Trip report 1/7-1/17.
In a nut shell. All Disney Trip. No Universal days. Flew Southwest. Advantage car rental.
Pop Century: A very well kept hotel. This was our second time staying there. The staff was superb and we received excellent service the entire time. We did online check in a few days before the trip, so when we arrived our room was ready even though it was 11 am. This time in the Number 3 building, The Tramp. Room was kept very clean with plenty of towels. Only problem was luke warm water which never got better despite the Marathon surge leaving. One thing Disney needs to look at, in POP is the concrete between Lady and Tramp buildings. The fake bricks stamped into the concrete are very rough and caused several other guests luggage wheels to break.
Marathon Crowds: Crowded, very crowded. Disney shut down ¾ of the roads on property creating one heck of a traffic snarl. I knew a backway into the Magic Kingdom area, but even still we barely made it to our ADR for 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian and we left and hour and 20 minutes early. Most attractions were in the 40 to 60 minute wait time. After the Marathon crowds left, around the 12th, the wait times dropped a lot, about 50%. Never do marathon time again, lesson learned. When we left cheerleaders were starting to arrive, so we dodged that bullet.
My Magic +: Worth every penny we spent. We got as many pictures as we could, approx 600. Street photographers and princess and character meet and greets as well. Having someone take pictures so you are never missing a member of your party is important to us. Plus, you get pics that are not possible otherwise.
Magic Bands: I am a firm believer in them. And we love the magic bands. Easy to use, comfortable. We forgot we were wearing them most of the time. Using Fastpass + was easy, getting into the parks was easy, using them for purchases were easy. They were having issues at most of our ADR restaurants with the hand held scanners, and also at some of the counter and snack locations as well. Overall, the magic bands are great, no real complaints from us on them. Yes, I confirmed Disney uses long range readers to track movements, to me this is no big deal, an I can see how they can use it to divert crowds, put more meet and greets out and about, and send out roving unscheduled shows.
Fast Pass+: It needs tweeking. It does work, mainly for people who know its ins and outs. It definitely needs to me modified for people that park hop. It needs to update itself faster to allow you to get fastpasses faster after you have either used, cancelled, or had a fastpass expire. If others fail to learn the system, the people that know how should be allowed to get additional fast passes. Otherwise the system is pretty good, reliable, and fast checking in with the magic bands.
Dining Plan: We bought the deluxe version. We did three sit down meals per day, with two snacks per day. It was a lot of food, way more than we could eat. That being said, we were never very hungry. If you walk out of any restaurant hungry it is your own fault.
Character and Princess Dining: We loved it. Hands down a great experience even for two adults with no children. The characters were spot on, the princesses were beautiful. And my personal favorite, Mary Poppins made me melt and stammer when I met her. If anyone is interested, please do the character and/or princess dining. There are a lot of kids but it is not as bad as you may think. The characters continuously go from table to table. Everyone gets their turn in an organized manner. It can chaos at the buffet lines, but otherwise bearable even to me, I get weirded out when surrounded by too many people.
The parks:
It should be noted that everything was decked out for Christmas at Epcot and Magic Kingdom. The music got to be annoying even to my wife who loves Christmas. Finally by the 14th everything was mostly down. The crane was behind the Castle in all its glory. We got to see the Castle with its lights, which, we though was gorgeous. Castle with lights on it= awesome!
Studios:The BAH is coming down quickly. Three tiers were taken down while we were there. Other than that, everything was operating as it should be. Again, large crowds made it a tad difficult but it was not that bad. We think the Studios needs more character greet spots, and more photopass photographers.
EPCOT: Fully open with the exception of the Maelstrom which is being replaced. Larger than normal crowds on some days. Plenty of princess and character meets around World Showcase. But, like the studios, they need more photopass photographers around Future World and especially World Showcase. They had a few roving photographers in World Showcase, but they need some that are roving and stationary.
Magic Kingdom: Walls all over the hub. It is workable but a pain in the rump. Too crowded for them to run the trolley cars on mainstreet. Several rides were on and off 101 the entire visit. Splash, down for rehab as scheduled. Windmill on Tom Sawyers Island in rehab mode. Haunted Mansion did not have video or photos at the end of the ride as we had hoped. But, the new hitchhiking ghosts get our stamp of approval for being way cool. See Mickey Mouse on Mainstreet USA. You will love the experience. He talks, we flipped out because we loved it so much. It was a great suprise on my birthday to have Mickey talk to me and do a magic trick with me. DO IT!!!
Animal Kingdom: We call it Wall Kingdom. Over half of Discovery Island is walled off. Asia has walls all the way around it. And several other areas have walls everywhere. This is due to construction for Animal Kingdoms nighttime light show. The Safari tour was great as we hit it on an EMH morning, so all the animals were out and about with the exception of elephants. And wow were they close to the vehicles this time around.
