WDW trip report from 12/17-12/23

[hellokitty]

Part I

OK, bear with me. This is my first trip report. This was our first family WDW trip. The last time DH and I were at WDW was 13 yrs ago for our honeymoon. So, things have changed a lot and this was also our first time staying at a WDW resort. We stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter (POFQ) with the free dining promo. We were able to stay at POFQ as a family of five, due to DS3 being under 3 yrs old.

Travel: We are from Ohio and chose to drive down to WDW. We stopped in NC to stay with family overnight and then drove the rest of the way to Orlando. On the way back we stopped at another family member's house in NC and spent Christmas there. Driving wasn't too bad when it was broken up into two days. Entertainment in our minivan consisted of a variety of DVDs, nintendo DS units for my older boys, some random toys and LOTS and LOTS of snacks. Bring lots of sandwich sizes ziplock bags, so you can divy up snacks as needed. I used these both in the car, at the parks and in the hotel. I also packed one meal to be eaten on the road, usually during a time that my toddler fell asleep in the car and we didn't want to wake him up to eat a meal. I'm glad we made sure that we had our windshield wipers replaced before the trip, since it rained the entire first day of our drive! I brought a lot of small toys too for the kids, but that ended up being a space hog in the car. Maybe my kids are weird, but they weren't interested in a grab bag during the ride.

POFQ: I did online check in two days prior to our arrival date. I had already put in two requests when I had placed my reservation for a quiet room and a room away from the designated smoking areas. It did not show on my online reservation, but they verified when I checked in that it was on my account. Online check in was great. We got there around 4:30-5pm and that is usually a busy time for guests checking in, but since I did the online check in, all they did was ask for my ID and my packet was already made up and ready to go. In the lobby, there is a tv with rocking chairs and sofas, so the kids can sit there to watch tv. There are also restrooms right off of the lobby. This is a newly refurbished resort (which is one reason why I chose it) and it was very clean and everything looked very well kept up. The only thing that was odd was the lobby bathrooms seemed to have been forgotten during the refurbishment. They seemed a bit old, but not a big deal, it's just a lobby bathroom.

POFQ is the the smallest WDW resort (but sister resort of PO Riverside, so you can use amenities at both resorts, POR is a 10 min walk or a boat ride away). It is a big easy type of theme, and a very quaint resort with rod iron fences, brick lined walkways, carriage rides and old style lamp posts, but lacks the litter and drunk ppl of the real NO, lol. It has a gift shop and a food court, but no sit down (table service) restaurant. There is a sit down restaurant at POR. We were happy with the food selection at the food court. Their pot roast was very good, as well as their salad. DH got the ribs and was happy with it as well. We tried their beignets and I did not think that they were authentic (too puffy in the middle), but my DH thought that they were. I love beignets and have had them at cafe du monde in NO before and while these were tasty, they are NOT the same as the real beignets. They have a big puff of air in each beignet and from my memory, there are little pockets of air in the beignets, not one big puff.

