Short review of first trip - the good and the bad

[rashmi]

I am going to do a short recap of our first trip which was from Oct 3 till Oct 13.

Sorry, there won't be any pictures, and I won't be doing a day by day recount.

First things first:

WHO - Myself, my husband, my daughter (4yrs) and son (7yrs)
WHEN - Oct 3 - Oct 13.
WHERE - Pop Century - had free QSDP dining.


Below is the summary of our trip, and our observations. Please note that since its our first trip, we have no way to compare to any other standard of crowds, heat etc.

A . RESORT

• We all liked the resort. The rooms are on the smaller side but we spent very less time at the resort, so it did not bother us too much. I did have some tough time keeping all the stuff of four people in an orderly manner.
• When we arrived, we were given a room in building 9, which we thought was far away from food court etc. On request, we were given a room in building 6 which worked well for us. There was no noise, and we were relatively close to bus parking and food court.
• We did not like the food at the resort. We don't eat beef, so this may have affected our observation. The first night there, we tried the penne alfredo and fried chicken, both of them were not good at all. We ate some more dinners at the resort , some were a bit better (eg. vegetable burger, veggie noodles). The breakfast was slightly better there.
• The pools are nice , and my son and daughter thoroughly enjoyed them.
• We observed that the bus parking for POP at parks was the farthest. I do understand that those who pay more for moderate and deluxe guests will definitely be treated better. But this differential treatment should not be too much in the face, I hope you understand what I'm saying.
• Since so many people stay at the POP resort, it tends to get crowded at meal times. What worked for us was to eat breakfast in the room.I had carried cereal from home , and we would get 2 milk bottles as snack the night before and keep them on ice during the night. Some mornings, one of us good breakfast into the rooms from the food court.
  
  Also, since there are different sections for meals, and the whole family would not order from the same section. So what I usually did was to get food for my children, settle them down with their meals, and then get my food. This worked out better and no one's food got cold.
  

I'll continue in another thread about parks , crowds etc.

 

[rashmi]

B . The parks, park strategy etc.

• I had read a lot on the boards about various park strategies. I had a plan according to crowd calendars, EMHs etc. Obviously, the plans were changed when needed.
  The best days were when we would go to parks early. We made effective use of FPs, and having a designated FP runner sure helped (that was me !!).
  
  
• We had planned for 2 days at EPCOT, 2 days at MK, and 1 each for other two. Effectively, we had 1 and 1/2 days for MK and EPCOT each, since we went to parks late on some days.
  I think we could have easily spent 1 day more at EPCOT and AK each.
  
  
• We managed to do most of the rides and see almost all shows. We liked almost all what we did, but I felt that some things were somewhat overrated.
  I did not understand the hype over TSMM. It is a very nice ride(game), but not worth the long wait times. The day we were at HS, we got FPs for 12 -1 , even though we reached just few minutes after rope drop. And then the ride broke down when it was time to ride....we did end up doing it, and its very nice, but still I don't understand the madness.
  Similarly - Dumbo. I realize its a classic , but it seats few people, and the line is slow...and then its such a short ride !!
  I also did not enjoy the Lion King show as much as Nemo one. Again, this was our family experience, and in no way reflects the quality of show, and others' observations.
  
  
• I am not much of a roller coaster kind, and same is our son. But we were amazed that our son tried almost all rides. My daughter due to height restrictions, and sometimes due to scare factor, did not try everything. We were a bit surprised that baby swap option is not available for all rides.
  
  For all of us, the best park was Epcot.
  
  
• The food at parks is much better than the POP!!
  Epcot naturally has a very big selection, and we tried the CS at Mexico, Morocco, Norway (bakery), UK and France (patisserie). We made efficient use of snack options at this park , both days getting snacks back for next day breakfast. All food we ate at EPCOT was very good.
  
  At HS, we ate at Pizza planet, and liked it . Nothing exceptional, but nothing bad too.
  
  At AK, we ate at Yak and Yeti. It was OK. I had read very good reviews of it, it did not match my expectations.
  
  At MK, we ate at Pinnochio Village Haus, Main Street bakery and Cosmic Rays . The cinnamon rolls at bakery are really really good. Again, we got back some food from there for next day breakfast. The Cosmic Rays food was OK, not anything extraordinary.
  
  
• I read a lot before going about the "magical" trips people have. This is not a criticism - I thoroughly enjoyed the trip, but there wasn't anything magical. Yes, some shows are done very very well, and my daughter really enjoyed meeting the princesses , the fireworks and parades are not to be missed.....but I did not experience the magic.
  But we did observe that no CM or bus driver was ever in a bad mood, and that is really worth noting.
  
  
• The crowds at the parks varied . One could definitely see how crowds increased by mid morning. I saw most crowds at Food and Wine festival.
  
  We did not have any outrageous waits. What I do remember as somewhat long (but understood) waits were for seeing the princesses at MK (30 minutes) and Fantasmic (1 hr I think) . We did wait in line for Dumbo for I think 20-25 minutes , but it was because we had reached late to the park that day.
  
• We used EMH for only one day - when MK closed at 2am. I think morning EMHs would be better, since one is not as tired as for evening EMHs.
  
  
• We went to AK on the day it closed at 5, and it was our only day there. We all liked AK a lot, and could have easily spent one more day there.
  

Will continue in next post.