Beach Club Babe
09-19-2012, 09:38 AM
We chose All Star Sports because we definitely needed 2 rooms and possibly would have needed 3 had our original plans with Rose gone through. Also, we have stayed at Pop numerous times and really was not Rose's favorite value resort. I also thought the theming of Sports would appeal more to Jeff, our first timer. That, and the fact that Sports would be the first stop for the buses of the All Stars. That actually did not come into play very often as most of the time, we had our own bus for Sports. Maybe twice did we share the bus with the other All Stars.
As for the resort, the cast members at the front desk were all very nice and quite helpful, with the exception of one. The rooms were adequate for our needs. Since we had the two rooms we did have plenty of space for our large group. Ron, the younger girls and I were in one room, and the older kids were in another. The night that the girls and I arrived, the temperature in the room was set at 87 degrees and it took some fiddling with the the thermostat to bring down the temp. It took a few days to really get regulated. It kept wanting to shoot back up. One other minor annoyance was the pillows. They were very small and really"mushy", hard to keep your head on them. The room was clean, except for the top of the armoire which was left dusty the whole time. Our only other "thing" with housekeeping, don't want to say problem, was one day we were leaving our room about 7:30 AM and the housekeeper was literally cleaning the room next to ours, but when we returned in the afternoon, the room was still not made up. We went to the pool and when we returned she was just about to enter our room. She excused herself and I asked if she would return which she replied yes. I told her we wouldn't be long as we would hurry up and be leaving for dinner. She literally stood right outside her room while we got ready. We kind of felt a little weird about that. The door of the armoire where the fridge goes broke one day and would not close. I called and they sent someone right away. He did not have the proper tools to fix it as apparently was more serious than appeared. He told us he would return while we were out, we were just about to leave, and he did have it fixed by the time we returned so no complaints there. Our room location was perfect. While I do like the first floor, the third floor was nice as well, no noise above us. Really we didn't hear much noise except for one night when a very large and very boisterous woke us up very late at night running down the hall and screaming. Our rooms also faced a main courtyard, the big basketball hoops, so it was on a main path pretty much straight shot to the main building.
We enjoyed the main pool and found it convenient, large enough, and clean. There were plenty of chairs and i liked having the kiddie pool right there so I could go over there with Hallie, yet be close enough to the other kids, not that the older ones needed to be watched. Emily also had fun playing the pool games. unfortunately, the last few days we were there, the pool went down for rehab. The baseball pool was a bit of a hike for us, and did not see much use from us. I think only the older kids actually used it once.
The bus service here far exceeded my expectations. We rarely waited more than a few minutes for a bus both at the resort or at the parks. Our only issue was the aforementioned incident with the Epcot bus on the EMH morning. And as I also stated, we rarely had to share a bus and we almost always had a seat. I think maybe twice did we have to stand and that was during a park closing.
As for the food court, I cannot say I am a big fan. I like the food courts at the other values much better. We usually get breakfast from here most mornings, but this trip we only used it once. In fact we only really made use of it for our refillable mugs. They could definitely use some more beverage stations as it was hard to get anywhere near them and someone was always right up your tail.
Taking a first timer is always a lot of fun. This time planning for this was a little trickier since Jeff is a picky eater as well as not really being a thrill ride person. These factors greatly influenced our dining choices and our touring plans but everything worked out just perfectly. I was really glad to have his company too. Besides the fact that he is generally a really great kid, it was so much easier having him with us than on Ashleigh's mind back at home. She was able to be more "present" with us and not having her nose stuck in her cell phone endlessly texting him. He is also really great with Hallie and she loved spending time with him while we rode the things he would not and Hallie could not. By not pressuring him too much he was able to conquer a lot of his fears for which he was very proud and we were very happy for him. Also, before he left he proclaimed he was ready for Everest and Rockin Rollercoaster next time! Next time! We have indeed converted him!
As for dining I will give more detailed reviews in the dining forum, but suffice it to say we did not have a bad table service meal at all. Generally quick service was good too with some better than others. We had really one issue with a server and for the first time experienced technical difficulties that resulted in closing a restaurant.
As for the parks, it seemed the grew increasingly more crowded as our trip went on ,but nothing outrageously bad or nothing we couldn't handle. We've experienced both better and worse. As for the cast members, while we did come across some that went over and above and were really fantastic, we observed so many that were unpleasant or apathetic and a couple downright rude! This really made us all very sad.
Jeff really enjoyed all of the night time shows, parades, and fireworks so I am really glad that we took the time to stop and smell the roses, so to speak. Lately, we've taken to skipping some outright or viewing them on the run.
Our kids really found it depressing to see Test Track down and under refurb. They are really disappointed that they will never be able to ride the old version and do not seem very hopeful for what the new version has in store. On the other hand, we are all very pleased with the New Fantasyland. We like the new placement, double capacity, and new queue of Dumbo. The water play area is also very clever and cute, and we really like the new train station. Also, the unopened portion looks like it is coming along very nicely and we are excited to see what's in store for us when we return in December.
The parks in general were clean and well maintained for the most part. Some things were not running like a lot of the water effects in Splash Mt, but I assumed that it was due to how dry it had been.
We hardly experienced any rudeness from other park guests which was a little different for us. I can think of only 2 minor incidents. One we were pushed out of the way on the Backlot Tour by a large family and poor "Ian" who was being screamed at by his Dad during breakfast with Chef Mickey's. He really wasn't doing anything but we could barely hear our own conversation over the shouts of "IAN!!!!!"
As for the characters, most of our interaction was at character meals. All of the characters at the meals were great and gave us lots of attention. As for the characters out in the parks, we did find some, but it really seemed they were not out as much as usual. Of course, you could always find them in set locations such as Mickey and Minnie and the Princesses in Exposition Hall or the Fairies in Adventureland, but hardly any in the more random locations.
