Mary Diehl
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2001
- Messages
- 699
Had a long drive from PA. Drove straight through-17 hrs. Checked in with no problems. Resort is beautiful. They had no upgrades available the first night. Next day they had an Executive suite available but felt it wasn't worth the extra $35 per night. The room was a little bigger but would have had to pull out/in the sofa every day and didn't want to do that. Also, I didn't want to give up our beautiful view. Stayed in tower 1, 7th floor, room 1708. Great view of the pool and lagoon. Asked about the Grade A program and no one seemed to know about it. Finally found someone and kids received a plastic card to use for free drinks and desserts. My kids never did get to use them. It seemed every place at the resort they asked no one knew about it so they just stopped asking. Younger son received a pail and shovel. The lady seemed reluctant to give it to him. I think she thought he was too old-9yrs. Also asked about the VIT(very important teen)pkg. Here again, no one seemed to know about it. Finally found someone and gave each of my boys one. It was a nice little backpack bag with a drink bottle, tic tacs, pudding, sunblock, carmel popcorn and shampoo and conditioner. Everyone was real friendly and nice at the resort. Always asking how we're enjoying our stay. Room was nice but found a long hair in the tub. Our safe was locked also and couldn't get in. Someone was sent up right away though when told about it. However, I did have to ask for our milk and cookies 5 times. Finally received it on our fourth day there. They told us that we already received it and I told them I swear we didn't. Had it within the hour that same day then. FOTL cannot be beat. There were some rides that had 60-75min. wait. We all loved Shrek and Jimmy Neutron. Loved the "chicken dance"-so clever!! Had a wonderful meal at Emeril's Tchoup chop. Service was excellent. I swear all of us would only take two sips out of our water and someone was there to fill those couple drops. We had two waiters/waitresses. They put your napkin on your lap for you. All of us enjoyed our meals. My husband had some kind of beef strip thing, my oldest son had the macadamia nut crusted salmon, can't remember what I had-chicken maybe?, my other two sons had chicken tenders and the shrimp on the starter menu. We all had the fruit drinks listed on the children's menu. Pineapple, banana and shavings of chocolate served in a little tiki(& I mean little)mug. We all could of had 5 of those things but not for $5 each. Sorry, no free refills on those. Three of us had their special dessert-a hard covered chocolate pyramid with white chocolate in the middle and berries and berry drizzle all over-delicious! My son had some dessert with icecream and cookies, my husband had the macadamia nut pie. We all enjoyed our experience here and wished we would have made reservations for other nights too. My oldest asked several times if we could check and see if they could take us another evening. I told him we only brought nice clothes for one dinner and he said we could wear them again. Too funny!!! I know he loved it. Just FYI: there were three families there with infants-2 yrs. and one family actually showed up in flip flops and their swimwear. Alot had on t-shirts and jean shorts. I felt we followed the rules and wore what we were told. I wish this restaurant would eventually relax somewhat with clothes attire for I know we would have pursued another evening had it not been for what we were expected to wear. Even though there were some dressed way down, I wouldn't have felt comfortable wearing any less than what we did. Spent $155 for the five of us. My kids enjoyed the pool and the interactive water area. Walk was not as bad as what I thought it would be. Ate at Thunder Falls Terrace. I had the chicken wrap which was not very good. Everyone else got the ribs, chicken, corn on the cob, roasted potatoes and ff. All of that was good and some couldn't finish it all. Too expensive though. $70 -for fast food?!! Ate at Mythos last year and wanted to go again. Not as good this time. Didn't care for our waitress. Was not very talkative or friendly. Other tables had two waiters/waitresses. I had a chicken salad-way too tangy. Husband and oldest had some shrimp and pasta combo-good but they swear it was bigger last year. Youngest had his usual chicken tenders-had colored dots all over the coating. Other son had some beef platter that had a weird taste to it. Didn't even bother with dessert. Was very disappointing but would give it a try again next time. We all had the funnel cake sundaes at the building close to where you exit at IOA. Very big and some of us couldn't finish ours. Spent the day at Seaworld on Tues. and had reservations at the Shark's Underwater Grille. Another disappointment. Very expensive for what you got. My husband had the scallops- all 5 of them for $20. My oldest son got the tuna and received it totally raw. We asked the waitress if she could please have it cooked a little more and she got very offended and said "that's why I told you how it was cooked because I didn't think he'd like it" and my husband said "he'd like it if it was cooked somewhat, not raw". When she brought it back my son refused to eat it thinking they may have spit on it. He watches way too many shows on tv!! I got a shrimp, fish and scallop stir fry in tomato sauce and that was very good. My other two ordered off the childrens menu and there's was o.k. I thought it was odd that you didn't get a salad or any side dishes, no veges etc. All you got was bread which we asked for extra and then your entree. Way too much $110. Will not eat here again unless they change their menu and make their portions bigger. They gave us a survey to fill out and I will voice my disappointment on that. Had Papa John's deliver pizza one night. The resort would not let them in the entrance so my husband had to go down to get it. I guess it was for security reasons. Ate at Mel's Drive-in-I was craving a burger, fries and milkshake. They gave us a 10% discount for having a Magicard. First place that actually asked if we had the card. All was good but wished the burger would have been a little warmer. It was only lukewarm and I guess it's because we were there at primetime and waited in line to order for 20 min. Did wash twice and liked the location of the laundry being on the ground floor near the pool. One complaint though, not enough dryers. I had to wait 2 hrs. for a dryer. One lady was using two of the three and just kept loading them every hour. Washers only take 26min. but drying takes 64min. I was up till 11pm doing wash and I had 3 people after me waiting for them. Last day we went out into town and ate at an IHOP. Very dirty and couldn't wait to get out of there. A/C wasn't working in there either. Played mini golf at the Congo River course. Alot of fun- $8.95pp My husband and three sons found go-carts to ride $18 for the four of them for 5 laps. Was well worth it-they loved it!!! Found a Pro-Bass shop-4 acre store. Really neat-had to drag the "boys" out after an hour. Ate at a Red Lobster for dinner which was o.k. We've eaten at them before. Also, along Citywalk, we all went to the movies twice over the course of our week stay. Saw "The Hulk" and "Finding Nemo". We liked both. Hardly anyone in any of the theatres. Practically had the place to ourselves. Ate at Nascar Cafe also. Ate here last year and my husband insisted on going again. Had a nice waiter and the food was good.
All in all, our trip was excellent. Had planned on doing Disney the last two days but knew we'd crack having to wait in their long lines. FOTL spoils you and our passes were still good so we decided to stay. I would love to answer any questions you might have.
All in all, our trip was excellent. Had planned on doing Disney the last two days but knew we'd crack having to wait in their long lines. FOTL spoils you and our passes were still good so we decided to stay. I would love to answer any questions you might have.
