MarknSue
New Member
Trip report 31st Dec – 13th Jan 03
Polynesian Resort
Well, we’ve been back nearly 2 weeks and I’ve finally got round to doing a trip report! We had the most wonderful holiday, staying at the Poly made it extra special as we got married there 3 years ago. We found the staff very friendly and upon check in they gave us a garland (not sure what it’s really called?), we had to put them on each other and give each other a big hug and kiss! The room was huge and the lagoon view was amazing, every morning we wanted to take yet another photo of it. It was so nice to open the curtains in the morning and see Cinderella’s castle. It was even better being able to see the fireworks in the MK from the balcony with a glass of wine! It was also nice to have the water pageant outside the window, we almost felt like it was there for us alone. One morning we were shocked when we opened the curtains to see fog, we could barely see the Grand Floridian - it soon cleared up though!
There was a very relaxed pace here, last year we stayed at the All Star resort, which we now think was quite noisy in comparison (although it was fine at the time). The Polynesian Luau closed for refurb half way through the holiday so we didn’t manage to do it in time as it was full each time we tried. I thought we would get some noise from the workmen, but they were pretty quiet apart from the odd drilling noise or tractor starting up. We were amazed how quickly they erect fences in Disney so you are not disrupted by the work going on.
As we were jet lagged with the five hour time difference, we woke up before most people and were able to make good use of the early entry days, so we had done most of the rides by lunch time, by then the weather had warmed up in time for a well deserved rest by the pool. Then out for a meal and off to see an evening show.
Queues- Overall in the parks we queued no more than 5-10 mins for rides and shows, if the standby queue was more than 15 mins we would fast pass it. We don’t do queues! The first few days in the parks were busier than the rest due to New Years falling mid week and people deciding to stay on for the week end, but it didn’t cause us a problem. I can’t understand why more people don’t use fast pass??
Transport - We had no problem with buses, it seemed that which ever bus we wanted, appeared as if by (Disney) magic. We only had to stand on the bus once in 2 weeks, which was again, different from the All Stars last year. The monorail was excellent, no waiting around and we even sat with the driver once, she wasn’t very chatty tho!
Character Meals – We had Breakfast with Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Pluto at the Restaurantosaurus in AK, which had plenty of variety including omlettes to order, bacon, sausages, pancakes, potato thingy. The food was very nice and the staff were quite funny, pretending to squirt ketchup all over us with a fake bottle! As we went around 10.30am, we got to spend loads of time with the characters, once they had done the rounds they sat at a spare table drawing pictures with children and generally playing pranks on each other!
We went to the Crystal Palace for Lunch and Dinner, the food was great – Mark is a veggie, but he eats fish so there was plenty of variety for him.
We went for dinner at 1900 Park Fare expecting Pooh characters but were told when we got there that it was the first night of new characters. Cinderella & Prince were in the area just outside the restaurant where you could queue up and have your photograph taken. Susie, Pearla and the Fairy Godmother all went around the tables. We had never met the Fairy Godmother before, she was very nice & chatty. Susie was thrilled that we shared the same name!! Once again, the food was great – salads, potatoes, mash, veg, lasagne, fish, prime rib etc.
We also did the Norway Princess Breakfast, we saw Jasmine, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Snow White & Mulan. They all came round to say hello and take pictures Belle was the nicest, she told us to make sure we went to see her in Fantasmic, to see her dancing with Beast, she said that he’s a good dancer and he tries not to step on her toes! She also said that he was doing the washing up, which he does really well as his hands are so hairy! After breakfast here, we were going to get the boat to MGM but it pulled off before we got there so we decided to walk to the Boardwalk and get the boat from there but we missed it again so we ended up walking all the way to MGM!
Universal & IOA- We decided to do this on the Disney Marathon day, which was a bit silly as some of the roads were blocked off and our Mears was 45 mins late. He also tried to overcharge us $2.00. This was the first and only day we left Disney property in 2 weeks, we got ripped off in the burger bar too! Apart from that everything was great, we got on all the rides no problem, no queues, the staff were very smiley and friendly. Mark got his picture taken with Rogue and Storm, which made his day. Wolverine said he would step out of the picture if he wanted a pic with Storm on his own!
On our last day we went to the Magic Kingdom. As we had been to the parks on EE days we had always missed the characters pulling up on the train and welcoming people into the parks, it brought a tear to my eye especially as we were leaving.
Well that’s our holiday in a nutshell. All in all it was a fantastic holiday and almost as good as the first time, but you can never beat that first time feeling.
Thanks for reading
Susie
:wave:
Polynesian Resort
Well, we’ve been back nearly 2 weeks and I’ve finally got round to doing a trip report! We had the most wonderful holiday, staying at the Poly made it extra special as we got married there 3 years ago. We found the staff very friendly and upon check in they gave us a garland (not sure what it’s really called?), we had to put them on each other and give each other a big hug and kiss! The room was huge and the lagoon view was amazing, every morning we wanted to take yet another photo of it. It was so nice to open the curtains in the morning and see Cinderella’s castle. It was even better being able to see the fireworks in the MK from the balcony with a glass of wine! It was also nice to have the water pageant outside the window, we almost felt like it was there for us alone. One morning we were shocked when we opened the curtains to see fog, we could barely see the Grand Floridian - it soon cleared up though!
There was a very relaxed pace here, last year we stayed at the All Star resort, which we now think was quite noisy in comparison (although it was fine at the time). The Polynesian Luau closed for refurb half way through the holiday so we didn’t manage to do it in time as it was full each time we tried. I thought we would get some noise from the workmen, but they were pretty quiet apart from the odd drilling noise or tractor starting up. We were amazed how quickly they erect fences in Disney so you are not disrupted by the work going on.
As we were jet lagged with the five hour time difference, we woke up before most people and were able to make good use of the early entry days, so we had done most of the rides by lunch time, by then the weather had warmed up in time for a well deserved rest by the pool. Then out for a meal and off to see an evening show.
Queues- Overall in the parks we queued no more than 5-10 mins for rides and shows, if the standby queue was more than 15 mins we would fast pass it. We don’t do queues! The first few days in the parks were busier than the rest due to New Years falling mid week and people deciding to stay on for the week end, but it didn’t cause us a problem. I can’t understand why more people don’t use fast pass??
Transport - We had no problem with buses, it seemed that which ever bus we wanted, appeared as if by (Disney) magic. We only had to stand on the bus once in 2 weeks, which was again, different from the All Stars last year. The monorail was excellent, no waiting around and we even sat with the driver once, she wasn’t very chatty tho!
Character Meals – We had Breakfast with Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Pluto at the Restaurantosaurus in AK, which had plenty of variety including omlettes to order, bacon, sausages, pancakes, potato thingy. The food was very nice and the staff were quite funny, pretending to squirt ketchup all over us with a fake bottle! As we went around 10.30am, we got to spend loads of time with the characters, once they had done the rounds they sat at a spare table drawing pictures with children and generally playing pranks on each other!
We went to the Crystal Palace for Lunch and Dinner, the food was great – Mark is a veggie, but he eats fish so there was plenty of variety for him.
We went for dinner at 1900 Park Fare expecting Pooh characters but were told when we got there that it was the first night of new characters. Cinderella & Prince were in the area just outside the restaurant where you could queue up and have your photograph taken. Susie, Pearla and the Fairy Godmother all went around the tables. We had never met the Fairy Godmother before, she was very nice & chatty. Susie was thrilled that we shared the same name!! Once again, the food was great – salads, potatoes, mash, veg, lasagne, fish, prime rib etc.
We also did the Norway Princess Breakfast, we saw Jasmine, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Snow White & Mulan. They all came round to say hello and take pictures Belle was the nicest, she told us to make sure we went to see her in Fantasmic, to see her dancing with Beast, she said that he’s a good dancer and he tries not to step on her toes! She also said that he was doing the washing up, which he does really well as his hands are so hairy! After breakfast here, we were going to get the boat to MGM but it pulled off before we got there so we decided to walk to the Boardwalk and get the boat from there but we missed it again so we ended up walking all the way to MGM!
Universal & IOA- We decided to do this on the Disney Marathon day, which was a bit silly as some of the roads were blocked off and our Mears was 45 mins late. He also tried to overcharge us $2.00. This was the first and only day we left Disney property in 2 weeks, we got ripped off in the burger bar too! Apart from that everything was great, we got on all the rides no problem, no queues, the staff were very smiley and friendly. Mark got his picture taken with Rogue and Storm, which made his day. Wolverine said he would step out of the picture if he wanted a pic with Storm on his own!
On our last day we went to the Magic Kingdom. As we had been to the parks on EE days we had always missed the characters pulling up on the train and welcoming people into the parks, it brought a tear to my eye especially as we were leaving.
Well that’s our holiday in a nutshell. All in all it was a fantastic holiday and almost as good as the first time, but you can never beat that first time feeling.
Thanks for reading
Susie
:wave:
