Reporting back after Christmas & New Year at WDW

[JonFozz]

We arrived back yesterday and the jetlag is kicking in so need to keep busy.

I'm so glad I found this site back in the summer as it really helped us plan one of our best holidays ever. We stayed 2 weeks at Port Orleans Riverside through Virgin Holidays


Awesome Bits

• Richard Petty Rookie Driving Experience at WDW Speedway - AWESOME
• Tampa Bay Bucs v Seattle Seahawks NFL - great but blimey it was cold!
• Illuminations Cruise for wife's 40th birthday on NYD - Highly recommended
• Dinner at Cinderella's Round Table - great food and service
• Fireworks at MK on NYE

Good Bits

• Osbourne Lights at DHS
• Decorations at all the parks
• No crowd problems before Christmas Day or after 2/1/11 (apart from DHS)
• No hassle with Virgin flights and pre-check in a doddle for flights and car with Alamo. Took alot of stress out of the journey
• DTD check in for cases the day of departure great.
• Meals at House of Blues,9 Dragons, Hard Rock Cafe & Lonestar Texas Steakhouse
• Port Orleans Riverside good location & hotel and Disney Buses great
• Kids loved Blizzard Beach
• Dinner at Le Ceiller - Epcot. Good meal but not as great as all the reports

Bad Bits

• Crowds after Christmas Day, epecially at DHS
• No fast passes for Toy Story Mania ever and 2 hour waits
• Huge family groups from Brazil with no sense of direction, spacial awareness or concept of queues/lines/waiting for rides.
• Huge Salad Dodgers in motorised wheelchairs driving through crowds at top speed and glaring at folk who didn't move (you are not disabled, you are just a fat greedy ***. Start eating more salad and walking!!)
• Universal Studios Express Pass rip off - Disney's fast pass system works great and is free - take note.
• Universal - over rated and over crowded Harry Potter area. 75 minutes wait just to get into the area & queues for shops? no thanks
• Hollywood & Vine at DHS - Terrible food and most expensive meal of whole holiday avoid at all costs (2 adults & 2 children = £150 for a school dinner!!)
• Disney classing over 9 years old as adults for meal - Why??
• Breaking camera on NYE and having a mad dash round Target to find a replacement before racing to DTD for our meal at House of Blues
  
• And finally the credit card bill when it returns after all the shopping at Orlando Outlets

 

[Tony Toon]

We arrived back yesterday and the jetlag is kicking in so need to keep busy.

I'm so glad I found this site back in the summer as it really helped us plan one of our best holidays ever. We stayed 2 weeks at Port Orleans Riverside through Virgin Holidays


Awesome Bits

• Richard Petty Rookie Driving Experience at WDW Speedway - AWESOME
• Tampa Bay Bucs v Seattle Seahawks NFL - great but blimey it was cold!
• Illuminations Cruise for wife's 40th birthday on NYD - Highly recommended
• Dinner at Cinderella's Round Table - great food and service
• Fireworks at MK on NYE

Good Bits

• Osbourne Lights at DHS
• Decorations at all the parks
• No crowd problems before Christmas Day or after 2/1/11 (apart from DHS)
• No hassle with Virgin flights and pre-check in a doddle for flights and car with Alamo. Took alot of stress out of the journey
• DTD check in for cases the day of departure great.
• Meals at House of Blues,9 Dragons, Hard Rock Cafe & Lonestar Texas Steakhouse
• Port Orleans Riverside good location & hotel and Disney Buses great
• Kids loved Blizzard Beach
• Dinner at Le Ceiller - Epcot. Good meal but not as great as all the reports

Bad Bits

• Crowds after Christmas Day, epecially at DHS
• No fast passes for Toy Story Mania ever and 2 hour waits
• Huge family groups from Brazil with no sense of direction, spacial awareness or concept of queues/lines/waiting for rides.
• Huge Salad Dodgers in motorised wheelchairs driving through crowds at top speed and glaring at folk who didn't move (you are not disabled, you are just a fat greedy ***. Start eating more salad and walking!!)
• Universal Studios Express Pass rip off - Disney's fast pass system works great and is free - take note.
• Universal - over rated and over crowded Harry Potter area. 75 minutes wait just to get into the area & queues for shops? no thanks
• Hollywood & Vine at DHS - Terrible food and most expensive meal of whole holiday avoid at all costs (2 adults & 2 children = £150 for a school dinner!!)
• Disney classing over 9 years old as adults for meal - Why??
• Breaking camera on NYE and having a mad dash round Target to find a replacement before racing to DTD for our meal at House of Blues
  
