Well, decided to take the family on a surpise vacation to DisneyWorld last week and had a mnixed bag of an experience.
We stayed at the Coronado Springs Resort and arrived Sunday evening around 6EST. The checkin was a disaster, the lady at the check in desk must have been new as she ended up double charging my credit card for my entire vacation. We get this resolved (partially took 4 days for the double charge to be removed from my card) and get to our room to find a musty smell and dirty bedspreads where it looked like dirty footprints on the bed. The remote for the TV was missing batteries as well, I called the front desk and they said they would get someone right out. I waited an hour and nothing. I called the front desk again and was informed that they only had 1 person in housekeeping working the off shift for the 1200 room resort and that she would get to it soon. We then decided to hit downtown Disney for dinner.
We finally caught a bus and headed downtown after waiting nearly an hour and wound up going to T-Rex. I have to say that my boys 15 and 9 both enjoyed it as did the wife and I. The food was ok by Disney standards with very large portions. We walked around DD for awhile and headed back to the resort to find the housekeeping never showed up. We took the bedspreads off and went to bed anyway.
The next morning I caught housekeeping and they resolved all the issues with the room, We grabbed a quick bite for breakfast and headed to catch a bus to Typhon Lagoon around 10:30 am only to see all the other buses to other parks come 3 times with no DD/ Typhon Lagoon buses anywhere. I couldnt believe in an hour we never saw 1 bus to where we were wanting to go. Finally we gave up and went to Blizzard Beach instead. It was raining off and on, but we were wet anyway since we were at a water park. We had a great time there basically having the park to ourselves as most people left due to the rain. We headed back to the resort changed and went to Animal Kingdom to eat at the Rain Forest Cafe for an early dinner. The food was nearly identical to T-Rex so it was decent and a large amount. WE then went to MK and there was very little wait for most of the rides due to the rain. The weather finally cleared before the last parade. There is something about being in MK at night, main street is really nice at night time.
On Tuesday morning, we were wanting to go to Animal Kingdom but again there wasnt a bus to be found going to AK, after over an hour we decided to go back to MK to ride all the rides we didnt get to on Monday and the place was packed. Fast Pass was the key. We were in the park most of the day and had a good time. We then went back to the resort and hung out there in the pool the rest of the afternoon and evening. The main pool was extremely nice and wasnt too far from our room. We decided to go off of Disney to Outback for dinner as its our favorite place to eat.
On Wednesday we were wanting to go to Hollywood Studios and you guessed it, the bus didnt show up for an hour after we had seen all the other park buses come by, not sure what the deal was, but it was a pain. We finally caught a jam packed bus and made it to the park, which was only a couple miles from where we were staying. I could have walked to the park quicker. LOL The place was packed as we expected but thanks to Fast Pass, we got to ride the Rockin Roller Coaster with very little wait. We didnt ride the tower of terror as there was a huge line and it was hot and we wanted to hit Typhoon Lagoon. We got to TL and the wave pool was so packed you couldnt even get in it, the same with the lazy river. The crowd finally thinned out and we had a blast in the wave pool and the new Gusher Crusher ride. WE rode that ride about 5 times right before closing with hardly no wait at all. We headed back to the resort and wanted to head back to Hollywood Studios for the late Fantasmic show. I had seen this show back over 13 years ago, but with the new enhancements, this one was simply amazing, probably the best experience of the whole trip. We ended up eating in the different parks for our meals this day as we didnt want to waste any park time.
On Thursday we had to go to Animal Kingdom and couldnt believe that the 1st bus that came was AK, our luck had changed. LOL We got in right away and rode 5 rides within the 1st 90 minutes with very little waiting. We spent half of the day in AK and had a blast. Expidition Everest is an OK Coaster, but not to the level of Rocking Roller Coaster. That is the best one I have ever rode. We finished off our last stop at Epcot and then headed to the beach for the rest of our trip.
Overall it was a good experience with some annoyances, the buses really no excuse for this at all. The room should have been in pristine condition for the prices we had to pay as I could have stayed at the Hilton for a much lesser price and not had to deal with the bus issue. Will go back again but will probably stay off of Disney next time, spent valuable park time waiting on and riding on buses when this was supposed to be the major perk of staying on a Disney Resort. Also saw on the news while there that the EMH may be getting reduced or eliminated.
