Just_Joe1087
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2017
EDIT: This turned out to be a long post that I don't know if many people will read, but I did put some notes at the end of this post and I would love to hear peoples thoughts.
Well, we didn't really just get back, we have been back for a few days now but had a lot to take care of. my fiancee and I took our first trip to Disney World from the 15th to the 20th for my 30th Birthday and it was everything we expected and more! We are already looking into planning another trip next fall, but we will probably stay at a different resort which I'll get into later in the post. Of course this doesn't mean that everything was perfect, because it wasn't but we would still take back being in Disney World in a heartbeat!
It all started with arriving to the resort via the Magical Express which we loved. We brought a carry on with a change of clothes went to the resort (Port Orleans French Quarter) to shower and change before hitting up the parks. We decided to do Epcot on our first day as it seemed like a more relaxed park for our first day (we were up since 5:00 am) and we wanted to save Magic Kingdom for my birthday which was the following day. We walked from the front of Epcot to the back just quickly taking it in as we had a lunch reservation at 2:50 pm which we just made. We would of got there sooner but we were given incorrect directions which made the commute further. Beaches & Cream is incredible! We got the Kitchen Sink sundae and did quite a job on it. I highly suggest this dessert to everyone. We didn't try the actual food just the ice cream but our server was very good. We then walked the boardwalk some more before heading back to Epcot. We hit up the food & wine festival and tried the Le Cellier Steaks which we loved. We would go back later in the day for seconds. We then had fast passes for a couple of rides, first was Spaceship Earth which was a relaxing ride while our stomachs settled. Then was Test Track, the cast member told us we were 10 minutes early and to come back the time of our fast passes. This was interesting because this was the only time we experienced this during our trip. If we showed up 5-15 minutes early we were told that we were good. We waited it out and went back in 10 minutes. While on the beginning of the ride it broke down right at the thunder storm part. We were given two fast passes but it was starting to get late. We decided to just go to Mission Space earlier than our fast pass and used the fast passes we just received. Yeah it was a waste, but we were up early and my fiancee was ready to go back to the resort as we knew the following day we had a big day ahead of us.
The next day was my 30th and we went to Magic Kingdom with BOG Breakfast reservations at 9:35 am. We also had dinner reservations there which was what we were most looking forward to and had to try very hard to get. Well we got there on time and put our order in at about 9:45 am. We didn't receive our food until 10:40! We had a hard time flagging anyone down, finally my fiancee found our server and asked if our food was coming out anytime soon (we only ordered two croissant donuts) which we were very excited to try. We were told they would be right out and were given a fastpass. The food wouldn't come out until 10 minutes later and it was clear the order was never made the begin with. The donut was hard and tasted refried. The manager came over on her own and said the donuts did look horrible. She lets us know she will get us out a new batch and that breakfast would be on the house and expressed how sorry she was. She then comes back with the new donuts and gives us another fast pass. The new donuts came out in about 3 minutes and weren't much better. I ate mine but my fiancee couldn't eat hers. She took a few bites and started to not feel well. She was then offered some eggs instead which she said it was okay, but the server was persistent about her eating something so she said okay she will take some eggs. The eggs came right out, but the plastic wear cart was completely gone by then. We just decided to leave. The management was very good at the restaurant, but the food was horrible. BOG is not what it's cracked up to be. The castle is amazing, but you are better off getting a cupcake or the grey stuff. Maybe this should become a two table service credit to up the quality, the food just isn't good. We canceled our lunch reservations there for later in the trip and debated if we should cancel dinner. We rode the Haunted Mansion which we had a fast pass for. Afterwards my fiancee still wasn't feeling well so she got a Mickey Pretzel. We took a break for about 25 minutes and my fiancee feeling bad that it's my birthday asked if I would be upset going back to the resort. I said no and that I wanted her to feel better as that was most important. Luckily Magic Kingdom was open until Midnight that night so we figured we would come back around 5:00 or so. We had a Space Mountain fast pass for 2:00 pm which we modified for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and we modified our 3:45 pm Big Thunder reservation for Pirates Of The Caribbean. We went back to the resort, my fiancee rested and we decided to get a lyft to Target for some water and snacks. We grabbed water, protein bars, and graham crackers. We then decided to grab Longhorn Steakhouse when we were over there and cancel our BOG dinner as we didn't want to risk my fiancee getting sick again, or overpaying for food she didn't enjoy. We then went back to the park around 5:30 and we decided to use one of our fast passes from earlier for Space Mountain we then hit up pirates and then lined up for Happily Ever After fireworks which we LOVED! After that we used a fastpass for Big Thunder followed by Seven Swarfs Mine Train. It turned out by the end of the day I rode Space Mountain, The Haunted Mansion, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Big Thunder, & Pirates Of The Caribbean all in one day! It might of started rough, but turned out to be the best birthday I've ever had!
