OklahomaTourist
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 3, 2008
- Messages
- 446
Although I've been a lurker and occasional poster here on DISBOARDS, I've never attempted a trip report. So here's my first stab, and hope the info here is relevant and useful!
This post is a bit long, but I've tried to organize this info a few general areas. If it seems this info is useful, but is too long, I'd be glad to break it into separate posts. Just not sure which is the best option.
1. Travel - We're pretty serious road trippers. I'll put highway, gas, and route info/experiences here.
2. Resort - General resort info will go here.
3. Transportation - Bus, boat, and related transit experiences go here
4. Food - All (or as many as I can remember) our gastric experiences go here!
5. The Parks! - I'll leave that one to the imagination
So, with that in mind, let's dive in!! Our crew includes yours truly, a now 5-timer DD and DW in tow, with our two kids, age 17 DS and 15 year old DD. Capping it off was my 77-year-old mom, who thinks she's still only about 50! We piled in our trusty Schooner - our five-year-old Toyota Sienna - and made way on my immediate family's fifth trip to WDW, and my mom's fourth, with Saratoga Springs in our sites!
Travel
We set out from central Oklahoma at 3AM Friday, 7 June, and followed our traditional route along I-40 east to Memphis, TN. We snagged a quick McD's breakfast in Conway, AR, and gassed up with some $3.22/gal goodness at the Murphy's gas station at WalMart. The ol' Sienna gets us better than 25 mpg on our first leg!
We then head toward our next big city, Birmingham, AL, via Memphis, across I-40 through US-78. I-40 travelers should beware of one-lane limits both directions in at least two areas east of Little Rock along I-40! We head through to Memphis, and pick up US-78/I-22 in Olive Branch, Mississippi, bypassing a slow, industrial stretch of 78 in Memphis by taking the I-40 junction to I-69 south into n. Mississippi, exiting on Goodman Road and picking up I-22 a few mile east. We have clear sailing along I-22, gas up for $3.19 at the Loves outside of Tupelo, head through to Birmingham, and loop around to pick up I-20 eastbound into Georgia. Travelers here should beware that construction on this entrance forced a reroute north along I-59 for about ten miles, then back south along I-459, all of which cost us about 20 minutes travel time. From there, I-20 to Atlanta was uneventful, and the transition to I-75 to our first night's stop in Macon was trouble-free. Total time on the road, including gas, food, and bathroom breaks - 15 hours and 45 minutes.
Day 2 from Macon to Orlando was kicked off with some $3.18/gal gas at the Kroger in Macon, and continued along I-75 to the Florida Turnpike, then to FL192 all the way to World Drive and the Great Arch in to SSR. The drive was beautiful and flawless, including the free orange juice we snagged at the Official Florida Welcome Center just across the Florida state line exiting Georgia. That's a new Must Do for us!
Bottom line for outbound travel along I-40/I-22/I-75: Gas is cheapest within the Arkansas/Georgia corridor, use Gas Buddy if you have a smartphone to find the cheapest spots along your route, and beware of construction all along I-40 in Arkansas and some along the EB I-20 interchange!
A few return-trip notes: We took an alternate route from Orlando to Birmingham on the way home, taking US82/280 from Tifton, GA west through Columbus and into Birmingham. This is a much quieter, cleaner route, almost entirely all four-lane divided highway, but typically limited to 55mph with some spans as high as 65. Some stretches run through cities with stoplight intersections, so maintaining posted limits is difficult. Traffic, however, was nearly absent the eighteen-wheel trucks and congestion, and runs through some very scenic territory. We bypassed Atlanta entirely, and didn't miss it.
Resort - Saratoga Springs
We are not DVC members, but we do love Saratoga Springs. As a group of five, we are an odd fit for most "conventional" Disney accommodations, and as we like to have the option of meals in room, a kitchenette is a huge asset. As a result, a two-bedroom villa at Saratoga fits us perfectly. This year was no exception.
With our lone Disney hotel check-in nightmare fresh on our minds from two years ago, I hoped this year would be different by availing myself of Online Check-in two months in advance. And I was right. Where check-in two years ago became an incredible four-hour nightmare that spoiled our first afternoon at WDW, online check-in this year afforded us the opportunity to be in-and-out of the SSR Carriage House in just under six minutes. It wouldn't have been that long had our check-in packet been completed - the CM at the desk said it had been assigned, and someone had started working it, but just didn't finish it. She printed up keycards, apologized for the delay, and we were on our way to the Springs - matching up perfectly with my on-line request for a room as close to the Carriage House as possible. First floor with our van not even 75 feet away is about as good as it could get. Our room was spotless, perfect, beds perfectly made with fresh linens (and no traces of bedbugs), and I knew we were truly ready to start our Disney vacation week! Saratoga Springs rocked once again.
Transportation
As a practical matter, getting from SSR to anywhere else in WDW is going to require a busride. And the one negative we've had to factor in to SSR is that bus service is, at best, problematic. During the first half of our week in WDW, we snagged buses regularly without significant wait times. During the second half, waits varied, and frustrations were somewhat heightened.
