PDA

View Full Version : Three Ladies at WDW-Day 6 Final Thoughts



BrerGnat
03-08-2007, 05:11 PM
Day 6: Check out Day :(

Well, we woke up this morning rather early so that we could pack up and get some breakfast before heading to the airport. We all had 1:20pm flights home and our DME pick up time was 10:35.

I was done packing first and decided to head down to Roaring Forks for a CS breakfast. According to our calculations, we had one CS credit left, since Andrea and Cynthia had used their remaining credits the night before in Mexico. I got my pancake platter and the receipt said we had 2 CS credits remaining. :confused: While I ate my food, I ran through our CS meals in my head and twice came up with the fact that we had used up all 15 of our CS credits and we should NOT have had 2 left. Somewhere along the way, we were not charged properly for 2 credits. But, I could not figure out how (or where) this happened, as I did not save the receipts. I have a feeling it went wrong at either Wolfgang Puck's Express or the Mexico pavilion, because prior to that, all the tallies were correct. I finished up and went back up to the room and informed the girls that we had 2 CS credits remaining and that they should go down and have some breakfast. They did and, sure enough, we still had two credits. I chalked it up to an error in the system somehow, but considered it to be a nice bonus. :thumbsup:

We left our room around 10:15 to do some very last minute shopping downstairs and to settle our room bill. We had not put a credit card on file so we knew we had to pay $9.95 for the time we connected to the internet for 24 hours. I went up to the desk and was told that we owed a total of $10...for valet parking. I told the CM that that was wrong...we did not have a car; we used DME to get here. I even showed her my DME voucher. She laughed and just shook her head, so I said "does that happen often?" and she said "yes...I always think it's funny." Well, to be quite honest, I did NOT think it was too funny. I wonder how many times they actually get away with that. Can you imagine, they stick a $10 charge on the room bill for "valet" and I bet half the time, people don't look at the bill carefully enough and end up paying it. This makes me mad, and it's NOT the first time this has happened to me at a Disney resort. :mad: I have NEVER had a car on property, but I have had this happen no less than 3 times in the past. She removed the charge and said "that's it, your account is cleared out." I told her, "well, we used the internet one day and I thought that was $10." She looked and said "I'm not seeing that charge to your room...don't worry about it." With that, she waved me off with a wink. I was a bit perplexed, but I didn't push it. When I told Cynthia and Andrea about it, they reminded me that we did not actually connect the right way...we had gotten an error message when we tried to do it the standard way (through the Disney web portal) so we had to call tech support and they had us enter some code to get in, so maybe we bypassed the system somehow. In any event, again, that was Disney's error, so I overlooked it.

We made our way out to the bus waiting area and sat, and sat, and sat. 10:40 came and went and still, we sat....and sat, and sat. The bus finally pulled up at 11:05! We made two more stops after that, at the Poly and GF. At the Poly, we had to load an electric scooter/wheelchair, which took a LONG time, then that also caused 3 rows of seats to be un-usable, which, it turns out, we needed for the guests we had to pick up at the GF. SO, we sat at the GF for about 10 minutes while the driver tried to figure out what to do. He loaded those guests bags before he realized there was nowhere for them to sit, and they were 2 families, both with VERY young infants, so standing was not an option. He radioed for another bus and we finally pulled out of the GF close to 11:45! I was getting a bit nervous at this point, as we had not done the flight check in at the hotel (I had wanted to, but Cynthia refused to do it, and we were on the same flight home, so I didn't make an issue of it...she has this thing about leaving her bags and just trusting that it will get to the airport, plus Andrea was on Southwest, so she could not check her bags anyway).

Well, we finally arrived at the airport and then had to wait FOREVER for the driver to unload the bags before we could get off. This part, I don't understand. Why should we have to wait on the bus rather than getting off and picking up our bags as they are removed from the bus??? It was just an unnecessarily LONG wait; close to 10 minutes. I felt like a prisoner at this point. Then, we had some trouble checking in (well, not us, but the family in front of us, who decided to pack a bag that weighed close to 150 pounds! Then, they did not speak English to understand that they would have to either pay extra or shift the bag contents around to make the bags weigh less).

