We visit WDW every two years. Each trip is more than a vacation, it is a chapter in our lives providing memories and structure to the history of our family. We can look back and see the kids from strollers through high school and now college. Our WDW vacations have become the stratigraphy for our lives each one filled with particular memories and experiences. Here is our problem-free philosophy - We don’t go six times a year and we don’t bring a bunch of hyper-critical baggage to the table. Instead of wanting to find fault we want to find the positive, because of the rarity of the event for our family and the cost. Save up the money you want to spend and don’t go to WDW worrying about the cost, because it costs a lot (as much as a two week vacation in Vietnam and Cambodia!) and framing it around cost will just work like bitter lemon to sour the vacation.
We don’t just go to WDW for our vacations. We want to see the world. In the last year or so I have been to Sweden, France, Egypt, Holland, Austria, Italy, Peru, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Canada. We are off to Vietnam and Cambodia for my daughter’s graduation present in May. So, WDW is just a piece of continuity in our travels. But as you can see, a very important part of our lives.
We continue to have great trips and this past one (January 1-7th, 2013) was no exception. Framed around our daughter, a senior in high school, bringing her best friend along (before they both head off to college next fall) we had the chance to re-experience the place through the eyes of someone who had never been there before. The trip did not disappoint.
We used Kingdom Konsultants to plan the trip and they made the experience perfect in terms of the logistics, right down to Angel taking us back and forth to the airport. Yay for Pam!
The trip was highlighted by a series of great meals and great service. Roberto in California Grill and Sara in Tutto Italia top that list as regards service. Roberto ran us through a fantastic late dinner after Wishes at the CG where we had some great sushi, the goat cheese ravioli, nice entrees and good wine (that first bite of goat cheese ravioli melting in your mouth says Disney for me as much as getting on Splash Mountain). And Sara provided great conversation as we learned about her life and family in northern Italy outside Bologna and how she came to the US. She and my son have become facebook friends as a result of our lunch there. For us it has so often been about the young people from the host country that make the meal and that was just a great Disney/EPCOT meal. The third great dinner was at Jiko’s where I had perhaps the most amazing shrimp in my life – theChermoula-roasted Nigerian Prawns. And Patty was a very good server, handling my daughter spilling a full glass of water across the table with aplomb. We also charmed her back and she made sure to say, “please ask for me next time you come.” We are delightful customers (smile), asking a lot of questions about the servers, and about the food and wine. The servers in signature restaurants at WDW take pride in their culinary knowledge and like to share it. And we always learn something interesting.
We liked our dinner at the Rose and Crown. We had never been there before and it was pretty good, especially the Sticky Toffee pudding. And the dinner at Artist’s Point was great this year (I got the Bison with Mac and Cheese and instead of cobbler those strange but delicious cannoli for dessert- Local Orange Blossom Lace Cannoli with Mountain Berry Mousse, white chocolate anglaise, strawberry rhubarb jam and micro basil ) though our server actually was too chatty and after a while wore my family down with talk about his son’s football prowess. Lunch at the 50’s Prime Time Café was also fun for everyone…the fried chicken was great as were the milkshakes and onion rings…everyone enjoyed the theming and our server was funny but not too much for us. When I said I had to leave because of some fast passes whose window was closing, she said really loudly, “I’m glad, I’ve had just about enough of you.” It might sound rude but it was really great actually.
We had a two bedroom Villa at the Wilderness Lodge (with a free DDP) and are now firmly convinced that is our favorite. The hotel looked great as we got to see it with Christmas still up. We also got to watch the team come in and dismantle the tree and remove the decorations, which is a pretty amazing feat if you ever get the chance to watch them in action. Perhaps my favorite thing of all (small things please small minds my grandmother always said) is getting up before the family and going down to sit outside the Roaring Forks to have coffee and breakfast, do a little reading and watch the families wake up and prepare for their day. With teenagers we don’t get to the parks as early as I would like, but that’s ok. And the hotel is the most expensive part of our trip so I enjoy spending time there.
