Back Home :( 7 Day Highs & Lows

[flortlebap]

Well we are home after an AMAZING week!

The first thing I would say is that to anyone wondering whether a week is worth it - it ABSOLUTELY is! We rode everything and saw everything we wanted to. No jet lag heading out and the flight was so easy it felt like we had only popped to Europe. We even managed to fit in a trip to SW, Pirates Cove mini golf and the mall.

There were a ton of BTGs and summer camp groups, but none of them were a problem. Just don't get stuck behind the tour guide in the FP queue when she is getting 50 FPs

Highs

Flying PE for the first time! SO worth it. Only problem is I doubt I will want to fly economy again

AKL - it's a lovely resort generally. The bus service was great and buses very well organised.

Boma - this place is AWESOME! Some of the best food I have had on disney property.

Despite crowd levels being 8-9... Not waiting more than 10 minutes for anything, although I think we used about 5 FPs each at MK.

Festival of the Lion King - never seen this before, but it was FANTASTIC! So vibrant and quirky - best show on property.

The weather - after 9 solid days of rain last year, the weather was beautiful! Only got one real downpour in 8 days

Giordanis - it's a pizza restaurant on both I drive and in Lake Buena Vista. The stuffed Chicago pizzas were just amazing - didn't manage more than two slices though

RFC - the food was surprisingly good quality and very well cooked. We also found out their daily turnover during peak season is $100,000!! That's PER NIGHT! Insane

World Showcase - we spent a morning and an evening just taking it all in. We also had a great adult night trying champagne in France, sake in Japan and beer in England followed by Illuminations which was great.

Lows

RFID!! They have some real issues with RFID. My KTTW wouldn't let me into the parks and I had to be manually entered in each time. DH's KTTW would let him in but wouldn't let him get FPs, so we had to grab a FP card each day. Disney were good at ironing out the issues quickly but they said the faults with the cards wouldn't go away even if new ones were cut, so we just had to manage, which was fine!

Losing the KTTW card because the waiter at Portobello swapped our card with someone else! We didn't realise until we got back to the hotel but they managed to cut a new card without any issue and disney security checked nobody had accessed the room.

A major problem my friend had at ASMu. He left his belongings in the room, came back and found his phone had been used to make some calls and then his bank card details had been stolen and transactions made online! He had to file a police report which meant waiting around for three hours - but Disney were again as helpful as they could have been, gave him money to keep the kids amused in the arcade and paid for a cab to mini golf when they had done. Security are apparently investigating because the cleaning staff had entered the room (happened about 19:30) but whether they find out who it was remains to be seen...

AKL - we had a pool view, which was a big mistake. No chance of sleeping during the day due to the pool parties - it was SO loud. Then there were people out screaming in the pool until midnight one night - not good.

AKL - no fridge as they were all out of service on our corridor - not a huge issue though!

Millennia Mall - 45 minutes each way and whilst its modern and pretty, it wasn't spectacular. Very difficult to even find a drink! They didn't have a single toy shop which was part of the reason for the visit - good for high end shopping though, if you have the spare cash. One benefit was tax free shopping this weekend - it made the cost of an ipad mini £215, when they are £269 here.

BTMRR - just a heads up, but this ride had a LOT of downtime - we went to MK twice and it was down for 3 hours + each day. We swapped our FPs at Guest Relations though for a pass good for any attraction at any park which was useful as it meant we could walk onto TT at Epcot that night and bypass the 90 minute queue!

All in all it was just amazing - we loved every minute!

Any questions just holler...

 

[zippy99]

Thanks for taking the tme to do an update - sounds like overall it was an amazing time - bit of a shocker about your friend having items stolen not so good

But weather and crowds sounded really positive! Welcome home and hope the blues are not too bad!

 

[fairytale]

Oh that's good news when it comes to the weather.

After reading a fair few threads over here recently I think all us departing shortly were starting to panic slightly.

We've been August before and yes, always had an after showers, but recent reports seemed to describe far more.

Welcome home

Annette

 

[flortlebap]

They apparently had an unseasonal amount of rain for 2-3 weeks prior to when we arrived last Saturday but it honestly was no issue at all. Any rain went very quickly!

As for Disney blues, it's being remedied by checking prices for next year...

 

[Tony Toon]

They apparently had an unseasonal amount of rain for 2-3 weeks prior to when we arrived last Saturday but it honestly was no issue at all. Any rain went very quickly!

As for Disney blues, it's being remedied by checking prices for next year...

We were out for 4 weeks from 4th July. 1st week no rain, 2nd & 3rd weeks very overcast most of the time with quite a lot of rain, last week just as flortiebap says - lovely. Weather channels were reporting that things had been very dry for months but that the rain in our middle two weeks had more than made up for it!

