ctfamily
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2007
So this was our 6th family trip to WDW our 3rd as DVC members and our 2nd at the Beach Club. Are you wondering what MEH is...well in case you don't know it MEH=Average and that's was Disney has done with the new Magic Bands Fast Pass+ system, taken a once relaxing magical trip and dumbed it down to average. I had not read up on the system at all too much prior to the trip and let me preface this by saying we are spontaneous vacationers, we go with the flow, we are on vacation, we want to be untethered and relax and we PARKHOP religiously. Now with the new system instead of a park hopper you become a rope dropper as the only way feasible to "beat" the one park only fast past system when you pay for a park hopper is to rope drop one, park hop and fast pass the other. Of course there is the tiered ride system as well which locks you out from being able to fastpass all the biggies in one day (Soaring + Test Track, etc) I'm not saying anything that hasn't already been said about the system but it is what it is. Was also looking forward to the low crowds reported during this time (1 out of 10) for two days and that just wasn't the case due to the cheerleaders everywhere, no fault of theirs but usually we go in Sept and expected the 1 out of 10 Sept crowds and walk on ride lines we are accustomed to and got consistently long standby lines for most of the time in all parks.
Beach Club lived up to its reputation, no complaints in that dept except for maybe a little lacking in the room cleanliness, lots of dust upon arrival, looked like they vacuumed, replaced linens and ran out of the room as fast as possible. At points though BC seems like its showing its age, lots of loose tiles in the bathrooms, hallway carpets in spots look to be end of life, etc.
Two restaurants we prob won't visit again, Ohana for dinner....jeez whats the big rush in this place, I've never eaten so much food in such a short period of time in my life, a crime to see the amount of food wasted in this restaurant, just a plethora of over cooked animal flesh served at a blistering belly busting pace.
Pains me to say this one....California Grill, service was absolutely bottom of the barrel took about 30 mins for the entire get out check, take our TIW card, deduct discount and pay routine. The pace of food service was also painfully slow, we clocked over 2hrs total here trying to eat and NO we didn't stop to go watch the fireworks. 
Kudos to Le Cellier for a solid dinner, absolutely shredded our experience at California Grill. Surprise sleeper meal of the trip Captains Grill breakfast, the dark chocolate waffles and the breakfast buffet were crowd pleasers.
To sum it up, kind of soured on WDW after this trip, at points I said to the wife we should unload DVC and look at putting our time and resources into something else. Sure we will give it another shot in Sept time of year and here's to WDW making some major revamps and tweaks to the FP+ system, I pay to be untethered and spontaneous, I pay to park hop and that should be considered in your FP+ reservation abilities.
Beach Club lived up to its reputation, no complaints in that dept except for maybe a little lacking in the room cleanliness, lots of dust upon arrival, looked like they vacuumed, replaced linens and ran out of the room as fast as possible. At points though BC seems like its showing its age, lots of loose tiles in the bathrooms, hallway carpets in spots look to be end of life, etc.
Two restaurants we prob won't visit again, Ohana for dinner....jeez whats the big rush in this place, I've never eaten so much food in such a short period of time in my life, a crime to see the amount of food wasted in this restaurant, just a plethora of over cooked animal flesh served at a blistering belly busting pace.
Pains me to say this one....California Grill, service was absolutely bottom of the barrel took about 30 mins for the entire get out check, take our TIW card, deduct discount and pay routine. The pace of food service was also painfully slow, we clocked over 2hrs total here trying to eat and NO we didn't stop to go watch the fireworks. Kudos to Le Cellier for a solid dinner, absolutely shredded our experience at California Grill. Surprise sleeper meal of the trip Captains Grill breakfast, the dark chocolate waffles and the breakfast buffet were crowd pleasers.
To sum it up, kind of soured on WDW after this trip, at points I said to the wife we should unload DVC and look at putting our time and resources into something else. Sure we will give it another shot in Sept time of year and here's to WDW making some major revamps and tweaks to the FP+ system, I pay to be untethered and spontaneous, I pay to park hop and that should be considered in your FP+ reservation abilities.
