That guy... (A continuation of my Pre Trip report for "Pretrip to the Beach Club"
Flights down to MCO were uneventful and got it 20 minutes early, to have a open gate available and our car service waiting. I love Magic Express but I just want my bags and to get to the property. Arrival at Beach club was nice, were staying on the club level and we were greeted and immediately taken to the 5th floor. Our room wasn't done, no big deal as we were not expecting a room till 3 or 4 due to the insane volume of people
Going into the Stone Harbor Club sipping a cold beer and my wife drinking strawberry champaign we were grabbing a snack and going over our itineraries when things started to unravel. We were told the club was being closed due to renovations and they were converting another room into a temp area for club guest? Renovations in peak season- okay, not my area of expertise but I'd think off season is better.
Friday afternnonwas spent with my wife and I at Epcot with dinner in Canada- great meal and some great
wines were had and it was a nice way to start our vacation!
I don't want to be "that guy" but I will for a few minutes and then get on with the trip report in a positive light. Beach Club is tired- compared to Wilderness Lodge or AKL it's tired and I'll just call it out- I am going to stop bouncing around resorts and just move into Wilderness Lodge... The staff however make up for the rooms lack of updates and the hotels general odd layout. We requested a room with a daybed, called a week before, 3 days before, 2 days before and on day of arrival were given a room w/o a day bed. When we let the staff know, they said they'd try to fix it in a few days? "That Guy" in me came out and I told them we'd work with them but were not unpacking, packing and playing move around to get this right.Had I known (been told in direct terms that this was such an issue) I would have just gotten a room with bunk beds and been done-. In the end we compromised and moved rooms after one night. It's a pain in the @ss but were settled in now. The fast pass system crashed on Saturday, Aug 2nd and there was no way to change, modify or basically do or use the mobile app. It was pretty ugly all around for everyone at disney both guest and staff. Technology dependency is a double edged sword... Mine Ride was down due to (rumors) an injury. Splash Mountain was down and our beloved Future World TTA ride was down. Crowds in Magic Kingdom were high. Lunch at Liberty Tree was excellent. Having been to Disney 15 times and never having been there it was refreshing and the staff was awesome. AWESOME. Being kidless for the first part of this trip we came back to hotel to get our new room, settle in and then headed to epcot for dinner that was incredible.Rose and Crown- We settled in for a few drinks at a table right in front of the rose and crown about an hour before dinner RSVP. Sitting there just "watching people" was incredible. Laughing and talking we hung out and saw some funny stuff. Dinner was nice as we had a quiet corner inside and as we finished Kaitlyn our server noticed the Anniversary button on my camera strap. She then took us to a lone outside table to watch illuminations. Incredible!
This was shot walking back to Beach Club last night. The heat lightning was a show unto itself!
More to come later. Again, didn't want to start out the trip report as "that guy" but it's just what it is.
Couple things I noticed after being gone 18 months-
Park staff is more perky and engaged (happy and helpful)
Wait Staff at restaurants are in top form!
Hotel Staff seem challenged and frustrated with "back end" issues. The manager that finally fixed the room issues, you could read her face on her extreme frustration with the reservations systems and how request are handled. Yeah- it's all good!
Flights down to MCO were uneventful and got it 20 minutes early, to have a open gate available and our car service waiting. I love Magic Express but I just want my bags and to get to the property. Arrival at Beach club was nice, were staying on the club level and we were greeted and immediately taken to the 5th floor. Our room wasn't done, no big deal as we were not expecting a room till 3 or 4 due to the insane volume of people
Going into the Stone Harbor Club sipping a cold beer and my wife drinking strawberry champaign we were grabbing a snack and going over our itineraries when things started to unravel. We were told the club was being closed due to renovations and they were converting another room into a temp area for club guest? Renovations in peak season- okay, not my area of expertise but I'd think off season is better.
Friday afternnonwas spent with my wife and I at Epcot with dinner in Canada- great meal and some great
wines were had and it was a nice way to start our vacation!
I don't want to be "that guy" but I will for a few minutes and then get on with the trip report in a positive light. Beach Club is tired- compared to Wilderness Lodge or AKL it's tired and I'll just call it out- I am going to stop bouncing around resorts and just move into Wilderness Lodge... The staff however make up for the rooms lack of updates and the hotels general odd layout. We requested a room with a daybed, called a week before, 3 days before, 2 days before and on day of arrival were given a room w/o a day bed. When we let the staff know, they said they'd try to fix it in a few days? "That Guy" in me came out and I told them we'd work with them but were not unpacking, packing and playing move around to get this right.Had I known (been told in direct terms that this was such an issue) I would have just gotten a room with bunk beds and been done-. In the end we compromised and moved rooms after one night. It's a pain in the @ss but were settled in now. The fast pass system crashed on Saturday, Aug 2nd and there was no way to change, modify or basically do or use the mobile app. It was pretty ugly all around for everyone at disney both guest and staff. Technology dependency is a double edged sword... Mine Ride was down due to (rumors) an injury. Splash Mountain was down and our beloved Future World TTA ride was down. Crowds in Magic Kingdom were high. Lunch at Liberty Tree was excellent. Having been to Disney 15 times and never having been there it was refreshing and the staff was awesome. AWESOME. Being kidless for the first part of this trip we came back to hotel to get our new room, settle in and then headed to epcot for dinner that was incredible.Rose and Crown- We settled in for a few drinks at a table right in front of the rose and crown about an hour before dinner RSVP. Sitting there just "watching people" was incredible. Laughing and talking we hung out and saw some funny stuff. Dinner was nice as we had a quiet corner inside and as we finished Kaitlyn our server noticed the Anniversary button on my camera strap. She then took us to a lone outside table to watch illuminations. Incredible!
This was shot walking back to Beach Club last night. The heat lightning was a show unto itself!
Couple things I noticed after being gone 18 months-
Park staff is more perky and engaged (happy and helpful)
Wait Staff at restaurants are in top form!
Hotel Staff seem challenged and frustrated with "back end" issues. The manager that finally fixed the room issues, you could read her face on her extreme frustration with the reservations systems and how request are handled. Yeah- it's all good!