The FOOD: This is our favorite part of any Disney trip. We buy the dining plan simply because everything is paid in advance except tips. Right off I can tell you we only had three bad experiences, and they could just have been off days for the restaurants.
Crystal Palace: Breakfast was wonderful. I have a particular item I love, the breakfast lasagna. Lunch was not bad, I prefer the breakfast. The buffet area was clean on all three visits. Food was always hot, and replenished quickly and often. Character dining for our breakfasts and lunch.
Liberty Tree Tavern: A lot of good food, served hot and as much as you want. We ate both lunch and dinner here. Dinner is all you can eat, lunch is standard service, single order.
Plaza Restaurant: Portions are really big. I had the turkey club and finished with a banana split sundae. Too much food to finish it all. We enjoyed the tomato bisque soup that we had for an appetizer.
Whispering Canyon Cafe: A dinner with no characters, we were seated out side of the main dining room. Food was great and served hot. The excellent bottomless milkshakes can fill you up fast, beware.
Gaston's Tavern: Lefou's Brew must be tried. And the chocolate croissant was great.
Dole Whip: We had 6 of them total. Uhhhhhhhh..........YUM!!
Trails End Buffet: A buffet that has classic american food. The food was good, and hot. Our server was actually from a few miles away in our home state, which made conversation interesting when she had a brief moment.
Ohana: As always, an excellent meal. As it was my birthday as well as several others, all of us got flower leis and happy birthday sang to us in Hawaiian.
Kona Cafe: We had Tonga Toast as well as the Big Kahuna. Bring an apetite with you. There is a lot of excellent food.
Captain Cooks: Great flatbread pizza. Very nicely refurbed.
Aloha Diner Show: Food was good, but the show was fantastic. It was fairly chilly that night so the food cooled off really fast before you could eat it.
1900 Park Fare: Character Breakfast and a dinner. The characters were wonderful, food was hot and fresh. The buffet area is fairly small, added almost as an afterthought by the design.
Akershus: Princess breakfast. Buffet and table service. Food was excellent as was the service. I have an allergy to egg yolks and the chef came out to consult and specialize my eggs for me. Disney is extremely accomodating for food allergies.
Biergarten: Dinner with a show. Food was different but very good, served buffet style, hot and fresh. We were seated with two families that are within an hours drive from our home. Funny ow that can happen in a huge resort like Disney.
Via Napoli: Positively the best pizza my wife and I have ever had. Check out the ovens!
Restaurant Marrakesh: Not as good as it used to be. The chicken was very dry, beef over seasoned, however, the servicewas very good.
Teppan Edo: If you have ever been to a hibachi place, leave your thoughts at the door. This is very traditional Japaneese show and food. Try the iced green tea and green tea ice cream with vanilla swirl. My wife and I interacted with our chef and got photos with him in poses and wearing his chefs hat. Wonderful servers and chef, cannot recommend this place enough.
Cape May Cafe: Another excellent breakfast buffet. Character dining with the characters dressed in beach wear.
Hollywood and Vine: Breakfast buffet, very noisy as well as subpar food buffet. The food buffet was serving hot food cold. For dinner, we were there at opening and the food was cold on the buffet. They did have make your own pasta, and that was very well prepared by a young lady.
Sci-fi Dine in Theater: The menu has changed since our last visit. While my wife enjoyed the Reuben sandwhich, I felt that the turkey sandwich was not very good. Saving grace was the milkshake for desert. Our server was wonderful, and very quick with the drink refills.
Tusker House: Great food, very spacious buffet area, best of any of the buffets we have eaten at. Characters were dressed in safari gear. Pleasant experience, that I recommend highly.
Ok, my opinion on what I did not like. The list is fairly short.
1. The lights along the roof lines of the Grand Floridian were off on 95% of the buildings.
2. No hot water at our resort even though we communicated this numerous times to the staff.
3. Not enough photopass photographers. When we talked to several of the photographers they told us Disney is working to resolve this issue.
4. Fastpass + can be a pain, but it just needs tweeking.
5. Security checks are useless and backup the entry areas especially at the Magic Kingdom. However, the security people are very good, nice, efficient. There was an exception one day for us, but it was resolved quickly.
Overall: A great trip, minor hiccups. New Fantasyland is wonderful and very well done.
Tips: Research snack credit options before your trip. We had not done this enough and were surprised by what you could get in places, especially in Epcot.
What we would like to see pertaining to characteres and photopass, VILLANS. We would have loved to have been able to get pics with Darth Vader, Maul and the Emperor as well as storm troopers. But why stop there, all of the other villans could be brought out. Heck I would gladly be a villan.
