AffordableDisney-Trip Reports
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John and Donna Gross "The Full Mickey - At a Discount!" The Wall Street Journal
Kim visited WDW in June, 2004: "John, I have wanted to send you a trip report of our June trip to WDW for weeks now. I think that I finally have some time to sit down and do it. So here goes. First of all I'd like to tell you that I purchased our passes through Omar on the phone. I purchased them early due to an e-mail from you stating the price of all WDW tickets were to be rising the next day. That info alone saved me money. Then Omar suggested a 5-day park hopper with additional 4-days at the water park, Wide World of Sports, etc. The passes worked great for my husband and my children ages 5 and 9. I decided to purchase [the pass you recommend in your book to get a special rate] on our hotel prices. That worked wonderful. Considering that my husband and I thought that we wouldn't be able to go back to WDW for quite a while, we chose to break up our days with three different hotels on property. We stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter first with a rate of $74/night. We stayed there for five nights. (More to come about the hotels that we stayed in) Then we went to Animal Kingdom for 2 nights at $200/night. Then the last hotel was Wilderness Lodge for two nights at a rate of $139/night. Also I'd like to tell you that Beth [your travel agent] is absolutely wonderful!!! She helped us so much. I changed a hotel once and I changed rate codes on the hotels I think twice. Through all of the changes Beth took it in stride. She is truly an asset to you and your customers. THANKS!!!! We loved Port Orleans French Quarter and the Wilderness Lodge the best. The Animal Kingdom was the worst. When my husband initially planned this trip we really wanted to stay at Port Orleans Riverside until you stated that it was under renovation. Then we decided to change to French Quarter. And boy are we glad that we did. It had nothing to do with Riverside, but it had all to do with the French Quarter. The hotel is perfect. The scenery was gorgeous. The plants, trees, etc. were beautiful. While we were there we noticed some painting of the banisters (outside our room, but it was marked everywhere). So they are definitely keeping the place nice." Kim's trip report continues below. |
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Kim's trip report continues: "Another reason why we enjoyed the French Quarter was because of the service that we received the first day. My family drove from Illinois straight through (yes, I don't know what we were thinking driving straight through with 5 and 9 year olds, but we managed). Anyway when we arrived it was only 6:00 a.m. and as you know check-in is 3:00 p.m. The first clerk stated that the room wasn't done yet and to check back around 11:00-12:00. Well we waited as long as possible which I think was 10:30 and I went back to the counter to inquire. Again I was told that the room wasn't ready and that we needed to wait until 3:00. I was starting to get a little irritated, but I did realize that was policy, so I left. Well needless to say, around 11:30 my husband and I were both getting extremely tired and the kids were extremely restless. So I told my husband that I would try one more time to get in early. This time I talked to one of the other clerks, told her my sob story and she stated that the normal procedures was to tell people that check in was 3:00, but she would see what she could find. Well in three minutes she had a different room ready for us and gave us the room card. So, yes as you've stated before, if you don't get what you want just keep asking, and eventually someone will help you!!!!! They really do want to please you!!!! As I have stated, we went on to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. From the moment that we stepped into the hotel, we were not happy. The clerk behind the desk was very short and rude with us. She also stated that our room wasn't ready (which was no problem, due to we were going to the park anyway), but it was just her tone and temperament. When we got our room later, we were initially happy. Then we started to look around a little. The light in the entrance was burned out, there was toothpaste in the molding around the sink area, there was dusk in every corner of the room, and there were cobwebs on the ceiling. I used to work in the hotel business and what this room needed was a good deep cleaning. I called the front desk as soon as I found all of this, and they didn't seem to care. When I checked out I told the clerk that our room needed a good deep cleaning and her reply to me was I needed to tell them before that. When I stated that I did, she said, "Oh", and left it at that. I probably should have pursued it, but I didn't want to start the day off with a confrontation. So I left. The whole experience in the Animal Kingdom Lodge was one of "Don't bother me!," "How dare you ask that question?" and "This hotel is too good for you!" My husband and I will never go to animal Kingdom Lodge again. One good side of the AKL was the animals. They were magnificent, when you could see them!! We then went on to the Wilderness Lodge. My husband and I thought that it was one of the best hotels there. The people were friendly and considerate. It really felt again like we were family coming for a visit. Our room was ready for us when we checked in (which we did not expect it to be, considering it was only 9:00 a.m.). My children really enjoyed the boat