Walt Disney World trip report 1/13 – 1/20/13
Myself, DW, DD(16yo) & DS(19yo) We are DVC members. This is the first time since ’06 that we have vacationed at WDW for a week as a family. We have visited a day here and there during business trips and before and after cruises.
The weather was unusually warm for mid January 80 degrees each day until Thursday afternoon when it started to cool off.
The parks were generally quiet with short or no wait times on most rides until Saturday 1/19 when the Floridians came to play.
We landed at Orlando at airport at 10:30am it was nice to bypass the baggage claim and head right to the magical express. We arrived at Saratoga Springs resort where we had used the online check in. Check in was basically picking up our room keys. My wife had foot surgery in October. She’s still has limited mobility. So we “borrowed” a wheelchair from the resort for our stay. Each resort has a limited number of wheelchairs to lend out.
Our room was in the Springs section 3221 Two bedroom dedicated.
We were at EPCOT guest services by 12:45 trading in our AP vouchers for the actual passes. While there we also purchased a Tables in Wonderland card.
There was a guest at the window next to ours that lost her annual pass vouchers and receipt. I’m not sure if it was a happy outcome for her. I know she had to pay for passes to get in the park as she had family members waiting.
We had lunch at Sunshine Seasons in the Land. I got my first taste of WDW food prices of the trip. The food was very good though.
After lunch we rode Mission Space and Test Track 2.0 (more on TT 2.0 later).
At that point we received a text that our room was ready. So we headed back to our room to find our bags waiting for us. After a quick call to bell services our order from the garden grocer was delivered.
The following are thoughts and observations from our stay.
Our room was clean and in good repair. It appeared that the rooms were painted recently. The fold out couch was neither comfortable to sit on or sleep on. My sister in-law visited us for two nights slept on it (or tried to sleep on it).
We have heard complaints about the in room wifi. For our stay it worked flawlessly.
It seems that Disney has got away from leaving printed information in the room. Missing were a list of food options for in room dining.
SSR transportation: This is the only down side to this resort. The bus rides were long due to the size of the resort with 5 bus stops to hit. There were never enough busses during high volume times. I believe Disney realizes the issues because there was a transportation representative at the Springs bus stop every morning. He let everyone know the wait times.
The boat to Downtown Disney service worked well for us. Short wait and the captains were entertaining.
The High Rock Spring pool was close by. The water was warm. The DVC had activities at the pool everyday. There are two hot tubs by the pool. They were clean and well maintained.
We brought coffee and filters with us to brew our own in the morning. After two attempts at making coffee we opted for the food court. It must be the water because the coffee we brewed was undrinkable.
The Artist Palette:
Breakfast was good.
Lunch & Dinner menu was not your normal Disney food court selections. I had the Caprese flat bread which was great. My son had the artichoke flat bread and didn’t like it. The sandwiches’ were generally good. But the menu was void of burgers. There were two nights that I could have gone for a nice beacon cheeseburger.
Note: if you use Allears.net as a reference for menus the listing for this CS restaurant is not accurate.
Turf Club Bar & Grill: This was a nice surprise because there was never a wait. The food and Staff were excellent. I recommend the French onion Soup and the Grilled Romain Salad.
Mama Melrose: We always make ADR for this restaurant and have never been disappointed until now. The service was good but the food tasted like microwaved frozen food.
Artist Point (at the Wilderness Lodge): The food and service were very good. The portions are very small. I ordered the salmon which was good but that’s all you get just a tiny little bit of veggies and sauce on the plate besides the salmon for presentation. We ended with a big check even with the TIW card. Left still hungry and feeling cheated.
House of Blues (DTD): This was a highlight of our vacation the food was great. Our server was outstanding. We ordered jambalaya, buttermilk fried chicken, french dip, and burgers. All outstanding! Can’t wait to go back!!
Pacos Bill’s (MK) Food was good as always. My only comment is that the new digital menu boards show very unappetizing pictures of the food choises.
Crystal Palace (MK) Breakfast: Good as always. We have to get our French toast fix! We ate here twice this trip.
Fish and Chip Stand UK EPCOT: Excellent! The fish melted in my mouth! I wish this place was close to home.
Earl of Sandwiches DTD: Great Sandwiches worth the short wait. Not over priced at all.
Wolfgang Puck Express: Meatloaf Sandwich sooooo good!
Wolfgang Puck (table service) DTD Westside: this is the one restaurant that wouldn’t give us a table as a walk in.
We got there at 8:30 there were a bunch of (20+) empty tables. The hostess said come back after 9:00 and she might get us in? She wouldn’t reserve a table for us either. Plus she had a attitude. This was the best thing that could happen to us because we walked down to the House of Blues and had a great meal there.
Test Track 2.0: My son hated it. I would say I was disappointed. Designing your own car was neat. Story line once on the ride was nonexistent. Always love the “outside” portion of the ride and will continue to ride just for that.