The staff was great though I had some trouble with our new supercards, actually just mine and my son’s. But after a couple of returns to the concierge desk we got is fixed and they gave us a 50 dollar credit for the inconvenience.
Crowds at the parks were high even after January 1, because we were told the fact that New Years fell in the middle of the week instead of a Friday or Saturday. People just stayed the rest of the week. Note to self - for future visits I think maybe we will arrive the second week in December or the second week in January next time. Crowds were pretty good by January 6th.
Most everything operated without problem, didn’t get stuck on top of Spaceship Earth or anything that dramatic as has happened on past visits. Didn’t see the end of Disney as we know it in any of the rides and in fact we remain pretty impressed by this huge magical place functioning at an ever increasing scale with as few problems and glitches as we could see. The FLE was a nice expansion and once the train is done and the tangled potties open it will be visually as nice as any park landscape I could imagine. Gaston was amazing. He was like a living Disney animated character. The BOG dinner was actually really great and eating in the west wing with the Beast bopping by and wandering to visit the rest of the place made it a highlight for the entire family. The trees by BOG looked a little bedraggled but I assume disney botanists will figure it out.
Fantasyland has always and should always be the part of WDW most clearly dedicated to smaller children and therefore Storytime with Belle and the Little Mermaid ride are very nice additions. Both raise the bar. Comparing any of the early FL dark rides to the LM ride doesn’t make sense to me. Some of the effects and Ursula especially move this children’s ride to another level. I want them to stop the ride so I can watch Ursula do more. I want Ursula to talk to me (smile). Right now though with the mine train construction in the middle of everything it is hard to fully appreciate the vision.
Hey what’s up with the smells, or rather the lack of smells….I could barely smell the apple pie in Philharmagic, the orange smell was really slight in Soarin’, and no one could smell any stink bug smell in Tough to be a bug….oh yeah, and no burning Rome smell. The whole smell thing was actually my one complaint about “show” quality. Is there a war against smells? I asked others so I know it wasn’t just me. I even sat in different areas thinking maybe that was the problem in Tough to be a bug.
Magic moments- A guy giving a bunch of Disney Vacation Club fast passes to my daughter and her friend, other people just coming up and giving us fastpasses for several rides (we were like fastpass magnets this trip). Another amazing moment was my son meeting a CM in the England Pavillion who offered to show him all of EPCOT from a castmembers perspective. He spent a whole day going from pavilion to pavilion and going behind the scenes. It was very cool for him and I was pretty jealous (smile). They are now facebook friends as well!
We thought that the kids would want to spend most of their time hanging out without the adults but that wasn’t the case, so my idea of my wife and I wandering around drinking in Italy and Mexico and everywhere else (smile), didn’t happen. But that was actually a pleasant surprise. It was great to see that our kids wanted to be a family for the most part and do things together.
It really was nice to have my daughter’s friend along and watch how amazed someone is who hasn’t seen everything 5 or 10 or 50 times. With all due respect I really think WDW is more for her than for picky people who are freaking out because you can see the tangled tower from Liberty square which is some made up land to begin with (although a great one!) and hey, maybe WDW will actually put some trees there and block that little tower, so chill until it is a done deal.
We cut back on the number of scheduled meals and we went with the flow so we could stay relaxed and non-stressed. That meant cancelling a lunch we didn’t really want (make sure you call way ahead of time to let them know so they can give the reservation away to some other nice family) and not suffering through long lines (Toy Story Mania will still be there next time and the time after that). It also meant giving us some down time in the afternoon to go back to the hotel before dinner.
Oh yeah, the saddest moment of the trip for me was finding out that the Boulangerie Patisserie had actually re-opened. Everything I had read or mis-read on wdwmagic indicated it wouldn’t be open for a while and then the last day we walked back to see Impressions de France and there it was open and booming. The line was too long and we weren’t hungry and off to dinner soon so we didn’t go. Boohoo, that was sad and I’m headed right there next trip.
We got back home and for the next week every time I started getting too much back into the stressed fill world that is mine I simply imagined the blaring cheers and 3…2…1 followed by remembering that moment of exhilaration to recapture the feeling you have when you are there. Losing that feeling is why so many people suffer from post WDW depression. It is gone now but I held on to it as long as I could.
