srauseo
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2009
We just returned from our week in Disney World and, overall, it was a fabulous trip. Things went really smoothly - in some cases even better than expected. I'm not sure if I would go back at this time of year again - it was really hot and humid and crowded - but even with those issues we still had an amazing time. I put a lot of planning into this trip and it really paid off.
Day 1: Our traveling party of 7 people (Me, DH, Sister, BIL, Niece-6, Nephew-3, and my Mom) left at 4:30AM, for the airport. We had signed up for Magical Express so we tagged our bags and waved goodbye to them at the check-in counter. We flew Southwest which my Mom was nervous about because she had never experienced the open seating experience. So, she paid for the early-bird check-in upgrade and our boarding numbers were A45-51. Not too bad. We ended up in the middle of the plane all together. It was a 3x3 configuration. Sister, BIL and Nephew sat in one row and Mom and Niece and Me and DH in another. No one ended up taking the third seat in either of our rows so we had extra space. Bonus!
The flight was uneventful. Both kids slept most of the way and we landed about a half hour early! Bonus, again! We put on our Magic Bands and headed for Disney Magical Express Check-in. We glided through check-in using our Magic Bands and walked right on to a bus, dropping the stroller and some carryons to store underneath. A few minutes later we were on our way to Art of Animation. It was an easy ride - less than 30 minutes I think. When we arrived the lobby was very crowded. We got in the online check-in line which was much shorter than the regular check-in line. Probably about 10 minutes later we were checking in and our rooms were ready! The check-in agent was very helpful. We had reserved two Cars suites and had requested upper floor and close to transportation. We ended up in Building 1 (Mater!) in rooms 1738 and 1740. These rooms were on the third floor at the end of the hall, right next door to each other, with a view of the parking lot. All-in-all, this was a great location. It was at the far end of building from the main hall and Big Blue Pool, but it was just a minute or two to walk there. I liked being at the end of the hall as there was less foot traffic. And, we had a great view of the Frozen Summer Fun fireworks at Hollywood Studios! Every night at 9:45 we could watch the show. Bonus!
The rooms themselves were super cute and comfortable. With me, DH and Mom in one suite, we had tons of space and our own bathrooms. I thought the decor in these rooms was fun and not obnoxious at all. Also, the rooms seemed very quiet to me. I couldn't hear my sister or the kids in the next room at all. Heard an occasional toilet flush but that's it.
It was about 11AM by this point so we decided to get some lunch. The food court was very crowded and loud but we were able to find a table and we went up in small groups to order food. At this point, some stations were still serving breakfast and some had switched to lunch. The station I really wanted to try - World of Flavors - was still doing breakfast. Bummer. So I went to the Pasta station and got campanelle with shrimp and pesto. We had to wait about 5 minutes in line to order and then a little bit longer for them to prepare the food. However, the pasta was really good - cooked al dente and tasted good. It was a large portion. My Mom and I should have split one bowl and I ended up giving half of the bowl to DH who had just got some fruit and yogurt out of the cooler. They had half bottles of wine in the drink coolers as well and my Mom and I split one. The cashier offered us small plastic wine glasses to drink from. Nice. I noticed that by 11:30, the food court had emptied out and seemed much quieter. I thought that was strange. Hmm.
I had received a text message that our Garden Grocer order had arrived. I had asked for 1-3pm as a delivery time but the order arrived early! So we went to Bell Services to pick up the bags. Bell Services would had delivered them but since we were already there we carried them up ourselves. We went back to the room and changed into our bathing suits (we had packed our suits and a change of clothes in our carryons). We hit the Big Blue Pool. It was very crowded but we were able to find a few lounge chairs. The pool area was great. The kids loved it. I swam for a while and then we got some $10 frozen drinks at the Drop Off Pool Bar. The drinks were delicious. We hung by the pool for an hour or so and then went back to the room. By that point our suitcases and the boxes we had shipped down in advance had been delivered so we got unpacked and showered to get ready for the evening.
My sister's friend joined us for part of the week. She is a DVC member and AP holder. This presented some of the bigger issues we dealt with this week. It became a big issue to add her as a guest in my sister's room because she wasn't on our "package" but, as an AP holder, she didn't need a ticket. Disney needs to figure out a better, more consistent way to deal with this situation. We weren't trying to cheat the system. We were just trying to have a friend join us for the week and not pay for anything she didn't need. They made it seem like we were just trying to sneak her in for EMH or something. Seriously, she's giving Disney enough money already. Just work it out.