I know this is getting long so I'll briefly go over our next few days. We went to Animal Kingdom the following day and rode Flight Of Passage (incredible!), saw Pandora at night and during the day, did the Safari, Dinosaur and Kali River Rapids. We had a lot of coffee that day and chickened out of Expedition Everest which we regretted later on and promised ourselves we would do it next trip. The following day we did Hollywood Studios before going to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal. Hollywood Studios was what it was. It's half a park and we couldn't spend more than 3 hours there. We did Tower Of Terror which was great and Star Tours which wasn't bad but outdated compared to FOP and Mission Space. We then went to Universal and grabbed Bubba Gump Shrimp before heading into the park. The Bubba Gump Shrimp wasn't as good as the one in NYC. The cast members at Universal are also nowhere near as friendly as Disney. It was night and day for us, but we really wanted to give HHN a try and my fiancee wanted to see all the Harry Potter stuff. The lines for HHN were very long and we were so use to using fast passes that it felt even longer. We hit up AHS and the Saw haunted houses. By then we were already tired of waiting in line. My fiancee and I consider ourselves to be in pretty good shape, but 4 park days and standing in line our feet started to hurt. We went to Diagon Alley which my fiancee LOVED! I bought her a wind and we got butter beer (which we also loved) we then waited in line to get on Escape From Gringotts. We got up to get ready to get on line before a really rude cast member told my fiancee she would have to put her wind in the locker and that she is lucky she got this far with it. She knew the wind wouldn't fit and didn't feel comfortable doing that as we never had to put any merch in lockers on Disney property. We decided to get off before the ride started after waiting about 45 minutes. We were frustrated at this point and decided to just leave. Probably would never do HHN again and the express passes for it are just outrageous! Personally to us Universal charging Disney prices was not something we thought Universal should be doing. The last day we park hopped with Magic Kingdom and Epcot. We saw the Festival Of Fantasy, rode a few rides and then hit up Epcot. I tried a few more things at the Food & Wine Festival and we rode Test Track (didn't break down this time lol). We then looked at more of the World Showcase before heading back right before the park closed. Overall we had an incredible time! However there were a few things we realized and took note of for our next trip.
The rides are incredible and nobody does them like Disney.
Upon check out of the Port Orleans French Quarter our shower water turned brown! We quickly jumped out and called the front desk. One of the two sinks also had brown water coming out of it. They let us know Maintenance would be up soon but we had a flight to catch so we only got to shower for like 2 minutes. We got out full of soap. Upon checkout we brought it to the hotel staff again where they brought the manager over. He seemed like he couldn't careless. We weren't looking for a free handout or anything but he barely even wanted to apologize for the issue.
We aren't big fans of Disney food and it will take a lot of convincing to get my fiancee to try more food there after our bad BOG experience.
Disney cast members are far friendly than Universal.
Disrespectful parents with stroller were a HUGE problem doing our trip. At one point I was hit with a stroller and didn't even receive an apology. Instead the woman tried blaming me for hitting me. This was especially true for the Magic Kingdom. We LOVE the Magic Kingdom but that park brings in the rudest guests of all Disney Parks. I do recall briefly hearing this was an issue on the Dis Unplugged youtube videos.
The buses can take awhile before showing up so we know for next trip to plan 30 minutes before we want to get to the park so we aren't rushing to make a dining reservation or fast pass.
Next trip we will probably plan for 7 days or so. We did a lot and pretty much everything we really wanted to do, but realized during the trip a resort day would be nice.
