MomTo3PrincessesInNJ
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2012
I finally have a few minutes to write a recap of our January trip!
H & I arrived at Pop around 7:00p on Thursday 1/24. Our flight from Newark was delayed 3 hours -- boo! I'm SO happy we decided not to purchase 3 day tickets as it would have been a waste due to our arrival time.
We checked in and went straight to our room. To be honest, Pop just didn't do it for me. The resort is HUGE. We were in the 90's section in building 9 (the Rubix Cube). We weren't too far from the busses, but we were quite far from the food court, main pool & bar. We requested a King room and got 2 doubles or fulls -- not sure of the size, but they were small. The room reminded us of a motel at the Jersey Shore. I wasn't feeling the Disney magic. The only other resort we stayed at was AoA and it really blew Pop out of the water -- as it should for almost 3 x's the price. H and I will probably stick to Mods from now on when we travel alone and AoA when we have the kids with us. The room was clean though, and worked for our short 3 night stay.
Our first night we headed to DTD for dinner. We used the DDP for Wolfgang Puck Express. I had the bacon meatloaf and H had a pizza. We both LOVED our meals, and it was a bargain for a TS credit.
After dinner we used our vouchers to go to Disney Quest. H has been looking forward to CyberSpace Mountain. We got there an hour before close and it was pretty empty, but it was so hot and smelly inside. The CyberSpace que smelled like a locker room. We "rode" our coaster and left. We were really glad we didn't pay to go in there. We did some shopping for the girls and went back to our room around 11p.
Friday 1/25 we had a 7:10a scared breakfast ressie at Chef Mickey. We had 3 parks to hit that day and needed to be at AK for rope drop, so an early, filling breakfast was a must! We really enjoyed CM in November and again found it to be a good breakfast buffet. We got to AK for rope drop and headed to Expedition Everest. We rode it once, grabbed a fast pass, did some stuff in Dinoland then rode EE again before heading over to the MK.
Once in the MK we got in line for Be Our Guest. While it was open in November for previews, we already had our ADRs booked solid and couldn't squeeze it in, so I wasn't going to miss it this time! I had the turkey sandwich with strawberry cupcake and H had the steak sandwich with chocolate puff. The food was worth the wait (about 40 mins in line before we ordered). The only complaint I have it that there is nowhere on the screen to customize the sandwich and the menu doesn't tell you that the steak sandwich comes with a salad on top of it, so my H had to scrape it off. It wasn't a hug deal, but I wish they had a "plain" button.
We made sure we got to all of our favorite rides and tried a few new things like Haunted Mansion and the People Mover. We had a 5:30 dinner ressie at Cape May Cafe, which was awesome as usual (I think H ate 4 plates of crab legs and clams!).
After dinner we went into Epcot for Magic Hours. We did some drinking around the world, watched Illuminations and then went to Test Track. We missed it in November and H was determined to do it this time. We waited in line for an hour. It was really the only time we waited in a line the whole trip, so I can't complain too much. We left after TT.
Saturday 1/26 was my birthday We had a quick breakfast at Pop (paid OOP) and went to Hollywood Studios for morning Magic Hours. We were 2nd in line and ran straight to RnR, then hit ToT, then RnR again and for a FP for ToT. We did some new stuff (Backlot Tour, Indy Stunt Show) had some snacks and then eventually got lunch at ABCommisary. We went back to the hotel for a quick swim & nap before our 7:50 dinner ressie at Ohana. We got to the Poly early, had a few drinks and walked around the resort. We were seated right on time and got to see the MK fireworks from the window
The dinner at Ohana was great! It was our first time and probably our last for awhile, simply because our girls wouldn't enjoy the food and the kids price is a little steep for chicken nuggets. But as a meal for the 2 of us, it was great!
After dinner we took the monorail to the MK but decided not to go in. We were exhausted and had to be up at 4:30a for our flight home.
Overall the trip was GREAT! We had so much fun riding rides and moving at our own pace. We were surprised at the crowd sizes. I thought that going after the Marathon and MLK holiday we would have low crowds, but there were Brazilian Tour Groups EVERYWHERE! We actually made a game of trying to beat them into a Fast Pass lane! Although the parks were crowded, we were able to do everything we wanted (EXCEPT Test Track!) with little to no wait, especially when getting to rope drop and using our fastpasses.
We are probably going to skip going next January and just wait until November 2014 for our big family trip. Our original thought was that it would be fun to take the girls when attendence was low, but it seems like January isn't as slow as it used to be.
As much as we LOVE Disney, we're taking the girls to Jamaica in November and I'm looking forward to a relaxing beach vacation.
I don't think we'll do an adult only Disney trip again either, at least not for a while, but we had a great time while we were there!
