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"There is more treasure in books than in all the p
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2006
- Messages
- 3,528
Still in Disney withdrawal after one of my favorite trips we've taken (and that says a lot!). Our kids were almost 11 and almost 13 (both have end-of-summer birthdays) and for the first time, we gave them some freedom to do some things together but without parents - which made for a really relaxing vacation.
Here are my resort reviews and observations/views on a bunch of Dis "hot topics":
Staying Offsite I have this thing about starting the Disney resort part of vacation at 8am by checking in at my resort - so we always stay offsite on our drive-down day. We've stayed at many nice places (favorites were the DTD Hilton that gives EMH and the Peabody) but this time I got Gaylord Palms via. Hotwire (for 85 bucks!!!!). We were really, really, really impressed. Went so far as to use the "M" word - that's right "Magical". If you can get a deal (rack rate was 379.00 for our room/date), I HIGHLY recommend this one for an offsite trip or night. There is a resort fee - but since mini-golf, a computer in the room with internet access, bottled water, turn-down - even small bottles of Purell in the restroom are all included with that fee, it did not bother me a bit.
Taken inside the Atrium at GP - Key West (that boat is a restaurant) and the Everglades.
Online Check-In Sunday morning at 8am, we checked in at BCV. In April, I had done online check-in at AKV and my pre-assigned room was not ready until 5pm - the LATEST I've ever gotten a room. This time, I did NOT do online check-in, because I've had good luck getting first available rooms in person. Our rooms were ready at 8am (BCV)
, 11am(when we checked in at VB) and noon (AKV). I will never do online check-in again.
BCV This was our second stay at BCV and once again, it exceeded our expectations. I really think this is the single best maintained and operated resort at Disney. They are always working on maintaining it and it really shows. Our room was in excellent condition. My only complaint is that I really wish that between BCV/BWV/YC there was just one food-court type CS like Mara/Roaring Forks/Artist's Palate.
We had great weather - no rain at all until a afternoon thunderstorm on Wednesday. The ducks did not mind.
Pool-Hoppers Saw crazy
and BLATANT pool-hopping in the EPCOT resort area. Like, as we were arriving on the ferry to DHS at 9am an entire family of about 12 ran from the parking lot dressed in swimsuits/coverups and carrying coolers and huge tote bags full of towels to get on the ferry to BWV/BCV for a day in the pools. At night, we saw different people get on the ferry to go back to the parking lot at DHS in swimsuits and wrapped in DISNEY POOL TOWELS that they stole. Honestly, the ferry boat captains should radio the lifeguards or something because that is really not cool.
Crowds Did not notice any decrease in crowds this year - but the cut-backs to Disney's operating hours really hurt. Fantasmic was hard to get into with it only showing a few times a week, EMH at AK only lasted till 8pm (no Kali or Everest in the dark - which was SOOOOO sad). MK closed at 10 pm several nights into the second week of June. DHS closed before 9pm several nights (I guess because of no nightly Fantasmic). I did not like the early closures at all - I've always loved summer travel because of the extended park hours.
VB An extended report with photos is on the VB thread, so all I'll say is
This was our favorite part of the trip.
The only thing that would make it more perfect is if they kept the waterslide and Eb and Flos open until dusk/dark in the summer - around 9pm.
AKV Our last two nights were in a savanna-view at Jambo. We walked to Kidani to check it out and to swim and eat. We really, really, really liked the food at Sanaa and the pool has a great slide (but why on earth is the pool itself so tiny? I have no idea. If you are building a pool - is it that much harder to make it bigger?).
Now - I am an AKV owner and AKV is in a three-way tie with BCV and VB as my favorite resorts, but I did not like Kidani very much. The approach from Jambo is really ugly and the standard view rooms look like they'd have really lame views of parking lots and central Florida marsh. I don't know, it just feels small after being in all the expansive Jambo spaces. I will say that there were lots of animals on the savanna. As for the pool - the pool bar closes at "dusk" which is way early and we saw more cockroaches around the pool than I've seen at any Disney property - I think the surrounding marshes are not really "tamed" yet.
We really enjoyed our Savanna-view at Jambo - we were in the corner on the backside of Zebra facing the barn - not the prettiest Savanna-view since there was a people pen under us, but LOTS of animals because of the barn- I saw four giraffe at once (including a baby) along with Eland and cranes. After being away from a good resort CS until then, we really appreciated the Mara.
My one complaint!
I will say that the bus situation with Kidani added is a big HOT mess. For one, the busses are all overcrowded now - every one we took was standing room only with guest left waiting for seats. Then, the park busses drop off/pick up Kidani before Jambo and I'd say at least 75% of the guests are staying at Jambo - so you have a packed bus full of people in the aisles, it arrives at Kidani and maybe 8 people try to shuffle off through the masses. There are maybe 15 people waiting to get on at Kidani, so they do the sardine cram to get in, then the bus goes to Jambo and all the Kidani people have to shuffle to get the 80% of bus riders OFF the bus. It's really the most idiotic thing I've witnessed. The bus needs to drop off returning folks at Jambo FIRST. Then there will be plenty of seats for Kidani guests.
