Hello everyone!
This is my first trip report from my adventure in Disney World from the 11th to the 23rd of September.
I travelled from home, London and stayed at Old Key West with my Dad and brother. It was my first time back since July of last year where I stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I hope you all enjoy!...
This was the first time I had been to the Old Key West Resort, and the first time I had stayed in a villa style hotel in fact. It was certainly a different experience to my previous vacations at the Grand Floridian and Animal Kingdom Lodge. The dynamics of my group determined the decision to try a villa style resort due to the fact that it was just my dad and my brother with me this time. Two rooms in a hotel was not only cost inefficient but also rather antisocial with always one of us being left out and one room we decided would be uncomfortable. So Old Key West it was!
We were given a two bedroomed villa in a superb location. Block 27 to be precise, very close to the Peninsular Road bus stop. This was a major advantage mainly due to the fact that our stop was the first on the loop and we could walk 3 minutes to the reception where the bus stop was last on the loop. The resort was clearly not designed for the transportation of visitors via bus, probably because it was the original vacation club resort and most people would have just used their car that they can conveniently park outside. The bus to the parks takes about 20 minutes from the moment it arrives on campus to the moment it leaves, weaving its way through winding roads that make up the road structure of the resort. The only advice I would give to those wanting to save time, would be to try and stay in a room located reasonably close to the reception, it undoubtedly saved us a lot of time when wanting to get to the parks in time for extra magic hours and get to bed as soon as possible after the parks shut!
On a more positive note the resort’s ‘whimsical features and gingerbread architecture’, as the bus commentary likes to put it, were fantastic. Surrounded by a stunning golf course and beautiful river passing through the middle, it was easy to make yourself feel at home. I got to know the area reasonably well due to my early morning, jet-lagged-fueled jogs through the campus. After a long morning in the parks, we often liked to head back to the resort for a swim or an afternoon nap. We only used the main pool during our stay, even though there were three other quieter, more secluded pools at the resort. On days we went to the pool, the pool games provided us with some enjoyable entertainment, even if we were just watching however the noise from the activities traveled towards our room and didn’t help too much for those much needed afternoon naps!
I am not going to do a day-to-day guide to what I got up to, mainly because I can’t remember every detail but what I can say is, is that we tried to make the most of the extra magic hours. We were up early for the magic mornings, and ate at a Disney restaurant most nights, often making our way to a park in the evenings. I say this with a sour taste in my mouth, as there was one exception; Friday the 13th.
So during the year, I have been keeping up to date with the Limited Time Magic events. I was particularly excited by the hugely anticipated event that was held at Hollywood Studios on Friday 13th. I had the evening planned. Leisurely boat ride from OKW to Downtown Disney, quick look around and venture on over to Hollywood Studios for about 6pm. It didn’t really go as well as I hoped. Thousands of people had already made it to the park, with the parking lot full and park at full capacity by 4pm, or so I was told on the bus in the morning. I decided (please don’t ask why) to save time, and make my way to the Art of Animation resort, before quickly changing to a Hollywood Studios bus and getting to the park before it got ‘too busy’. Probably one of the worst decisions I have ever made. Disney was at a standstill. It took us two hours to get from Downtown to AoA. Funnily enough, at the time I couldn’t believe it was the Friday 13th event that was responsible for the chaos, but neither did the bus drivers. I managed to speak to a Disney ‘expert’ cab driver who informed us of the hysteria surrounding Hollywood Studios on that particular night and would take us back to our resort, without getting caught up in the traffic. He was true to his word and we were left at 9pm, eating a quick service burger in our room, feeling a bit disappointed, especially as I was being kept brilliantly up to date with what I was missing on my social networking feeds…
Putting that disappointment to one side, we decided to individually give each restaurant a rating out of 10. We were giving the scores based on the overall experience of the dinner not just the quality of the food. We ate at Bongos, San Angel Inn, Be Our Guest, Brown Derby, Flying Fish Café, Le Cellier, Jiko, Narcoosees and Teppan Edo. The order in which we ranked the restaurant were as follows:
1. Narcoosees
2. Jiko
3. Le Cellier
4. San Angel Inn
5. Brown Derby
6. Teppan Edo
7. Flying Fish Café/Be Our Guest
8. Bongos
The top 3 on that list really were fantastic meals. As good as any restaurant you’ll find any where in the world. As far as the Flying Fish was concerned, a huge disappointment seeing as this was a restaurant that I’d never been to before and one of the few which we sacrifice an existing favourite to try something new. I know how highly it is rated on these forums and the strong recommendations was the main factor in getting it booked but I would expect better from a signature restaurant. We do try to ignore the fact that some of the restaurants were worth 2 points on the dinning plan and take each on face value, so we were very impressed with how high San Angel finished on the scoreboard. Notwithstanding the part when my brother snuck off to the ‘bathroom’ only for a few minutes later to see him floating around on the Grand Fiesta Tour on a boat to himself! It happens every time.