So, needless to say, once we did finally check in, we went straight through security, onto the monorail, and arrived at the gate at 1:05pm...right as our flight was boarding. To say we just made it would be an understatement. I was a bit miffed at the DME process at this point, and to be honest, next time we go to WDW, I think we will spring for a towncar. You would think that the 3 hour pickup window would be enough time, but with the bus being late and then all the extra waits along the way, it was just barely enough time. I shudder to think what would have happened if the bus had been just 15 minutes more delayed.

Anyway, the flight home was long (5.5 hours, to be exact) and not that comfortable. I arrived home to my boys and DH, who were VERY happy to see me. :)

BrerGnat
03-08-2007, 05:12 PM
FINAL THOUGHTS:

-Wilderness Lodge: Well, we had another wonderful experience with this hotel. This makes 3 in a row. Besides the pool closure, which I felt could have been handled better, we had no complaints. Our room, mousekeeping, dining, etc. were all above our expectations. I recently got a postcard in the mail from WL inviting me to do a (very lengthy and detailed) survey online about my WL experience. I was sure to be very specific about all the things they asked, so hopefully some of my answers will help address any issues they deal with in the future. I will continue to highly recommend WL, based upon my cumulative experience there.

-Transportation: I am over it. Next time, I am renting a car. I think, over time, I have grown to be a bit impatient with the WDW transportation system. I don't know if it has gotten worse or I have just less patience than I used to. I just get so annoyed with having to spent an hour to go from point A to point B, even when the distance is not that great. We lost a great deal of time on this trip just getting around, and due to the shorter park hours, this really cut into our time in the parks. I had the same feeling about the transportation during my solo trip in 2005. Next time I go, we will be going as a family, with our two very young kids. The idea of spending that much time waiting for and then riding buses, boats, etc. makes me SO not want to attempt it with two kids and a stroller, bags, etc. My kids are NOT patient and hate to sit still (one is autistic and one is only 1 year old, but still). So, we will make plans to have a car next time. Either that, or we will spring for a monorail hotel, probably the Poly, so we can also walk to TTC to get to Epcot.

-Dining (and DDP):
Well, we really enjoyed all of our dining experiences on this trip. Save for the less than stellar atmosphere of the CA Grill, everywhere else was EXCELLENT. The food at CA Grill was very good, but honestly, I enjoyed the food more at both Kona Cafe and 'Ohana. It was more unique and flavorful and the service at both was MUCH better than the CA Grill. High marks for sure for the Polynesian restaurants. The management there is doing something right. As for the dining plan, I think this will be the last time we use this for a LONG time (like, until our kids are much older and can actually sit still in a restaurant for more than 20 minutes). This plan is great, but it does have its down sides. I hated being locked into ADR's, and I understand this will not change if I don't do the DDP in the future, but honestly, I would be happy with mostly CS meals. I like the flexibility of eating when you are hungry, not when you made an appointment. Plus, I felt we could not be flexible at all with our plans, and we needed a plan, so that we would be sure to make our meals on time. Again, with short park hours, the dining plan is not the best bet. Especially doing dinner...if you want to eat at a normal time (like 7pm-8pm is "normal" for me), then you are stuck after dinner, because most parks are closed and if you eat in a resort, you have to make a roundabout trip back to your resort, via Downtown Disney or the TTC, which gets annoying. On the subject of CS meals, we were pleasantly surprised at how GOOD the food was. Seriously, the quality of the CS meals has gone way up from my past visits. I never had a less than excellent CS meal. Everything was very fresh, large portions, and a good value, as far as I am concerned. I also noticed the kid's menus at the CS locations (for future reference) and they seem to be much more "kid friendly" than the menus at the TS restaurants, so I think next trip, we will pay OOP, do mostly CS, and throw in maybe a character meal and one or two other sit down meals.

