Imalismom
06-17-2014, 07:33 PM
The good, the bad, the ugly….
Just left a whirlwind trip (June 7-10 2014) to Orlando, to see my daughter who is a senior at Florida Institute of Technology.
RESORT
Stayed at Shades of Green:
Good: This is a wonderful hotel/resort – great rooms, great staff, great location, and great prices.
Bad: We were in the very last room in the main building, I thought we were walking to Siberia by the time we got to the room.
Ugly: do not accept room 217 if you want wifi – it does not reach all the way to that room!!! They are working on this issue, but presently it does not work. You can see the promise land, you just can’t connect to it.
WEATHER
Good: It was not 20 degrees.
Bad: It was over 90 degrees every day we were there, makes for a HOT grouchy day.
Ugly – rapid downpours for 30 odd minutes – and **if ** you get caught while you are at Norway and need to get to England for a dinner reservation, YOU **will** get wet – even with a poncho.
FOOD
Rose and Crown:
Good: Food, service, price! We had reservations at 5:45, and told our server we were NOT leaving until after illuminations. He timed our meal courses just perfectly, then set up four chairs for us to be able to watch - yes, he did get a fantastic tip.
Bad: Knowing that Christine Warner was just a stone’s throw away at a concert and not getting to see her :sob:
Ugly: Trying to get to the restroom through the bar – I’m sure the fire department would not have been pleased with the amount of people in the bar (yes, it was POURING down rain most of the time).
Prime Time Café:
Good: Food, service, price – and a good time had by all.
Bad: Not being able to stay longer and just enjoy the people and servers in the restaurant.
Ugly: Nope – nothing here.
Crystal Palace:
Good: Ali was excited that they are now serving periogies. Quick service, good food, and wonderful character interaction. I also liked that they had regular water, and lemon infused water set up for those that were waiting outside in the heat.
Bad: I saw many people turned away because they had not made advanced reservations. I don’t know how to “fix” this, but I wish that people could get walkup seats also. Even a doctor can fit in walk-ins, I wish WDW restaurants could also.
Ugly: Nope – nothing here.
Pecos Bill:
Good: Cost of food and amount of food. Taco Salad to me is always the best deal here, as you can fill your taco salad shell as much as you wish.
Bad: Okay, I was the **bad**. I did not realize that there was a LONG LONG line to get into Pecos Bill. I went up to one of the doors, that was locked (never had seen it locked before, so I was confused), and knocked on the glass, and a little girl opened the door for us (party of 4). We found a seat, and I told everyone I would go get our food, to stay seated as this place was PACKED. Went to get food, and a rope is across the hallway, and the guys controlling it asked me what I needed- I still did not realize that there was a long line to get in, and that this was a way to control people like me from just getting in. I said my mom needed some food, so he let me by. It was not until I had purchased 4 taco salads, and four drinks and I went to fill mine up, that I saw the long long (did I mention long) line waiting to get in.
So if you were in that line, I apologize now.
Ugly – maybe a sign on the doors, which said use main entrance, would have made me not feel so guilty when I realized I had cut in front of everyone.
Grand Floridian Tea:
Good: Everything! We did not like the menu options, so we had no problems, creating our own. We got to see a proposal, so that was a plus - made me cry and I did not even know the couple.
Bad: Nothing
Ugly: Having our experience be over.
Shades of Green Garden Grill:
Good: Best breakfast buffet in all of WDW. For $12 (adult), you get all you can eat - made to order omelets, made to order pancakes, and everything you could ever want for a breakfast buffet – they don’t miss out on anything!
Bad: No take out cups.
Ugly: Nope – nothing here.
ENTERTAINMENT
Rides/Fast Pass Plus:
Good: We got to choose three rides each day that my 80 year old Mom wanted to go on, and she was delighted to do those three rides.
Bad: See Ugly
Ugly: This system is BROKEN. What was WDW thinking? I could write a thesis here, but I will try to keep it somewhat short. If you did not have a fast pass, EVERY line we saw was extremely too long to wait in – over 100+ minutes for EVERYTHING. I am lucky enough to still have my mom with me, but she is 80 years old, and has no disabilities. That being said, she CANNOT stand for that long of a time for any of the rides that she did not have fast passes for. So, she was only able to enjoy three rides per park. Yes, the parks were crowded, but not anywhere near capacity. If you were not able to get a FP+ before you got to the park, for the most part, for the “E” ticket rides, the fast passes were long gone, forcing you to stand in line. Elza and Anna lines were a joke. We had a cast member with us that actually works at a FP+ kiosk, and he was AMAZED to see it (Elza and Anna line) at 90 minutes one evening. I’m not sure how this needs to be fixed, but it is broke. I no longer want to spend my hard earned $$ to go into a park to ride 3 rides and leave. It will be a long time before I go back to the parks, as a visitor from Texas, period.
A good story though. As I said, we had a cast member join us for 2 days. He could not get our FP+ times, since he joined us at the last minute. I was however, able to talk to the FP+ person at each of the six rides and he was given an immediate entry with our party of 4. They did not know he was a cast member, they just knew he was a part of our party without a FP. He kept asking me “How do you do that”?.... so, there is still SOME Disney magic with Fast passes, but the system is still very very broke.
I loved seeing my daughter, and loved leaving WDW and going to Melbourne and spending time with her there. Next time, I will skip WDW and go directly to Melbourne to see her.
One last thought:
This time I had over $800.00 on my Disney Reward card to use – it helps to pay Ali’s college tuition through the Disney Visa card. We have a 529 account for her, so we charge her tuition, and then immediately pay the card from the 529 account. If you have a child getting ready to go off to college, consider getting a card with some sort of points and doing the same – the “free” points add up quickly this way.
Hope you enjoyed the good, the bad and the ugly!
Just left a whirlwind trip (June 7-10 2014) to Orlando, to see my daughter who is a senior at Florida Institute of Technology.
RESORT
Stayed at Shades of Green:
Good: This is a wonderful hotel/resort – great rooms, great staff, great location, and great prices.
Bad: We were in the very last room in the main building, I thought we were walking to Siberia by the time we got to the room.
Ugly: do not accept room 217 if you want wifi – it does not reach all the way to that room!!! They are working on this issue, but presently it does not work. You can see the promise land, you just can’t connect to it.
WEATHER
Good: It was not 20 degrees.
Bad: It was over 90 degrees every day we were there, makes for a HOT grouchy day.
Ugly – rapid downpours for 30 odd minutes – and **if ** you get caught while you are at Norway and need to get to England for a dinner reservation, YOU **will** get wet – even with a poncho.
FOOD
Rose and Crown:
Good: Food, service, price! We had reservations at 5:45, and told our server we were NOT leaving until after illuminations. He timed our meal courses just perfectly, then set up four chairs for us to be able to watch - yes, he did get a fantastic tip.
Bad: Knowing that Christine Warner was just a stone’s throw away at a concert and not getting to see her :sob:
Ugly: Trying to get to the restroom through the bar – I’m sure the fire department would not have been pleased with the amount of people in the bar (yes, it was POURING down rain most of the time).
Prime Time Café:
Good: Food, service, price – and a good time had by all.
Bad: Not being able to stay longer and just enjoy the people and servers in the restaurant.
Ugly: Nope – nothing here.
Crystal Palace:
Good: Ali was excited that they are now serving periogies. Quick service, good food, and wonderful character interaction. I also liked that they had regular water, and lemon infused water set up for those that were waiting outside in the heat.
Bad: I saw many people turned away because they had not made advanced reservations. I don’t know how to “fix” this, but I wish that people could get walkup seats also. Even a doctor can fit in walk-ins, I wish WDW restaurants could also.
Ugly: Nope – nothing here.
Pecos Bill:
Good: Cost of food and amount of food. Taco Salad to me is always the best deal here, as you can fill your taco salad shell as much as you wish.
Bad: Okay, I was the **bad**. I did not realize that there was a LONG LONG line to get into Pecos Bill. I went up to one of the doors, that was locked (never had seen it locked before, so I was confused), and knocked on the glass, and a little girl opened the door for us (party of 4). We found a seat, and I told everyone I would go get our food, to stay seated as this place was PACKED. Went to get food, and a rope is across the hallway, and the guys controlling it asked me what I needed- I still did not realize that there was a long line to get in, and that this was a way to control people like me from just getting in. I said my mom needed some food, so he let me by. It was not until I had purchased 4 taco salads, and four drinks and I went to fill mine up, that I saw the long long (did I mention long) line waiting to get in.
So if you were in that line, I apologize now.
Ugly – maybe a sign on the doors, which said use main entrance, would have made me not feel so guilty when I realized I had cut in front of everyone.
Grand Floridian Tea:
Good: Everything! We did not like the menu options, so we had no problems, creating our own. We got to see a proposal, so that was a plus - made me cry and I did not even know the couple.
Bad: Nothing
Ugly: Having our experience be over.
Shades of Green Garden Grill:
Good: Best breakfast buffet in all of WDW. For $12 (adult), you get all you can eat - made to order omelets, made to order pancakes, and everything you could ever want for a breakfast buffet – they don’t miss out on anything!
Bad: No take out cups.
Ugly: Nope – nothing here.
ENTERTAINMENT
Rides/Fast Pass Plus:
Good: We got to choose three rides each day that my 80 year old Mom wanted to go on, and she was delighted to do those three rides.
Bad: See Ugly
Ugly: This system is BROKEN. What was WDW thinking? I could write a thesis here, but I will try to keep it somewhat short. If you did not have a fast pass, EVERY line we saw was extremely too long to wait in – over 100+ minutes for EVERYTHING. I am lucky enough to still have my mom with me, but she is 80 years old, and has no disabilities. That being said, she CANNOT stand for that long of a time for any of the rides that she did not have fast passes for. So, she was only able to enjoy three rides per park. Yes, the parks were crowded, but not anywhere near capacity. If you were not able to get a FP+ before you got to the park, for the most part, for the “E” ticket rides, the fast passes were long gone, forcing you to stand in line. Elza and Anna lines were a joke. We had a cast member with us that actually works at a FP+ kiosk, and he was AMAZED to see it (Elza and Anna line) at 90 minutes one evening. I’m not sure how this needs to be fixed, but it is broke. I no longer want to spend my hard earned $$ to go into a park to ride 3 rides and leave. It will be a long time before I go back to the parks, as a visitor from Texas, period.
A good story though. As I said, we had a cast member join us for 2 days. He could not get our FP+ times, since he joined us at the last minute. I was however, able to talk to the FP+ person at each of the six rides and he was given an immediate entry with our party of 4. They did not know he was a cast member, they just knew he was a part of our party without a FP. He kept asking me “How do you do that”?.... so, there is still SOME Disney magic with Fast passes, but the system is still very very broke.
I loved seeing my daughter, and loved leaving WDW and going to Melbourne and spending time with her there. Next time, I will skip WDW and go directly to Melbourne to see her.
One last thought:
This time I had over $800.00 on my Disney Reward card to use – it helps to pay Ali’s college tuition through the Disney Visa card. We have a 529 account for her, so we charge her tuition, and then immediately pay the card from the 529 account. If you have a child getting ready to go off to college, consider getting a card with some sort of points and doing the same – the “free” points add up quickly this way.
Hope you enjoyed the good, the bad and the ugly!