BroadbandLouUM
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2001
Hello forum members-- I am new to this community. Let me first applaud DreamRes and all of its staff for a superb job on my trip planning.
First of all, I, along with six of my family members, stayed at Buena Vista Suites this past October 5-8, 2001. It was a long weekend for me and my aunt, since we work for our city's government, but my brother and my cousins had to miss school on Monday. But hey, what better excuse to miss school because they were at Disney??
About the hotel:
First time staying at Buena Vista Suites, and when I return to that area on December, BVS will be on my top list to consider staying at. The front desk, even when we arrived from Miami at around 2 a.m. (late arrival guarantee), were very courteous and offered baggage drop-off to our room (I hesitated and did it myself-- saved me a tip). We got a queen suite on the fourth floor, checked the room for any discrepencies, even under the bed, but there's no space under the beds. The suite was very clean--living room had everything we needed-- sofa bed for our extra bodies, microwave for our pizza we had bought on our way to the hotel, a small refrigerator, glass cups, and a coffee maker. The bathroom was rated by my family at a 5 from a scale of 1-10. Why medium rated? Well, for one thing.....since we were a lot of folks, we wanted a longer and wider sink counter.....why with all of my cousin's makeup (lol). The shower was the only disappointment in the suite.......that thing hardly shot water out, but nonetheless water conservation in Florida is at a premium! The two queen size beds were exceptional......I went to bed earlier than my brother and I didn't feel him laying on the bed at all....I had a wonderful sleep....both nights! The complimentary breakfast buffet was wonderful-- all that we can possibly eat for breakfast, such as eggs (made to order), toast, bagels, muffins, bacon, potato cubes, omelette strips, pancakes, french toast, sausage links, cereal (frosted flakes, cheerios, fruit looms), whole milk, chocolate milk, OJ, AJ, coffee, and tea. The cooks at the buffet were very understanding and courteous-- a smile greeted us for every order. There weren't any hostess to seat us but I can understand why (cost-cutting measures after the Sept. 11 tragedy). At check-out on Monday, the bag boy gave us tips on theme park attendance, like when its a good time to visit the area. He told us late August and all of September is a good time because families tend to be at home with their kids because of the start of school. We gave him a $1 tip per every bag he had to handle. Overall, the hotel service, amenities, and pricing ($75 per night from Friday to Saturday and $55 for Sunday through Thursday) was exceptional and Disney resort-like staff treatment. Buena Vista Suites-- a 9 1/2 on our scale!
About the theme parks:
We visited two parks-- Magic Kingdom (MK) and Islands of Adventure (IOA). On Saturday, we left BVS early (at around 9 a.m.) on our free bus tour to any Disney theme park, in this case MK. The bus was great, a Coach U.S.A., but I wanted the bus driver to at least check the bags of people going onboard. We had to go first to Animal Kingdom and drop off people. Since my uncle works at the Magic Kingdom as a stage-lighting supervisor, we got in for free! We saved nearly $400 on MK tickets! Regarding park attendance, MK was pretty full, with park attendance higher than other days prior to Saturday, October 5th. Security checkpoint was terrific...they had tables set up for that they could check bags. The 100 year night time parade is the best parade I've ever seen at Disney-- a bit longer than the usual Spectromagic but nonetheless, worth the time! The carousels changing colors is astounding! Well, I might be 19 years-old, but I still have the disney magic in me! Food? We all know how it is at MK, so let's not go there (hehe).
Islands of Adventure gave us the surprise of the day--- attendance! This park which is usually crowded at any day in the week, was a ghost town on Sunday, October 6. Could it have been because of the initial attacks against Afghanistan? I don't know.....Anyway, IOA was a wonderland....We were able to ride the Hulk coaster three consecutive times....Spiderman was just a 10 minute wait....the fearfall towers were a 4 minute wait....jurrasic park river adventure had no wait.....ripsaw falls and popeye's raft rides were empty and they let us stay there for seconds (hehe)....the dueling dragons too were empty...heck we still had to go through a labyrinth of empty lines and twirls to get to the coaster!
After a tiresome day at IOA, one should stop by Port Entry's Artic Express and have a Northern Lights-- a funnel cake, with apple pie, vanilla ice cream, cool whip, hot fudge, and two cherries on top.
And just like that, with a delicious and mouth watering desert, was our vacation to Central Florida, a delightful, mouth-watering experience!
Best wishes,
Louie
Hialeah, FL
OCT 2001 MK, IOA (stayed at BVS)
JUNE 2001 MK, EP, MGM, AK, BB, RC, TL(stayed at Carribean BR)
DEC '00-JAN '01 UNVST, IOA (stayed at UNVClarion)
AUG 2000 MGM, MK, EP (stayed at Marriot World)
MAY 2000 GRAD NITE!!! DOWNTOWN DIS, IOA (stayed at DISTOWN Hilton)
JUNE 1999 MK, UNVST, BB, TL (stayed at Wyndham Disney)
APR 1997 MK (192-road Hyatt)
DEC 1996 MK (stayed at Contemporary)
OCT 1995 UNVST (stayed at a Holiday Inn off 192)
NOV 1994 MK, EP (stayed at Contemporary)
JUNE 1994 MK, EP, MGM (Polynesian)
DEC 1989 MK (Contemporary)
JAN 1989 MK, EP (Polynesian)
JUNE 1987 MK, EP (Contemporary)
First of all, I, along with six of my family members, stayed at Buena Vista Suites this past October 5-8, 2001. It was a long weekend for me and my aunt, since we work for our city's government, but my brother and my cousins had to miss school on Monday. But hey, what better excuse to miss school because they were at Disney??
