Hi everyone,
I wanted to give a quick update on our week long trip to the World. It was overall, a great trip. We had a few bumps here and there but nothing major. WL is beautiful and the villas are nice–loved having a washer/dryer and a somewhat full size fridge. There were a total of 11 of us with Grandma in her own room at WL and Nana & Papa in their own room at WL while we stayed at VWL with our kids.
The lodge is great, staff is nice, gift shop is large (thankful we found some crocks for my 8 yr old son that forgot his tennis shoes). The Roaring Fork QS is good, has enough of what you need. The territory lounge was nice, DH and I went there one eve for dinner as the grandparents watched the kids at the pool. We had the cheese fondue-it was good. Whispering Canyon dinner was ok. I don’t think we will go back there for TS but I am glad we tried it. Nothing wrong, just didn’t really think it was worth the price.
Transportation is a little bit of an issue. Buses were running late/slow and were packed-so we all ended up standing, including the kids, many times. The boats were nice, more reliable, but took about 20 min to get to us. The boat drivers were super nice and full of information about WDW. We did drive ourselves to AK one day–that was super easy and actually faster than bus.
We had a ton of ADRs and most we really enjoyed: such as Ohana breakfast and dinner, Kona breakfast–tonga toast is fabulous! Trails End dinner at Ft Wilderness was really good and a great value. We also did the Chip and Dale smore’s campfire sing a long and that was great! We brought our own smores–much cheaper than buying them there. Horse stables are awesome to see too. Ok-back to ADRs-- Crystal Palace Dinner- we thought was waaay to expensive for the food/ character. I understand your paying for the characters and being in MK, but it was $360 for 5 adults and 4 kids (we bought grandmas meal)- it was super loud, chaotic, disorganized with the characters. We had breakfast there in the past and enjoyed that much more. BOG lunch was good–didn’t preorder but that wasn’t an issue–just ordered at kiosk. Food was OK, not outstanding but OK. Yak and Yeti was good in AK-one of our favorites. I think that covers TS.
Magic bands worked pretty good. We did have an issue in the beginning of the trip getting Grandmas room and tickets straight b/c we bought the room/tickets thru Orbitz. They did get it straight but took about 45 min. That was check in day though so it wasn’t really a problem.
The kids really enjoyed the pool at WL and the new splash pad there is small but nice. Try the non-alcoholic Lava smoothie at the pool bar–very good!
Fast pass was good and bad. Touring with 11 people is hard. At least we found it to be. I am very glad I made the FP for headliners that I could. Lines were long–even on park days rated 3/4. I was really surprised how long some lines were. I saw mine Train at 115 min yesterday night at about 7pm. Rider swap worked well for us. Could take a total of 3 guests–we had to use it once on mine train.
I think that is all I can remember right now. We literally just got back 2 hours ago but I wanted to post this so I don’t forget!!! Oh–we did buy Memory Maker and I was really iffy on it–we have about 200 pics and most are good. One thing I did not like at all is that at the OHana Character breakfast they take your picture with Stitch only–not MIcky, Minnie or Pluto–they will only follow Stich --I was a bit dissapointed in that b/c I thought at a character meal they would take pics with all the characters. Oh well, we got those on our phone.
Ok, let me know of any questions. I will try to help. People here have helped us so much, I want to give back. I called about a BB offer–up to 35% off room–but we really wanted a 2 bedroom villa again if we stay on site–nothing in MK area and many black out dates. So we didn’t book anything. Thanks for listening!!!