Just back March 1-8: almost all highlights

NJlauren

DIS Veteran
Joined
Nov 6, 2014
I would love to do a daily trip report with tons of details but I just don’t have the time to right now and if I did that you would really see how many times I used the rest room and that isn’t that exciting. So I thought I would do a shorter highlights, real highlights, and the rare low lights trip report

Some context originally 5 nights with 4 and a half park days ended up being 7 nights with 6 park days. 3 days 5 adults and 1 child DD age 3, 3 days 2 adults and DD age 3. I’m 20 weeks pregnant and think I used every bathroom in WDW!

Hotels: We stayed in 3! Not the original plan but adding a day at the start and end of the trip we stayed at less expensive hotels. We had storms on both ends of our travel and not wanting to cut the already short trip shorter we extended.

1) Best Western Disney Springs, clean, good location from Disney Springs. We didn’t use any of the park transportation, so no comments there. But the room was nice and staff was very friendly.

2) The Beach Club, we were here for 5 nights, room was clean, grounds were beautiful. Staff was fabulous, only complaints are no paper cups everything was glass or ceramic not ideal with a three year old, but we were able to track down paper later. Also they didn’t leave washcloths on the 2nd day we left a note asking with our tip the next day and they took care of it. The pool here is amazing, but it’s huge, I knew it was huge but I think I under estimated it. With our added days we got some pool time in and Donald and Minnie came one day which was really cute and fun! We did some activities at the resort which is new for us, the campfire, tie die, all really great! We ended up walking to Hollywood Studios and Epcot and taking Minnie vans (more on this later) everywhere else.... so no comments on park transportation.

3) POP Century, stayed here one night and got a renovated room. I was actually really excited to add a night here. The room was really nice looking but if your going to put in hardwood floors they need to do a better job cleaning them. Crumbs and dust was visible everywhere which bothered me a bit. The shower also wasn’t that clean. I do love the food court and really wish they had them at deluxe resorts as that’s where we usually stay. We had Disney transfer our luggage for us, which was great except they put our luggage in the wrong room! They resolved it quickly but that wasn’t the greatest experience.

Overall hotels get a A from me, I always expect some small issues and we had some but the good outweighed the bad 1000 times over.

Amazon Prime Now: loves this! We ordered a bunch of items (snacks, milk etc) delivery was easy and quick. 2 hours delivery is free if you order $35 worth of stuff and if you're a prime member I think. Half way through I ordered some additional items again extremely successful.

Characters: we met a ton! My daughter was really into meeting characters this trip and there are a few I’m sad we didn’t get to meet but overall I think we did pretty good.

Best character interactions:

Hollywood and Vine dinner, I can not express how great this interaction was. Daisy was joking about getting a ring from Donald, she called Minnie over to talk about her lack of a ring too. It was so hysterical, they then called over Donald who tried to run for the exit. All 5 adults and DD were cracking up, Minnie, Donald, and Daisy each came over 2/3 times it was great!

Rafiki in Animal Kingdom this was great too, the line was a bit slow as he really took his time with everyone but was well worth it when we got up there. He joked about keeping DD and for the next two days she kept going remember when Rafiki tried to keep me Mom!

Honorable mentions: Fair godmother(MK) and the stepsisters (Epcot by international gateway entrance, I think this was a practice meet). Elena of Avalor I thought she was great really like her character.

Worst character interaction:

We didn’t really have any bad interactions, but I found Woody and Buzz in Hollywood Studios to be lack luster. The line was slow so I was expecting a great interaction and it just fell flat.

Food: I’m going to list all the places we ate (no food pictures), so if you have questions please let me know. Any meal I don’t mention was in the room from Amazon Prime Now items or just a snack some place.

ABC commissary lunch (mobile ordering): mobile ordering was a bit of a fail here, they said they had a power outage and it was causing issues (we ordered around 1130 so one of the first of the day). They seemed to get it worked out quickly but I was a bit disappointed. Food was average.
Hollywood and Vine dinner: food was ok, character interaction A+++
Tiffans lunch: food was great, service was great, we did mostly apps and the food was fabulous, waiter was also fabulous my dad can be a bit hard to please and the waiter handled him well can’t wait to go here again.
Liberty Inn and Epcot F&G booths dinner: booths were really good, Liberty Inn was for DD as when she gets cranky chicken fingers or something really simple is best, it was fine nothing special.
Crystal Palace lunch: food was fine nothing special, but not bad. Character interaction was fine nothing special. DD loves pooh so would do it again, but not rushing to it. To be honest I was a bit disappointed in the interaction but could be because of the great interaction the night before.
Pizza Window Take out pizza on the boardwalk dinner: pizza wasn’t great but it was quick and what we needed.
Beaches and Cream lunch: was a lot of fun, happy I figured out how to fit it in, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to go here if I wasn’t at Epcot or staying in the area.
Garden Grill dinner: was fun, food was actually really good. Service was just ok, but was very friendly. Character interactions were a bit short but overall pretty good.
Akershus breakfast: we don’t do a ton of breakfasts because DD just isn’t a big breakfast eater, but we all really liked this breakfast. I love the buffet and family style combo. I think DD ate her weight in salami and capers, we had to load up on water later! Will do this one again!
Skippers Canteen early dinner: loved loved this meal, I think this was my favorite meal of the trip, food was great, service was great, non-alcoholic drinks were fabulous. I can’t wait to go back here.
Pinocchio Village Haus lunch (mobile ordering): mobile ordering had a ton of success here, food was fine nothing special, but MK was crowded we were close and had done next to nothing for breakfast so we were HUNGRY
Landscape of flavors at AoA: I really love the value food courts, we walked over here from the POP it was busy but quick we all got what we wanted.

Transportation aka my feet and Minnie vans:

I’ll be real quick here, we got spoiled and walked or took Minnie vans almost everywhere. I loved the Minnie vans! With the stroller it was just easier to get in a Minnie van then wait for a bus. Most of the drivers were fabulous and seemed to be long time Disney cast members. When it was 6 of us Minnie vans were great, a bit pricey for just 3 of us but we got really spoiled! They have two car seats that can be forward or rear facing and a booster. They take a max of 6 people, longest we waited was 12 minutes all other trips were 3-7 minute wait. We took the monorail one day from the contemporary to Epcot and walked home other wise it was all walking or Minnie vans.

Parks including crowds, FP+, other guest, cleanliness, memory maker, and cast members

Animal Kingdom: EMH were 7-8am but none of the adults were interested in rope for FoP (DH had a FP for later on during week). We had a great long morning here. We did safari (I relaxed and people watched). The train to rafikis area, where we had a great time, met Doc for the 2nd time and had a great Rifiki interaction. We had lunch at Tiffans, saw the Nemo show, played in the bone yard play ground, played some games in Dino land, earned some Wilderness Explore badges. We missed the Lion King show, but really enjoyed our day here. We did not have FP here as we had an Frozen FP for later that was more important then anything we wanted to do here.

DH went back for FoP later in the week (he ubered there not a great experience he said, and ubered back much better.). He loved FoP and said he can totally see why people wait two hours.

Epcot: we spent a few of half days here, I love Epcot but boy could it use some help. It makes me so sad to say that! World showcase is fabulous and flower and garden was beautiful, but poor future world! SOS someone help! We did a ton, but with out FP lines were so long and FP ran out early because there just aren’t enough to go around! Nemo was fun, Spaceship Each was good, Frozen was fine but so short why do people wait 2 hours? I guess if your kid is Frozen obsessed you do what you have to do!

Hollywood studios: we spent a day here, got there about 11, and I’m happy we ended up getting more time here, we used FP for ToT and TSMM but did both Star Wars stage shows, Disney Junior show, Beauty and the Beast show, Frozen sing along, and The Voyage of the Little Mermaid. If we didn’t come in a day early we would have missed a ton of stuff! We also went back one morning just for Woody and Buzz meet and greet once we realized DD was loving the characters. Toy story land and Galaxy Edge will be great additions but the shows kept us plenty busy!

MK: we spent two days (or large parts of them here) and one quick trip for dinner, parade, train and small world. This is where I really figured out the FP system, I think on Wednesday we used something like 8 FP, plus a number of rides/shows with no FP. This was the day we added last minute and I was able to get a Peter Pan FP originally for 5:50pm in the end I was able to moved it up to 3:05, we also got Small World, Magic Carpets, Speedway, Winnie the Pooh, Voyage of Little Mermaid, Barnstormer, and meet Tinker Bell, but we were done and ended up skipping this one. We also did Mickey's Philharmagic, Hall of Presidents, Muppet show, Carousel, meet Fairy Godmother, meet Stitch, Mickey's Royal Friendship Faire. We didn’t even get to the park till 1030, and left before 6, was a great day! To be honest the only FP I couldn’t get this day if I wanted it was 7DMT, which DD wanted to ride again so was a bit bummed but she rode it on our other MK day. The other day we didn’t get as many FP but still utilized it well. Refresh is your friend!

Crowds: It was way more crowded then I expected, I did have a few options of dates, but picked these days expecting crowds, but I expected less crowds. At Hollywood Studios we didn’t notice it much I feel the shows hold so many people unless it’s REALLY packed and you need to wait for the next show it’s not a huge factor. Epcot we felt it the most, FP ran our early lines were long and Flower and Garden was packed. The food booth lines went quick which was great. World Showcase was packed Saturday night, Monday night was a bit crowded too. Tuesday for EMH it wasn’t packed and was really nice to walk around, we did see two extremely drunk people and one lady passed out on a bench! MK the crowds were really heavy! But honestly we had a great time! We used FP, skipped things with crazy waits that we didn’t want to wait for, had time to take in a lot of shows, Mickey's Royal Friendship Faire , Move it Shake it parade, Festival of Fantasy Parade, Muppets. It was a great time and even with crowds It made me remember why I love WDW so much!