Wow, I guess I had a lot more "final thoughts" than I thought. I am actually have to continue these in another post.
As for the resort, the cast members at the front desk were all very nice and quite helpful, with the exception of one. The rooms were adequate for our needs. Since we had the two rooms we did have plenty of space for our large group. Ron, the younger girls and I were in one room, and the older kids were in another. The night that the girls and I arrived, the temperature in the room was set at 87 degrees and it took some fiddling with the the thermostat to bring down the temp. It took a few days to really get regulated. It kept wanting to shoot back up. One other minor annoyance was the pillows. They were very small and really"mushy", hard to keep your head on them. The room was clean, except for the top of the armoire which was left dusty the whole time. Our only other "thing" with housekeeping, don't want to say problem, was one day we were leaving our room about 7:30 AM and the housekeeper was literally cleaning the room next to ours, but when we returned in the afternoon, the room was still not made up. We went to the pool and when we returned she was just about to enter our room. She excused herself and I asked if she would return which she replied yes. I told her we wouldn't be long as we would hurry up and be leaving for dinner. She literally stood right outside her room while we got ready. We kind of felt a little weird about that. The door of the armoire where the fridge goes broke one day and would not close. I called and they sent someone right away. He did not have the proper tools to fix it as apparently was more serious than appeared. He told us he would return while we were out, we were just about to leave, and he did have it fixed by the time we returned so no complaints there. Our room location was perfect. While I do like the first floor, the third floor was nice as well, no noise above us. Really we didn't hear much noise except for one night when a very large and very boisterous woke us up very late at night running down the hall and screaming. Our rooms also faced a main courtyard, the big basketball hoops, so it was on a main path pretty much straight shot to the main building.
We enjoyed the main pool and found it convenient, large enough, and clean. There were plenty of chairs and i liked having the kiddie pool right there so I could go over there with Hallie, yet be close enough to the other kids, not that the older ones needed to be watched. Emily also had fun playing the pool games. unfortunately, the last few days we were there, the pool went down for rehab. The baseball pool was a bit of a hike for us, and did not see much use from us. I think only the older kids actually used it once.
The bus service here far exceeded my expectations. We rarely waited more than a few minutes for a bus both at the resort or at the parks. Our only issue was the aforementioned incident with the Epcot bus on the EMH morning. And as I also stated, we rarely had to share a bus and we almost always had a seat. I think maybe twice did we have to stand and that was during a park closing.
As for the food court, I cannot say I am a big fan. I like the food courts at the other values much better. We usually get breakfast from here most mornings, but this trip we only used it once. In fact we only really made use of it for our refillable mugs. They could definitely use some more beverage stations as it was hard to get anywhere near them and someone was always right up your tail.
Taking a first timer is always a lot of fun. This time planning for this was a little trickier since Jeff is a picky eater as well as not really being a thrill ride person. These factors greatly influenced our dining choices and our touring plans but everything worked out just perfectly. I was really glad to have his company too. Besides the fact that he is generally a really great kid, it was so much easier having him with us than on Ashleigh's mind back at home. She was able to be more "present" with us and not having her nose stuck in her cell phone endlessly texting him. He is also really great with Hallie and she loved spending time with him while we rode the things he would not and Hallie could not. By not pressuring him too much he was able to conquer a lot of his fears for which he was very proud and we were very happy for him. Also, before he left he proclaimed he was ready for Everest and Rockin Rollercoaster next time! Next time! We have indeed converted him!
As for dining I will give more detailed reviews in the dining forum, but suffice it to say we did not have a bad table service meal at all. Generally quick service was good too with some better than others. We had really one issue with a server and for the first time experienced technical difficulties that resulted in closing a restaurant.
As for the parks, it seemed the grew increasingly more crowded as our trip went on ,but nothing outrageously bad or nothing we couldn't handle. We've experienced both better and worse. As for the cast members, while we did come across some that went over and above and were really fantastic, we observed so many that were unpleasant or apathetic and a couple downright rude! This really made us all very sad.
Jeff really enjoyed all of the night time shows, parades, and fireworks so I am really glad that we took the time to stop and smell the roses, so to speak. Lately, we've taken to skipping some outright or viewing them on the run.
Our kids really found it depressing to see Test Track down and under refurb. They are really disappointed that they will never be able to ride the old version and do not seem very hopeful for what the new version has in store. On the other hand, we are all very pleased with the New Fantasyland. We like the new placement, double capacity, and new queue of Dumbo. The water play area is also very clever and cute, and we really like the new train station. Also, the unopened portion looks like it is coming along very nicely and we are excited to see what's in store for us when we return in December.
The parks in general were clean and well maintained for the most part. Some things were not running like a lot of the water effects in Splash Mt, but I assumed that it was due to how dry it had been.
We hardly experienced any rudeness from other park guests which was a little different for us. I can think of only 2 minor incidents. One we were pushed out of the way on the Backlot Tour by a large family and poor "Ian" who was being screamed at by his Dad during breakfast with Chef Mickey's. He really wasn't doing anything but we could barely hear our own conversation over the shouts of "IAN!!!!!"
As for the characters, most of our interaction was at character meals. All of the characters at the meals were great and gave us lots of attention. As for the characters out in the parks, we did find some, but it really seemed they were not out as much as usual. Of course, you could always find them in set locations such as Mickey and Minnie and the Princesses in Exposition Hall or the Fairies in Adventureland, but hardly any in the more random locations.
Wow, I guess I had a lot more "final thoughts" than I thought. I am actually have to continue these in another post.