Jimmy Mouse
My other car is the Monorail
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2017
So we just got back today from a Great? Yes, some parts were overly great trip from Dec 27th - Jan 6th. Some parts, not so great. In fact, some parts were downright disgusting.
So we started off with 3 nights at Legoland with my immediate family of 4 and my oldest daughter, her husband and my 2 grand kids along with my next door neighbors and their grand daughter. The Legoland part with all 11 of us was fantastic! The resort was great, food was great, staff and parks were awesome! lean, manageable wait times, even a flirty lady at the bar lol. But she was great though the wife may not think so lol.
After Legoland, we all parted ways and My family headed to Star Ways Galactic Starcruiser. OMG, This was beyond what I could have ever imagined! NYE in space? yes please! We had such a great time doing the missions, traveling to Batuu, eating all the great food, dressing up to play our parts, it was just so awesome!! The whole crew was beyond amazing! The actors actually have "feeling" and make you believe it's real. When there were dramatic parts that would call for tears, I was standing right next to the director and she was tearing up for real. The captain was great! She had so much emotion and no one, I mean no one ever ever broke character during the entire experience. It was expensive but worth every single penny.
After the Starcruiser we checked into Riviera Resort, which is our home resort. The resort part of the trip was fine. Nothing great, nothing special but nothing bad either. Our 1 bedroom villa was clean, dishwasher was still hot where they had just done the dishes, we had a great view where we could watch Epcot fireworks from our balcony, Topolinos was good etc. etc.
Now for what was not so good. The parks.
Day 1, MK. We had planned on dropping our bags and heading straight to MK but they told us our room would be ready soon so we chilled in the lobby for about an hour and our room was ready by noon. We settled in, grabbed what we needed and headed to MK via Minnie Van and were in the park by 1:00. We purchased G+ for $29 pp (x4) and I did start staking by making my first at 7am and we were able to grab 7DMT, BTMRR, Space, Splash (decided against it) and a few other rides. We also rode the train 1 3/4 around the park. The train was great! Also did COP, a must. It was a fine day. We had lunch at The Plaza and Dinner at Tony's. Let me tell you about Tony's! Holy what a change! The bread was sooo good and I had Chicken Parm and it was good! The prices, not so good. Over $200 at Plaza, Over $300 at Tony's.
Day 2, Epcot
What a crap show! I couldn't get a boarding group for Guardians so I purchased it for $123.56 after tax And purchased G+ for $72.44 after tax. Breakfast at Trattoria Al Forno was $100 for Bacon, eggs, pancakes and soda, and Dinner at Le' Crepe De Paris was $198.60 for Crepes and sodas! The only "Good" rides I could book (at a time that worked for us) was the Rat, Spaceship Earth and Mission Space Everything else fell too late in the day. The park was so over crowded, the bathrooms were disgusting and the standby lines were crazy long. 45 minutes for Figment!
Day 3, Hollywood Studios.
I did Not purchase G+ as I was not about to throw money away again. We spent way too much money eating at Mama Melrose's $214.59, Rode TSMM, TOT, RnR and that was it. That's all, nothing else. That's 7 hours in the park with 95% of the time standing in line. I cancelled my Sci-Fi Drive-in reservation and we went back, showered and headed to California Grill for dinner. (I know people lol) But still, $467.85 for dinner. The food was good, we got to see fireworks from our table, our server was great but the price. Almost $500 and for what? $100 worth of food?
Day 4, AK
Wow! Just wow! Rainforest Cafe for 11:00am lunch $120.40. All we ordered was 2 appetizers. Nachos and the safari plate. Me and the wife each had 1 beer and the kids had soft drinks. We headed to FOP. 270 min wait time. We left. Nothing that day was worth the wait times. We chilled in the room for a few hours, watched TV, walked the resort until dinner at Topolinos Terrace. The food, Meh. The price, really? Over $300.
