Solo in October and completing the Value Level Resorts

[bookgirl]

I just wanted to do a quick review of my most recent trip. Okay not so quick as I took the trip the last week of October and now it’s the first week of February. My life has been hectic to say the least.

I found out that an interview for new management positions were being held the week I was gone. They rescheduled things so that I could be interviewed on Friday at 4:30 a few hours after I landed home from Florida. I also got the call that my dad had been admitted to ICU while I was there and thought I was going to have to fly home early. In the end he stabilized and not only did I come back and ace the interview but I impressed the committee and was asked to transfer to the main branch. This was a much bigger deal than working at my suburban branch but HR and my current manager really encouraged me to accept, so between helping with my dad, moving branches, and having to hit the ground running at the new job, I’ve been slowly trying to get stuff down so I could post.

This was a solo trip. That’s a little different then my usual fall trips. Usually my mom comes along and we celebrate my September and her October birthday. We usually do Moderate or Deluxe. (In fact I had both a Mod and a Deluxe booked under Bounceback) This time she had other obligations.

Being solo I decided to do a Value resort (I tend to be more park commando on my own and all I care about is a clean place to shower and sleep). The only value I had not stayed at yet was POP, so that is the one I had my eye on. I did find a room at POP and cancelled my BB offers.

I went with a standard room (without a balcony I don’t see the point of paying for a view and I don’t do pools so the upgrades were not important to me). Rack Rate was about $108 for my nights. I did keep a lookout on the specials. When free dining came out I signed up for this as I needed to switch my week and this one had FD offered with a Standard room that did save me money. I am not a fan of the dining plan usually as it doesn’t really sync up with my style but because of the new changes (availability to swap desserts and to trade in unused meals) and because I was going to have to get a ticket I went ahead and booked the free dining, with the thought of switching to RO if I got a rate that was at least $25 dollars cheaper (what I could reasonable average in food per day). The RO rate was pretty much non- existent when it came out. I believe that the only rooms available were preferred or preferred pool and I would actually have to pay more. So I kept FD and my standard room.

I usually try to do at least one new TS restaurant (this year it was Morimoto Asia) and when solo I do a tour. Instead I decided to attend the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.

So I ended up with a Monday (arrived by Noon) thru Friday (left at 5:30 am) trip. I bought a 3 day park hopper to use M, W, &Th and then one ticket to MNSSHP that I used Tuesday to enter the MK at 4:00.

 

[bookgirl]

TRAVEL/DME

I flew Southwest. This is pretty much my go to airline. I am especially a fan of the early flights as they are less crowded and I tend to get to where I’m going earlier in the day. I do not live near a hub airport so I pretty much always have to change planes and that adds time. My flight out on Monday was pre dawn. Got to the airport in plenty of time. I did have a little more traffic than I am used to as I was flying into Dallas/Love and ALL the business people were catching my flight HAHA. There is a ton of commuter traffic between OKC and Dallas and OKC and Houston because of the oil industry. It was not sold out but I did have a couple next to me so three across. But that was okay. I did EBC and was in the early A’s got a window seat on the wing (my favorite) and pulled my hoodie over my head and dozed for the first leg (1hr). Once in Dallas I caught my flight to Orlando and luckily got a single who took the aisle and no one sat in the middle. We arrived just a few minutes after 11am.

When solo I don’t usually get a car. I let Disney get the luggage and I went directly to DME. I like the DME. Not driving is a real vacation for me.

The line for POP/AoA (it was shared) was HUGE. It was probably my longest DME wait at about 25 minutes, but with the line I was expecting a bit of a wait. POP was the second stop.

 

[bookgirl]

The Resort

As I said POP was the only Value I hadn’t stayed at. POP was never really on my radar. I don’t like the huge icon themed décor and being the resort with the most rooms and so popular I thought it would be much like my AoA stay where it was very crowded, very loud and very busy at the foodcourts and busstops. I was also never drawn to the AoA/POP themeing. I admit it’s not rational but giant faced icons freak me out. The object ones are not my cup of tea either but really the faced ones just give me the creeps. Usually I just try to be at the back of the buildings (at the values) and avoid the elevators and the middle of the buildings. But I figured I’d give it a chance and also I could say I had stayed at all the Values. (I plan to hit up the two Mods I haven’t stayed at as well in the next few trips)

I was lucky enough to get the bypass the front desk email about 5 days out from my trip. While waiting in the DME line I got a ‘sorry your room isn’t ready’ text. Not even a minute later I got the “Hey your room is ready, here’s the number and here’s a link to a digital map” text.

