Isabelle Chabot
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2015
Trip Report - Walt Disney World - Nov 8 to 15 2015 – Parents with a 7 year old boy and a 10 year old girl.
Weather : Hot and Humid ! 32-34 °C - 89-92 °F - No rain! (Quite warm for Nov)
According to Touring Plans, crowds were supposed to be between 4 and 7 - Felt much more crowded than that. The observed Touring Plans crowds were between 6 and 9. It was our third time during the same week (other visits in 2011 and 2013) and it was much busier this year. This was the kids’ 3rd time at WDW, my husband’s 4th time and my 8th time.
We did 4 days in the parks (no park hopping), one waterpark and added the Very Merry Christmas Party : MK (one long day + 4-12 PM during party on another day), Epcot (future world one day and world showcase on another day), AK (short day) and Hollywood Studios.
We were present at rope drop every morning and the parks opened earlier than advertised on all mornings (likely because of unexpected crowds). We enjoyed morning extra magic hours.
We went to Typhoon Lagoon for a day and had a blast. The park was near empty and the weather was perfect. The snorkeling pool was really cold but the experience was really amazing.
Magic Kingdom on Monday the 9th was the most crowded and it made for a long and tiring day. Christmas party worth every penny. We loved it, the crowds were reasonable; we concentrated on rides and were able to enjoy the park.
Friday the 13th at the world showcase at Epcot during the last weekend of the Food & Wine Festival made for huge crowds. It was hard to even walk from one pavilion to the next.
Our first stay at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort in building 16 in Barbados which is ideally located for buses but quite a walk from the pool/restaurant/shop shopping center. Rooms were basic, would have been nice to have 4 chairs instead of 2. Mousekeeping was ok, did a little scene with our plush toys every day but did not clean thoroughly. Small fridge with no freezer section so cannot freeze juice boxes or water bottles. We had a toaster and groceries delivered prior to arrival through Amazon and Garden Grocers and had breakfast in our room most mornings.
We used Disney’s florals and gifts and the package was waiting for us in our room at arrival. Everything was as ordered with a little extra pixie dust.
We had a free dining plan package. Adults switched desserts for extra sides or appetizers at quick service and most table restaurants. 10 year old girl counted as an adult and ordered the most expensive steak plates at most restaurants! 7 year old boy was constantly frustrated by the limited options of the kids menu and the size of the kid portions but requests to switch items or to add veggies or meatballs (on pasta!) were successful and made him happy. We found that adults overate because we were trying to get the most value out of the dining plan. Tips ended up being significantly higher than expected. Also, free refills on sugar-filled drinks is not our usual. It was our first time on the dining plan and we prefer to pay out-of-pocket for exactly what we are hungry for. We ended up bringing home 19 snacks from the meal plan because we had purchased healthier snacks through Garden Grocers in advance. It made for a nice reminder of Disney in the days following the trip.
Got the free refill mugs at our resort for free but never once refilled them during the trip as we got to the hotel way too late every night and the restaurant was too far !
Best Quick service Restaurants : Pecos Bill (love the Mexican toppings buffet), Columbia Harbour House (felt like we were in New England). We had not eaten at quick service restaurants before and were pleasantly surprised by the fact that you can still sit down, enjoy the air conditioned dining room and really rest, even at a quick service place. Would even consider the quick service dining plan in the future.
Worst quick service: Birds were trying to steal our lunch at Flame Tree BBQ (Animal kingdom) but the food was delicious. It made the kids very nervous however and was just unpleasant. Bees and wasps flying everywhere near the counter restaurants at Typhoon Lagoon. Was bitten by one but the first aid staff add a “magic potion” to help with the pain. It worked.
Best Table Restaurants : Coral Reef, Biergarten and Rose & Crown at Epcot. (we had done Be Our Guest and other amazing restaurants on previous visits and really enjoyed them)
Best Character meal : Supercalifragilistic Breakfast at 1900 Park Fare - amazing buffet selections - great interactions with Mary Poppins, Alice and the Mad Hatter, Winnie the Pooh and Tigger. ‘Ohana’s with Lilo and Stitch featured “regular” breakfast selections and Stitch did not interact much with the kids.
Best Entertainment : Hoop-Dee-Doo musical review with our server Rob who was a blast and Sci-Fi Dine-In theater with our server Hassan who was very dedicated and helpful.
Best unexpected use of an extra FastPass+ selection : Fantasmic VIP seating -arrived only minutes before show and had amazing seats.
Kids loved going on Space Mountain, Rock ‘n Roller, 7 Dwarfs Mine Train and Tower of Terror for the first time. It was really great to see their excitement when they came out! Everest, Test Track, Sum of all thrills and Big Thunder Mtn were still at the top of their list. Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, Spaceship Earth, Mission Space, Star Tours and Toy Story Midway Mania remained favorites. The Frozen sing along was so fun, I loved the citizens of Arendelle.
Happy to have seen Soarin’ and the Osborne family festival of lights for the last time. We saw Captain EO for the first and last time and we thought it was a waste of time !
We did both the fastpass line and the regular stand-by waiting area for Peter Pan and are glad we got to see the Darling children’s bedroom which we would have missed if we had only done the fastpass line.
We really enjoyed doing the Remi’s Hide and Squeak activity and the Epcot Passport to the World. We also did the Agent P mission in the Mexican pavilion but it was too crowded to be fully enjoyable and a bit too long for our plan and we stopped after one mission.
Our magic bands worked properly for everything: access to our room, charge to account, manage dining plan credits, fastpass+, additional fastpass+ at kioks, photopass, etc. Because we are Canadian, the personalized bands were waiting for us at the hotel check-in counter.
We managed the whole trip from the MyDisneyExperience app and did not use any of the printouts. We used touringplans.com for touring plans and crowd levels. We relied on live info from guests currently at WDW through a few planning Facebook pages.
We had purchased the memory maker package in advance for $169 and got 330 photos. The editing process (adding frames, borders, signature stickers and other decorations) is painful, having to wait for the server about a minute for each modification, but the pictures of the whole family, of the ride experiences and of the character interactions are worth it. Some pictures did not show up immediately on the app but appeared the next day. A whole series of pictures never showed up but was rapidly added to our account after I filled out the lost picture form on the website.
No one got sick and we were not particularly careful except for basic handwashing.
We experienced pixie dust on a few occasions. A waiter gave us a good-anywhere-anytime fastpass because service was a big long at a table restaurant and we were about to miss our scheduled fastpass. A cast member gave us a few tips to meet characters quickly while we were waiting in line. Elsa commented on the kids being just like Kristoff’s reindeers, during the xmas parade, because they were wearing antlers.
I had purchased and transformed the Disney’s Encyclopedia of Animated Characters to be used as an autograph book and it generated very interesting character and cast member interactions.
We took Disney transportation (Magical Express, buses and monorail) most of the time and experienced reasonable waits but crowded buses. We took taxis to get from resort to resort and to get back to our hotel after 2 particularly late nights at the parks. Getting to the taxis at Hollywood studios was a pain and we kept being offered unmarked cars which we did not feel comfortable with.
The line for the Magical Express was especially long on the day of arrival. Additionally, our luggage did not get delivered to the room and we had to hunt them down at bell services 8 hours after arrival to finally get them. I would arrange my own private transportation with luggage next time.
We rented a stroller and it was delivered on time and in working order. Our 7 year old son did ride in it on a few late nights but because of the level of crowds, it was hard to navigate. This was our last visit with a stroller.
There was a bounce back offer in a booklet in our room but it did not apply to the same week next year.
The kids had done multiple chores over the last month to accumulate a spending budget. They were very excited to pick and choose “whatever” pleased them in the stores and to manage their budget. Best souvenir purchased by 7 year old (according to him): Donald duck cap with Donald’s head as the cap and his body hanging at the back. Best souvenir purchased by 10 year old: embroidered beach towel. Best souvenir purchased by me: Pandora “Dream” charm for my bracelet. Best stores according to the kids: stores in each country’s pavilions at Epcot.
We were happy to pass on our leftovers and our Mickey toaster to other families through the reuse Facebook page before leaving.
One thing we forgot to do: enjoy a dole whip float !
FitBit report for the week : walked an average of 8.5 miles (14 km) and 20,000 steps a day.
-----UPDATE FOLLOWING SOME COMMENTS/QUESTIONS----
Facebook pages I used :
Disney November 2015 Planning Group
Disboards on Facebook
WDW Disney Recycle, Reuse and regift
Touring Plans :
I created personnalized touring plans by "optimizing" the plans proposed by Touringplans.com based on our FastPass and meal reservations. The Epcot future world plan, the Hollywood studios plan and the Animal Kingdom plan worked really well. The Magic Kingdom plan was already off by one hour at 10:30 AM. Crowds were much bigger than expected. So we removed a few b-rated and c-rated attractions from the plan, re-optimized and were able to do everything else on our list of must-do and then some. We generally followed the touring plans except for impromptu character greetings lineups and the like. A parent sometimes stood in line for character greetings while the other parent and the kids went to enjoy nearby attractions. I always feel like "cheating" when we do that so we tried to limit it to just a few occasions.
Fastpass kioks :
I found that the Fastpass kiosks were easy to find with the park map given at the entrance in the morning. Furthermore, there were plenty of machines available and no real wait to access one. However, it was very difficult to make different choices for different members of the party. I was trying to secure some fastpasses for me only while getting others for my husband and the kids on different attractions and that was near impossible to accomplish at the kiosk. However, if you picked a new attractions for all members of the party, you could then play with it on your app to adjust and make changes.
Taxis
We never waited more than 5 min for a cab. Prices were 10-20 $ and rides lasted 10-20 min. We did not take a taxi after our 2 visits to MK but I was told you have to take the monorail to the Transportation Center and then take a cab there. At Hollywood Studios, we had to take a trolley cart to get to the parking where taxis are parked and waiting. Some unidentifed cars and marked Mears cars were there. We took a Mears taxi. At Epcot, the taxi lineup is very easily accessed where the bus depot is. At the resorts, you can just call a Mears taxi from any phone. we asked the ticket booth attendant to call a Mears taxi at Typhoon Lagoon.
----END OF UPDATE---
All in all, a great trip. Relaxing ? No ! Enjoyable and magical ? Yes !
Isabelle, Québec, Canada - Nov 25, 2015
Weather : Hot and Humid ! 32-34 °C - 89-92 °F - No rain! (Quite warm for Nov)
According to Touring Plans, crowds were supposed to be between 4 and 7 - Felt much more crowded than that. The observed Touring Plans crowds were between 6 and 9. It was our third time during the same week (other visits in 2011 and 2013) and it was much busier this year. This was the kids’ 3rd time at WDW, my husband’s 4th time and my 8th time.
We did 4 days in the parks (no park hopping), one waterpark and added the Very Merry Christmas Party : MK (one long day + 4-12 PM during party on another day), Epcot (future world one day and world showcase on another day), AK (short day) and Hollywood Studios.
We were present at rope drop every morning and the parks opened earlier than advertised on all mornings (likely because of unexpected crowds). We enjoyed morning extra magic hours.
We went to Typhoon Lagoon for a day and had a blast. The park was near empty and the weather was perfect. The snorkeling pool was really cold but the experience was really amazing.
Magic Kingdom on Monday the 9th was the most crowded and it made for a long and tiring day. Christmas party worth every penny. We loved it, the crowds were reasonable; we concentrated on rides and were able to enjoy the park.
Friday the 13th at the world showcase at Epcot during the last weekend of the Food & Wine Festival made for huge crowds. It was hard to even walk from one pavilion to the next.
Our first stay at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort in building 16 in Barbados which is ideally located for buses but quite a walk from the pool/restaurant/shop shopping center. Rooms were basic, would have been nice to have 4 chairs instead of 2. Mousekeeping was ok, did a little scene with our plush toys every day but did not clean thoroughly. Small fridge with no freezer section so cannot freeze juice boxes or water bottles. We had a toaster and groceries delivered prior to arrival through Amazon and Garden Grocers and had breakfast in our room most mornings.
We used Disney’s florals and gifts and the package was waiting for us in our room at arrival. Everything was as ordered with a little extra pixie dust.
We had a free dining plan package. Adults switched desserts for extra sides or appetizers at quick service and most table restaurants. 10 year old girl counted as an adult and ordered the most expensive steak plates at most restaurants! 7 year old boy was constantly frustrated by the limited options of the kids menu and the size of the kid portions but requests to switch items or to add veggies or meatballs (on pasta!) were successful and made him happy. We found that adults overate because we were trying to get the most value out of the dining plan. Tips ended up being significantly higher than expected. Also, free refills on sugar-filled drinks is not our usual. It was our first time on the dining plan and we prefer to pay out-of-pocket for exactly what we are hungry for. We ended up bringing home 19 snacks from the meal plan because we had purchased healthier snacks through Garden Grocers in advance. It made for a nice reminder of Disney in the days following the trip.
Got the free refill mugs at our resort for free but never once refilled them during the trip as we got to the hotel way too late every night and the restaurant was too far !
Best Quick service Restaurants : Pecos Bill (love the Mexican toppings buffet), Columbia Harbour House (felt like we were in New England). We had not eaten at quick service restaurants before and were pleasantly surprised by the fact that you can still sit down, enjoy the air conditioned dining room and really rest, even at a quick service place. Would even consider the quick service dining plan in the future.
Worst quick service: Birds were trying to steal our lunch at Flame Tree BBQ (Animal kingdom) but the food was delicious. It made the kids very nervous however and was just unpleasant. Bees and wasps flying everywhere near the counter restaurants at Typhoon Lagoon. Was bitten by one but the first aid staff add a “magic potion” to help with the pain. It worked.
Best Table Restaurants : Coral Reef, Biergarten and Rose & Crown at Epcot. (we had done Be Our Guest and other amazing restaurants on previous visits and really enjoyed them)
Best Character meal : Supercalifragilistic Breakfast at 1900 Park Fare - amazing buffet selections - great interactions with Mary Poppins, Alice and the Mad Hatter, Winnie the Pooh and Tigger. ‘Ohana’s with Lilo and Stitch featured “regular” breakfast selections and Stitch did not interact much with the kids.
Best Entertainment : Hoop-Dee-Doo musical review with our server Rob who was a blast and Sci-Fi Dine-In theater with our server Hassan who was very dedicated and helpful.
Best unexpected use of an extra FastPass+ selection : Fantasmic VIP seating -arrived only minutes before show and had amazing seats.
Kids loved going on Space Mountain, Rock ‘n Roller, 7 Dwarfs Mine Train and Tower of Terror for the first time. It was really great to see their excitement when they came out! Everest, Test Track, Sum of all thrills and Big Thunder Mtn were still at the top of their list. Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, Spaceship Earth, Mission Space, Star Tours and Toy Story Midway Mania remained favorites. The Frozen sing along was so fun, I loved the citizens of Arendelle.
Happy to have seen Soarin’ and the Osborne family festival of lights for the last time. We saw Captain EO for the first and last time and we thought it was a waste of time !
We did both the fastpass line and the regular stand-by waiting area for Peter Pan and are glad we got to see the Darling children’s bedroom which we would have missed if we had only done the fastpass line.
We really enjoyed doing the Remi’s Hide and Squeak activity and the Epcot Passport to the World. We also did the Agent P mission in the Mexican pavilion but it was too crowded to be fully enjoyable and a bit too long for our plan and we stopped after one mission.
Our magic bands worked properly for everything: access to our room, charge to account, manage dining plan credits, fastpass+, additional fastpass+ at kioks, photopass, etc. Because we are Canadian, the personalized bands were waiting for us at the hotel check-in counter.
We managed the whole trip from the MyDisneyExperience app and did not use any of the printouts. We used touringplans.com for touring plans and crowd levels. We relied on live info from guests currently at WDW through a few planning Facebook pages.
We had purchased the memory maker package in advance for $169 and got 330 photos. The editing process (adding frames, borders, signature stickers and other decorations) is painful, having to wait for the server about a minute for each modification, but the pictures of the whole family, of the ride experiences and of the character interactions are worth it. Some pictures did not show up immediately on the app but appeared the next day. A whole series of pictures never showed up but was rapidly added to our account after I filled out the lost picture form on the website.
No one got sick and we were not particularly careful except for basic handwashing.
