LlamaFace
BOOM Baby!
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2004
- Messages
- 61
Myself, DW and DD just returned from 7 days of magic. I will attempt to relay most of the information that would be beneficial to those who plan on going soon.
Parks:
Magic Kingdom: Moderate crowds - 9am till 10:30 you could do what you wanted - must have had very late risers or something. Most of the folks were from Boston, Newyork, and Jersey folks as it was their break. Never seen so much Boston Red Sox gear in my life - all in all they were nice people. England was well represented as well - great just to listen to all these folks accents.
DD woke up tinkerbell - a must do in my book...very cool
Mickey's Philharmagic - excellent!
It's a Small World - nice spruce up...same ole magic.
Pirates - could use some new themes based on the movie...maybe use some of the Haunted Mansion's magic on this change. It gets very little attention now and could use some changes IMO.
Characters were out in full force - the only autograph we did not get in all the parks was Daisy Duck.
Cinderellabration - well produced and my DD loved it. Costumes were top notch.
Haunted Mansion - one of Disney's Best IMO - just a great ride.
Big Thinder Mountain raiload - rode it 12 times and it is possible to video yourself and kids on the ride. Use your straps and the claw grip. Do at your own risk - I had no issues and the video is great!
Splash Mountain - ride upkeep is good. The song is still in my head
Fantasy Land - we miss MR. Toad, but everything else was in good shape.
Ariel's Grotto - get in line a little after 9am to be there for her appearance at 9:30. The line gets long and stays long to meet Ariel. We were 2nd in line and my DD was wearing her Ariel costume from the CRT breakfast that morning(I will discuss this more in the dining section later). Ariel was just plain spectacular - best character all week.
Tomorrow Land - All is well there - Buzz, Space, etc all good. Did not do Stitch because of the reviews on here. Lines for that show were long though.
Spectromagic - same as 2003, but a must see. Disney magic at its finest.
Wishes - spectacular!
Epcot - moderate crowds all day until 1.5 hours prior to Illuminations.
Flowers were spectacular - the butterfly sanctuary was loved by my DW and DD - it was cool.
New to us was the activities to get the kids involved in all of the countries. My DD made a mask that has a wood stick running through it. You take this personally designed mask to each country and get a stamp and an ornament attached to it. When you have all 11 you get a prize. Cool way to get the kids involved - us parents worked off those ice cream sandwiches and Mikey Bars while getting to all of these 11 countries.
Soarin - let's do it again daddy! What a great experience. The ride, the smells and the themes were so good. Very, very good!
Test track - you can video this too - use the claw grip on that camera. Great video memories captured on this one.(fastpass)
Turtle Talk - one of the coolest things we did all week. Dude this is a must see.
Illuminations - OK...nothing spectacular - fireworks were actally kind of weak IMO. Globe is cool though.
MGM - parade was pretty good....no SpectroMagic, but good. Power Rangers just don't seem to fit, but allot of kids love them.
Tower of Terror - rode it twice and was totally different both times. My 6 year old was scared to death. She rode it twice though.
Rockin Roller Coater - technical difficulties with the entire ride from park opening. The ride came up, but the fastpass didn't and we opted not to stand in line for 90 mins. The fastpass did not work all day for that ride.
Backlot Tours - first time to go on this - 70% good, 30% OK/interesting. You need to do if you have not before.
StarWars - blah - I expected more and didn't get it. This virtual ride made all of us queezy, and I can ride anyting.
Muppets 3D - the least attractive of all the 3D shows. It seems to have too many lull times. We were bored during this.
Great Movie Ride - good.
Voyage of Little Mermaid and Playhouse Disney - excellent shows.
Light, Motors, Action! - no report, did not have the opportunity.
Fantasmic - best show at any of the parks IMO. Most excellent!
Dining: reports on where we ate and the cost for 3 as I rememebr; 2 adults 1 6 year old. Tip included.
MGM: 50's prime time cafe - food was good, service was good. Some of the waitresses would have made the service excellent in regards to atmosphere, but that is hit or miss. $55 with Dad's Sundae desert.
Momma Melrose - food good. Service was poor. We were the first at the noon lunch start. Our order was in first and we did not get it for nearly 40 mins. The waitress said it was my DD's pizza that was taking so long and offered her some soup to rememdy. Now my DD would need some ice cream or something to remedy that....not soup
We were sitting 30 feet from the cooks and heard them call our our order.....another waitress picked them up and gave to someone else. Just be honest and the would remedy everything. $48 with no desert and a $5 tip.