CMs: overall great, loved our recreation CM at the beach club we hung out with her 3 times, both pool days and at the campfire she was fabulous! No other stand out CMs but lots of really good CMs quality services, friendly and no complaints. I had one really nasty security guard when entering Epcot at international gateway. He was saying to stop and the other security guard was saying go, and then the guy saying go was like come on, and the guy saying no started to yell I told you to stop, the other guard was like I told her to go. I was honestly just standing there at this point waiting to be told where to go, last thing I wanted was my attitude coming out at this point.

Memory Maker: love love love. Most took ok to good pics, we had one that we felt the pics were poor. I wish the character meals had MM photographers with all characters! That’s my only complaint. I would total recommend this I’ve done it on every trip and will continue to do it on future trips!

Other guests, I feel like I need to say something here, overall all the other guest we encountered were great. Friendly and pleasant. However for the love of g-d the few grumpy ones are so grumpy! We were taking the elevator at the monorail and the women in front of us legit pushed my husband out of the way to block the elevator door so we couldn’t take it up and had to wait for the next one because her husband hadn’t finished going through security. The elevator had one person on it. Really why so rude? I only experienced one line cutting move that bothered me. A mother cut the line for the Captain Hook and Mr. Smee meet (at Pirates and Pals cruise) for her sons then got up there and her pen didn’t work and she took forever trying to find another one, if you’re going to cut at least be prepared.

Cleanliness: honestly I think it’s a timing thing if you see a lot of gross areas or rest rooms. We had two dirty restroom experiences one as my DD was saying it’s pretty dirty in here the cleaning people were arriving. However I don’t get why people don’t use trash cans they are legit every 100 feet! I saw people cleaning the parks non stop, but honestly people who leave their trash everywhere are the problem not the CMs. If you eat your lunch on the benches/planters by speedway there are 3 trash cans within 250 feet of this ride please please please use them!

Pirates and Pals Cruise: as a treat we decided to try the pirates and pals cruise instead of a desert party. We really enjoyed it. It was a bit pricey, but so fun! You get unlimited deserts, including mickey bars, and ice cream, fruit, pretzels, chips, water, coffee, gold/chocolate coins (gold doubloons I think they are called) small cakes and cupcakes etc. you also do a meet and greet with Captain Hook and Mr smee before you board the boat. You then board the boat, with a hysterical pirate, some singing, and jokes. You park across from MK and get the music on the boat. At the end you get to meet Peter Pan! You miss the projections, but beating the crowds and having a bit of a more private experience was wonderful for us.

Weather was perfect cool in the morning, and at night warm during the day, loved the weather we got!

Overall this was an amazing trip for us!

Highlights were DD really loved it, I think she was just at an amazing age for Disney. She has been before but it was such an amazing experience for us all. We skipped some of our favorite rides to do FP for things she wanted to do, but she is already asking to go back so will be sure to fit them in next time.

Low lights we really didn’t have any, it was a bit crowded. But we didn’t let it bother us much. The food at some quick service places still leaves something to be desired but honestly we could have gone to different ones we just did what was easiest sometimes.

Hope some of my report is helpful to others.

Feel free to ask any questions!
 
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Wow sounds like an amazing time and you seem to have done a ton of stuff-really impressive with a 3 year old!
I love mobile ordering but haven't been back since you can now do it with the DDP-did you find any issues with wait times after you hit the "I'm here, make the food" button?

Tiffins is my favorite place-actually Nomad lounge is my all time favorite hang out place. Just amazing food and service.

I agree x1000 about guests being slobs! no excuses the trash can are every few feet! My daughter worked custodial at a resort and she literally walked behind a group of sports kids who tossed their food wrappers in the bushes right in front of the trash cans! -part of her rounds was checking bushes and landscaping for trash! Sorry for the rant LOL!

I love MM too! Have to have it for trips (glad it is included in annual passes now!)

Sooooo-have your trip planned for the new baby?:P
 
Wow sounds like an amazing time and you seem to have done a ton of stuff-really impressive with a 3 year old!
I love mobile ordering but haven't been back since you can now do it with the DDP-did you find any issues with wait times after you hit the "I'm here, make the food" button?

Tiffins is my favorite place-actually Nomad lounge is my all time favorite hang out place. Just amazing food and service.

I agree x1000 about guests being slobs! no excuses the trash can are every few feet! My daughter worked custodial at a resort and she literally walked behind a group of sports kids who tossed their food wrappers in the bushes right in front of the trash cans! -part of her rounds was checking bushes and landscaping for trash! Sorry for the rant LOL!

I love MM too! Have to have it for trips (glad it is included in annual passes now!)

Sooooo-have your trip planned for the new baby?:P

I do feel like we got a ton done! It really was fabulous trip!

At Pinocchio Village Haus I hit the I’m here button as I was walking off Small World, when I got to the counter they were just wrapping up putting it on the tray. So no real delay.

I want to try Nomad lounge next time!

Ugh your poor daughter! I know her job was to clean up but that’s out of control! I don’t get it... I it’s that hard to put it in the trash can! It’s right there!

I did book a bounce back for December but it will all depend on what type of baby we have, easy going we will go, way fussy we will push back, maybe March or May. I haven’t told my husband I booked yet... must have slipped my mind...

Either way we have a big last week of August 2019 trip planned...HOT!
 

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