BabybetterDisney
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2018
It is the year that DS18 graduates from high school. He has worked very hard, and I thought to splurge during this trip. We normally stay at Pop Century, our favorite Disney World hotel, but this trip I decided to do a bit of resort hopping and visit some hotels that we’ve never been to and probably would never stay again. Besides Pop Century, we also stayed for one night each at the Polynesian, Boardwalk, Port Orleans Riverside, Animal Kingdom Lodge, Caribbean Beach, Contemporary, and the Grand Floridian. There was me, DS18, DS13, and DS3.
The trip went well. We went through Dorian, which turned out to be a nothing. My kids went on Flight of Passage and Smuggler's Run many times and had great fun. Our resort hopping also turned out very well. I got better at packing as time went on. I started out taking 2 hours to pack each morning, but after a few days I was able to pack up everything in one hour. We had to check out at 11, so we always try to get an early room at the next hotel, and always succeeded except for at AKL. We did online checkin and got the text for Port Orleans and Grand Floridian; the others I got a ready room by visiting the front desk.
The Polynesian: We were assigned at a room early at Fiji building. Check in took 20 minutes, but Mickey and Stitch were around to entertain the kids. Our room was beautiful even though it had no balcony. I told the front desk I don't care about balconies. We ate dinner by walking to GF to eat at 1900 Park Fare first time. Will never do it again. The food was good but we were asked 8 times by different people (characters and wait staff) if we wanted our portrait taken. We didn't. Next time I will go to Trails End at Wilderness Lodge. On an earlier post of mine, several people had recommend that I go to Trails End rather than 1900 Park Fare, but I didn't listen.
Boardwalk: First time staying there. Beautiful hotel and room, and we got in early. No wait for check in. The hotel layout was a bit puzzling; got lost once and had to come back to room to look at map to see how to get to the board walk. Awesome hotel except that there was no food court. We ate some pizza for lunch outside in the shade. It was so hot, it made me appreciate deeply the Pop Century food court! One thing really awesome about Boardwalk was that a few days after I checked out, they emailed me. They found my baby's sippy cup that I'd been missing! I was looking all over for the sippy cup, and went went back and got it!
Port Orleans Riverside: Beautiful hotel. I loved th river scenery. We had the royal room, and we got our room by text, without having to line up for check in. Not as royal as I expected. Things covered with dark gold. I was hoping for shiny, glittering gold. The TV was small, about a quarter the size of the TV at Pop. The internet didn't work in the room, and calling about it didn't help. But it did work at the quiet pool, so I used my computer there. We went over to swim at the French Quarter pool, and DS3 was very fond of the baby splash area.
Animal Kingdom Lodge: Never stayed there before. We got there near 5 p.m., and our room was still not ready. Went to check in, and was told that it would be ready soon. It was ready in 10 minutes. I booked a bunkbed room. For some reason I thought the bunkbeds were queen size. They weren't, they were just normal twin beds. Very small TV like POR. Almost no plugins for gadgets.
Caribbean Beach: Our second most favorite resort after Pop. It is super beautiful around a lake. The rooms also have big screen TVs, unlike AKL. No wait for checkin, got a preferred room in Martinique right next to food court. I walked quickly from room to Skyliner station and timed myself: took 11 minutes. DS3 loved the baby splash pad, even more than the one at French Quarter. The other kids enjoyed the main waterslide area. I've always preferred the CBR pool to the Beach Club pool.
Contemporary: First time stay. It was also our MK day, so we got there around 4 p.m., walking from MK. (MK confiscated DS3's blown up swim toy, saying that we couldn't bring any blown up toy inside, even though DS18 was holding an opaque Disney balloon that had far more air inside than the toy, which MK didn't mind being that they sold it). Our assigned room was still not ready, so I asked if they had any other room ready, we are not picky. So the CM found another room and was about to assign it to us when a manager showed up (I did not ask for him), full of smiles, shook my hand, and asked me friendly questions about my trip. I booked the cheapest room there in the outer building for only one night, and I assured him that we would take anything he's got. So he upgraded us to the main building theme park view! We've gone to Disney for 10 years and have never been upgraded before, and I just stared at him. Then I thanked him profusely and went to our room.
In reality I was apprehensive about being in the main building because of the lack of elevators. I once timed myself going from my room on the 9th floor to the ground floor. It took 6 minutes. Several elevators were too full for me to get in (I have a stroller), and once I got in, the elevator stopped at every level. However, I couldn't complain because we did get upgraded to theme park view! And we had a very clear view of the theme park!
Being able to walk to and from MK was awesome. We went back to MK in the evening to get on a ride and found DS3 asleep. So I decided to walk back to get my hat, which I forgot, and give DS3 more time to sleep. The security check never had a line. We came back early enough to watch the fireworks in our theme park view room. I had originally planned to stay at MK to watch the fireworks, but we couldn't waste our upgrade. It worked out, because then we had time to swim in the pool.
The Grand Floridian: We got the text before we arrived, so were able to go directly to our club level room. We stopped to eat lunch at the club first in Sugar Loaf. They had very nice soup and bread, and sitting there in a near empty club was so relaxing compared to all the hustle and bustle at the parks and restaurants. The room was beautiful. We swam in the pool, but DS3 did not like the splash pad for some reason and refused to play in it. And we watched the Halloween Party fireworks from outside the food court at 10:15 p.m. DS13 complained bitterly afterwards that the Spooky Spectacular isn't near as good as Hallowishes. The Grand was awesome except that we do miss Richard. May he rest in peace. I've always thought that Richard alone was worth the price of the Grand Floridian.
