...I apologize for the length of this post.
Alrighty, I've unpacked, done so many loads of laundry that my house smells of Tide and Bounce and I've had a very short but sweet nap and so I'm ready to share some thoughts on this last trip. The good, the bad and the not-so-pretty
We stayed 10 nights - 1 Pop, 4 POR, 5 Swan - two rooms at each resort as we are a fam of 6. I booked Pop using an AP discount (yep, went for it!) even though we did not upgrade to AP's until the day we checked out of Pop. I booked POR & Swan using AA miles. I made connecting rooms my ONLY request at every resort.
We checked into Pop at 2am and received connecting rooms. We'd never stayed at Pop and we were very impressed. The refurbed rooms with queen beds are very nice. I cannot complain about a single thing. I don't love the values but if I was needing to save some cash, I could definitely stay there for a few nights. My family agreed. We liked it! We checked out at 11am and took our luggage down to Bell Services. Um, hello holy guacamole line! It wrapped around the building. Normally, baggage transfer line takes about 2 mins. This was the first of many long lines we would wait in. We left the luggage and caught a bus to Epcot so we could transfer to POR. Should have taken a Lyft but it's been a couple years since we've been at WDW and we have forgotten just how long everything takes
We are waiting for the POR bus at Epcot when I get the texts for our rooms at POR. Excitedly, I look at the room numbers and realize they are not connecting. In fact, they are not even next door. In fact, they are on different floors. I start to panic. My dh assures me that this is Disney and they will make it right. I remind dh about how our luck with room requests go at Disney. Basically, we usually don't get our room requests so we just ask for connecting. We've only not received that once and that time it was at the Poly. We had to be in non-connecting rooms for one night and then they moved us to the dvc studios and those were connecting. The Poly CM went out of her way to make things right. My dh assures me POR will do the same. WRONG! Ugh, most unmagical CM ever. She was a curmugeony CM. Not a single smile in the 30 mins we spent with her. Basically, it was all my fault because I booked two different room categories through "expedia". I booked a Q/Q and a K room both with the murphy bed (which I paid more points for). My paperwork did not show these being different room categories but she insisted they were and that there was no way they would have ever been connecting. I told her I called Disney and asked only for connecting rooms and she said that could never have happened. Why didn't Disney tell me this? She didn't know but it was my fault for booking through "expedia". I explained that we were traveling with 4 kids but one was an adult and we could be in adjoining rooms. Nope. I pleaded with her about how we packed 6 people's clothing in 5 suitcases and our things were all mixed up and it would be a huge chore to be spread far apart. Nope, your fault for booking with "expedia". I asked if we could be booked to a different resort. She told me we'd have to pay the difference and I asked her to call around. Only thing she could get was Pirates rooms at CBR (double beds) and we said no thanks. So we were given rooms on different floors and completely opposite sides of the building in the farthest building. I wanted to cry and then I did in the POR lobby. We were tired, it was raining on what was supposed to be a pool day, and now we are not in connecting rooms. I remind myself that nothing can steal my joy if I don't let it and that we will be okay. Once we get our luggage we unpack in dd's and ds10's room and then move it all to our room to unpack. Major hassle? yep.
Major take away. If you book with AA miles, I'd call to check on the room categories.
Bugs. I hate them, y'all. Some rank higher than others but we've never had much bug issues at Disney. We had a June bug in one POR and a bonafide **** roach in the other. I was disgusted by the **** roach.