Mrs TT

 

[queendisney]

well that just proves that 1 week is worth doing it sounds like you were there for 2. Glad you had a fab time. I think when you have been before you can just go straight into the holiday like you never left. The shortest time we have done is 10 days and we felt like we had done everything we wanted to.

I must admit I never ever go for a pool view room as encountered the same probs as you did.

We only ever go to the Mall of Millennia for one shop that DH likes, then its straight out again, via the Cheesecake Factory!!

Thank you for taking time to write the highs and lows

 

[tinks_1989]

We love the mall at millennia such a shame you didn't like DH would live in the food court.

The RFID cards its such a shame they are having such trouble with them still. We had similar problems entering the park not recognising our finger prints having to tell the cm which park we had come from or been to yesterday so they could check it was our card :/

 

[loobzuk]

great report, especially seeing as how you were 'only' there for 7 days. It's something I've been wondering about doing as I would love to go around Halloween but you know what schools are like about taking children out! Perhaps a week at half term might not be such a daft idea.

Sorry to hear about the theft from the room, that sounds really bad - I hope your friend gets to hear the outcome of the police investigation. Good to hear that Disney have handled bad situations well though.

Hope there's some sunshine left for us later this month.

 

[disneyholic family]

Lows

RFID!! They have some real issues with RFID. My KTTW wouldn't let me into the parks and I had to be manually entered in each time. DH's KTTW would let him in but wouldn't let him get FPs, so we had to grab a FP card each day. Disney were good at ironing out the issues quickly but they said the faults with the cards wouldn't go away even if new ones were cut, so we just had to manage, which was fine!

Losing the KTTW card because the waiter at Portobello swapped our card with someone else! We didn't realise until we got back to the hotel but they managed to cut a new card without any issue and disney security checked nobody had accessed the room.

A major problem my friend had at ASMu. He left his belongings in the room, came back and found his phone had been used to make some calls and then his bank card details had been stolen and transactions made online! He had to file a police report which meant waiting around for three hours - but Disney were again as helpful as they could have been, gave him money to keep the kids amused in the arcade and paid for a cab to mini golf when they had done. Security are apparently investigating because the cleaning staff had entered the room (happened about 19:30) but whether they find out who it was remains to be seen...

Any questions just holler...

it seems they're having a lot of RFID problems....

as for the mixed up cards at portobello!
i try to check because this happened to my dad a number of years back ...

the security, or lack thereof, is very upsetting...i've read that this is on the increase.....did your friend leave his things in the safe? or were they just put away in the room somewhere....

i'd like to at least leave the passports in the safe...

but what about DH's computer?

 

[flortlebap]

it seems they're having a lot of RFID problems....

as for the mixed up cards at portobello!
i try to check because this happened to my dad a number of years back ...

the security, or lack thereof, is very upsetting...i've read that this is on the increase.....did your friend leave his things in the safe? or were they just put away in the room somewhere....

i'd like to at least leave the passports in the safe...

but what about DH's computer?

I would absolutely say this was an isolated incident - he left them in the safe but forgot to close the door! Lol.

We left our iPads out without worrying as they didn't fit in the safe.

Security was very tight generally - we were surprised they insisted on checking the room access log when we got a new key cut - and you couldn't get into the resorts without Disney ID.

 

[wen-tom]

sounds like a great trip and glad the weather had improved for you. we were lucky enough to be there during the 2 weeks that they had the 'unseasonal amount of rain' we had heavy prolonged rain every day bar 2 for the whole 2 weeks we were there.

We often have a pool view at AKL and don't usually find it noisy so its a shame that you did although we are very rarely in the room during the day so maybe thats why we didn't notice it

I totally agree with you on Boma, i love the food there

I have been considering a week trip for a while so its good to hear a positive report

 

[Fantasia Sam]

So pleased to hear about the weather long may that continue... well at least for the next 5 weeks until we arrive and then come back LOL

 

[flortlebap]

sounds like a great trip and glad the weather had improved for you. we were lucky enough to be there during the 2 weeks that they had the 'unseasonal amount of rain' we had heavy prolonged rain every day bar 2 for the whole 2 weeks we were there.

We often have a pool view at AKL and don't usually find it noisy so its a shame that you did although we are very rarely in the room during the day so maybe thats why we didn't notice it

I totally agree with you on Boma, i love the food there

I have been considering a week trip for a while so its good to hear a positive report

Sorry to hear about the rain - the exact same thing happened to us on our two week trip last year which is why we went back for a week this year as we missed a lot - fireworks and SW were the main two. Both were great and worth going back for a week - we had fun last year but the rain when it's heavy and constant for nearly all your trip really drags you down, even when you try not to let it!