gregf71
11-15-2011, 02:43 PM
Just to recap from Part 1, my family and I enjoyed a week at WDW before taking a 4 night cruise on the Disney Dream. Below is a breakdown of the not so magical moments of our WDW visit:
The Not So Magical:
• Interesting moment…one our first day, while in line for Soarin’, watching the interaction between a woman who was trying to work her way through people in line to join her party up ahead in the queue and the man who refused to stand aside and let her pass. “You must be from the North,” she said with a distinctive southern accent. “I’m from New York, lady!” shouted the man as the woman eventually made her way by him.
• With a few exceptions, we had the worst luck when it came to timing the buses. It was my perception that the “buses come every 20 minutes” claim was very rarely met. Our wait time one evening outside of Downtown Disney was incredibly ridiculous. And too often did we stand there waiting while we watched multiple buses for other locations come and go. It would be great if Disney could institute some sort of GPS system with their buses and cameras in their waiting areas. They could see where the needs were at any given moment and route buses accordingly. Bus locations and expected arrival times could display on boards at the various wait areas informing guests so they are not sitting there getting increasingly hopeful and frustrated. Link that to an app for a Smart Phone and you have something real guest friendly! At the very least offer a means to contact a central station to report delays.
• Also related to the buses, why are there no direct buses from the theme parks to Downtown Disney? It was outrageous that it took us well over an hour to get from Hollywood Studios to Boardwalk to Downtown Disney. As a result, our Disney Quest visit was severely cut short.
• The “saga” of the light bulb, the bathroom floor and the bottle…on our first night at the Wilderness Lodge, a light bulb went out in our entry way. We called it in and asked them to take care of it the next day. When we came back from the park on the next day, we found the bulb replaced and a large cardboard box sitting in front of one of our beds. The box was for the new toilet that was installed in our bathroom that afternoon. The problem now was that the bathroom floor was a mess, covered in grout dust and all over the place were pieces, several of them sharp, of the original toilet grout. I called Guest Services and they sent a manager up immediately. He apologized for the inconvenience and pledged to resolve it right away. As we were in the process of getting dressed to go to La Nouba, we asked to have that work delayed a few hours. Ten minutes later, while still in some level of undress, there was a knock at the door and it was a cleaning person with spray bottle and rag in hand asking to clean the bathroom floor. I asked her to come back later and she agreed. After returning from La Nouba, we found the bathroom floor in a better state, but still unacceptable. It appeared that they simply sprayed the floor with some liquid and pushed all of the dust and debris to the edges. Tired from our day’s adventures, we decided to cover the floor with a towel and deal with it for one night. After returning from the parks the next day, we entered the room and my daughter headed straight for the bathroom. The next thing I know, she had a large squirt bottle in her hand with blue liquid in it. It was the housekeeper’s cleaning fluid bottle and she was nowhere to be found. I immediately grabbed the bottle from my daughter, thankful that she did not think it was a big squirt gun for her to play with. I immediately went out into the hallway and found an abandoned housekeeping cart, placed the bottle on it, and then went to speak to the manager. Again, more apologies and promises that things would improve. The next day the floor was properly swept, cleaned, and safe to walk on yet again. Sigh.
• The mosquitos that attacked us one night on the boat from the Magic Kingdom to the Wilderness Lodge. After this experience, my daughter was afraid to get on the boat again. Luckily, when we did ride it again it was during the day and the little beasties were nowhere to be found.
• Worst Counter Service: Cosmic Ray’s at the Magic Kingdom. I wanted to dine here after reading many positive comments on the boards. My impression…the ordering bays were chaotic, the food was horrible, the seating was cheap and uncomfortable, the fixin’s bar was limited, and it was very noisy. Next time, we are going back to Pecos Bill’s.
• Worst Table Service Food: The All American Burger at the Sci-Fi Dine In Theater was just too much. Two bites in, I yanked the hot dogs and managed only to eat half of the remaining burger. Don’t get me wrong, I love hot dogs and burgers, but together in one burger was gross.
• Worst Buffet Dining Experience: Having to wait almost 30 minutes for a fresh made omelet at Crystal Palace. They really needed to staff two chefs at the griddle to move the line along. I missed several of my daughter’s character interactions because I was standing in that line. Come to think of it, that was probably the longest wait we had during our entire WDW trip, excluding the buses, but including attractions.
• Most Overhyped Character Meal: Cinderella’s Royal Table. I am glad that we finally got to experience it, but I really do not think that it was worth two dining credits and will probably not make the effort to go there again. It was nice that the dining plan included the photo package with Cinderella and the gratuity for our server, but I just didn’t feel that the overall experience was that impressive. The food was good, but not very memorable. The ambiance was neat, but nothing really set this experience apart from any other character meal. One thing that did strike me though was the lack of a group activity for the kids. At every other character meal, and I mean every one, there were moments when special music alerted kids to leave their tables and participate in some sort of group march, procession, song, dance, or game. There was one moment when we thought that was happening at CRT and we sent our daughter over to the closest princess. A few seconds later, the obviously irked Sleeping Beauty walked our daughter back over and said, in a not so magical tone, “I am with another table right now.” I realize that we made an apparent mistake, but it was an honest one. Verily, we respect the character interaction process and know that the rules at these meals are to ensure that everyone gets a chance to interact with the characters, but the cast member’s tone was unnecessary.
• While we loved having the Deluxe Dining Plan, we just felt like it was too much food. At every table service location you enjoy an appetizer, entrée, and dessert; at the counter service restaurants, an entrée and a dessert. And the serving sizes are not small. After three meals a day for several days, plus occasional snacks, we were just full. We found ourselves torn between wanting to get our money’s worth for the plan versus not wanting to be wasteful and feeling guilty for not eating everything we ordered. One thought that we had was altering the table service option to be an entrée and either an appetizer or dessert, and including gratuity.
• No Headless Horseman for our parade at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. Understandably, it was probably due to the somewhat wet parade route at the time. Not a big deal at all, but I had been telling our daughter how cool it was during our last trip
Stay tuned for Parts 3 & 4 in the Disney Cruise Line forum, detailing our adventures on the Disney Dream! :cool:
The Not So Magical:
• Interesting moment…one our first day, while in line for Soarin’, watching the interaction between a woman who was trying to work her way through people in line to join her party up ahead in the queue and the man who refused to stand aside and let her pass. “You must be from the North,” she said with a distinctive southern accent. “I’m from New York, lady!” shouted the man as the woman eventually made her way by him.
• With a few exceptions, we had the worst luck when it came to timing the buses. It was my perception that the “buses come every 20 minutes” claim was very rarely met. Our wait time one evening outside of Downtown Disney was incredibly ridiculous. And too often did we stand there waiting while we watched multiple buses for other locations come and go. It would be great if Disney could institute some sort of GPS system with their buses and cameras in their waiting areas. They could see where the needs were at any given moment and route buses accordingly. Bus locations and expected arrival times could display on boards at the various wait areas informing guests so they are not sitting there getting increasingly hopeful and frustrated. Link that to an app for a Smart Phone and you have something real guest friendly! At the very least offer a means to contact a central station to report delays.
• Also related to the buses, why are there no direct buses from the theme parks to Downtown Disney? It was outrageous that it took us well over an hour to get from Hollywood Studios to Boardwalk to Downtown Disney. As a result, our Disney Quest visit was severely cut short.
• The “saga” of the light bulb, the bathroom floor and the bottle…on our first night at the Wilderness Lodge, a light bulb went out in our entry way. We called it in and asked them to take care of it the next day. When we came back from the park on the next day, we found the bulb replaced and a large cardboard box sitting in front of one of our beds. The box was for the new toilet that was installed in our bathroom that afternoon. The problem now was that the bathroom floor was a mess, covered in grout dust and all over the place were pieces, several of them sharp, of the original toilet grout. I called Guest Services and they sent a manager up immediately. He apologized for the inconvenience and pledged to resolve it right away. As we were in the process of getting dressed to go to La Nouba, we asked to have that work delayed a few hours. Ten minutes later, while still in some level of undress, there was a knock at the door and it was a cleaning person with spray bottle and rag in hand asking to clean the bathroom floor. I asked her to come back later and she agreed. After returning from La Nouba, we found the bathroom floor in a better state, but still unacceptable. It appeared that they simply sprayed the floor with some liquid and pushed all of the dust and debris to the edges. Tired from our day’s adventures, we decided to cover the floor with a towel and deal with it for one night. After returning from the parks the next day, we entered the room and my daughter headed straight for the bathroom. The next thing I know, she had a large squirt bottle in her hand with blue liquid in it. It was the housekeeper’s cleaning fluid bottle and she was nowhere to be found. I immediately grabbed the bottle from my daughter, thankful that she did not think it was a big squirt gun for her to play with. I immediately went out into the hallway and found an abandoned housekeeping cart, placed the bottle on it, and then went to speak to the manager. Again, more apologies and promises that things would improve. The next day the floor was properly swept, cleaned, and safe to walk on yet again. Sigh.
• The mosquitos that attacked us one night on the boat from the Magic Kingdom to the Wilderness Lodge. After this experience, my daughter was afraid to get on the boat again. Luckily, when we did ride it again it was during the day and the little beasties were nowhere to be found.
• Worst Counter Service: Cosmic Ray’s at the Magic Kingdom. I wanted to dine here after reading many positive comments on the boards. My impression…the ordering bays were chaotic, the food was horrible, the seating was cheap and uncomfortable, the fixin’s bar was limited, and it was very noisy. Next time, we are going back to Pecos Bill’s.
• Worst Table Service Food: The All American Burger at the Sci-Fi Dine In Theater was just too much. Two bites in, I yanked the hot dogs and managed only to eat half of the remaining burger. Don’t get me wrong, I love hot dogs and burgers, but together in one burger was gross.
• Worst Buffet Dining Experience: Having to wait almost 30 minutes for a fresh made omelet at Crystal Palace. They really needed to staff two chefs at the griddle to move the line along. I missed several of my daughter’s character interactions because I was standing in that line. Come to think of it, that was probably the longest wait we had during our entire WDW trip, excluding the buses, but including attractions.
• Most Overhyped Character Meal: Cinderella’s Royal Table. I am glad that we finally got to experience it, but I really do not think that it was worth two dining credits and will probably not make the effort to go there again. It was nice that the dining plan included the photo package with Cinderella and the gratuity for our server, but I just didn’t feel that the overall experience was that impressive. The food was good, but not very memorable. The ambiance was neat, but nothing really set this experience apart from any other character meal. One thing that did strike me though was the lack of a group activity for the kids. At every other character meal, and I mean every one, there were moments when special music alerted kids to leave their tables and participate in some sort of group march, procession, song, dance, or game. There was one moment when we thought that was happening at CRT and we sent our daughter over to the closest princess. A few seconds later, the obviously irked Sleeping Beauty walked our daughter back over and said, in a not so magical tone, “I am with another table right now.” I realize that we made an apparent mistake, but it was an honest one. Verily, we respect the character interaction process and know that the rules at these meals are to ensure that everyone gets a chance to interact with the characters, but the cast member’s tone was unnecessary.
• While we loved having the Deluxe Dining Plan, we just felt like it was too much food. At every table service location you enjoy an appetizer, entrée, and dessert; at the counter service restaurants, an entrée and a dessert. And the serving sizes are not small. After three meals a day for several days, plus occasional snacks, we were just full. We found ourselves torn between wanting to get our money’s worth for the plan versus not wanting to be wasteful and feeling guilty for not eating everything we ordered. One thought that we had was altering the table service option to be an entrée and either an appetizer or dessert, and including gratuity.
• No Headless Horseman for our parade at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. Understandably, it was probably due to the somewhat wet parade route at the time. Not a big deal at all, but I had been telling our daughter how cool it was during our last trip
Stay tuned for Parts 3 & 4 in the Disney Cruise Line forum, detailing our adventures on the Disney Dream! :cool: