When: Week of January 8, 2018
Where: Port Orleans French Quarter
Who: Me (50 yrs old) , Parents (first trip EVER for parents though I have been many times.)
Transportation: Magical Express from Airport
Advance Prep: We had our Magic Bands, I had made some fast pass reservations the week prior.
Dining Plan: Quick Service
Weather: It warmed up this week! Flip flops and tank tops!
A bit of a rocky start on this trip as I was sick (not a little sick, A LOT sick-ugh!) the first two days of trip.
This left the first timers to head out to Magic Kingdom and Epcot on their own. The day I felt better we went back to Magic Kingdom, and then to Hollywood Studios and Disney Springs the next day.
Thoughts on Trip:
Quick Service Dining Plan-I have no doubt this works well and is cost-saving for some families, but it wasn't for us. For example, I like toast, cereal, fruit and juice for breakfast. All of these together are not considered a meal in the rules of the dining plan, but rather each is counted as a snack. We ended up burning through snack credits real quick this way. Later I learned that you can trade three snack credits to equal one meal BUT you have to buy all three snacks at one time. So if I just wanted to grab a juice on the way out to the park I would have to either get three juices or the juice AND two other snacks at the same time--and that would count as one quick service meal. Not a huge deal but sometimes you just want the juice and not to have to carry around two other random snacks. In my opinion the best thing to do is to really consider how your family eats. If you are big on waffles-bacon-eggs-hash brown type meals then the quick service plan might be very cost effective. But if you are happy with a side salad and a yogurt (which count as snacks) for lunches then you are probably better off just paying out of pocket. This is what we will do next time. I must say though it was VERY convenient just to scan the band at check out!
Port Orleans French Quarter-I've stayed here several times and it certainly didn't disappoint this time. No problems with bus transportation to parks, longest we waited was 20 minutes. The grounds are well kept, staff was very friendly. Easy access and pretty walk to Riverside as well as the boat to Disney Springs are great perks of this resort!
The Parks and Disney Springs-Crowds were heavier than I anticipated but not out of control. The upkeep on the parks still seemed great to me. Disappointed that The Great Movie Ride is gone from Hollywood Studios though. The Studios is under a LOT of construction, including immediately outside the gate. Inside it seems there is a lean towards lots of Star Wars themed attractions. This was my first time at Downtown Disney as the new Disney Springs. It is beautifully done, the architecture in the buildings is very detailed and it is a very nice place to walk around. Many stores (though not all) are very upscale and expensive. I definitely recommend visiting the the Coca-Cola Store! Unique items, reasonable prices, just a generally fun place. Ice cream was at Ghirardelli.
Fast Pass+-I'm not a complete hater but I am in the 'Not crazy about FastPass+ camp'. The app is easy enough to use, I just don't like the whole needing to plan so far in advance. My first time at Disney was in 1989-and i miss the spontaneity of those days! Back then you saw a came upon a line, decided if you wanted to wait and moved on if you didn't. Everyone else was doing the same. As I recall there was less of a feeling of urgency around it all. In many ways it was all so much easier then and in some ways more enjoyable. Still, while the world moves ahead with technology, I know Disney has to as well. But I do think the FastPass+ system could use some tweaking. It seems to me the ParkHopper option becomes less appealing/useful with this new system. After all, you can only schedule fast passes for one park per day. And it's true that you can change fast passes on the app anytime, and sometimes you really WANT to. After all anything can happen, people get sick (even at Disney!) and can't go out or whatever else the unexpected situation is. But if you want to change passes to a different park you are going to 'ruin' all three of the fastpasses you have set up in the planned park for the day. And with day before or current day changes you aren't sure what will be available. So while it is an easy process to change the passes, unless you are staying for a couple weeks with lots scheduling flexibility in my opinion it might not make sense to.
Strangest Surprise Question from Cast Member-After completing the check in process, we were shown a card with gift card denominations and number of days of a vacation by the employee at the desk. She said they were 'running a special'. If we agreed to not have housekeeping for the week they would give us a $30.00 gift card. She went on to explain that 'no housekeeping' meant that a housekeeper would never enter our room the whole week. Knowing that we would at least want fresh towels we said we wanted to keep the housekeeping. I imagine this is about saving on housekeeping and laundry costs, but still, it just seemed like a really odd offer.
Magical Moment-We got to talking to a Paul, a friendly cast member on Main Street USA. He asked if we wanted to meet Mickey in his dressing room. He escorted us right to Town Square and after just a minute we were led to Mickey through the 'back way'. It was really the stuff of those Disney commercials that you don't think ACTUALLY happen in real life! This was extra special because it was my parents first trip. I already sent a letter to Disney Guest Services to thank Paul for making our day.
All in all this was a great trip, I only wish we had another day or two or seven!
For all of you who will be on your way soon...Enjoy!