We experienced pixie dust on a few occasions. A waiter gave us a good-anywhere-anytime fastpass because service was a big long at a table restaurant and we were about to miss our scheduled fastpass. A cast member gave us a few tips to meet characters quickly while we were waiting in line. Elsa commented on the kids being just like Kristoff’s reindeers, during the xmas parade, because they were wearing antlers.
I had purchased and transformed the Disney’s Encyclopedia of Animated Characters to be used as an autograph book and it generated very interesting character and cast member interactions.
We took Disney transportation (Magical Express, buses and monorail) most of the time and experienced reasonable waits but crowded buses. We took taxis to get from resort to resort and to get back to our hotel after 2 particularly late nights at the parks. Getting to the taxis at Hollywood studios was a pain and we kept being offered unmarked cars which we did not feel comfortable with.
The line for the Magical Express was especially long on the day of arrival. Additionally, our luggage did not get delivered to the room and we had to hunt them down at bell services 8 hours after arrival to finally get them. I would arrange my own private transportation with luggage next time.
We rented a stroller and it was delivered on time and in working order. Our 7 year old son did ride in it on a few late nights but because of the level of crowds, it was hard to navigate. This was our last visit with a stroller.
There was a bounce back offer in a booklet in our room but it did not apply to the same week next year.
The kids had done multiple chores over the last month to accumulate a spending budget. They were very excited to pick and choose “whatever” pleased them in the stores and to manage their budget. Best souvenir purchased by 7 year old (according to him): Donald duck cap with Donald’s head as the cap and his body hanging at the back. Best souvenir purchased by 10 year old: embroidered beach towel. Best souvenir purchased by me: Pandora “Dream” charm for my bracelet. Best stores according to the kids: stores in each country’s pavilions at Epcot.
We were happy to pass on our leftovers and our Mickey toaster to other families through the reuse Facebook page before leaving.
One thing we forgot to do: enjoy a dole whip float !
FitBit report for the week : walked an average of 8.5 miles (14 km) and 20,000 steps a day.
-----UPDATE FOLLOWING SOME COMMENTS/QUESTIONS----
Facebook pages I used :
Disney November 2015 Planning Group
Disboards on Facebook
WDW Disney Recycle, Reuse and regift
Touring Plans :
I created personnalized touring plans by "optimizing" the plans proposed by Touringplans.com based on our FastPass and meal reservations. The Epcot future world plan, the Hollywood studios plan and the Animal Kingdom plan worked really well. The Magic Kingdom plan was already off by one hour at 10:30 AM. Crowds were much bigger than expected. So we removed a few b-rated and c-rated attractions from the plan, re-optimized and were able to do everything else on our list of must-do and then some. We generally followed the touring plans except for impromptu character greetings lineups and the like. A parent sometimes stood in line for character greetings while the other parent and the kids went to enjoy nearby attractions. I always feel like "cheating" when we do that so we tried to limit it to just a few occasions.
Fastpass kioks :
I found that the Fastpass kiosks were easy to find with the park map given at the entrance in the morning. Furthermore, there were plenty of machines available and no real wait to access one. However, it was very difficult to make different choices for different members of the party. I was trying to secure some fastpasses for me only while getting others for my husband and the kids on different attractions and that was near impossible to accomplish at the kiosk. However, if you picked a new attractions for all members of the party, you could then play with it on your app to adjust and make changes.
Taxis
We never waited more than 5 min for a cab. Prices were 10-20 $ and rides lasted 10-20 min. We did not take a taxi after our 2 visits to MK but I was told you have to take the monorail to the Transportation Center and then take a cab there. At Hollywood Studios, we had to take a trolley cart to get to the parking where taxis are parked and waiting. Some unidentifed cars and marked Mears cars were there. We took a Mears taxi. At Epcot, the taxi lineup is very easily accessed where the bus depot is. At the resorts, you can just call a Mears taxi from any phone. we asked the ticket booth attendant to call a Mears taxi at Typhoon Lagoon.
----END OF UPDATE---
All in all, a great trip. Relaxing ? No ! Enjoyable and magical ? Yes !
Isabelle, Québec, Canada - Nov 25, 2015
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