Recently Back - Many Thoughts and Observations

[Frankiemack]

We just got back from our 8 day, 7 night stay at Disney from the 23rd to the 30th on the DDP. I want to provide a brief overview of our vacation along with some thoughts and observations. We did some resort hopping and attended MNSSHP on one night.

Flight Thoughts
We flew United from Newark to Orlando and were very disappointed. I don't fly often but when I do, I typically fly Jet Blue. The in flight experience was nothing like I expected.

• Jet Blue sells the most legroom in coach but I didn't realize how much of a difference there was between Jet Blue and United until the guest in front of me reclined their chair and was nearly laying on my lap.
  
• We were offered a complimentary beverage and were given the option to purchase any snacks we wanted. (Jet Blue gives free snacks.
  
• Jet Blue gives 1st bag free to each passenger while United charged $25 (This was not a surprise, just pointing out the difference.
  
• Each seat had direct TV installed but you had to purchase time to watch it at $8.99 for 3 hours I believe. (I will say that the return flight home included in flight entertainment, including games and on demand movies, free of charge - not sure why the difference on the routes....

Hotel Thoughts
We originally booked 10/24 - 10/29 at CSR and decided to add room only stays at ASMo through a nice Orbitz discount for 10/23 to 10/24 and 10/29 to 10/30. We customized and received our MB's in advance for our CSR stay.

• We received new MB's with each separate reservation - 3 for each of us, 12 total. I understand the logic for the test phase but Disney should be looking to stop this as the same guests were linked to each reservation via mydisneyexperience
  
• ASMo for night 1 - we requested Toy Story 1st FL and were granted our wishes - got a room in the Andy building right across from RC. Great Location! We had a working fridge and the room served its purpose for one night.
  
• CSR for nights 2-6 - we requested Cabanas 9B 1st FL and were assigned Casitas 4 1st FL. I wasn't thrilled due to the distance between our room and the Dig Site and El Centro but was very happy to be right near a quiet pool/gym and Bus Stop 2, which is really bus stop 1. The beds are VERY comfortable. We had a working fridge and thoroughly enjoyed our stay. We did notice that there seemed to be some issues with the pools. Our quiet pool was not heated well and the Hot tub for the first few nights seemed to only have 1 jet working however that was rectified mid-vacation. Transportation was AWESOME. My main gripe at CSR is the refillable mug space in El Centro...there are 2 fountains which were often PACKED with people and the area smells like stagnant water...we did complain and were assured someone was coming to clean however noticed the smell each time we visited...
  
• ASMo night 7 - we requested Toy Story 1st FL again but were assigned Mighty Ducks, 3rd FL. We requested to switch to the 1st FL and were moved. ASMo is not big so not that big of a deal to us, especially since it was just for the last night. We did have a working fridge but felt the room was in need of better cleaning/refurb. Rug was worn and actually had gum on it and one chair was broken.

Magic Band Thoughts

We took fully advantage of the FP+ system and used the MB's exclusively for everything. Overall we had a great experience but not without a few glitches:

• On our 3rd day at CSR, we had an issue with making a purchase using the MB. We were in the store and attempted to charge back to our room but the cashier was not presented with the option. We used our room key that we kept as a failsafe without an issue. We went to the front desk, they did not see anything that would cause this but went ahead and reset our bands within 10 minutes, came back with us to the store and asked us to charge a beverage with our MB's. It worked like a charm and they let us keep the beverage and comped it for us.
  
• In the park, using the MDE app for my iphone on the fly was great. Wait times were VERY accurate and overall worked well. We did have a few issues with changing reservations on the fly. I changed my FP+ selection and times a few times back and forth based on busy attractions for the days. At one point, I changed the Little Mermaid ride to meeting Mickey - my App showed this when I went to FP+ to change a selection but when I went to My Plans, it still showed the old plans. I went to my Mickey FP+ and my band did not work. I showed the CM my app and she let me go without an issue. I was also able to go back to the Little Mermaid and use my original FP+ selection without an issue. (I technically got 4 FP+'s attractions that day!)
  
• We ran into a few stands/kiosks where we could not use our MB's due to outages. This was infrequent but I thought it was worth noting.
  
• We used our MB's for Photopass pictures - going through our album now, I am missing pictures and have the photos of some other random guests in my library. We found that some photographers scanned our bands before pictures and some after - I'm not sure if this makes the difference but we thought it was very odd. It seemed much more common that it be done after your pictures - we even questioned it and were told it would be fine. We could not use MB's for BBB or for Enchanted Tales with Belle specifically.
  
• We attended MNSSHP but were advised NOT to add the special tickets to our bands. We didn't bother trying.