• And finally the credit card bill when it returns after all the shopping at Orlando Outlets

So pleased to hear you've had a fantastic time. See your experiences pretty much mirror ours last Christmas. Especially agree with your comments about Le Cellier and Universal. I really object to their Express Pass. Won't buy one on principal and never will. Loved Harry Potter when we visited in the summer but it took some serious research and planning to go when it wasn't completely mentally busy.

Hope the jet lag and withdrawl symptoms aren't too severe. Am really struggling to resist the temptation to book for the summer again at the moment. The Bank Manager won't be a happy man if my willpower weakens.

Mrs TT

 

[2Tiggies]

Welcome home and happy new year!

I would love to hear more detail about your House of Blues experience (we loved it), the Illuminations cruise (never done one but would really like to) and some details on your POR stay.

What happened to your camera? At least mine had the courtesy to wait until our departure at MCO to pack up

Can't wait to hear more.

 

[2Tiggies]

The Bank Manager won't be a happy man if my willpower weakens.

Mrs TT

Blame it on peer pressure

 

[crabbie1]

Glad you had a magical time.I know what you mean about the crowds but we went 2008 and from abt the 22nd onwards MK was shoulder to shoulder by 11am.I am sorry but to me as much as I love disney I found it uncomfortable and very irritating.Yes to be there for christmas but for us going a bit earlier and leaving before the 23rd would be a preference.I do understand some cannot do this due to work school etc.
Glad you liked POR.Thinking of trying FQ as tiggs raved about it so much and did go there on our last day and thought the food courts for both were excellent.Looking forward to a trip report and some pics please.

 

[disneyholic family]

sounds like a lovely holiday!!!!!!
welcome back!! time to begin planning the next one

 

[JonFozz]

Welcome home and happy new year!

I would love to hear more detail about your House of Blues experience (we loved it), the Illuminations cruise (never done one but would really like to) and some details on your POR stay.

What happened to your camera? At least mine had the courtesy to wait until our departure at MCO to pack up

Can't wait to hear more.

We ate at the House of Blues on NYE and the food and service was great, especially after the disappointment of H&V & NASCAR Cafe the 2 nights before. I can recommend the Jamalaya and the Key Lime Pie. Great atmosphere with a view of the lake if you are seating in the back room.

As for Illumations cruise all I can say is if you can get a reservation and can afford it ($325 + tip for you captain) then do it. It made my wife's birthday, although I think the cake & bottle of bubbly also helped. We had Captain Ron and he was fantastic with the kids. He even took us down to DTD to catch the end of Fantasmic before heading over to Epcot Lake. They usually park you up under the bridge between the UK & France, however as the wind was in the right direction we ended up next to the quay in France. Best seats in the house! Excellent view of the fireworks. A good touch was that he gave us an envelope with all the facts & figures of the fireworks show rather that tell you during the cruise so you can have more private family time. The show costs $55,000 per night You get a cooler full of soda & a basket of chips, which Captain Ron bagged up for us to take away at the end of the trip which lasted just over an hour.

Expensive I know, but for a special night and a once in a lifetime event.. worth every penny.Best summed up by our daughter as she got off the boat. I felt like a Celeb!

POR was a great location we ate at the footcourt for breakfast and a couple of evenings but didn't eat at the Boathouse. Food was the usual Disney fastfood but the pizzas were a hit and the family ones were huge. The maid kept the kids happy with the towel animals every other day and arranging their growing army of Disney teddies into groups watching TV, reading books or having meetings.


Would we stay there next time? Maybe however my wife liked the look of the Beach & Yatch Club when we went there for the cruise. We will be back!

 

[Chilly]

Sounds like a great trip. I loved the Illuminations cruise as well.