LeafsFanNL's Back where it all began TR.

I’d like to do a little trip report on a recent WDW trip we just completed. We stayed at POFQ from March 26th through April 5th, 2013, for a total of nine days and 10 nights.

We are a family of four, our two 11 year old boys and Mom and Me, late fortyish parents from St. John’s Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

We have been fortunate to have had seven previous Disney trips from our first stay during Easter week at POFQ in 2007, (hence the TR title), to an interesting 16 day trip last June/July, where we combined six days at POR, took a seven night Carnival cruise, and three nights which were supposed to be at CBR, but ended up at POFQ.

After we booked our 2012 trip, we found very rare Easter frequent flyer tickets for this Easter, and jumped at the opportunity. This gave us two trips in a 365 day period, so AP’s and the TiW card were purchased last summer.
Day 0 March 26th.
We got up at 3am Eastern to catch a 4:30 am flight. The weather had been forecast to be very foggy for several days to come, which happens a lot here, but we were lucky to get out on schedule. Our flight stopped in Halifax long enough to change planes for a flight to Montreal. Both flights were about 2 hours allowing me to watch Jack Reacher which was a pretty good movie.
Unfortunately we had an 8.5 hour layover in Montreal, which passed ever so slowly, before we caught the 3 hour flight to MCO. The boys handled it well, playing games on their iPad Minis, Mom napped a bit, I watched Top Gear on my new iPhone.
The flight to MCO was good and got there on time. DME was slower to load and leave than usual, and we rolled in to POFQ at about 11pm. The front desk was unable to meet our room request, but gave us a room in bldg 4 overlooking the parking lot on the third floor, telling us they would have the requested room the next day.
We took the room keys and hit the hay, as 21 hour days are hard indeed. We careful not to unpack too much, as we were moving the next day. We did note the newer lighter blue room keys and the new slotless door locks on the room doors.
It was good to be back at POFQ, which after visiting several resorts is our favorite choice of all the Disney resorts.



 
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LeafsFanNL

LeafsFanNL

Active Member
Original Poster
Day One Wednesday, March 27.



Somewhat surprisingly after a 21 hour travel day, we were up early and we're hoping to make it to a park for rope drop. We made the choice to go to MK in time for the 7 AM extra magic hours. Interestingly, MK had morning EMH every day of our stay. We checked the weather outside and to our surprise it was see your breath cold. I put on my t-shirt and shorts and a very slight coat. DW had packed cereal, and paper bowls and plastic spoons as cereal is the boys usual breakfast choice, so we quickly ate, repacked our bags for the room change and headed out.





We grabbed the bus to the Magic Kingdom getting there around 10 to 7. The sun was just rising, and it was pretty dark. We are able to go through the old-fashioned admission turnstiles with our eight-month old annual passes we bought for my last June/ July trip. The line was short and made it into the park at around five after seven. The boys got a picture with Mrs. Bunny rabbit not realizing that this was part of the promotion Limited Time Magic. We proceeded to do Space Mountain with about a 15 minute wait. We then went over to the new fantasyland and had a look around. We saw the restaurants and the new castle then decided to do the little mermaid ride which we much enjoyed. Being there early, we had no appreciable wait. We then rode Pooh and Peter Pan and decided to make our way to Adventureland and Frontierland which together is our favorite part of the park. We did haunted mansion, rode Big Thunder, picked up FP’s for Big Thunder, rode Pirates, the Jungle Cruise, Tiki Room before stopping for Funnel Cakes. As mentioned the temperature was cold this morning so it really was too cold to do Splash. So we went back to big thunder and then had Casey’s for lunch. We left the park at roughly 12:30 or so. A pretty good morning. I should note that even though it was a 10 on the CC, it didn’t get bad until about 10:30.



We returned to the resort, got a new room on the ground floor of Building 5 facing the courtyard. I went to baggage services to get our luggage. Everyone relaxed in the room, and I took a taxi to load up on water and pop. Even the $40 round trip added to the price of the beverages was much less than I would have paid for the same drinks on property.



