in about ten minutes before
our ps and were seated by 6:30. After dinner (will report dining reviews in separate post),
scouted out a good spot for Illuminations. Got a cup of coffee for the DW and I and drinks for the kids and sat and waited for 9:00. By the way, we watched ILL from the rail between Norway and Mexico (twenty feet or so from the ring carvers cart at the edge
of Mexico). Spectacular view. Globe ends up straight out in front of you and entire show
is totally unobstructed. Swam towards the exit with the rest of the mob after the show and stalled for a while in the Mouse Gear shop in Future World before finally heading back to the room. A note on shopping for this trip… kids always want to spend a lot of time in gift shops… especially annoys the DW as it seems we waste so much time in gift shops while we could be doing something else. We all agreed before this trip that the only time we would spend in any shops would be if we had to kill some time such as the last few minutes before we could use a fastpass, letting crowds thin, etc. I told the kids that I would take them to the World of Disney store in DD before we left for a dedicated shopping trip. This worked great. Had more time in the parks, less hassle with toting around bags (or arranging to send to motel) and virtually zero tension/bickering about
buying souvenirs and actually had more time to shop. Method that we will employ from now on.

Day 4:
Went to EPCOT. This was a Early Extra Magic Hours day for EPCOT, but we didn’t make the rope drop… got to the park about 8:30. Got fastpass for Mission Space and then
did everything else in Futureworld that we didn’t do the first evening. The exception was TestTrack. By the time we got off of MS, the fastpasses were closed for the day for TT and the standby time was almost two hours. Oh well, get it another day (although we barely did… more on that later). While we were waiting for our MS fastpass, we went to
Living Seas and did what I consider a hidden gem. I had not heard of it before and read
about it in a Disney magazine that housekeeping left… it is called Turtle Talk and is very
simple but very enjoyable. You go into a small theater and there is a screen that has
a projection/movie that looks like you are looking into an aquarium or a section of the sea. Crush the turtle swims up to the “window” and proceeds to interact with the audience
(mainly the little ones) both asking and answering questions in the great Crush surfer
voice. Can be very funny, although ended up doing this a second day and found that how
good it is depends on who “is” crush (must be operated by some fairly advanced controls and voice alteration equipment by someone“behind the scenes”). But regardless, if you have time and especially if you have some Crush-loving little ones, I’d call it a must-do.
Even the show that was not as good as the first was still very enjoyable.

Anyway after MS go ahead and head over to MGM to make our 1:00 ps at Sci-Fi diner.
Checked in at 12:50 and had our longest wait for a table of the entire trip… were seated
at 1:20. After eating, we spent the rest of day at the studios and got in Rockin Roller Coater (we all love it), Indy Jones stunt show, Voyage of Little Mermaid, Beauty and Beast show, Drew Cary Sounds Dangerous, and went to the exit of the Animation tour (thanks dis board) and got pics and autographs from the Incredibles ( Mr. And Mrs. Incredible). Heard that Frozone also shows, but didn’t get him. Got over to the amphitheater around 6:45 for the 7:30 Fantasmic show and were able to get a pretty decent seat. Wandered around for a bit after the show and headed back to the room. Sandwitches in the room for a late dinner. All rooms at the FQ do now have fridges.

A final note before I end this long post… we tried something this time that I don’t recall seeing before… it is called PhotoPass and is pretty slick. Any of the droves of CM photographers will give you a card with a mag strip on it. You keep this card and everytime you have one of the photographers take your pic, you give them this card and they swipe it in a device that they carry. After your trip, you can view the pics online for thrity days for free. You can customize with different artwork ‘borders’ that say something like “Magic Kingdom 2005” or for pics of Mickey a image that looks like a signature of Mickey, etc. Sometimes the photographer will have you do something like hold your hat out and when you view them online they will have a character appear to be in the hat! (did Stictch for one of ours. On another, they had my dd hold out her hand and Tink appears in the photo hovering above her hand). You can view the pics or have the site send a email link to anyone else where they can go and look at you “gallery.” Pretty neat. Of course, you can buy hard copies in different sixes to be sent to you.

Ok, I’ll end this now…. Unless I get requests begging to stop, I’ll post the final four days
and maybe a review of restaurants shortly.

 

[Carol Ann]

oh no - don't stop! More please more!

 

[pumpkinfish]

disneylifer, which building did you stay at in FQ? I have building 5 requested, corner room. I want to be close to everything...not that the resort looks like it is spread out, but i want to be on the safe side!

 

[disneylifer]

pumkin, we stayed in building 3 (rm 3241). I liked the location. We were very close to the parking lot, very close to the elevator and on a corner (two windows.. makes the room seem larger).

We were about the length of a building from the lobby, and the bus stops were about the same distance on the other side of the lobby. Walking to the bus stop was probably our farthest walk and it couldn't have taken more than three or four minutes. Felt that everything was very close (especially after staying at pop last year). POFQ has about 1,000 rooms, but from our experience, seemed very small.

If I am thinking correctly, building five is on the other side of the main building from building three, right? If so, you will be very close to the bus stop, but a bit farther away from the pool than where we were.

 

[mjmike]

Just want to echo some of the info in this thread - we were at FQ last week, too. Nothing but praise for this moderate - it never felt crowded even at capacity and transportation was easy everywhere except AK - you can drive their quicker, although we didn't bother.

Parks were jammin' full, but our group was on a laid back schedule and we seemed to be going away from the crowd most of the time - no stress. Mission Space is way fun, but unfortunately we saved Epcot for our last day and Soarin' was not working - DW and I were very bummed about that.

Our only downer experience was dining at San Angel - we got seated almost 30 minutes after our ps time, and the food/service was very slow. Some of our food was OK, but we all agreed we'd have been happier with a food court burger for a third of the $$. Caused us to miss Illuminations that night.

I'll try to do a trip report later.

 

[mjmike]

Just want to echo some of the info in this thread - we were at FQ last week, too. Nothing but praise for this resort - it never felt crowded even at full capacity, and transportation was easy everywhere except AK. We were in Building 1, but still only a short walk to the food court, pool or bus stop, and right by the parking lot and although it was a standard view, we were right over the courtyard with a view of the river from the balcony. The food court was nice, no crazy lines and decent food, good selection and service.

The grounds are beautiful, rooms and grounds always spotless. It was much more relaxing than CBR and much less walking.

Parks were jammin' full, but our group was on a laid back schedule and we seemed to be going away from the crowd most of the time - no stress. Mission Space is way fun, but unfortunately we saved Epcot for our last day and Soarin' was not working - DW and I were very bummed about that.

Our only downer experience was dining at San Angel - we got seated almost 30 minutes after our ps time, and the food/service was very slow. Some of our food was OK, but we all agreed we'd have been happier with a food court burger for a third of the $$. Caused us to miss Illuminations that night.

I'll try to do a trip report later.

 

[cocowum]

Glad you had a great time, can't wait to read part two! We stayed at POFQ last year and loved it!!

 

[tkd lisa]

Loving this! Don't stop!

I'll have to try that gift shop tactic. I also hate to shop!