dlavender
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 7, 2015
Hello!
I wrote a brief synopsis of our first AP weekend trip in the TP&S section.
I thought I'd write a little longer review here to note a few things that were a tad frustrating for us.
I'll start with our first day at EPCOT.
Some quick background, I've been to the world over a hundred times, as I grew up in Central FL. DW had only been a few times, before I whisked her away and made her a huge fan. We have three kids, ages 9, 5, and 3. We just moved back to FL from TN, and decided last week to go all in on some AP's! We decided to make last weekend our first quick trip back to the world in 2 years.
Planning - This part was seriously lacking, but we just bought our AP's last Tuesday, and weren't overly concerned with doing a lot, just wanted to get our beaks wet. We looked into an onsite stay, but only thing that was available was a $500 YC room, not happening! Stayed down the road in a 2 BR suite for $140. Since we had plans Sat morning, we wouldn't be at the World until around 3, so we decided on EPCOT. F&W is insanely popular, so we thought we'd give it a try. We made FP's for SE, Nemo, and Test Track. The forecast called for storms in the evening, so we came prepared with ponchos and umbrellas.
We got the to ticket window at 3, and quickly got our AP's activated. Bag check was quick, and I was excited to get inside the gates. This is where we encountered Bob. Bob was not having a good time at his ticket post. WDW's policy is to have each passholder have an image of their fingerprint taken so that you can't allow others to use your pass. I get it. But having a 5 and 3 year old hold their finger in the right position for this to happen can be a little tricky. Bob had absolutely no patience for this. I find it hard to believe that we were the first ones in the gate that day with children. He actually raised his voice at my 3 year old to "hold still". We are both lucky that DW did not hear the interaction as she was helping our 5 year old. I gave Bob a look, and took a deep breath as I wasn't going to get ruffled at the start of our first day as AP holders, and our first day back in the parks after a 2 year hiatus. We got through the experience, but I can't understand why it had to be that tense. That guy was terrible. Maybe his attitude works for him at his first job where he processes inmates. But, if he'd take a peek at the big ball behind him, he'd notice he wasn't at the jail anymore.....
Moving on from Bob, we went to SE to use our first FP. The kids really enjoyed it. Only took about 5 mins to get on. From here, we went to Nemo. Used our FP there (not really necessary). Our oldest didn't really like it, but the younger two thought it was great. We looked around the seas for a bit, and decided to get walking around the IG for some F&W. Our first stop was at the Caribbean booth. The patties were ok, but the portions were awful. Below was our first wine of the event, and it comes straight from a box. Disclaimer, I'm not a giant, so the glass shouldn't be this small in my hand:
$6 for that?!
We went on to try 10 different booths. They were hit or miss, but I wasn't overly impressed with anything outside of the passion fruit slush from France.
We ran into the storm, but kept powering through. We met Elsa and Anna, Rode the Mexico ride, went on Soarin, and watched Illuminations. (Test Track was rained out)
Our final verdict is to skip F&W. It wasn't the crowds or the weather - we were prepared for that. For us, it's just not that great of an event. The value is not there. Most of it seems to be just mass produced offerings that aren't really that special. And giving boxed wine in a 4oz pour is just sad. There are a few good offerings, but you would really have to do some good planning out to find out what those are in advance. We gave it our best. Tried a lot. But I don't get how it's amassed the following it has. Just isn't our thing, I guess.
On to the MK the next day!
I wrote a brief synopsis of our first AP weekend trip in the TP&S section.
I thought I'd write a little longer review here to note a few things that were a tad frustrating for us.
I'll start with our first day at EPCOT.
Some quick background, I've been to the world over a hundred times, as I grew up in Central FL. DW had only been a few times, before I whisked her away and made her a huge fan. We have three kids, ages 9, 5, and 3. We just moved back to FL from TN, and decided last week to go all in on some AP's! We decided to make last weekend our first quick trip back to the world in 2 years.
Planning - This part was seriously lacking, but we just bought our AP's last Tuesday, and weren't overly concerned with doing a lot, just wanted to get our beaks wet. We looked into an onsite stay, but only thing that was available was a $500 YC room, not happening! Stayed down the road in a 2 BR suite for $140. Since we had plans Sat morning, we wouldn't be at the World until around 3, so we decided on EPCOT. F&W is insanely popular, so we thought we'd give it a try. We made FP's for SE, Nemo, and Test Track. The forecast called for storms in the evening, so we came prepared with ponchos and umbrellas.
We got the to ticket window at 3, and quickly got our AP's activated. Bag check was quick, and I was excited to get inside the gates. This is where we encountered Bob. Bob was not having a good time at his ticket post. WDW's policy is to have each passholder have an image of their fingerprint taken so that you can't allow others to use your pass. I get it. But having a 5 and 3 year old hold their finger in the right position for this to happen can be a little tricky. Bob had absolutely no patience for this. I find it hard to believe that we were the first ones in the gate that day with children. He actually raised his voice at my 3 year old to "hold still". We are both lucky that DW did not hear the interaction as she was helping our 5 year old. I gave Bob a look, and took a deep breath as I wasn't going to get ruffled at the start of our first day as AP holders, and our first day back in the parks after a 2 year hiatus. We got through the experience, but I can't understand why it had to be that tense. That guy was terrible. Maybe his attitude works for him at his first job where he processes inmates. But, if he'd take a peek at the big ball behind him, he'd notice he wasn't at the jail anymore.....
Moving on from Bob, we went to SE to use our first FP. The kids really enjoyed it. Only took about 5 mins to get on. From here, we went to Nemo. Used our FP there (not really necessary). Our oldest didn't really like it, but the younger two thought it was great. We looked around the seas for a bit, and decided to get walking around the IG for some F&W. Our first stop was at the Caribbean booth. The patties were ok, but the portions were awful. Below was our first wine of the event, and it comes straight from a box. Disclaimer, I'm not a giant, so the glass shouldn't be this small in my hand:
$6 for that?!
We went on to try 10 different booths. They were hit or miss, but I wasn't overly impressed with anything outside of the passion fruit slush from France.
We ran into the storm, but kept powering through. We met Elsa and Anna, Rode the Mexico ride, went on Soarin, and watched Illuminations. (Test Track was rained out)
Our final verdict is to skip F&W. It wasn't the crowds or the weather - we were prepared for that. For us, it's just not that great of an event. The value is not there. Most of it seems to be just mass produced offerings that aren't really that special. And giving boxed wine in a 4oz pour is just sad. There are a few good offerings, but you would really have to do some good planning out to find out what those are in advance. We gave it our best. Tried a lot. But I don't get how it's amassed the following it has. Just isn't our thing, I guess.
On to the MK the next day!
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