The worst bus experience befell my DW and DD. An early morning trip to AK for a ride on Expedition Everest required a 30-minute wait for an outbound bus from SSR, which wasn't so bad. The return trip was the problem. Due to a logistical issue for our plans that day, DW and DD had to return from AK early, but waited one hour for a bus back to SSR. DW texted me about their wait, and advised she told other bus drivers to other resorts how long they'd been waiting, all to no avail. I called the SSR front desk, and the CM there reiterated that they should only have to wait 20 minutes. She then contacted Disney transportation, which discovered that there was no bus scheduled from AK back to SSR during the morning!! It took a special dispatch to pick them up and return them!!
We observed other large groups conferring with Disney transportation CM's complaining about long waits, with some receiving notes they were told to hand to the guest relations desk and (I presume) be offered some sort of pixie dust for their troubles.
Bottom line - Bus transportation is good, but there still remains room for a great deal of improvement. Recommendation: Most any newer bus transit systems offer some sort of continuously updated electronic displays at each route stop that show approximate wait times for buses assigned to the various available routes. I think its time Disney considered adding precisely this feature to each bus stop at SSR - a simple LCD display board or scrolling matrix board that listed the various destinations along with estimated time of arrival at each stop. If nothing else, it gives the folks paying a premium for SSR at least a notion of when they can expect their bus to arrive.
Food
No trip report about Disney would be complete without some mention of the food. As a level-set, understand that we are an OOP family - the DDP does not match well with how we plan to eat while at Disney. It's just too expensive. We had three ADRs for our six days in the parks - 50's PT at DHS, Chefs de France at Epcot, and Teppan Edo at Epcot. Our breakfasts were in-room, save for two days - one at Boardwalk Bakery, another at SSR's Artist's Palette. Our non-ADR days were essentially ad-hoc fare. Here's a summary:
The New French Patisserie: It was *great* to see this long-cramped gem in France finally expanded into that former blank space behind it, along with its expanded menu and dual serving lines. The Napoleon, a family favorite, is now a bit smaller, but tasty as ever. The chocolate mousse was wonderful, and my son's raspberry-topped creme-and-cake (forgive me for not remembering the actual name) was delicious. My mom's ham and cheese croissant was good, but not great; the heated croissant had some curious flavor that just didn't seem to reflect the buttery overtones you'd expect, but a more generic oily texture that wasn't terribly flavorful.
Yorkshire Fish-n-Chips: This has become a Must Do for us in the UK Pavilion, and this year did not disappoint. Our orders came out piping hot and fresh, with a delightful *crunch* that held not the slightest hint of greasiness. How the good folks at Yorkshire manage to fry fish and potatoes and keep out the greasies is consistently amazing. Certain US chains that shall remain nameless could take a serious lesson here.
Chefs de France: Leaving WDW in 2011, Chefs became an instant favorite for us after a wonderful first-time, last-minute reservation. We looked forward to this as one of our most-anticipated ADR's, and left finding it to be good, but wanting. Part of it was subtlety - gone were the cloth tablecloths that adorned the tables two years ago, which we were advised they stopped doing. The other part of the problem was food - my half-chicken was tolerable, but uncharacteristically dry. My mom's identical dish gained the same observation from her. My DW's shortribs were good, not great. My DD's pasta in gruyere dish was easily the best entree on the table. The creme brulee enjoyed by my DW and DM received due raves. On balance, however, we came away not nearly as impressed as our previous trip.
50's Prime Time Cafe: If you go to 50's PT Cafe, you know that half the experience depends on the server. You go in expecting to be needled if your elbows are on the table, corrected if you don't say "may I," and chided if you don't clean your plate. Our waitress was only minimally engaged, reciting the rules only in rote. While she was very pleasant, she was not part of the experience we have come to anticipate when eating at 50's PT.
The food at 50's PT was, as we experienced at Chefs, good, but not great. The pot roast portion is small, and the "carrots and onions" offered on the menu end up being only a few julienned shreds, not a true side-serving. Throwing the entire theming of 50's PT sideways, our pot roast was served atop the mashed potatoes in a manner much more in keeping with a more gourmet-style restaurant, not one that aspires a 50's "mom does the cooking" theme. My DW's fried chicken was good, but greasy- and once again, my DD had the best meal on the table with the meat loaf, served piping hot with its delicious glaze. My DS's layered Bavarian Cream desert was nothing short of delicious.
Teppan Edo: If there's one constant at Disney, its Teppan Edo. With its meticulous attention to detail and service, it is a traditional farewell dinner for us on our last night at WDW. This year was simply another wonderful meal, perhaps the best one we've had in our five trips to WDW. My family ordered either the steak/chicken combo or steak/shrimp combo, with tempura and short rib appetizers. The tempura appetizer featured a piece of shrimp, chicken, sweet potato, and zucchini, and carried a marvelous flavor and crunch. The short ribs, cooked at the beginning of the meal, were wonderful.
The vegetable starters (primarily zucchini) were cooked with an ample serving of udon noodles, and it would be easy to fill up on those alone if you're not careful!