The rest of the nights, we spent at Pop Century. I had requested building 5, ground floor, but got assigned to a completely different building and floor, which had never happened. So I went to the front desk, joined the huge line, waited 20 minutes, and got a room in building 5, ground floor. I felt so good to finally be able to unpack and put everything away without considering how I might pack it all up the next day!
The trip went well. We went through Dorian, which turned out to be a nothing. My kids went on Flight of Passage and Smuggler's Run many times and had great fun. Our resort hopping also turned out very well. I got better at packing as time went on. I started out taking 2 hours to pack each morning, but after a few days I was able to pack up everything in one hour. We had to check out at 11, so we always try to get an early room at the next hotel, and always succeeded except for at AKL. We did online checkin and got the text for Port Orleans and Grand Floridian; the others I got a ready room by visiting the front desk.
The Polynesian: We were assigned at a room early at Fiji building. Check in took 20 minutes, but Mickey and Stitch were around to entertain the kids. Our room was beautiful even though it had no balcony. I told the front desk I don't care about balconies. We ate dinner by walking to GF to eat at 1900 Park Fare first time. Will never do it again. The food was good but we were asked 8 times by different people (characters and wait staff) if we wanted our portrait taken. We didn't. Next time I will go to Trails End at Wilderness Lodge. On an earlier post of mine, several people had recommend that I go to Trails End rather than 1900 Park Fare, but I didn't listen.
Boardwalk: First time staying there. Beautiful hotel and room, and we got in early. No wait for check in. The hotel layout was a bit puzzling; got lost once and had to come back to room to look at map to see how to get to the board walk. Awesome hotel except that there was no food court. We ate some pizza for lunch outside in the shade. It was so hot, it made me appreciate deeply the Pop Century food court! One thing really awesome about Boardwalk was that a few days after I checked out, they emailed me. They found my baby's sippy cup that I'd been missing! I was looking all over for the sippy cup, and went went back and got it!
Port Orleans Riverside: Beautiful hotel. I loved th river scenery. We had the royal room, and we got our room by text, without having to line up for check in. Not as royal as I expected. Things covered with dark gold. I was hoping for shiny, glittering gold. The TV was small, about a quarter the size of the TV at Pop. The internet didn't work in the room, and calling about it didn't help. But it did work at the quiet pool, so I used my computer there. We went over to swim at the French Quarter pool, and DS3 was very fond of the baby splash area.
Animal Kingdom Lodge: Never stayed there before. We got there near 5 p.m., and our room was still not ready. Went to check in, and was told that it would be ready soon. It was ready in 10 minutes. I booked a bunkbed room. For some reason I thought the bunkbeds were queen size. They weren't, they were just normal twin beds. Very small TV like POR. Almost no plugins for gadgets.
Caribbean Beach: Our second most favorite resort after Pop. It is super beautiful around a lake. The rooms also have big screen TVs, unlike AKL. No wait for checkin, got a preferred room in Martinique right next to food court. I walked quickly from room to Skyliner station and timed myself: took 11 minutes. DS3 loved the baby splash pad, even more than the one at French Quarter. The other kids enjoyed the main waterslide area. I've always preferred the CBR pool to the Beach Club pool.
Contemporary: First time stay. It was also our MK day, so we got there around 4 p.m., walking from MK. (MK confiscated DS3's blown up swim toy, saying that we couldn't bring any blown up toy inside, even though DS18 was holding an opaque Disney balloon that had far more air inside than the toy, which MK didn't mind being that they sold it). Our assigned room was still not ready, so I asked if they had any other room ready, we are not picky. So the CM found another room and was about to assign it to us when a manager showed up (I did not ask for him), full of smiles, shook my hand, and asked me friendly questions about my trip. I booked the cheapest room there in the outer building for only one night, and I assured him that we would take anything he's got. So he upgraded us to the main building theme park view! We've gone to Disney for 10 years and have never been upgraded before, and I just stared at him. Then I thanked him profusely and went to our room.
In reality I was apprehensive about being in the main building because of the lack of elevators. I once timed myself going from my room on the 9th floor to the ground floor. It took 6 minutes. Several elevators were too full for me to get in (I have a stroller), and once I got in, the elevator stopped at every level. However, I couldn't complain because we did get upgraded to theme park view! And we had a very clear view of the theme park!
Being able to walk to and from MK was awesome. We went back to MK in the evening to get on a ride and found DS3 asleep. So I decided to walk back to get my hat, which I forgot, and give DS3 more time to sleep. The security check never had a line. We came back early enough to watch the fireworks in our theme park view room. I had originally planned to stay at MK to watch the fireworks, but we couldn't waste our upgrade. It worked out, because then we had time to swim in the pool.
The Grand Floridian: We got the text before we arrived, so were able to go directly to our club level room. We stopped to eat lunch at the club first in Sugar Loaf. They had very nice soup and bread, and sitting there in a near empty club was so relaxing compared to all the hustle and bustle at the parks and restaurants. The room was beautiful. We swam in the pool, but DS3 did not like the splash pad for some reason and refused to play in it. And we watched the Halloween Party fireworks from outside the food court at 10:15 p.m. DS13 complained bitterly afterwards that the Spooky Spectacular isn't near as good as Hallowishes. The Grand was awesome except that we do miss Richard. May he rest in peace. I've always thought that Richard alone was worth the price of the Grand Floridian.
The rest of the nights, we spent at Pop Century. I had requested building 5, ground floor, but got assigned to a completely different building and floor, which had never happened. So I went to the front desk, joined the huge line, waited 20 minutes, and got a room in building 5, ground floor. I felt so good to finally be able to unpack and put everything away without considering how I might pack it all up the next day!
