Just back, highs, lows and takeaways

[Lostbrain]

Will try to do a full trippie over the next few days, but I thought I'd do a quick highs and lows while it's all fresh that might help some people planning their post-covid trips. We were a party of 8, me, my husband, 14yo daughter and 11yo son and my brother, his 18yo daughter, 14yo son and 8yo son. We mostly stuck together but did a few things where we split into family groups.

Highs

*The weather
It was beautiful, we had a few cool mornings, which we hadn't had in FL before, but my niece started getting uncomfortable when it hit about 26 degrees, I was so pleased we had had to cancel our original August plans - she would have really struggled. We didn't need to use our ponchos, had a couple of thunderstorms, but they didn't last long. Our last 2 trips have been August because it's cheaper, quieter and we have more holiday time to play with, but weather at Easter is definitely more comfortable.


*Art of Animation
We were only here for the first night, my brother booked in for 6 (we transferred to OKW on second day)- we had booked a standard room and he had a family suite, when we arrived I needed to collect magicbands so went with my brother to the desk as he hadn't checked in online, the castmember was lovely, apologised profusely for it taking a while after our long flight, wove some magic and placed us on the same corridor in Lion King building, which meant an upgrade to a suite for us - it was a fantastic room and if I was staying onsite again with the kids I would definitely book here. Good space, good bar at the pool and crucially at the moment great transport, buses were very frequent and the skyliner was brilliant.

*Formosa Gardens Villa
Last 5 nights were here and it was fantastic. With so many teens we wanted a villa big enough to give everyone their own bed and most people their own room (dh and i and the two youngest shared a room). The villa was beautiful, super comfortable and the location was excellent. In Four Corners, only a couple of miles from Animal Kingdom, just off the 192, giving easy access to lots of food options. We would definitely book again and also look at villas in this area in the future. 192 and I4 were very busy but we didn't need to spend much time on them, it was only the day we went to Florida Mall that we spent significant time in traffic.

*The Boathouse
Standout best meal of the trip - food was great, everyone, including my fussy neice and nephew found food they liked, they were happy to adjust a main for my niece. We had oysters, a few starters, mains and a few beers and cocktails and it was just over $50 a head which seemed very reasonable for the standard of the food and level of service. We've held back on going here before because we thought it expensive, and while not cheap it was much more reasonable than we anticipated.

*Universal
We stayed at RPR for a couple of nights so had express passes and had a blast. It was very busy, but with fastpasses we did minimal queuing - managed to do Hagrid and Velocicoaster (only 2 rides not on EP) with about an hours wait. Universal just as good, if not better than before, excellent service. My 11 year old had seen somewhere that broken interactive wands could be 'mended' and sure enough when he explained that the wand he'd brought a couple years ago had stopped working to the cast member at Ollivanders it was taken away and 'repaired' without any quibbles (brand new one given to him, same model, even though his old one was 3 years old and had a chunk missing where he'd dropped it).

*Lines App
This is an app that is included with subscription to Touring Plans and was well worth the $15 annual fee. They have accurate wait times (which were often wildly different to the posted wait times particularly in WDW) and they predict pretty accurately what waittimes will be for the rest of the day.

Lows
*Losing my daughters pins
We left a jumper and lanyard in a locker at Typhoon Lagoon, intended to go back to get them when changed, forgot (I have adhd and really struggle with memory). Realised our mistake at Epcot, told fill an online form and return next day if we could (TL closed by this point)next day checking out of OKW I asked the castmember if she could call TL - she said that there was no point calling or going back, centralised lost and found system was the only thing for it. The items weren't found - even though we obviously knew the locker number etc. I'm gutted for DD, memories wrapped in those pins she'd been collecting across 4 trips. Upset at myself and at Disney.

*OKW
Previously we'd loved OKW, having done a 14 night trip with DDP last time we did Disney - but without FP WDW is a different animal and the biggest benefit to being onsite is EMH, 30 mins early entry at each park - which for us depended on Disney getting us to the parks in good time and the buses at OKW are so slow - on our HS day we waited 40 minutes for a bus and missed EMH completely. We could have had evening extra hours on a couple of nights, but we were exhausted and done by 2pm really. Transport from AOA was much better, even to get to Disney Springs! Coffee machine in the 1 bed at OKW was rubbish too, small thing, but when you're wanting to get into the parks early very annoying. Front desk were fine, but not terribly helpful - tried to book horse riding for one day, castmember spent 20 minutes on the booking system before declaring defeat and giving me a phone number which was constantly engaged - couldn't phone FWR it seems. Not sure we'll do WDW again, but definitely won't be back to OKW.