Our steaks, which were ordered with levels of doneness varying from medium to medium well to well, were each cooked perfectly. The chicken was seasoned wonderfully, and the "japanese yum yum" sauce might well convince me that pickles might actually be palatable.
The sauces served with the meal, ginger for vegetables, mustard for chicken, were perfect compliments, while the "yum yum" just went with anything.
While our other ADR experiences were marginal, Teppan Edo was every bit the five-star experience we've come to expect. It continues to top our list of must-do recommendations.
Boardwalk Bakery: Easily our biggest disappointment among our food outings at Disney was at none other than the Boardwalk Bakery. We were excited to hear over the past few months that the Bakery had been expanded, but were not aware their menu had changed - including the very breakfast items we reserved a day to enjoy. Gone were the ham, egg, and cheese croissant we'd raved over in 2011, replaced by a simply awful "bread bowl" with an amalgamation of undercooked, underseasoned diced potatoes and a chewy egg. My bread bowl, a pitiful replacement for my departed croissant, was heavy and nearly inedible. The other option, a hard biscuit with ham, had an egg that was more custardlike than scrambled, and when I asked Bakery staff why they didn't serve the croissant sandwiches anymore, it was "because they'd taken out the kitchen, eliminated custom sandwich offerings, and replaced the hot breakfast sandwiches with the frozen biscuits/bread bowls." This was easily the crashing failure among our meals, one that was sadly most anticipated - and to hear the tradeoff was to replace the favored meals with frozen, pre-made biscuits, was disheartening to say the least. And while we found other locations that offered a similar breakfast croissant, we were on the next-to-last day of our vacation, and had no opportunity to try them. Heck of a way for Disney to save a buck. To say the least, Boardwalk Bakery is now off our list.
Artist's Palette at SSR: We thoroughly enjoy our resort restaurant, and this year was no exception. We had a great last-day breakfast there, ranging from a wonderfully prepared western omelet to bacon-and-egg croissants. Our late-night supper there offered a deliciously fresh chicken Caesar salad, while my son opted for a lobster sandwich that was simply terrific. With its modest but diverse offerings and very reasonable prices, we continue to hold Artist's Palette as an underappreciated gem at SSR.
A few ad-hoc features: We had an absolutely great Macaroni and Cheese dog from "Fairfax Fare" at Disney Hollywood Studios, and would love to have tried the pullled-pork BBQ dog from the same place - never had the chance, but it looked awesome. The 1/3-lb Angus burger is ubiquitous across the Disney parks, and the version we had at Pecos Bills in MK was unremarkable. The fries with that Pecos Bills burger were grease-soaked and largely inedible. The Wetzel's Pretzel from Downtown Disney was awesome, as were the sandwiches we snagged from Earl Of Sandwich. Earl of Sandwich continues to be one of our favorite, low-cost food options in all of Disney, with every sandwich at $5.99, and AAA members getting a 15% discount!! Ghirardelli's ice cream was good, as we dove into a Gold Rush Sundae. Our enthusiasm was muted a bit as we discovered that Ghirardelli's no longer serves its features in true parfait glasses or mugs, but in cheapy, easily disposable plastic fast-food cups. It doesn't affect the food, but it sure affects the ambiance - particularly at the prices.
Bottom line on Disney food: We came away with a general family consensus that, overall, our Disney food was good, but not great - with the exception of Teppan Edo, which was stellar. Some of our perceptions came from ambiance and environment, some came from changes in menus, and others came simply from drops in food quality. In the two years since our last visit, we concluded that there had, in general, been a drop in Disney food quality, which I personally suspect comes from the increase in demand tied to the proliferation of the DDP and the push for cost-cutting documented in various threads on the DISboards. Given the sometimes extreme, sometimes staggering cost premium paid for OOP Disney meals, our family may well opt to reduce from three to two, or perhaps even just one ADR on a future trip, with remaining meals on a more ad-hoc, counter-service basis if not simply in-room or off-property.
The Parks
Magic Kingdom
My DD was very excited to visit New Fantasyland, but I think her experience there could best be described by her own reaction once we'd reached Gaston's Tavern: "That's it??" came the incredulous reply as we realized we'd made the complete circuit around the new area. Lots of scenery, but not much to do, except imagine what the half-complete Seven Dwarfs Mine Train will be like at completion. Needless to say, my daughter was less than impressed. I was intrigued by the Showtime Circus area, but found it to be almost deliberately non-Disneysque; it could just as well have been generally inserted into any theme park with its generic tents, trains, and signage. The only hints that the Circus was a Disney offering were holdovers like Goofy's Barnstormer and Dumbo. Other than that, New Fantasyland was attractive, beautifully appointed, but did nothing to elicit even a remote sense that "Disney Magic" was at hand.
The closure of the "Main Street Bakery" in favor of a pending Starbucks location continues to be a serious sore spot for me. I don't go to Magic Kingdom looking for a Venti Pikes Peak, I go to find Mickey treats and a idyllic land we all know doesn't really exist. I hate to see this real-world insinuation into the very fantasy WDW in general and Magic Kingdom in particular is supposed to provide.
