Live-ish blog. My thoughts and observations April 7-13

Staying at AKL Jambo House...

I am gonna try and just hit some bullet points here. We will start off with post 1, night one...

We arrived at MCO at 9:12pm. Headed straight to Magic Express, boarded a waiting motor coach. We then proceeded to wait for approximately 45 minutes to leave. They packed the bus to bursting, and people were standing in the back(against policy, but I guess efficiency beats safety) we were the 3rd stop and didn't arrive at our resort till a little after 11.

We were then woken up at 2am by a call from bell services asking if they could deliver our luggage. This was after I spoke to them at 11, and specifically asked them not to call or knock that night. I was infuriated. Also, despite talking to the front desk and bell services, I was basically given a "we're sorry" shoulder shrug. Which, believe it or not, doesn't help with my 3 year olds lack of sleep.

Anyhoo, that's day 1. Good start.

 

[xdan0920]

Day 2...Magic Kingdom...

Let me start with this, air conditioning is basically non-existent at MK. I'll address this as often as I encounter it, and maybe a dedicated thread to about it. So....

Breakfast at Crystal Palace.

Bus was quick arriving to the resort, but as would become a theme, we had to wait on a scooter to load.

Breakfast was fine, aside from the air conditioning. It was cooler out, so it wasn't terrible, but it was noticeably warm in there. Breakfast was ok, standard disney Buffett, so over-priced mediocre food. We only met 2 characters in an hour though, bad luck? Bad staffing? I don't know.

The park was very very crowded, but since we are traveling with a sub 40 inch kid, we were able to ride a handful of attractions and avoid the crowds. Couple points....

Pirates was missing a handful of effects. Also missing...AC...

Philharmagic is a mess. Video quality, 4d effects, scents missing. A real mess.

Dumbo is much improved over the single spinner setup.

Barnstormer remains a great intro coaster.

The new hub, with secondary ring are a huge traffic flow improvement.

Cosmic Rays was a disaster area. Huge long lines. No one cleaning tables. AC off. Literally off. It was 75 outside and 80+ inside. Sweating while we ate, kids having meltdowns left and right.

Back to the bus, waited about 10 min, plus 5 more for inexperienced scooter pilot. Then back for a nap and a swim.

 

[KBLovedDisney]

Pirates was missing a handful of effects. Also missing...AC...

Can you pinpoint some of the specifics on the ride? I know most of the time the mist/Davy Jones effect isn't on and I have never seen the mermaid effect (heard about it but never have seen it).

 

[xdan0920]

Day 3....Animal Kingdom...

Bus was waiting as we came down the ramp, that's the good.

Waited on another scooter, that's the bad.

Quick trip, and breakfast at Tusker House. I'd say it's not worth the money based on food. But meeting 4 of the big 5 pre park open may make it worth it. Mileage varies.

The good....

Safari was great. Active animals, smooth trip, good driver.

Walking trails were clean, packed with animals, guides stationed all over to give info and demonstrations. Very good.

Little Disney magic at Triceratops spin. My son is celebrating his birthday, so he's got a pin on. The ride broke down after one rotation, so the manager in the area let him and my Wife ride again, and while they were riding she went to one of the carnival games and got him a stuffed triceratops. He was very excited and it was a nice moment.

Nemo broke down, how? I dunno. Barely any CM communication, heard through the line that it was down, walked to the front and was told it was down indefinitely. So we left.

Wandered around and headed back to the lodge for a nap.

If you guessed we had to wait on another scooter, you'd be wrong, this time we waited on two scooters.

 

[xdan0920]

Can you pinpoint some of the specifics on the ride? I know most of the time the mist/Davy Jones effect isn't on and I have never seen the mermaid effect (heard about it but never have seen it).

Those two were both off. Two of the pirates in the burning city area were immobile. There was also no cannon ball splash, however, I think that was down to bad luck.

I couldn't really pay that great of attention to what was missing, just noticed those few things. My son loved it regardless.

The lack of AC was worse then any missing effect though.

On a positive note, no one used a flash. Hooray for good behavior!

 

[MinnieM123]

I'm wondering what the heck is going on with the lack of air conditioning. If it was just in one spot, that's no big deal, but you've made a number of references to a noticeable lack of AC in various places. I have a tough time with the heat when I go to WDW, and I'll step inside a building to cool down a bit and start to feel better. If there aren't any cool spots anymore, this will be a real issue to me, and I'm sure, to others as well.

 

[SyracuseDisneyFan]

Thanks for sharing. What the heck's going on with the AC?

 

[SeanWM48]

the stuff with the luggage would drive me nuts too. the A/C being down is definitely something that would bug me too. not on board with the scooter complaints though, i never really thought much of them one way or another and i use the bus all the time on property. it's not that big of a deal to wait 3 more minutes

 

[xdan0920]

Thanks for sharing. What the heck's going on with the AC?

A good question. I don't know. I think @articos may have had some good info about it last year, I'll take a look.

 

[xdan0920]

the stuff with the luggage would drive me nuts too. the A/C being down is definitely something that would bug me too. not on board with the scooter complaints though, i never really thought much of them one way or another and i use the bus all the time on property. it's not that big of a deal to wait 3 more minutes

You'll notice I didn't complain, merely passed along my experiences.