And about two weeks later my daughter was saying, you know dad, we need to stay longer next time and my son was planning his college graduation dinner in two years at the chef’s table at Victoria and Alberts. See you in two years WDW.
We don’t just go to WDW for our vacations. We want to see the world. In the last year or so I have been to Sweden, France, Egypt, Holland, Austria, Italy, Peru, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Canada. We are off to Vietnam and Cambodia for my daughter’s graduation present in May. So, WDW is just a piece of continuity in our travels. But as you can see, a very important part of our lives.
We continue to have great trips and this past one (January 1-7th, 2013) was no exception. Framed around our daughter, a senior in high school, bringing her best friend along (before they both head off to college next fall) we had the chance to re-experience the place through the eyes of someone who had never been there before. The trip did not disappoint.
We used Kingdom Konsultants to plan the trip and they made the experience perfect in terms of the logistics, right down to Angel taking us back and forth to the airport. Yay for Pam!
The trip was highlighted by a series of great meals and great service. Roberto in California Grill and Sara in Tutto Italia top that list as regards service. Roberto ran us through a fantastic late dinner after Wishes at the CG where we had some great sushi, the goat cheese ravioli, nice entrees and good wine (that first bite of goat cheese ravioli melting in your mouth says Disney for me as much as getting on Splash Mountain). And Sara provided great conversation as we learned about her life and family in northern Italy outside Bologna and how she came to the US. She and my son have become facebook friends as a result of our lunch there. For us it has so often been about the young people from the host country that make the meal and that was just a great Disney/EPCOT meal. The third great dinner was at Jiko’s where I had perhaps the most amazing shrimp in my life – theChermoula-roasted Nigerian Prawns. And Patty was a very good server, handling my daughter spilling a full glass of water across the table with aplomb. We also charmed her back and she made sure to say, “please ask for me next time you come.” We are delightful customers (smile), asking a lot of questions about the servers, and about the food and wine. The servers in signature restaurants at WDW take pride in their culinary knowledge and like to share it. And we always learn something interesting.
We liked our dinner at the Rose and Crown. We had never been there before and it was pretty good, especially the Sticky Toffee pudding. And the dinner at Artist’s Point was great this year (I got the Bison with Mac and Cheese and instead of cobbler those strange but delicious cannoli for dessert- Local Orange Blossom Lace Cannoli with Mountain Berry Mousse, white chocolate anglaise, strawberry rhubarb jam and micro basil ) though our server actually was too chatty and after a while wore my family down with talk about his son’s football prowess. Lunch at the 50’s Prime Time Café was also fun for everyone…the fried chicken was great as were the milkshakes and onion rings…everyone enjoyed the theming and our server was funny but not too much for us. When I said I had to leave because of some fast passes whose window was closing, she said really loudly, “I’m glad, I’ve had just about enough of you.” It might sound rude but it was really great actually.
We had a two bedroom Villa at the Wilderness Lodge (with a free DDP) and are now firmly convinced that is our favorite. The hotel looked great as we got to see it with Christmas still up. We also got to watch the team come in and dismantle the tree and remove the decorations, which is a pretty amazing feat if you ever get the chance to watch them in action. Perhaps my favorite thing of all (small things please small minds my grandmother always said) is getting up before the family and going down to sit outside the Roaring Forks to have coffee and breakfast, do a little reading and watch the families wake up and prepare for their day. With teenagers we don’t get to the parks as early as I would like, but that’s ok. And the hotel is the most expensive part of our trip so I enjoy spending time there.
The staff was great though I had some trouble with our new supercards, actually just mine and my son’s. But after a couple of returns to the concierge desk we got is fixed and they gave us a 50 dollar credit for the inconvenience.
Crowds at the parks were high even after January 1, because we were told the fact that New Years fell in the middle of the week instead of a Friday or Saturday. People just stayed the rest of the week. Note to self - for future visits I think maybe we will arrive the second week in December or the second week in January next time. Crowds were pretty good by January 6th.