As for the rest, Magic Kingdom is still Magic Kingdom, with Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain RR, the Trains, and all the traditional offerings just as ready and enjoyable as ever. One thing I did not while riding the ferry was the absence of anyone on or transporting to/from Tom Sawyer Island. We did not stop to see if it had been closed for some reason.
Disney Hollywood Studios
To be as frank as possible, DHS is a park that is, in my opinion, in desperate trouble. Its a park that's lost its way, whose theming has not kept up with its operation, and if not for features such as Toy Story Movie Mania, Tower of Terror, and the Rock and Roll Rollercoaster, would offer little compelling much more than a half-day's visit. I may write an entirely separate post on my thoughts about DHS, because this is a park that just seems less and less relevant with every passing year.
I even suspect Disney is "tinkering" with Stand By wait times at TSMM to encourage guests to circulate in the park itself. When we went by, posted wait times were 70 minutes; but our trip in the line, which ran well outside the building, took us only 25 measured minutes to complete. Fully half the wait queue inside the building was unused. When we exited TSMM, we all passed on the Backlot Tour, and found ourselves on the forced-perspective streets that were nearly vacant any visitors! It just struck me - how can a theme park survive with no visitors??
Granted, that's an overstatement, but the point holds - the Muppets 3D movie is no longer cutting edge, and crowds are no longer enchanted by forced-perspective streets and the highly dated "Lights - Motors - Action" stunt car show. Combine that with the fact that the "American Idol" experience seems to be fading along with its broadcast counterpart, and one wonders what's left on which DHS can hang its proverbial hat?
We did enjoy the Animation Studio class wherein we had 25 minutes to draw a classic Disney character, and in fact did the class four times, but that's hardly a long-term draw for an entire theme park.
Bottom line - without a 50's PT ADR for dinner, we'd have been hard-pressed to spend more than a half-day at DHS. Its a dated park that Disney seems content to ride solely on the momentum of incidental attractions such as Star Tours and Indy Jones - although the latter is, as well, showing its obvious age. Here's hoping the creative minds at Disney, with franchises like the Muppets and Star Wars in their hip pocket, have something in hand to retheme DHS into something more contemporary and compelling. And soon
Epcot
Let's get this out there up front. We love Epcot. Aside from Soarin' and Test Track, it's the least intense park of the four "main" WDW parks, and in this trip, we spent conservatively 2.5 of our days in Epcot in general, and in World Showcase in particular. We love the casual atmosphere and breezy walking environment of World Showcase, because we can tour it at our own pace. And nothing about that has changed.
What has changed? Test Track.
I went into Test Track knowing it had been overhauled last year, and reviews of the overhaul have been decidedly mixed. So I went in myself with an open mind. Ultimately, I realized that the physical TestTrack ride is, really, unchanged, excepting for the removal of the heat and freeze chambers (a loss I, personally lament). The changes to TT have been *external*, dropping the "how do we build a car" theming to the seemingly TRON-inspired, somewhat sci-fi theme of its update.
As I thought about TestTrack after I rode it, I think my DW summed it up best: "It was a bunch of reflective tape and black lights in places." The retheme was more flash than substance. We opted to bail on the two-plus hour wait time advertised in the stand-by line for the single-rider line, which meant we couldn't do a car design, which was disappointing.
TestTrack wasn't bad, but it wasn't spectacularly reinvigorating, either.
Innoventions is a part of Epcot that seems to need work. It is largely unchanged from our visit of two years ago, saving perhaps for a new IBM exhibit that was uncompelling and didn't interest anyone in our party to spend the few minutes to go through it. The EA video game station, fire engine safety display, and "Test Your Limits" features were virtually untouched from 2011. For this part of "Future World" to remain relevant, Disney needs to update Innoventions.
The rest of Epcot, right down to Illuminations, was every bit of our expectations and thoroughly enjoyed. We note the onset of construction of the new Moroccan restaurant, the delicious surprise of "Chicken curry pockets" from the "Joy of Tea" stand outside China, to our favorite Twinings offerings in UK, and Epcot just remains an unchallenged, unique vacation draw that never grows old. My only notion is that there appears to be room for still more pavilions, which would only make Epcot still more compelling.
Summary
As we wind down this very long post, we summarize it all by realizing once again how very short our time in WDW was, how much we loved staying at SSR, and how the buses to and from SSR are about at reliable as ever - perhaps slightly less so. And we generally agree that the overall quality of the WDW food experiences has dropped in the two years since our last visit. But we still had a great visit, we hated to leave, and as a DD, departure was a little extra-heavy because my son goes into his senior year at HS next year, and next summer as his prelude into college almost certainly promises to be too busy to allow a trip. And as we see the onset of college expenses starting to become all too real, a return WDW visit in the next two, three, or even four years seems less and less likely.
As my wife had me take a picture of our kids waving goodbye to MK as I had done 12 years ago on our first visit, it was all I could do to keep from going all weepy. Back then, I didn't know when we'd go back to WDW, and it turned out to be seven years. Now, having that same picture recreated with my kids at 17 and 15, I realized how fast my kids have grown up, and how, even under ideal financial circumstances, this may as a practical matter be our last "big" family vacation together. Even if it is, I'm just that much more thankful to God for the trips we've been able to take, and for the memories those trips have provided.
