Some notes from my recent WDW trip- long

[123LuckyMom]

We just got back yesterday. DD is almost 4, and DS is 7. We stayed in the Contemporary and used our Vista for DD with a piggy back board for DS. The stroller with the running board was GREAT!!! Our DD wants DH to carry her everywhere. She doesn't do that with me, but DH is a pushover, and he'll carry her, so she insists upon it. We definitely needed the stroller! DS did get tired, and the piggy back was a fantastic compromise. There were only a couple of occasions when DS wanted the stroller seat. The downside of not having a double stroller was that DS never had the opportunity to fall asleep on the go. Although we set aside nap times almost every day, the kids did not nap or go to sleep right when we got back to the hotel. DD would fall asleep in the stroller and could be transferred to bed, but DS just got overtired and hyper. He was really exhausted the whole time, even though he had plenty of opportunity to rest. I think having a stroller seat for him would have helped that problem.

We did three character meals, Crystal Palace, Tusker House, and Chef Mickey's, all for lunches. Crystal Palace was wonderful. We are serious Pooh fans. Tusker House had good food. We really did not like Chef Mickey's. The food was horrible, the restaurant was very loud, and we were there from 1:45-3:30pm!!! It was my birthday, and our waitress wanted us to have the birthday experience. All it was was a celebration song shared with a bunch of other people. It wasn't at all worth waiting for. And let me say again, that the food was AWFUL! Also, as someone who doesn't eat beef or pork, there were very few things I could eat. Everything had ham or bacon in it. I ate exclusively from the salad bar and snagged some tater tots from the kid's section.

The food was also awful in the Contempo Cafe, the Contemporary's quick service restaurant. We ended up having several evenings where DH got us food from there and brought it back to the room, and we didn't eat one decent thing. Even my Caesar salad with salmon had a big chunk of lettuce core in it that took up a full quarter of the bowl! The room at the Contemporary was very nice but not themed. Walking to MK was fantastic, but everything else was a pain on the monorails and busses. We were upgraded to a Magic Kingdom view. We were the corner room closest to the castle on the 11th floor, and the view was spectacular! If you're going with small children and won't be able to stay for fireworks, I don't think you could do better than that view! I far preferred our stay at the Tahiti House of the Poly for ease of transportation, because we were steps away from the TTC, and everything was a direct trip. Those rooms are now DVC, though. We decided that we're going to rent a car next time and stay at the Wilderness Lodge. We loved the theming there, and we're hoping having a car will help ease our dissatisfaction with the Disney transportation. The Whispering Canyon Cafe was great, by the way. The food was fine, not spectacular, but not bad. The kids had lots of fun participating in the shenanigans, though.

MK was fantastic as always. We did all but three rides, and we saw the morning show, afternoon parade, the dance party (skip that if you can. We kept having to watch it because we would be passing through the hub, and DD would insist we stay if there was a show. We saw a lot of shows. Next time we'll try to avoid the hub!), the electrical parade, celebration, and wishes. If you go during a lower crowd time, you really don't need a FASTPASS for any of those. On our first viewing night we sat down between the statue of Walt and Mickey and the castle. Everyone stayed seated, and the view was good for the electrical parade, extraordinary for celebrations, and excellent for wishes, though the castle loomed large in front of the fireworks. We were there about 10-15 minutes before the show. On our second viewing, we got there earlier, maybe 30-40 minutes ahead. We were right behind the crosswalk by the plaza restaurant (across the street from Casey's) on the curb. Those were AMAZING seats for the electrical parade. When we stood for celebrations and wishes, the view was fantastic, because the crosswalk was clear right in front of us. The fireworks were spectacular from there! The afternoon parade was worth seeing, IMO. It goes from Frontier land to Main Street, so we got back from our nap after 3pm (maybe 3:15?), and we were in time to see it. We easily got seats on the curb of Main Street on the sunny side of the street. The shady side was more crowded. The parade reached us about 10 minutes after we sat down.

Don't miss the Frozen sing-along at DHS. It was fantastic! We didn't end up participating in the Jedi training, but we watched some of it, and the participating kids seemed to do a lot of waiting around. DS was glad he's skipped it. You're going to want to do Toy Story Mania twice, so I'd make that one of your FASTPASSes, skip Jedi training and hoof it to Toy Story, then use the FASTPASS for it later in the day. Fantasmic was a lot scarier than I remembered. My kids were fine, but if your kids are sensitive. You might want to skip it. The ending is really wonderful, and that was the spirit I remembered, but there's plenty of not-so-happy in the middle.

Animal Kingdom was hard on us this time. We seemed to spend a lot of time walking around in the same patterns. That might be because of the Avatar construction. The animals were not that thrilling. My kids HATED the bug's life experience. The best thing in that park, to my mind, is the Lion King show, so don't miss that! Expedition Everest is also great. I used to love the parade in that park, but it wasn't running. It was kind of a bummer day. Next time, though, Avatar will be there and the nighttime show will be running. I'm excited for that! The food is good at this park!

EPCOT was a winner again. Sunshine Seasons was not good, and I had remembered it being great. The food at Hacienda San Angel was okay. The kids loved the World Showcase, which surprised me, and DD's favorite ride was the Mexico boat ride! For Illuminations, don't try to find a spot between the UK and Canada. The trees block your view.

That's all I can think of for now, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask while my memory is fresh!




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[acmom]

How did you like Contemporary? We haven't stayed there before but are thinking about it for next time due to its awesome location and the fact we will have a baby.

[abh5e8]

Thank you for all the notes!! We are leaving next month for a week, staying at wilderness Lodge. Can't wait.

[123LuckyMom]

How did you like Contemporary? We haven't stayed there before but are thinking about it for next time due to its awesome location and the fact we will have a baby.

The rooms are nice, but the theming is very subtle. The room felt like it could be at any upscale hotel. If you can get a room with the view like we had, it really is spectacular! Being able to walk to and from MK is wonderful. I wouldn't choose the Contemporary again, though. Maybe it's just that I feel done with Disney transportation. The busses that supposedly go directly from the hotel to AK and DHS are NOT direct busses, at least not at the time of year that we went. They stop at at least two other hotels first. The monorail to MK involves stops at two other hotels or a transfer at the TTC. EPCOT requires a transfer at the TTC. Busses back stopped first at Wilderness Lodge. If the busses had been direct, it all would have been fine, but sharing with the other hotels got old very quickly. Everything felt like it took a long time and a lot of effort. That was not the case when we stayed at the Polynesian and could walk to the TTC and go everywhere directly. However, the rooms we stayed in at the Poly three years ago are now DVC properties, and the walk from the regular rooms to the TTC may now be significantly longer. As I mentioned above, next time we're going to use a rental car and see if that's better. We really enjoy having extensive theming, too. The Wilderness Lodge has that in spades, and the Contemporary doesn't.


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[marymoo86]

How did you like Contemporary? We haven't stayed there before but are thinking about it for next time due to its awesome location and the fact we will have a baby.

We stayed at BLT through a DVC rental and loved it. I'm not one for caring about theming and neither did DDs. The proximity to MK was wonderful and there's quite a bit to do around there.

We stayed at a 1BR villa cheaper than a discounted room at Contemporary. I didn't notice any issues with transportation. The only stop our buses hit were WL. I was expecting it to be longer to DHS and AK.

We ate at the WL and it looked awesome. The pool area was down due to refurbishment or partly so but still looked great.