sjams
<font color=blue>You just wander thru! Kills us al
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2004
- Messages
- 578
Well we (me, dd(8), ds(4.5), and my mom) are back from our "surprise" trip to WDW staying at the POP.
I honestly have no big complaints about that resort and frankly I was expecting the worst from some reports on this board.
We did use ME and it was great. We used it in June and was great then too. Our flight was in about noon and we were at the resort and in our room by 1:30. I would say that was fast. I don't know when our luggage arrived since we headed straight to the parks, but it was there when we got back around 8 that night.
Check in was easy. They had our room ready when we got there and everything I had requested online (I did ALL reservations online) was there and noted on my ressie. I did decline the fridge and was told that if I wanted to add it back later to just call.
I did pay a little bit more for a preferred room and I am glad I did. We had a wonderful view of the lake so there was vertually no noise.
The room was a bit smaller than the Wilderness Lodge that we stayed at in June, but nothing that we couldn't handle. It was impeccibly clean each and every day. The Mousekeeper we had did not do any towel animals that I was hoping for, but the kids didn't know any different.
The parks were great. Thursday and Friday were by far the best. Very low crowds so we got to enjoy tons of stuff in FantasyLand.
Saturday was almost miserable cold with constant winds. I am from Texas and it can get cold here, but we seldom have the driving winds. I listened to the advice on the boards when people told me to pack some of everything...we did and boy were we glad! Coats, gloves, and hats as well as short sleeve shirts. No shorts for this group.
Sunday the crowds reminded me of June. It was shoulder to shoulder people at MK. I am guessing that was because of the MLK holiday. So we didn't get as much done as we would have liked. At one point the stand-by wait for Space Mtn was 70 minutes...glad I FP it. We did go to MGM and had fun there as crowds weren't as bad.
I was impressed by the food court at Pop most of all. It was wonderful. Even the pickiest of eaters can find SOMETHING and that one of our group was my mom, not the kids and she did fine.
One thing I would recommend is doing b'fast in your room. I brought cereal for everyone and bought milk at the food court for all mornings except the last one and it saved me about $30 a day. I bought the milk the night before and put it in a colapsible cooler with ice and it was great in the morning.
I carried a backpack all days and it was fine. We also had a stroller for my ds and that made things go a lot smoother and quicker going from place to place.
I made sure we did some different things while there too. The kids got to be the Pilots of the Monorail, we visited the GF and Poly, had been to the Cont. before. We saw the daytime parade and just took our time this time around. IF the kids wanted to stop and see characters we did...not do much of a "mission" this time. My son loves Minnie and Mickey's houses and he wanted to play so he played and played.
I guess the only think I would complain about would be that the Pop's bus stops at the parks are the farthest away from the parks. That got to be a bit tiring on a long day. But heck if that was the worst?
My daughter was online yesterday looking at airline prices to go back already. We had only been home for about 2 hours. At least I waited until today!!!
That is about all from here...if you have any questions let me know...
Thanks to all on the DIS boards for the wonderful and accurate advice...couldn't have done it without you...
I honestly have no big complaints about that resort and frankly I was expecting the worst from some reports on this board.
We did use ME and it was great. We used it in June and was great then too. Our flight was in about noon and we were at the resort and in our room by 1:30. I would say that was fast. I don't know when our luggage arrived since we headed straight to the parks, but it was there when we got back around 8 that night.
Check in was easy. They had our room ready when we got there and everything I had requested online (I did ALL reservations online) was there and noted on my ressie. I did decline the fridge and was told that if I wanted to add it back later to just call.
I did pay a little bit more for a preferred room and I am glad I did. We had a wonderful view of the lake so there was vertually no noise.
The room was a bit smaller than the Wilderness Lodge that we stayed at in June, but nothing that we couldn't handle. It was impeccibly clean each and every day. The Mousekeeper we had did not do any towel animals that I was hoping for, but the kids didn't know any different.
The parks were great. Thursday and Friday were by far the best. Very low crowds so we got to enjoy tons of stuff in FantasyLand.
Saturday was almost miserable cold with constant winds. I am from Texas and it can get cold here, but we seldom have the driving winds. I listened to the advice on the boards when people told me to pack some of everything...we did and boy were we glad! Coats, gloves, and hats as well as short sleeve shirts. No shorts for this group.
Sunday the crowds reminded me of June. It was shoulder to shoulder people at MK. I am guessing that was because of the MLK holiday. So we didn't get as much done as we would have liked. At one point the stand-by wait for Space Mtn was 70 minutes...glad I FP it. We did go to MGM and had fun there as crowds weren't as bad.
I was impressed by the food court at Pop most of all. It was wonderful. Even the pickiest of eaters can find SOMETHING and that one of our group was my mom, not the kids and she did fine.
One thing I would recommend is doing b'fast in your room. I brought cereal for everyone and bought milk at the food court for all mornings except the last one and it saved me about $30 a day. I bought the milk the night before and put it in a colapsible cooler with ice and it was great in the morning.
I carried a backpack all days and it was fine. We also had a stroller for my ds and that made things go a lot smoother and quicker going from place to place.
I made sure we did some different things while there too. The kids got to be the Pilots of the Monorail, we visited the GF and Poly, had been to the Cont. before. We saw the daytime parade and just took our time this time around. IF the kids wanted to stop and see characters we did...not do much of a "mission" this time. My son loves Minnie and Mickey's houses and he wanted to play so he played and played.
I guess the only think I would complain about would be that the Pop's bus stops at the parks are the farthest away from the parks. That got to be a bit tiring on a long day. But heck if that was the worst?
My daughter was online yesterday looking at airline prices to go back already. We had only been home for about 2 hours. At least I waited until today!!!
That is about all from here...if you have any questions let me know...
Thanks to all on the DIS boards for the wonderful and accurate advice...couldn't have done it without you...
