AffordableDisney-Trip Reports
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Brought to you by...
John and Donna Gross "The Full Mickey - At a Discount!" The Wall Street Journal
Sara visited WDW in November, 2004: "Dear John, Just thought I'd write you a quick note about our quick Disney trip. We decided to give our children a surprise trip to Disney the first weekend in November. We arrived late Thursday night, went to Magic Kingdom on Friday, EPCOT on Saturday, and MGM on Sunday hopping over to do some favorite rides at Magic Kingdom after the afternoon parade in MGM. We've been many times and knew exactly what we wanted to see and experience in such a short time. We swam and shopped on Monday and headed out late Monday night. It was beautiful, and the airline tickets for our family of six were extremely cheap. It was the cheapest we've ever flown for, and it was a direct flight. I was surprised that after the hurricanes and with it being a weekend it was not more difficult to get around, but the crowd was not that bad. I originally had set up with Beth to stay at Port Orleans, but then others decided to go with us and we all got a condo together. Beth was wonderful about the cancellation. She has always been very helpful whenever I've had any questions about anything. She must truly enjoy what she does. Thank you for your newsletter and tips." Our members and I are all very grateful for Beth's hard work. Thanks for the pat on the back! |
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Kim visited WDW in October, 2004. She sent us her trip report: "We just returned from a trip to Disney. We stayed at the Port Orleans Riverside. I must say that we would not stay there again. Although the grounds are beautiful and the rooms were ok, the food was horrible and the service was horrendous! It certainly was not up to par with what we have come to know as Disney service. The food court was big, loud, slow and dirty. Most meals were cold by the time we got through the register lines. Every night I had to wade through spills on the floor to get to the beverage area. Once there, we would find most things were empty. In the morning at least 3 of the 4 creamer containers were empty. Most times there were no clean trays up front to use and we had to juggle our food. One evening I stood for 15 minutes to get a pizza and no one even came to the window to take my order. When I finally got someone's attention I was told that I would have to wait. When I responded that I had been waiting for 15 mins already, the employee rolled his eyes and said, "well you'll have to wait a bit longer then." I moved to the burger line and stood in that line for 10 mins and it never even moved! We ended up having cookies for dinner! This was not the best with a cranky 7 year old. One night we decided to go to the food court for ice cream for dinner, figuring that it would be fast and no problem. My daughter wanted a small hot fudge sundae. The women behind the counter said they were only one size. I explained that it would be a waste - just make it smaller and I will pay the same price. She huffed and puffed and commented under breath that "everyone has to cause problems today." At that point my daughter piped up and told the woman to just make whatever she wanted and that my daughter would take it! One night we decided to try the sit down restaurant at the hotel. The selections were nice. We were encouraged. I ordered a salad and soup. My salad never came and by the time we saw our waitress again, the rest of our party was finished and it was too late. My husband ordered beef and it was fatty and cold. My daughter's meal was also cold. The waitress never returned to see how things were and we had to hunt her down for the bill. We also tried the sit down for breakfast - it only opens at 730 am. We arrived at 8am and there was a 45 minute wait!! You don't wait that long anywhere for breakfast! There were a bunch of open tables, so it had to be staffing issue. When we first arrived at the hotel, our bags were whisked away to a holding area. We were told to call from our room and they would get the bags right to us. Once we finally got the rooms (our reservation was screwed up) we called the bell captain area. I gave our name and our room. I was asked for the number of bags we had. We could not remember exactly. I was told to look at the ticket we were given. My husband had the ticket and was not in the room. I asked what difference it made, just give us the bags that have our full names on them. At that point she said that there could be guests with the same name. I got the ticket and told the woman the number of bags. The ticket also had a claim # on it and I asked if she needed that. She told me no that as long as they know how many bags. When I questioned how that fact would help to determine which 6 bags were ours as opposed to another person with our name, she just hung up on me. The whole thing was ridiculous and the woman had a poor poor attitude. It took over 1 hour to get our bags to our room! The overall customer service at this resort was non existent. It appeared that all of the employees felt they did not want to be there or that they were being overworked. None of them were happy or in the "Disney mood" We will never stay there again. We were so dissatisfied that we had friends who have changed their reservations for December to another resort. This was a horrible experience. Last time we stayed at the Best Western at Downtown Disney. It was FANTASTIC! A much cheaper price, food was good and the restaurant and hotel were clean. The employees were happy and helpful. We found the bus rides easy and it was a quick walk to the many shops and food places at Downtown Disney." Kim, I would send a letter of complaint to the manager of Port Orleams Riverside! Here is the address:
General Manager of Port Orleans Riverside You can use this address as well:
COMPLAINTS AND COMMENTS: Let us know how they respond.
