Things that I have learned....

[Spirit Feather]

You really will pay $2.50 for a bottle of cold water when it is 90+ degrees and you are thirsty.

Putting a little Crystal Lite into bottled water makes a 5 y/o happy.

5 y/o’s still like to ride in strollers but prefer to call them “carts.” I think if the kid had tried to walk, he would have been beaten/bumped to death.

My 13 y/o would rather shop at WDW than anything else. Well, except maybe watch the parades. She LOVED all of the parades.

One kid’s meal will feed both of my kids.

Fast Passes are completely awesome.

Staying on-site is the only way to go. (not that I have been any other way and now dh won’t go any other way!). We saved time by not commuting to WDW every day and saved Money on gas and parking.

Connections Quick and Casual meal vouchers are a great way to pre-pay for your counter service meals. We even saved an average of $1.50 per meal! Oh, and the Vacation Kingdom Lunch Vouchers that we used at Rainforest Café’ where the best deal going. DH and I had a bill of over $100 + tax and tip and the VKLV only cost us $59.00.

99% of the CM’s were spectacular! I don’t think I can ever get WDW quality service outside WDW.

The best way to see characters is at a meal.

And, we will need to go back about 1000 more times in order to see and do everything at WDW!

 

[Spirit Feather]

I forgot....

Guest of Honor badges are cool. People would point at us and whisper, “Oh, look. They are Guests of Honor.” It was so much fun! We wanted to ham it up and say “oh, yes. We’re Disneys,” but we decided not to push our luck. Nor did we bother to tell them that "Yes, for $3.50 (or whatever it was), you too can be a Guest of Honor!" Kept that to ourselves.

It cost us about $400 and 4 days to drive to WDW from Cincinnati. I think I will look into flying next time. That could have been two extra days that we spent at WDW and we probably wouldn't have been as tired. Okay, so we would have been as tired when we left, but I wouldn't have had to spend 2 days driving home.

 

[Eeyore1954]

Great post! I was laughing about some of them ... they are so true. When you are hot, tired, and thirsty, $2.50 does seem a reasonable price for some cold water. Who says Disney doesn't know how to market a product you could get for free by walking a few more feet to a water fountain?

Other things I learned...

1. No matter how hard you try, you will leave the park (any park) tired. You will leave Epcot pooped!

2. Your video camera battery will run out at the worst possible moment -- right when you're trying to catch that shot that would win you the $10,000 on the funniest home video shows.

3. Fastpass is an absolute must! If the ride offers Fastpass, use it.

4. Hidden Mickey's are fun too look for, but if your hidden Mickey challenged like I am, you will drive yourself (and your family) crazy pointing out the WRONG ones! (No, dear, you just think that duck has a hidden Mickey in his feathers!)

5. I will gain at least 5 pounds on a Disney vacation. While it will take me only 1 week to gain it, it will take 3 months to lose it.

6. Tip your mousekeeping staff. While it's just a nice thing to do, sometimes they'll leave you wonderful surprises (and some extra amenities, too).

7. Never, ever, ever ride TOT, Test Track, RNR, Splash Mtn, BTRR or the Teacups within an hour of eating. 'Nuff said.

8. "Please" and "Thank you" can work magic with CM's. Sometimes a kind word can really make their day.

9. Disney really is magical if you let yourself be a kid again. I'm 47, but while at Disney I feel like a young kid again.

 

[disney4us2002]

Spiritfeather, you were the one staying at contemporary thru Shades correct? Tell us about the Contemporary. My days are getting closer and I cannot soak up enough info about Contemporary.

 

[Spirit Feather]

Yep, that was me. We loved the Contemporary. Now, you have to remember that we have never been to WDW before, so they could have put us into a crate in an alley and we would have been great with that!

We stayed on the second floor of the NGW and would gladly do so again. In fact, we have scheduled our next trip so we take advantage of the SoG rates at the CR one more time. Only 308 days to go!

I have read lots of posts from folks complaining about the lack of “themeing” at the CR. Well, not a lot to compare it with, we thought it was very contemporarily themed. My teen loved the room and is making plans to decorate her own room in a similar way.

Our room overlooked the lake and beach area. We were able to watch the fireworks nearly every night—even when they woke us up at 12:35 a.m.! We could easily see the spires of Space Mountain. We loved the easy walk to MK. Many times we were the only ones walking so it was nice and relaxing. The kids really got a kick out of reading the bricks on the walkway.

Our room was spotless. The bathroom was very clean – no grunge anywhere and I looked! We even spent some time studying the carpets in our hallway because of the crazy patterns and they were pretty clean.

The food court was okay and everyone loved the arcade. We invested in the refillable mugs. It was nice to go down and get a cold drink or a cup of coffee and not worry about, “Oh, geez! That’s another $2.34 out of the budget!” The kids split cheeseburgers and fries a couple of times with no problem—plenty of food.

Everyone was very pleasant. Housekeeping, grounds crew, transportation, food service, the SoG personnel that we went up and chatted with--everybody. The CR staff was just great. I told my DH that I felt like the poor cousin that was coming for a visit to the rich relatives, but we were never treated that way.

