Some Thoughts on Our Return Yesterday

[Big Vern]

Hi

Just come back from 2 weeks at Caribbean Beach (although moved to POR! ) on Table Service upgrade on free DDP for 3 adults (one 14 year old) and 1 child (9). This was approx our 17th trip and our 3rd at a Disnet hotel (villas was our usual choice before that).

Thought I'd post some personal findings on the trip which you may or may not find useful!

1) America is now expensive - apart from fuel! If I could I would have bought gallons home with me, but apparently there's no duty free allowance for it and I'd need a waterproof suitcase! Everything else is pretty much either on a par or more expensive. The only real exception is Apple products (about 10% cheaper) and the outlets if you get discount vouchers etc.

2) DDP - I wouldn't bother upgrading again. 2 x Quick Serve and 2 x Snacks is enough and the restaurants on Disney's property have gone down hill in my opinion. I think this is in part because almost everyone is on DDP and there is no effort to try and earn the expected 18% tip. We ate at numerous places and here's what I thought;
Via Napoli - Excellent service and food. Amazing pizza!
Narcoosee - Over rated and poor service with extortionate prices. I had the cheese and biscuits which was $19 (I appreciate it's included but...) and I have four pieces of cheese which were 4cm x 2cm and 6 tiny biscuits. Wasn't worth 2 TS credits and wouldn't darken their doors again except to watch the MK fireworks. Our server was inattentive (bearing in mind this is a signature dining restaurant) and disinterested in us.
Tratorria Al Forno - Great food and service.
Chef Mickey - Best Rib I've ever eaten but service was rubbish and inattentive.
Raglan Road - was ok but nothing special. Entertainment was good!
Yak & Yeti - good food and service. Try the Ahi Tuna Nachos!
Tenpan Edo - Awesome food, service and entertainment.
Chef de Paris - So poor I refused to pay the tip. Wrong meals served, drinks never arrived, cold food. Apparent the manager used to work for Raymond Blanc - I'm pretty sure Raymond would have not been pleased with the standard in here. Won't be going there again!
Le Celier - It's got quiet in here over the last couple of years! Not worth two TS Credit and you can make Cheddar Cheese soup at home (my kids said the one I make (from the Disney recipe book) is better than theirs too! ). Poutain is served in one of the kiosks too. Steak was nice but still not woth 2 TS Credits.
Crystal Palace Breakfast - Good food and service but personally if I was on TS plan I would pay for this as it's quite a bit cheaper than the other TS restaurants.
We also ate off site at Carrabbas which the food and service was excellent and about half the cost of a Disney location. iHOP was good for breakfast and the service excellent - still not particularly cheap, but cheaper than Disney.

3) Parking - If you are going next year and staying at a Disney hotel they will be fleecing you $22 a day for parking at the hotel so factor this in. Personally I think its another way that Disney are ripping you off and will definatley make me think twice about going back.

4) Orlando International Airport - This is an appalling airport to enter the US in. The queues were even worse this year as they are doing building works in the arrivals. Took us nearly 2 hours to clear it and no one could give a fig! If you have an alternative that works for you my advice is do it! If you have no choice but to go to MCO (we don't sadly! ) then just be prepared to stand in a long queue (LHR is appaling too for non-EU people by all accounts!).

5) Caribbean Beach - They told us the building works are 5 days a week and start at 0900 prior to arrival (and we stayed there last year which was fine). This is piffle! They start at 0630 and are 7 days a week! We moved to POR (at no extra cost - thank you Disney) which we found much better!

6) Parks - Slinkey Dog is great as is the new Toy Story area, Star Wars looks like it's going to be amazing, can't wait for Guardians of the Galaxy ride at Epcot and Tron at MK. As normal CM's are amazing around the parks and we had the best Tram attendant ever who was hilarious!

We had a great holiday despite the slightly negative vibe above it's still an amazing place. Had I know about the DDP TS and what you got for the upgrade I would have saved the approx £1k we paid to upgrade and stuck to the free plan which was more than sufficient and would have probably done us. There's loads of great QS places and you save a fortune in tips!

Thomas Cook Airlines were good too - except they charge £5 for the extra movies which were not really worth it! Load your device up with Netflix and save a fiver!

There's a new Walmart on the 192 (near the Machine Gun America sign) which was handy!

Think that's probably it - please remember these are my opinions and I'm sure others have a contradictory view but thought I'd pen them anyway in case they are useful for others planning trips.

Vern!

[loves2plan]

Sounds like you had a good time overall. So pleased you managed to get moved from CBR as some areas back right on to the Riviera work and I'd hate to stay in them. Fortunately, it should be pretty much done by the time we go again at the end of October next year.

Parking for UK guests is still free until 2020, but it's definitely something for people to consider from then. It won't affect us as we don't hire a car, but with the way Disney prices are going, we may well be looking at off-site for future trips, especially if they stop free dining as that's what makes onsite feasible for us.

We're fans of the qsdp, and don't bother upgrading as it's almost £1000 for us,band I just don't value it that highly. We just pay for a couple of TS meals oop if we want to eat somewhere. We tried our first off-site restaurant last year (Outback) and was impressed with the food, price and service. Planning on visiting there again when we go back next year

[chippyminton]

Interesting to hear your experiences as we were also at POR with DDP upgrade.
We enjoy the table service and factor in the tips, and the free gift card and opting out of mousekeeping made a big dent in the tips bill. We ate at these, and had decent food everywhere. Service was a bit hit and miss, Ohana was terrible, but made up for it with a spectacular window table for the fireworks.
‘Ohana
Mama Melrose
Akershus
50s Prime Time
California Grill (brunch)
Bongo’s Cuban Cafe
Skipper Canteen
The Plaza
Rainforest Cafe (Animal Kingdom)

We don’t hire a car (except for 1 day to go to watch the Rays) and are total converts to using Lyft for shopping, soccer and getting home in 5 minutes from Typhoon Lagoon! We also booked a private transfer from POR to Universal and to the airport. can recommend.

Orlando airport - we avoid immigration by flying via Dublin.

We love Alligator Bayou at POR . Having toured some of the other resorts I think it would be hard to beat.

We are at Universal now, and I miss being in the Disney bubble!

[act1980]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I know what you mean about MCO, I hate it with a passion!

[SiandAm]

We’ve just returned and actually had a really positive experience at MCO, we were through a very small (not the regular one) immigration hall in less than 10 minutes! We were very impressed despite the building work.

[Clamshell]

Is the building work in MCO to improve the arrivals area and reduce queues in the future?

[Mumsy554]

How do you use the free gift card for tips?

[Clamshell]

Originally Posted by Mumsy554

How do you use the free gift card for tips?

See more...

Easiest way is to charge the tips to you room account and use the gift card to pay that off 😃

[walt4it]

Thanks for sharing all of your thoughts and experiences.

I have to admit #3 resonates with me so much for any future Disney trip.


$22 to park your car at the hotel

Glad you got a move from Caribbean Beach, nothing worse than early morning building work

Great to read you enjoyed your holiday

[Leggibone]

I have had and heard mixed reviews on immigration at MCO,
2012 - took ages, but suitcases came straight off
2014 - self kiosks, dead easy but then another 15 mins to see the officer- again cases arrived pretty promptly.
2016 - we flew via Dublin and CLT, so arrived domestically, but due to storms had to wait c.30 mins for our cases! (Tbh I’ve waited longer then that at gatwick before was frustrating though) - that said I’d still fly that route again for the right price in business class!
JFK was probably almost as bad as MCO though, immigration wasn’t too bad - took forever to clear the customs queue... we weren’t even bringing in sweets!