Thanks for reading.
-OklahomaTourist, aka Dave
This post is a bit long, but I've tried to organize this info a few general areas. If it seems this info is useful, but is too long, I'd be glad to break it into separate posts. Just not sure which is the best option.
1. Travel - We're pretty serious road trippers. I'll put highway, gas, and route info/experiences here.
2. Resort - General resort info will go here.
3. Transportation - Bus, boat, and related transit experiences go here
4. Food - All (or as many as I can remember) our gastric experiences go here!
5. The Parks! - I'll leave that one to the imagination
So, with that in mind, let's dive in!! Our crew includes yours truly, a now 5-timer DD and DW in tow, with our two kids, age 17 DS and 15 year old DD. Capping it off was my 77-year-old mom, who thinks she's still only about 50! We piled in our trusty Schooner - our five-year-old Toyota Sienna - and made way on my immediate family's fifth trip to WDW, and my mom's fourth, with Saratoga Springs in our sites!
Travel
We set out from central Oklahoma at 3AM Friday, 7 June, and followed our traditional route along I-40 east to Memphis, TN. We snagged a quick McD's breakfast in Conway, AR, and gassed up with some $3.22/gal goodness at the Murphy's gas station at WalMart. The ol' Sienna gets us better than 25 mpg on our first leg!
We then head toward our next big city, Birmingham, AL, via Memphis, across I-40 through US-78. I-40 travelers should beware of one-lane limits both directions in at least two areas east of Little Rock along I-40! We head through to Memphis, and pick up US-78/I-22 in Olive Branch, Mississippi, bypassing a slow, industrial stretch of 78 in Memphis by taking the I-40 junction to I-69 south into n. Mississippi, exiting on Goodman Road and picking up I-22 a few mile east. We have clear sailing along I-22, gas up for $3.19 at the Loves outside of Tupelo, head through to Birmingham, and loop around to pick up I-20 eastbound into Georgia. Travelers here should beware that construction on this entrance forced a reroute north along I-59 for about ten miles, then back south along I-459, all of which cost us about 20 minutes travel time. From there, I-20 to Atlanta was uneventful, and the transition to I-75 to our first night's stop in Macon was trouble-free. Total time on the road, including gas, food, and bathroom breaks - 15 hours and 45 minutes.
Day 2 from Macon to Orlando was kicked off with some $3.18/gal gas at the Kroger in Macon, and continued along I-75 to the Florida Turnpike, then to FL192 all the way to World Drive and the Great Arch in to SSR. The drive was beautiful and flawless, including the free orange juice we snagged at the Official Florida Welcome Center just across the Florida state line exiting Georgia. That's a new Must Do for us!
Bottom line for outbound travel along I-40/I-22/I-75: Gas is cheapest within the Arkansas/Georgia corridor, use Gas Buddy if you have a smartphone to find the cheapest spots along your route, and beware of construction all along I-40 in Arkansas and some along the EB I-20 interchange!
A few return-trip notes: We took an alternate route from Orlando to Birmingham on the way home, taking US82/280 from Tifton, GA west through Columbus and into Birmingham. This is a much quieter, cleaner route, almost entirely all four-lane divided highway, but typically limited to 55mph with some spans as high as 65. Some stretches run through cities with stoplight intersections, so maintaining posted limits is difficult. Traffic, however, was nearly absent the eighteen-wheel trucks and congestion, and runs through some very scenic territory. We bypassed Atlanta entirely, and didn't miss it.
Resort - Saratoga Springs
We are not DVC members, but we do love Saratoga Springs. As a group of five, we are an odd fit for most "conventional" Disney accommodations, and as we like to have the option of meals in room, a kitchenette is a huge asset. As a result, a two-bedroom villa at Saratoga fits us perfectly. This year was no exception.
With our lone Disney hotel check-in nightmare fresh on our minds from two years ago, I hoped this year would be different by availing myself of Online Check-in two months in advance. And I was right. Where check-in two years ago became an incredible four-hour nightmare that spoiled our first afternoon at WDW, online check-in this year afforded us the opportunity to be in-and-out of the SSR Carriage House in just under six minutes. It wouldn't have been that long had our check-in packet been completed - the CM at the desk said it had been assigned, and someone had started working it, but just didn't finish it. She printed up keycards, apologized for the delay, and we were on our way to the Springs - matching up perfectly with my on-line request for a room as close to the Carriage House as possible. First floor with our van not even 75 feet away is about as good as it could get. Our room was spotless, perfect, beds perfectly made with fresh linens (and no traces of bedbugs), and I knew we were truly ready to start our Disney vacation week! Saratoga Springs rocked once again.
Transportation
As a practical matter, getting from SSR to anywhere else in WDW is going to require a busride. And the one negative we've had to factor in to SSR is that bus service is, at best, problematic. During the first half of our week in WDW, we snagged buses regularly without significant wait times. During the second half, waits varied, and frustrations were somewhat heightened.