About the hotel:
First time staying at Buena Vista Suites, and when I return to that area on December, BVS will be on my top list to consider staying at. The front desk, even when we arrived from Miami at around 2 a.m. (late arrival guarantee), were very courteous and offered baggage drop-off to our room (I hesitated and did it myself-- saved me a tip). We got a queen suite on the fourth floor, checked the room for any discrepencies, even under the bed, but there's no space under the beds. The suite was very clean--living room had everything we needed-- sofa bed for our extra bodies, microwave for our pizza we had bought on our way to the hotel, a small refrigerator, glass cups, and a coffee maker. The bathroom was rated by my family at a 5 from a scale of 1-10. Why medium rated? Well, for one thing.....since we were a lot of folks, we wanted a longer and wider sink counter.....why with all of my cousin's makeup (lol). The shower was the only disappointment in the suite.......that thing hardly shot water out, but nonetheless water conservation in Florida is at a premium! The two queen size beds were exceptional......I went to bed earlier than my brother and I didn't feel him laying on the bed at all....I had a wonderful sleep....both nights! The complimentary breakfast buffet was wonderful-- all that we can possibly eat for breakfast, such as eggs (made to order), toast, bagels, muffins, bacon, potato cubes, omelette strips, pancakes, french toast, sausage links, cereal (frosted flakes, cheerios, fruit looms), whole milk, chocolate milk, OJ, AJ, coffee, and tea. The cooks at the buffet were very understanding and courteous-- a smile greeted us for every order. There weren't any hostess to seat us but I can understand why (cost-cutting measures after the Sept. 11 tragedy). At check-out on Monday, the bag boy gave us tips on theme park attendance, like when its a good time to visit the area. He told us late August and all of September is a good time because families tend to be at home with their kids because of the start of school. We gave him a $1 tip per every bag he had to handle. Overall, the hotel service, amenities, and pricing ($75 per night from Friday to Saturday and $55 for Sunday through Thursday) was exceptional and Disney resort-like staff treatment. Buena Vista Suites-- a 9 1/2 on our scale!
About the theme parks:
We visited two parks-- Magic Kingdom (MK) and Islands of Adventure (IOA). On Saturday, we left BVS early (at around 9 a.m.) on our free bus tour to any Disney theme park, in this case MK. The bus was great, a Coach U.S.A., but I wanted the bus driver to at least check the bags of people going onboard. We had to go first to Animal Kingdom and drop off people. Since my uncle works at the Magic Kingdom as a stage-lighting supervisor, we got in for free! We saved nearly $400 on MK tickets! Regarding park attendance, MK was pretty full, with park attendance higher than other days prior to Saturday, October 5th. Security checkpoint was terrific...they had tables set up for that they could check bags. The 100 year night time parade is the best parade I've ever seen at Disney-- a bit longer than the usual Spectromagic but nonetheless, worth the time! The carousels changing colors is astounding! Well, I might be 19 years-old, but I still have the disney magic in me! Food? We all know how it is at MK, so let's not go there (hehe).
Islands of Adventure gave us the surprise of the day--- attendance! This park which is usually crowded at any day in the week, was a ghost town on Sunday, October 6. Could it have been because of the initial attacks against Afghanistan? I don't know.....Anyway, IOA was a wonderland....We were able to ride the Hulk coaster three consecutive times....Spiderman was just a 10 minute wait....the fearfall towers were a 4 minute wait....jurrasic park river adventure had no wait.....ripsaw falls and popeye's raft rides were empty and they let us stay there for seconds (hehe)....the dueling dragons too were empty...heck we still had to go through a labyrinth of empty lines and twirls to get to the coaster!
After a tiresome day at IOA, one should stop by Port Entry's Artic Express and have a Northern Lights-- a funnel cake, with apple pie, vanilla ice cream, cool whip, hot fudge, and two cherries on top.
And just like that, with a delicious and mouth watering desert, was our vacation to Central Florida, a delightful, mouth-watering experience!
Best wishes,
Louie
Hialeah, FL
OCT 2001 MK, IOA (stayed at BVS)
JUNE 2001 MK, EP, MGM, AK, BB, RC, TL(stayed at Carribean BR)
DEC '00-JAN '01 UNVST, IOA (stayed at UNVClarion)
AUG 2000 MGM, MK, EP (stayed at Marriot World)
MAY 2000 GRAD NITE!!! DOWNTOWN DIS, IOA (stayed at DISTOWN Hilton)
JUNE 1999 MK, UNVST, BB, TL (stayed at Wyndham Disney)
APR 1997 MK (192-road Hyatt)
DEC 1996 MK (stayed at Contemporary)
OCT 1995 UNVST (stayed at a Holiday Inn off 192)
NOV 1994 MK, EP (stayed at Contemporary)
JUNE 1994 MK, EP, MGM (Polynesian)
DEC 1989 MK (Contemporary)
JAN 1989 MK, EP (Polynesian)
JUNE 1987 MK, EP (Contemporary)
