We are back from Disney World! (long, review)

[chia]

I was skeptical... but, it was so much fun. DD loved it, and we had a great time, too.

This is an XP from my local board, so sorry if you're on both!

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We had a great time on our 6-day Disney trip... DD was a perfect age (5 yo)- an age where the characters are still magical, and the rides are fun... but, at a time she'll still remember it. I'm glad we waited until she was over 40inches tall, because that meant she could ride a few of the non-kid rides (but still not some of the roller coasters). I was skeptical of the trip at first, and thought it would be dreadful since I'm totally not a "Disney" person. But, the whole operation is amazing to me. I mean, they must have a zillion employees, and everything is just so freaking efficient. It's unbelievable. I don't know how they find so many people to sing, dance, and provide relatively high quality entertainment. And, high quality customer service. And to keep everything so clean and nice. And to move so many people around and through rides... it's like down to a science. Sure, some of it was kind of corny, but isn't that to be expected? I thought the shows and entertainment were really well done... some of the 20-minute shows were pretty much like a scaled back Broadway productions (I really loved Finding Nemo at Animal Kingdom, and Beauty and the Beast at Hollywood studios was good, too). The parades, fireworks, and Fantasmic show were all great, too... DD loved Fantasmic. Honestly, her reactions several times during the trip made me tear up and want to cry. She was just so excited, and it brought back memories from when I was her age and my parents brought us to Disney World.

Regarding the customer service... immediately after checking in, I noticed that they had me under the wrong dining plan. I paid an extra $450 to upgrade to a deluxe dining plan, but my reservation was showing the normal plan... which wasn't going to work, given all of the restaurant reservations I had made (and, the fact that they charge you if you cancel with less than 24 hours notice...). So, it took me like an hour and a half to get things straightened around, because they had to rebook me, and do a bunch of crap in their terribly awful IT system. So, I thought everything was fine. Until I ate lunch. And the dining plan was still screwed up. I was straight up pissed. I mean, like super pissed... after spending an extra $450 on the upgrade that didn't show up, and a very crucial hour and a half of my time, it still wasn't fixed. And, because of it we were late for reservations, and late getting our first day started (which meant missing some stuff). So, I went back to the Desk when we got to back to the resort and asked for a manager. Well, I firmly (but politely) told her that I was super.duper.pissed, especially that they wasted so much of my time after having screwed up my reservation. Well, after 10 minutes of talking to her, she explained everything that happened to me (basically, their IT system sucks - there seem to be a bunch of unconnected systems on the back end), and gave me a $200 credit (basically, one night) - plus, since DD missed the princess meeting, she sent DD a $35 musical Frozen barbie-type doll, AND like a $30 stuffed Mickey for DS. Also, because of their screw-up, we wound up getting extra dining credits, and actually, I think they gave us a second free night in the room (but, I'm not sure about that and need to check our final credit card statement). Overall, they (more than) made things right - it was super awesome. As a result, we actually wound up tacking on a final night in a value resort last minute, so our whole stay while in Orlando (except for the very first night) was at a Disney resort.

Accommodations - Overall, we were happy that we stayed at a "moderate" resort, especially for our first time visiting Disney. If we go in the future, we might consider doing a "value" resort (if the price is right), but there are some small differences with the room that really add up. We were driving our car, so I can't comment on the bus/transportation situation. However, if you *do* drive your car, driving to the parks (rather than relying on bus transportation) was totally worth it, IMO. Except for at Magic Kingdom. Driving to Magic Kingdom was a PITA. HOWEVER, for our second day at MK, we drove to the Polynesian Resort, and parked there (we had luau reservations that evening). Totally easy. You just get on the monorail and ride it to the park. We did something similar for Epcot - parked at Boardwalk (breakfast reservations at Kouzinna), and rode a boat over that dropped us right at the entrance. We didn't realize this at first, but while staying at a resort, you can basically park anywhere "on property"... which means that you can park at a monorail resort and ride it in. I'm not sure if you need to have a reservation for a meal there, but they never checked.

Port Orleans French Quarter: Nice, quiet resort, with a food court, lots of trees/landscaping, and plentiful parking. The staff was very helpful and pleasant. Honestly, we barely spent any time in our room. But, the accommodations were nice, clean, and very comfortable. We drove through the Riverside side, and it seemed more spread out. Personally, I'm lazy, and was happy that the check-in desk and cafeteria was close to our room, so I think we made the right choice with the FQ over RS.

All-Star Sports: We only spent one night here. It was way busier than PO/FQ. Lots of busses, families, long line at check-in. Parking was further from the rooms.

Moderate v. Value: Beds are smaller (double v. queen). No ceiling fan. Combo shampoo/conditioner, versus separate shampoo & conditioner. Slightly smaller room, but not by much. Louder, in general - like you could hear people walking up and down the walkway outside of the room at all hours, even though we were on the back side of the building facing the woods. Not sure about the food situation, since we didn't use the cafeteria. Staff was still friendly, but it took quite a while to get through the check-in line.


Restaurants/Food - We opted to upgrade to the "Deluxe" dining plan, or the "eat like a f@#$ing pig" dining plan, as I like to call it. This provided us with 3 table service credits per day (which includes one appetizer per person, one entree pp, and one dessert pp - i.e., a ton of food), plus two snack credits per day, per person. It was like a $450 upgrade, but our initial dining plan was free, so I was OK with this. I liked being on this plan, because it allowed us to eat at some of the "nice" restaurants, and to do the dinner shows. Our general strategy was to do a snack for breakfast, a sort of late table service lunch, and a late 2 credit dinner. With that said, I think I gained like 10 lbs in a week. Overall, I was not wowed by the food. It was pretty much "meh", with strong suits in the appetizer and dessert categories. It wasn't bad... but, most of it felt very mass produced... lots of braised meats and stuff like that on the menu, with similar dishes popping up on the menu at various places. Like, I saw a lot of "beef braised in cabernet" and various forms of BBQ ribs. And, the noodle salad we got at the luau was at both of the buffets, and some of the stuff we got at Askershus was also on at least one of the buffets. There must be some central kitchens that ship stuff around to various restaurants in the morning? Oh, and re: kid food? I swear, there's like an army of 50 people somewhere in a kitchen cooking up vats upon vats of macaroni and cheese. LOL. There are other choices... but, lots of mac & cheese. I got very tired of the character dinners and the buffets, even though we really only did like two character dinners, and two buffets. I thought the character dinners were a little bit lame, and felt rushed. I was thinking that there would actually be a photo pass photographer at these dinners, but nope. I mean, they take your picture on the way in, but that's it. It's hard to get a good pic of your kids with the characters at these dinners. In general, it seemed like most "table service" meals took between 1-2 hours. So, there's no way I'd want to do three in a day (and also why it makes sense to do later dinners, if you can swing it... we did dinner at like 8-9 each night). Also, if you have an infant, neither of the "Signature" dining restaurants we went to had an infant carrier sling - which I found to be a little odd. I know it's "fancy" Disney dining... but, they've never had a baby there? As far as "extra" costs on the dining plan... it doesn't include gratuities. I'd say that on average, our "nice" dinners cost us $50 out of pocket (gratuity plus one glass of wine for me), and lunches were usually around $15-20 in gratuity. I would have liked to try some of the Epcot restaurants, but we only spent one day there and didn't have park hopper tickets. We went to two "Signature Dining" restaurants... and while they tolerated our kids OK, I did feel like we were kind of stuck in a corner, and they weren't super thrilled to get a table with two kids. DD is well behaved in restaurants, and DS was sleeping... so, that kind of annoyed me. But, it wasn't like we had a bad experience.
If you have to change a dinner reservation time, calling is the easiest way to do it. We changed several dining times... but, you can't really change the reservation itself - or they charge you $10 per person for a cancellation fee. There was one time that the app screwed up, and I made a reservation on the wrong day at 11PM the night before (it was truly the app, not human error - it defaulted to a different day when there was no availability...) Well, they wanted to charge me $40 when I called at 8AM to fix it, because it was less than 24 hours. Uh, no way Jose.