The pool was great, it is a sea serpent slide with king neptune riding it and is perfect for younger kids (I think kids who are over 13 will think it's too childish). The pool depth at the bottom of the slide is about 3 ft. You can rent life vests at the front desk if you show them your room key and your driver's license. Make sure you keep these vests safe, if you lose them, you will be charged $50 each per life vest. They are the really high quality ones (not cloth) and my kids didn't mind wearing them at all. Pool towels are located at the pool, so you don't need to bring them from your room and there is also a hot tub, baby pool and a pool bar. The life guards are there for designated times, but I believe it is a swim at your own risk type of situation when lifeguards are not there. We were able to go swimming twice while we were there, but it was kind of cool (had we gone earlier in the afternoon we would have been ok) and we had to run back to our room afterward. There is also a playground next to the pool area, but we didn't get a chance to check it out. Behind the pool is the river and there you can access the boats that take you to downtown disney (DTD) or to the sister resort, Riverside. We did not find the wait to be excessive. The boat IS loud though. We were very glad that we got a room facing the parking lot (#4309), since I would imagine that the, "water front" rooms would hear the constant honking of the boats on the river, and I am sure those who stay at the treehouse villas and saratoga springs by the water would hear the constant honking too, since they are also along the river. To me, it was REALLY loud, so I'm glad we didn't pay extra for a water view room. There are also laundry facilities next to the pool. You need your room key to get into the laundry room, they have detergents, a food vending machine as well as a change machine ($1 and $5 bills). It's $2 to wash a load and $2 to dry a load. 30 min per wash and 30 min per dry. I did laundry midway through our stay. A good time to do laundry is also during their evening lawn movie (7pm in central courtyard), it is just one, building over from the pool/laundry. We saw, "The princess and the frog" the night I did laundry. They provide pool towels for you to sit use to sit on, on the grass. I brought some glow sticks for the kids to play with as well. At 5:30-6:30pm they have marshmellow roasting at a courtyard next to the river. We didn't get a chance to do this and there were many other activities we didn't get a chance to do, it was nice knowing though that there was so much to do. In the morning, the doorman gives each child a plastic gold coin (Like the ones from mardi gras), that they can keep or that they can throw into the fountain in the lobby. We used the coin on our last morning before leaving to let the kids make a final wish in the fountain. They also randomly give out mardi gras necklaces (they did this for us in the food court) as well. There was some night time entertainment by the bar one night, I think it was a steel drum band. I know that POR also gets night time entertainment, it's easy enough to go btwn resorts. You can ask for a schedule at the front desk. The buses were great. We never had to wait more than 10 min for a bus to or from the parks and we always had our own bus from POFQ to the parks. From the parks back to POFQ, we would occasionally have to share a bus with POR, BUT they always stop at POFQ first and some ppl at POR got off at POFQ, saying it was quicker to just walk from POFQ back to POR, than to take the bus the rest of the way. I've never stayed at POR, but it probably has more bus stops, so that is probably what ppl meant when they told me it was easier to get off at POFQ and then walk back to POR. It is basically only a 5 min walk from any hotel room of POFQ to the pool/lobby/boat/bus area, which is another reason why I chose this resort. I figure after an entire day at the parks, I wouldn't want to do more walking than I had to and for us, I found it to be the right fit for our family.

The room was got was in building 4, which is right next to the main building. We got a great location that was close to the elevator and stairwell, but on the 4th floor, so no above the room neighbors. I occasionally heard a truck backing up in the loading dock, but it was usually in the morning when we would be getting up anyway. Our building was the closest one to the bus stop, which I thought was a great perk and also to the parking lot, which was nice. Oh and you could see the fireworks from our balcony! I was surprised! My kids were already in bed by then, but if you have kids who will still be up at that time, it would be a nice way to let them see the fireworks w/o being at the park. Our room looked brand new. We had two queen sized beds with queen headboards, a small table with two arm chairs, a window a/c unit, a flat screen tv, coffee maker, dorm sized fridge, blow dryer, two sink vanity and the bathroom is your typical bathtub set up. They do have a retractable clothesline in the shower, which I discovered while trying to figure out how to dry swimwear. There is a very wonderful curtain that separates the bathroom area from the rest of the room, which I thought was great for privacy while getting dressed after a shower or changing clothes and at night, we just left the vanity light on with the curtains drawn, so it was not pitch black if someone needed to use the bathroom, but the drapes were thick enough that it wasn't too bright. I could see how you could stick a PNP in this vanity area if needed. The decor of the room is very subtle and not in-your-face. There is enough room next to the door and bed to store your stroller if you have one. If you drive and are a resort guests, you can park for free. Your room key will get you in and out of the gates and they give you a piece of paper with info on it to put on your dash. You can also visit other resorts for 3 hrs at a time w/o paying for parking.

Check in day: After getting our room and luggage set up, we decided to go on a boat ride to DTD to look around and get dinner. The boat ride was great fun for the kids, but as I stated before, the boat is LOUD and it honks constantly, so if you have a room by the river, I think that it would be annoying. DTD is very big and unfortunately, it was already really crowded by the time we got there. We used our counter service credit to eat at Wolfgang puck express and were very happy with the food. We got there right before it got really busy, so missed the rush. Afterward, we walked around a bit and finally wandered into the lego store, but it was PACKED! The kids played for a bit, but they were tired and we left after about 30 min to take the boat back to our resort. The kids LOVED the boat ride. They were able to let me roll the stroller in, but you have to take the child out of the stroller, since it sits up front by the captain.

