I'll try to put together a trip report later. A quick summary:
5 nights free dining at FW Cabins, followed by 8 nights offsite in timeshare. A mixed bunch, me, dh, dd21, dgd1, ds17, dd12, dm60ish, surprise visitor ds19.
Mom stayed at All-Stars Music for 5 nights, she liked it. She used the magical express & disney transportation, no problems.
We loved the cabins, beautifully kept, amazing towel animals daily, including an alligator in the tub that was our favorite, and a huge turtle on the table. I've never had towel animals before, it was great!
We had 10 day passes & used all 10 days, it was still not enough, really enjoyed our time in parks.
We did not add hopping or water parks due to $$ constraints. I really missed the hopping. It was ok for the first few days when we spent more time in the parks, but later in the trip it would have been nice to skip around.
The dining plan is outstanding, I would get it again. Such a wonderful convenience not to have to worry about how much & where. We were overall very pleased with the food quality & selection. I did not get to do any of the nicer restaurants due to everyone else's overwhelming preference for buffets. Next time I will.
Best buffet - Cape May
Best counter service - Tusker house (1/2 rotisserie chicken w/ green beans & potatoes)
Best snack - Nestle tollhouse cookie ice cream bars
We even tried Boma and liked it for the most part (not too many adventurous eaters in our clan).
gd1 LOVED the characters, I was so surprised! I think she considered them to be walking talking stuffed animals. She played with & got her picture taken with several, notably Dopey who played pattycake with her & Tigger Eeyore Pooh & Piglet in the Crystal palace (she gave high fives to them). She is 17 months old and quite the park trooper, loved walking around & did well in the stroller too.
I did not get to go on/see all of the rides and attractions that I wanted to. We had quite diverse interests in our party, and this was probematic at times.
Best ride: Everest, this was awesome.
Best show: Still It's Tough to be a Bug (I did not get to see Lion King)
Our biggest surprise was dh going on several coasters, including Space Mountain, Everest, TOT, & RnR!! He has not been upside down in 20 years. At least.
The parks were not crowded at all, most rides were a walk on or a short wait, although we did use fast passes to get multiple rides. If the standby was 30 min or less, we hit it, usually it was less. One day the kids went on Kali 6 times. Dh went on 4 times, & squelched around for a few hours afterwards, he was so wet.
The evening shows were great as usual, I think Epcot Illuminations was the overall favorite, we saw it 3 times.
I tried out Crocs, the cheap payless version, they were great. My whole family who had previously made fun of me were quite envious by the end of the trip. My poor mother had horrible blisters from her very expensive walking shoes.
Our fave park was a tie between Magic Kingdom & Animal Kingdom, although we love it all.
Lovebugs were significantly diminished by the time we left, but did coat the fronts of many cars (including our rental) while we were there.
One disappointment was not spending as much resort time on WDW property as I would have liked. Timeshares are nice, but disney is better.
2 things that really struck me, not sure if it is always this way & I didn't notice or what: 1) MGM really needs bumping up. I like it but they could really use a couple of new & more exciting attractions. The motor car thing is good, but they need more. Many attractions are quite dated. 2) MK maintenance seemed not as good as previous. Saw many instances of chipped/faded paint, small things on rides not working, like one doll leg not kicking, lots of hangups on most rides, stuff like that. It was all very clean though.
Stitches' Adventure really is the worst attraction in all 4 parks combined. Plus 1 poor kid screaming "I want out, out, OUT" was a little disturbing.
We did sample some of the food & wine offerings from the festival booths at Epcot - I liked the Kir from France & the cabbage roll from Poland best. Lobster roll from America a little questionable, not very good (not enough lobster). One red wine from Virginia was horrible, it was a cabernet, I forget the vinyard though. Very flat & sour tasting.
Overall we had a great time, & I can't wait until my next trip.
5 nights free dining at FW Cabins, followed by 8 nights offsite in timeshare. A mixed bunch, me, dh, dd21, dgd1, ds17, dd12, dm60ish, surprise visitor ds19.
Mom stayed at All-Stars Music for 5 nights, she liked it. She used the magical express & disney transportation, no problems.
We loved the cabins, beautifully kept, amazing towel animals daily, including an alligator in the tub that was our favorite, and a huge turtle on the table. I've never had towel animals before, it was great!
We had 10 day passes & used all 10 days, it was still not enough, really enjoyed our time in parks.
We did not add hopping or water parks due to $$ constraints. I really missed the hopping. It was ok for the first few days when we spent more time in the parks, but later in the trip it would have been nice to skip around.
The dining plan is outstanding, I would get it again. Such a wonderful convenience not to have to worry about how much & where. We were overall very pleased with the food quality & selection. I did not get to do any of the nicer restaurants due to everyone else's overwhelming preference for buffets. Next time I will.
Best buffet - Cape May
Best counter service - Tusker house (1/2 rotisserie chicken w/ green beans & potatoes)
Best snack - Nestle tollhouse cookie ice cream bars
We even tried Boma and liked it for the most part (not too many adventurous eaters in our clan).
gd1 LOVED the characters, I was so surprised! I think she considered them to be walking talking stuffed animals. She played with & got her picture taken with several, notably Dopey who played pattycake with her & Tigger Eeyore Pooh & Piglet in the Crystal palace (she gave high fives to them). She is 17 months old and quite the park trooper, loved walking around & did well in the stroller too.
I did not get to go on/see all of the rides and attractions that I wanted to. We had quite diverse interests in our party, and this was probematic at times.
Best ride: Everest, this was awesome.
Best show: Still It's Tough to be a Bug (I did not get to see Lion King)
Our biggest surprise was dh going on several coasters, including Space Mountain, Everest, TOT, & RnR!! He has not been upside down in 20 years. At least.
The parks were not crowded at all, most rides were a walk on or a short wait, although we did use fast passes to get multiple rides. If the standby was 30 min or less, we hit it, usually it was less. One day the kids went on Kali 6 times. Dh went on 4 times, & squelched around for a few hours afterwards, he was so wet.
The evening shows were great as usual, I think Epcot Illuminations was the overall favorite, we saw it 3 times.
I tried out Crocs, the cheap payless version, they were great. My whole family who had previously made fun of me were quite envious by the end of the trip. My poor mother had horrible blisters from her very expensive walking shoes.
Our fave park was a tie between Magic Kingdom & Animal Kingdom, although we love it all.
Lovebugs were significantly diminished by the time we left, but did coat the fronts of many cars (including our rental) while we were there.
One disappointment was not spending as much resort time on WDW property as I would have liked. Timeshares are nice, but disney is better.
2 things that really struck me, not sure if it is always this way & I didn't notice or what: 1) MGM really needs bumping up. I like it but they could really use a couple of new & more exciting attractions. The motor car thing is good, but they need more. Many attractions are quite dated. 2) MK maintenance seemed not as good as previous. Saw many instances of chipped/faded paint, small things on rides not working, like one doll leg not kicking, lots of hangups on most rides, stuff like that. It was all very clean though.
Stitches' Adventure really is the worst attraction in all 4 parks combined. Plus 1 poor kid screaming "I want out, out, OUT" was a little disturbing.
We did sample some of the food & wine offerings from the festival booths at Epcot - I liked the Kir from France & the cabbage roll from Poland best. Lobster roll from America a little questionable, not very good (not enough lobster). One red wine from Virginia was horrible, it was a cabernet, I forget the vinyard though. Very flat & sour tasting.
Overall we had a great time, & I can't wait until my next trip.