The kids had a short swim, and then we prepared to go to dinner at Flying Fish. We took the HS bus, and headed over for the Friendship boat. There was a boat docked at the wharf, and I figured that we would get on the boat. Sadly for us, some organized group was taken to a desk where they were given a cocktail, and then were loaded on the boat, which left ¾ empty. Not a happy moment. We had to wait another 20 minutes or so, and then just managed to get on. We made the ADR just in time.



We ate at Flying Fish in 2010, and I was looking forward to it. DW had a fish meal, I had a small steak and the potato wrapped snapper. Our meals were alright, but not close to being what I remembered, or what I would expect for the price. This would be the beginning of a pattern.



All hands were tired so we skipped entering Epcot to see Illuminations, and took a taxi back to POFQ. Everyone was asleep by 10 pm or so.
 
Z

Zman-ks

Well-Known Member
In for your TR! :)
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LeafsFanNL

LeafsFanNL

Active Member
Original Poster
Day 2 Thursday, March 28, 2013

We were able to get up relatively early this morning about 7:30 am. I poked my head outside and it was another see your breath kind of day. OK by me, it wouldn’t be stinking hot, and I am used to the cold. Our wake up time of 7:30 ruled out Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios for our second day of touring, but Epcot was opening at 9:00 am so we grabbed some cereal and headed over there. We rolled in just before rope drop. We noticed there was a much longer line for the old admission media then the new. We we're back to basically where you purchase the tickets so we were a while getting in. We did notice that the new admission lines were moving much, much faster. Taking that into account, I decided that doing both Test Track and Soarin’ was going to be an issue. My wife really loves soarin’ and we would have seven parks days after this day so we dropped Test Track.

We decided to go and get fast passes for Soarin’. We got over there and found that the standby line was already getting fairly long. I think it was over an hour already and we weren’t going to wait that long so we grabbed fastpasses for about 10 am. We rode Living with the Land, and I must say I now appreciate why people really enjoy it. We headed over to Journey into Imagination which is probably my secret guilty pleasure in Epcot. It was then time to head back to the land pavilion in time to ride soaring. When we left the Land we were gobsmacked with how quickly the crowds had built, and how many of them seemed to be coming right for the Land pavilion. I don’t know how long the Fastpasses lasted, but it could not have been long.

After Soarin’ we decided to head over and spend a bit of time in the Seas with Nemo pavilion. We have rushed through here in the past so we decided to take our time. We did Nemo, and I am more of a fan of this than many. The technology is impressive. We them saw Turtle Talk with Crush and then spent a good 40 minutes looking around the exhibits.

It was then around 11, so we decided to head over to World Showcase. We really didn’t have a plan, but I figured that we would spend a fair bit of time in WS, unlike the last couple of Summer trips when the heat really did us in. We decided to start by riding Maelstrom before it got busy. So we headed over to the Norway Pavilion. For me Maesltrom is the only must do in WS, so we walked on and rode it.

All hands were hungry so a discussion took place about whether we would snack in Norway or get Fish and Chips in the UK. Deep fried Haddock and Guinness won out over school bread, so backtracking all the way, we headed nonstop to the UK skipping through Canada. I don’t know if we would have made this choice had it been July or August.

As an aside I really wish they would change the costumes in the Canadian pavilion. I know no one who has a red and black plaid lumberjack shirt.

It wasn’t noon so the pub wasn’t serving food, but the stand was, so while DW and the boys took seats in the pub, I got four fish and chips. A lot of people from the UK and Ireland prefer Newfoundland Fish and Chips to UK style, but I always like what I get in the Pavillion. I got a Guinness, which goes well with the meal as always. It was still nice and cool and not too crowded after we ate, so we decided to complete a full leisurely counterclockwise trip around WS.
We explored the shops in the UK, before crossing into France. I had in mind going to see the France Movie, which I had not before, and checking out the new Patisserie. However, everyone was so full, they wanted to walk off the food before sitting still for a movie or seeing more food.

