ktmdooley
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2008
- Messages
- 36
Ok, our trip is over and I am glad and sad at the same time. Don't get me wrong, we had fun, but we also had our trials.
We took our daughter and a friend of hers. This was a first...taking a friend, and I have to say I doubt I repeat the experience anytime soon. I forgot how much girls argue.
Anyway, if you can get past that the trip was ok.
It was their birthday, and they did have fun with their birthday buttons. It seemed like every time they went to buy themselves a snack, it was given to them. They were announced into the 'It's a Bug's Life' show, allowed to ride in the front of the monorail without even asking, given fast passes for rides, given a free treat in the candy store on main street in MK, sung Happy Birthday to at the Crystal Palace, and the topper was being chosen for a dream (not sure if it's a dream for me, but to the girls it was fun) of opening up Epcot.
All in all I would say they had a ball despite being at each other 50% of the time.
Now, for us it was different. First I would like to warn everyone (and maybe you already know this. If you are using your AAA card for a discount, go through AAA, otherwise you won't get all the magic your way stuff like gift certificates etc. We didn't find that out until we got there. It was nice of them not to tell us when we booked...wasn't it.
Second, it is sometimes difficult to talk to the employees at the registration counter. I had to go back up due to an issue with the room, and encountered a language barrier. She spoke English, but not well enough to understand what I was trying to tell her. Then she spoke to a co-worker of the same origin in their language. Finally she had to get someone on the phone to ask them what I was asking her because she didn't have an answer, and I ended up talking to the person on the phone because she couldn't figure out how to explain it to me. So it would be great if the employees spoke just a little better conversational English. Just my opinion.
Next, I have to say that the Pop Century resort is nice and clean. I have no complaints about the room or service of the room. I noticed that they put new comforters on the beds in between customers, and I happened to be staying there when they were changing out the mattresses. Just for info sake they change the mattresses every 5 years on the same dates. I would like to ask how people get all those wash cloth animals. That's one thing our girls didn't get.
Oh I guess I should mention that our cleaning lady did make one mistake. She threw out a Disney bag that was probably pretty light, and she probably thought it was empty, but it wasn't. It had a Mickey car decal in it along with the girls’ certificates for opening Epcot. Epcot took care of the certificates by replacing them. I didn't bother with the car decal.
At any rate, I would recommend the Value resorts to anyone trying to save money and still go to Disney. They really are nice.
The food at Cinderella's castle (breakfast) was wonderful. Potatoes, bacon, sausage, eggs, pastries, etc, and it was all good. We asked for seconds on some of it, and they brought out little cakes for the girls for their birthday. The biggest surprise was who showed up. Everywhere I've read it has said that at the castle you will only see Cinderella and some other characters like the mice from the movie. Well, I can say that we got to see other princesses too. Bell, Snow White, and Jasmine were there. They gave autographs and stood for pictures. They worked the whole room before they left.
The food at Crystal Palace was wonderful. Our waiter was great.
The food at the 50's Primetime Cafe was wonderful, however it was a little on the skimpy side. My daughter ordered the meatloaf because that's her favorite. She received what took her about 4 bites to finish and the mashed potatoes that came with it seemed to be about the size of a heaping table spoon. Mine wasn't much bigger. I ordered the meatloaf as well. I received one slice, about a quarter cup of mashed potatoes, and some green beans. I ended up giving some of my meatloaf to my daughter just so she wouldn't starve. Don't get me wrong, it was good food, just not near enough when you’re walking those parks all day.
The other thing with the diner was the service. I can tell you without a doubt that they have good service there, just not our waitress. The point of this restaurant is the atmosphere that it's 'mom's kitchen'. All the other waiters were in the zone, but ours took a hands off approach and told us upfront that if we didn't tell on her, then she wouldn't tell on us. We watched as others got punishment for playing with their food, dropping utensils, etc, but no one in our section got in trouble. She was slow with bringing food, clearing food, and at absolutely no time did we receive a drink refill.
The food at the San Angels Inn is outstanding with great service and atmosphere. I would go back.
Well that's it. We had fun with a few bumps and we will definitely be back. There are just some places we won't bother with and others that we will do again and again.
We took our daughter and a friend of hers. This was a first...taking a friend, and I have to say I doubt I repeat the experience anytime soon. I forgot how much girls argue.
Anyway, if you can get past that the trip was ok.
It was their birthday, and they did have fun with their birthday buttons. It seemed like every time they went to buy themselves a snack, it was given to them. They were announced into the 'It's a Bug's Life' show, allowed to ride in the front of the monorail without even asking, given fast passes for rides, given a free treat in the candy store on main street in MK, sung Happy Birthday to at the Crystal Palace, and the topper was being chosen for a dream (not sure if it's a dream for me, but to the girls it was fun) of opening up Epcot.
All in all I would say they had a ball despite being at each other 50% of the time.
Now, for us it was different. First I would like to warn everyone (and maybe you already know this. If you are using your AAA card for a discount, go through AAA, otherwise you won't get all the magic your way stuff like gift certificates etc. We didn't find that out until we got there. It was nice of them not to tell us when we booked...wasn't it.
Second, it is sometimes difficult to talk to the employees at the registration counter. I had to go back up due to an issue with the room, and encountered a language barrier. She spoke English, but not well enough to understand what I was trying to tell her. Then she spoke to a co-worker of the same origin in their language. Finally she had to get someone on the phone to ask them what I was asking her because she didn't have an answer, and I ended up talking to the person on the phone because she couldn't figure out how to explain it to me. So it would be great if the employees spoke just a little better conversational English. Just my opinion.
Next, I have to say that the Pop Century resort is nice and clean. I have no complaints about the room or service of the room. I noticed that they put new comforters on the beds in between customers, and I happened to be staying there when they were changing out the mattresses. Just for info sake they change the mattresses every 5 years on the same dates. I would like to ask how people get all those wash cloth animals. That's one thing our girls didn't get.
Oh I guess I should mention that our cleaning lady did make one mistake. She threw out a Disney bag that was probably pretty light, and she probably thought it was empty, but it wasn't. It had a Mickey car decal in it along with the girls’ certificates for opening Epcot. Epcot took care of the certificates by replacing them. I didn't bother with the car decal.
At any rate, I would recommend the Value resorts to anyone trying to save money and still go to Disney. They really are nice.
The food at Cinderella's castle (breakfast) was wonderful. Potatoes, bacon, sausage, eggs, pastries, etc, and it was all good. We asked for seconds on some of it, and they brought out little cakes for the girls for their birthday. The biggest surprise was who showed up. Everywhere I've read it has said that at the castle you will only see Cinderella and some other characters like the mice from the movie. Well, I can say that we got to see other princesses too. Bell, Snow White, and Jasmine were there. They gave autographs and stood for pictures. They worked the whole room before they left.
The food at Crystal Palace was wonderful. Our waiter was great.
The food at the 50's Primetime Cafe was wonderful, however it was a little on the skimpy side. My daughter ordered the meatloaf because that's her favorite. She received what took her about 4 bites to finish and the mashed potatoes that came with it seemed to be about the size of a heaping table spoon. Mine wasn't much bigger. I ordered the meatloaf as well. I received one slice, about a quarter cup of mashed potatoes, and some green beans. I ended up giving some of my meatloaf to my daughter just so she wouldn't starve. Don't get me wrong, it was good food, just not near enough when you’re walking those parks all day.
The other thing with the diner was the service. I can tell you without a doubt that they have good service there, just not our waitress. The point of this restaurant is the atmosphere that it's 'mom's kitchen'. All the other waiters were in the zone, but ours took a hands off approach and told us upfront that if we didn't tell on her, then she wouldn't tell on us. We watched as others got punishment for playing with their food, dropping utensils, etc, but no one in our section got in trouble. She was slow with bringing food, clearing food, and at absolutely no time did we receive a drink refill.
The food at the San Angels Inn is outstanding with great service and atmosphere. I would go back.
Well that's it. We had fun with a few bumps and we will definitely be back. There are just some places we won't bother with and others that we will do again and again.
)