Magic Kingdom: I cannot stress how WONDERFUL the paid "touring plans" app is, esp during a busy time like this. I did not not think it would be busy until the end of our trip, but apparently the schools down south all let out by the 16th, so they were already on winter break, even though our schools up north didn't get out until the 22nd. So, it was busy for our entire stay at the parks. I would say that crowds were 8/10 from mid-morning and 10/10 by afternoon. It is really important to hit rope drop. I used the MK with small children touring plan at first but quickly went off on my own using the, "lines" wait app as much as possible. We utilized fast pass and parent swap to our advantage as much as possible (DS3 is too short to ride a lot of the bigger rides), and within the first two hrs at MK were able to ride 90% of the rides on our list. We had lunch at Columbia Harbor House (very large servings, the beer battered shrimp is really good), DS3 fell asleep in the stroller, so we opted to hang out at the park and then headed over in the late afternoon to the poly for our reservation at kona. The monorail was nuts, I do not remember it being such a zoo to use before, but we ended up taking the boat from poly back to MK after kona, to avoid the monorail. I don't know if I would like to be at a monorail resort if it was as busy as it was when we tried to use it and the ppl who rode it were pushers and shovers. The dinner was ok. I think that out of all of our table service restaurants, Kona was the most disappointing one and if we ever go back there, it will probably be for bkfst, not dinner, since they are known for their coffee and french toast. The rice was just not good at all, it resembled uncle ben's stuff more than real asian rice, so I guess I found that annoying right off the bat. Maybe they are just serving what ppl want, but I guess I expected it to be of better quality. Of the rides, the only ones the kids did not like was space mountain. They said that it was too dark. We did parent swap, but I never got a chance to go, since the kids didn't want to go again, and then ride broke down.

DHS- Our main goal for this day was to do jedi academy and toy story mania. You need to arrive about 40 min before the opening time. Once you get bag checked and show your tickets, you wait in line, but they open the park a little earlier than the opening time and let ppl wander a little bit into a park and then have it gated off again. It sounds weird, but basically, it spreads out the crowd from the gate area. There was no CM with a light saber to lead us to the jedi academy sign up area as others had told me. I ended up asking CMs and was pointed in the direction of the closed Sounds Dangerous building for sign ups. We were the third family there, so were able to get my two older boys into the first show. You end up having to stick around, there is no time to go on any rides (you have to show up 20 min prior to the show), so I was glad I had sent my DH to get get fast passes for Toy story mania. He said it was insane and it was a PITA to have DS3 in the stroller and fighting the fast pass crowd. I should have taken DS3 with me. In order to sign up for jedi academy you HAVE to sign up right at the beginning. They will assign you a time to come back for your child's show. We opted to get it done right away, so we could move onto other things. Anyway, the jedi academy is soooo worth it. OMG, the kids just loved it and the parents had a great time, b/c the, "instructor" is sarcastic and extremely funny with his comments. We videotaped the entire thing. If you have photopass, make sure you get the # from the photographer at the end of the show. Unfortunately, the photographer gave the # to my DH, who (even though we had photopass, my DH was clueless), didn't understand what it was for and lost the # he was given. We did not get good pictures, since the sun was shining down in a weird way (DH filmed it from the side), but the photopass photographers are able to get really good pics, since they are at the edge of the stage. Anyway, it's really cute. We were able to ride a few more rides and use our FP for TSM. Pizza planet was a big mistake. The food was ok, but it took forever to wait in line to get our food and by lunch the entire park was a crowd level of 10. We ended up leaving before going on all the rides, since the waits were too long and the kids wanted to try out the pool. I think that doing jedi academy kind of screwed up our chances of getting some good fast passes at the very beginning of park opening. However, that's ok. For us, jedi academy and TSM were the main things we wanted to do, along with star tours and letting the kids build their own light sabers in the gift shop next to star tours (we promised them this ahead of time). The build your own light sabers are $25 for the single and I think $30 for the double (darth maul). Be aware that the darth maul one is LONGGGG. Six feet when you open it up and only one side lights up. DS1 got it, but he decided he would prefer to just use one end, so we took the other side off. If you are a resort guest, anything bought at the parks can be delivered to your resort, but it takes an extra day. So, toward the end of your trip, you won't be able to take advantage of this. You pick up your purchase at the resort gift shop. I had originally planned to stay for Osborne Lights, but the park was so extremely crowded and we were all tired and cranky, we just decided to forget it. We did do the pixar pals parade and the entire family loved it. What can I say? We are probably more into the pixar movies than the traditional disney movies, so my kids recognized all of the characters. We just happened to be in the right area before the parade and didn't really have to wait more than 20 min before it got started. We did not get a chance to attend any other disney parades during our stay, so I'm glad that we kind of accidentally found one to go to, lol. We did not really plan for it.

Animal Kingdom- I had originally scheduled our morning tusker house ADR for before park opening, but due to christmas, they often move up opening times, so that kind of screwed up our AK day. Tusker house was very good, but we opted to skip the picture (you have to pay for it, it is not included on photopass) with donald to save time and we have no regrets. Unfortunately, DS3 was deathly scared of ALL of the characters at WDW, so the character meals were wasted on him, but DS1 and DS2 seemed to like it. I do have to admit thought that compared to other children, mine are not really gaga about the characters. I don't think that they would have cared if we didn't do a single character meal or meet up. I saw a lot of ppl lined up waiting for a long time to meet characters and I was secretly relieved that none of my kids were that nuts over a certain character that we would have to stand in line to meet one. We didn't do autograph books, since I didn't think my kids would be into it. The food was very good at tusker house, I have no complaints. We were able to pretty much do everything at AK, except for the lion king show. The thing I hate about AK is how narrow the walk ways are, so it gets really crowded really easily and makes you miserable. We would have left the parks for a break, but once again DS3 fell asleep in the stroller. If your child falls asleep, Flights of Wonder will let you bring in a stroller. However, Lion king would not let us in and then when we tried to attend the show later, they screwed up and started the show while they were still letting us in and ran out of seats. We got pissed off (they let the ppl who got there late go in first and those of us who got there early were let in last, so we did not get seats and my kids are too young to stand for the entire show), and ended up running to make the nemo show. I LOVED the nemo show, and so did my husband and kids, so I'm just going to pretend that the lion king show would be nowhere as good as the nemo show and assume that in the end, it was a better idea to go to nemo, rather than trying to stick it out at Lion king and being miserable having to hold children while standing during the show. We ate lunch at Flame tree BBQ and the portions were so huge, we just got two adult meals and shared them with the kids. It was more than enough food. Both of my older boys did 3 rides/shows that I thought might be scary. "It's tough to be a bug," "Everest" and "Dinosaur." DS2 (6 yrs old), got a bit freaked out from dinosaur, but liked the rest of them. DS1 (7 yrs old) who is usually more sensitive about things, liked ALL of the rides. We had dinner at Boma that evening (I really liked this one, but the lines can get really long), and checked out animal kingdom lodge.

Magic Kingdom Day #2- We had morning reservations at Crystal Palace. Once again, I had planned to go before park opening, but they changed the park opening by one hour, so it kind of messed up our plans. Thankfully, it was day two of MK for us, so we had some wiggle room. CP was ok. I think that out of the character meals, it was our least favorite one. The food was ok, but we did not get to see pooh and eyore. They were coming up our side of the room and then disappeared. By then we were finished with our food and itching to go ride rides, so we asked the kids if they wanted to wait and they said that they would rather ride, so we left. If you have really little kids, CP would be a good character meal for them. We did get some amazing shots of the castle, since they let us in about 15 min before rope drop and DH got to see take pics of the rope drop madness from the POV of the inside of the park, lol. Our main goal for MK day two was just to hit a few rides we missed on day one (splash mtn, astro orbitor, speedway of tomorrow, and it's a small world). We did all of them, except for astro orbitor, which is ok, since we did dumbo AND the tricertops ride already, which were the same thing. We also did any other favorites, like buzz lightyear, winnie the pooh, and there was no fast pass for small world, so that was our longest wait, 20 min. Using the app that I mentioned above, I was able to see wait times and use that to figure out which rides to do next. Even if it meant zig zagging all over the park. The kids loved the Stitch ride, even though we heard such bad reviews about it. The monsters inc laugh factor was REALLY cute. I think that was my favorite thing for day two. We also did the train ride that went around the entire park. We left the parks early and did the pool in the late afternoon. There was no way my kids would be able to stay up late enough for wishes and to fight the crowds to get out of the park, it's something we will consider doing if we go back to WDW in a few yrs.

Epcot- By this day, we were all feeling pretty tired. Our plan was to go to soarin' and get parent swap passes and then while my husband and older boys rode, DS3 and I would run over the test track and get fast passes. Our plan was kind of screwed up, when we discovered that you have to go IN to the building to get a parent swap pass, meaning you have to run to the side and park your stroller and then drag your toddler up a long ramp and around the entire inside of the building, ugh! However, we made it work, but we were really tired after that, lol. We did nemo and crush after soarin' (my boys did not like soarin', they felt like they were going to fall, even though they were harnessed), crush was AWESOME, DS1 got to talk to crush and it was just so cool, how interactive it was, it was a lot like the monsters inc show and the aquariums were fun for the kids too. I felt like this was one of the few attractions at epcot targeted toward young ones. Test track took a long time, even though we had fast passes, and the kids did not want to ride a second time, so I did not get to use my parents swap pass (gave it away). We got lunch at yakatori house in the japanese pavillion (decent, but expensive, we used a GC to pay for this, b/c we had used up all of our counter service credit). They also had a really great gift shop, so we spent a lot of time there. By then the kids were really tired, so we were going to go back to the resort, but DS3 fell asleep. They went to ellen's dinosaur show (would not let me in with a stroller, so I waited outside while DS3 slept) and we also did spaceship earth, "sum of all thrills" (DS2 and DH really loved this ride, it is inside the innoventions building) and then we had our dinner reservation as akershush. Ok, I know you are all like "WHAT? You don't even have a girl!" Well, I had thought DS3 would get a big kick out of the princesses (at least he didn't cry, like he did with the other characters), and the food sounded good. This ended up being one of our favorite table services. The food was excellent. The appetizers are a buffet style and then the dinner and dessert are served traditional style, so it was more relaxing. The entree and dessert were very good and omg, DS2's mickey head shaped ravioli was so cute, I had DH take a pic of them. Oh and I think this is one of the only character meals where you a pic of the family with royal ariel is included with your pkg! It is the only ONLY pic we have with a character where DS3 is not crying. We got an 8x10 and four extra 3x5 (?) pics. Snow white was our favorite princess, we was so sweet and really talked it up. My kids were too tired to stay for illuminations, so we went back to the resort and I packed.

Our last day, we checked out and then did Ohana at the Poly and had no trouble driving there. This is probably my favorite character meal, esp since they brought all the food to us, it was definitely more relaxing. We all love Stitch and Lilo! Mickey and Pluto were there too and my boys love Pluto, so we got a really good pic. The characters here gave my kids the most attn out of all of the character meals we went too and I thought that the food was excellent. I did not want to do dinner at Ohana, since I heard that the meat can be really dry, but we loved the bkfst. If we go back to WDW again w/o the dining plan, Ohana's bkfst would probably be the only one I'd be willing to pay OOP for.

[crl]

Yay, thanks for the report!

Catherine

[AngelaS]

Sounds like a great time!

[hellokitty]

Part II
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Stroller: I have a 7, 6 and 2 yr old and debated about strollers. Originally, I was going to bring my starck and mac techno. However, I decided it would probably be easier just to bring a double, so we both wouldn't be stuck pushing a stroller. I brought an old double combi SBS that I got at goodwill for only $35, since it has GREAT canopies and is an awesome amusement park/zoo stroller. This ended up being a good decision. DS3 was bushed by lunch time and ended up taking long naps in the stroller. I would just pull the stroller canopy on his seat, all the way down to his lap so it was dark for him and he slept so well! It has great ventilation pockets too, so he didn't get too hot under there. This is my kid who has ever only fallen asleep in a stroller 1x prior to this! Other than our DHS day (he fell asleep while DH was holding him on the way back to the hotel for an afternoon break), he slept every afternoon in his stroller. As for the second seat, it was utilized a LOT by my older two who often fought over who would get to sit. They both got tired with all of the walking (I walk really fast) and since it was so busy at the park, it was a lot easier to have two accounted for IN the stroller and only one to keep track of on foot. Esp if we had to get to another ride quickly, I can really book it, even with two kids in the stroller.

