cchevela1023
Turning into a darn Disney World Relic!
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2008
Hello everyone. Just got back yesterday from a wonderful trip with my wife - no kids, adults only trip. We are 46 and 55 so this was a chance to do more of an "adult" Disney trip and it turned out fantastic. I'll post a few pictures later but here's the summary:
Rooms
- 3 nights at Polynesian - DVC standard villa room, 2043 in Moorea
- 3 nights at Boardwalk - DVC 1 bedroom villa, 3121
Schedule
- 6/25: Arrival and rest day
- 6/26: Epcot Day 1
- 6/27: Rest Day
- 6/28: MK day
- 6/29: Typhoon Lagoon
- 6/30: Epcot Day 2
- 7/1: Resort day and travel home
Restaurants
- 6:25: Olivia's Cafe Brunch and Paddlefish dinner
- 6/26: Epcot festival booths lunch, Le Cellier dinner
- 6/27: Steakhouse 71 breakfast, Ohana dinner
- 6/28: Columbia Harbour House lunch, Grand Flo cafe dinner
- 6/29: Typhoon lagoon lunch, Boston Lobster feast dinner
- 6/30: Boardwalk deli breakfast, Epcot festival booths lunch, Monseur Paul dinner
- 7/1: Homecomin' Brunch, Boardwalk Deli afternoon snack
Overall - had an incredible time. It was hot, but we missed almost all of the rain forecast and it turned out to be nice and sunny for almost all the trip. It rained late Wednesday night at Magic Kingdom, but that's what rain coats are for! This trip was a huge blessing for us and a chance to get some rest and refresh from a busy last couple months. Final child graduated high school and had grad party, so this was a chance to unwind.
Quick thoughts:
Rooms: Ok, Polynesian was a bucket list dream for me. It wasn't my favorite hotel I've stayed at on property, but we are glad to have done it. I loved the "scent" of the resort and all the landscaping. The room was nice -- it was a newly refurbished room. I think having such a dark color scheme had something to do with it. We did love the separate bathrooms and the rain shower! We loved the Oasis pool and the pool bar and spent quite a bit of time there. The lava pool was fun but it was very crowded (expected since it's June and vacation time). I'm not really disappointed with anything, and we were glad to have stayed there. Location was great, we were right next to the monorail service, so getting on monorail was so easy!
Boardwalk - wow, this resort was everything we expected and more. So much to do! It was definitely a hopping place. Fun music at the pool. The luna park pool was awesome and one of the best slides I've been on. The boardwalk was so much fun and it really came alive at night. We loved the proximity to Epcot. Couldn't believe how quick it was to walk there. The room was fabulous - we had a 1 bedroom villa and just loved all the extra space. One thing we noticed was there were so many kids activities going on! I would have brought my kids here when they were younger if I would have known how much there was to do for them. We also did one of the quiet pools and it was nice -- the community hall had so much going on as well.
Parks
Epcot - Loved it as usual. Our first time experiencing the festival booths. They were incredible. Shows and rides were great as usual. Guardians of the galaxy did not disappoint. I purchased LL for the ride to remove any worry about getting on. Highlight - the friends we were with had a friend who works for GM that happened to be there. She got us into the VIP room room above Test Track, so that was a very special highlight for us. The view up there was pretty fantastic. And free Fastpass didn't hurt either! Remy's Ratatouille was a highlight as well. And our highlight on day 2 was Monseur Paul -- what a fantastic dining experience.
MK - Knowing we only had one day, I purchased genie plus to help plan our rides. OK, I still hate the fact they are now charging you for this and it went against every fiber in my being to pay for something we used to get for free. But it was also worth every penny. I think you just need to figure out what works for you as a family. If I was doing multiple days at MK, I probably wouldn't get it, but for our one day there it really helped. We also get the free extra evening hours since we were staying at a deluxe resort. Got everything done we wanted minus 2 shows. I was able to schedule 6 lightning lanes for the day and I bought for Tron - so, I feel it was worth it.
Typhoon Lagoon - Ok....it was alright. We liked the lazy river, crushing gusher and the wave pool had to make the biggest wave I've ever seen at a water park. It wasn't my favorite water park, but we did enjoy it. My wife was bummed BB was closed because she would have much rather done that, but this was my first Disney water park experience. Like I said, it was ok. I've been to better water parks.
Food
Wow, so you do all this planning, you read reviews and look at menus but you're still not sure what to expect. I'll just say we were very impressed with the dining and everything exceeded our expectations. I'll do a repost to give some more details and pics. Highlight was monseur paul and Le Cellier. Our "worst" experience was Grand Flo cafe. It was very good, it just happened to be mixed in with all these other great dining experiences we had.