I hope the rest of the January travelers had a great time, too!
H & I arrived at Pop around 7:00p on Thursday 1/24. Our flight from Newark was delayed 3 hours -- boo! I'm SO happy we decided not to purchase 3 day tickets as it would have been a waste due to our arrival time.
We checked in and went straight to our room. To be honest, Pop just didn't do it for me. The resort is HUGE. We were in the 90's section in building 9 (the Rubix Cube). We weren't too far from the busses, but we were quite far from the food court, main pool & bar. We requested a King room and got 2 doubles or fulls -- not sure of the size, but they were small. The room reminded us of a motel at the Jersey Shore. I wasn't feeling the Disney magic. The only other resort we stayed at was AoA and it really blew Pop out of the water -- as it should for almost 3 x's the price. H and I will probably stick to Mods from now on when we travel alone and AoA when we have the kids with us. The room was clean though, and worked for our short 3 night stay.
Our first night we headed to DTD for dinner. We used the DDP for Wolfgang Puck Express. I had the bacon meatloaf and H had a pizza. We both LOVED our meals, and it was a bargain for a TS credit.
After dinner we used our vouchers to go to Disney Quest. H has been looking forward to CyberSpace Mountain. We got there an hour before close and it was pretty empty, but it was so hot and smelly inside. The CyberSpace que smelled like a locker room. We "rode" our coaster and left. We were really glad we didn't pay to go in there. We did some shopping for the girls and went back to our room around 11p.
Friday 1/25 we had a 7:10a scared breakfast ressie at Chef Mickey. We had 3 parks to hit that day and needed to be at AK for rope drop, so an early, filling breakfast was a must! We really enjoyed CM in November and again found it to be a good breakfast buffet. We got to AK for rope drop and headed to Expedition Everest. We rode it once, grabbed a fast pass, did some stuff in Dinoland then rode EE again before heading over to the MK.
Once in the MK we got in line for Be Our Guest. While it was open in November for previews, we already had our ADRs booked solid and couldn't squeeze it in, so I wasn't going to miss it this time! I had the turkey sandwich with strawberry cupcake and H had the steak sandwich with chocolate puff. The food was worth the wait (about 40 mins in line before we ordered). The only complaint I have it that there is nowhere on the screen to customize the sandwich and the menu doesn't tell you that the steak sandwich comes with a salad on top of it, so my H had to scrape it off. It wasn't a hug deal, but I wish they had a "plain" button.
We made sure we got to all of our favorite rides and tried a few new things like Haunted Mansion and the People Mover. We had a 5:30 dinner ressie at Cape May Cafe, which was awesome as usual (I think H ate 4 plates of crab legs and clams!).
After dinner we went into Epcot for Magic Hours. We did some drinking around the world, watched Illuminations and then went to Test Track. We missed it in November and H was determined to do it this time. We waited in line for an hour. It was really the only time we waited in a line the whole trip, so I can't complain too much. We left after TT.
Saturday 1/26 was my birthday We had a quick breakfast at Pop (paid OOP) and went to Hollywood Studios for morning Magic Hours. We were 2nd in line and ran straight to RnR, then hit ToT, then RnR again and for a FP for ToT. We did some new stuff (Backlot Tour, Indy Stunt Show) had some snacks and then eventually got lunch at ABCommisary. We went back to the hotel for a quick swim & nap before our 7:50 dinner ressie at Ohana. We got to the Poly early, had a few drinks and walked around the resort. We were seated right on time and got to see the MK fireworks from the window
The dinner at Ohana was great! It was our first time and probably our last for awhile, simply because our girls wouldn't enjoy the food and the kids price is a little steep for chicken nuggets. But as a meal for the 2 of us, it was great!
After dinner we took the monorail to the MK but decided not to go in. We were exhausted and had to be up at 4:30a for our flight home.
Overall the trip was GREAT! We had so much fun riding rides and moving at our own pace. We were surprised at the crowd sizes. I thought that going after the Marathon and MLK holiday we would have low crowds, but there were Brazilian Tour Groups EVERYWHERE! We actually made a game of trying to beat them into a Fast Pass lane! Although the parks were crowded, we were able to do everything we wanted (EXCEPT Test Track!) with little to no wait, especially when getting to rope drop and using our fastpasses.
We are probably going to skip going next January and just wait until November 2014 for our big family trip. Our original thought was that it would be fun to take the girls when attendence was low, but it seems like January isn't as slow as it used to be.
As much as we LOVE Disney, we're taking the girls to Jamaica in November and I'm looking forward to a relaxing beach vacation.
I don't think we'll do an adult only Disney trip again either, at least not for a while, but we had a great time while we were there!
I hope the rest of the January travelers had a great time, too!