Oops, clicked post before I was done.
We have been home a little over a week now and this is the first chance I have had to pop on and update about our trip.
All I can say is WOW! We spent 7 nights at POR (first week of March) and I booked a bounceback before we left because it was so amazing. It was our first trip to WDW and it was truly magical.
I have to first give thanks to Venom and Andre for all their help with rooms and room requests, etc. I sent my fax to POR about 6 or 7 days before the trip. We were booked in an AB (2 adults and 3 kids) Riverview. I requested a corner second floor room in building 14 or 27 (I think 27 is the other building I asked about). I did not hear back from the room assignment people. Venom offered advice about contacting them further, but we decided that it really didn't matter what we wound up with - we'd be in a room at Disney.
We arrived around noon on 3/2. Their computer systems were down and there were long lines for check in even for those who did the online checkin. But, they had CMs wandering around with water and treats that they were passing out and everyone was very helpful. When we got our turn, we were very lucky (well - perhaps not luck, but all the advice from here). They had a room assigned to us and were able to get everything set and the room was ready. We could not have received a more perfect room - 1444. Second floor, corner, building 14 with an amazing view of the river. The room was a bit tight for our family of 5, but we had taken advice from here and brought 2 of the sweater hanging shelves and used them for clothes. All 3 kids loved the murphy bed. Even my middle (9 years old, 5' 100#) son fit well. They took turn sleeping on it. My only disappointment with the room is that we didn't get any towel animals (other than the Mickey head on arrival). I was sort of looking forward to surprises and mousekeeping was adequate, but not spectacular - one day they left 4 conditioners, but no shampoo - just little things like that that were a bit off on the details. But, they were always fast at replacing things like missing shampoo.
Our weather left a bit to be desired in terms of temperature. Leaving central Ohio, I was really hoping for mid-70s the whole time we were there and unfortunately the first 2 days were out and out cold and windy. But, we had no rain and there were a couple of days when the kids were able to swim. They loved the pool and the activities in the afternoon. We really ran the kids ragged with parks and restaurants. I am a nightowl and the whole family was passed out by 10 every night.
We had no trouble at all with buses. We had 8:10 adr for breakfast at Tusker House and caught a 710ish bus. Only one or two other families on the bus. The same thing for CRT reservations pre-ropedrop. The only time we had a packed bus on the way to a park was when we left right about ropedrop. We only did this one morning. We got on at the South depot each trip and that one morning we were full (and left people) just from the south depot and we didn't stop at the others. We stayed for fireworks a couple of nights and the buses were full and sometimes a bit of a wait on our way back. But, nothing I wouldn't expect. We did have one idiot on the bus one night who was unhappy with the buses and complained loudly about being asked to move to the back of the bus so that more people could get on.
The cafeteria was really slow our first night there. We were exhausted and went back to POR for dinner. The line for burgers was REALLY slow. I waited for burgers for my boys and my DH and daughter had finished their dinners (and DH came to relieve me so I could eat my food) before their burgers were done. I thought the food was so so, but it was easy and the kids definitely liked it.
To the poster who asked about using gift cards. What I did was call the day before we left to let them know that I didn't want them to express check out with charging our card. I went down at checkout while DH dealt with th bags and I had a CM credit all of our gift cards before charging the rest to our card. It worked out well. They had the credit card on file for the week and I didn't have to worry about gift cards running out while I was trying to charge something to the room and I was still able to use them.
All in all, it was an amazing first trip to Disney. We had lots of pixie dust. When we went to CRT for breakfast, the fire engine pulled up and chauffered by little girl off to her breakfast. We tried to give back on the pixie dust as well. One afternoon we had fast passes for Toy Story that we couldn't use and we passed those on to a young family who were very excited to receive them. It really was a magical vacation.
Thanks again Venom and Andre for all of the room help. Room 1444 was probably the one room I looked at on the map layout thinking that it would be THE perfect location. My DH kept complimenting me on how perfect everything was (mostly because of all of the planning and time I spent here over the last 6 months).