Epcot Chef de France: Lunch. Good. Loved the escargot app, the chartucerie app, and the creme brulee dessert. When they realized my dining plan was messed up, they were very gracious, and explained how to fix it. Sadly, I missed the famous France Grand Marnier slushies... I thought we'd be back to Epcot for a second day to do some drinking around the world... but, we decided to do a second day at Hollywood studios, instead.

California Grill (2 credits), Dinner: This was our favorite meal, food-wise. We got two different kinds of sushi for apps, both were excellent. And, filet for dinner - also excellent. The kid's menu sucked, and they agreed to make DD a small veggie sushi roll as an app, which wasn't on the menu. Like mentioned above, this place isn't really set up well for kids. It's an expensive place... like, without the dining plan, our meal would have cost over $250, with just one glass of wine. I'd say it's not quite equivalent to a $250 meal in DC, but, you're at a theme park/resort. They have a really nice view of the Magic Kingdom, with huge windows. DD thought that was cool.  Granted, without the dining plan, we probably wouldn't have ordered as much food... but we still would have spent around $200.

Askershus Princess Dinner: Meh. The service was rushed. The princesses were rushed. The food was fine. It was an OK experience, but not as great as I thought it would be. Maybe I expected too much? I did order a "Smoked Turkey" drink here, and enjoyed it.

1900 Park Fare Cinderella Dinner: Meh. A buffet. A little chaotic & rushed (yet still took a lot of time). I ordered some sort of "honey lavender" drink here, and enjoyed it. The drink menu at the non-signature dining restaurants are all the same, so you know what you're going to get.

Hollywood & Vine, Lunch: Buffet #2. We nixed the character dining on this, and got the Fantasmic package instead... which was a super great move. Loved Fantasmic.

Sci-fi Drive in, Lunch: Good, but not for infants or people who don't like to eat in the dark (DH and I are weird about eating in the dark). The hostess knew we had an infant carrier, but still sat us at a "car" seating. Which meant we were supposed to put the car seat carrier in the middle of the aisle-way, where like 3 or 4 servers almost tripped over DS. Uh, yeah. That wasn't going to work. So, the manager moved us to a different table... where they forgot about us for like 15 minutes. This kind of ruined our experience here. The food was pretty good, as far as burgers, fries, milkshakes, and deep fried buffalo wings go. Here, you can get a milk shake instead of a drink. Yeah, we never ate our dessert.

Quick Service at Hollywood Studios, Lunch: Decent & fast. I got a sloppy joe, French fries, and a really delicious cupcake.

Brown Derby (2 credits), Dinner: This dinner was very good. The crab spring rolls were super yummy, as was the duck breast (I wasn't crazy about the yucca balls that came with the duck breast, but DH liked them). I liked their approach to desserts, because you got to choose 3 mini desserts. The cheese plate was nice, but one of them was basically the rind.

Yak & Yeti, Lunch: Our favorite lunch/one credit meal. In Animal Kingdom, this restaurant and the Rainforest Cafe are ran by Landry Restaurant group... so, they're more like typical "chain food" restaurants - not really "Disney" food. We got the strip steak, and it was decent much in the same way an Outback strip steak is decent. My mango pie dessert was yummy.

Bongos Cuban Cafe, Lunch: Not great. We paid for this lunch out of pocket on our last day. My salad was kind of yuck. The tostones were good, but it's hard to screw up fried plantains.

Kouzinna, Breakfast: Meh. I got the anise fig french toast, and it was nothing special.  The staff here was super friendly, though.  They really made us feel welcome on our first morning there.


Dinner Shows - I really liked the dinner shows. Still expensive, but I thought they were a good value... drinks (beer/wine) and gratuities were included, so that made a huge difference. The food was decent, and the entertainment was cheezy but fun.

Polynesian Luau (2 credits): DH loved the food here. The chicken, ribs, and pork were great. Plus there was a plate with salad, noodle salad, and pineapple as appetizers/sides. Beer and wine included. Some parts of the show were a little slow, but the fire dancer at the end was pretty awesome. I really wanted to try the Dole Whip while I was at the Polynesian after dinner... but, I was just too stuffed.