The worst bus experience befell my DW and DD. An early morning trip to AK for a ride on Expedition Everest required a 30-minute wait for an outbound bus from SSR, which wasn't so bad. The return trip was the problem. Due to a logistical issue for our plans that day, DW and DD had to return from AK early, but waited one hour for a bus back to SSR. DW texted me about their wait, and advised she told other bus drivers to other resorts how long they'd been waiting, all to no avail. I called the SSR front desk, and the CM there reiterated that they should only have to wait 20 minutes. She then contacted Disney transportation, which discovered that there was no bus scheduled from AK back to SSR during the morning!! It took a special dispatch to pick them up and return them!!
We observed other large groups conferring with Disney transportation CM's complaining about long waits, with some receiving notes they were told to hand to the guest relations desk and (I presume) be offered some sort of pixie dust for their troubles.
Bottom line - Bus transportation is good, but there still remains room for a great deal of improvement. Recommendation: Most any newer bus transit systems offer some sort of continuously updated electronic displays at each route stop that show approximate wait times for buses assigned to the various available routes. I think its time Disney considered adding precisely this feature to each bus stop at SSR - a simple LCD display board or scrolling matrix board that listed the various destinations along with estimated time of arrival at each stop. If nothing else, it gives the folks paying a premium for SSR at least a notion of when they can expect their bus to arrive.
Food
No trip report about Disney would be complete without some mention of the food. As a level-set, understand that we are an OOP family - the DDP does not match well with how we plan to eat while at Disney. It's just too expensive. We had three ADRs for our six days in the parks - 50's PT at DHS, Chefs de France at Epcot, and Teppan Edo at Epcot. Our breakfasts were in-room, save for two days - one at Boardwalk Bakery, another at SSR's Artist's Palette. Our non-ADR days were essentially ad-hoc fare. Here's a summary:
The New French Patisserie: It was *great* to see this long-cramped gem in France finally expanded into that former blank space behind it, along with its expanded menu and dual serving lines. The Napoleon, a family favorite, is now a bit smaller, but tasty as ever. The chocolate mousse was wonderful, and my son's raspberry-topped creme-and-cake (forgive me for not remembering the actual name) was delicious. My mom's ham and cheese croissant was good, but not great; the heated croissant had some curious flavor that just didn't seem to reflect the buttery overtones you'd expect, but a more generic oily texture that wasn't terribly flavorful.
Yorkshire Fish-n-Chips: This has become a Must Do for us in the UK Pavilion, and this year did not disappoint. Our orders came out piping hot and fresh, with a delightful *crunch* that held not the slightest hint of greasiness. How the good folks at Yorkshire manage to fry fish and potatoes and keep out the greasies is consistently amazing. Certain US chains that shall remain nameless could take a serious lesson here.
Chefs de France: Leaving WDW in 2011, Chefs became an instant favorite for us after a wonderful first-time, last-minute reservation. We looked forward to this as one of our most-anticipated ADR's, and left finding it to be good, but wanting. Part of it was subtlety - gone were the cloth tablecloths that adorned the tables two years ago, which we were advised they stopped doing. The other part of the problem was food - my half-chicken was tolerable, but uncharacteristically dry. My mom's identical dish gained the same observation from her. My DW's shortribs were good, not great. My DD's pasta in gruyere dish was easily the best entree on the table. The creme brulee enjoyed by my DW and DM received due raves. On balance, however, we came away not nearly as impressed as our previous trip.
50's Prime Time Cafe: If you go to 50's PT Cafe, you know that half the experience depends on the server. You go in expecting to be needled if your elbows are on the table, corrected if you don't say "may I," and chided if you don't clean your plate. Our waitress was only minimally engaged, reciting the rules only in rote. While she was very pleasant, she was not part of the experience we have come to anticipate when eating at 50's PT.
The food at 50's PT was, as we experienced at Chefs, good, but not great. The pot roast portion is small, and the "carrots and onions" offered on the menu end up being only a few julienned shreds, not a true side-serving. Throwing the entire theming of 50's PT sideways, our pot roast was served atop the mashed potatoes in a manner much more in keeping with a more gourmet-style restaurant, not one that aspires a 50's "mom does the cooking" theme. My DW's fried chicken was good, but greasy- and once again, my DD had the best meal on the table with the meat loaf, served piping hot with its delicious glaze. My DS's layered Bavarian Cream desert was nothing short of delicious.
Teppan Edo: If there's one constant at Disney, its Teppan Edo. With its meticulous attention to detail and service, it is a traditional farewell dinner for us on our last night at WDW. This year was simply another wonderful meal, perhaps the best one we've had in our five trips to WDW. My family ordered either the steak/chicken combo or steak/shrimp combo, with tempura and short rib appetizers. The tempura appetizer featured a piece of shrimp, chicken, sweet potato, and zucchini, and carried a marvelous flavor and crunch. The short ribs, cooked at the beginning of the meal, were wonderful.
The vegetable starters (primarily zucchini) were cooked with an ample serving of udon noodles, and it would be easy to fill up on those alone if you're not careful!
Our steaks, which were ordered with levels of doneness varying from medium to medium well to well, were each cooked perfectly. The chicken was seasoned wonderfully, and the "japanese yum yum" sauce might well convince me that pickles might actually be palatable.
The sauces served with the meal, ginger for vegetables, mustard for chicken, were perfect compliments, while the "yum yum" just went with anything. While our other ADR experiences were marginal, Teppan Edo was every bit the five-star experience we've come to expect. It continues to top our list of must-do recommendations.
Boardwalk Bakery: Easily our biggest disappointment among our food outings at Disney was at none other than the Boardwalk Bakery. We were excited to hear over the past few months that the Bakery had been expanded, but were not aware their menu had changed - including the very breakfast items we reserved a day to enjoy. Gone were the ham, egg, and cheese croissant we'd raved over in 2011, replaced by a simply awful "bread bowl" with an amalgamation of undercooked, underseasoned diced potatoes and a chewy egg. My bread bowl, a pitiful replacement for my departed croissant, was heavy and nearly inedible. The other option, a hard biscuit with ham, had an egg that was more custardlike than scrambled, and when I asked Bakery staff why they didn't serve the croissant sandwiches anymore, it was "because they'd taken out the kitchen, eliminated custom sandwich offerings, and replaced the hot breakfast sandwiches with the frozen biscuits/bread bowls." This was easily the crashing failure among our meals, one that was sadly most anticipated - and to hear the tradeoff was to replace the favored meals with frozen, pre-made biscuits, was disheartening to say the least. And while we found other locations that offered a similar breakfast croissant, we were on the next-to-last day of our vacation, and had no opportunity to try them. Heck of a way for Disney to save a buck. To say the least, Boardwalk Bakery is now off our list.
Artist's Palette at SSR: We thoroughly enjoy our resort restaurant, and this year was no exception. We had a great last-day breakfast there, ranging from a wonderfully prepared western omelet to bacon-and-egg croissants. Our late-night supper there offered a deliciously fresh chicken Caesar salad, while my son opted for a lobster sandwich that was simply terrific. With its modest but diverse offerings and very reasonable prices, we continue to hold Artist's Palette as an underappreciated gem at SSR.
A few ad-hoc features: We had an absolutely great Macaroni and Cheese dog from "Fairfax Fare" at Disney Hollywood Studios, and would love to have tried the pullled-pork BBQ dog from the same place - never had the chance, but it looked awesome. The 1/3-lb Angus burger is ubiquitous across the Disney parks, and the version we had at Pecos Bills in MK was unremarkable. The fries with that Pecos Bills burger were grease-soaked and largely inedible. The Wetzel's Pretzel from Downtown Disney was awesome, as were the sandwiches we snagged from Earl Of Sandwich. Earl of Sandwich continues to be one of our favorite, low-cost food options in all of Disney, with every sandwich at $5.99, and AAA members getting a 15% discount!! Ghirardelli's ice cream was good, as we dove into a Gold Rush Sundae. Our enthusiasm was muted a bit as we discovered that Ghirardelli's no longer serves its features in true parfait glasses or mugs, but in cheapy, easily disposable plastic fast-food cups. It doesn't affect the food, but it sure affects the ambiance - particularly at the prices.
Bottom line on Disney food: We came away with a general family consensus that, overall, our Disney food was good, but not great - with the exception of Teppan Edo, which was stellar. Some of our perceptions came from ambiance and environment, some came from changes in menus, and others came simply from drops in food quality. In the two years since our last visit, we concluded that there had, in general, been a drop in Disney food quality, which I personally suspect comes from the increase in demand tied to the proliferation of the DDP and the push for cost-cutting documented in various threads on the DISboards. Given the sometimes extreme, sometimes staggering cost premium paid for OOP Disney meals, our family may well opt to reduce from three to two, or perhaps even just one ADR on a future trip, with remaining meals on a more ad-hoc, counter-service basis if not simply in-room or off-property.
The Parks
Magic Kingdom
My DD was very excited to visit New Fantasyland, but I think her experience there could best be described by her own reaction once we'd reached Gaston's Tavern: "That's it??" came the incredulous reply as we realized we'd made the complete circuit around the new area. Lots of scenery, but not much to do, except imagine what the half-complete Seven Dwarfs Mine Train will be like at completion. Needless to say, my daughter was less than impressed. I was intrigued by the Showtime Circus area, but found it to be almost deliberately non-Disneysque; it could just as well have been generally inserted into any theme park with its generic tents, trains, and signage. The only hints that the Circus was a Disney offering were holdovers like Goofy's Barnstormer and Dumbo. Other than that, New Fantasyland was attractive, beautifully appointed, but did nothing to elicit even a remote sense that "Disney Magic" was at hand.
The closure of the "Main Street Bakery" in favor of a pending Starbucks location continues to be a serious sore spot for me. I don't go to Magic Kingdom looking for a Venti Pikes Peak, I go to find Mickey treats and a idyllic land we all know doesn't really exist. I hate to see this real-world insinuation into the very fantasy WDW in general and Magic Kingdom in particular is supposed to provide.
As for the rest, Magic Kingdom is still Magic Kingdom, with Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain RR, the Trains, and all the traditional offerings just as ready and enjoyable as ever. One thing I did not while riding the ferry was the absence of anyone on or transporting to/from Tom Sawyer Island. We did not stop to see if it had been closed for some reason.