 

[xdan0920]

Day 3 continued...

After nap we still had 3 FP for magic kingdom in the afternoon. So we headed back there.

The bus boards are pretty unreliable, they seem to just adjust back and back and back. We waited close to 15 minutes for this bus. Which is long seeming, but inside Disney's 20 min window, so, ok.

MK was extremely crowded, but we had our FP, so were able to navigate the lines.

So...

Up first was the wonderful Barnstormer, my sons favorite attraction in WDW.

Next was Buzz, eh, man it's hard to find something nice to say about this. It's so run down.

Columbia Harbour House for dinner. 6 thumbs up. Lobster roll was great. So was the clam chowder. The upstairs seating wasn't crowded, which made the low AC setting far more bearable.

Jungle Cruise looked very good to me. Hyenas aren't as cool as the rhino, but what's the point of complaining?

Citrus Swirl is a perfect snack. It's literally perfect. Down with Dole Whips, up with Citrus Swirls.

Watched fireworks from the train station. They were good. Excited for the new version though. Seen wishes 17 too many times.

Bus ride home was not memorable, so I assume it wasn't bad?

 

[xdan0920]

Day 4 coming up tomorrow.

Hollywood Studios, so it's gonna be a short, largely not positive, post.

 

[AndyS2992]

Thanks for sharing. What the heck's going on with the AC?

AC was cut back across WDW a few years ago to cut down on costs as it is very expensive operate and maintain 24/7 as well as being part of Disney's pledge to be more environmentally friendly.

 

[disney4life2008]

Staying at AKL Jambo House...

I am gonna try and just hit some bullet points here. We will start off with post 1, night one...

We arrived at MCO at 9:12pm. Headed straight to Magic Express, boarded a waiting motor coach. We then proceeded to wait for approximately 45 minutes to leave. They packed the bus to bursting, and people were standing in the back(against policy, but I guess efficiency beats safety) we were the 3rd stop and didn't arrive at our resort till a little after 11.

We were then woken up at 2am by a call from bell services asking if they could deliver our luggage. This was after I spoke to them at 11, and specifically asked them not to call or knock that night. I was infuriated. Also, despite talking to the front desk and bell services, I was basically given a "we're sorry" shoulder shrug. Which, believe it or not, doesn't help with my 3 year olds lack of sleep.

Anyhoo, that's day 1. Good start.

I do agree. Once i am sleep, i do not want to be interrupted.

 

[Tom]

AC was cut back across WDW a few years ago to cut down on costs as it is very expensive operate and maintain 24/7 as well as being part of Disney's pledge to be more environmentally friendly.

All unfortunate reasons.

 

[xdan0920]

So. Day 4. Hollywood Studios...

Bus came in approximately 15 minutes. One scooter already on from Kidani. HS is a long bus ride from AKL too. So we were a bit late getting to the park.

That lateness turned out not to matter very much though, as there is essentially nothing to do here.

We rode TSMM with a FP, then walked around, looked in the Launch Bay, saw Disney Jr, and decided to hightail it out of there. This park needs its two expansions in the worst possible way.

Back to the pool for the afternoon. Bus took the full 20 minutes to arrive, no scooter this time.

We had 6p reservations for T-Rex. So we headed down to the bus stop at 5pm.

 

[xdan0920]

This is where Disney's bus service went off the rails. A Springs bus was 40 minutes in coming. Yes I timed it. I wear a watch so it's not rocket science. We didn't get to DS until 6:15. That's pretty unacceptable at that time of day.

Anyway. Got to T-Rex at 6:25. Checked in, then waited 40 minutes for our table. Here's my brief review.....

The food is basically warmed over garbage. I had the chicken sandwich. Megan had a Ceasar salad no protein $16, and a soup. The atmosphere is neat, but $135 with Tax and Tip for 2 adults and a 3 year old is wild, even if the atmosphere was neat.

Headed straight back to the bus stop since it was now quite late after all the waiting. So we get there at 8:45. The one group ahead of us had been waiting 5 minutes already. The bus showed up at 9:30. That's not a joke. I watched 4 All Star Music busses come in that time. Our bus was of course going to be packed to capacity. Then a scooter came. Now here comes a complaint. The scooter showed up as the bus showed up. That group of course got right on, took up 7 seats, and people who were waiting, then had to wait for the next bus. That's very unacceptable.

Anyway. 30 minutes after that we were back to the resort.

 

[Zipadeelady]

I don't mind the honest opinions so thanks for sharing. The only thing I can comment on are the crowds.....Isn't it still considered "Spring Break" time. I would assume it would be extremely busy and would know that when planning a trip in April.

 

[xdan0920]

I don't mind the honest opinions so thanks for sharing. The only thing I can comment on are the crowds.....Isn't it still considered "Spring Break" time. I would assume it would be extremely busy and would know that when planning a trip in April.

I knew. Not complaining, simply observing. If you read the News and Rumors threads, you might think WDW was devoid of guests and close to hanging a closed sign. I'm here to say, it's packed, all parks and DS have been jammed.

 

[Zipadeelady]

Any good eats at DS? I haven't been there in years and have been looking at some menu's, there are a lot of places that sound great.