A little background: My husband, myself and our twin daughters (then just shy of 3) stayed at the Wyndham Bonnet Creek (3 bedroom suite) for a week in Spring 2013. We took a very relaxed approach and almost exclusively toured mornings, returning to the resort for naps. We only did two afternoons/evenings in the park: one for Fantasmic and the other for dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table/the Electrical Parade.
We returned this past week for a 10 day trip, staying at Fort Wilderness with the free Disney Dining Plan. As our daughters are now four and a half, we planned a more aggressive program -- I started planning well in advance of 180 days, spent long hours on the web researching, etc.
In the process, I became a much more jaded/skeptical consumer. Based on our most recent experience we will not be returning until my kids are closer to 12, probably just visiting a day or two in between a real visit to Universal.
General Impressions
The best things we did (from my kids' perspective) were the following:
Tea Party with Princess Aurora
Pirate Adventure out of Port Orleans
Pirate's League
Note that these all required an upcharge (in some cases very significant $) and none involved rides.
Our best time in the park involved the following sequence:
I dressed the girls up in pirate costume before we left in the morning. We then took them to get "pirated up" at the Pirate League at 11:50, grabbed lunch from Pecos Bill and then used our FP to do the Pirates Ride. As we exited the Ride, the Sparrow Tutorial was just about to start. We did the Tutorial and then grabbed Dole Whips from Aloha Isle to eat while doing one of the maps from "A Pirate's Adventure -- Treasures of the Sevens Seas". Afterwards, we headed towards the castle to catch the Festival of Fantasy Parade. After the parade, we were going to Dumbo when we stopped to watch the Sword in the Stone show and one of my daughters was called up and pulled the Sword (mostly) from the Stone.
This whole process took about 3.5-4 hours and during that time we only hit one ride. Many of the non-coaster rides, especially in MK, appear to be virtual antiques and even my 4.5 year olds could not be swayed by the slight pleasures of the Jungle Cruise or Country Bear Jamboree.
It is clear to me that Disney is, at this point, trading on nostalgia and their impressive catalog of characters because the rides, generally, are no reason to visit. The characters themselves are beautifully cast and costumed, but largely all spontaneity has been drained from the interactions themselves. The Sparrow Tutorial was enjoyable and I could see more shows like that as being a way forward for Disney.
Food:
We did a number of character meals:
1900 Park Lane (Cinderella Dinner)
Disney Junior (Lunch)
Chef Mickey (Dinner)
Royal Table (Dinner)
Princess Aurora Tea (Lunch)
1900 Park Lane (Supercalifraglistic Breakfast)
We also did the Hoop de Doo Revue.
By and large, the character meal food was the worst food we ate, with Chef Mickey and Royal Table being notably bad (I literally could not cut my daughters' beef and the chili/"soup of the day" was so salty as to be inedible at Royal Table) and Park Lane being a cut above the rest. For us, the more "unusual" items on the buffets (potstickers, sushi, moroccan curry) tended to be better than the more typical "American" cuisine items.
Baked goods were a bright spot. We don't typically eat a lot of pastry/dessert but they were included with the plan and were reliably good.
We ended up eating at the Port Orleans food court a couple of times (due to the Pirate Adventure) and actually found the food there to be better than the Character Meal offerings.
Kids food was generally dismal (at least for my daughters' taste). We generally fed them off the adult section of the buffets in order to avoid them eating chicken nuggets everyday. It was their first experience with "uncrustables" and my daughters who love pb&j were not fans. The mac & cheese was also notably bad.
We tried Downtown Disney, and as everyone mentioned parking was a mess. We ended up valeting at the Hilton which was an easy walk to the Marketplace. We also ended up eating at the Benihana in the Hilton and can recommend the food there. We also had some really good Mojitos there.
Guest/Staff Behavior:
We had a lot of positive experiences with other guests. We ran into one rude lady who tried to squeeze in to our spot for the MVMCP parade, but overall, everyone was at least polite or even went out of their way to be kind.
Staff was generally at least adequate with some examples of excellent service.
We returned this past week for a 10 day trip, staying at Fort Wilderness with the free Disney Dining Plan. As our daughters are now four and a half, we planned a more aggressive program -- I started planning well in advance of 180 days, spent long hours on the web researching, etc.
In the process, I became a much more jaded/skeptical consumer. Based on our most recent experience we will not be returning until my kids are closer to 12, probably just visiting a day or two in between a real visit to Universal.
General Impressions
The best things we did (from my kids' perspective) were the following:
Tea Party with Princess Aurora
Pirate Adventure out of Port Orleans
Pirate's League
Note that these all required an upcharge (in some cases very significant $) and none involved rides.
Our best time in the park involved the following sequence:
I dressed the girls up in pirate costume before we left in the morning. We then took them to get "pirated up" at the Pirate League at 11:50, grabbed lunch from Pecos Bill and then used our FP to do the Pirates Ride. As we exited the Ride, the Sparrow Tutorial was just about to start. We did the Tutorial and then grabbed Dole Whips from Aloha Isle to eat while doing one of the maps from "A Pirate's Adventure -- Treasures of the Sevens Seas". Afterwards, we headed towards the castle to catch the Festival of Fantasy Parade. After the parade, we were going to Dumbo when we stopped to watch the Sword in the Stone show and one of my daughters was called up and pulled the Sword (mostly) from the Stone.
This whole process took about 3.5-4 hours and during that time we only hit one ride. Many of the non-coaster rides, especially in MK, appear to be virtual antiques and even my 4.5 year olds could not be swayed by the slight pleasures of the Jungle Cruise or Country Bear Jamboree.
It is clear to me that Disney is, at this point, trading on nostalgia and their impressive catalog of characters because the rides, generally, are no reason to visit. The characters themselves are beautifully cast and costumed, but largely all spontaneity has been drained from the interactions themselves. The Sparrow Tutorial was enjoyable and I could see more shows like that as being a way forward for Disney.
Food:
We did a number of character meals:
1900 Park Lane (Cinderella Dinner)
Disney Junior (Lunch)
Chef Mickey (Dinner)
Royal Table (Dinner)
Princess Aurora Tea (Lunch)
1900 Park Lane (Supercalifraglistic Breakfast)
We also did the Hoop de Doo Revue.
By and large, the character meal food was the worst food we ate, with Chef Mickey and Royal Table being notably bad (I literally could not cut my daughters' beef and the chili/"soup of the day" was so salty as to be inedible at Royal Table) and Park Lane being a cut above the rest. For us, the more "unusual" items on the buffets (potstickers, sushi, moroccan curry) tended to be better than the more typical "American" cuisine items.
Baked goods were a bright spot. We don't typically eat a lot of pastry/dessert but they were included with the plan and were reliably good.
We ended up eating at the Port Orleans food court a couple of times (due to the Pirate Adventure) and actually found the food there to be better than the Character Meal offerings.
Kids food was generally dismal (at least for my daughters' taste). We generally fed them off the adult section of the buffets in order to avoid them eating chicken nuggets everyday. It was their first experience with "uncrustables" and my daughters who love pb&j were not fans. The mac & cheese was also notably bad.
We tried Downtown Disney, and as everyone mentioned parking was a mess. We ended up valeting at the Hilton which was an easy walk to the Marketplace. We also ended up eating at the Benihana in the Hilton and can recommend the food there. We also had some really good Mojitos there.
Guest/Staff Behavior:
We had a lot of positive experiences with other guests. We ran into one rude lady who tried to squeeze in to our spot for the MVMCP parade, but overall, everyone was at least polite or even went out of their way to be kind.
Staff was generally at least adequate with some examples of excellent service.
