Just back. Highs and lows.

[Loopylooloo]

Originally Posted by CarolynU

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.

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Doesn’t it make you wonder whats happened when we say we wont allow disney to make us miserable? Complete opposite of what it is supposed to be! Very sad times.

[duchy]

Originally Posted by CarolynU

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.

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Coffee machines can break down and be replaced before you arrive so what any villa has now can change over a few months .
Why not all hit the villa, check out what you need and then hit the supermarket. You could even bring back hot chicken and salad or pizza so make up the “lost” time.
It’ll probably save you having to go back again for that one thing you didn’t get !

As for the six year old at four they don’t remember details so she probably won’t have the expectations you have for the rides and the pool makes a massive difference. Of all the things the grandkids did at Disney all three of them voted the pool the best thing ….except the youngest who was a week off five and after much thought decided she couldn’t decide between the pool or meeting princesses ! I thought they might say water parks but no . I should have booked the villa and not bothered with Disney passes
My favourite thing was the pool too , after many trips on and off site we’d never done a villa (and were at BWI before the kids arrived that trip). Every morning started with an early morning cuppa by the pool and two faces peering around the patio door “please can we go in the pool” (Mummy and big bro got to sleep in as they’d creep out knowing me and their grandad would be there as we’d drummed it into them no adult, no pool.)

[CarolynU]

Originally Posted by duchy

Coffee machines can break down and be replaced before you arrive so what any villa has now can change over a few months .
Why not all hit the villa, check out what you need and then hit the supermarket. You could even bring back hot chicken and salad or pizza so make up the “lost” time.
It’ll probably save you having to go back again for that one thing you didn’t get !

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Because “ the boss,” my daughter decided ha ha!
To be fair it took us forever to land, get through border controls, pick up the car, and finally get going last time and the kiddies were very tired, so this does seem a quick solution. We arrive go through the formalities then she and kiddies will head straight off in a cab/Uber to the villa with a couple of cases and bed the kids straight down, whilst son in law do all the car stuff and get essential food for the next day.
Plus she doesn’t drink coffee ha ha!

I’ve just read your next para.
Yes the pool will be a massive massive bonus, because the six year old is a phenomenal water baby. She can swim every stroke including (butterfly) and the three year old is now also taking swimming lessons.
On the last trip we didn’t have time for much swimming at all, so this will be a huge plus.
So I do see us heading into the parks, doing whatever we can, snacking, leaving the parks, playing/swimming at the villa and then either getting a take out or finding a nice local restaurant for an early dinner, and then the adults enjoying some free time to enjoy lazing around together. My son and daughter in law will be joining us from Canada and my daughter hasn’t seen her brother for nearly three years so that will be amazing on it’s own.

[CarolynU]

Originally Posted by Loopylooloo

Doesn’t it make you wonder whats happened when we say we wont allow disney to make us miserable? Complete opposite of what it is supposed to be! Very sad times.

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I couldn’t agree more. To be fair i might not feel the same once there, but I’m on the fence.
This trip is all for the kiddies so I’m not at all worried about what I can do/not do but even the lack of character meets means a lot to us. I mean no Mickey and Minnie in The Magic Kingdom? To us that’s sad, and the lack of trams in all the parks to even get me in there in the first place is sad for me ha ha!
Oh and being forced into mobile food ordering for lunch when the wifi is lacking and my mobile data throttled is not ideal.
Reading stuff it’s amazing how some uk folks are now getting up at silly o clock each day, paying Mouse someone or other to try and sort out their must do dining reservations and then paying for a VPN to actually book it!
I’ll make my own mind up that’s for sure, and will adapt to whatever I find in reality once there.

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Originally Posted by CarolynU

I couldn’t agree more. To be fair i might not feel the same once there, but I’m on the fence.
This trip is all for the kiddies so I’m not at all worried about what I can do/not do but even the lack of character meets means a lot to us. I mean no Mickey and Minnie in The Magic Kingdom? To us that’s sad, and the lack of trams in all the parks to even get me in there in the first place is sad for me ha ha!
Oh and being forced into mobile food ordering for lunch when the wifi is lacking and my mobile data throttled is not ideal.
Reading stuff it’s amazing how some uk folks are now getting up at silly o clock each day, paying Mouse someone or other to try and sort out their must do dining reservations and then paying for a VPN to actually book it!
I’ll make my own mind up that’s for sure, and will adapt to whatever I find in reality once there.

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Carolyn.

Your last line is the key - ''I’ll make my own mind up that’s for sure, and will adapt to whatever I find in reality once there''.

We went with a positive attitude and a 'suck it and see' attitude. My goodness it was busy and it was like a throw back to 1994 lining up for so long.

I will never ever pay for Genie+ or whatever they may call it in the future. You have had my ticket money and you get no more.

We were disappointed on how long we spent in lines and thus never stayed later than 3.30pm in a Park. Plus we sat down quite a bit and just mooched about. Hey ho not an issue for us. The day I line up over an hour for It's a Small World when all I do on there is sleep is the day I give up.

I also decided we wouldn't pay for Disney's overpriced mediocre lunches any more. So we had a Pretzel instead.

It's different and less enjoyable in our view but that's life. It will be interesting to see what it is like this Month.

Edit. We take our own Filter Coffee, the American supermarket stuff is very expensive compared to ours.

[duchy]

It’s all about attitude.
Disney isn’t the same Disney it was three years ago but then it’s also a very different Disney to the one I first visited in the eighties too.
There are character ops in the parks just no hugs or autographs but still lots of cute poses.
I think with your mindset you’ll still have a wonderful time
(I’d bring my own coffee too)

[CarolynU]

Originally Posted by Mr Tom Morrow

Carolyn.

Your last line is the key - ''I’ll make my own mind up that’s for sure, and will adapt to whatever I find in reality once there''.

We went with a positive attitude and a 'suck it and see' attitude. My goodness it was busy and it was like a throw back to 1994 lining up for so long.

I will never ever pay for Genie+ or whatever they may call it in the future. You have had my ticket money and you get no more.

We were disappointed on how long we spent in lines and thus never stayed later than 3.30pm in a Park. Plus we sat down quite a bit and just mooched about. Hey ho not an issue for us. The day I line up over an hour for It's a Small World when all I do on there is sleep is the day I give up.

I also decided we wouldn't pay for Disney's overpriced mediocre lunches any more. So we had a Pretzel instead.

It's different and less enjoyable in our view but that's life. It will be interesting to see what it is like this Month.

Edit. We take our own Filter Coffee, the American supermarket stuff is very expensive compared to ours.

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Yes Tom I agree.
We will ride the odd thing. We will watch the parade as it’s coming back. We will meet whatever characters we can find with proper greets as opposed to waving to them on a ride by type thing. We will watch shows wherever we can find them. We will take snacks for the kids as they’ll be the ones who won’t understand us saying sorry your chicken tenders will be an hour and we will just buy whatever we can from carts, without an hour line up. We will take bottles of water for the kids and try our best to keep us all hydrated. It’s essential in my daughters case as she passes out if it’s too hot, but hopefully Oct/Nov will be nice weather but not insane.
And if all fails we will leave the parks and relax in the lovely villa.

[CarolynU]

Originally Posted by duchy

It’s all about attitude.
Disney isn’t the same Disney it was three years ago but then it’s also a very different Disney to the one I first visited in the eighties too.
There are character ops in the parks just no hugs or autographs but still lots of cute poses.
I think with your mindset you’ll still have a wonderful time
(I’d bring my own coffee too)

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Yes I think bringing coffee from home could be key lol!
I’d also forgotten that the villa has a clubhouse with a shop for essentials. Do you think that includes g&t ha ha?

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Originally Posted by CarolynU

Yes I think bringing coffee from home could be key lol!
I’d also forgotten that the villa has a clubhouse with a shop for essentials. Do you think that includes g&t ha ha?

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Carolyn. head to Walmart as they have a liquor store next door. Gin is cheap. be rude not to get a big bottle!

As an aside I have yet to find any place in Orlando that can dispense Tonic from a pump that is drinkable! 99% of the time I reject the drink as it's dead flat and then they open a can. Most weird.

[CarolynU]

Originally Posted by Mr Tom Morrow

Carolyn. head to Walmart as they have a liquor store next door. Gin is cheap. be rude not to get a big bottle!

As an aside I have yet to find any place in Orlando that can dispense Tonic from a pump that is drinkable! 99% of the time I reject the drink as it's dead flat and then they open a can. Most weird.

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Oh Tom I definitely need to support the local economy re the liquor store next to Walmart. And I can then stock up on tonic in cans and I like cucumber in mine and not lemon lol so I’ll be sorted!
Funnily enough I rarely drink g&t in restaurants, and in the USA I might just indulge in a pre meal Long Island iced tea because I really can’t find a good one over here. They often use a mix and I hate them.