ride to MK. It was a nice change from all of the bus rides everywhere. (You have reported before that some of the bus drivers were rude to passengers. We did not have that problem at any time during our stay. I felt like they were all very helpful and nice!) Overall we will definitely stay at the Wilderness Lodge or Port Orleans French Quarter again!! Well this note is turning into a long letter!!! I'll try to hit the highlights of the whole vacation. Wow, where do I start, there were so many!!! Well the first night we went to Downtown Disney by way of the boat. You are absolutely right. this trip is one of the best kept secrets of WDW. When you come back to your room in the dark with all the lights, it is beautiful!!! While at DD we ate at Planet Hollywood (everyone has to see this place). I used my Annual Pass and received 10% off the total bill (well, at least it took care of the tip!!). We were about ready to leave when I told my husband that we had to stop to get a free sundae. Well he was all for getting A FREE anything especially if it is ice cream (free sundae with an entertainment book coupon). The next day we were going to Blizzard Beach, but it rained all day (the only day that it did, so we were happy). So instead we stayed in the room and vegged out. That evening we were able to go on the monorail for a quiet ride. We decided to just ride and the kids really enjoyed it!! The next day the weather was a lot better. We went to EPCOT that day. The morning started out at The Norway Pavilion with breakfast at Princess Storybook. It was very nice, if you can't get in at Cinderella's Royal Table, or if you have little ones who like some of the other princesses like Mulan and Jasmine. To be honest with you, I wish that I had listened to you when you stated that the character breakfast can be missed. I know that we paid a nice amount for each of the character breakfasts that we did (which I think we did four). Next time maybe one - and notice I said MAYBE!! The best one was definitely Chef Mickey's (talk about that one later). For lunch we ate at the Coral Reef. This is one restaurant that we could have missed. I thought that it would be better than it was. First of all we were placed as far away from the fish as possible (And, yes there were tables closer!!). The food was just O.K.; in fact my husband got sick after. The evening meal was wonderful. We took you advice and booked a table at the Rose and Crown Pub for 7:50 p.m. We were able to get a patio table and the view of Illuminations was spectacular!!! The trick I found in getting the patio table was arriving around 1/2 hour earlier than your priority seating time and asking very politely if there would be any patio tables available for your time frame. I found out that by doing this, the waitress will try to help as much as possible. We did wait for quite a while, but trust me the view is well worth the wait!! The next day we went to Typhoon Lagoon. Wow, what a water park. I think that my family barely got through 1/4 of it and we were all exhausted. Definitely Typhoon Lagoon was well worth it. My 5 year old daughter wouldn't leave the wave pool area. She thought that it was great!! We finally convinced her to try the lazy river. She tried the lazy river, but the entire time on it she kept asking, "When do we get off of this and go back to that wave thing??" That evening the family went to the Polynesian Resort for The Aloha Poly Luau. My daughter really enjoyed this. She was able to get on the stage twice at the beginning of the show. First the cast asks if any children would like to come up and dance with the cast. And then they asked if there were any June birthdays that would like to dance. Boy, did she think that she was all that!! The Hawaiian dances were nice, but the best part by far was the fire twirler. He was truly amazing!!! I don't know wether we would go back to the Luau though, it was just so expensive. But I am glad that we went once. (Oh, words of caution. ARRIVE EARLY!!!!!!) My family was running late and we just barely made our priority seating. They stated that they were about ready to give the table to another family. The next day was MGM. Very nice!! We ate breakfast in our room. (we packed a suitcase full of breakfast materials and snacks before we went. We were also able to use the "snack suitcase" for souvenirs when we were coming home.) For lunch we ate at one of the many express food places. By this time my husband and I learned to eat light at the noon meal and have a bigger supper meal. For supper we ate at Hollywood and Vine. Both my husband and I thought that this was a nice place to eat, but it was a bit busy and not very clean. But I do think that they were trying, it was just VERY BUSY. The reason why I chose Hollywood and Vine is that it is on the list for the Fantasmic Dinner Package. This package was great. You are able to bypass all of the regular lines to Fantasmic. I will definitely do this again!!!! And then there was Fantasmic!! Wow, what can you say? You definitely don't see that very often in the corn belt of Illinois!!!! Next day was Animal Kingdom. Again we had breakfast in the room. And again we had lunch at an express food place. The day went pretty good; my children really enjoyed It's Tough To Be A Bug. The only problem that we had with all the shows like this is my daughter is afraid of load noises. So needless to say she had her hands on her ears for the majority of this entire trip. All of the shows are very loud!! That evening on the way out of the Animal Kingdom we ate supper at