NYEmomma
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2010
- Messages
- 2,010
We're a family of 7 -- my parents, DH & I, and three princesses age 6, 2 & 2. Trip got off to a bang with a snowstorm in Ohio that canceled our flight on Saturday and we couldn't get another flight out until Monday. Thankfully everyone's schedules were flexible enough to push our vacation back instead of cutting it short. Disney was super helpful as well. I lost our BOG fastpass and wasn't able to get an ADR rescheduled for it and same goes for our Akershus ADR but thanks to our fabulous concierge at POR, we managed to get ADRs for the princess brunch at Citricos. It was our first time staying at POR and we had no complaints about it but we all decided that we preferred POFQ a little better. This will probably be the last time that we have my parents come to help out with us the kids so from here on out, we'll need to stay in a room that fits 5 so who knows where we'll end up next time. Unless my parents decide to come again and keep a kid in their room again. 
Anywho, onto the parks. Whether kind of sucked. Our last two days (that we technically shouldn't have been there for!) were beautiful but our first MK day was freezing and our Epcot day poured the entire day long. Crowds weren't bad -- especially when the weather was awful, lol. It was fairly busy this past Sunday (the 1st) when the weather was perfect and we were at MK but that is kind of to be expected.
Overall, CMs were pretty great. Most were completely fine, a few were amazingly helpful and awesome to our kiddos, and a few were grouches. i wouldn't say that overall the CMs have gotten worse over the years (we've gone every 3-5 years since I was 2).... sometimes you're just going to run into a few cranks or people that are having bad days. Our worst CM experiences were at POR in the food court and at the concierge desk. A couple of the character handlers left something to be desired in the way they directed us.
We did a LOT of character meets... the girls were all really into it. We did 3 character meals (Tusker House, Crystal Palace & Citricos) and those interactions seemed to be a bit shorter/not as personal as our last visit 3 years ago. But my kids are young and a little bit shy and awkward around the characters so there wasn't too terribly much for the characters to work with if you know what I mean. We did get he A&E FP and those were the best meets of the trip. Both took lots of time with the girls and had a lot of fun with them. Pocahontas was also fabulous with my girls.
This was our first experience with Magic Bands and the new Fastpass and it was... well, fine enough, I guess. I still don't care for having to schedule them so far in advance (and that's saying a lot for me because I love planning!) and the app was wonky and unreliable the entire trip. We didn't have much of any luck scheduling subsequent FPs after using our first 3 (typically finished them by early afternoon). Having to scan your bands twice when getting onto rides is kind of a pain in the butt too... at least it is for us, having one kid that sometimes needs help with the band and two toddlers that we need to keep a hole of while scanning.
I didn't ride 7DMT because my twins were quite the handful and I couldn't leave them with just my mom to wrangle them while the rest of us rode. My daughter LOVED it (this trip was her first time riding roller coasters) and DH said it was a good ride but it was wayyyyyyyy too short. Especially if you're waiting 70 standby for it. DD really wanted to ride it again but the shortest we saw the wait was 50 minutes and it just wasn't happening. I really loved the new Dumbo and the new Fantasyland in general.
All in all, this was a pretty rough trip for us. Our twins were a huge, huge handful and it was stressful for everyone. The weather was kind of a bummer and I don't think we'll do February again. I'm really looking forward to our next trip... it generally takes me about 3 years to save enough money for us to go) so my twins will be about 6 and my oldest will be 9. It will be a completely different world and I'm looking forward to vacationing with kids that are a little more self sufficient.
Though DH & I are hoping to be able to sneak in a short 15th anniversary trip in 2 years for just the two of us. I'm hoping we'll have enough SW points to fly free.
ETA: What's up with no pin for BTMR and no ride pics for it? It was DD's favorite coaster and we were bummed to not see either.
Anywho, onto the parks. Whether kind of sucked. Our last two days (that we technically shouldn't have been there for!) were beautiful but our first MK day was freezing and our Epcot day poured the entire day long. Crowds weren't bad -- especially when the weather was awful, lol. It was fairly busy this past Sunday (the 1st) when the weather was perfect and we were at MK but that is kind of to be expected.
Overall, CMs were pretty great. Most were completely fine, a few were amazingly helpful and awesome to our kiddos, and a few were grouches. i wouldn't say that overall the CMs have gotten worse over the years (we've gone every 3-5 years since I was 2).... sometimes you're just going to run into a few cranks or people that are having bad days. Our worst CM experiences were at POR in the food court and at the concierge desk. A couple of the character handlers left something to be desired in the way they directed us.
We did a LOT of character meets... the girls were all really into it. We did 3 character meals (Tusker House, Crystal Palace & Citricos) and those interactions seemed to be a bit shorter/not as personal as our last visit 3 years ago. But my kids are young and a little bit shy and awkward around the characters so there wasn't too terribly much for the characters to work with if you know what I mean. We did get he A&E FP and those were the best meets of the trip. Both took lots of time with the girls and had a lot of fun with them. Pocahontas was also fabulous with my girls.
This was our first experience with Magic Bands and the new Fastpass and it was... well, fine enough, I guess. I still don't care for having to schedule them so far in advance (and that's saying a lot for me because I love planning!) and the app was wonky and unreliable the entire trip. We didn't have much of any luck scheduling subsequent FPs after using our first 3 (typically finished them by early afternoon). Having to scan your bands twice when getting onto rides is kind of a pain in the butt too... at least it is for us, having one kid that sometimes needs help with the band and two toddlers that we need to keep a hole of while scanning.
I didn't ride 7DMT because my twins were quite the handful and I couldn't leave them with just my mom to wrangle them while the rest of us rode. My daughter LOVED it (this trip was her first time riding roller coasters) and DH said it was a good ride but it was wayyyyyyyy too short. Especially if you're waiting 70 standby for it. DD really wanted to ride it again but the shortest we saw the wait was 50 minutes and it just wasn't happening. I really loved the new Dumbo and the new Fantasyland in general.
All in all, this was a pretty rough trip for us. Our twins were a huge, huge handful and it was stressful for everyone. The weather was kind of a bummer and I don't think we'll do February again. I'm really looking forward to our next trip... it generally takes me about 3 years to save enough money for us to go) so my twins will be about 6 and my oldest will be 9. It will be a completely different world and I'm looking forward to vacationing with kids that are a little more self sufficient.
Though DH & I are hoping to be able to sneak in a short 15th anniversary trip in 2 years for just the two of us. I'm hoping we'll have enough SW points to fly free.
ETA: What's up with no pin for BTMR and no ride pics for it? It was DD's favorite coaster and we were bummed to not see either.