We ended up stopping next in the Japan Pavilion. This is a pavilion that in trips past we haven’t explored in detail, so we did so. It is hard to predict what will be a hit with the kids, but I have to say the big hit was Mitsukoshi. The boys love the Pokémon card game, and they found a whole bunch of card sets and binders that you cannot purchase locally, or in North America at all. Both bough some, son number two basically spent just about his souvenir budget and then some on Pokémon items and a Domo hat. I told him that was a good idea because you should always buy things that you can't get home when you're away.

Needless to say, a lot of time was spent in Japan. We stopped for a little while in America and watched the Fife and Drum group perform the US national anthem which was good, then we proceeded into Italy. Unless we are dining we tend to skip over Italy. WE ended up in Germany for a long visit as much money was spent in Karamel Kuche. The boys were getting weary, so we decided to make one more stop. We decided to stop and spend some time in China which is another pavilion we hadn't visited much. We looked around, and watched the movie, which was a first for us.

We had been looking at all the Flower and Wine festival, or is it the Food and Garden festival ? Just kidding, but hadn’t sampled the wares yet. We did grab soft shelled tacos in Mexico which were divine.

We went through the Odyssey, exchanging our old AP's for new ones. There was no wait. Make sure all adults have picture ID's


We proceeded through Future World exiting after 3:00PM

Arriving back at POFQ, we noted how nice it was for the room to be so close to the bus stop. We also noted that it is quicker to get to our room in building five via, the parking lot, and passing through building four, than it was via the lobby.

Everyone was tired, I think as a result of two solid days of touring and the 21 hour travel day, but we had ADR’s for O’Hana at about 8:00 PM. I could easily have skipped it, but I had always wanted to try it, and I wasn’t spending $40 to skip it.

It was still fairly cool Maybe 65-70 degrees but the boys and I had a short swim.

I find that when we are tired after a hard day of touring spending money on a taxi is money well spent, so we took one to the Poly. We were there on time, but had to wait 30 minutes to be seated. The resorts were very busy and crowded. As much hype as the Poly gets, one big strike against it IMO is how busy and noisy the Ceremonial house always seems to be.

We sat to eat, and we were starving. The bread came out and it was good, so was the salad. I liked the dumplings, and the noodles but I was the only one, and the wings were kind of meh. We liked the chicken, but not the pork, and were too full for the beef. Everyone just loved the dessert. One of the boys is picky and he had chicken fingers and chips instead. The service was top notch, and we enjoyed the entertainment. In summary, I wouldn’t need to eat here again.

I didn’t want to subject the boys to another bus trip, so we took a taxi back to the POFQ and all hands were in bed quick. Everyone was dead tired so we tentatively decided to sleep in a little, and probably do Downtown Disney on Friday.
 
LizC

LizC

Well-Known Member
Great TR so far. I agree with you about taking a cab, sometimes saving the money just isn't worth it.

Can't wait for the rest! :)
 
LeafsFanNL

LeafsFanNL

Active Member
Original Poster
Yeah we figured out the cab thing coming back from Jiko with two five year olds on the last night of our first trip.
 
LeafsFanNL

LeafsFanNL

Active Member
Original Poster
Day three March 29th Good Friday



So after the 21 hour travel day and two pretty full days in the parks by Good Friday morning we are all pretty tired. We had pretty much decided the night before that unless we all got up very early we would go to Downtown Disney which is how it worked out.



We probably got up around 7:30am, the kids had breakfast and I went out and got a coffee at the food court. One thing I want to mention is one of the reasons I really like French Quarter is how short of a distance you have to walk anywhere you might need to go. It’s just so easy. Each morning I would run out and get one coffee between the two of us as it was so close and no big deal to do.



So we're all ready to go around 850 or so and walk down around the Boatdock. We took a few pictures but found out that the boat didn't start running for Downtown Disney until 10 am. So we walked out towards the front of the resort, stopping in the resort shop. In our Disney community we all rank the resorts by various criteria and to me the resort shop is something else I use to rank the resorts. The French Quarter resort shop is good but not great. I would put it on par with Caribbean Beach and the Beach Club, behind Wilderness Lodge and Pop Century and way behind Riverside, which the best on property that I have seen.