Sorry for the long post but this being our first trip I really wanted to relive the experience through this post.
Well, we didn't really just get back, we have been back for a few days now but had a lot to take care of. my fiancee and I took our first trip to Disney World from the 15th to the 20th for my 30th Birthday and it was everything we expected and more! We are already looking into planning another trip next fall, but we will probably stay at a different resort which I'll get into later in the post. Of course this doesn't mean that everything was perfect, because it wasn't but we would still take back being in Disney World in a heartbeat!
It all started with arriving to the resort via the Magical Express which we loved. We brought a carry on with a change of clothes went to the resort (Port Orleans French Quarter) to shower and change before hitting up the parks. We decided to do Epcot on our first day as it seemed like a more relaxed park for our first day (we were up since 5:00 am) and we wanted to save Magic Kingdom for my birthday which was the following day. We walked from the front of Epcot to the back just quickly taking it in as we had a lunch reservation at 2:50 pm which we just made. We would of got there sooner but we were given incorrect directions which made the commute further. Beaches & Cream is incredible! We got the Kitchen Sink sundae and did quite a job on it. I highly suggest this dessert to everyone. We didn't try the actual food just the ice cream but our server was very good. We then walked the boardwalk some more before heading back to Epcot. We hit up the food & wine festival and tried the Le Cellier Steaks which we loved. We would go back later in the day for seconds. We then had fast passes for a couple of rides, first was Spaceship Earth which was a relaxing ride while our stomachs settled. Then was Test Track, the cast member told us we were 10 minutes early and to come back the time of our fast passes. This was interesting because this was the only time we experienced this during our trip. If we showed up 5-15 minutes early we were told that we were good. We waited it out and went back in 10 minutes. While on the beginning of the ride it broke down right at the thunder storm part. We were given two fast passes but it was starting to get late. We decided to just go to Mission Space earlier than our fast pass and used the fast passes we just received. Yeah it was a waste, but we were up early and my fiancee was ready to go back to the resort as we knew the following day we had a big day ahead of us.
The next day was my 30th and we went to Magic Kingdom with BOG Breakfast reservations at 9:35 am. We also had dinner reservations there which was what we were most looking forward to and had to try very hard to get. Well we got there on time and put our order in at about 9:45 am. We didn't receive our food until 10:40! We had a hard time flagging anyone down, finally my fiancee found our server and asked if our food was coming out anytime soon (we only ordered two croissant donuts) which we were very excited to try. We were told they would be right out and were given a fastpass. The food wouldn't come out until 10 minutes later and it was clear the order was never made the begin with. The donut was hard and tasted refried. The manager came over on her own and said the donuts did look horrible. She lets us know she will get us out a new batch and that breakfast would be on the house and expressed how sorry she was. She then comes back with the new donuts and gives us another fast pass. The new donuts came out in about 3 minutes and weren't much better. I ate mine but my fiancee couldn't eat hers. She took a few bites and started to not feel well. She was then offered some eggs instead which she said it was okay, but the server was persistent about her eating something so she said okay she will take some eggs. The eggs came right out, but the plastic wear cart was completely gone by then. We just decided to leave. The management was very good at the restaurant, but the food was horrible. BOG is not what it's cracked up to be. The castle is amazing, but you are better off getting a cupcake or the grey stuff. Maybe this should become a two table service credit to up the quality, the food just isn't good. We canceled our lunch reservations there for later in the trip and debated if we should cancel dinner. We rode the Haunted Mansion which we had a fast pass for. Afterwards my fiancee still wasn't feeling well so she got a Mickey Pretzel. We took a break for about 25 minutes and my fiancee feeling bad that it's my birthday asked if I would be upset going back to the resort. I said no and that I wanted her to feel better as that was most important. Luckily Magic Kingdom was open until Midnight that night so we figured we would come back around 5:00 or so. We had a Space Mountain fast pass for 2:00 pm which we modified for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and we modified our 3:45 pm Big Thunder reservation for Pirates Of The Caribbean. We went back to the resort, my fiancee rested and we decided to get a lyft to Target for some water and snacks. We grabbed water, protein bars, and graham crackers. We then decided to grab Longhorn Steakhouse when we were over there and cancel our BOG dinner as we didn't want to risk my fiancee getting sick again, or overpaying for food she didn't enjoy. We then went back to the park around 5:30 and we decided to use one of our fast passes from earlier for Space Mountain we then hit up pirates and then lined up for Happily Ever After fireworks which we LOVED! After that we used a fastpass for Big Thunder followed by Seven Swarfs Mine Train. It turned out by the end of the day I rode Space Mountain, The Haunted Mansion, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Big Thunder, & Pirates Of The Caribbean all in one day! It might of started rough, but turned out to be the best birthday I've ever had!