Magic Kingdom: CRT breakfast - food excellent, service excellent. No about the characters/princesses. We have done this before and the pricesses were excellent. This time they were less than sub-par. The only princess that looked decent was Aurora. The rest did not even remotely look like the characters they represented. They were quick and short this time as well. I can see a minute or 2, but they acted like they had a plane to catch. Snow White's voice was perfect - but she did not look anything like Snow White. Cinderella was way out of character and so was Mary Poppins. A costume does not make the character. When a 6 year old says, "Daddy, that is not Cinderella." then there are some changes needed.$72
Crystal Palace - food excellent, service OK. Characters Pooh, Tigger, Eeor and Piglet were great! We had a big time at this lunch. The waitresses seemed strung out and I even saw one of them mouthing curse words over something after a group had left. You should never see that...thankfully only I did.$55 (Desserts are most excellent! - marbled cheesecake - wow!)
Liberty Tree Tavern - food good, service OK. Chraracters Minnie, Goofy, Chip and Dale, and Pluto seemed a little hurried. Chip/Dale were awesome. Goofy and Pluto are always great 99% of the time anywhere. This is a must do on our lists....we love the atmosphere here. $65
Epcot: Biergarten - food good, service good. Dad likes this place and the entertainment is good. Sausage and one of my only beers I like to have.
We were going to eat in Japan, but we ran out of time chasing down those ornaments and getting our place on the bridge for Illuminations. Had Mikey Bars and ice cream sandwiches to compensate
$48
Others: Beaches and Cream - food good/excellent. Service good. Desert was most excellent (No Way Jose sundae was spectacular!) We wanted the "Kitchen Sink", but for $22 and 3 people it was a little much. We saw a family of 7 put away the "Kitchen Sink" sundae. It has 2 pounds of ice cream, brownies, a whole can of whip cream and many other things - HUGE! We went at 2:30pm to avoid lunch and dinner crowds. It worked well, but it stays busy for sure. $35
We carried plenty of our own snacks and bought plenty of other snacks. Especially ice cream sandwiches. The Nestle Toll House sandwiches from the ice cream carts (same ones you get Mickey Bars from) were a big hit with us. We did get them from the Main Street Bakery as well, which has 2 scoops of ice cream on them
)
Ice Cream Sandwiches for the week: $48
(treadmill time!)
I am sure I forgot something. I hope this helps someone and I will answer any questions you all have.
Oh yah - we stayed at the Swan - this was our second stay there. The last one was so good, that we gave it another go. This was not as good. Our room was great with the balcony and all, but the service was blah. We will choose another for our next stay.
I had excellent fishing trips every morning and some evenings. If you would like my secrets about this, send me a PM and I will help. I wish I was back there now.
Parks:
Magic Kingdom: Moderate crowds - 9am till 10:30 you could do what you wanted - must have had very late risers or something. Most of the folks were from Boston, Newyork, and Jersey folks as it was their break. Never seen so much Boston Red Sox gear in my life - all in all they were nice people. England was well represented as well - great just to listen to all these folks accents.
DD woke up tinkerbell - a must do in my book...very cool
Mickey's Philharmagic - excellent!
It's a Small World - nice spruce up...same ole magic.
Pirates - could use some new themes based on the movie...maybe use some of the Haunted Mansion's magic on this change. It gets very little attention now and could use some changes IMO.
Characters were out in full force - the only autograph we did not get in all the parks was Daisy Duck.
Cinderellabration - well produced and my DD loved it. Costumes were top notch.
Haunted Mansion - one of Disney's Best IMO - just a great ride.
Big Thinder Mountain raiload - rode it 12 times and it is possible to video yourself and kids on the ride. Use your straps and the claw grip. Do at your own risk - I had no issues and the video is great!
Splash Mountain - ride upkeep is good. The song is still in my head
Fantasy Land - we miss MR. Toad, but everything else was in good shape.
Ariel's Grotto - get in line a little after 9am to be there for her appearance at 9:30. The line gets long and stays long to meet Ariel. We were 2nd in line and my DD was wearing her Ariel costume from the CRT breakfast that morning(I will discuss this more in the dining section later). Ariel was just plain spectacular - best character all week.
Tomorrow Land - All is well there - Buzz, Space, etc all good. Did not do Stitch because of the reviews on here. Lines for that show were long though.
Spectromagic - same as 2003, but a must see. Disney magic at its finest.
Wishes - spectacular!
Epcot - moderate crowds all day until 1.5 hours prior to Illuminations.
Flowers were spectacular - the butterfly sanctuary was loved by my DW and DD - it was cool.
New to us was the activities to get the kids involved in all of the countries. My DD made a mask that has a wood stick running through it. You take this personally designed mask to each country and get a stamp and an ornament attached to it. When you have all 11 you get a prize. Cool way to get the kids involved - us parents worked off those ice cream sandwiches and Mikey Bars while getting to all of these 11 countries.
Soarin - let's do it again daddy! What a great experience. The ride, the smells and the themes were so good. Very, very good!