F
Where: Port Orleans French Quarter
Who: Me (50 yrs old) , Parents (first trip EVER for parents though I have been many times.)
Transportation: Magical Express from Airport
Advance Prep: We had our Magic Bands, I had made some fast pass reservations the week prior.
Dining Plan: Quick Service
Weather: It warmed up this week! Flip flops and tank tops!
A bit of a rocky start on this trip as I was sick (not a little sick, A LOT sick-ugh!) the first two days of trip.
This left the first timers to head out to Magic Kingdom and Epcot on their own. The day I felt better we went back to Magic Kingdom, and then to Hollywood Studios and Disney Springs the next day.Thoughts on Trip:
Quick Service Dining Plan-I have no doubt this works well and is cost-saving for some families, but it wasn't for us. For example, I like toast, cereal, fruit and juice for breakfast. All of these together are not considered a meal in the rules of the dining plan, but rather each is counted as a snack. We ended up burning through snack credits real quick this way. Later I learned that you can trade three snack credits to equal one meal BUT you have to buy all three snacks at one time. So if I just wanted to grab a juice on the way out to the park I would have to either get three juices or the juice AND two other snacks at the same time--and that would count as one quick service meal. Not a huge deal but sometimes you just want the juice and not to have to carry around two other random snacks. In my opinion the best thing to do is to really consider how your family eats. If you are big on waffles-bacon-eggs-hash brown type meals then the quick service plan might be very cost effective. But if you are happy with a side salad and a yogurt (which count as snacks) for lunches then you are probably better off just paying out of pocket. This is what we will do next time. I must say though it was VERY convenient just to scan the band at check out!
Port Orleans French Quarter-I've stayed here several times and it certainly didn't disappoint this time. No problems with bus transportation to parks, longest we waited was 20 minutes. The grounds are well kept, staff was very friendly. Easy access and pretty walk to Riverside as well as the boat to Disney Springs are great perks of this resort!
The Parks and Disney Springs-Crowds were heavier than I anticipated but not out of control. The upkeep on the parks still seemed great to me. Disappointed that The Great Movie Ride is gone from Hollywood Studios though. The Studios is under a LOT of construction, including immediately outside the gate. Inside it seems there is a lean towards lots of Star Wars themed attractions. This was my first time at Downtown Disney as the new Disney Springs. It is beautifully done, the architecture in the buildings is very detailed and it is a very nice place to walk around. Many stores (though not all) are very upscale and expensive. I definitely recommend visiting the the Coca-Cola Store! Unique items, reasonable prices, just a generally fun place. Ice cream was at Ghirardelli.
Fast Pass+-I'm not a complete hater but I am in the 'Not crazy about FastPass+ camp'. The app is easy enough to use, I just don't like the whole needing to plan so far in advance. My first time at Disney was in 1989-and i miss the spontaneity of those days! Back then you saw a came upon a line, decided if you wanted to wait and moved on if you didn't. Everyone else was doing the same. As I recall there was less of a feeling of urgency around it all. In many ways it was all so much easier then and in some ways more enjoyable. Still, while the world moves ahead with technology, I know Disney has to as well. But I do think the FastPass+ system could use some tweaking. It seems to me the ParkHopper option becomes less appealing/useful with this new system. After all, you can only schedule fast passes for one park per day. And it's true that you can change fast passes on the app anytime, and sometimes you really WANT to. After all anything can happen, people get sick (even at Disney!) and can't go out or whatever else the unexpected situation is. But if you want to change passes to a different park you are going to 'ruin' all three of the fastpasses you have set up in the planned park for the day. And with day before or current day changes you aren't sure what will be available. So while it is an easy process to change the passes, unless you are staying for a couple weeks with lots scheduling flexibility in my opinion it might not make sense to.
Strangest Surprise Question from Cast Member-After completing the check in process, we were shown a card with gift card denominations and number of days of a vacation by the employee at the desk. She said they were 'running a special'. If we agreed to not have housekeeping for the week they would give us a $30.00 gift card. She went on to explain that 'no housekeeping' meant that a housekeeper would never enter our room the whole week. Knowing that we would at least want fresh towels we said we wanted to keep the housekeeping. I imagine this is about saving on housekeeping and laundry costs, but still, it just seemed like a really odd offer.
Magical Moment-We got to talking to a Paul, a friendly cast member on Main Street USA. He asked if we wanted to meet Mickey in his dressing room. He escorted us right to Town Square and after just a minute we were led to Mickey through the 'back way'. It was really the stuff of those Disney commercials that you don't think ACTUALLY happen in real life! This was extra special because it was my parents first trip. I already sent a letter to Disney Guest Services to thank Paul for making our day.
All in all this was a great trip, I only wish we had another day or two or seven!
For all of you who will be on your way soon...Enjoy!
F
