Just back. Highs and lows.

[anna68]

Arrived back Saturday after a five hour delay with BA but at least we made it!

Highs

Villa and location - palm tree villa at Windsor palms. A wonderful dibb villa in the best location. We’ve never stayed so close and we absolutely loved the area and given the traffic it made all the difference.

Enchanted - I know many don’t rate it but I went with low expectations and was blown away. Found it very moving and cried quite a bit!

Flight of passage - I went the year this opened but with my then 8 yr old on my own and she wouldn’t ride, so I’ve waited ages and this was my must do. Managed to get individual lightening lane for us all to ride and we all loved it.

Smugglers run - I don’t watch Star Wars but I really enjoyed this

Epcot festival of arts - just nice to see something different and I adored the paint by numbers

Weather - never done feb before and the weeks leading up were very variable but we had between 27-31 and sun every day

Flight out - upgrade to wt+ as plane changed and seating changed

Kobe - never been before, was brilliant. Best egg fried rice I’ve ever tasted.

Boathouse - fabulous tasty lunch with super service

Sanaa - had a fab evening meal at sunset. Yummy food great service and wonderful views.

Lows

Busy - it was 9/10 in terms of crowds and it felt it. Queues of 60 mins for small world says it all! Parks were sold out the whole time we were there so I had no choice but to stick to what I’d booked which felt a bit limiting

Genie - hate hate hate it. As the only planner and being offsite I was always on my phone sorting this in the morning or looking for lightning lanes. It doesn’t work for people who want to do half a day not whole day in park. I detest this. It puts me off going again or as a minimum never going in high crowds.

Boma - very poor breakfast experience, waited 40 mins to be seated after adr and queue for buffet was ridiculous and service poor.

And final one which may be unpopular….

Harmonious - I’m sorry but this is absolutely rubbish, it’s not meant for Epcot, it’s too much film based, there is not story it didn’t move me and I loved illuminations and I’m truly gutted. I don’t think id bother watching it again.

[Gryff]

I’m at the airport about to leave for home cant believe how busy everywhere has been the last 7 weeks and I wasn’t even in the parks well I was in a villa owners theme parks Lowes Home Depo etc they can get more money out of you than Disney believe me

[Mexy02]

Yeah a highs and lows , not seen one for ages .
Sounds like you had a great time yet the genie keeps letting trips down, dusney really need to listen but I do just think they are in for a fast buck quickly lining their pockets while they can. Very undisney . How did you find offsite restaurants ?

[Bondy007]

Nice to see a highs and lows summary again….
I’m guessing a theme of the lows for the foreseeable will be around crowds and Genie+. But…. I expect these might change in peoples opinion, interested in tracking this.

I’ll assume overall that you had a fab time?

[Loopylooloo]

Gosh I hope they get rid of that Genie!

I too felt excited by a highs lows post, its been too long, thanks for sharing, and am glad you got there and enjoyed it x

[tink111]

Really nice to read about your trip! I’m a little worried about genie plus and high crowds as we go in peak spring break season 😳

[2littleboys]

Lovely to hear about your trip. We are staying in a villa in Windsor Palms this summer so I’m excited to read your positive review.

We aren’t doing Disney this trip so I’m looking forward to a more relaxed trip.

[DisneyDaffodil]

Pleased to hear you had a lovely trip Anna and you got to ride FoP at last 💞 Great to read your highs and lows xx

Sad to see Genie spoiling things again, so sad to think the days of fast passes are gone and replaced by something that is doesn’t even work and costs so much too 😢

[CarolynU]

Originally Posted by anna68

Arrived back Saturday after a five hour delay with BA but at least we made it!

Highs

Villa and location - palm tree villa at Windsor palms. A wonderful dibb villa in the best location. We’ve never stayed so close and we absolutely loved the area and given the traffic it made all the difference.

Enchanted - I know many don’t rate it but I went with low expectations and was blown away. Found it very moving and cried quite a bit!

Flight of passage - I went the year this opened but with my then 8 yr old on my own and she wouldn’t ride, so I’ve waited ages and this was my must do. Managed to get individual lightening lane for us all to ride and we all loved it.

Smugglers run - I don’t watch Star Wars but I really enjoyed this

Epcot festival of arts - just nice to see something different and I adored the paint by numbers

Weather - never done feb before and the weeks leading up were very variable but we had between 27-31 and sun every day

Flight out - upgrade to wt+ as plane changed and seating changed

Kobe - never been before, was brilliant. Best egg fried rice I’ve ever tasted.

Boathouse - fabulous tasty lunch with super service

Sanaa - had a fab evening meal at sunset. Yummy food great service and wonderful views.

Lows

Busy - it was 9/10 in terms of crowds and it felt it. Queues of 60 mins for small world says it all! Parks were sold out the whole time we were there so I had no choice but to stick to what I’d booked which felt a bit limiting

Genie - hate hate hate it. As the only planner and being offsite I was always on my phone sorting this in the morning or looking for lightning lanes. It doesn’t work for people who want to do half a day not whole day in park. I detest this. It puts me off going again or as a minimum never going in high crowds.

Boma - very poor breakfast experience, waited 40 mins to be seated after adr and queue for buffet was ridiculous and service poor.

And final one which may be unpopular….

Harmonious - I’m sorry but this is absolutely rubbish, it’s not meant for Epcot, it’s too much film based, there is not story it didn’t move me and I loved illuminations and I’m truly gutted. I don’t think id bother watching it again.

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Oh my this was helpful to me. We are booked to stay in that same villa in Oct/Nov. I too saw it here. We’ve not stayed offsite as a family before but this gives us far more flexibility.
So as chief (only planner) I’ll be doing the crazy Disney finger pressing, but as we have two young children who need their sleep otherwise the alternative is hiking two grinches around each day apart from the odd day we won’t be staying into the evening, which puts us at an even further disadvantage really.
Nearer the time we are going to have to explain to our fearless six year old that this vacation will be a vastly different experience to our last trip in 2019 where she was able to ride everything over and over with our MDE’s all pre booked and child swap too.
However, we will make staying at the villa part of the experience with the private pool and some games, and we will buy brand new games to take with us.
We are also taking them to Kennedy as she is very knowledgable about space, planets etc so she will absolutely love that, and we could also have a nice beach day, etc. We will not allow Disney to make us miserable.
However, depending upon our experience this might be adios Disney and even perhaps in the future hola Universal.

Anna just one practical question. Does the villa have a coffee machine and if so what type of coffee? Pods? Filter/Drip? Or is it just kettle and whatever you can buy?
When we arrive my daughter and kiddies are heading straight off to the villa whilst my son in law and I are picking up the car and then heading straight off to buy food/drink shopping. So we won’t get to see what’s at the villa before we buy the stuff.

[smithlane]

Loved reading your highs and lows, it’s been far too long since we’ve had one!
We stay in Formosa Gardens which is just up the road from Windsor Palms and you really can’t beat the location, I’m always recommending it.
FoP is my favourite ever ride!
I’ve been debating about adding the Genie+ to our tickets but the more I read I’m not sure I’m going to bother. I’m not actually too worried about the rides myself but it will be my sister and kids’ first time so knowing me I’ll probably add it on!