Hoop-de-do Review (2 credits): We were kind of a disaster at this show, so I can't really review it with an unbiased opinion. It took us forever to get there (poor planning) and DS was a screaming mess, like major meltdown mode. So, this was a little hard to enjoy. We didn't like the food as much as the luau, but that's probably because we're not into corn/baked beans/mashed potatoes, in general. The fried chicken & ribs were good, though. We probably would have enjoyed the show if we were in a better mood. The crowd here seemed to be a 40/40/20 mix between families/the "olds"/random groups. It was freezing cold that night, and no where to really wait around indoors before the show started... which was super annoying (and probably contributed to the meltdown).

Fast Pass +: In order to ride the "popular" rides, you get 3 fast passes, that you can allocate through the app or various FP+ kiosks throughout the parks. If you pass your allotted time, you can still change the FP, but if you're too late in the day, a lot of the popular FP's are gone. If a ride line is short, just go through the line and don't waste a FP. There are also some character meet locations that have FP+ availability, like the Princess plaza in the Magic Kingdom. If you can't find a FP+ slot, keep checking, because things change like minute by minute. Fast passes take some strategizing, and we weren't really well equipped to deal with that - I didn't really research in advance. The kiosk people are pretty much useless, unless they're people that have the hand-held tablets.

The My Disney Experience App: This app kind of sucked. I mean, it served its purpose, but was super slow and crashed a lot. It was really annoying. I hope they fix it and work out the kinks. Plus, wireless service throughout the park is spotty. Depending on what you need to do, it's probably easier to call (like for dining reservations), or stop at a FP+ kiosk (for FPs).

Memory Maker: I spent $149 on this, through pre-purchase. I'm not sure that it was worth it. There are a few cute pics, but most of the pictures kind of suck... on the other hand... it meant I didn't have to lug a camera around. If we didn't have an infant, I probably would just go for my own camera... but, with DS in tow, we had to bring diapers, wipes, baby food, a carrier, etc. So, adding a big Nikon to that was just too much. We actually wound up buying a small Canon at WalMart, once we found out that the character dinners didn't have photographers.


The stroller situation: Well, I'm a dummy and totally forgot to rent one before we left. Like, I had an "Oh f#$%!" moment when I remembered at 11PM the night before our first park day that we were stroller-less. So, I went to Walgreens and bought an umbrella stroller. DS was super cranky, because he couldn't really sleep or get comfortable in the stroller, and DD was super cranky because her feet hurt. (It didn't help that we also made the mistake of getting up at like 5:45AM on our first day) So, then we considered renting one for the next day, but decided instead to buy a $50 snap & go type stroller at WalMart. In the end, this set-up worked great. DS was super comfortable in his car seat. DD rode in the umbrella stroller (but, when she wasn't riding, we were able to just sort of attach it to the snap-n-go). The baby carrier was essential, too... you need something to put the baby in when riding through the rides or walking through areas where no strollers are allowed. OH, and also? OMFG at the stroller parking organization. There are like, so many stroller valets. I couldn't believe it.


The Parks - We did 6 full days in the parks. Like, we were out of our room by 9'ish at the latest, and didn't return until 11 or 12 PM. I know most people take a break, but I'm pretty kamikaze. It actually took me about 2 days to relax a little and slow down the pace. We only had two major kid meltdowns - one the first day (see stroller situation above, and the way too early awake time), and the Hoop-de-doo experience. Other than that, it was smooth sailing. Oh yeah, I had one little meltdown myself waiting for a tram... I was exhausted, and it was a little embarrassing, LOL. Most people go back to the room for a nap time, but we sort of used table service lunch as our "down time". DS just kind of napped whenever. DD didn't really want a nap. Honestly, by the 6th day in the parks, we were totally spent. I think 5 days would have been perfect for a first time visit... and, future visits, we will manage with 3 or 4. We did 2 days at Magic Kingdom, 1 day at Epcot, 1 day at Animal Kingdom, and 2 days at Hollywood Studios. Most people probably would have done one at HS, and 2 at Epcot... but, HS was DH's favorite park, and I didn't really care much one way or the other.