Amber visited WDW in September, 2004: "Hi, John! Just thought I'd let you know that we just got back from our first family trip to Disney World! We spent the week at Liki Tiki Village and spent 2 days at Disney: Epcot on Sept 27th and Magic Kingdom on Sept. 29th. Yes, we survived Hurricane Jeanne on Sunday and still went to Epcot the next day! The hurricane had strong winds and lots of rain, but our building was sturdy so we actually enjoyed the hurricane. It's probably a once in a lifetime experience for us since we're from Indiana! The hurricane made for a wonderful trip to Epcot since there was hardly anyone there! In our party was me, my 6 year old son, my 2 year old girl, Grandma and Grandpa. Epcot opened an hour late due to some clean-up from the Hurricane. When we got in we went directly to Test Track, which my 6 year old son loved! The line was 5 minutes long so we skipped the fastpass. We got a FastPass for Mission: Space. The fastpass return wait was for 40 minutes later so we grabbed a bite to eat beforehand. I was surprised to find my 6 year old loved this ride, too. He talked forever about how he got to land the spaceship all by himself! Wonders of Life was closed so then we went to the Universe of Energy. The movie had already started so we went right in and watched the last 5 minutes and got on the ride. Even my 2 year old daughter loved the dinosaurs. Next, we crossed over to the West side. We started with Imagination since my son spotted the interactive water fountains. After playing there for about a half hour, we walked right into Honey, I shrunk the Audience. (There was no Fastpass due to no crowd.) Both kids loved this movie. My son kept saying, "That's real water!" Next we went to see Figment, but the timing of the car didn't match the timings of the animations so the kids were confused. They would see the animations, but we'd be so far ahead or behind them that they could hardly see them. Next was the land pavilion. We got Fastpass tickets for the Living Land ride for 40 minutes later and went to see the Circle of life. Neither of the kids really liked this movie, even with the Lion King characters. We'll skip it next time. By the time we got out of there we only had 10 minutes until the Living Land ride. Both kids really enjoyed the boat ride and the baby alligators. Then we went on to the Living Seas. The kids like the Nemo room. The adults weren't very impressed. My son was entranced with the scuba diving demonstration. Then we went to Spaceship Earth, which of course, we walked right onto. The kids enjoyed it. We then went back to the test track and got a Fastpass before heading to Mexico and Norway for their rides. Unfortunately, Mexico was broken. However, both kids loved the Norway boat ride. I was impressed that my 2 year old liked it so much. On the way out of the park we rode the Test Track 2 more times, once with the Fast Pass and once with the Rider Switch Pass since my 2 year old couldn't ride it. My 2 year old doesn't like load fireworks so we skipped them. On Wed, Sept 29th, we went to the Magic Kingdom. All fastpasses were for 35 minutes after you got you're fastpass and you could get another one in 40 minutes. My kids fell instantly in love with the Magic Kingdom! My daughter absolutely loved seeing Cinderella's castle. Our first ride of the day was Buzz Lightyear. We walked right on. The fastpass wasn't even available all day. My 2 year old absolutely loved this ride. It was her favorite ride and she wanted to ride it again all day! My 6 year old son didn't like it because he couldn't get a very high score. Next we walked right on Space Mountain. This was my 6 year old's favorite ride. I think the dark actually helped with his fear of big roller coasters! The kids were begging to go on the Transit Authority so we rode this one next. Both kids really enjoyed it, especially my 2 year old. Next was the Indy Speedway. It was interesting that we had to travel from Indianapolis to Florida just to ride it! We were lucky enough to be able to "race" each other since we were side by side. Both kids got to drive and had a blast. Then, we were off to Fantasyland's [Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh], where we opted to wait in line for 10 minutes, rather than do the fastpass. This ride was a bit scarier than I expected. We tried to tone it down for our 2 year old and that seemed to work. Then, my 2 year old begged to ride the Mad Tea Party. She was fine with it, if we didn't make the cup go around in circles. Then, we went to Mickey's Toontown. My 2 year old got a little scared on Goofy's barnstormer, but refused to be left behind. She loved Minnie's house! We went back to Fantasyland where my 2 year old insisted on riding Dumbo, which had the longest line of the day at 15 minutes. I got FassPass tickets to Peter Pan while the grandparents waited in line. Both kids loved this ride. Next was Snow White's adventures with a 5 minute wait. We again played it down so my 2 year old actually enjoyed it. Next, PhilharMagic was starting so we cruised on into the theater. (No fastpass since there weren't any crowds.) Both kids absolutely loved the