We had a 5:00 reservation at Chef Mickey's. At about 3:30PM we walked over to the bus stop to catch a bus to the Magic Kingdom. I think it was sprinkling a little bit so we brought our coats and ponchos. We waited about 10 minutes for a bus. We rode over to MK and then walked to the Contemporary Resort via the walking path. We were there by 4:30. So we did a little shopping in the gift shops and checked in for dinner about 20 minutes later. There were already a number of people that had checked in and were waiting in the lounge area. We had group photos taken by a Photo Pass Photographer (we had pre-ordered the Memory Maker package). Then we waited a few minutes until our buzzer went off. We were one of the first groups to be sat (this was a recurring theme all week!) and had a large round table in the corner of the room. We quickly hit the buffet before the lines started and the characters started coming.
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the food quality. I'd heard some bad reports on these boards but everyone in my group was happy and went for seconds on several choices - especially the lobster mac 'n cheese. I thought the dessert options were really tasty and fun. Three of us split a bottle of wine. The character interaction was great! Hugs and photos and autographs. All the characters made an effort to interact with my nephew who was in a high chair and a little shy. It was super fun. We had met all the characters and eaten as much as we wanted by 6:00PM so we settled the bill and headed off to the monorail. We rode the monorail to the TTC and then switched to the EPCOT monorail. The kids loved the monorail ride. Once we got to EPCOT, Mom, BIL, and the kids got a bus back to the hotel. Me, Sister, DH and Friend went to Test Track. We had a FP for 6:30-7:30. The timing worked perfectly and I have to say, being able to schedule an evening FP for a headliner ride on our arrival day was an awesome feature. We were in the room customizing our cars in no time. I had never ridden Test Track before and I thought it was really fun. By the time we got out of Test Track it was about 7:30 so we headed over to Canada to catch a little of the Off Kilter show. For the rest of the night, we strolled around the countries on that side of the Lagoon, enjoying some adult beverages and doing some shopping. We encountered one or two groups of rowdy, drunk adults who were pretty obnoxious and tacky. I was embarrassed by the way they acted with some of the cast members. Sigh. We had some frozen drinks in France, some beer in Morocco, and some sake in Japan. We didn't really stake out a spot early for Illuminations. We just watched from the street in England as we had an After Hours reservation at Rose & Crown. The event was in the pub and we checked-in with a cast member at the pub entrance. It was very quiet and there weren't a lot of other people there. It was a really nice experience. We had our flight of beers - or rather three beers and one cider - and an appetizer sampler that included the scotch egg, a sausage pastry thing, and a little cheese. I thought the food was great and it was a good quantity. I was glad we had eaten dinner a while ago and I hadn't snacked! We got to chat with our servers a little and had nice, relaxing time. We even mixed our cider with some of our beers to make "snakebites", etc. I would definitely do another After Hours event. It was nice strolling out in the peace and quiet. We got right onto a bus to go back to our resort and called it a night. Not bad for a first day!
Day 1: Our traveling party of 7 people (Me, DH, Sister, BIL, Niece-6, Nephew-3, and my Mom) left at 4:30AM, for the airport. We had signed up for Magical Express so we tagged our bags and waved goodbye to them at the check-in counter. We flew Southwest which my Mom was nervous about because she had never experienced the open seating experience. So, she paid for the early-bird check-in upgrade and our boarding numbers were A45-51. Not too bad. We ended up in the middle of the plane all together. It was a 3x3 configuration. Sister, BIL and Nephew sat in one row and Mom and Niece and Me and DH in another. No one ended up taking the third seat in either of our rows so we had extra space. Bonus!
The flight was uneventful. Both kids slept most of the way and we landed about a half hour early! Bonus, again! We put on our Magic Bands and headed for Disney Magical Express Check-in. We glided through check-in using our Magic Bands and walked right on to a bus, dropping the stroller and some carryons to store underneath. A few minutes later we were on our way to Art of Animation. It was an easy ride - less than 30 minutes I think. When we arrived the lobby was very crowded. We got in the online check-in line which was much shorter than the regular check-in line. Probably about 10 minutes later we were checking in and our rooms were ready! The check-in agent was very helpful. We had reserved two Cars suites and had requested upper floor and close to transportation. We ended up in Building 1 (Mater!) in rooms 1738 and 1740. These rooms were on the third floor at the end of the hall, right next door to each other, with a view of the parking lot. All-in-all, this was a great location. It was at the far end of building from the main hall and Big Blue Pool, but it was just a minute or two to walk there. I liked being at the end of the hall as there was less foot traffic. And, we had a great view of the Frozen Summer Fun fireworks at Hollywood Studios! Every night at 9:45 we could watch the show. Bonus!
The rooms themselves were super cute and comfortable. With me, DH and Mom in one suite, we had tons of space and our own bathrooms. I thought the decor in these rooms was fun and not obnoxious at all. Also, the rooms seemed very quiet to me. I couldn't hear my sister or the kids in the next room at all. Heard an occasional toilet flush but that's it.