I know this is getting long so I'll briefly go over our next few days. We went to Animal Kingdom the following day and rode Flight Of Passage (incredible!), saw Pandora at night and during the day, did the Safari, Dinosaur and Kali River Rapids. We had a lot of coffee that day and chickened out of Expedition Everest which we regretted later on and promised ourselves we would do it next trip. The following day we did Hollywood Studios before going to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal. Hollywood Studios was what it was. It's half a park and we couldn't spend more than 3 hours there. We did Tower Of Terror which was great and Star Tours which wasn't bad but outdated compared to FOP and Mission Space. We then went to Universal and grabbed Bubba Gump Shrimp before heading into the park. The Bubba Gump Shrimp wasn't as good as the one in NYC. The cast members at Universal are also nowhere near as friendly as Disney. It was night and day for us, but we really wanted to give HHN a try and my fiancee wanted to see all the Harry Potter stuff. The lines for HHN were very long and we were so use to using fast passes that it felt even longer. We hit up AHS and the Saw haunted houses. By then we were already tired of waiting in line. My fiancee and I consider ourselves to be in pretty good shape, but 4 park days and standing in line our feet started to hurt. We went to Diagon Alley which my fiancee LOVED! I bought her a wind and we got butter beer (which we also loved) we then waited in line to get on Escape From Gringotts. We got up to get ready to get on line before a really rude cast member told my fiancee she would have to put her wind in the locker and that she is lucky she got this far with it. She knew the wind wouldn't fit and didn't feel comfortable doing that as we never had to put any merch in lockers on Disney property. We decided to get off before the ride started after waiting about 45 minutes. We were frustrated at this point and decided to just leave. Probably would never do HHN again and the express passes for it are just outrageous! Personally to us Universal charging Disney prices was not something we thought Universal should be doing. The last day we park hopped with Magic Kingdom and Epcot. We saw the Festival Of Fantasy, rode a few rides and then hit up Epcot. I tried a few more things at the Food & Wine Festival and we rode Test Track (didn't break down this time lol). We then looked at more of the World Showcase before heading back right before the park closed. Overall we had an incredible time! However there were a few things we realized and took note of for our next trip.
The rides are incredible and nobody does them like Disney.
Upon check out of the Port Orleans French Quarter our shower water turned brown! We quickly jumped out and called the front desk. One of the two sinks also had brown water coming out of it. They let us know Maintenance would be up soon but we had a flight to catch so we only got to shower for like 2 minutes. We got out full of soap. Upon checkout we brought it to the hotel staff again where they brought the manager over. He seemed like he couldn't careless. We weren't looking for a free handout or anything but he barely even wanted to apologize for the issue.
We aren't big fans of Disney food and it will take a lot of convincing to get my fiancee to try more food there after our bad BOG experience.
Disney cast members are far friendly than Universal.
Disrespectful parents with stroller were a HUGE problem doing our trip. At one point I was hit with a stroller and didn't even receive an apology. Instead the woman tried blaming me for hitting me. This was especially true for the Magic Kingdom. We LOVE the Magic Kingdom but that park brings in the rudest guests of all Disney Parks. I do recall briefly hearing this was an issue on the Dis Unplugged youtube videos.
The buses can take awhile before showing up so we know for next trip to plan 30 minutes before we want to get to the park so we aren't rushing to make a dining reservation or fast pass.
Next trip we will probably plan for 7 days or so. We did a lot and pretty much everything we really wanted to do, but realized during the trip a resort day would be nice.
Sorry for the long post but this being our first trip I really wanted to relive the experience through this post.
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