Trip Reports

Tidbits Trip Report -Bits and Pieces

This was a different trip for us. We usually go to WDW as a family, but my son is in 8th grade and does not want to miss school, so my daughter and I were joined by my sister-in-law and my 8 year old neice.We are all Disney lovers, and looked forward to a trip together.

We stayed at Polynesian our favorite resort in WDW. Love those AP rates which make it feasible! We were in Hawaii building, newly renovated and beautiful. Bathrooms are done in a beautiful green marble, new carpeting, drapes, and bedspreads. Look for Hidden Mickeys on the day bed cover and shower curtain. Stay was wonderful and service, as always at the Poly, was great. I also found the newly combined Front Desk/Guest Services at the front desk to be very efficient. We used Mears for the first time. We usually rent a car when my husband and son are along. However this time I did not want to drive, and we knew we would not leave Disney property. Mears was fine, although we were the last of four stops in our van. For the price, I would do it again.

Using only Disney transportation, we found it efficient, except returning to the Poly after eating at another resort in the evening. We did not mind most of the time since this was a leisurely trip.

Crowds

Busy Sunday ¼ in MK, moderate crowds at Osborne lights for last viewing that Sunday night. Crowds Mon-Fri were light, especially from Tues. on.

Sat. 1/10 was busy at MK. We went for early opening and left by 10am, did not do MK on Sunday. This was WDW Marathon. Crowds are less impacted by this than by the truck race the following weekend.Mon-Thurs1/12th-15th was light once again, but Friday 1/16 at MK was very busy, as was Sat. 1/17 for early opening. This was the truck race weekend.

Waits at Splash mid-day on Fri. 16th and Sat. 17th were about an hour, BTMRR about half that. MK was certainly the most crowded park. We never had crowds anywhere close to that at either the Studios or Epcot on the entire trip.

On the first few days of our trip, several bus drivers commented on how lucky we were to be there then, and not the previous week. They related horror stories of crowds, and mentioned that for the first time ever, all 3 parks had to close on the 31st of Dec. because of crowds. I believe one said the 30th also.

One CM told us that the line for HISTA at Epcot was all the way out to Spaceship Earth. I don’t care how many you can get into a single show, if I can’t see the building, let alone the entrance, to the attraction I’m waiting for, that’s a long line!!!

Weather

This is often a concern in Jan. but we were very fortunate. The first week had daily highs in the low 80’s, the second week in the mid to high 70’s. Except for the last 2 days, the kids swam daily and had a full-day trip to Typhoon Lagoon with my sister-in-law. We had one half day and one nearly full day of rain during our two weeks. Again, we lucked out, given the huge amount of rain Fla. has been getting this winter.

Attractions

Horizons was still opened and we rode it 3 or 4 times during our two weeks. We loved it, as always, though found it in tough shape. While I understand reluctance to do maintenance on a ride they plan to close, it may fall apart before that. We noticed very grainy film, poor speakers, and many places where the narration just quit completely. Kind of sad, sort of like watching an old friend age right before your eyes. We did see them testing Test Track vehicles every day we were at Epcot.

We walked on TOT multiple times every morning we were at the Studios.My daughter loves the seatbelt seat and asked for it so many times, that the woman CM at TOT began saving it for her when she saw us coming.

I really like the movie in Univ. of Energy, beginning with the Big Bang, but to see it well try to sit in the center back section. Also missed it completely on one visit because of a very tall man with a 106 gallon cowboy hat on his head that he never removed!!!

My very favorite, not to be missed attraction in all of Epcot however, is the France movie. I can, (and did) see this multiple times and never get tired of it. Wish I could buy a copy. Better still, wish I could travel to every site pictured, always with that classical music in the background ;-)

My daughter and niece also loved the new remote-control Jungle Boats.They enjoyed them several times/dollars worth.

Funny coincidence in Tommorowland one afternoon. My daughter went to ride Grand Prix, followed by SpaceM, while I was going to ride multiple TTA (People Mover.)

On my first trip through TTA I looked down while passing over GrPRIX and was able to look directly at my daughter in a car driving. I was able to call to her and she looked up and saw me. I finished the ride and stayed on for a second ride, looked down into TL plaza and saw her crossing the plaza to get to the SpaceM entrance. Once again she was able to spot me too.I thought this a remarkable coincidence 2x in terms of timing etc. OK, so maybe you had to be there, but....

Food Comments

Tried the buffet at Cape May for the 1st time, after 9 trips. Liked it, but your choices are somewhat limited if you are not into the steamed clams, mussels, etc. (Being from Cape Cod with such fresh seafood available here, I don’t eat much seafood at WDW. Guess this was a good reason for not trying it previously hmmm?) However, there were great ribs and wonderful miniature desserts, especially Key Lime Pie.

Best breakfast- definitely at the Crystal Palace. Best regular coffee in WDW, great food, great selection, and the Pooh gang, all after an early-entry morning of no lines in TommorrowL and FantasyL. It doesn’t get any better!!!

Went to Fort Wilderness for lunch one day at Trails End Buffeteria and thought it was good and very reasonable pricewise.

Best Dinner-Tony’s at 7 pm after viewing Tink flying over your head and the fireworks over the castle. I love their antipasto as my meal, followed by one of their cannolis, (best ever, and that includes authentic-from-the-North-End-of Boston as comparison) and my daughter loves their Pizza Bianca appetizer as her meal. We enjoyed it so much we ate there 3 times in 14 days!!

Also tried Crystal Palace buffet lunch one day and enjoyed that very much, especially the grilled veggies and the veggie chips. We find the quality of food here excellent, well above typical buffet/steam table offerings.

The day the kids and my s-i-l went to Typhoon, I took a bus over to Coronado for lunch and to look around. I like the food court there, Pepper Market. It seemed rather inovative. It was virtually empty however when I was there. I wonder how it would work with crowds???

Chef Mickey’s as always was great, with great character interaction.Love those mashed potatos and the prime rib. We followed this by monorailing over to the Grand Floridian to sit and relax in their lobby, listening to the live music, before catching the last monorail home to the Poly.

Mama Melrose’s was also a first time try for us this trip. Made it a point to try it after good comments here on RADP. It was pricey I thought, esp. for lunch and since entrees are not served with any sides. However it was probably the best veal I have ever had. Will definetely eat there again. My daughter enjoyed a double helping from their bottomless pasta bowl.

Used the coupon from Aero’s book at Gulliver’s and also enjoyed that.We probably would not have tried it without the coupon, but we will go back again with husband and son since the food was very good.

Other regular favorites include anything from the pastry shop in France, cotton-candy at MK, and funnel cakes at Epcot for my daughter,cinammon-pecan croissants at Fountainview, Citrus-Swirls, Strawberry Swirls, and Chocolate Brownie Mousse at MK bakery.

Biggest service disappointment-Dinner at Rainforest Cafe. I had a coupon for no wait seating from their annual report two years ago. This was great, as we did not even have to wait to check in. However once we were seated and ordered, the wait for our food was an hour and 15 mins. This was on a Sunday night, 8:45 when we ordered. I find this ridiculous. If they are going to seat you, and have the table space, then they need the support in the kitchen to follow through. My s-i-l and I agreed that if we had waited in the 4 different lines just to get a table, and then had to wait well over an hour for food, which by the way was 2 kids meals, a salad and 2 appetizers, we would have walked out. Food ranged from very good appetizers to OK salad, although the kids loved the theming.

Misc. Tidbits / Other Stuff

Was talking to a CM about Figment while purchasing a Figment keychain. He mentioned that Figment merchandise is only available at Epcot because he is equally owned by Kodak and Disney. I was not aware of this.