Alright, that's the quick and dirty summary. I'll try to repost with some other details later on.
Rooms
- 3 nights at Polynesian - DVC standard villa room, 2043 in Moorea
- 3 nights at Boardwalk - DVC 1 bedroom villa, 3121
Schedule
- 6/25: Arrival and rest day
- 6/26: Epcot Day 1
- 6/27: Rest Day
- 6/28: MK day
- 6/29: Typhoon Lagoon
- 6/30: Epcot Day 2
- 7/1: Resort day and travel home
Restaurants
- 6:25: Olivia's Cafe Brunch and Paddlefish dinner
- 6/26: Epcot festival booths lunch, Le Cellier dinner
- 6/27: Steakhouse 71 breakfast, Ohana dinner
- 6/28: Columbia Harbour House lunch, Grand Flo cafe dinner
- 6/29: Typhoon lagoon lunch, Boston Lobster feast dinner
- 6/30: Boardwalk deli breakfast, Epcot festival booths lunch, Monseur Paul dinner
- 7/1: Homecomin' Brunch, Boardwalk Deli afternoon snack
Overall - had an incredible time. It was hot, but we missed almost all of the rain forecast and it turned out to be nice and sunny for almost all the trip. It rained late Wednesday night at Magic Kingdom, but that's what rain coats are for! This trip was a huge blessing for us and a chance to get some rest and refresh from a busy last couple months. Final child graduated high school and had grad party, so this was a chance to unwind.
Quick thoughts:
Rooms: Ok, Polynesian was a bucket list dream for me. It wasn't my favorite hotel I've stayed at on property, but we are glad to have done it. I loved the "scent" of the resort and all the landscaping. The room was nice -- it was a newly refurbished room. I think having such a dark color scheme had something to do with it. We did love the separate bathrooms and the rain shower! We loved the Oasis pool and the pool bar and spent quite a bit of time there. The lava pool was fun but it was very crowded (expected since it's June and vacation time). I'm not really disappointed with anything, and we were glad to have stayed there. Location was great, we were right next to the monorail service, so getting on monorail was so easy!
Boardwalk - wow, this resort was everything we expected and more. So much to do! It was definitely a hopping place. Fun music at the pool. The luna park pool was awesome and one of the best slides I've been on. The boardwalk was so much fun and it really came alive at night. We loved the proximity to Epcot. Couldn't believe how quick it was to walk there. The room was fabulous - we had a 1 bedroom villa and just loved all the extra space. One thing we noticed was there were so many kids activities going on! I would have brought my kids here when they were younger if I would have known how much there was to do for them. We also did one of the quiet pools and it was nice -- the community hall had so much going on as well.
Parks
Epcot - Loved it as usual. Our first time experiencing the festival booths. They were incredible. Shows and rides were great as usual. Guardians of the galaxy did not disappoint. I purchased LL for the ride to remove any worry about getting on. Highlight - the friends we were with had a friend who works for GM that happened to be there. She got us into the VIP room room above Test Track, so that was a very special highlight for us. The view up there was pretty fantastic. And free Fastpass didn't hurt either! Remy's Ratatouille was a highlight as well. And our highlight on day 2 was Monseur Paul -- what a fantastic dining experience.
MK - Knowing we only had one day, I purchased genie plus to help plan our rides. OK, I still hate the fact they are now charging you for this and it went against every fiber in my being to pay for something we used to get for free. But it was also worth every penny. I think you just need to figure out what works for you as a family. If I was doing multiple days at MK, I probably wouldn't get it, but for our one day there it really helped. We also get the free extra evening hours since we were staying at a deluxe resort. Got everything done we wanted minus 2 shows. I was able to schedule 6 lightning lanes for the day and I bought for Tron - so, I feel it was worth it.
Typhoon Lagoon - Ok....it was alright. We liked the lazy river, crushing gusher and the wave pool had to make the biggest wave I've ever seen at a water park. It wasn't my favorite water park, but we did enjoy it. My wife was bummed BB was closed because she would have much rather done that, but this was my first Disney water park experience. Like I said, it was ok. I've been to better water parks.
Food
Wow, so you do all this planning, you read reviews and look at menus but you're still not sure what to expect. I'll just say we were very impressed with the dining and everything exceeded our expectations. I'll do a repost to give some more details and pics. Highlight was monseur paul and Le Cellier. Our "worst" experience was Grand Flo cafe. It was very good, it just happened to be mixed in with all these other great dining experiences we had.
Alright, that's the quick and dirty summary. I'll try to repost with some other details later on.