And so what had changed since our last visit? Well, Test Track. I tried not to read too many reviews of the new Test Track as to maintain that element of surprise when riding it for the first time. I was very excited though, as I was a big fan of the original and thought ‘how could they improve it?’ Well I don’t know what the general feeling amongst everyone is, but to say I was disappointed would be an understatement. It probably didn’t help the first time when the cars we designed were not the same as the cars we were getting on the scoreboards at the end of each ‘test’, but in saying that, when they did appear on the second time round, it didn’t really add anything to my enjoyment of the experience on the whole.
Although my resort wasn’t part of the testing for the new Magic+ bands, I noticed the affect that the new system has and when they get it fully running, I envisage it to be a big step in the right direction for Disney. The new Fantasyland was also impressive, however I am excited for when it is completely finished, with the constructing of the Mine Train a bit on an eye sore. GET A MOVE ON!
My Dad has never seen the Hollywood Studios version of Fantasmic so that was on the agenda one night. However, instead of the magical end to the show where the boat emerges with Steamboat Willie and friends on board, we had a few characters waving the arms unenthusiastically on the main stage. Not Happy. And lastly, I finally decided to try a Dole Whip. I won’t say much on this topic as I may offend most people on here, but it wasn’t my cup of tea. Sorry.
It seems as though I’ve focused on the negative side of my trip but I can assure you, like always, I had a fantastic holiday and I didn’t want to leave. It will be up to you guys to keep me occupied for the next year or so until I can sort another holiday to the happiest place on earth, my laughing place.
I still Dole Whip Disney!
This is my first trip report from my adventure in Disney World from the 11th to the 23rd of September.
I travelled from home, London and stayed at Old Key West with my Dad and brother. It was my first time back since July of last year where I stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I hope you all enjoy!...
This was the first time I had been to the Old Key West Resort, and the first time I had stayed in a villa style hotel in fact. It was certainly a different experience to my previous vacations at the Grand Floridian and Animal Kingdom Lodge. The dynamics of my group determined the decision to try a villa style resort due to the fact that it was just my dad and my brother with me this time. Two rooms in a hotel was not only cost inefficient but also rather antisocial with always one of us being left out and one room we decided would be uncomfortable. So Old Key West it was!
We were given a two bedroomed villa in a superb location. Block 27 to be precise, very close to the Peninsular Road bus stop. This was a major advantage mainly due to the fact that our stop was the first on the loop and we could walk 3 minutes to the reception where the bus stop was last on the loop. The resort was clearly not designed for the transportation of visitors via bus, probably because it was the original vacation club resort and most people would have just used their car that they can conveniently park outside. The bus to the parks takes about 20 minutes from the moment it arrives on campus to the moment it leaves, weaving its way through winding roads that make up the road structure of the resort. The only advice I would give to those wanting to save time, would be to try and stay in a room located reasonably close to the reception, it undoubtedly saved us a lot of time when wanting to get to the parks in time for extra magic hours and get to bed as soon as possible after the parks shut!
On a more positive note the resort’s ‘whimsical features and gingerbread architecture’, as the bus commentary likes to put it, were fantastic. Surrounded by a stunning golf course and beautiful river passing through the middle, it was easy to make yourself feel at home. I got to know the area reasonably well due to my early morning, jet-lagged-fueled jogs through the campus. After a long morning in the parks, we often liked to head back to the resort for a swim or an afternoon nap. We only used the main pool during our stay, even though there were three other quieter, more secluded pools at the resort. On days we went to the pool, the pool games provided us with some enjoyable entertainment, even if we were just watching however the noise from the activities traveled towards our room and didn’t help too much for those much needed afternoon naps!