One of the high points of the trip for my 11yo daughter was the chance to participate in Adventureland Challenge several times. She had first discovered this in Jan of ‘96 and has enjoyed it each year since.Needless to say she has gotten quite good at understanding the clues and finding her way around Adventureland. She and her cousin played 6 different days and won each time. You are allowed to play as many times per day as you wish, but you can only win once per day. We saved a few of the "Go to the Head of the Line" certificates they won to use on Fri. 16th and Sat. 17th, when we experienced the biggest MK crowds of our stay. Normally, we would not have waited in such long lines, but because of the certificates, we got to ride both Splash and BTMRR on Fri, and 2 Splash and 1 BTMRR on Sat before we left for the airport.

For those wondering about AK admissions and Annual Passes, here is an update. We had purchased our AP vouchers with the renewal discount early last year. When we turned in the vouchers on ¼, the CM said he was going to upgrade them to be good at the AK. He said this was done at no cost to us, although the fee would have been $19.80 each.

Watching Tink fly overhead from the TL fast-food Plaza Pavillion place was great. Had never seen her so clearly before. A big hit with my daughter and niece.

E-Ticket Express was good, but not great IMHO. I think my disappointment came from riding BTMRR first, where they had only one train running. Waits were longer than we had at 30 mins. before closing on regular evenings, and you could not do muliple rides because of the wait.

Redemning feature was being able to ride SplashM with no wait, 3 times without getting off!! Worth the price of admission I guess.

One side note, E-Ticket was offered 2x during our stay. We opted to do it only the 2nd time. On the first night, 1/8, when we were not participating, I wanted to observe how the changeover was handled. We were in TL and my daughter went to ride SpaceM about 6:45. I was sitting on the bench and watched as at 7pm sharp they began asking for wristbands or denied admittance. A young female CM asked a father and 6/7 yo to show their bands. They did not have them so she said they could not enter. The father began to shout at her and carry-on, which made the daughter start to cry. The CM was being as calm and patient she could, but the man became more belligerent. I was concerned that it was getting out of hand, as he was right in her face. I ducked into the arcade to see if I could get her some help, but could not spot another CM. When I came back out, the man simply opened the gate by the warning sign and let himself in. The CM was visibly upset and I asked if she was OK. She said she knew I was watching and would have helped her if she needed it. She said she had called security up to the end of the line and that he would be stopped and they would not let him ride.I hope they didn’t. Behavior such as that should not be rewarded!!

Only personal bad experience all 2 weeks involved other guests at the Poly who checked in at quarter to midnight on Wed. 1/14 and decided to have a major family meeting/conversation of over 20 minutes in the hallway right outside our door (they were checking in across the hall). This included 4 adults and at least 2 children who ran up and down the hallway, yelling. Waited 10 minutes after they woke us, and then opened the door and politely and quietly asked them to please talk elsewhere as they had awakened us all. After 10-12 more minutes, when I was getting ready to call the front desk, they finally announced loudly that they had better stop talking before they were yelled at again. Funny, I made my request in a quieter voice than they were using for their conversation!! Sheesh!! Some people!!! I try to not talk loudly in the hallway, no matter what time of day, since others may be napping etc.

Thought about revenge the next morning as we left early, but could not bring myself to do it.

Wore my Radp pin most days, and met a CM at MGM who recognized it.Said he was a founding member of FDC Muck back in RAD days. Also, on our last day, Sat., 1/17, at EE opening at MK, just as the CM unlocked the turnstiles, my daughter spotted another pin on a man wearing a denim jacket, several people back. We did not have chance to say hello as the line began to move just then and my daughter wanted to be first onto Main Street. Which Radper did we have a close encounter with??

Best Magical Moment

My daughter ‘s first ride each trip on the Carousel. She has a favorite steed, and she climbs up, hugs him, and then leans over to whisper in his ear for some time, sharing secrets and greeting him after a year’s abscence. Always makes me "Remember the Magic."

This concludes my Tidbit Trip Report. Thanks for reading.

Sandi Femino

kfemino@capecod.net

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