movie! They kept trying to grab everything that came at them. My son kept saying (again), "That's real water! That's real wind!" Afterwards, we used our Fastpass to get on to Peter Pan. Both kids really enjoyed this ride. They loved "flying." My daughter is a huge Tinkerbell fan so this ride was for her. We ate at Pinocchio Village Haus. I was surprised how good the burgers and fries were. Of course, Small World was closed so we went on to the Haunted Mansion, where we walked right into the pre-show. (Again, no Fastpass available.) My 2 year old did just fine with this ride. Everyone enjoyed it. Next we walked into the Bear Jamboree right as it started. Both kids absolutely loved the show! My son never sat down he liked it so much. Afterwards we found a perfect spot for the parade. While we waited the next 20 minutes, I went and got Fastpasses for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. They were for 5 minutes after the parade was over. Perfect! I can't say enough good things about the parade. The kids loved it! Tigger even came over and patted both the kids on the head. Next, we rode the Big Thunder Mountain RR. My son loved it. Next, we rode the train. My 2 year old fell asleep right beforehand so my mom rode the train for an hour while my daughter slept. In the meantime the rest of us had a 5-10 minute wait at Splash Mountain since they weren't offering the fastpass. This was a much longer ride than I expected. We all really enjoyed it. We were in the front of the boat and still didn't get too wet. We rode the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad again using our Rider Switch Pass. We all met back up and the kids had ice cream. We then went to Pirates of the Caribbean. Very good ride. My daughter got a bit scared when the pirates shot at us, but she's told everyone about almost getting shot by the pirates so she must have enjoyed it after the fact. Next we got to the Tiki Birds right before the show started. Very good show, but very short. We skipped the Jungle Cruise to catch the last showing of Cinderella's Celebration at the Castle. That was a very good decision. The kids both loved it! This show and the Parade were really the only times we got to see Disney's main characters. We couldn't find many of them when we were in Toontown. We decided to head back over to Tomorrowland one more time before we left. We went on the Astro Orbiter, which my 2 year old didn't like. Big brother was "driving" so we got too high for her. Afterwards, we all walked right on to Buzz again. Then, my daughter and I rode the Transit Authority and Buzz again. As we were leaving, we caught most of the fireworks. However, since my daughter thought they were too loud, we headed back to the hotel. We spent the remainder of our days playing at Liki Tiki Lagoon at the hotel. It was free and great for kids ages 9 and under. They had 5 slides, 3 basketball goals in the water, interactive water fountains, octopus swings in the kiddie pool, an erupting water volcano, and a water mushroom. The kids loved it. Our big complaint was that the elevator in our building didn't work for a day. We had a nice 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom unit. The master bedroom and bathroom were gorgeous. We had TV's in the living room and both bedrooms. Since it's a condo, we didn't have maid service, but we did have a washer and dryer in the room. That's about it." Thanks, Amber, for the great trip report!
Jeffrey writes: "We went to Disneyworld Aug 20, 2004 - Sept 2, 2004. Managed to dodge Charley and Frances. Pleasure Island was still allowing you entry for free (Note from John: this special is still in effect!). You only needed to pay if you wanted to go in a club. The price was only $16.95, which is lower than I remember from past visits (AND LOWER THAN DISCOUNTERS WERE SELLING THE TICKETS FOR). I bought my hopper passes from [your ticket agent], and he gave me a magazine called "Enjoy Florida." I also saw the magazine on racks at the Belz outlet mall where the character corner is. In any case, on the inside back cover of the magazine was a coupon for 20% off Pleasure Island tickets, good for up to 6 tickets. The expiration was 12/31/04. That means the Pleasure Island clubs could be visited for $13.56 + taxes. There was no apparent damage to the theme parks from charley, and since I left before Frances arrived, I have no idea what damage it caused to the theme parks (Note from John: the parks suffered little damage from either storm). There was a lot of damage visible around Orlando: Billboards completely wrecked, trees down, lots of roof damage; but the parks were fine. We had a great time. the crowds were smaller than I've ever seen, so we managed to do everything we wanted to do before the afternoon storms came through each day. we got in the habit of going at opening to a park, and coming back to the condo at around 3 pm to enjoy the pool and hang out. I think the longest line we ever waited in was 30 minutes at any park, including universal and seaworld. And that only happened around 1 pm or so when the park was fullest."
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