KingTriton71
Growing old is mandatory...growing up is optional
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2007
Sep 5-13, Group of 20 (all but 2 of whom are family) traveling from Texas, Colorado and Indiana
Port Orleans Riverside
We were in Room 2706, a “preferred room” with a view of a green area. We booked a Preferred Room in order to get the free dining promotion. The view was nice and, well, green, but nothing spectacular. We did find this to be a relatively quiet spot with the only noise penetrating our room coming from feet and drawers in the room above and an occasional faint flush of a neighbor’s jet-powered toilet. The room itself was a tight fit for a family of five with luggage for 9 days. The shortage of drawers didn’t help and we ended up just living out of suitcases. My smallish 10-year old girl found the fold down bed to be large enough but too hard.
I don’t think I could ever justify paying for a “preferred room” and maybe that’s because we were in building 27, the preferred building farthest from the lobby and food court, and we didn’t make the trip to the food court or lobby many times. The walk to the West Depot was only slightly longer and that’s where we ended up most trips as the South Depot was very crowded and buses were sometimes full when they arrived as it was often the last pickup point. On the other hand, the West Depot was frequently the first pickup point meaning most trips took an extra 10-15 minutes to hit the other three depots before heading to the park.
The in-room refrigerator was more than sufficient for our needs and held apple juice boxes, a half-gallon of milk, butter, yogurt, peanut butter, two 1-quart bottles, string cheese and a few other small items without being crowded. The new (to us, at least) Joffrey’s coffee pods were just good enough to keep me from bothering with bringing our own coffee (we grind beans in the store, so we are minor coffee snobs). Mousekeeping wasn’t what it used to be--it was still cleaner than the average hotel room, but not much and we saw zero towel animals. We loved the main pool as it had plenty of shady spots where you could keep an eye on the kids. The pool bar was pricey, but drinks were tasty and relatively potent. We enjoyed the burgers, fries and shakes at the food court. Nobody in our group tried Boatright’s. We stopped in on “Ye Haa Bob” one night and would have stayed longer if it weren’t so crowded and/or we hadn’t already had a very long day.
Bottom line: We enjoyed Riverside, but I’d consider some significant sacrifices to stay at French Quarter instead if for nothing other than being at a smaller resort with more efficient transit options. The pool at Riverside had more shady spots, but we could always walk over from French Quarter.
Crowd levels / Touring / Weather
Having spent 10+ years in Houston, I still wasn’t ready for the humidity and heat we experienced several days. A couple of afternoons, though the temperature was in the low 90’s, the heat index was well over 100. That’s sweat-through-your-shirt-can’t-keep-the-sweat-out-of-your-eyes-please-God-just-let-it-rain-maybe-we-should-just-ride-its-a-small-world-over-and-over oppressive heat. We put our Brita filter bottle and free ice water to good use. Thanks again to Disney for putting so many of their queues in the shade and/or inside otherwise we might have lost some of the older folks.
Labor Day weekend was decidedly more crowded and we expected this. FastPasses were a must for the headliners/slow loaders and waits for some of the less popular rides were a bit much for my taste (30 mins for a non-headliner) particularly between 11am and 8pm. After the weekend, on days when all 20 of us toured together, we couldn’t stay on schedule with our touring plan primarily because when you have that many people together, you’re always waiting on someone. At any given time, someone needs a bathroom break, a snack, water, diaper change, picture, to find something in their bag, etc. The mistake I made was pushing through to finish the plan when we should have cut out a step to get back on schedule. We instead ended up touring into mid-afternoon when it was hotter and more crowded. This also meant afternoon breaks were shortened and we didn’t get the rest / pool time we needed. On days I toured with just my five, between FastPasses, a smart touring plan, child swap and some flexibility we rode everything we wanted as many times as we wanted and generally stayed ahead of schedule. One minor disappointment was finding that there were very slim pickings for a fourth FastPass by early afternoon. I think we only used a fourth twice for the entire visit, but again, we didn’t really need it.
Rides / Shows
I won’t try to capture everything we did, but will just comment on anything that was new or surprised or disappointed us.
As a coaster, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was too tame for my taste but I understand it needs to appeal to a wide audience. It is a fairly smooth ride, the theming and animatronics are very nice and the projected faces look fantastic. My DD10 and DD13 enjoyed it as did some of the less adventurous older members of our party so I’d say Disney hit their mark. We did see this ride down a couple of times a day for reasons other than weather though it was usually back online fairly quickly. When it was shut down during our FastPass time, we’d receive a message saying our FastPass had been extended to be good through the end of the day.
This was our first time to experience Enchanted Tales with Belle and we loved it. Having five of our party selected to be part of the cast certainly helped. Great memories were made.