We got on a bus from Kidani to EPCOT that was already 90% full of Jambo guests waiting to get off. At least half of the people waiting at Kidani could not even get on the bus to go to EPCOT when it was empty as soon as it stopped at Jambo. Not cool at all.
Here are my resort reviews and observations/views on a bunch of Dis "hot topics":
Staying Offsite I have this thing about starting the Disney resort part of vacation at 8am by checking in at my resort - so we always stay offsite on our drive-down day. We've stayed at many nice places (favorites were the DTD Hilton that gives EMH and the Peabody) but this time I got Gaylord Palms via. Hotwire (for 85 bucks!!!!). We were really, really, really impressed. Went so far as to use the "M" word - that's right "Magical". If you can get a deal (rack rate was 379.00 for our room/date), I HIGHLY recommend this one for an offsite trip or night. There is a resort fee - but since mini-golf, a computer in the room with internet access, bottled water, turn-down - even small bottles of Purell in the restroom are all included with that fee, it did not bother me a bit.
Taken inside the Atrium at GP - Key West (that boat is a restaurant) and the Everglades.
Online Check-In Sunday morning at 8am, we checked in at BCV. In April, I had done online check-in at AKV and my pre-assigned room was not ready until 5pm - the LATEST I've ever gotten a room. This time, I did NOT do online check-in, because I've had good luck getting first available rooms in person. Our rooms were ready at 8am (BCV)
, 11am(when we checked in at VB) and noon (AKV). I will never do online check-in again. BCV This was our second stay at BCV and once again, it exceeded our expectations. I really think this is the single best maintained and operated resort at Disney. They are always working on maintaining it and it really shows. Our room was in excellent condition. My only complaint is that I really wish that between BCV/BWV/YC there was just one food-court type CS like Mara/Roaring Forks/Artist's Palate.
We had great weather - no rain at all until a afternoon thunderstorm on Wednesday. The ducks did not mind.
Pool-Hoppers Saw crazy
and BLATANT pool-hopping in the EPCOT resort area. Like, as we were arriving on the ferry to DHS at 9am an entire family of about 12 ran from the parking lot dressed in swimsuits/coverups and carrying coolers and huge tote bags full of towels to get on the ferry to BWV/BCV for a day in the pools. At night, we saw different people get on the ferry to go back to the parking lot at DHS in swimsuits and wrapped in DISNEY POOL TOWELS that they stole. Honestly, the ferry boat captains should radio the lifeguards or something because that is really not cool. Crowds Did not notice any decrease in crowds this year - but the cut-backs to Disney's operating hours really hurt. Fantasmic was hard to get into with it only showing a few times a week, EMH at AK only lasted till 8pm (no Kali or Everest in the dark - which was SOOOOO sad). MK closed at 10 pm several nights into the second week of June. DHS closed before 9pm several nights (I guess because of no nightly Fantasmic). I did not like the early closures at all - I've always loved summer travel because of the extended park hours.
VB An extended report with photos is on the VB thread, so all I'll say is
This was our favorite part of the trip. The only thing that would make it more perfect is if they kept the waterslide and Eb and Flos open until dusk/dark in the summer - around 9pm.
AKV Our last two nights were in a savanna-view at Jambo. We walked to Kidani to check it out and to swim and eat. We really, really, really liked the food at Sanaa and the pool has a great slide (but why on earth is the pool itself so tiny? I have no idea. If you are building a pool - is it that much harder to make it bigger?).
Now - I am an AKV owner and AKV is in a three-way tie with BCV and VB as my favorite resorts, but I did not like Kidani very much. The approach from Jambo is really ugly and the standard view rooms look like they'd have really lame views of parking lots and central Florida marsh. I don't know, it just feels small after being in all the expansive Jambo spaces. I will say that there were lots of animals on the savanna
. As for the pool - the pool bar closes at "dusk" which is way early and we saw more cockroaches around the pool than I've seen at any Disney property - I think the surrounding marshes are not really "tamed" yet. We really enjoyed our Savanna-view at Jambo - we were in the corner on the backside of Zebra facing the barn - not the prettiest Savanna-view since there was a people pen under us, but LOTS of animals because of the barn- I saw four giraffe at once (including a baby) along with Eland and cranes. After being away from a good resort CS until then, we really appreciated the Mara.
My one complaint!
I will say that the bus situation with Kidani added is a big HOT mess. For one, the busses are all overcrowded now - every one we took was standing room only with guest left waiting for seats. Then, the park busses drop off/pick up Kidani before Jambo and I'd say at least 75% of the guests are staying at Jambo - so you have a packed bus full of people in the aisles, it arrives at Kidani and maybe 8 people try to shuffle off through the masses. There are maybe 15 people waiting to get on at Kidani, so they do the sardine cram to get in, then the bus goes to Jambo and all the Kidani people have to shuffle to get the 80% of bus riders OFF the bus. It's really the most idiotic thing I've witnessed. The bus needs to drop off returning folks at Jambo FIRST. Then there will be plenty of seats for Kidani guests.
We got on a bus from Kidani to EPCOT that was already 90% full of Jambo guests waiting to get off. At least half of the people waiting at Kidani could not even get on the bus to go to EPCOT when it was empty as soon as it stopped at Jambo. Not cool at all.