It was about 11AM by this point so we decided to get some lunch. The food court was very crowded and loud but we were able to find a table and we went up in small groups to order food. At this point, some stations were still serving breakfast and some had switched to lunch. The station I really wanted to try - World of Flavors - was still doing breakfast. Bummer. So I went to the Pasta station and got campanelle with shrimp and pesto. We had to wait about 5 minutes in line to order and then a little bit longer for them to prepare the food. However, the pasta was really good - cooked al dente and tasted good. It was a large portion. My Mom and I should have split one bowl and I ended up giving half of the bowl to DH who had just got some fruit and yogurt out of the cooler. They had half bottles of wine in the drink coolers as well and my Mom and I split one. The cashier offered us small plastic wine glasses to drink from. Nice. I noticed that by 11:30, the food court had emptied out and seemed much quieter. I thought that was strange. Hmm.
I had received a text message that our Garden Grocer order had arrived. I had asked for 1-3pm as a delivery time but the order arrived early! So we went to Bell Services to pick up the bags. Bell Services would had delivered them but since we were already there we carried them up ourselves. We went back to the room and changed into our bathing suits (we had packed our suits and a change of clothes in our carryons). We hit the Big Blue Pool. It was very crowded but we were able to find a few lounge chairs. The pool area was great. The kids loved it. I swam for a while and then we got some $10 frozen drinks at the Drop Off Pool Bar. The drinks were delicious. We hung by the pool for an hour or so and then went back to the room. By that point our suitcases and the boxes we had shipped down in advance had been delivered so we got unpacked and showered to get ready for the evening.
My sister's friend joined us for part of the week. She is a DVC member and AP holder. This presented some of the bigger issues we dealt with this week. It became a big issue to add her as a guest in my sister's room because she wasn't on our "package" but, as an AP holder, she didn't need a ticket. Disney needs to figure out a better, more consistent way to deal with this situation. We weren't trying to cheat the system. We were just trying to have a friend join us for the week and not pay for anything she didn't need. They made it seem like we were just trying to sneak her in for EMH or something. Seriously, she's giving Disney enough money already. Just work it out.
We had a 5:00 reservation at Chef Mickey's. At about 3:30PM we walked over to the bus stop to catch a bus to the Magic Kingdom. I think it was sprinkling a little bit so we brought our coats and ponchos. We waited about 10 minutes for a bus. We rode over to MK and then walked to the Contemporary Resort via the walking path. We were there by 4:30. So we did a little shopping in the gift shops and checked in for dinner about 20 minutes later. There were already a number of people that had checked in and were waiting in the lounge area. We had group photos taken by a Photo Pass Photographer (we had pre-ordered the Memory Maker package). Then we waited a few minutes until our buzzer went off. We were one of the first groups to be sat (this was a recurring theme all week!) and had a large round table in the corner of the room. We quickly hit the buffet before the lines started and the characters started coming.
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the food quality. I'd heard some bad reports on these boards but everyone in my group was happy and went for seconds on several choices - especially the lobster mac 'n cheese. I thought the dessert options were really tasty and fun. Three of us split a bottle of wine. The character interaction was great! Hugs and photos and autographs. All the characters made an effort to interact with my nephew who was in a high chair and a little shy. It was super fun. We had met all the characters and eaten as much as we wanted by 6:00PM so we settled the bill and headed off to the monorail. We rode the monorail to the TTC and then switched to the EPCOT monorail. The kids loved the monorail ride. Once we got to EPCOT, Mom, BIL, and the kids got a bus back to the hotel. Me, Sister, DH and Friend went to Test Track. We had a FP for 6:30-7:30. The timing worked perfectly and I have to say, being able to schedule an evening FP for a headliner ride on our arrival day was an awesome feature. We were in the room customizing our cars in no time. I had never ridden Test Track before and I thought it was really fun. By the time we got out of Test Track it was about 7:30 so we headed over to Canada to catch a little of the Off Kilter show. For the rest of the night, we strolled around the countries on that side of the Lagoon, enjoying some adult beverages and doing some shopping. We encountered one or two groups of rowdy, drunk adults who were pretty obnoxious and tacky. I was embarrassed by the way they acted with some of the cast members. Sigh. We had some frozen drinks in France, some beer in Morocco, and some sake in Japan. We didn't really stake out a spot early for Illuminations. We just watched from the street in England as we had an After Hours reservation at Rose & Crown. The event was in the pub and we checked-in with a cast member at the pub entrance. It was very quiet and there weren't a lot of other people there. It was a really nice experience. We had our flight of beers - or rather three beers and one cider - and an appetizer sampler that included the scotch egg, a sausage pastry thing, and a little cheese. I thought the food was great and it was a good quantity. I was glad we had eaten dinner a while ago and I hadn't snacked! We got to chat with our servers a little and had nice, relaxing time. We even mixed our cider with some of our beers to make "snakebites", etc. I would definitely do another After Hours event. It was nice strolling out in the peace and quiet. We got right onto a bus to go back to our resort and called it a night. Not bad for a first day!