We stayed at the Coronado Springs Resort and arrived Sunday evening around 6EST. The checkin was a disaster, the lady at the check in desk must have been new as she ended up double charging my credit card for my entire vacation. We get this resolved (partially took 4 days for the double charge to be removed from my card) and get to our room to find a musty smell and dirty bedspreads where it looked like dirty footprints on the bed. The remote for the TV was missing batteries as well, I called the front desk and they said they would get someone right out. I waited an hour and nothing. I called the front desk again and was informed that they only had 1 person in housekeeping working the off shift for the 1200 room resort and that she would get to it soon. We then decided to hit downtown Disney for dinner.
We finally caught a bus and headed downtown after waiting nearly an hour and wound up going to T-Rex. I have to say that my boys 15 and 9 both enjoyed it as did the wife and I. The food was ok by Disney standards with very large portions. We walked around DD for awhile and headed back to the resort to find the housekeeping never showed up. We took the bedspreads off and went to bed anyway.
The next morning I caught housekeeping and they resolved all the issues with the room, We grabbed a quick bite for breakfast and headed to catch a bus to Typhon Lagoon around 10:30 am only to see all the other buses to other parks come 3 times with no DD/ Typhon Lagoon buses anywhere. I couldnt believe in an hour we never saw 1 bus to where we were wanting to go. Finally we gave up and went to Blizzard Beach instead. It was raining off and on, but we were wet anyway since we were at a water park. We had a great time there basically having the park to ourselves as most people left due to the rain. We headed back to the resort changed and went to Animal Kingdom to eat at the Rain Forest Cafe for an early dinner. The food was nearly identical to T-Rex so it was decent and a large amount. WE then went to MK and there was very little wait for most of the rides due to the rain. The weather finally cleared before the last parade. There is something about being in MK at night, main street is really nice at night time.
On Tuesday morning, we were wanting to go to Animal Kingdom but again there wasnt a bus to be found going to AK, after over an hour we decided to go back to MK to ride all the rides we didnt get to on Monday and the place was packed. Fast Pass was the key. We were in the park most of the day and had a good time. We then went back to the resort and hung out there in the pool the rest of the afternoon and evening. The main pool was extremely nice and wasnt too far from our room. We decided to go off of Disney to Outback for dinner as its our favorite place to eat.
On Wednesday we were wanting to go to Hollywood Studios and you guessed it, the bus didnt show up for an hour after we had seen all the other park buses come by, not sure what the deal was, but it was a pain. We finally caught a jam packed bus and made it to the park, which was only a couple miles from where we were staying. I could have walked to the park quicker. LOL The place was packed as we expected but thanks to Fast Pass, we got to ride the Rockin Roller Coaster with very little wait. We didnt ride the tower of terror as there was a huge line and it was hot and we wanted to hit Typhoon Lagoon. We got to TL and the wave pool was so packed you couldnt even get in it, the same with the lazy river. The crowd finally thinned out and we had a blast in the wave pool and the new Gusher Crusher ride. WE rode that ride about 5 times right before closing with hardly no wait at all. We headed back to the resort and wanted to head back to Hollywood Studios for the late Fantasmic show. I had seen this show back over 13 years ago, but with the new enhancements, this one was simply amazing, probably the best experience of the whole trip. We ended up eating in the different parks for our meals this day as we didnt want to waste any park time.
On Thursday we had to go to Animal Kingdom and couldnt believe that the 1st bus that came was AK, our luck had changed. LOL We got in right away and rode 5 rides within the 1st 90 minutes with very little waiting. We spent half of the day in AK and had a blast. Expidition Everest is an OK Coaster, but not to the level of Rocking Roller Coaster. That is the best one I have ever rode. We finished off our last stop at Epcot and then headed to the beach for the rest of our trip.
Overall it was a good experience with some annoyances, the buses really no excuse for this at all. The room should have been in pristine condition for the prices we had to pay as I could have stayed at the Hilton for a much lesser price and not had to deal with the bus issue. Will go back again but will probably stay off of Disney next time, spent valuable park time waiting on and riding on buses when this was supposed to be the major perk of staying on a Disney Resort. Also saw on the news while there that the EMH may be getting reduced or eliminated.
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