So we grabbed the Downtown Disney bus around 9:15 and went out to the Marketplace. Highlights included a stop in Goofy’s candy store where the kids got a design your own caramel apple, while DW and I had a cheese danish, my real Disney snack weakness. We spent the most time at the world of Disney. I am a bit of a sucker for Disney Merch especially t-shirts, but did not buy one there. I bought the boys shirts, one picked up the turkey leg shirt, the other picked out the shirt with the Mickey rice krispy treats, with one missing an ear. I ended up getting a slight backpack as we had forgotten to pack one.



We proceeded westward passing the Lego store as the boys are past that stage and we headed over towards Pleasure Island. On previous trips we just hadn’t made it past Raglan Road, but this time as it was nice and cool we made it all the way to La Nouba. It's always nice to come across something new. We didn’t shop but enjoyed seeing where everything was. We decided to take the boat back to the marketplace, and then catch the boat upriver and it went fine but it was a rather slow process, probably waiting 15 minutes for the first boat and then another 20 minutes to go back upriver but we weren’t in a hurry. We ate at the food court, using our nice TiW discount at the POFQ food court. The mornings had been cold but we were noticing that the afternoons were getting a little warmer day by day. We had a nice rest off our feet, and then went swimming.



That evening we had ADR’s at Sci Fi, which we had not tried before. We took the bus over, made it through the new turnstiles which were now becoming a hit with us. We now had 30 minutes before our ADR, and the wait time for Star Tours said 10 minutes. It was a walk on. I should note that the crowds st the Park were very light considering the whole resort was at a 10. I'm not the hugest Star Wars fan, but I have always liked Star Tours especially after the refurb. I do find that towards the end of it I can get a little ill, and can’t ride it in sucession. We headed the short distance to the Sci Fi and checked in a little early. We we're waiting 15-20 minutes which on par or less than what we had experienced so far. DW had noticed that some people who had checked in after us were being seated. She asked the people at the front desk and apparently our name somehow got dropped off the list. The young lady was very apologetic, (needlessly I thought) and seated us almost immediately. After we were seated the manager came over and he was very apologetic for the mixup. He was effusive in his apologies which we thought was nice and he asked the kids what was their favourite ride. I guess he was expecting to hear TSMM, but they responded ToT. He then give us fast passes for both rides sweet!!



We had our meals and listening to all kinds of people in the online community we kept to burgers, fries and shakes thought they were fantastic. We really enjoyed the meal, and the clips of the movies. The clips gave us a chance to describe drive ins to the boys. They especially liked the attack of the 50 foot woman.



We left there I would say roughly something like 8:50 and headed over to TSMM which had about a 10 minute FP wait. We did the attraction which was fun and headed down Sunset Boulevard. I love Hollywood Tower of Terror but it is on the edge of what I like to do and I never really been on it with a full stomach so I was more than little nervous but after about a 20 minute FP wait everything went well and we finished that ride about 9:45. It was too late to line up for Fantasmic and to be quite honest we are not huge fans of this nighttime extravaganza. We then proceeded to leave the park and head back to our hotel. The line at the POR stop was well past the end of the corral and was probably four busses long. The POFQ line was much less than one bus long. We headed back to our resort.



I was quite delighted that we'd done TSMM and ToT. So far was I was concerned we knocked off the attractions at the Studios that we have to do at rope drop.



We went to bed at with a plan for the following day that depending on what time we got up we would go to a certain park. Epcot was opening at 9 daily, MK at 7, and the other two at 8, subject to EMH. No set plan was in place
 
PolynesianPrincess

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Love the report so far! How nice of the folks at Sci Fi to give you those FPs! Just goes to show there is still some Disney magic alive and well there!! :)

POFQ looks like such a beautiful resort. Hoping someday we get the chance to stay there :)
 
LeafsFanNL

LeafsFanNL

Active Member
Original Poster
derelicte19 said:
POFQ looks like such a beautiful resort. Hoping someday we get the chance to stay there :)
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Outside of the BC, it would be my #1 choice for places to stay, and that includes WL. Even if prices were the same, I'd take POFQ over WL.

Saved a bundle using TiW in the food court there as well.
 

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