Most everything operated without problem, didn’t get stuck on top of Spaceship Earth or anything that dramatic as has happened on past visits. Didn’t see the end of Disney as we know it in any of the rides and in fact we remain pretty impressed by this huge magical place functioning at an ever increasing scale with as few problems and glitches as we could see. The FLE was a nice expansion and once the train is done and the tangled potties open it will be visually as nice as any park landscape I could imagine. Gaston was amazing. He was like a living Disney animated character. The BOG dinner was actually really great and eating in the west wing with the Beast bopping by and wandering to visit the rest of the place made it a highlight for the entire family. The trees by BOG looked a little bedraggled but I assume disney botanists will figure it out.
Fantasyland has always and should always be the part of WDW most clearly dedicated to smaller children and therefore Storytime with Belle and the Little Mermaid ride are very nice additions. Both raise the bar. Comparing any of the early FL dark rides to the LM ride doesn’t make sense to me. Some of the effects and Ursula especially move this children’s ride to another level. I want them to stop the ride so I can watch Ursula do more. I want Ursula to talk to me (smile). Right now though with the mine train construction in the middle of everything it is hard to fully appreciate the vision.
Hey what’s up with the smells, or rather the lack of smells….I could barely smell the apple pie in Philharmagic, the orange smell was really slight in Soarin’, and no one could smell any stink bug smell in Tough to be a bug….oh yeah, and no burning Rome smell. The whole smell thing was actually my one complaint about “show” quality. Is there a war against smells? I asked others so I know it wasn’t just me. I even sat in different areas thinking maybe that was the problem in Tough to be a bug.
Magic moments- A guy giving a bunch of Disney Vacation Club fast passes to my daughter and her friend, other people just coming up and giving us fastpasses for several rides (we were like fastpass magnets this trip). Another amazing moment was my son meeting a CM in the England Pavillion who offered to show him all of EPCOT from a castmembers perspective. He spent a whole day going from pavilion to pavilion and going behind the scenes. It was very cool for him and I was pretty jealous (smile). They are now facebook friends as well!
We thought that the kids would want to spend most of their time hanging out without the adults but that wasn’t the case, so my idea of my wife and I wandering around drinking in Italy and Mexico and everywhere else (smile), didn’t happen. But that was actually a pleasant surprise. It was great to see that our kids wanted to be a family for the most part and do things together.
It really was nice to have my daughter’s friend along and watch how amazed someone is who hasn’t seen everything 5 or 10 or 50 times. With all due respect I really think WDW is more for her than for picky people who are freaking out because you can see the tangled tower from Liberty square which is some made up land to begin with (although a great one!) and hey, maybe WDW will actually put some trees there and block that little tower, so chill until it is a done deal.
We cut back on the number of scheduled meals and we went with the flow so we could stay relaxed and non-stressed. That meant cancelling a lunch we didn’t really want (make sure you call way ahead of time to let them know so they can give the reservation away to some other nice family) and not suffering through long lines (Toy Story Mania will still be there next time and the time after that). It also meant giving us some down time in the afternoon to go back to the hotel before dinner.
Oh yeah, the saddest moment of the trip for me was finding out that the Boulangerie Patisserie had actually re-opened. Everything I had read or mis-read on wdwmagic indicated it wouldn’t be open for a while and then the last day we walked back to see Impressions de France and there it was open and booming. The line was too long and we weren’t hungry and off to dinner soon so we didn’t go. Boohoo, that was sad and I’m headed right there next trip.
We got back home and for the next week every time I started getting too much back into the stressed fill world that is mine I simply imagined the blaring cheers and 3…2…1 followed by remembering that moment of exhilaration to recapture the feeling you have when you are there. Losing that feeling is why so many people suffer from post WDW depression. It is gone now but I held on to it as long as I could.
And about two weeks later my daughter was saying, you know dad, we need to stay longer next time and my son was planning his college graduation dinner in two years at the chef’s table at Victoria and Alberts. See you in two years WDW.