Park Thoughts

My only rant would be on Epcot and the F&W Festival. Yes, we went Saturday the 26th and got to World Showcase around 2pm. It was like a big Frat Party and we could not enjoy it at all. Very disappointed in the lack of guest etiquette that existed.

I will also add in that I noticed a few attractions seemed to be in need of some refurb...The Pirates in MK water wall with Davey Jones was not operating, a few Splash Mountain animinitronics were not working and at least one in Finding Nemo at Epcot did not work.

Dining Thoughts
We had ADR's at Boma, Garden Grill, Ohana, 1900 Park Fare and Coral Reef. We ate CS lunch at the parks each day.

Dining Plan Day 1:

• We ate lunch at MK in Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe and had no complaints. We had good burgers/fries - topping bar is great.
  
• My DM and DD4 had a Large Pizza from Pepper Market at CSR for dinner and thought it was terrible

Dining Plan Day 2:

• We at lunch at Flame Tree BBQ in Animal Kingdom - Their system went down right as we got online and the wait for food was about 1/2 hour. The food was tasty as always but they were very unorganized once their internal computer system went down - that's to be expected.
  
• We ate dinner at BOMA. We were seated about 20 minutes after our 6:15 reservation time and had subpar service from the waitress. We went a long time between seeing her for drinks, etc. Food was really good. Nice variety although the pork was very chewy and the beef seemed very fatty and gas tasting. Best part - UNLIMITED ZEBRA DOMES!

Dining Plan Day 3

• We ate lunch at Sunshine Seasons CS in Epcot. Some of the freshest food you can eat for lunch - and hands down the best dessert selection. Really good food with no complaints. I had ta steak sandwich with blue cheese sauce and balsamic vinegar along with my DM - my DW had the pork and my DD4 had the pizza sandwich that she has asked for every day since our visit.
  
• We ate dinner at the Garden Grill in Epcot with Chip, Dale, Pluto and Mickey. Great character interaction and very fresh food. Everything was really good. We always recommend this one.

Dining Plan Day 4

• We had FP+ lunch reservations at BOG. We went to the check-in counter, they scanned our band but could not find our reservation. They still let us continue forward and when we went to a cashier to order our food, when we scanned our bands, our meal selections popped up. We were able to make a few changes easily and say in the West Wing. Had GREAT food and desserts. Had the pork disk with my DW and my mom had the Croque Mosuire'. We also had the Master's Cupcake and fell in love with the Grey Stuff!!!!! Overall an amazing lunch experience.
  
• We had 8:05 dinner reservations at Ohana'. We arrived around 7:40 and were seated closer to 8:30. Bread was ok, not great. Food came very fast, Salad was limited in flavor, pot stickers, noodles and sticky wings were all awesome. Meats came around and were plentiful. We were offered Chicken, Steak, Pork and Shrimp. We were not offered Shrimp at our table. When we asked our server it took about 15 minutes for him to actually come by with some. Bread Pudding was next and OMG how awesome it was to taste this again. I missed bread pudding so much. Honestly, overall, the experience was good but not great. Definitely not as good as our last time in December of 2011.

Dining Plan Day 5

• We ate lunch at Pizza Planet in HS. As always, decent pizza and Caesar salad - nothing to write home about but probably still the only CS in HS we would eat at.
  
• We had 4:50 dinner reservations at 1900 Park Fare. We arrived at exactly 4:50, took our family photo outside and were immediately seated. The food here was decent but definitely not great. Next time I'll stick with Chef Mickey's. Although I will say that it was very cool to see the Cinderella cast interacting with each other. We never were given an option to see our photos from dinner.

Dining Plan Day 6

We had a late lunch at Coral Reef in Epcot. All around good experience, not much else really to say. I had the Lobster pasta while my DM and DW had the NY Strip. Food had a great taste. We were lucky enough to catch the feeding of the fish in the tank while we were there. Awesome experience.

MNSSHP Thoughts
Overall, we had a great time at MNSSHP on Tuesday the 29th. Got on line for the 7 dwarfs just before 7pm and was told the wait would be about an hour from where we were standing - the line moved very quick and by 7:25 we were about 10 guests away from meeting them when there was "unexpected trouble in the mines" and they needed to take a 15 to 30 minute break. (There was an issue with one of the CM's or costumes) They came back after about 20 minutes and we met them just before 8pm. We than decided to head down Main Street and get on line for Jack and Sally - We waited over an hour for them - watched the parade from the line but had great interaction and photos with them both. The line took so long as they were both very chatty and spent a lot of time with each guest. Jack also loved to scare guests who had their backs turned to him while on line...Very funny reactions. Parade was awesome, fireworks spectacular and the candy a plenty.