Day 5, EP
The only reason for 2 Epcot days was for Guardians. I was up at 6:45 but dozed off holding my phone. Totally my fault. I woke up a almost 8:00 lol. So, I purchased $LL again. Another $80+ dollars. It was less this time. $19 pp +tax. We had Breakfast at Topolinos, $157.19 for 2 kids waffles, 2 adult eggs with sausage and potatoes and soft drinks for all. We get to Epcot and all we were able to do was Figment, Pixar shorts and Test Track before our dinner reservations at Space 220 which I grabbed in the room before heading to Epcot. We were going to eat at La hacienda Blah blah blah, but if I'm throwing money away, it's going to be in space lol. Dinner was good, price was out of this world
$341.33 + tip. That one hasn't posted yet. I did leave 20%.
Summary:
We Love our DVC. we really do love Riviera but we have lost our love for the parks. It's a total money suck and besides the Galactic Starcruiser, which has great food and I really do think it's worth every money sucking penny, The food at WDW isn't even close to in quality and quantity for the money paid. I was okay with paying a little more for the same food you can get anywhere but now it's out of control. Also the price to ride rides that they used to give you for free, It's freaking ridiculous! So on our way home, I brought up the idea of skipping the parks on our next trip. Everyone agreed that it's just too stressful to be in a park and the only trip we have planned tor WDW this year is in October when we do Universal / WDW split stay. The only pushback I had was Tron. The girls really want to ride it so the deal we made was to keep our DVC reservation for 5 nights in October, purchase day tickets for MK and the other days will be pool days and a trip to Sea World and a trip to the Space Center. We all agreed to NOT renew our AP's in February. Really there is no need as the break even point is 10 days and we plan on 1 day so there some savings. Also the subject of our DVC came up and my wife would be fine selling it. I convinced her that WDW isn't just about the parks and our DVC is paid for so besides maintenance fees, it's a good value to have a nice room and nice resort to stay at for pennies on the dollar vs. booking for cash. We also agreed to bring in enough groceries for breakfast and dinner on our October trip. That alone will save us thousands of dollars. Bottom line, we love Disney but hate what it has become. Basically the only money Disney will get from us is lunch and a few adult beverages. I will drink water from the sink before I pay $4.50 for another bottled soda. Disney is driving their most loyal fans away and it's a shame.
So we started off with 3 nights at Legoland with my immediate family of 4 and my oldest daughter, her husband and my 2 grand kids along with my next door neighbors and their grand daughter. The Legoland part with all 11 of us was fantastic! The resort was great, food was great, staff and parks were awesome! lean, manageable wait times, even a flirty lady at the bar lol. But she was great though the wife may not think so lol.
After Legoland, we all parted ways and My family headed to Star Ways Galactic Starcruiser. OMG, This was beyond what I could have ever imagined! NYE in space? yes please! We had such a great time doing the missions, traveling to Batuu, eating all the great food, dressing up to play our parts, it was just so awesome!! The whole crew was beyond amazing! The actors actually have "feeling" and make you believe it's real. When there were dramatic parts that would call for tears, I was standing right next to the director and she was tearing up for real. The captain was great! She had so much emotion and no one, I mean no one ever ever broke character during the entire experience. It was expensive but worth every single penny.
After the Starcruiser we checked into Riviera Resort, which is our home resort. The resort part of the trip was fine. Nothing great, nothing special but nothing bad either. Our 1 bedroom villa was clean, dishwasher was still hot where they had just done the dishes, we had a great view where we could watch Epcot fireworks from our balcony, Topolinos was good etc. etc.
Now for what was not so good. The parks.
Day 1, MK. We had planned on dropping our bags and heading straight to MK but they told us our room would be ready soon so we chilled in the lobby for about an hour and our room was ready by noon. We settled in, grabbed what we needed and headed to MK via Minnie Van and were in the park by 1:00. We purchased G+ for $29 pp (x4) and I did start staking by making my first at 7am and we were able to grab 7DMT, BTMRR, Space, Splash (decided against it) and a few other rides. We also rode the train 1 3/4 around the park. The train was great! Also did COP, a must. It was a fine day. We had lunch at The Plaza and Dinner at Tony's. Let me tell you about Tony's! Holy what a change! The bread was sooo good and I had Chicken Parm and it was good! The prices, not so good. Over $200 at Plaza, Over $300 at Tony's.
Day 2, Epcot
What a crap show! I couldn't get a boarding group for Guardians so I purchased it for $123.56 after tax And purchased G+ for $72.44 after tax. Breakfast at Trattoria Al Forno was $100 for Bacon, eggs, pancakes and soda, and Dinner at Le' Crepe De Paris was $198.60 for Crepes and sodas! The only "Good" rides I could book (at a time that worked for us) was the Rat, Spaceship Earth and Mission Space Everything else fell too late in the day. The park was so over crowded, the bathrooms were disgusting and the standby lines were crazy long. 45 minutes for Figment!
Day 3, Hollywood Studios.
I did Not purchase G+ as I was not about to throw money away again. We spent way too much money eating at Mama Melrose's $214.59, Rode TSMM, TOT, RnR and that was it. That's all, nothing else. That's 7 hours in the park with 95% of the time standing in line. I cancelled my Sci-Fi Drive-in reservation and we went back, showered and headed to California Grill for dinner. (I know people lol) But still, $467.85 for dinner. The food was good, we got to see fireworks from our table, our server was great but the price. Almost $500 and for what? $100 worth of food?
Day 4, AK
Wow! Just wow! Rainforest Cafe for 11:00am lunch $120.40. All we ordered was 2 appetizers. Nachos and the safari plate. Me and the wife each had 1 beer and the kids had soft drinks. We headed to FOP. 270 min wait time. We left. Nothing that day was worth the wait times. We chilled in the room for a few hours, watched TV, walked the resort until dinner at Topolinos Terrace. The food, Meh. The price, really? Over $300.
Day 5, EP
The only reason for 2 Epcot days was for Guardians. I was up at 6:45 but dozed off holding my phone. Totally my fault. I woke up a almost 8:00 lol. So, I purchased $LL again. Another $80+ dollars. It was less this time. $19 pp +tax. We had Breakfast at Topolinos, $157.19 for 2 kids waffles, 2 adult eggs with sausage and potatoes and soft drinks for all. We get to Epcot and all we were able to do was Figment, Pixar shorts and Test Track before our dinner reservations at Space 220 which I grabbed in the room before heading to Epcot. We were going to eat at La hacienda Blah blah blah, but if I'm throwing money away, it's going to be in space lol. Dinner was good, price was out of this world
$341.33 + tip. That one hasn't posted yet. I did leave 20%.Summary:
We Love our DVC. we really do love Riviera but we have lost our love for the parks. It's a total money suck and besides the Galactic Starcruiser, which has great food and I really do think it's worth every money sucking penny, The food at WDW isn't even close to in quality and quantity for the money paid. I was okay with paying a little more for the same food you can get anywhere but now it's out of control. Also the price to ride rides that they used to give you for free, It's freaking ridiculous! So on our way home, I brought up the idea of skipping the parks on our next trip. Everyone agreed that it's just too stressful to be in a park and the only trip we have planned tor WDW this year is in October when we do Universal / WDW split stay. The only pushback I had was Tron. The girls really want to ride it so the deal we made was to keep our DVC reservation for 5 nights in October, purchase day tickets for MK and the other days will be pool days and a trip to Sea World and a trip to the Space Center. We all agreed to NOT renew our AP's in February. Really there is no need as the break even point is 10 days and we plan on 1 day so there some savings. Also the subject of our DVC came up and my wife would be fine selling it. I convinced her that WDW isn't just about the parks and our DVC is paid for so besides maintenance fees, it's a good value to have a nice room and nice resort to stay at for pennies on the dollar vs. booking for cash. We also agreed to bring in enough groceries for breakfast and dinner on our October trip. That alone will save us thousands of dollars. Bottom line, we love Disney but hate what it has become. Basically the only money Disney will get from us is lunch and a few adult beverages. I will drink water from the sink before I pay $4.50 for another bottled soda. Disney is driving their most loyal fans away and it's a shame.
