Trip Report :)

[Javier&Christie]

Well, got back last night, and I thought I'd share a bit about this past trip

Got there on Friday night and unpacked our stuff at the All Star Sports football section, unfortunately our toilet seat was dirty :dazzle: and two of our pillows were stained.. *argh* oh well, we called up maintenance and everything was fixed up within an hour or so... got there pretty late, so we just went to sleep..

Anywho, get up Saturday nice and early and head to the Keys to the Kingdom tour .. it was great.. our tour guide's name was Regina, and she was real nice and seemed pretty knowledgable about stuff, real careful not to "ruin the magic" as she constantly reminded us After getting water/coffee we took off through Main Street and got a bunch of neat tidbits after hearing about the 4 keys... then off to Adventureland and talked about theming and other cool things, and we jumped on to the Jungle Cruise for a "special" version of it, narrarated by our Tour Guide. Then it was off to the backstage area to check out the parage storage areas, part of the Avac system, and "go away green" buildings. After that we headed to lunch and chit chatted with a nice couple we were seated with that were celebrating their 25th anniversary of marriage :sohappy:.. next it was off to check out the Haunted Mansion.. heard the 'story' of the haunted mansion, and off we went to ride it, Regina rode w/ us and gave us some more cool facts and such about the ride... after that it was off to the Main Street offices, and then down to the Utilidors for a short tour of that... all in all, a great tour, and definitely worth the money.

We went back to the hotel and hung out for the afternoon, and headed back to MK since it was open till 11pm on Saturday. All was well, noticed that Buzz Lightyear's ride is a bit beat up, but I already started a topic about that... just gotta love being at the MK

Sunday was slack day, lay out by the pool all freakin' day and get TAN hehe... went downtown at night and ate at Planet Hollywood and hung out at Marketplace..

Packed up on Monday, but still went to both MGM and Epcot, and had a great time at both parks Of course had to pick up a couple pins, as we usually do on every trip. Epcot is setting up for the Flower & Garden festival, so part of Spaceship Earth is blocked off. I got some blurry pictures of the new TV screens in Spaceship Earth, not too bad, not the greatest, but they didn't really detract much from the experience..

all in all, a great, fun, relaxing trip .. we'll probably be back next month or in June who knows, gotta use up those annual passes to their value! :king:

If you have any specific questions about the tour, or anything else you were wondering, lemme know. Also, sent new pics of Pop Century (yes they're working on it) and Space (also being worked on) to Steve, hopefully he'll put them on the site

 

[Al]

Sounds like you had a great time!:sohappy: thanks for keeping us updated

did you learn any cool facts worth sharing on the keys to the kingdom tour? did you find out anything about new rides?

thanks again!

 

[Javier&Christie]

some cool stuff on Main Street, check out all the names on the windows of the buildings, they all had something to do with Disney in one way or the other.. family members, supporters and whatnot.. the paint used on the "warehouse" portion of rides is called "go away green"

nothing on new rides, they can be real secretive about that.. i asked about CoP and she just said that they will probably be keeping it, but that it will remain a "seasonal" ride... it was scheduled to close at 5 that night, but I guess b/c of park capacity, stayed open till 11 I noticed they put in a new TV for that ride.. got rid of the ole RCA Proscan and installed a Sony Wega TV hehe.. argh and they still talk about Laserdiscs.. while they have it, at least update the recording y'know?

 

[njchris65]

Originally posted by Javier&Christie
Well, got back last night, and I thought I'd share a bit about this past trip

Got there on Friday night and unpacked our stuff at the All Star Sports football section, unfortunately our toilet seat was dirty :dazzle: and two of our pillows were stained.. *argh*

I'm just afraid to ask you to elaborate... SO I WONT! :lol:

 

[General Grizz]

COOL! 11 huh??

 

[General Grizz]

Oh wait! What days was COP open?

Also, did you see Country Bears (or the lines at least)?

 

[Hyperion93]

I wish I were there now....

 

[jcmayid]

Originally posted by Javier&Christie
Well, got back last night, and I thought I'd share a bit about this past trip

Got there on Friday night and unpacked our stuff at the All Star Sports football section, unfortunately our toilet seat was dirty :dazzle: and two of our pillows were stained.. *argh* oh well, we called up maintenance and everything was fixed up within an hour or so... got there pretty late, so we just went to sleep..

Anywho, get up Saturday nice and early and head to the Keys to the Kingdom tour .. it was great.. our tour guide's name was Regina, and she was real nice and seemed pretty knowledgable about stuff, real careful not to "ruin the magic" as she constantly reminded us After getting water/coffee we took off through Main Street and got a bunch of neat tidbits after hearing about the 4 keys... then off to Adventureland and talked about theming and other cool things, and we jumped on to the Jungle Cruise for a "special" version of it, narrarated by our Tour Guide. Then it was off to the backstage area to check out the parage storage areas, part of the Avac system, and "go away green" buildings. After that we headed to lunch and chit chatted with a nice couple we were seated with that were celebrating their 25th anniversary of marriage :sohappy:.. next it was off to check out the Haunted Mansion.. heard the 'story' of the haunted mansion, and off we went to ride it, Regina rode w/ us and gave us some more cool facts and such about the ride... after that it was off to the Main Street offices, and then down to the Utilidors for a short tour of that... all in all, a great tour, and definitely worth the money.

We went back to the hotel and hung out for the afternoon, and headed back to MK since it was open till 11pm on Saturday. All was well, noticed that Buzz Lightyear's ride is a bit beat up, but I already started a topic about that... just gotta love being at the MK

Sunday was slack day, lay out by the pool all freakin' day and get TAN hehe... went downtown at night and ate at Planet Hollywood and hung out at Marketplace..

Packed up on Monday, but still went to both MGM and Epcot, and had a great time at both parks Of course had to pick up a couple pins, as we usually do on every trip. Epcot is setting up for the Flower & Garden festival, so part of Spaceship Earth is blocked off. I got some blurry pictures of the new TV screens in Spaceship Earth, not too bad, not the greatest, but they didn't really detract much from the experience..

all in all, a great, fun, relaxing trip .. we'll probably be back next month or in June who knows, gotta use up those annual passes to their value! :king:

If you have any specific questions about the tour, or anything else you were wondering, lemme know. Also, sent new pics of Pop Century (yes they're working on it) and Space (also being worked on) to Steve, hopefully he'll put them on the site

Javier&Christie

We stayed at the All-Star Sports too, in the Touchdown building, right next to the big helmets. Anyway, this was my first time staying in any of those all-star resorts, and guess what. They were not all-star to me. In fact it felt like we were staying at a HoJo until we walk outside, the rooms and amneities really sucked if you ask me. I guess that happens after staying in a cabin at Ft Wilderness resort. Anyway, what were your thoughts on that resort? Did you like it? Next time I'll stay at Caribbean Beach Resort, it has more of that Disney feel. Also did you notice that since we paid less than everyone else for our hotel, once we leave the park we have to walk the most to our bus? Geez I felt exhausted from the walk alone. By the way, what did you pay to stay there, any special rates?

Laterzzz

 

[Hyperion93]

Must you quote what he said all over again.

 

[jcmayid]

SORRY!! Geez, can't you just skip right through it?

 

[Javier&Christie]

wow we were neighbors! stayed right in the same building, room 7238... too bad we didn't catch each others posts before we left could have said hello! hehe..

anywho.. we stay at the all stars all the freakin' time.. have to, or else can't afford to go so often... but I know what you mean, we've stayed at the Old Key West resort in a massive suite, and at the Yacht Club before as well, and their gorgeous resorts, but we got the room for $74 a night using some discount code, I forgot what it was... yeah the bus stops are the furthest away, but honestly, I don't expect them to be close up, they are the cheapest resorts, and some of the newest, so I figured they'd be far, hell, downtown disney doesn't even offer a covered stop for buses at the second stop.. oh well

as far as the stains go, the pillow seemed to be makeup or something.. and a toilet well, you know what that would likely be stained with :hurl: i don't want to think about that though, the rest of the trip was fine :king:

oh and CoP (according to our tour guide for KtTK) was scheduled to "close for the season" on this past Sunday, not sure exactly how long the season would be....

missed the country bears, sorry

the 11pm thing was cool, although i think it was b/c of the short "high" season.. they went right back to 7pm closing for the MK on Monday :zipit:

 

[Pioneer Hall]

Re: Re: Trip Report

Originally posted by jcmayid



Javier&Christie

We stayed at the All-Star Sports too, in the Touchdown building, right next to the big helmets. Anyway, this was my first time staying in any of those all-star resorts, and guess what. They were not all-star to me. In fact it felt like we were staying at a HoJo until we walk outside, the rooms and amneities really sucked if you ask me. I guess that happens after staying in a cabin at Ft Wilderness resort. Anyway, what were your thoughts on that resort? Did you like it? Next time I'll stay at Caribbean Beach Resort, it has more of that Disney feel. Also did you notice that since we paid less than everyone else for our hotel, once we leave the park we have to walk the most to our bus? Geez I felt exhausted from the walk alone. By the way, what did you pay to stay there, any special rates?

