WDWFRK
03-26-2017, 04:20 PM
Weather: It was COLD! There were a couple of mornings that we could see our breath. Luckily, I had watched the weather forecast carefully and packed accordingly; however, at the last minute, I did decide to bring my winter coat along with me, and I am so glad that I did. It wasn’t until the last day we were there that I left it in the room. It was warmer at home in Nebraska than it was in Florida during our trip, so we didn’t get that added vacation bonus of being able to gloat about how hot it was in Florida. I do have to say, though, it was kind of nice not to be sweaty the whole time we were there. I even wore make-up this whole trip because I knew it would stay on all day. :D
Accommodations: We arrived at the resort right around 3p, but we were told that our room wouldn’t be ready until as late as 5p. I thought a check-in time of 3p meant rooms had to be ready by then, but apparently not :confused:. We stowed our carry-ons and went straight to EC. We didn’t get back to the resort until just before midnight, and all of our luggage and carry-ons had been delivered to our room.
We were assigned the Rock Inn section room 3635 which was a bit of a trek from the bus stop, but it was quiet and met our needs for this trip (basically a place to sleep and shower). I would not want to put more than two adults in those tiny rooms for any length of time, though, and be forewarned that the beds are just full-sized.
The food court seemed adequate as far as seating and menu choices, although we didn’t ever stay to eat there, and we didn’t get a refillable mug on this trip.
We only went to the pool one afternoon on this trip; I needed the naps more than the pool time! The quiet pool was closed the day we did make it to the pool, so we had to go to the main one. It was St. Patrick’s Day, so there were games and (loud) music to complement the holiday. I found the lounge chairs at the pool to be extremely uncomfortable, so the nap I was looking forward to didn’t happen.:(
We didn’t have much extended interaction with any CMs at the resort, but everyone seemed pleasant enough.
A Value Resort would not be my first choice for any future trips, but I’m glad that we could experience one of the All-Stars. I only have a couple other resorts to check off my list!
Transportation: Magical Express was great, as usual. We used buses our entire stay except for the one day that we took the monorail from EC to the MK. It was the typical assortment of surprisingly short rides/waits balanced with the one or two bus rides from hell.
I do like that there is only one bus stop for the whole resort with visible queues that ensure fairness and order when getting on the buses. In the mornings and evenings, we did not have to stop at any of the other All-Star Resorts, but if we rode mid-afternoon or early evening, it would stop at the other AS Resorts. Because of their layout and proximity to each other, this really did not add on much extra travel time, and the ASMu is the second stop.
They’ve created a perfect storm at DHS as far as a mass exodus of EVERYONE from the park at the same exact time. The park closed at 9p, 8:30p Fantasmic let out, and the Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular ended. The bus stops were CHAOS!! The line for each of the three All-Star Resorts extended well past the roped-off queues, making it very difficult to A) walk through the crowds as they spilled over into the sidewalks and B) know if we were even in the right line! There were no CMs to be found in the middle of this craziness, either.
Side Story #1--We finally got in the right line, and then we realized some people around us were trying to assist a young girl (maybe 6 or 7) who had gotten separated from her parents. A very smart man put the girl on his shoulders so she could scan the crowd, and it wasn’t long before we all saw a desperate hand waving back at her. Mother and daughter were reunited quickly, thank goodness!
Food: I brought a loaf of banana bread from home which is what we ate for breakfast most mornings, and we only grabbed one late-night snack at ASMu during our visit. Otherwise, we had a nice variety of meals around the parks and one impromptu visit to Disney Springs. Here’s an overview (in no particular order).
--Spice Road Table; this is probably one of the only restaurants you can still walk up to without a reservation and be seated almost immediately. Our waiter was annoying, but the food was good (calamari plate and hummus sampler).
--Since the Flower and Garden Festival was in full swing, the food and drink kiosks were abundant. We shared a hard cider flight and a couple of samples from the Canada food kiosk (scallops were delish!!) one afternoon. In case anyone is appalled by our lack of nutritional choices on this trip, both of these samples came with green beans that we also ate. :thumbsup:
--La Cantina de San Angel; we both enjoyed our lunch of nachos and margaritas (despite a rather loud, large bachelor party beside us).
--Columbia Harbour House; I swear the family on the other side of our ordering stand took almost 10 minutes just to place their order :mad:!! I had fish and chicken, and DH had the shrimp mac and cheese.
--Friar’s Nook; I had the plain mac and cheese and DH had the pot roast one. We ate here a few trips ago, and it wasn’t as tasty as I remembered from then. Bonus--we had a partial view of Wishes as we ate.
--Yak and Yeti fast food; we waited an unacceptably long time for one of our entrees, but I must say the chicken fried rice here is one of the best food bargains at WDW.
--Be Our Guest for lunch; glad we got to try it, but I must admit that I was a tad disappointed. The sandwiches were just okay, but the cupcake was delicious. I had preordered our meal, but I don’t see how that was more efficient or got us our food any faster. The Music Room was closed and while the ballroom was pretty, it was too busy and big to enjoy. We first took a seat in the West Wing room, but it was so dark in there, I had to move!
--D-Luxe Burger; we split the Bacon and Bleu Burger which was good, but I didn’t taste a lot of bleu cheese. The fries were good, and they offer various dipping sauces for them (I think we had a Garlic Ranch?)
--Amorette’s Patisserie; all I can say is YUMMY and GORGEOUS desserts! DH had a Key Lim Tart and I had the salted caramel, banana, Nutella crepe. I would do the cake decorating class they are going to offer in a heartbeat!
--Catalina Eddy’s; we split a pepperoni pizza and a Caesar salad; DH had some tasty berry sangria-thing and I also had some ice cream. We don’t like many of the fast-food places at DHS, but this was okay.
--Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie; yes, I love pastries and dessert! We stopped here one night for a snack, and I had the crème brulee.
Up next: Part 3 :mickey:
Accommodations: We arrived at the resort right around 3p, but we were told that our room wouldn’t be ready until as late as 5p. I thought a check-in time of 3p meant rooms had to be ready by then, but apparently not :confused:. We stowed our carry-ons and went straight to EC. We didn’t get back to the resort until just before midnight, and all of our luggage and carry-ons had been delivered to our room.
We were assigned the Rock Inn section room 3635 which was a bit of a trek from the bus stop, but it was quiet and met our needs for this trip (basically a place to sleep and shower). I would not want to put more than two adults in those tiny rooms for any length of time, though, and be forewarned that the beds are just full-sized.
The food court seemed adequate as far as seating and menu choices, although we didn’t ever stay to eat there, and we didn’t get a refillable mug on this trip.
We only went to the pool one afternoon on this trip; I needed the naps more than the pool time! The quiet pool was closed the day we did make it to the pool, so we had to go to the main one. It was St. Patrick’s Day, so there were games and (loud) music to complement the holiday. I found the lounge chairs at the pool to be extremely uncomfortable, so the nap I was looking forward to didn’t happen.:(
We didn’t have much extended interaction with any CMs at the resort, but everyone seemed pleasant enough.
A Value Resort would not be my first choice for any future trips, but I’m glad that we could experience one of the All-Stars. I only have a couple other resorts to check off my list!
Transportation: Magical Express was great, as usual. We used buses our entire stay except for the one day that we took the monorail from EC to the MK. It was the typical assortment of surprisingly short rides/waits balanced with the one or two bus rides from hell.
I do like that there is only one bus stop for the whole resort with visible queues that ensure fairness and order when getting on the buses. In the mornings and evenings, we did not have to stop at any of the other All-Star Resorts, but if we rode mid-afternoon or early evening, it would stop at the other AS Resorts. Because of their layout and proximity to each other, this really did not add on much extra travel time, and the ASMu is the second stop.
They’ve created a perfect storm at DHS as far as a mass exodus of EVERYONE from the park at the same exact time. The park closed at 9p, 8:30p Fantasmic let out, and the Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular ended. The bus stops were CHAOS!! The line for each of the three All-Star Resorts extended well past the roped-off queues, making it very difficult to A) walk through the crowds as they spilled over into the sidewalks and B) know if we were even in the right line! There were no CMs to be found in the middle of this craziness, either.
Side Story #1--We finally got in the right line, and then we realized some people around us were trying to assist a young girl (maybe 6 or 7) who had gotten separated from her parents. A very smart man put the girl on his shoulders so she could scan the crowd, and it wasn’t long before we all saw a desperate hand waving back at her. Mother and daughter were reunited quickly, thank goodness!
Food: I brought a loaf of banana bread from home which is what we ate for breakfast most mornings, and we only grabbed one late-night snack at ASMu during our visit. Otherwise, we had a nice variety of meals around the parks and one impromptu visit to Disney Springs. Here’s an overview (in no particular order).
--Spice Road Table; this is probably one of the only restaurants you can still walk up to without a reservation and be seated almost immediately. Our waiter was annoying, but the food was good (calamari plate and hummus sampler).
--Since the Flower and Garden Festival was in full swing, the food and drink kiosks were abundant. We shared a hard cider flight and a couple of samples from the Canada food kiosk (scallops were delish!!) one afternoon. In case anyone is appalled by our lack of nutritional choices on this trip, both of these samples came with green beans that we also ate. :thumbsup:
--La Cantina de San Angel; we both enjoyed our lunch of nachos and margaritas (despite a rather loud, large bachelor party beside us).
--Columbia Harbour House; I swear the family on the other side of our ordering stand took almost 10 minutes just to place their order :mad:!! I had fish and chicken, and DH had the shrimp mac and cheese.
--Friar’s Nook; I had the plain mac and cheese and DH had the pot roast one. We ate here a few trips ago, and it wasn’t as tasty as I remembered from then. Bonus--we had a partial view of Wishes as we ate.
--Yak and Yeti fast food; we waited an unacceptably long time for one of our entrees, but I must say the chicken fried rice here is one of the best food bargains at WDW.
--Be Our Guest for lunch; glad we got to try it, but I must admit that I was a tad disappointed. The sandwiches were just okay, but the cupcake was delicious. I had preordered our meal, but I don’t see how that was more efficient or got us our food any faster. The Music Room was closed and while the ballroom was pretty, it was too busy and big to enjoy. We first took a seat in the West Wing room, but it was so dark in there, I had to move!
--D-Luxe Burger; we split the Bacon and Bleu Burger which was good, but I didn’t taste a lot of bleu cheese. The fries were good, and they offer various dipping sauces for them (I think we had a Garlic Ranch?)
--Amorette’s Patisserie; all I can say is YUMMY and GORGEOUS desserts! DH had a Key Lim Tart and I had the salted caramel, banana, Nutella crepe. I would do the cake decorating class they are going to offer in a heartbeat!
--Catalina Eddy’s; we split a pepperoni pizza and a Caesar salad; DH had some tasty berry sangria-thing and I also had some ice cream. We don’t like many of the fast-food places at DHS, but this was okay.
--Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie; yes, I love pastries and dessert! We stopped here one night for a snack, and I had the crème brulee.
Up next: Part 3 :mickey: