Princess Girls Magic Bands, FP+, MDE App, OH MY... Trip Report!

[princessgirls]

Final Thoughts....

Dates: November 20-27
Resort: Pop Century

The best improvement since my last visit in 2012 was the MAGICBANDS!!!! I loved these!!! They are great, and made getting in and out of the parks a breeze. I carried no money the whole week, and we had no problems with them at all. LOVED THEM!!! Too bad my real life isn't so easy.

Next topic....
Fast Pass Plus. BOOOOOOOOOO We didn't enjoy it, felt kind of trapped by times and parks because we made selections 60 days out, and if you wanted to do Mine Train or Toy Story Mania you kept to your schedule. We felt like we didn't do the kids favorite rides as much either. Our rule was we would only wait 30 minutes or less without a FP. We did this for a few attractions..and rode the more popular rides later at night. This for the most part worked for us. We did attractions less amount of times though. Only 1X each for Peter Pan, Pirates, Soarin, and a few others. The system needs a tweak. We did change a few things here and there on the app, and were given a few paper fast passes for various reasons during the week, which we happily used, but still didn't feel like we did as much this trip.

The wifi in the parks and resort was a nice improvement. With my data hogging teens, the wifi was a nice bonus!!!

Dining: We had amazing meals!!!
Teppan Edo
Rose and Crown
Whispering Canyon
Liberty Tree Tavern
Boma
Kona Kafe
Askerhaus Princess Breakfast
Made all ADR's on time, or not more than 5 minutes late and had no problems. Food was always good and came out fast.
Here is one tip that I tried and liked this trip.
We ate early! Except for our first night and Teppan Edo, all of our dinner ADR's were between 4 and 5pm. I liked that! We had our whole night after to walk around and enjoy. We were up and out early, and tried to eat lunch before noon and the crowds anyway.

Buses: Were running and we never found ourselves waiting endlessly. Park closings it was busy, but the Pop Century always had a cast member stationed at the stop and buses came frequently to pick people up, often one after the next. The only minor annoying issue was a night leaving the studios, with people in scooters which I have no issue or problem with coming up to get the next bus, and then there family reunion of 20+ people all getting on with them, so our line doesn't move and all of the seats are gobbled up. That got a little ugly with others in line.

Parks: Parks were busy, but looking beautiful!
Christmas was all aglow.
FROZEN FROZEN everywhere! Anna, Elsa, Kristof and Olaf have even dethroned Cinderella...they kick off the light at the castle each night. I didn't see many little girls with Cinderella dresses either...All Anna and Elsa. Poor Cinderella. She is a good sport, when asked, she said, I invited them, they are better with Winter Holidays than I.
Magic Kingdom: Was busy every time we were in it!! Our boat took on a lot of water in Pirates, we all had soaking wet feet, and then it got stuck. They had us lean to the left and lean to the right a few times to get it back running.
Loved the Mine Train!!!! Smooth and adorable! My only complaint was I wish it was longer.
On a awful raining night the guys running the Laugh Floor had some extra fun for us. We were in there for 1/2 hour, and they put a lot of different people on the screen. It was nice to sit and dry off for a bit. I appreciated them!
Epcot: I found Epcot to be a tad dull this trip. I love the World Showcase, but with the new FP system couldn't do multiple rides on soarin or test track, so it was kind of a bust this trip. I did take a power nap in Ellen's one afternoon, to the extent that I couldn't believe the ride was over that quickly. LIghts OUT!! The park really needs something...oh wait, more Frozen is coming!!
The lumberjacks in canada....AWFUL. Someone actually thought there was construction going on.
Studios: I do enjoy this park, maybe for size alone. We did get a few rides on RNR, and TOT, only one Toy Story Mania though....
The Osbourne lights were awesome, and the word on the street is this is the last year. MAJOR CHANGES ARE COMING TO THE STUDIOS.
Animal Kingdom: We had a nice day in here. It is quite the lively park! I'm calling it the party park. The Hambre area is FUN!!! African bands and drinks. All good stuff.
Festival of the Lion king was great as usual, and we didn't make Nemo this trip. Spent too much time with the band. It was a beautiful warm sunny day, so I wanted to be outside!

Pop Century: For the price this resort is great!!!! Rooms are small, I'm not going to lie, but the bottom line is...we slept and showered in it. We were out all day. I ordered a few breakfast items and cases of water from Garden Grocer which were delivered to my room after we checked in. We hardly used our mugs, or went into the foodcourt. We did swim one night, and I did laundry. All good!

Our trip was great! I am sad it all went so fast!!!!!
Thanks for reading!
Julie

[NJGIRL]

We always do dining early...We usually do dinners at 5:00 or 5:30. Lunches between 11:30 and 12:00. Plus we usually arrive a little early so we normally get seated right away....except the Sci Fi. haha.

[faline]

Though it sounds as though it may have been a bit different from the way you usually "do" Disney, you clearly had a fabulous time!!

[Beach Club Babe]

I'm glad you had a great trip!

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

Sounds like a great trip