So the odd thing about POP is that the Standard rooms are the ones most likely to have a view of the lake. I did not ask for a Lake View. My requests were near transportation/first floor. My room was 6121. I ended up in the 70’s building 6, on the back of the building facing the lake on the first floor. I was about 3 minutes from the food court and about 3.5 minutes from the bus stops. I thought that this was the perfect room for my requests. I loved the location and it met my requests very well.

The buses were very easy to access from this room. For MK and DHS I would walk to the food court and cut through the gift shop to the door and exit right by the two bus stops. For AK and Disney Springs I could actually cut through the sidewalks of the 70’s to the parking lot by the 90’s and end up at the other end of the bus stops. Epcot was in the middle so it was a tossup to which way I went.

My room was pretty much like every other standard room at a value, two double beds, and one sink a small table and pretty much no floor space. It was just fine; with me being solo I had all the room I needed. I was closer to the middle of the building and was right by a stand of trees, (that I could see the lake through), there’s a circle sidewalk area on the map and I was right there. Maybe it’s because I try to stick to the back but this is the third value stay that I’ve been near the area where they park the golf/housekeeping carts (that circle area). They run most of the day and evening. This doesn’t actually bother me but if you were a light sleeper or wanted quiet this would not be the area for you. I did miss the little Mickey head towels that you get on the bed. I know others have posted that they did not get them either.

Room was fine. It was clean, it was cool on hot days and I had quick access to the main building and buses. The shower had a bit of a drip, but stopped if you made sure to push the handle closed tightly. I had a connecting door with a crying baby the first night but only for a little while and I heard very little over the next 4 days.

I did decorate my window. I was never a pin collector till recently and this is pretty much what I do with them. I hang them in the window. I found the lights at Wal-mart and the pumpkins and ghosts at the dollar spot at Target. The Jack and Sally I bought earlier this month but could not get a Zero. Hopefully they will restock and I’ll grab one another time. (I did get a Santy Claws but I didn’t put him out)



I thought the resort itself was nice. I did avoid most of the icons I don’t like but due to rain I had to cut through the middle a lot and I will not lie, the Foosball players were creepy LOL. It was very cute however, and with so many pop icons I see why people are so fond of it. I could take it or leave it. I did not hate it and would probably rebook there, but it would not be my first choice. However I wouldn’t consider it a last choice and I would not be upset to stay there again if the price was right and they had the room type I wanted.

 

[bookgirl]

Buses

I admit I was worried about the buses. AoA taught me that a large Value resort with only one set of bus stops can mean a lot of people at the bus stops. I’ve stayed at all three levels of resorts during Oct. It’s always a little crowded and service can be slower at any resort this time of year so I did not expect either short waits or empty buses.

On this particular trip, I stood more; I waited longer, had one bad experience with a driver, and had one long crazy wait/drive to DTD. It was not my worse experience but was not my best either at Values or any resort level.

5 minutes was my shortest wait, which happened twice and I did walk up as a bus was waiting by it was packed and I choose to wait for another which happened about 15 minutes later. (Weirdly both 5 minute waits were returning from Disney Springs which is notorious for crap bus service) The night of MNSSHP was pretty packed but they did have multiple buses so the wait was a little long but not crazy. I’m pretty sure I stood for that one but if it hadn’t been so crowded I probably would have let people go on before me to catch the second bus but I could already hear people talking about that and I didn’t want to add to the congestion. Average wait was probably about 20-25 going to locations and 20-30 coming back from the parks (either because of midday waits or having to wait for a second/third bus). There was one bad wait to get to DS, I waited about 30 minutes for it, but the people in front of the line had already been waiting for 25 minutes when I got there. The bus CM kept getting on the walkie talkie and saying it was on the way and she didn’t know where it was but people were getting irate and at least a couple left the line. I was a few minutes late to my ADR as he did the BB drop off then spent about 20 minutes driving in circles to get to the correct side of DS to approach the bus stop. I also had one jerk of a bus driver at AK who decided to take off even though people were approaching the bus stop and he saw them but still took off. 30 minutes later another bus arrived to take us to DHS.

Don’t get me wrong, I did not stand every bus ride, I did not wait 20+ minutes every time, I did not have bus loads of cranky rude people. Bus service was not so horrible that I thought I needed to complain or raise a fuss, but it was not great and being dedicated service didn’t help at all. There were almost always long lines (Halloween Week/Free Dining and the resort was booked almost solid). I probably stood about half the time and even when I sat there were just tons of people on the buses. Mid day rides were better (lots better to be truthful) as they do tend to be less crowded but then you have waits. They did often have a second bus but honestly when there are three + bus’ worth of people two buses is nice but still a long wait. So mid day was okay (except longer waits) but busy times were well, busy.

Again it was not horrible and I never base my stay at a resort on the transportation because it’s a crap shoot everywhere, but the dedicated bus service did not elevate POP on my list of Value resorts to stay at.

 

[bookgirl]

Buses

I admit I was worried about the buses. AoA taught me that a large Value resort with only one set of bus stops can mean a lot of people at the bus stops. I’ve stayed at all three levels of resorts during Oct. It’s always a little crowded and service can be slower at any resort this time of year so I did not expect either short waits or empty buses.

On this particular trip, I stood more; I waited longer, had one bad experience with a driver, and had one long crazy wait/drive to DTD. It was not my worse experience but was not my best either at Values or any resort level.

5 minutes was my shortest wait, which happened twice and I did walk up as a bus was waiting by it was packed and I choose to wait for another which happened about 15 minutes later. (Weirdly both 5 minute waits were returning from Disney Springs which is notorious for crap bus service) The night of MNSSHP was pretty packed but they did have multiple buses so the wait was a little long but not crazy. I’m pretty sure I stood for that one but if it hadn’t been so crowded I probably would have let people go on before me to catch the second bus but I could already hear people talking about that and I didn’t want to add to the congestion. Average wait was probably about 20-25 going to locations and 20-30 coming back from the parks (either because of midday waits or having to wait for a second/third bus). There was one bad wait to get to DS, I waited about 30 minutes for it, but the people in front of the line had already been waiting for 25 minutes when I got there. The bus CM kept getting on the walkie talkie and saying it was on the way and she didn’t know where it was but people were getting irate and at least a couple left the line. I was a few minutes late to my ADR as he did the BB drop off then spent about 20 minutes driving in circles to get to the correct side of DS to approach the bus stop. I also had one jerk of a bus driver at AK who decided to take off even though people were approaching the bus stop and he saw them but still took off. 30 minutes later another bus arrived to take us to DHS.

Don’t get me wrong, I did not stand every bus ride, I did not wait 20+ minutes every time, I did not have bus loads of cranky rude people. Bus service was not so horrible that I thought I needed to complain or raise a fuss, but it was not great and being dedicated service didn’t help at all. There were almost always long lines (Halloween Week/Free Dining and the resort was booked almost solid). I probably stood about half the time and even when I sat there were just tons of people on the buses. Mid day rides were better (lots better to be truthful) as they do tend to be less crowded but then you have waits. They did often have a second bus but honestly when there are three + bus’ worth of people two buses is nice but still a long wait. So mid day was okay (except longer waits) but busy times were well, busy.

Again it was not horrible and I never base my stay at a resort on the transportation because it’s a crap shoot everywhere, but the dedicated bus service did not elevate POP on my list of Value resorts to stay at.

 

[bookgirl]

Food

Lately I have been trying to try new places every trip.

I was also on the QS Dining Plan (Free Dining Promo). I have only done this once before (a Moderate Stay). I’m not the best match for the dining plan but in truth I was going to have to pay rack rate (no standard rooms available in RO) anyway so why not do the FD promo. I did end up saving a little bit over buying separate RO and Tickets and because I only had one TS meal planned the QS plan would fit with my dining plans this trip.

I did get a mug, an old mug, the new ones were put out less then 48 hours after my arrival. That’s annoying. I did semi-complain, not that it got me anywhere and I didn’t expect it too. I didn’t use it a ton as I don’t drink much soda. Powerade was my go to drink at most of my QS meals as it was hot and muggy most of my trip and pouring the powerade over ice in my refillable water bottle seemed to keep my hydrated. I drink mostly water but I could not seem to drink enough on this trip to not be thirsty but once I started alternating the powerade and plain water I seemed to hold up much better.

I’m not a fan of desserts and had planned to ask for an extra side but in the end I ended up using them as is except one time where I got a fruit thing instead of dessert. I also swapped out 2 meals that were unused for 6 items at Goofy’s my last night. (I might not be a fan of dessert but I do like sweets lol)

All in all, I actually liked using the DP this trip. I don’t know that it would work except at the QS level for me, but I will be more open to the possibilities of it with the new changes.

I have allergies that have only been diagnosed for about 2 years so I was really restricted for the first 18 months, but at the end of this summer I reintroduced two items back into my diet in a moderate amount and began a few others in very limited amounts, to check tolerance and so far it’s been okay. (small short term breakouts but no severe reactions) I still eat a lot of things allergy free but I now am not so stringent. I did however bring cereal and coffee syrup with me as Breakfast is hard with my particular allergies. Bought some milk and had iced coffee and cereal for breakfast.