Disney Hollywood Studios
To be as frank as possible, DHS is a park that is, in my opinion, in desperate trouble. Its a park that's lost its way, whose theming has not kept up with its operation, and if not for features such as Toy Story Movie Mania, Tower of Terror, and the Rock and Roll Rollercoaster, would offer little compelling much more than a half-day's visit. I may write an entirely separate post on my thoughts about DHS, because this is a park that just seems less and less relevant with every passing year.
I even suspect Disney is "tinkering" with Stand By wait times at TSMM to encourage guests to circulate in the park itself. When we went by, posted wait times were 70 minutes; but our trip in the line, which ran well outside the building, took us only 25 measured minutes to complete. Fully half the wait queue inside the building was unused. When we exited TSMM, we all passed on the Backlot Tour, and found ourselves on the forced-perspective streets that were nearly vacant any visitors! It just struck me - how can a theme park survive with no visitors??
Granted, that's an overstatement, but the point holds - the Muppets 3D movie is no longer cutting edge, and crowds are no longer enchanted by forced-perspective streets and the highly dated "Lights - Motors - Action" stunt car show. Combine that with the fact that the "American Idol" experience seems to be fading along with its broadcast counterpart, and one wonders what's left on which DHS can hang its proverbial hat?
We did enjoy the Animation Studio class wherein we had 25 minutes to draw a classic Disney character, and in fact did the class four times, but that's hardly a long-term draw for an entire theme park.
Bottom line - without a 50's PT ADR for dinner, we'd have been hard-pressed to spend more than a half-day at DHS. Its a dated park that Disney seems content to ride solely on the momentum of incidental attractions such as Star Tours and Indy Jones - although the latter is, as well, showing its obvious age. Here's hoping the creative minds at Disney, with franchises like the Muppets and Star Wars in their hip pocket, have something in hand to retheme DHS into something more contemporary and compelling. And soon
Epcot
Let's get this out there up front. We love Epcot. Aside from Soarin' and Test Track, it's the least intense park of the four "main" WDW parks, and in this trip, we spent conservatively 2.5 of our days in Epcot in general, and in World Showcase in particular. We love the casual atmosphere and breezy walking environment of World Showcase, because we can tour it at our own pace. And nothing about that has changed.
What has changed? Test Track.
I went into Test Track knowing it had been overhauled last year, and reviews of the overhaul have been decidedly mixed. So I went in myself with an open mind. Ultimately, I realized that the physical TestTrack ride is, really, unchanged, excepting for the removal of the heat and freeze chambers (a loss I, personally lament). The changes to TT have been *external*, dropping the "how do we build a car" theming to the seemingly TRON-inspired, somewhat sci-fi theme of its update.
As I thought about TestTrack after I rode it, I think my DW summed it up best: "It was a bunch of reflective tape and black lights in places." The retheme was more flash than substance. We opted to bail on the two-plus hour wait time advertised in the stand-by line for the single-rider line, which meant we couldn't do a car design, which was disappointing.
TestTrack wasn't bad, but it wasn't spectacularly reinvigorating, either.
Innoventions is a part of Epcot that seems to need work. It is largely unchanged from our visit of two years ago, saving perhaps for a new IBM exhibit that was uncompelling and didn't interest anyone in our party to spend the few minutes to go through it. The EA video game station, fire engine safety display, and "Test Your Limits" features were virtually untouched from 2011. For this part of "Future World" to remain relevant, Disney needs to update Innoventions.
The rest of Epcot, right down to Illuminations, was every bit of our expectations and thoroughly enjoyed. We note the onset of construction of the new Moroccan restaurant, the delicious surprise of "Chicken curry pockets" from the "Joy of Tea" stand outside China, to our favorite Twinings offerings in UK, and Epcot just remains an unchallenged, unique vacation draw that never grows old. My only notion is that there appears to be room for still more pavilions, which would only make Epcot still more compelling.
Summary
As we wind down this very long post, we summarize it all by realizing once again how very short our time in WDW was, how much we loved staying at SSR, and how the buses to and from SSR are about at reliable as ever - perhaps slightly less so. And we generally agree that the overall quality of the WDW food experiences has dropped in the two years since our last visit. But we still had a great visit, we hated to leave, and as a DD, departure was a little extra-heavy because my son goes into his senior year at HS next year, and next summer as his prelude into college almost certainly promises to be too busy to allow a trip. And as we see the onset of college expenses starting to become all too real, a return WDW visit in the next two, three, or even four years seems less and less likely.
As my wife had me take a picture of our kids waving goodbye to MK as I had done 12 years ago on our first visit, it was all I could do to keep from going all weepy. Back then, I didn't know when we'd go back to WDW, and it turned out to be seven years. Now, having that same picture recreated with my kids at 17 and 15, I realized how fast my kids have grown up, and how, even under ideal financial circumstances, this may as a practical matter be our last "big" family vacation together. Even if it is, I'm just that much more thankful to God for the trips we've been able to take, and for the memories those trips have provided.
Thanks for reading.
-OklahomaTourist, aka Dave