Test track - you can video this too - use the claw grip on that camera. Great video memories captured on this one.(fastpass)
Turtle Talk - one of the coolest things we did all week. Dude this is a must see.
Illuminations - OK...nothing spectacular - fireworks were actally kind of weak IMO. Globe is cool though.
MGM - parade was pretty good....no SpectroMagic, but good. Power Rangers just don't seem to fit, but allot of kids love them.
Tower of Terror - rode it twice and was totally different both times. My 6 year old was scared to death. She rode it twice though.
Rockin Roller Coater - technical difficulties with the entire ride from park opening. The ride came up, but the fastpass didn't and we opted not to stand in line for 90 mins. The fastpass did not work all day for that ride.
Backlot Tours - first time to go on this - 70% good, 30% OK/interesting. You need to do if you have not before.
StarWars - blah - I expected more and didn't get it. This virtual ride made all of us queezy, and I can ride anyting.
Muppets 3D - the least attractive of all the 3D shows. It seems to have too many lull times. We were bored during this.
Great Movie Ride - good.
Voyage of Little Mermaid and Playhouse Disney - excellent shows.
Light, Motors, Action! - no report, did not have the opportunity.
Fantasmic - best show at any of the parks IMO. Most excellent!
Dining: reports on where we ate and the cost for 3 as I rememebr; 2 adults 1 6 year old. Tip included.
MGM: 50's prime time cafe - food was good, service was good. Some of the waitresses would have made the service excellent in regards to atmosphere, but that is hit or miss. $55 with Dad's Sundae desert.
Momma Melrose - food good. Service was poor. We were the first at the noon lunch start. Our order was in first and we did not get it for nearly 40 mins. The waitress said it was my DD's pizza that was taking so long and offered her some soup to rememdy. Now my DD would need some ice cream or something to remedy that....not soup
We were sitting 30 feet from the cooks and heard them call our our order.....another waitress picked them up and gave to someone else. Just be honest and the would remedy everything. $48 with no desert and a $5 tip.Magic Kingdom: CRT breakfast - food excellent, service excellent. No about the characters/princesses. We have done this before and the pricesses were excellent. This time they were less than sub-par. The only princess that looked decent was Aurora. The rest did not even remotely look like the characters they represented. They were quick and short this time as well. I can see a minute or 2, but they acted like they had a plane to catch. Snow White's voice was perfect - but she did not look anything like Snow White. Cinderella was way out of character and so was Mary Poppins. A costume does not make the character. When a 6 year old says, "Daddy, that is not Cinderella." then there are some changes needed.$72
Crystal Palace - food excellent, service OK. Characters Pooh, Tigger, Eeor and Piglet were great! We had a big time at this lunch. The waitresses seemed strung out and I even saw one of them mouthing curse words over something after a group had left. You should never see that...thankfully only I did.$55 (Desserts are most excellent! - marbled cheesecake - wow!)
Liberty Tree Tavern - food good, service OK. Chraracters Minnie, Goofy, Chip and Dale, and Pluto seemed a little hurried. Chip/Dale were awesome. Goofy and Pluto are always great 99% of the time anywhere. This is a must do on our lists....we love the atmosphere here. $65
Epcot: Biergarten - food good, service good. Dad likes this place and the entertainment is good. Sausage and one of my only beers I like to have.
We were going to eat in Japan, but we ran out of time chasing down those ornaments and getting our place on the bridge for Illuminations. Had Mikey Bars and ice cream sandwiches to compensate
$48Others: Beaches and Cream - food good/excellent. Service good. Desert was most excellent (No Way Jose sundae was spectacular!) We wanted the "Kitchen Sink", but for $22 and 3 people it was a little much. We saw a family of 7 put away the "Kitchen Sink" sundae. It has 2 pounds of ice cream, brownies, a whole can of whip cream and many other things - HUGE! We went at 2:30pm to avoid lunch and dinner crowds. It worked well, but it stays busy for sure. $35
We carried plenty of our own snacks and bought plenty of other snacks. Especially ice cream sandwiches. The Nestle Toll House sandwiches from the ice cream carts (same ones you get Mickey Bars from) were a big hit with us. We did get them from the Main Street Bakery as well, which has 2 scoops of ice cream on them
)Ice Cream Sandwiches for the week: $48
(treadmill time!)I am sure I forgot something. I hope this helps someone and I will answer any questions you all have.
Oh yah - we stayed at the Swan - this was our second stay there. The last one was so good, that we gave it another go. This was not as good. Our room was great with the balcony and all, but the service was blah. We will choose another for our next stay.
I had excellent fishing trips every morning and some evenings. If you would like my secrets about this, send me a PM and I will help. I wish I was back there now.
Tina
Ask one of the CM's for the best seating spot on your night of the show.