Shoes: I packed the kids a pr of sneakers each and a pr of crocs (for the pool and to use on our travel days, so they could kick their shoes off in the car). I packed my running shoes (high end asics with custom insoles), birkenstocks and crocs. I thought that the birkenstocks would be comfy, but after walking around the resort one night in them, I soon realized that they were inadequate for touring at the park. I was really glad I brought my asics (and my good socks, I bought an extra 3 pk before our trip). My feet were tired at the end of the day and a little bit swollen, but did not hurt. I don't think I could do the parks wearing sandals, esp since I am a fast walker. I had friends that warned me a wk before my trip about this. They tried to wear sandals and ended up with blisters.

Dining Plan: We had the basic dining plan, 1 table service, 1 quick service and a snack for each adults and child (over the age of 3). This was our first time using it, and we got it as a free dining promo. OMG, it is so much food. I think that for free it is a good deal, but if I had to pay for it OOP, I don't think I would do it. I rarely ever have dessert and some of the entrees were huge, they could be shared. We had a lot of snacks left over. I had brought, "healthy" snacks (fresh fruit, etc.) in our bag for the kids at the park, mostly b/c I didn't want them to eat crap all day. So, that is probably why we ended up with a glut of snack credits. I used them to buy treats for our drive back home and as stocking stuffers for my boys and nephews. Oh and I gained 3 lbs during this trip! Combo of not being able to work out (I slept terribly, since DS3 kept kicking me in the head and the kids had a cold and were coughing all night, the beds were ok), like I had planned to and of course, ate more heavily than I normally do.

The only thing I would change is my kids ended wanting to get into pin trading. Had I known, I would have gotten them a starter pack before our trip. It was really late into our trip by the time they got into it. I did not know about this, but if you see a CM with pins, if your child ask them to trade pins, they are supposed to let your child trade and pick whichever pin that they would like. My kids kept trying to ask other kids at the park to trade and it was not working out (DS1 was trying to trade a minnie mouse pin for a star wars pin, with an older boy, lol). We also discovered that the gift shop at our resort had a pin trading board. So, that was a nice way to trade pins too. So, while my kids weren't into autograph books, the pin trading really interested them a lot. If you think it's something your child would be interested in, get some pins ahead of time so they have something to start out with. The starter packs at the park are $25+ and that doesn't include the lanyard, so it can be kind of expensive if you have multiple kids. I did not want to go crazy on buying too much at WDW, I think we spent about $150 on hats, some pins, light sabers and toy story mini-blasters. We generally tipped close to $20 per table service meal. I think that overall, our trip for 6 nights, that included 5 day passes for 2 adults and 2 children (DS3 was, "free"), staying at POFQ, and gas $ for our drive, came out to a little over 3K.

[HannaAddict]

Thanks for the report, very helpful, especially on the stroller front!

[Melbel]

It sounds like you had a great trip! I will tag my mini trip report to yours:

We were at MK on 12/20 for a visit on our way down to South Florida. The crowds were high, but manageable. The temperatures were great. We tend to get to Disney a couple times per year (we live a couple hours away). This trip, we noticed a couple of noticeable improvements:

Our lunch at Cosmic Ray's in Tomorrow Land went much smoother due to the fact that customers are no longer able to save tables. We were in and out in no time.

The crowd management during parades was also much better this trip. We have seen the parades before, so we tend to walk and watch, rather than camp out. It was much easier to navigate even with a stroller (BJCM which is a great park stroller IME, especially with the sun shade).

We stayed at Gaylord Palms off site because we got a great rate (under $125 night). It is a larger resort with plenty to explore. The room was reasonably sized and clean. We took the kids to ICE at the resort (1/2 off for Florida residents). The kids had fun on the ice slides, but overall, we felt that it was not worth the price, even at 1/2 off. We did not like the Shrek theming which detracted from the ice sculpting.

[peanut520]

Thanks for the great review!