the Rainforest Café. This was also a very nice restaurant, but a little loud again for my daughter especially when the animals started doing their thing!! We also used my Annual Pass to receive 10% off the meal, can't go wrong!! The next day was the day that all of us were really looking forward to--Magic Kingdom. And yes, it truly is Magical!!!! From the moment that you walk into the park and see Main Street and the castle, it is truly like you are transposed into a fairytale. Also that morning we were able to do breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table. My five year old thought that this was "Awesome--in her own words," but of course my nine year old boy said, 'When are we leaving this place?" Us parents just can't win for losing?!!? Anyway, Cinderella's Royal Table was nice, but I don't think we will do it again. But don't get me wrong I was glad that we did it on this trip. It is just not a redo experience. After spending the majority of the day at the park we went on to the Contemporary Resort for Chef Mickey's Character Dinner. Chef Mickey's was great. The food was the same as all of the other character meals, but the feeling in the room was one of complete joy and happiness. It was the epitome of what I thought Disney should be. We will definitely do Chef Mickey's again next time we visit WDW. The only bad thing about doing Chef Mickey's was we were ready to go back to our room and vegg out a little with a full stomach. So we didn't go back to Magic Kingdom like we thought that we would. The next day we went back to the Magic Kingdom. Again the atmosphere was magical. I just don't know how they do it? This day we ate breakfast in our room and ate lunch at an express counter. We had our last character supper this evening also. We ate at the Crystal Palace. This was probably the one character meal that we enjoyed the least. But I don't think that it had anything to do with the food or the service. I think that it had something to do with all of us being soaked from head to toe. About 2 hours previously we went on Splash Mountain. Well we expected to get wet, but we didn't expect to get stuck on the ride in one of Florida's pop-up showers. So needless to say we got wetter waiting outside on the ride (they stopped the ride for a little while due to some thunder, I think) than actually splashing at the end. We were all so wet that now I have a souvenir bath towel from Disney. But it was a BLAST!!!! Again due to us being soaked and our belly so full that we couldn't move, we chose to leave the park. Now looking back on this decision I wish that we would have stayed because we missed the Spectro Magic Parade and the Wishes Nightime Spectacular. Oh, well at least there will be something to look forward to next time!!! Our last day at Disney, we chose to go back to Downtown Disney. (My son saved all of his souvenir money in order to buy a Star Wars Lego) We ate at Ghirardelli one more time (my husband just can't get enough ice cream and when we looked on the bottom or back of our previous receipt from there we noticed another coupon (oops forgot what the actual offer was). We just couldn't see a good coupon go to waste. After we got back from DD and actually ate something of substance, we went to The Fort Wilderness Campground. Our daughter is an avid horse fan, so I thought that we would go see the horses and let her go on a pony ride. Well we got there about 6:00 p.m. to discover that the pony rides end at 5:00 p.m. So we had a very upset little lady. We were able to see the other horses in the barn, so her sadness didn't last long. After WDW we proceeded to go on to Universal Studios. We had a fantastic time there also. I was able to book a room at Portofino Bay--one of Universal's hotels there on the premises. The rate was spectacular; we got the room for a little more than $200/night with the Entertainment Book rate. (So, that alone saved us around $150/night. It definitely paid to do research on all of the different offers available to you!!!) The hotel is breathtaking. The service was very good and the workers were very polite. We stayed at Universal Studios for a total of two nights, and it was great. One tidbit of information that I will pass on to everyone is definitely stay on property at Universal Studios. By staying on property, you are able to use there Express Pass System. It is similar to the Fast Pass in WDW, but with much shorter lines than even WDW fast pass System. I don't think that we waited in line more that 10 minutes on any ride at Universal Studios or Islands of Adventure. Actually we were able to ride Jimmy Neutron twice in the same time frame as someone else that was waiting in the stand-by line. My husband and I will definitely stay on property next time also. Well all in all my family and I had a great time. This is by far the best vacation that we have had as a family. It was so good that my husband and I are talking about going back down before my annual pass runs out. But John, to be serious, we wouldn't have been able to get such good rates and information without you, Beth and Omar. In turn you were the ones that helped us have this wonderful vacation. THANK YOU A LOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Thank you, Kim, for your kind words and for sharing your vacation with us. We invite all our readers to share their experiences at WDW or anywhere else in Florida. Email your comments to johngross@affordabledisney.com and we'll be glad to publish them in The Disney News.
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