Hi all... I'm not going to do a full day-by-day trip report, but I thought I'd check in and share my thoughts on a 99% perfect Riverside / Saratoga / French Quarter split stay.
DME: Perfect, efficient service inbound and outbound.
Riverside: I had never stayed at this resort and was very pleasantly surprised. The check-in and main building areas were gorgeous, and I absolutely loved the royal room. No complaints whatsoever. It stunk that our DME bags weren't delivered before the baby's bedtime, but we knew to expect that going in.
Saratoga: We loved the resort itself and the one bedroom villa exceed our expectations. The furniture struck us as very high-quality and we were very happy with the bed. We loved that the resort had three pools that could count as "feature" and we visited and enjoyed all of them. The kitchen was a bit disappointing. We noticed this the last time we stayed in a pre-refurb Fort Wilderness cabin, but the white kitchen appliances stain yellow over time and the paint on the corners tends to chip and crack. It's unfortunate that they're not maintained better, as we used the kitchen every morning for breakfast.
French Quarter: We were in a standard room and were satisfied with the room itself as well as most of the resort's common areas. However, the elevator in our building was "bad show." It felt sketchy, with scratches in the door and writing on the control panel in sharpie (unclear if graffiti or deliberate, but bad show nonetheless). It felt like we had accidentally wandered backstage and into a service elevator, but the signs clearly indicated that this was an elevator intended for guests.
Food: Our daughter is at the age where table service meals are more trouble than they're worth so we stuck to quick service this time around. Highlights included Flame Tree (as always) and the Harambe Market at Animal Kingdom. We were disappointed with the offerings at the Flower and Garden kiosks, so we stayed away from them this year. We were also disappointed that the flatbreads sold at SSR were not the same quality as the ones from The Mara or Village Haus. They weren't good. Overall, most meals were in the "pretty good" range. RIP Gaston's pork shank. I absolutely love the Starbucks in each park. I never drink Starbucks in the "real world" but enjoyed an iced coffee every morning at WDW.
Buses: Absolutely flawless for every trip except for one problematic scooter load that delayed us getting to Magic Kingdom one morning.
Attractions. Just about everything was great. Splash looked awesome. Small World looked better than I've seen it in years, except for an overhead mobile that was switched off and that pesky "lazy eye" hippo (maybe he's winking?). We had to be evacuated from Pooh, but they handled it quickly and efficiently so it didn't detract much from our day. We had a great Jungle Cruise skipper and the animals on Kilimanjaro were the most active I think I've ever seen them.
Cast Members: Generally fantastic. The one exception was the hostess at the Kylo Ren meet and greet. We couldn't tell if it was some kind of "First Order" shtick or if she was just rude. It was nice to see that the metal detectors are now staffed by Cast Members as opposed to the yellow-shirt security people.
My dear, fellow guests: It's extremely disheartening to see entire families with their faces buried in their phones when they're on vacation at Walt Disney World of all places. Kids playing Candy Crush in line, PSP / GameBoys on the bus, entire families scrolling through Facebook while seated together at a meal. It breaks my heart. Separately, every single complaint people have about the ECVs is true and then some. I don't blame the people who legitimately need them, but Disney needs to figure out a more efficient way of handling them, especially on buses at resorts with multiple stops.
Overflowing trash can count: One
Burnt light bulb count: One
Epcot drunk count: Zero
TL;DR... Awesome trip. Refurb the kitchens. Turn off your devices and live in the moment.
DME: Perfect, efficient service inbound and outbound.
Riverside: I had never stayed at this resort and was very pleasantly surprised. The check-in and main building areas were gorgeous, and I absolutely loved the royal room. No complaints whatsoever. It stunk that our DME bags weren't delivered before the baby's bedtime, but we knew to expect that going in.
Saratoga: We loved the resort itself and the one bedroom villa exceed our expectations. The furniture struck us as very high-quality and we were very happy with the bed. We loved that the resort had three pools that could count as "feature" and we visited and enjoyed all of them. The kitchen was a bit disappointing. We noticed this the last time we stayed in a pre-refurb Fort Wilderness cabin, but the white kitchen appliances stain yellow over time and the paint on the corners tends to chip and crack. It's unfortunate that they're not maintained better, as we used the kitchen every morning for breakfast.
French Quarter: We were in a standard room and were satisfied with the room itself as well as most of the resort's common areas. However, the elevator in our building was "bad show." It felt sketchy, with scratches in the door and writing on the control panel in sharpie (unclear if graffiti or deliberate, but bad show nonetheless). It felt like we had accidentally wandered backstage and into a service elevator, but the signs clearly indicated that this was an elevator intended for guests.
Food: Our daughter is at the age where table service meals are more trouble than they're worth so we stuck to quick service this time around. Highlights included Flame Tree (as always) and the Harambe Market at Animal Kingdom. We were disappointed with the offerings at the Flower and Garden kiosks, so we stayed away from them this year. We were also disappointed that the flatbreads sold at SSR were not the same quality as the ones from The Mara or Village Haus. They weren't good. Overall, most meals were in the "pretty good" range. RIP Gaston's pork shank. I absolutely love the Starbucks in each park. I never drink Starbucks in the "real world" but enjoyed an iced coffee every morning at WDW.
Buses: Absolutely flawless for every trip except for one problematic scooter load that delayed us getting to Magic Kingdom one morning.
Attractions. Just about everything was great. Splash looked awesome. Small World looked better than I've seen it in years, except for an overhead mobile that was switched off and that pesky "lazy eye" hippo (maybe he's winking?). We had to be evacuated from Pooh, but they handled it quickly and efficiently so it didn't detract much from our day. We had a great Jungle Cruise skipper and the animals on Kilimanjaro were the most active I think I've ever seen them.
Cast Members: Generally fantastic. The one exception was the hostess at the Kylo Ren meet and greet. We couldn't tell if it was some kind of "First Order" shtick or if she was just rude. It was nice to see that the metal detectors are now staffed by Cast Members as opposed to the yellow-shirt security people.
My dear, fellow guests: It's extremely disheartening to see entire families with their faces buried in their phones when they're on vacation at Walt Disney World of all places. Kids playing Candy Crush in line, PSP / GameBoys on the bus, entire families scrolling through Facebook while seated together at a meal. It breaks my heart. Separately, every single complaint people have about the ECVs is true and then some. I don't blame the people who legitimately need them, but Disney needs to figure out a more efficient way of handling them, especially on buses at resorts with multiple stops.
Overflowing trash can count: One
Burnt light bulb count: One
Epcot drunk count: Zero
TL;DR... Awesome trip. Refurb the kitchens. Turn off your devices and live in the moment.