The kids loved the pools and thought it was the coolest thing in the whole universe to have the monorail come right into “their” resort. We watched the electric boat parade from the pool one night. DD and I took the boat to Ft. Wilderness and WL one afternoon while the guys napped. DD (13) took the monorail by herself a couple of times to check out the shopping at the Poly and GF.

The shops on the 4th floor are great. They have a little bit of everything--I picked up a Mickey wire wisk! Oh! And we loved staying on-site because it was so nice not to fight traffic or pay parking or waste time driving. We also really enjoyed being able to send our in-park purchases to the resort so we didn’t have to lug them around all day. My DH loved the “charge it to my room” feature. He said he always wanted to say that!

All of this for only $66 a night plus tax! I’ll take it any day!

If you have any questions, please ask and I will try my best to answer.

 

[disney4us2002]

Sounds fabulous! I've heard the same about theming but our stay at Caribbean was sooo long ago and the Doubletree wasn't Disney, so I'll be thrilled just to see the little bathroom soaps!

Did you get your passes thru Shades set up at CR and what type of passes? Were you charged tax on passes?

I think that's it for now.

Your comment about the poor cousin reminded me of The Prince of BelAir. Remember when that show was on and popular?

Yippee, 35 days to go!

 

[Spirit Feather]

Yes! Just like the Prince of Bel Air. Too funny!

We bought our passes at AAA before we left. I wanted to have them in hand because I had a horrible nightmare about the SoG ticket office being closed for the weekend when we got there. They weren't, of course, but you know how those nightmares can eat at you.

Oh, yes, we had mickey bathroom soaps!

 

[cinlee3]

I learned my DH will pay $16.00 for a disposable camera to get more pictures of DD with characters

I won't flinch at spending $$$ for a character meal my kid doesn't eat. (Just told hubby not to look at the bill.)

I will spend hours trying to figure out how I can go back - soon.

 

[chris1gill]

Well, thankfully Disney isn't in the habit of putting their guests in Crates in Alley's so you were guaranteed a room!! It sounds like you had an awesome trip & a really great view from your room, that's so awesome!! Now, as for the price, I think I'd be booking some serious trips REAL soon No wonder you booked as soon as you got home... I had to laugh at all your findings, you are VERY right about it all...

You know, if you keep going back, you might need to buy Annual Passes or something... Oh & if you use the sitdown vouchers again try them at LeCellier, you'll get similar savings & the food is awesome!

 

[patsal]

I've been waiting to hear form you about the "trip". I'm glad you enjoyed it so much and that you slept better than you would have in a crate in the alley.LOL. Sounds like you've been bitten by the Disney Bug--it's one contageous little vermin--ain't it great!!! I'm really glad that you experienced so much magic.

 

[Spirit Feather]

O! DH and I were just talking about were we can use those vouchers next time. Thanks for the tip.

I wish I had gotten annual passes. We will be back in 308 days! I tried to talk dh into it, but he wouldn't go for it.

 

[MELSMICE]

Spirit Feather - Did you get a hopper or length of stay pass. If you got a hopper you can upgrade to an AP & they apply the amount of "money" left on the hopper towards an AP. We got AP's last year & will probably always get them. We went 3X within the year. They make the vacation sooooooooooo much more enjoyable.

To the person wondering about the Contemporary. It was an enjoyable resort to stay at. Very convenient to the MK. We used the walkway all the time - 7 minutes from gate to the door of our room - can't beat that.

We'll be at the CR again next year through a SoG relocation also. Can't wait to go back.

 

[buckeye]

Hi Spirit Feather,

I'd like to hear more about your drive. We plan to drive from Cincy in June. How many hours did it take you? We were planning to stop south of Macon and get a hotel through Priceline. Where did you stay? Was it a horrible drive?? My family is used to driving 13 hrs. in a day, so I figured it might not be SO bad...

Thanks!

 

[DNSDisney]

DO NOT eat a large breakfast and then try to go to AK . I got so sick last yr after being there only about 30 mins. The heat with all that food on your stomach is not a good mixture. And it is about 10 degrees warmer in AK than in any other park.

Never stay at the Ramada INN at Kennedy space center. When you drop a quarter on the bed and the quarter breaks you know you are in for a rough night. Not to meantion the garbage that was in the floor of our room when we arrived (left from the last guest). UGH...

You can't leave Epcot at 8:30 riding the monorail and get back to the POLY in time for fireworks at 9.

Hit whatever part of the MK is your favorite first because you may never see the other side of the park. Missed Tikiroom last yr cause of this.

Never take water for granted!

and last but not least.... don't forget your sunscreen.

sharon

 

[msr709]

I learned that those Brita bottles are a great $ saver and thirst quencher in the heat! Fill them up at any of the counter service places with ice at the beginning of the day and you are set. Anytime you need to, a refill of ice is always available near by!

 

[Spirit Feather]

Hey Buckeye,

The drive wasn't too bad. We left Cincy around noon on Friday and stopped in Cartersville, GA (42 miles North of Atlanta) around 7:30 p.m. I have heard so many horror stories about Atlanta traffic that I wanted to go through it early Saturday morning vs. Friday night.

We got on the road around 8:30ish and hit the CR just before 3:00 p.m.

We had a few construction nasties to go through in Tennessee and Ga.

Coming back seemed to take forever. We stopped in Dalton, GA for the night.

Let me know if you want any more info and I will try to help.

spiritfeather@usa.com