In a nut shell. All Disney Trip. No Universal days. Flew Southwest. Advantage car rental.
Pop Century: A very well kept hotel. This was our second time staying there. The staff was superb and we received excellent service the entire time. We did online check in a few days before the trip, so when we arrived our room was ready even though it was 11 am. This time in the Number 3 building, The Tramp. Room was kept very clean with plenty of towels. Only problem was luke warm water which never got better despite the Marathon surge leaving. One thing Disney needs to look at, in POP is the concrete between Lady and Tramp buildings. The fake bricks stamped into the concrete are very rough and caused several other guests luggage wheels to break.
Marathon Crowds: Crowded, very crowded. Disney shut down ¾ of the roads on property creating one heck of a traffic snarl. I knew a backway into the Magic Kingdom area, but even still we barely made it to our ADR for 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian and we left and hour and 20 minutes early. Most attractions were in the 40 to 60 minute wait time. After the Marathon crowds left, around the 12th, the wait times dropped a lot, about 50%. Never do marathon time again, lesson learned. When we left cheerleaders were starting to arrive, so we dodged that bullet.
My Magic +: Worth every penny we spent. We got as many pictures as we could, approx 600. Street photographers and princess and character meet and greets as well. Having someone take pictures so you are never missing a member of your party is important to us. Plus, you get pics that are not possible otherwise.
Magic Bands: I am a firm believer in them. And we love the magic bands. Easy to use, comfortable. We forgot we were wearing them most of the time. Using Fastpass + was easy, getting into the parks was easy, using them for purchases were easy. They were having issues at most of our ADR restaurants with the hand held scanners, and also at some of the counter and snack locations as well. Overall, the magic bands are great, no real complaints from us on them. Yes, I confirmed Disney uses long range readers to track movements, to me this is no big deal, an I can see how they can use it to divert crowds, put more meet and greets out and about, and send out roving unscheduled shows.
Fast Pass+: It needs tweeking. It does work, mainly for people who know its ins and outs. It definitely needs to me modified for people that park hop. It needs to update itself faster to allow you to get fastpasses faster after you have either used, cancelled, or had a fastpass expire. If others fail to learn the system, the people that know how should be allowed to get additional fast passes. Otherwise the system is pretty good, reliable, and fast checking in with the magic bands.
Dining Plan: We bought the deluxe version. We did three sit down meals per day, with two snacks per day. It was a lot of food, way more than we could eat. That being said, we were never very hungry. If you walk out of any restaurant hungry it is your own fault.
Character and Princess Dining: We loved it. Hands down a great experience even for two adults with no children. The characters were spot on, the princesses were beautiful. And my personal favorite, Mary Poppins made me melt and stammer when I met her. If anyone is interested, please do the character and/or princess dining. There are a lot of kids but it is not as bad as you may think. The characters continuously go from table to table. Everyone gets their turn in an organized manner. It can chaos at the buffet lines, but otherwise bearable even to me, I get weirded out when surrounded by too many people.
The parks:
It should be noted that everything was decked out for Christmas at Epcot and Magic Kingdom. The music got to be annoying even to my wife who loves Christmas. Finally by the 14th everything was mostly down. The crane was behind the Castle in all its glory. We got to see the Castle with its lights, which, we though was gorgeous. Castle with lights on it= awesome!
Studios:The BAH is coming down quickly. Three tiers were taken down while we were there. Other than that, everything was operating as it should be. Again, large crowds made it a tad difficult but it was not that bad. We think the Studios needs more character greet spots, and more photopass photographers.
EPCOT: Fully open with the exception of the Maelstrom which is being replaced. Larger than normal crowds on some days. Plenty of princess and character meets around World Showcase. But, like the studios, they need more photopass photographers around Future World and especially World Showcase. They had a few roving photographers in World Showcase, but they need some that are roving and stationary.
Magic Kingdom: Walls all over the hub. It is workable but a pain in the rump. Too crowded for them to run the trolley cars on mainstreet. Several rides were on and off 101 the entire visit. Splash, down for rehab as scheduled. Windmill on Tom Sawyers Island in rehab mode. Haunted Mansion did not have video or photos at the end of the ride as we had hoped. But, the new hitchhiking ghosts get our stamp of approval for being way cool. See Mickey Mouse on Mainstreet USA. You will love the experience. He talks, we flipped out because we loved it so much. It was a great suprise on my birthday to have Mickey talk to me and do a magic trick with me. DO IT!!!
Animal Kingdom: We call it Wall Kingdom. Over half of Discovery Island is walled off. Asia has walls all the way around it. And several other areas have walls everywhere. This is due to construction for Animal Kingdoms nighttime light show. The Safari tour was great as we hit it on an EMH morning, so all the animals were out and about with the exception of elephants. And wow were they close to the vehicles this time around.