This was our second stay at POR and I think we are done with them. The first time wasn't great but was years ago and I was really less than impressed this time. The only thing I will give them kudos for is an accident we had. We had tried to go to the pool and lightning closed the pool (this was almost daily) so once the storm moved on, my ds's were playing on the POR playground that is right by the pool. It was wet and ds10 was running. He slipped and fell on his back/side onto a step. I was standing a bit away from the playground b/c my dh was laying in the hammock. I heard the fall and it was hard. Heard my ds start screaming/wind knocked out sound and I ran over to him. He was deathly pale. I yelled to dh and he ran up the slide to the top where ds10 was. It was very obvious he had the wind knocked out of him but his pain and inability to breathe were not going away. After 30 mins or so, he was still in a lot of pain and not able to take a deep breath. A facilities CM drove by at about that time and asked if he was okay. Dh was still sitting with him at the top of the playground cause my ds was not able to move much. The facilities CM said to alert a lifeguard so we did. He put in a call and we had like 10 people from POR staff and management on us immediately. They called an ambulance so paramedics came to evaluate. It was nice to have such support in a scary time. The conclusion was that this was most likely bruised ribs vs. broken ribs and going to the hospital would be pointless as there isn't much for even broken ribs, especially for kids. We decided to see how ds did through the night, which was made even harder in separate rooms. POR arranged for a wheelchair should we need it for our park days. My ds is still pretty sore in his side and back but we made it through the parks. Some rides like SDD and space hurt but it never stopped him from wanting to ride.
Last resort was Swan. Went to check in and they also did not have our request for connecting rooms in their system (even though I called!!!!!) but could accommodate us in a variety of ways. We ultimately chose adjoining rooms because of the nice upgrade to resort views and bigger rooms. These rooms were great! We could see HS and EP fireworks from our room. Plenty of space. I loved the food options and even though we had to walk from Swan to Dolphin for everything, it was a teeny walk after being at POR. The only issues there was 1) housekeeping. We had declined it for 500 marriott rewards and were supposed to get it on the 3rd day. Well, we had our 'do not disturb' up for about 2 hours and they tried to come during that time and then just left a note saying 'sorry we missed you'. But then didn't come the next day either. So confused. Basically 5 nights and never any housekeeping. Problem 2) Spiders. I am phobic. Like super phobic and we found one in each room as well as one in the hall outside our room. My dh is good at not telling me cause he knows I get so scared but I saw 2 of the 3 and then couldn't sleep. I can deal with roaches and june bugs much better than spiders. Otherwise, Swan was lovely. Price is so much better than even a Disney value, for our time period, and we loved the location. Beware of the ducks though. They bite! One bit my ds8 in the lip. He's proud of that fact though so definitely not a knock on Swan lol.
Reason why I never ever want to go in August again - Surface of the sun hot and crowd level 8. When we first planned these dates, no day was higher than a 6 and there was only one of those. Instead this ended up being a 6-8 level trip. Between the heat and crowds, I felt like we were seeing the worst of humanity. Those things don't bring out the best in anyone. Me included. I got so tired of people pushing and shoving past us, cutting off my family entering a line and us graciously allowing them ahead of the three of us who were ahead of them only for them to then bring in 5 family members ahead of all of us. This happened more times than I can count. Just lots of pushy and rude people.
We are still looking forward to our next trip but hoping to go when it is cooler. I can do crowds or heat but not both and I think crowds are now ever present so we can only try to go in better weather
WOW! I am so sorry about the issue you had at POR. I would probably send the GM an e-mail. You can say how unhelpful the front desk CM was and give kudos to those that assisted with your son. I am so glad to hear he was ultimately ok! I am also glad that you were still able to have a good time despite some of the hiccups.Alrighty, I've unpacked, done so many loads of laundry that my house smells of Tide and Bounce and I've had a very short but sweet nap and so I'm ready to share some thoughts on this last trip. The good, the bad and the not-so-pretty
We stayed 10 nights - 1 Pop, 4 POR, 5 Swan - two rooms at each resort as we are a fam of 6. I booked Pop using an AP discount (yep, went for it!) even though we did not upgrade to AP's until the day we checked out of Pop. I booked POR & Swan using AA miles. I made connecting rooms my ONLY request at every resort.
We checked into Pop at 2am and received connecting rooms. We'd never stayed at Pop and we were very impressed. The refurbed rooms with queen beds are very nice. I cannot complain about a single thing. I don't love the values but if I was needing to save some cash, I could definitely stay there for a few nights. My family agreed. We liked it! We checked out at 11am and took our luggage down to Bell Services. Um, hello holy guacamole line! It wrapped around the building. Normally, baggage transfer line takes about 2 mins. This was the first of many long lines we would wait in. We left the luggage and caught a bus to Epcot so we could transfer to POR. Should have taken a Lyft but it's been a couple years since we've been at WDW and we have forgotten just how long everything takes
We are waiting for the POR bus at Epcot when I get the texts for our rooms at POR. Excitedly, I look at the room numbers and realize they are not connecting. In fact, they are not even next door. In fact, they are on different floors. I start to panic. My dh assures me that this is Disney and they will make it right. I remind dh about how our luck with room requests go at Disney. Basically, we usually don't get our room requests so we just ask for connecting. We've only not received that once and that time it was at the Poly. We had to be in non-connecting rooms for one night and then they moved us to the dvc studios and those were connecting. The Poly CM went out of her way to make things right. My dh assures me POR will do the same. WRONG! Ugh, most unmagical CM ever. She was a curmugeony CM. Not a single smile in the 30 mins we spent with her. Basically, it was all my fault because I booked two different room categories through "expedia". I booked a Q/Q and a K room both with the murphy bed (which I paid more points for). My paperwork did not show these being different room categories but she insisted they were and that there was no way they would have ever been connecting. I told her I called Disney and asked only for connecting rooms and she said that could never have happened. Why didn't Disney tell me this? She didn't know but it was my fault for booking through "expedia". I explained that we were traveling with 4 kids but one was an adult and we could be in adjoining rooms. Nope. I pleaded with her about how we packed 6 people's clothing in 5 suitcases and our things were all mixed up and it would be a huge chore to be spread far apart. Nope, your fault for booking with "expedia". I asked if we could be booked to a different resort. She told me we'd have to pay the difference and I asked her to call around. Only thing she could get was Pirates rooms at CBR (double beds) and we said no thanks. So we were given rooms on different floors and completely opposite sides of the building in the farthest building. I wanted to cry and then I did in the POR lobby. We were tired, it was raining on what was supposed to be a pool day, and now we are not in connecting rooms. I remind myself that nothing can steal my joy if I don't let it and that we will be okay. Once we get our luggage we unpack in dd's and ds10's room and then move it all to our room to unpack. Major hassle? yep.
Major take away. If you book with AA miles, I'd call to check on the room categories.
Bugs. I hate them, y'all. Some rank higher than others but we've never had much bug issues at Disney. We had a June bug in one POR and a bonafide **** roach in the other. I was disgusted by the **** roach.
This was our second stay at POR and I think we are done with them. The first time wasn't great but was years ago and I was really less than impressed this time. The only thing I will give them kudos for is an accident we had. We had tried to go to the pool and lightning closed the pool (this was almost daily) so once the storm moved on, my ds's were playing on the POR playground that is right by the pool. It was wet and ds10 was running. He slipped and fell on his back/side onto a step. I was standing a bit away from the playground b/c my dh was laying in the hammock. I heard the fall and it was hard. Heard my ds start screaming/wind knocked out sound and I ran over to him. He was deathly pale. I yelled to dh and he ran up the slide to the top where ds10 was. It was very obvious he had the wind knocked out of him but his pain and inability to breathe were not going away. After 30 mins or so, he was still in a lot of pain and not able to take a deep breath. A facilities CM drove by at about that time and asked if he was okay. Dh was still sitting with him at the top of the playground cause my ds was not able to move much. The facilities CM said to alert a lifeguard so we did. He put in a call and we had like 10 people from POR staff and management on us immediately. They called an ambulance so paramedics came to evaluate. It was nice to have such support in a scary time. The conclusion was that this was most likely bruised ribs vs. broken ribs and going to the hospital would be pointless as there isn't much for even broken ribs, especially for kids. We decided to see how ds did through the night, which was made even harder in separate rooms. POR arranged for a wheelchair should we need it for our park days. My ds is still pretty sore in his side and back but we made it through the parks. Some rides like SDD and space hurt but it never stopped him from wanting to ride.
Last resort was Swan. Went to check in and they also did not have our request for connecting rooms in their system (even though I called!!!!!) but could accommodate us in a variety of ways. We ultimately chose adjoining rooms because of the nice upgrade to resort views and bigger rooms. These rooms were great! We could see HS and EP fireworks from our room. Plenty of space. I loved the food options and even though we had to walk from Swan to Dolphin for everything, it was a teeny walk after being at POR. The only issues there was 1) housekeeping. We had declined it for 500 marriott rewards and were supposed to get it on the 3rd day. Well, we had our 'do not disturb' up for about 2 hours and they tried to come during that time and then just left a note saying 'sorry we missed you'. But then didn't come the next day either. So confused. Basically 5 nights and never any housekeeping. Problem 2) Spiders. I am phobic. Like super phobic and we found one in each room as well as one in the hall outside our room. My dh is good at not telling me cause he knows I get so scared but I saw 2 of the 3 and then couldn't sleep. I can deal with roaches and june bugs much better than spiders. Otherwise, Swan was lovely. Price is so much better than even a Disney value, for our time period, and we loved the location. Beware of the ducks though. They bite! One bit my ds8 in the lip. He's proud of that fact though so definitely not a knock on Swan lol.
Reason why I never ever want to go in August again - Surface of the sun hot and crowd level 8. When we first planned these dates, no day was higher than a 6 and there was only one of those. Instead this ended up being a 6-8 level trip. Between the heat and crowds, I felt like we were seeing the worst of humanity. Those things don't bring out the best in anyone. Me included. I got so tired of people pushing and shoving past us, cutting off my family entering a line and us graciously allowing them ahead of the three of us who were ahead of them only for them to then bring in 5 family members ahead of all of us. This happened more times than I can count. Just lots of pushy and rude people.
We are still looking forward to our next trip but hoping to go when it is cooler. I can do crowds or heat but not both and I think crowds are now ever present so we can only try to go in better weather
It really was not a bad trip (is there such a thing at WDW??) but some trips are better than others and I guess this one just isn't a fav. It won't keep us from going back!!!
Wooo Oct UY!@wendow thanks for the trip update. I agree that is something to keep in mind when not booking direct with Disney...even with My hate of it is pretty much what led me to want an October UY when I bought DVC last year. Now you are back you can focus on the good stuff and start planning your next trip.
Unless something has changed, SDD has a line for even numbered parties and odd numbered parties. (This isn't made clear anywhere, I just figured it out by watching what was occurring when we rode it). You were assigned a line based on the number of people in your party. They do that to prevent any open seats and then alternate pulling from each line always filling cars. Sometimes the CM running the seating arrangements then has poor attention to detail and does not fairly balance the lines and it can be frustrating as you see others moving quicker.
Welp. The RAT I see in my head just dressed up to the nines and is now a bouncer rat in a suit who stands on 2 legs. This is terrifying. Thanks @Lain
That side is always shorter too which means it's getting used more, which is what I've seen. I hardly waited at all on that side sunday when I used my fp.
I have thought about it and maybe I should. I hate complaining. But seriously this woman was just so grumpy. I know that Disney has pulled the CP kids off the front desk but I loved the youthful energy that existed then. All we get now it seems is older and grumpy CM's at checkin (had to go back later cause had an issue with our luggage I didn't post about above) and different CM but similar grumps.
We noticed some weird stuff with the the lines too. We'd scan in with our FP and then there were two lines and they were sending all to one side and then people scanned in way after us getting sent to no lines and those lines moving faster. Our Space FP was back to where the misting station is by the dvc place! Our BTMRR fp was a line weaving way out into frontierland. Just lines in general were crazy, with things like Country Bear, Philharmagic, Pixar shorts and Muppets being almost completely filled. WHAT!!??! I definitely think the rain/storms had a major impact but we had problems even outside that.