Laterzzz

You really get what you pay for. They won't give the best stuff to the people who pay the least. Just the way it goes. I know that If I am going to pay for a Deluxe Resort, I want to get better ammenities than a value.

 

[Debbie]

Nice to see you guys on the board. I thought maybe you had forgotten about us. Glad you had a good time.

 

[Javier&Christie]

thanks Debbie, I've (Javier) been pretty busy lately starting up a web development company with a partner, along with working full time.. but things are starting to level off, and I really like this forum... I frequent car message boards quite a bit (I'm a Camaro freak) but need a break from 'em.... :hammer:

Christie doesn't really post much, just kinda reads what I post hehe

 

[TURKEY]

Re: Re: Trip Report

Originally posted by jcmayid



Javier&Christie

We stayed at the All-Star Sports too, in the Touchdown building, right next to the big helmets. Anyway, this was my first time staying in any of those all-star resorts, and guess what. They were not all-star to me. In fact it felt like we were staying at a HoJo until we walk outside, the rooms and amneities really sucked if you ask me. I guess that happens after staying in a cabin at Ft Wilderness resort. Anyway, what were your thoughts on that resort? Did you like it? Next time I'll stay at Caribbean Beach Resort, it has more of that Disney feel. Also did you notice that since we paid less than everyone else for our hotel, once we leave the park we have to walk the most to our bus? Geez I felt exhausted from the walk alone. By the way, what did you pay to stay there, any special rates?

Laterzzz

The bus-stop for the all-stars is the furthest away because its the cheapest. It's kind of like ticket prices. The cheapest are the furthest away. They couldn't be put anywhere else due to constraints from everything else already there.

It's going to be interesting to see how Pop Century gets put into the bus stops. There will have to be a combination of some previous resorts or the addition of a new stop with it or the all-stars being last.



You get what you pay for. You've stayed at the higher priced resorts yet chose to go to the all-stars this time. Lots of folks couldn't afford to stay on property if Disney didn't come up with some sort of basic, standard package that was comprable to national chains. You are right the ROOMS at the all-stars are basic, run of the mill hotel rooms, but part of the increased costs is due to THEMING. You don't get any grand theming at any HoJo or any other national chain.

You could have even stayed off-property and gotten the same type room for cheaper. But you wouldn't have had free transportation or any of the other perks that resort guests get.

 

[Coronado]

I think that the All Star Resorts are just fine.... REAL people stay there....they pay with their own credit cards (not "the companies")
People are nicer and as I recall all the rooms in the park .... expensive or "value".... all look the same when you are sleeping:lol:

 

[Fievel]

Wow......maybe it's just me....but the amount of negativity towards the all stars is overwhelming.....

This hotel is great.....if you are complaining because of the fact that it's not 5-star, then remember that you paid a cheaper price.

If it wasn't for the all-stars, I would have to stay off-property or shorten my stay, so thumbs up for the all-star resorts.

And.....how long are you actually IN your room while on your trip? I see mine in the morning and at the end of the night, right before I fall asleep. I use the food court a few times, sure, but a walk in the florida atmosphere is good for you....remember that when you complain about having to walk further for the bus stop. You walk all day long, probably miles, and then you complain about going another few steps at the very end.

I personally love the all-stars....they are the very essence of Disney to me. They encapsulate everything that a "fun" experience should be.

Seems like some people expect to be babied and pampered while on vacation to a theme park.

 

[Javier&Christie]

Hey now, I wasn't complaining at all about the All Stars.. I love 'em.. they let us go often and always stay at a Disney resort...

Remember it's a trip report, and I was sharing my experience when I got there

 

[Fievel]

hehe...not you guys.....but i hear a lot of complaints about the all stars...i personally love it there.....just makes it even more speciall.....the park atmosphere kind of ties through into the hotel there....

 

[cymbaldiva]

Problem is, they (disney) really make you feel like a second class citizen when you stay in the moderate resorts...and it's even worse at the All-Stars!