*Park Passes
These had no availability for the duration of our stay at any park, so we couldn't change any park days, not realising this my brother cancelled a day at MK hoping to change to AK and found himself unable to do either. Parks were much quieter last week, so not sure why no availability, lots of space in the carparks. Had a fiddle on MME and passholders could book when there was no availability for ticket holders.

*UberEats
Decided to get food delivered one night at the villa, could not get it to work, tried different apps, different phones, different cards, ApplePay, PayPal, credit cards, could not get the darn thing to work, both drivers had had a beer and so pick up wasn't an option, thankfully there was enough in the fridge to put together a picky tea - subsequent nights we didn't start drinking until we had dinner planned!

*BA check in
I've already written a post about this, but BA were so short staffed that we waited 2 hours to get checked in - dd was picked for extra security so we couldn't check her in online - we had to run for the gate, didn't have time to get breakfast before the flight (literally just had time for a wee). Food was pretty sparse on board as well, we were so hungry when we finally got to MCO. Much smoother on the return going through MCO, and i believe that BA have brought back twilight bag drop which hopefully will be better at LGW.


Was a great couple of weeks and we had a fantastic time. Does feel now like the world is getting back to normal and we can plan holidays and fun stuff again, which is so welcome! We didn't bother with Genie+ and found that getting into the parks early meant we could do quite a lot, we did however find it much more exhausting than previous trips with FP+, we did all 4 WDW parks and then 3 days at Universal and we were shattered - I don't think we would attempt Universal and Disney in the same trip again, and I think that everyone in our party had a better experience at Universal.

Disney is still great and we had a little sprinkling of magic when we got upgraded, we were given free parking one evening going into fireworks and free food from Casey's when we couldn't get mobile ordering to work and a castmember took pity on us. It's all still beautiful, but all the little cuts and price increases add up. Universal by contrast is as it was if not better.

[DisneyF1rstT1me]

Thanks for posting this. That's good to know re the line waiting times on Touring Plan. I might renew my subscription. I'm glad that overall you all had a good holiday.

[Rockset]

Thanks for posting. Glad you had a great time. Sorry to hear about your daughter’s pins.

[WhereIBelong]

Love highs and lows, give a trip in a nutshell... sounds like a great trip. We also love universal.

[beaker72]

Really useful report, thanks a lot for posting this. I had been swithering over getting the Touring Plan subscription but having read about your experience I think I'll definitely go for it.

[YorkshireT]

Agree on Boathouse, it’s very good OOP and not that expensive depending on what you have.
OKW shame about the buses. We had no issues at SSR at Xmas albeit for the very early EMH at AK (7am) we drove as it was just a lot easier.
BA- we had no issues checking in either at Xmas, we used the self check in machines at Heathrow where you even put the cases on the belt. We couldn’t check in online, but could at the console. Flights were good but agree the food on board was dire and BA need to pull their finger out there, it’s bad.
The park passes are a major inconvenience for the guests, but Chapek doesn’t care as he says on his earnings calls they increase yield by allowing them to scale operational cost (telling staff they don’t need them etc I assume). Sooner that man goes the better, the worst performing share price on the Dow over the last 2 years.

[Goldia]

Lots of highs, how lovely that you got an upgrade at Art of Animation, those suites sound great. The weather seemed perfect, not too hot and none of the August thunder storms.

A shame about the lows, especially losing your DD pins, that's really quite annoying especially as you knew exactly where they were and surely it would have been easy for a janitor to get them out of the locker? Tut, tut Disney that's poor service.

[DisneyDaffodil]

Really enjoyed reading your highs and lows, AoA was the first resort we stayed at and we loved the theming. We were in the Little Mermaid rooms which were basic, but still had great theming. I would love the magic of being upgraded to a Lion King suite

So sorry to hear about your DD’s pins, I can imagine how sad you and your DD were. My DD has collected pins on her trips, she’s now 21 but still values them for the memories 💞

[levtweeney]

I think everyone should do a high and lows section. Really informative in one post. Thanks so much

The weather sounded perfect. We’re also august goers due to job so we too get the heat.

[Lostbrain]

Originally Posted by DisneyF1rstT1me

Thanks for posting this. That's good to know re the line waiting times on Touring Plan. I might renew my subscription. I'm glad that overall you all had a good holiday.

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Really felt our subscription was great value used the universal and Disney apps, Disney were wildly out on their wait times, always over, cynical me wondered if this was deliberate.