peacefrogdog
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2000
Reporting back after our first Disney trip since 2016. We have been members since 2008, and have only stayed in 1-BR and 2-BR when travelling with our kids who are now all away at school. This was our first adults only trip (meeting our university friends to do Food & Wine, and Jollywood). Will try my best not to re-hash topics that may have already been discussed on these boards (but I don't have time to do searches of every possible topic so bear with me).
Context: This was our first trip since many current Disney features have been implemented/built including Riviera, Disney Springs, Skyliner, Lightning Lane & Virtual Queue, Mobile order, Mobile check-in/use of phone.
1. Our home resort is AKV. With my goal to stay in each DVC resort at least once, we waitlisted at Copper Creek and Boulder Ridge at the 7 month mark. i was surprised when our waitlist for a CCV studio came through one day later.
2. We submitted a room request for one the studios on the 2nd-5th floors that have the different layout. We were assigned one of the 1st floor rooms - no big deal other than it was a bit tricky to find. Staying in a studio for the first time I will say it had more than enough room and space. My only minor concern was that they never replaced our used paper cups/bowls. I'm sure I could have asked them to, but was just surprising. I do miss the actual mugs.
3. Wow is the supplied Joffrey's coffee horrible. Maybe it was the combination of that and the tap water. Fortunately we packed our own coffee, and using that combined with bottled water helped a lot.
4. Using the phone to open the room was a hot mess. I'm good with tech, and quite simply it never worked for us to get into room, or go through the security access point in our car. I wasn't the only guest experiencing this (based on hearing others in line at guest services). Fortunately our magicbands worked fine.
5. Bus to/from WL: Epcot was easy - did not stop at any other resort going there, stopped at Fort Wilderness on the way back. Going to DHS for Jollywood took some time, mainly related to stopping at Contemporary where another car in front of our bus was being questioned by security.
6. Overall the staff were wonderful, especially at the front desk. The only 'slips' I noticed tended to be among younger cast members who I assumed were either recently hired or part of the the College program. They weren't rude, they just looked like they did not want to be there ; lots of comments about how long their day has been, how busy they feel. On the other hand, everyone else treated us like I remember when we first went to Disney in 1999.
7. Geyser point seemed to have its issues with take out orders. For context, we were there on a Saturday at 4 pm.Both my order (and other guests') had errors like not including fries, receiving one side instead of the other. For some reason i got sides for a kids meal with my Bison burger (grapes and yogurt drink). The bison burger itself was good - don't think I would return for it. Too bad we didn't plan enough to seat at the actual restaurant because its set up and view are fantastic.
8. From our last time in Downtown Disney, we were surprised to see the security checkpoints to get into Disney Springs. Happy it's there however. World of Disney and the Xmas stores were already zoos by 1030 AM. Would not want to see what it's like at a more prime time hour.
9. We had a dinner ressie at Topollino's - loved it. The gnocchi appy, and the filet and rigotoni mains were fantastic. Took a ride on the skyliner just for kicks and can now see the appeal of staying on a resort to access this. Other dining: Polite Pig (fantastic), Boma for breakfast (other than 2-3 African themed dishes, was not really worth it for the same old breakfast buffet), Oga's Cantina (yes drinks were pricey, but being able to sit there when the park was near empty for Jollywood was cool).
10. Our last and only time at Food & Wine was in 2000 when they would hand out recipe cards for each of the offered dishes. We enjoyed it this time, but didn't find any of the food to be spectular (fully realizing there are so many offerings we did not try).
11. The DVC member lounge in Epcot is great to have available. We were told of a 30 min wait around 2 pm - we went to see if we could ride Figment, before being notified after 10 min we go to the lounge. For those who haven't been there, there are coke Freestyle machines, Keurigs, and a selection of chips and nachos. Oddly, they had no bathrooms for guest use! Seems like a bit of a miss. Staff working there were fantastic. Overall, it's not the nicest lounge but compared to the alternative have not having a lounge, we'll take it.
12. We ended up getting one of the last boarding groups for Guardians. I'm not sure whether this is a regular thing, but the amount of people they crammed into the last room (before the long hallway leading to the vehicles) was unsafe. For example, they let in three consecutive groups of people from the previous room (where they show the video outlining the theme of the ride) into that one room before the narrow hallway leading to the tracks. I saw a few people have to leave due to claustrophobia. Should there had been a medical emergency, emergency services would have had a hard time getting there. Something like a fire hazard would have for sure led to trampling. I assume it was an end of the night thing.
13. Jollywood - went on opening night. We saw it as an alternative to getting a park ticket to DHS rather than to sample the food or watch the shows. For us, it was great - no wait for any ride. I felt really bad for the huge lines for people already in the park to get their wristbands, and for some of the food options. I hear they've fortunately made changes to mitigate both those issues. But if you want to avoid lines for rides, go for it!
14. Of all of our group trying to get virtual queue groups, I seemed to have the best luck. We did the world time thing, and I was on Verizon rather than using wifi.
15. Went to both Premium outlets (Vineland, and the one further north). The Disney character outlets were packed. Overall didn't find many deals, but we we not looking for anything specific
Context: This was our first trip since many current Disney features have been implemented/built including Riviera, Disney Springs, Skyliner, Lightning Lane & Virtual Queue, Mobile order, Mobile check-in/use of phone.
1. Our home resort is AKV. With my goal to stay in each DVC resort at least once, we waitlisted at Copper Creek and Boulder Ridge at the 7 month mark. i was surprised when our waitlist for a CCV studio came through one day later.
2. We submitted a room request for one the studios on the 2nd-5th floors that have the different layout. We were assigned one of the 1st floor rooms - no big deal other than it was a bit tricky to find. Staying in a studio for the first time I will say it had more than enough room and space. My only minor concern was that they never replaced our used paper cups/bowls. I'm sure I could have asked them to, but was just surprising. I do miss the actual mugs.
3. Wow is the supplied Joffrey's coffee horrible. Maybe it was the combination of that and the tap water. Fortunately we packed our own coffee, and using that combined with bottled water helped a lot.
4. Using the phone to open the room was a hot mess. I'm good with tech, and quite simply it never worked for us to get into room, or go through the security access point in our car. I wasn't the only guest experiencing this (based on hearing others in line at guest services). Fortunately our magicbands worked fine.
5. Bus to/from WL: Epcot was easy - did not stop at any other resort going there, stopped at Fort Wilderness on the way back. Going to DHS for Jollywood took some time, mainly related to stopping at Contemporary where another car in front of our bus was being questioned by security.
6. Overall the staff were wonderful, especially at the front desk. The only 'slips' I noticed tended to be among younger cast members who I assumed were either recently hired or part of the the College program. They weren't rude, they just looked like they did not want to be there ; lots of comments about how long their day has been, how busy they feel. On the other hand, everyone else treated us like I remember when we first went to Disney in 1999.
7. Geyser point seemed to have its issues with take out orders. For context, we were there on a Saturday at 4 pm.Both my order (and other guests') had errors like not including fries, receiving one side instead of the other. For some reason i got sides for a kids meal with my Bison burger (grapes and yogurt drink). The bison burger itself was good - don't think I would return for it. Too bad we didn't plan enough to seat at the actual restaurant because its set up and view are fantastic.
8. From our last time in Downtown Disney, we were surprised to see the security checkpoints to get into Disney Springs. Happy it's there however. World of Disney and the Xmas stores were already zoos by 1030 AM. Would not want to see what it's like at a more prime time hour.
9. We had a dinner ressie at Topollino's - loved it. The gnocchi appy, and the filet and rigotoni mains were fantastic. Took a ride on the skyliner just for kicks and can now see the appeal of staying on a resort to access this. Other dining: Polite Pig (fantastic), Boma for breakfast (other than 2-3 African themed dishes, was not really worth it for the same old breakfast buffet), Oga's Cantina (yes drinks were pricey, but being able to sit there when the park was near empty for Jollywood was cool).
10. Our last and only time at Food & Wine was in 2000 when they would hand out recipe cards for each of the offered dishes. We enjoyed it this time, but didn't find any of the food to be spectular (fully realizing there are so many offerings we did not try).
11. The DVC member lounge in Epcot is great to have available. We were told of a 30 min wait around 2 pm - we went to see if we could ride Figment, before being notified after 10 min we go to the lounge. For those who haven't been there, there are coke Freestyle machines, Keurigs, and a selection of chips and nachos. Oddly, they had no bathrooms for guest use! Seems like a bit of a miss. Staff working there were fantastic. Overall, it's not the nicest lounge but compared to the alternative have not having a lounge, we'll take it.
12. We ended up getting one of the last boarding groups for Guardians. I'm not sure whether this is a regular thing, but the amount of people they crammed into the last room (before the long hallway leading to the vehicles) was unsafe. For example, they let in three consecutive groups of people from the previous room (where they show the video outlining the theme of the ride) into that one room before the narrow hallway leading to the tracks. I saw a few people have to leave due to claustrophobia. Should there had been a medical emergency, emergency services would have had a hard time getting there. Something like a fire hazard would have for sure led to trampling. I assume it was an end of the night thing.
13. Jollywood - went on opening night. We saw it as an alternative to getting a park ticket to DHS rather than to sample the food or watch the shows. For us, it was great - no wait for any ride. I felt really bad for the huge lines for people already in the park to get their wristbands, and for some of the food options. I hear they've fortunately made changes to mitigate both those issues. But if you want to avoid lines for rides, go for it!
14. Of all of our group trying to get virtual queue groups, I seemed to have the best luck. We did the world time thing, and I was on Verizon rather than using wifi.
15. Went to both Premium outlets (Vineland, and the one further north). The Disney character outlets were packed. Overall didn't find many deals, but we we not looking for anything specific
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