The Parks:
Great experiences all around. CMs were friendly, eager to chat, and very helpful. I loved Photopass...great service there and can't wait to get my CD! The parks were clean, everything seemed to be in good operating condition, and we didn't experience anything that stands out as negative. However, the YOAMD promotion is overdone, in my opinion. Everywhere you go, all you hear is "we can help make all your dreams come true", but really, we saw the dream squad ONCE and didn't notice any special "magical moments" going on. We did see a few, but they seemed forced, as though things that were just parts of shows in the past all of a sudden became a "Disney dream" (like the kid who gets to drive the car in the stunt show at MGM). I highly doubt that was his "dream come true." :rolleyes: I think it is a good idea for a promotion, but none of MY dreams came true this trip. But I'm not bitter or anything. ;)

Overall, great trip, but too short. Anything less than a week at WDW just doesn’t cut it for me. I feel like we missed out on so much (even though it’s stuff I have done before). We had no real time to relax and enjoy any recreational stuff, plus it was too cold to swim. Next trip will be a week for sure, possibly 10 days if DH will agree to it. Especially with kids along, I think it’s very important to have some down time and time away from the parks to do other stuff. WDW has so much to offer, it feels almost like a waste not doing anything outside the parks. Anyway, I will be back, definitely, but I’m not sure when yet. Hopefully, sometime in 2008. Unfortunately, DH’s job (military) is full of loose ends, and until we know where we’re going next (we’ll find out sometime this summer), we can’t make any plans. But, we WILL be going back. :D

Bethis26fan
03-08-2007, 08:51 PM
Sounds like you had a great trip. Thanks for sharing.

faline
03-09-2007, 05:30 AM
I'm glad you got to spend time with friends even if the trip had a few shortcomings!

offwego
03-09-2007, 10:50 AM
a great recap. Thanks so much for sharing!!:thumbsup:

KylesMom
03-09-2007, 01:44 PM
Nat, thanks for sharing your trip with us! I was glad to hear of your good experience at WL and that CMs were on the ball.
-Transportation: I am over it. Next time, I am renting a car. I think, over time, I have grown to be a bit impatient with the WDW transportation system. I don't know if it has gotten worse or I have just less patience than I used to. I just get so annoyed with having to spent an hour to go from point A to point B, even when the distance is not that great. We lost a great deal of time on this trip just getting around, and due to the shorter park hours, this really cut into our time in the parks. Honestly, I am more than impatient when it comes to transportation, and we've always found it to be a great value when renting a car. I don't think you'll be disappointed if you go this route. From the WL to the Poly in 5-7 minutes! :cloud9:

One thing that really stood out in your reports was how cold it was. We're so used to going when it's steamy that I can't imagine looking for a hooded sweatshirt!:blush:

Overall it sounds like both you and your friends had a great time. Thanks again for sharing with us! :mickey:

DizNee143
03-09-2007, 03:15 PM
thanx for sharing your trip with us...i really enjoyed reading about it...im sorry about the wait for the ME bus..and that you pretty much had to end up rushing to your plane...but im glad you guys all had a great trip overall!!! :mickey:

SandmanGStefani24
03-09-2007, 04:21 PM
such a great report! You know I felt like DME took a little too long IMO as well. We too will take another route next time. I know it's free, so i shouldn't really complain, but it could still be quicker.

dtootsie42
03-10-2007, 07:30 PM
Terrific report...Thanks for sharing!

ElenitaB
03-11-2007, 03:39 PM
Nat, thanks for sharing your trip with us! I've really enjoyed reading your reports.

pdrlkr
03-11-2007, 04:49 PM
Thanks for the report! :smickey:

Bethanymouse
03-11-2007, 10:18 PM
Thanks for sharing your trip with us! I enjoyed being with you every step of the way! :thumbsup:

RedSoxFan
03-12-2007, 05:33 PM
I enjoyed reading all your trip reports. Sounds like you had a great time.:mickey:

PAYROLL PRINCESS
03-12-2007, 10:16 PM
Thanks for sharing your trip with us.
I have to agree with anything less the a week not being long enough.
And I too am impatient having to wait for the busses and then taking forever to get somewhere that should only take 10 minutes.

scottgr
03-16-2007, 10:44 AM
Thanks for sharing. Sounds like you had a great time. The wait for the bus is a pain sometimes...:mickey: Thanks again

ChipnDaleGal
03-20-2007, 08:44 AM
Thanks for all your reports Natalie. I have been on a couple of "girls only" trips with my friends and I have always had the best time. It is nice to get out of your mom mode for a few days and just relax and enjoy yourself. :mickey:

sleepingbooty
03-21-2007, 04:47 PM
Great trip reports Natalie, I really enjoyed them. I like that you are experienced enough at the whole WDW thing that you can honestly assess the pros and cons but it doesn't detract from your good time.:thumbsup: