Ian
05-29-2012, 01:37 PM
Hey all,
I didn't take any detailed notes this trip, so I'm not going to give a day-by-day breakdown of our recent trip. I will, though, give a list of highlights and lowlights and also share anything interesting.
When: May 18th to May 27th
Where: Boardwalk Villas
Who: The entire clan (all six of us!), including my Mom and our friend Beth
So with airfares what they are and our large family size, we decided to drive again this time. It couldn't have gone more smoothly. We left the Philly area on Thursday the 17th around 4PM and stopped in Fayetteville, NC around 11:30PM. We got back on the road around 8AM on the 18th and pulled into VWL (we stayed there the first night only) around 4PM.
I had stayed one night at VWL before, but it was the rest of the family's first time. Our 1BR got high marks from everyone and there was lots of clamoring (especially from DS5) to stay there on our next trip.
We had Disney move our bags over to Boardwalk on Saturday and that went smoothly as well. We had a brief moment of excitement when we thought we had gotten the exact same room we had when we stayed there in May of 2011, but it turned out we were a bit further down from there. We had 4051 last year and got 4041 this year. The room had an amazing view of the entire Boardwalk area and we also had a direct line of sight to Spaceship Earth which meant we could sit on our balcony and watch RoE if we wanted to. Great room!
EXCEPT for the Internet connectivity! This is pretty much my only major complaint from this trip, but the Internet at Boardwalk was a flat-out joke and so was their "technical support." I could not remain connected to their "free wireless" (I debate whether or not you can call something "free" when it doesn't actually work!) for more than like 2 or 3 minutes before the connection dropped and I got a "Limited Connectivity" message. At first I thought they were just throttling bandwidth, because it seemed to happen mostly when I was on more content-heavy sites but later on it just became a constant issue. For the length of our stay I was never able to remain consistently connected to the 'Net for more than a few minutes before I got kicked off. I called the front desk and was directed to their tech support team who was completely and totally useless (much like the free internet ;)). Every time I called they told me they'd put in a ticket and reboot the router that served my room and every time I never got any follow-up and it never got better. Not only that, but when I called back (I called a total of four times) every time they told me there was no record of my previous calls! They're definitely getting a letter from me on that problem. I'd rather pay for functioning Internet than have to deal with that! :mad:
Okay ... most of the major grumbling over now ...
Other items of note of our trip:
Got to check out Storybook Circus. It's hard to really say for sure what it's going to turn out like, but I thought what was there was very nice looking. The train station is especially well themed and even moreso when you consider what used to be there. The second Dumbo is in and you can see it looks close to being ready to go, but it wasn't up and running yet. I did think the "re-theme" of the Barnstormer was a bit underwhelming, though. It's pretty lame. It's totally unclear to me what the actual story is ... It's like the Barnstormer with the Great Goofini, but it doesn't appear to have either a solid plane theme (even though the coaster is still a plane) or a circus theme (even though there are some indications that Goofy is being shot out of a cannon). Not impressed with this at all.
The rest of the construction is really starting to take shape. Ariel looks like the entire exterior is done and the new Castle wall construction is clearly visible. The Seven Dwarfs coaster also appears to have some vertical construction beginning.
The lines for SWSA was noticably longer than normal. You could tell folks were trying to squeeze in a last ride and there was lots of talk from folks in the queue around how it was closing. Everyone definitely was aware. I even saw a guy in line with a "Save Snow White" shirt on. I shot a high-def ride through of it on our last ride and took lots of pics. I will say that I'm pretty disappointed that they're taking this ride away and replacing it with a meet-n-greet. It seems like there should be plenty of space in the expansion for that. I'm also having a hard time understanding why they'd be closing it so early, considering that it's months and even years until the rest of the expansion is done. Kind of disappointing.
Speaking of the FLE, the new section they added to One Man's Dream is really cool! It gives terrific perspective on what it will all look like when it's completed. I highly recommend checking it out if you stop by.
Continuing the FLE theme, just a warning that Fantasyland is a bit of a mess right now especially from a congestion standpoint. With the stroller parking area that used to be where the old Skyway station is now closed for the restroom construction they have the stroller parking back in front of IASW, so all that old bottlenecking that used to happen there is back in full force.
Had some good meals ... I've decided that Via Napoli is hands down my favorite restaurant on property. Not a single morsel of food has crossed my lips in that place that hasn't been totally outstanding. Also had really good meals (and a good time!) at 50's Prime Time and San Angel Inn. Teppan Edo and Le Cellier were also top notch. On the "meh" list would be Garden Grill and Chefs De France. The food quality at Garden Grill has rocketed downhill fast. The marinated flank steak and fried catfish they used to serve were both near the top of my list of favorite Disney foods. Now the catfish is gone, replaced by some incredibly bland whitefish with no taste and the marinated flank steak is a shadow of what it used to be. Not only that, but for a family style meal that was served to four adults and four kids the amount of meats they put on our plate was embarrassing. Four pieces of turkey and four pieces of flank steak??? Come on Disney ... we immediately asked for more (it wasn't even one piece per guest!) and it took a ridiculously long time for it to show up. I think Garden Grill is getting crossed off my list. At Chefs De France, I had the filet which was good, but the menu is a real disappointment there anymore. I used to love the tuna with olive tamponade they had there but that's long gone. If I want a steak I'll go to Le Cellier, so unless the menu perks up I think we'll be skipping Chefs in the future, as well.
CM's were a real highlight this trip. We had lots and lots of great service, especially on the dining front. Our "cousin" at 50's Prime Time was awesome! DD turned 10 during this trip, so she was wearing her birthday button. When they were ready to sing happy birthday to her I had DS5 in the men's room. I'm standing there washing my hands when all of a sudden I hear this yelling. At first I didn't realize what it was, but then I heard her shouting for "Spike" (that's what she called me) and I realized she had kicked the door open and was looking for us because she was ready to sing happy birthday! When we got back she said, "Did you both wash your hands??" and when we said yes she immediately asked us, "What color was the soap??" (blue) and "What side was the faucet for the hot water on?" (trick question ... there is only one faucet). I responded to her once she approved, "How could we not have washed our hands? You have those very helpful instructions on how to do it hanging on the wall!" Got a good laugh at that one. ;)
One area where the cast was a bit of a letdown, though, was with DD's birthday. Last year she got tons of attention and freebies when she wore it, but this time not so much. She was pretty disappointed that she didn't get as much of a fuss.
Our fears about the impact of Test Track being down in terms of what it would do to the Soarin' queue seemed to be mostly unfounded. The line was long, but nothing more than normal. We saw it at 70 minutes pretty much the entire trip and, for as busy as it was, I didn't think that was actually bad at all. We rode probably four or five times this trip, which is more than normal.
One area where I have to give huge props to Disney is for the way in which they've "fixed" the problem with the early morning stampedes. At both Epcot and DHS they basically opened the gates 10 or 15 minutes before scheduled park opening and just let everyone go our to the rides. This completely prevented all the bunching up and running you used to get. We were able to get to TSM and get Fastpasses without waiting in line at all and the return time was only 9:50! My Mom actually rode it before the FP time too with only like a 5 minute wait. VERY nice solution to what was becoming a major irritant for me. :thumbsup:
WE LOVE THE BOARDWALK!!!!!! No seriously, though ... it may be my new favorite resort, dethroning the Contemporary. It's just such an awesome spot there and the kids just totally love the Boardwalk area, with the games and the streetmosphere entertainers. Last year we got hooked on seeing Macks (the plate spinner) and the kids were able to get in his show a few times. Well this year we saw him twice and DD and DS got in the show again. The second time he actually remembered them and made a pretty big fuss. He actually does a really great show. If you've never seen him try to track him down at some point. I'd kill to find out what music he uses for his background track ... it's all very catchy!
I didn't take any detailed notes this trip, so I'm not going to give a day-by-day breakdown of our recent trip. I will, though, give a list of highlights and lowlights and also share anything interesting.
When: May 18th to May 27th
Where: Boardwalk Villas
Who: The entire clan (all six of us!), including my Mom and our friend Beth
So with airfares what they are and our large family size, we decided to drive again this time. It couldn't have gone more smoothly. We left the Philly area on Thursday the 17th around 4PM and stopped in Fayetteville, NC around 11:30PM. We got back on the road around 8AM on the 18th and pulled into VWL (we stayed there the first night only) around 4PM.
I had stayed one night at VWL before, but it was the rest of the family's first time. Our 1BR got high marks from everyone and there was lots of clamoring (especially from DS5) to stay there on our next trip.
We had Disney move our bags over to Boardwalk on Saturday and that went smoothly as well. We had a brief moment of excitement when we thought we had gotten the exact same room we had when we stayed there in May of 2011, but it turned out we were a bit further down from there. We had 4051 last year and got 4041 this year. The room had an amazing view of the entire Boardwalk area and we also had a direct line of sight to Spaceship Earth which meant we could sit on our balcony and watch RoE if we wanted to. Great room!
EXCEPT for the Internet connectivity! This is pretty much my only major complaint from this trip, but the Internet at Boardwalk was a flat-out joke and so was their "technical support." I could not remain connected to their "free wireless" (I debate whether or not you can call something "free" when it doesn't actually work!) for more than like 2 or 3 minutes before the connection dropped and I got a "Limited Connectivity" message. At first I thought they were just throttling bandwidth, because it seemed to happen mostly when I was on more content-heavy sites but later on it just became a constant issue. For the length of our stay I was never able to remain consistently connected to the 'Net for more than a few minutes before I got kicked off. I called the front desk and was directed to their tech support team who was completely and totally useless (much like the free internet ;)). Every time I called they told me they'd put in a ticket and reboot the router that served my room and every time I never got any follow-up and it never got better. Not only that, but when I called back (I called a total of four times) every time they told me there was no record of my previous calls! They're definitely getting a letter from me on that problem. I'd rather pay for functioning Internet than have to deal with that! :mad:
Okay ... most of the major grumbling over now ...
Other items of note of our trip:
Got to check out Storybook Circus. It's hard to really say for sure what it's going to turn out like, but I thought what was there was very nice looking. The train station is especially well themed and even moreso when you consider what used to be there. The second Dumbo is in and you can see it looks close to being ready to go, but it wasn't up and running yet. I did think the "re-theme" of the Barnstormer was a bit underwhelming, though. It's pretty lame. It's totally unclear to me what the actual story is ... It's like the Barnstormer with the Great Goofini, but it doesn't appear to have either a solid plane theme (even though the coaster is still a plane) or a circus theme (even though there are some indications that Goofy is being shot out of a cannon). Not impressed with this at all.
The rest of the construction is really starting to take shape. Ariel looks like the entire exterior is done and the new Castle wall construction is clearly visible. The Seven Dwarfs coaster also appears to have some vertical construction beginning.
The lines for SWSA was noticably longer than normal. You could tell folks were trying to squeeze in a last ride and there was lots of talk from folks in the queue around how it was closing. Everyone definitely was aware. I even saw a guy in line with a "Save Snow White" shirt on. I shot a high-def ride through of it on our last ride and took lots of pics. I will say that I'm pretty disappointed that they're taking this ride away and replacing it with a meet-n-greet. It seems like there should be plenty of space in the expansion for that. I'm also having a hard time understanding why they'd be closing it so early, considering that it's months and even years until the rest of the expansion is done. Kind of disappointing.
Speaking of the FLE, the new section they added to One Man's Dream is really cool! It gives terrific perspective on what it will all look like when it's completed. I highly recommend checking it out if you stop by.
Continuing the FLE theme, just a warning that Fantasyland is a bit of a mess right now especially from a congestion standpoint. With the stroller parking area that used to be where the old Skyway station is now closed for the restroom construction they have the stroller parking back in front of IASW, so all that old bottlenecking that used to happen there is back in full force.
Had some good meals ... I've decided that Via Napoli is hands down my favorite restaurant on property. Not a single morsel of food has crossed my lips in that place that hasn't been totally outstanding. Also had really good meals (and a good time!) at 50's Prime Time and San Angel Inn. Teppan Edo and Le Cellier were also top notch. On the "meh" list would be Garden Grill and Chefs De France. The food quality at Garden Grill has rocketed downhill fast. The marinated flank steak and fried catfish they used to serve were both near the top of my list of favorite Disney foods. Now the catfish is gone, replaced by some incredibly bland whitefish with no taste and the marinated flank steak is a shadow of what it used to be. Not only that, but for a family style meal that was served to four adults and four kids the amount of meats they put on our plate was embarrassing. Four pieces of turkey and four pieces of flank steak??? Come on Disney ... we immediately asked for more (it wasn't even one piece per guest!) and it took a ridiculously long time for it to show up. I think Garden Grill is getting crossed off my list. At Chefs De France, I had the filet which was good, but the menu is a real disappointment there anymore. I used to love the tuna with olive tamponade they had there but that's long gone. If I want a steak I'll go to Le Cellier, so unless the menu perks up I think we'll be skipping Chefs in the future, as well.
CM's were a real highlight this trip. We had lots and lots of great service, especially on the dining front. Our "cousin" at 50's Prime Time was awesome! DD turned 10 during this trip, so she was wearing her birthday button. When they were ready to sing happy birthday to her I had DS5 in the men's room. I'm standing there washing my hands when all of a sudden I hear this yelling. At first I didn't realize what it was, but then I heard her shouting for "Spike" (that's what she called me) and I realized she had kicked the door open and was looking for us because she was ready to sing happy birthday! When we got back she said, "Did you both wash your hands??" and when we said yes she immediately asked us, "What color was the soap??" (blue) and "What side was the faucet for the hot water on?" (trick question ... there is only one faucet). I responded to her once she approved, "How could we not have washed our hands? You have those very helpful instructions on how to do it hanging on the wall!" Got a good laugh at that one. ;)
One area where the cast was a bit of a letdown, though, was with DD's birthday. Last year she got tons of attention and freebies when she wore it, but this time not so much. She was pretty disappointed that she didn't get as much of a fuss.
Our fears about the impact of Test Track being down in terms of what it would do to the Soarin' queue seemed to be mostly unfounded. The line was long, but nothing more than normal. We saw it at 70 minutes pretty much the entire trip and, for as busy as it was, I didn't think that was actually bad at all. We rode probably four or five times this trip, which is more than normal.
One area where I have to give huge props to Disney is for the way in which they've "fixed" the problem with the early morning stampedes. At both Epcot and DHS they basically opened the gates 10 or 15 minutes before scheduled park opening and just let everyone go our to the rides. This completely prevented all the bunching up and running you used to get. We were able to get to TSM and get Fastpasses without waiting in line at all and the return time was only 9:50! My Mom actually rode it before the FP time too with only like a 5 minute wait. VERY nice solution to what was becoming a major irritant for me. :thumbsup:
WE LOVE THE BOARDWALK!!!!!! No seriously, though ... it may be my new favorite resort, dethroning the Contemporary. It's just such an awesome spot there and the kids just totally love the Boardwalk area, with the games and the streetmosphere entertainers. Last year we got hooked on seeing Macks (the plate spinner) and the kids were able to get in his show a few times. Well this year we saw him twice and DD and DS got in the show again. The second time he actually remembered them and made a pretty big fuss. He actually does a really great show. If you've never seen him try to track him down at some point. I'd kill to find out what music he uses for his background track ... it's all very catchy!