Disney Boardwalk - Highs & Lows

Gally1968 · 15 Dec 18, 04:41 PM

Just arrived back from two weeks at Disney Boardwalk (we were moved after initially booking AK). Here’s our very brief high & lows and future thoughts.

For info we were on DDP booked with Virgin Holidays and flew PE.

Lows:

By far the main low was the crowds, it was nuts. Some of the queues were 150 minutes at 10:30 in the morning.

Chef Mickeys was a different dining experience for us and it won’t be one we rush to again, food was awful. Even if only booking for the character experience the interaction was very poor.

Radisson Blu, always like booking the night before the flight in an Executive Room so we can take advantage of the lounge. The fact that you no longer get breakfast, no free movies, extra cost for runway view & the food was shockingly poor is making this an expensive night (£300 for one night with 14 nights parking).

Highs:

Boardwalk has spoilt us, not so much the hotel itself, which was fantastic, but the location is ideal. Walk to HS/Epcot, Yacht & Beach Club plus a good choice of restaurants on the Boardwalk itself.

Flying Fish was outstanding, with Ale & Compass, The Yachtsman, Yak & Yeti our favourite onsite meals. We had one off site at PF Chang’s at the Mall at Millenia. It surprises me that this restaurant doesn’t get more mentions on the Dibb. It’s a fantastic choice but guess as it’s a couple of doors down from the Cheesecake Factory it gets slightly ignored.

Fairytale Shopper, again Beth & Tim surpass themselves with the service provided. Thanks again.

Managed to get FP’s for all the rides we wanted to do so that was a high in our view.

Virgin Atlantic, flights on time, comfortable and pretty quick through customs/baggage reclaim at both sides so it’s always a bonus.

DDP, some nice meals with the added bonus of an alcoholic drink suited us. However it’s still too much food in our opinion. How do you spend 56 snack credits ? If it hadn’t have been for the a Ghiradelli’s option we’d have been wasting quite a few QS & snack credits.

Future thoughts:

We have two bookings already for next year, two weeks at Coronado Springs & a week Club Level at HRH but the crowd levels in what’s usually a ‘quietish’ time has made us have a rethink. At times Disney Springs, MK, Epcot Showcase and parts of HS were very uncomfortable.

All in all though it was another great trip, our lows are first world issues and I’m slightly embarrassed to be complaining about them. We will be rethinking next year though due to the crowds.

**sorry meant to put in the lows - The My Disney Experience app - horrendous for us. Wife is on 3 and I am on Vodaphone and neither of us could get a decent connection. Not sure if its network service or the App itself but very poor.**

YorkshireT · 15 Dec 18, 06:52 PM

I'd agree with nearly every one of your highs having stayed at Boardwalk DVC this year. I loved that hotel, and location.
I also like PF Chang's, last time I was in one though was in San Destin.
Never get DDP, not worth it when it's not on free dining. We eat a lot more quick serve nowadays, kids don't want ADRs, albeit their favourite restaurant is Yak and Yeti. That's where we are going for Christmas dinner next year on the 25/12.

Gally1968 · 16 Dec 18, 12:15 AM

We’re due to be on the QSDP in May and to be honest (if we go) we are quite looking forward to not having to pre-book all your meals. Having said that we did change quite a lot of our recent bookings and despite the parks being so crowded had no issue in getting a table anywhere we wanted.

YorkshireT · 16 Dec 18, 09:39 AM

Originally Posted by Gally1968

We’re due to be on the QSDP in May and to be honest (if we go) we are quite looking forward to not having to pre-book all your meals. Having said that we did change quite a lot of our recent bookings and despite the parks being so crowded had no issue in getting a table anywhere we wanted.

This year we took an entirely different approach. We always order shopping in but ordered more this time, about $250 worth. We always have breakfast in the room, so that didn’t change. This year many days we made up some sandwiches for lunch. Sounds laborious but it took me 5 mins, less time than queuing at quick serve. We had some little cool bags and popped them in and took them with us. Probably about half the days (others we ate quick serve or headed back for lunch). Of course makes it easier in a DVC 1 bed with full kitchen.
I had about 5 or six ADRs but we cancelled them all apart from Plaza, Beaches and Cream (overrated for sure). We have a Landrys card and so went to Yak and Yeti and also *’as I had my birthday reward’ Rainforest at AK. I was amazed when Rainforest was so good.
We enjoyed the trip so much more. Never again will I tear around, trying to get to all these ADRs, a real pain- for what? Mainly average and overpriced food.
We enjoyed strolling into Epcot in an evening and just picking a quick serve and it was very good.
It was nice on a lunch not to eat more unhealthy food, find a spot in Epcot when we wanted and just eat the sandwich. Kids never complained, quite the opposite, and we also found it didn’t take up nearly as much time, which also meant finishing and heading back to the pool to relax a bit earlier.
First full day you are always tired, we came back to the room after a busy day having been in HWS since 7am, relaxed around the pool and made up a spaghetti bolognese. It was a relief not to be having to make a restaurant reservation.
Even including the shopping and mugs etc, I spent about $130 a day. The dining plan would cost me over $300 for full dining and about $230 for quick serve.

Gally1968 · 16 Dec 18, 08:23 PM

Definitely never had a need to spend too much, if we didn’t enjoy shopping so much could easily have been $100 or less per day averaged out.

As it’s just the two of us now (boys grown up) we can be more flexible re the eating plans, for breakfast we would either have a QS yogurt or I’d just have a piece of fruit taken from the gym ( not just taken, we had worked out).

We’ve come to the conclusion that you’ll always get the meal you want, we fell into the ‘over planning’ routine. We really enjoy a nice meal but in reality some of the QS meals are as good as some of the table service meals.

On the DVC front, we have been on the verge of taking the plunge for a year or so now but the crowds have put us off for the time being. The exchange rate had previously kept us from committing but with the numbers as they are I wouldn’t be comfortable making such an investment.

mariechez · 16 Dec 18, 10:02 PM

We got back Friday and I agree the crowds were nuts. It took 2 hours one night to get from GF to the Contempo café and back. Queues for the monorail both ways were ridiculous and a 30 minute wait for a QS meal. Not ideal with small children.

Ride times were crazy and I was gutted for my son with his two little children as I never expected it to be that busy.

IMO Disney have lost the plot and are not handling the crowds particularly well and don't seem to care. Even trying to get QS food was a mammoth undertaking. The MDE was a waste of time, luckily my son had data on his phone as nothing would load on mine so couldn't mobile order of see FP.

My time at Disney is done.

YorkshireT · 16 Dec 18, 10:31 PM

Originally Posted by mariechez

We got back Friday and I agree the crowds were nuts. It took 2 hours one night to get from GF to the Contempo café and back. Queues for the monorail both ways were ridiculous and a 30 minute wait for a QS meal. Not ideal with small children.

Ride times were crazy and I was gutted for my son with his two little children as I never expected it to be that busy.

IMO Disney have lost the plot and are not handling the crowds particularly well and don't seem to care. Even trying to get QS food was a mammoth undertaking. The MDE was a waste of time, luckily my son had data on his phone as nothing would load on mine so couldn't mobile order of see FP.

My time at Disney is done.

I just use mobile ordering at QS for those that do it, never had any issues, wonder what was wrong?
Get in rope drop, get home for lunch or just after when really busy is my mantra.

mariechez · 16 Dec 18, 10:45 PM

It was a pain for the whole trip. We managed early entry a few times but it was still manic. Not easy to charge about with a 4 and 6 year old.