Frozen strawberry margaritas’ at Mexico’s drink stand oh yea!
Inoventions: We have never spent a lot of time here in the pasted. This trip we made a point of spending time here. We enjoyed the IBM exhibit, The sum of all thrills & Stormstruck
Space Mountain: We always try to ride the right track. We feel it is a better ride. The only way to ride the right side is if you were using fastpass. L
Toy Story Mania: A great ride. But what is too long to wait for this ride? The wait time built up rather quickly in the morning. The fastpasses ran out almost as fast. I rode it once early in the day. This ride is like Soarin ride it in the early morning because the line is too long mid day.
Back Stage Tour: Could it get any shorter? I wonder if there are plans to replace it. The “live” tour guide is gone the personal touch is gone.
The new Fantasyland: We didn’t spend a lot of time here (my kids are not at that age). But look forward to exploring once the expansion is complete.
Tower of Tower: I had never been on this ride until this trip. Finally one of my kids agreed to ride TOT with me. Great ride sorry I didn’t ride by myself sooner.
We have always taken a laid back approach to our visits to WDW. This trip was no different. We only made 2 ADRs pre trip. We like to make our dinner choices on the fly and have never had an issue getting a table.
We watched the Wishes fireworks from the DVC members lounge atop the Bay Lake Tower. It gave us a different perspective. I think the best place to watch is still at the end of main street near the hub.
One of the most underrated attractions at WDW is people watching. The best part is there is no waiting, no need for a fastpass. Just find the nearest bench and you are set.
Typhoon Lagoon: Being we have PAP (if we had purchased passes for the length of stay we wouldn’t have hit TL) we went to TL early in the week when it was in the 80’s. The park was empty making desirable seating available. We stayed until the sun became hidden behind the clouds making it cold when you got out of the water.
Downtown Disney was busy every night. We went to Disney Quest one afternoon my kids felt it was geared mot for younger ones. We did enjoy racing each other on the NASCAR team machines. Again if we didn’t have PAP we wouldn’t have ventured here. (I find it hard to justify the cost of a one day pass at $44 each).
I’m not a big fan of fastpass. I thought of running all over the parks to chase fastpasses is not appealing to me. I do believe that too many fastpasses are dispensed for any given time. I would like to know what the formula is for dispensing FPs. Disney spends a lot of money implementing the fastpass system why? What is the reasoning?
Well that’s it for now. Next visit 12/23 to 12/30 Boardwalk Villas. I hope Santa finds us!
Myself, DW, DD(16yo) & DS(19yo) We are DVC members. This is the first time since ’06 that we have vacationed at WDW for a week as a family. We have visited a day here and there during business trips and before and after cruises.
The weather was unusually warm for mid January 80 degrees each day until Thursday afternoon when it started to cool off.
The parks were generally quiet with short or no wait times on most rides until Saturday 1/19 when the Floridians came to play.
We landed at Orlando at airport at 10:30am it was nice to bypass the baggage claim and head right to the magical express. We arrived at Saratoga Springs resort where we had used the online check in. Check in was basically picking up our room keys. My wife had foot surgery in October. She’s still has limited mobility. So we “borrowed” a wheelchair from the resort for our stay. Each resort has a limited number of wheelchairs to lend out.
Our room was in the Springs section 3221 Two bedroom dedicated.
We were at EPCOT guest services by 12:45 trading in our AP vouchers for the actual passes. While there we also purchased a Tables in Wonderland card.
There was a guest at the window next to ours that lost her annual pass vouchers and receipt. I’m not sure if it was a happy outcome for her. I know she had to pay for passes to get in the park as she had family members waiting.
We had lunch at Sunshine Seasons in the Land. I got my first taste of WDW food prices of the trip. The food was very good though.
After lunch we rode Mission Space and Test Track 2.0 (more on TT 2.0 later).
At that point we received a text that our room was ready. So we headed back to our room to find our bags waiting for us. After a quick call to bell services our order from the garden grocer was delivered.
The following are thoughts and observations from our stay.
Our room was clean and in good repair. It appeared that the rooms were painted recently. The fold out couch was neither comfortable to sit on or sleep on. My sister in-law visited us for two nights slept on it (or tried to sleep on it).
We have heard complaints about the in room wifi. For our stay it worked flawlessly.
It seems that Disney has got away from leaving printed information in the room. Missing were a list of food options for in room dining.
SSR transportation: This is the only down side to this resort. The bus rides were long due to the size of the resort with 5 bus stops to hit. There were never enough busses during high volume times. I believe Disney realizes the issues because there was a transportation representative at the Springs bus stop every morning. He let everyone know the wait times.
The boat to Downtown Disney service worked well for us. Short wait and the captains were entertaining.
The High Rock Spring pool was close by. The water was warm. The DVC had activities at the pool everyday. There are two hot tubs by the pool. They were clean and well maintained.
We brought coffee and filters with us to brew our own in the morning. After two attempts at making coffee we opted for the food court. It must be the water because the coffee we brewed was undrinkable.
The Artist Palette:
Breakfast was good.
Lunch & Dinner menu was not your normal Disney food court selections. I had the Caprese flat bread which was great. My son had the artichoke flat bread and didn’t like it. The sandwiches’ were generally good. But the menu was void of burgers. There were two nights that I could have gone for a nice beacon cheeseburger.
Note: if you use Allears.net as a reference for menus the listing for this CS restaurant is not accurate.
Turf Club Bar & Grill: This was a nice surprise because there was never a wait. The food and Staff were excellent. I recommend the French onion Soup and the Grilled Romain Salad.
Mama Melrose: We always make ADR for this restaurant and have never been disappointed until now. The service was good but the food tasted like microwaved frozen food.
Artist Point (at the Wilderness Lodge): The food and service were very good. The portions are very small. I ordered the salmon which was good but that’s all you get just a tiny little bit of veggies and sauce on the plate besides the salmon for presentation. We ended with a big check even with the TIW card. Left still hungry and feeling cheated.
House of Blues (DTD): This was a highlight of our vacation the food was great. Our server was outstanding. We ordered jambalaya, buttermilk fried chicken, french dip, and burgers. All outstanding! Can’t wait to go back!!
Pacos Bill’s (MK) Food was good as always. My only comment is that the new digital menu boards show very unappetizing pictures of the food choises.
Crystal Palace (MK) Breakfast: Good as always. We have to get our French toast fix! We ate here twice this trip.
Fish and Chip Stand UK EPCOT: Excellent! The fish melted in my mouth! I wish this place was close to home.
Earl of Sandwiches DTD: Great Sandwiches worth the short wait. Not over priced at all.
Wolfgang Puck Express: Meatloaf Sandwich sooooo good!
Wolfgang Puck (table service) DTD Westside: this is the one restaurant that wouldn’t give us a table as a walk in.
We got there at 8:30 there were a bunch of (20+) empty tables. The hostess said come back after 9:00 and she might get us in? She wouldn’t reserve a table for us either. Plus she had a attitude. This was the best thing that could happen to us because we walked down to the House of Blues and had a great meal there.
Test Track 2.0: My son hated it. I would say I was disappointed. Designing your own car was neat. Story line once on the ride was nonexistent. Always love the “outside” portion of the ride and will continue to ride just for that.
Frozen strawberry margaritas’ at Mexico’s drink stand oh yea!
Inoventions: We have never spent a lot of time here in the pasted. This trip we made a point of spending time here. We enjoyed the IBM exhibit, The sum of all thrills & Stormstruck
Space Mountain: We always try to ride the right track. We feel it is a better ride. The only way to ride the right side is if you were using fastpass. L
Toy Story Mania: A great ride. But what is too long to wait for this ride? The wait time built up rather quickly in the morning. The fastpasses ran out almost as fast. I rode it once early in the day. This ride is like Soarin ride it in the early morning because the line is too long mid day.
Back Stage Tour: Could it get any shorter? I wonder if there are plans to replace it. The “live” tour guide is gone the personal touch is gone.
The new Fantasyland: We didn’t spend a lot of time here (my kids are not at that age). But look forward to exploring once the expansion is complete.
Tower of Tower: I had never been on this ride until this trip. Finally one of my kids agreed to ride TOT with me. Great ride sorry I didn’t ride by myself sooner.
We have always taken a laid back approach to our visits to WDW. This trip was no different. We only made 2 ADRs pre trip. We like to make our dinner choices on the fly and have never had an issue getting a table.
We watched the Wishes fireworks from the DVC members lounge atop the Bay Lake Tower. It gave us a different perspective. I think the best place to watch is still at the end of main street near the hub.
One of the most underrated attractions at WDW is people watching. The best part is there is no waiting, no need for a fastpass. Just find the nearest bench and you are set.
Typhoon Lagoon: Being we have PAP (if we had purchased passes for the length of stay we wouldn’t have hit TL) we went to TL early in the week when it was in the 80’s. The park was empty making desirable seating available. We stayed until the sun became hidden behind the clouds making it cold when you got out of the water.
Downtown Disney was busy every night. We went to Disney Quest one afternoon my kids felt it was geared mot for younger ones. We did enjoy racing each other on the NASCAR team machines. Again if we didn’t have PAP we wouldn’t have ventured here. (I find it hard to justify the cost of a one day pass at $44 each).
I’m not a big fan of fastpass. I thought of running all over the parks to chase fastpasses is not appealing to me. I do believe that too many fastpasses are dispensed for any given time. I would like to know what the formula is for dispensing FPs. Disney spends a lot of money implementing the fastpass system why? What is the reasoning?
Well that’s it for now. Next visit 12/23 to 12/30 Boardwalk Villas. I hope Santa finds us!