My rambling thoughts!

[Tco200]

So the dust has settled and the reality that it's all over has set in, over the years I've got some great tips and advice on here so thought I would share some thoughts just in case it helps one person.

For reference we booked a package with Virgin flying from Manchester staying at Port Orleans Riverside. There was me, my wife Nikki, Arlo - 6 and Arabella 18 months.

Pre Flight Hotel

We stayed in Premier Inn, Runger Lane North near Manchester airport. We have always travelled on the day before but from now on will do this everytime. Rooms were absolutely fine and the hotel sorted us a taxi to the airport which took less than 10 mins down one relatively quiet road. We didn't eat here and paid £59 (it can be had for less) and we thought it was well worth it

Flights and Airports

We were on VS075 and arrived about 3 and a half hours before the flights, we had 4 cases, 2 trunkis, a pram and 2 backpacks so paid £1 for a trolley at the airport as wouldn't have managed otherwise.
Check in was a doddle with no queues and we were through security in minutes.

We had made a last minute decision to book the V Room, this was £60 for the 4 of us (although Arabella is only 1 so we didn't pay for her) We really enjoyed it in here, was lovely to have a base where we could sit in comfort with a drink.
The food was decent and they made Nikki a breakfast with Vegetarian Sausages and hash browns which was great. Again this is something we would book next time.

We sat in the Extra Legroom Seats on the 747, we made this decision as Arabella didn't have a seat so wanted a bit more space in front of us.
The flight itself was shorter than the original estimate and got us to Orlando about 30 mins early.

Couldn't fault the flight, the food was fine enough, plenty of snacks and drinks and the IFE was spot on. The only problem was an unruly 18 month old near us - but we couldn't complain too much as she belonged to us!

We got to the immigration hall which didn't look too busy, we were through in about 20 minutes or so and the bags came through quickly. Trolleys are free in this part so I got one and took our bags to the next carousel. Here they were encouraging people strongly to take bags with them but it wasn't manageable for us so we put them on the carousel and went off to the monorail.

On the other side by the time I had collected our $200 gift card from Virgin our bags had arrived again. At this side of the airport however trolleys are $5, I opted to use the services of one of the airport workers and their large trolleys to take our bags to the Magical Express, I think I gave him $10 (I think they say a dollar or two per bag is normal) but it was worth it to have someone else take them, we used this facility again on the return journey.

The only issue was waiting for Magical Express which was less magical and more a big yellow Mears bus that took about 40 minutes to arrive, otherwise MCO was a doddle

Hotel - Port Orleans Riverside

This was our first time at this hotel and I had requested the Bayou and specifically block 17 (I think that's the closest one without being a preferred room) upon check in we were allocated a room in Magnolia Bend. I asked if we could be moved to the Bayou, the lady seemed a bit put out (more on that later) but eventually found us a room in block 28 which we were happy to take.

As it turned out we loved the location, about a 5 minute stroll to the main building, a lovely quiet pool outside and a couple of minutes to the West (in my opinion best) depot.
The Resort is just beautiful and we can't wait to go back, although may try French Quarter next, when we do go back we will request block 28 again.

We liked being able to walk to French Quarter and use their pool as well but all the pools were really good, after staying in all the moderates (other than French Quarter), one of the Port Orleans resorts would be my first choice for sure.

I miss the walk to the food court, I loved going to fill up the drinks by strolling down the river. The place just felt like home!


Transport

As above we were close to the West Depot so always used that one, buses were usually pretty prompt although a couple of times we did wait 20 minutes or so, however we never failed to get on a bus when it arrived at the West Depot as they always arrived empty or near empty.

The queues at the main depot were horrific some days, if I was near there I would still take a longer walk to the West Depot.
Again coming back from the Parks the buses were frequent with no issues.

We loved the boat to Disney Springs but found a few times we couldn't use them due to lightning in the vicinity (which in late August / September is quite often)

We did use Uber one day, we opted for Uber plus a car seat for a trip to Target - Arlo wanted to go for the toy section. On leaving target there wasn't a vehicle with a car seat available to had to have Arabella on our knee but it was fine.

Parks

As always for us Magic Kingdom is by far our favourite park, we ended up visiting most days whilst we only went to Hollywood Studios 2 or 3 times, it's a shame but it feels lacking until the work is complete.

Rider swap worked a dream for us and meant Arlo got to ride things like Kali Rapids and Star Tours twice in a row with only one fastpass for him. He got braver and braver as the trip went on with him deciding at the end he wanted to do Rock and Rollercoaster - priceless picture from that.

We were astonished by Pandora, it just looks stunning, the river ride was fine but felt like it built up to something then just ends, FoP however is remarkable, Arlo wasn’t too keen at first as he felt trapped when the back restraint clamped down and said he couldn’t breathe but soon settled and I think he enjoyed the ride.

I will say however I hate Dinoland USA – it just has no place in Disneyworld for me, tacky and horrible without a hint of magic.

Queues in general seemed OK, we had fastpasses for most things and only queued a long time otherwise for Mine Train and Splash Mountain when we decided to change plans, these were about 50 minutes each.

MNSSHP

Mixed feelings about this, bear in mind we went on the Friday before labour day. Arabella is mad on Moana who is seriously lacking in presence throughout Disneyworld. When we heard she was there we had to meet her. We queued from about 18:30 and had about a 45 minute wait. Me and Arlo popped out of the queue a couple of times to the trick or treat stations in Tiki Room and Jungle Cruise and got a load of candy. Moana was brilliant and we got some amazing pictures.

After this we walked through Adventureland and Frontierland through a couple of Trick or Treat stops and headed to Haunted Mansion. We queued for the Magic shot with the carriage and just got it as the heavens opened. From that point it didn’t stop and the queues for rides were huge, we were told by a cast member that the parade would be cancelled along with Hocus Pocus and the monster dance ball, it was probably 20:30-21:00 by now so we decided to head to guest service to see if they had a contingency plan. After a bit of a queue they offered us a refund which was surprising, feeling a bit wet and fed up we took the offer and on our way out caught some of the parade, which I think was scaled down.

I would try MNSSHP again but avoid weekends for the crowds and plan for bad weather!

Food

Again we really enjoyed the QSDP and wouldn’t want to go without it. We felt we had too much food a lot of days and seemed to waste quite a lot. Some meals are easily sharable, we found the half chicken at Wolfgang Puck was a great meal for our children to share, similar with the roast chickens at the BBQ places in the parks.
Blaze pizza was superb and well worth a visit, again if you aren’t too hungry these are sharable easily.

I got one of the hotdogs with macaroni cheese from Casey’s corner one day and the sheer sight of it made me feel sick, they are ridiculously enormous.

Some of our favourite meals were:
Falafel Wrap and Chicken Wrap from Tangerine in Morocco at Epcot
Honey Chicken from Yak and Yeti café (could eat this everyday)
Turkey Sandwich from Be Our Guest
Large Pizza and Create your own pasta from Port Orleans food courts

We ended up using a lot of snacks and QSDP credits on the final day in Ghirardeli and Goofys!

Cast Members

Maybe a little controversial this but this is one area I thought had gone downhill since our last visit in 2014. Everybody is human and nobody is as perfectly smiley as we normally see in Cast Members but I noticed quite a few instances of attitude which I’ve never seen before.

A few times in shops I saw people mutter things under their breath or even talking loudly about previous guests.

One bus driver we had (he was from the UK) was quite angrily shouting at people to move back when there was no space to safely do so and got in a near confrontation with another guest.
Also not Disney as such but there was a waiter in Wolfgang Pucks loudly moaning to another Waiter about the level of tips they receive these days – no surprise with that attitude matey!

Thankfully it wasn’t too widespread and the majority were great as usual. Interactions with characters was good although we are always a little disappointed with most princesses but the silly wigs can’t be helped!

Weather

We’ve been in September before so expected rain – and we know what has come since we returned. However most days it was great, maybe a little too hot some days. We did however encounter the odd storm, usually just as we were camped out in a prime spot for the parade. We worked through it and it only really caused an issue on the party night. Given the chance I would happily go at the same time of year again, when stuck to school holidays it’s about the best choice for us


Sorry that was a much longer and more unhinged ramble than I anticipated, and I didn’t even get round to adding any pics yet – can’t wait to get planning again, roll on 2019!

[minnie1981]

Thanks for posting😁 I love reading others thoughts/feelings of their holidays. Hope you made lots of magical memories as a family, my youngest was 20 months when we first went and it was amazing 😁

[Beanie1]

Sounds like you had a lovely time. Thanks for taking the time to share. X

[Wanngo]

Thanks for sharing ,we are staying at POR next month. I will be sure to head to the West depot!.