Some of the stuff we really enjoyed -

MK - Enchanted Tales with Belle, this is like a character meet on steroids. Belle comes out, does a little interaction with the kids, and gets at least two pics with each kid. And, she's careful to make sure that they're smiling and happy. The Mickey character meet at the front of the park was really good, too... because Mickey actually talks to the kids, and the lighting is nice which makes for good pics. I didn't wait in line for this - we happened to catch it with a 5 minute line.

HS - Fantasmic. This show was great. Don't sit in the first few rows though... we made that mistake, and got wet.

AK - Finding Nemo show. I loved this. It's like a play with these puppet-type things. DH fell asleep, but we were tired.

Epcot - Turtle Talk with Crash. This was really cute. There's a turtle on the screen, and he can see the audience... so, he interacts with the kids.

There were more things we really liked... I just need to think about it.

I enjoyed all of the roller coasters... but, for all of you Midwesterners... it's definitely no Cedar Point when it comes to roller coasters!

[DarcyLongfellow]

What a great review :-)

We live close, so we go for just a day or two at a time and stay off site. I'd love to do the whole stay on property and do the dining plan thing, but DH isn't into the idea.

I love the character meals, but they can seem rushed. I had no idea they don't have photo pass photographers -- we've never bought the CD because it's not worth it for a two day trip.

[chia]

Feb 17, 2014 15:47:55 GMT -5 DarcyLongfellow said:

What a great review :-)

We live close, so we go for just a day or two at a time and stay off site. I'd love to do the whole stay on property and do the dining plan thing, but DH isn't into the idea.

I love the character meals, but they can seem rushed. I had no idea they don't have photo pass photographers -- we've never bought the CD because it's not worth it for a two day trip.

I should clarify - they had a Photopass photographer at the door, for one posed photo. But, not at the tables while characters are visiting.

Maybe it's different for other meals, but that was our experience at the meals we went to!

[chia]

Feb 17, 2014 15:44:35 GMT -5 @starry said:

Thanks for the reviews! We are taking J in September on her birthday. We are staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for seven nights but are only planning on four park days (military park hopper tickets). Luckily my parents are joining (separate room though) so hopefully we can have a few late nights. We are only planning on 3-4 table Disney meals as we are somewhat cheap and may go off property. Right now Biergarten, Sanaa, Ohana character breakfast, and Liberty Tree Tavern are on the list if high went to any of those.

Sounds like it was great, go you!

Shoot, I forgot... we went to Liberty Tree tavern, too - for lunch.

I got a BLT, and wasn't really fond of it. It was on sort of weird bread. I wished I would have gotten DH's fried fish meal. Their sticky toffee cake was super yummy, though. It kind of tasted like a chocolate chip cookie pie with caramel on top? That's the best way I can describe it.

[DarcyLongfellow]

Feb 17, 2014 15:44:35 GMT -5 @starry said:

Thanks for the reviews! We are taking J in September on her birthday. We are staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for seven nights but are only planning on four park days (military park hopper tickets). Luckily my parents are joining (separate room though) so hopefully we can have a few late nights. We are only planning on 3-4 table Disney meals as we are somewhat cheap and may go off property. Right now Biergarten, Sanaa, Ohana character breakfast, and Liberty Tree Tavern are on the list if high went to any of those.

Sounds like it was great, go you!

Animal Kingdom Lodge is awesome! Definitely plan some time to just hang out and watch the animals from your hotel!

We always do the military tickets too (through my dad). They are such an awesome deal. I think each service member can buy 8 tickets a year, so if you guys wanted more days you could probably do them.

You'll probably find that it's not worth the time wasted to go off property for too many meals, at least not for lunches You don't have to spend a lot of money to eat on property -- there are plenty of counter service options that aren't just burgers and fries.

What we usually do is eat breakfast at the hotel, then plan a late table service lunch -- that gives us a chance to cool off in the air conditioning, and also re-fuel a bit with unlimited refills on drinks. Then we'll often get dinner off property on our way to our hotel, but if you're staying on property that may not make sense.

Will you have your own car? If not, going off property will be a lot harder. Also, Disney transportation from AKL is all busses, which can take a while.

We love Liberty Tree Tavern. We almost always eat there on MK days. Also check out Be Our Guest -- it's counter service for lunch.

We loved the buffet restaurant at AKL -- Boma, I think?

The Ohana breakfast is supposed to be great. We've never been because DD doesn't know who Lilo and Stitch are.

Biergarten also sounds awesome, but I can never convince DH to try it. I think he's worried I'll embarrass him by dancing to the band

[redheadk]

Great review! Thanks We're taking DD in early November while my sis runs the Wine & Dine half or whatever it's called.

[ilikedonuts]

Glad you had fun!

Just a note, you are very lucky that you weren't towed for parking at a resort and going to a park. You have a 3 hour window to park at a resort if you have a dining reservation at that resort. I saw many cars being towed when we stayed at Bay Lake Tower and they are even more strict during F&W at the Epcot area resorts. I wouldn't recommend doing it again just to be safe.

Oh and they just updated the app last week so supposedly its much better now!

[chia]

Feb 17, 2014 16:21:15 GMT -5 ilikedonuts said:

Glad you had fun!

Just a note, you are very lucky that you weren't towed for parking at a resort and going to a park. You have a 3 hour window to park at a resort if you have a dining reservation at that resort. I saw many cars being towed when we stayed at Bay Lake Tower and they are even more strict during F&W at the Epcot area resorts. I wouldn't recommend doing it again just to be safe.

Oh and they just updated the app last week so supposedly its much better now!

This is good to know.

So, nevermind my advice about illegal parking.

[grosnl19]

Great review! Something to look forward to in 3.5 years :/)

[BAMFMrsB]

Good review! I don't think I have the restraint to wait until DS is older. Hell, I KNOW I don't. We're just Disney people. Like going to Orlando, not like Mickey themed chinaware or anything.

You should have ordered the cheese plate at CA Grille! I love that cheese plate. Mmmmm... fromage. We stayed at POFQ last time we visited, too. I liked it ok. I loved the easy boat access to Downtown Disney. I want to splurge and go with the Polynesian next time, though. You should have also had breakfast there. We go for the Kona coffee and waffles.

And we tried the deluxe meal plan ONE TIME. OMFG, the food. We hurt by the last day. We are just not "3 course meal" people EVERY DAY. I think I'll scale down next time to the 1 regular meal, 1 quick service.

oh, and 1 more tip. Book 1 week on property, but only go to the parks 4-5 days max (park hopper for lyfe). We hang out in the pool or hit the outlet mall for 1-2 days of downtime. It is much needed. We open + close the parks, but have yet to try it with DS in tow.

[chia]

Feb 17, 2014 16:38:09 GMT -5 BAMFMrsB said:

And we tried the deluxe meal plan ONE TIME. OMFG, the food. We hurt by the last day. We are just not "3 course meal" people EVERY DAY. I think I'll scale down next time to the 1 regular meal, 1 quick service.

oh, and 1 more tip. Book 1 week on property, but only go to the parks 4-5 days max (park hopper for lyfe). We hang out in the pool or hit the outlet mall for 1-2 days of downtime. It is much needed. We open + close the parks, but have yet to try it with DS in tow.

I totally agree on both points...

for us, the decision to do Deluxe was more about the 2 credit dining we wanted to do.  If we would have paid out of pocket for California Grill, two dinner shows, and Brown Derby, it would have cost a lot more than the upgrade to Deluxe. 

Without several two credit meals on the books, we would have been totally OK on the "Regular" meal plan.

[bunch]

You guys are not helping my bizarre Disney fever. It sounds like a great trip!

[ilikedonuts]

Feb 17, 2014 17:24:19 GMT -5 @starry said:

BAMFMrsB have you stayed at animal Kingdom before?

butting in!

We have 3 times. Twice club level at Jambo. Once at Kidani in a 1 bedroom.

[Deleted]

Thanks for the review! Six park days in a row is hard core even without kids. You're a warrior!

[ilikedonuts]

Feb 17, 2014 18:11:24 GMT -5 @starry said:

Feb 17, 2014 17:34:58 GMT -5 ilikedonuts said:

butting in!

We have 3 times. Twice club level at Jambo. Once at Kidani in a 1 bedroom.

I assume you liked it then! We are in a studio savanna view at jambo on dvc rental points. I am hoping the view is worth the extra $35 a day!

Definitely worth it. We were in a standard view at Kidani at May and we'll never stay without a savanna view again especially now that we have kids. DD loves looking at the animals. Luckily we were close to the elevator where there was a viewing area so I didn't have to take her far in the morning to look at them when she woke up! You'll really like being able to just walk out on the balcony to see everything.

There is an awesome kids area by the pool at Kidani if you want to either walk over or take the bus over. The pool at Jambo though is bigger than the pool at Kidani. The little water slide at Kidani was a big hit with my 18 month old as well!

Playground at Jambo is great too!

[cmarie11]

I'm irrationally excited about planning a Disney trip someday, and my child isn't even here yet.

[zarapipe]

Awesome review! And girl, you deserve a vacation after all of the stuff you did there, with an infant n ok less! You are awesome. We are going in April and I'm just going to try to survive!

[megs193]

Great review. We are going in May and staying at the wilderness lodge. People think we are crazy for taking our kids when they are so little but we have gone 4 times since our oldest was born and had a great time every time. We love the dining plan but didn't do it this time because I booked through orbitz instead of disney. It will definitely be an adjustment since we are used to not paying attention to the prices.

Can you explain the hollywood and vine meal to me. I thought there were characters at lunch. We have a lunch reservation booked in May and now I am nervous that there won't be characters. My son looooves Jake so he would be really disappointed.

[ilikedonuts]

Feb 17, 2014 20:26:25 GMT -5 megs193 said:

Great review. We are going in May and staying at the wilderness lodge. People think we are crazy for taking our kids when they are so little but we have gone 4 times since our oldest was born and had a great time every time. We love the dining plan but didn't do it this time because I booked through orbitz instead of disney. It will definitely be an adjustment since we are used to not paying attention to the prices.

Can you explain the hollywood and vine meal to me. I thought there were characters at lunch. We have a lunch reservation booked in May and now I am nervous that there won't be characters. My son looooves Jake so he would be really disappointed.

Breakfast and lunch have the Disney Junior characters. Jake, Handy Manny, Doc McStuffins and Sofia the First. That's been confirmed a ton of times on the disboards.com I wouldn't worry.

[BAMFMrsB]

Feb 17, 2014 17:24:19 GMT -5 @starry said:

BAMFMrsB have you stayed at animal Kingdom before?

Nope. We've always kept it cheap. Either Pop Century or and All Star. For a while we stayed at the Dolphin. My mom made friends with one of the managers and he got us excellent rates. We would walk in via the backside of Epcot or could see the fireworks from our room. But now that I have DS we may start splurging for the added space and amenities!

[bronxgirl]

Sounds like an awesome trip!

[BAMFMrsB]

I know All Star Music has a very few 'suite' type rooms that have kitchenettes. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney's_All-Star_Music_Resort (see guest rooms section)

I've heard good things but they are hard to come by. The new Art of Animation also offers more of these suite type rooms.

Here are more 5+ options:
disneyworld.disney.go.com/planning-guides/in-depth-advice/groups/

[mrslisa]

Thanks! We are going for 6 days in October and this is really helpful.

[chia]

Feb 17, 2014 20:59:57 GMT -5 ilikedonuts said:

Feb 17, 2014 20:26:25 GMT -5 megs193 said:

Great review. We are going in May and staying at the wilderness lodge. People think we are crazy for taking our kids when they are so little but we have gone 4 times since our oldest was born and had a great time every time. We love the dining plan but didn't do it this time because I booked through orbitz instead of disney. It will definitely be an adjustment since we are used to not paying attention to the prices.

Can you explain the hollywood and vine meal to me. I thought there were characters at lunch. We have a lunch reservation booked in May and now I am nervous that there won't be characters. My son looooves Jake so he would be really disappointed.

Breakfast and lunch have the Disney Junior characters. Jake, Handy Manny, Doc McStuffins and Sofia the First. That's been confirmed a ton of times on the disboards.com I wouldn't worry.

Ah, I'm sorry... I should have clarified. It was our lunch, but it was actually the earliest "dinner" time available.  So, technically, it was the dinner buffet. We didn't have dinner reservations until 9PM that night, so we ate a late lunch.