The FOOD: This is our favorite part of any Disney trip. We buy the dining plan simply because everything is paid in advance except tips. Right off I can tell you we only had three bad experiences, and they could just have been off days for the restaurants.
Crystal Palace: Breakfast was wonderful. I have a particular item I love, the breakfast lasagna. Lunch was not bad, I prefer the breakfast. The buffet area was clean on all three visits. Food was always hot, and replenished quickly and often. Character dining for our breakfasts and lunch.
Liberty Tree Tavern: A lot of good food, served hot and as much as you want. We ate both lunch and dinner here. Dinner is all you can eat, lunch is standard service, single order.
Plaza Restaurant: Portions are really big. I had the turkey club and finished with a banana split sundae. Too much food to finish it all. We enjoyed the tomato bisque soup that we had for an appetizer.
Whispering Canyon Cafe: A dinner with no characters, we were seated out side of the main dining room. Food was great and served hot. The excellent bottomless milkshakes can fill you up fast, beware.
Gaston's Tavern: Lefou's Brew must be tried. And the chocolate croissant was great.
Dole Whip: We had 6 of them total. Uhhhhhhhh..........YUM!!
Trails End Buffet: A buffet that has classic american food. The food was good, and hot. Our server was actually from a few miles away in our home state, which made conversation interesting when she had a brief moment.
Ohana: As always, an excellent meal. As it was my birthday as well as several others, all of us got flower leis and happy birthday sang to us in Hawaiian.
Kona Cafe: We had Tonga Toast as well as the Big Kahuna. Bring an apetite with you. There is a lot of excellent food.
Captain Cooks: Great flatbread pizza. Very nicely refurbed.
Aloha Diner Show: Food was good, but the show was fantastic. It was fairly chilly that night so the food cooled off really fast before you could eat it.
1900 Park Fare: Character Breakfast and a dinner. The characters were wonderful, food was hot and fresh. The buffet area is fairly small, added almost as an afterthought by the design.
Akershus: Princess breakfast. Buffet and table service. Food was excellent as was the service. I have an allergy to egg yolks and the chef came out to consult and specialize my eggs for me. Disney is extremely accomodating for food allergies.
Biergarten: Dinner with a show. Food was different but very good, served buffet style, hot and fresh. We were seated with two families that are within an hours drive from our home. Funny ow that can happen in a huge resort like Disney.
Via Napoli: Positively the best pizza my wife and I have ever had. Check out the ovens!
Restaurant Marrakesh: Not as good as it used to be. The chicken was very dry, beef over seasoned, however, the servicewas very good.
Teppan Edo: If you have ever been to a hibachi place, leave your thoughts at the door. This is very traditional Japaneese show and food. Try the iced green tea and green tea ice cream with vanilla swirl. My wife and I interacted with our chef and got photos with him in poses and wearing his chefs hat. Wonderful servers and chef, cannot recommend this place enough.
Cape May Cafe: Another excellent breakfast buffet. Character dining with the characters dressed in beach wear.
Hollywood and Vine: Breakfast buffet, very noisy as well as subpar food buffet. The food buffet was serving hot food cold. For dinner, we were there at opening and the food was cold on the buffet. They did have make your own pasta, and that was very well prepared by a young lady.
Sci-fi Dine in Theater: The menu has changed since our last visit. While my wife enjoyed the Reuben sandwhich, I felt that the turkey sandwich was not very good. Saving grace was the milkshake for desert. Our server was wonderful, and very quick with the drink refills.
Tusker House: Great food, very spacious buffet area, best of any of the buffets we have eaten at. Characters were dressed in safari gear. Pleasant experience, that I recommend highly.
Ok, my opinion on what I did not like. The list is fairly short.
1. The lights along the roof lines of the Grand Floridian were off on 95% of the buildings.
2. No hot water at our resort even though we communicated this numerous times to the staff.
3. Not enough photopass photographers. When we talked to several of the photographers they told us Disney is working to resolve this issue.
4. Fastpass + can be a pain, but it just needs tweeking.
5. Security checks are useless and backup the entry areas especially at the Magic Kingdom. However, the security people are very good, nice, efficient. There was an exception one day for us, but it was resolved quickly.
Overall: A great trip, minor hiccups. New Fantasyland is wonderful and very well done.
Tips: Research snack credit options before your trip. We had not done this enough and were surprised by what you could get in places, especially in Epcot.
What we would like to see pertaining to characteres and photopass, VILLANS. We would have loved to have been able to get pics with Darth Vader, Maul and the Emperor as well as storm troopers. But why stop there, all of the other villans could be brought out. Heck I would gladly be a villan.
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