I am not going to do a day-to-day guide to what I got up to, mainly because I can’t remember every detail but what I can say is, is that we tried to make the most of the extra magic hours. We were up early for the magic mornings, and ate at a Disney restaurant most nights, often making our way to a park in the evenings. I say this with a sour taste in my mouth, as there was one exception; Friday the 13th.
So during the year, I have been keeping up to date with the Limited Time Magic events. I was particularly excited by the hugely anticipated event that was held at Hollywood Studios on Friday 13th. I had the evening planned. Leisurely boat ride from OKW to Downtown Disney, quick look around and venture on over to Hollywood Studios for about 6pm. It didn’t really go as well as I hoped. Thousands of people had already made it to the park, with the parking lot full and park at full capacity by 4pm, or so I was told on the bus in the morning. I decided (please don’t ask why) to save time, and make my way to the Art of Animation resort, before quickly changing to a Hollywood Studios bus and getting to the park before it got ‘too busy’. Probably one of the worst decisions I have ever made. Disney was at a standstill. It took us two hours to get from Downtown to AoA. Funnily enough, at the time I couldn’t believe it was the Friday 13th event that was responsible for the chaos, but neither did the bus drivers. I managed to speak to a Disney ‘expert’ cab driver who informed us of the hysteria surrounding Hollywood Studios on that particular night and would take us back to our resort, without getting caught up in the traffic. He was true to his word and we were left at 9pm, eating a quick service burger in our room, feeling a bit disappointed, especially as I was being kept brilliantly up to date with what I was missing on my social networking feeds…
Putting that disappointment to one side, we decided to individually give each restaurant a rating out of 10. We were giving the scores based on the overall experience of the dinner not just the quality of the food. We ate at Bongos, San Angel Inn, Be Our Guest, Brown Derby, Flying Fish Café, Le Cellier, Jiko, Narcoosees and Teppan Edo. The order in which we ranked the restaurant were as follows:
1. Narcoosees
2. Jiko
3. Le Cellier
4. San Angel Inn
5. Brown Derby
6. Teppan Edo
7. Flying Fish Café/Be Our Guest
8. Bongos
The top 3 on that list really were fantastic meals. As good as any restaurant you’ll find any where in the world. As far as the Flying Fish was concerned, a huge disappointment seeing as this was a restaurant that I’d never been to before and one of the few which we sacrifice an existing favourite to try something new. I know how highly it is rated on these forums and the strong recommendations was the main factor in getting it booked but I would expect better from a signature restaurant. We do try to ignore the fact that some of the restaurants were worth 2 points on the dinning plan and take each on face value, so we were very impressed with how high San Angel finished on the scoreboard. Notwithstanding the part when my brother snuck off to the ‘bathroom’ only for a few minutes later to see him floating around on the Grand Fiesta Tour on a boat to himself! It happens every time.
And so what had changed since our last visit? Well, Test Track. I tried not to read too many reviews of the new Test Track as to maintain that element of surprise when riding it for the first time. I was very excited though, as I was a big fan of the original and thought ‘how could they improve it?’ Well I don’t know what the general feeling amongst everyone is, but to say I was disappointed would be an understatement. It probably didn’t help the first time when the cars we designed were not the same as the cars we were getting on the scoreboards at the end of each ‘test’, but in saying that, when they did appear on the second time round, it didn’t really add anything to my enjoyment of the experience on the whole.
Although my resort wasn’t part of the testing for the new Magic+ bands, I noticed the affect that the new system has and when they get it fully running, I envisage it to be a big step in the right direction for Disney. The new Fantasyland was also impressive, however I am excited for when it is completely finished, with the constructing of the Mine Train a bit on an eye sore. GET A MOVE ON!
My Dad has never seen the Hollywood Studios version of Fantasmic so that was on the agenda one night. However, instead of the magical end to the show where the boat emerges with Steamboat Willie and friends on board, we had a few characters waving the arms unenthusiastically on the main stage. Not Happy. And lastly, I finally decided to try a Dole Whip. I won’t say much on this topic as I may offend most people on here, but it wasn’t my cup of tea. Sorry.
It seems as though I’ve focused on the negative side of my trip but I can assure you, like always, I had a fantastic holiday and I didn’t want to leave. It will be up to you guys to keep me occupied for the next year or so until I can sort another holiday to the happiest place on earth, my laughing place.
I still Dole Whip Disney!