All of the kids in our party did extremely well with the dark / scary experiences. Even the two infants (less than a month away from 2 y.o.) sat through and even enjoyed It’s Tough To Be A Bug. We sat near exits just in case. DS1.9 even liked Haunted Mansion despite my constant fear that he was going to freak out at any second. My cousin’s DS1.9 had the most trouble with volume levels and would frequently put his hands over his ears.
At just shy of 44, I admit it. I’m done with Mission SPACE: Orange. I rode Green for the first time and found it to be a better experience for me. I don’t really get any extra thrills from Orange, just extra nausea.
Though we could tour more efficiently with the old paper FastPass system and didn't have to plan our days out to quite the same extent, I didn't particularly dislike the new system and understand what Disney is trying to accomplish. We are blessed to have the flexibility to visit during lower-crowd times and were still able to ride just about everything as many times as we wanted to ride.
Philharmagic, Spaceship Earth and the Laugh Floor were probably the three attractions that the group enjoyed considerably more than I expected they would. DS1.9 chose Spanish for us on “Spaceship Earth” before we knew what had happened, so I got to practice my Español. Mi Español es no bueno.
Dining
First, if you’re looking for advice on dining with a large party, I’ll tell you that it can happen. Even more than with a normal size group, be flexible, be diligent and book early. Book everything the online system will let you the first second it will allow it. As soon as the phone lines open call about everything that you couldn’t book online. All of the restaurants have a different cutoff on how large of a party they will book online. Some you’ll have to call the restaurant directly and still others, like Be Our Guest, will ask you to send an email.
Saturday dinner at Crystal Palace
Though they sat us at adjacent tables of four or five, we didn’t really get to sit together and we all had separate waitstaff. This was all fine but it was mildly annoying that we still paid the 18% gratuity on a buffet when we were effectively five separate tables…. And I’m over it. This meal was mostly about the characters and they didn’t disappoint. Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet were all very attentive and spent plenty of time taking pictures, giving hugs and high fives and signing autographs. I’ve found that the food at Crystal Palace is just ok, with one or two dishes standing out.
Sunday dinner at Boma
Boma put 16 of us at one table and four at another which was fine with the four grandparents as they were able to enjoy their food and company a little more. I’m sad to say that Boma, though good, disappointed me a little perhaps because it was so very good on our last visit. The carrot-ginger soup was particularly disappointing as this batch was just too sweet. The corn chowder was excellent. Your experience at Boma, I suspect, will depend largely on how well that night’s buffet matches your taste. There just weren’t as many dishes that pleased my palette as on our last visit. Bread pudding and zebra domes for dessert helped make it all better.
Monday dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s The Dining Room
We decided last minute to have dinner at Downtown Disney where the rest of the family had headed about 20 minutes before. While we were on the boat, they called and said they could get us all into T-Rex but we had to be there in 10 minutes. Not wanting to be rushed and not loving T-Rex, I declined. I found a reservation at Wolfgang Puck that was just perfect timing for us, took that as a sign and made the reservation. When we arrived, they had a little trouble finding the reservation and I explained I'd just made it and showed them the confirmation email. When they pointed us towards the elevator to head upstairs, it started to sink in. I'd made a reservation at The Dining Room at Wolfgang Puck (a 2 TS-credit meal). Up we went, DW, DD13, DD10 and DS 1.9(!). Thankfully, the dining room was empty except for a wedding party off in another room. We paid cash rather than burning our plan credits and escaped for just under $150 including tip. The kids were all very well-behaved. The food and service were fantastic and it was the quietest, calmest hour of the week. In short, it was exactly what we needed. I might just make that mistake again.
Tuesday dinner at Whispering Canyon
This was our first visit to Whispering Canyon and it was a great place for a large, mildly obnoxious group as the place is so loud that no one will notice. We had fun though there were definitely waiters and waitresses having more fun with their tables. The mashed potatoes, sausage and beef loin were probably my favorites from the “All You Care to Enjoy” skillet. The ribs were alright though some were dry to the point of being difficult to eat. Three of us consumed a total of 10 shakes thanks to the “bottomless” shakes with strawberry being the consensus favorite. We’d definitely like to go back though the commute to Wilderness Lodge is painful, so maybe some time after we can catch a cab without needing a car seat.
Wednesday dinner at ‘Ohana
This is my new favorite meal at WDW. Nearly everything here was fantastic (with the shrimp just being ok). From friendship (pineapple and coconut) bread to the Asian (?) noodles and pot stickers to the carnivores-delight of endless supplies of chicken, steak and shrimp. About five minutes after the meat sweats set in and I threw in the towel on the main course, the bread pudding arrived. I am a big fan of bread pudding when it’s done right and this was so, so very right and served ala mode. I couldn’t have eaten another bite.
Thursday dinner at Hoop-Dee-Doo
I can see why this dinner show has become a sort of cult favorite. The kids loved the show, including the lone teenager in the group and though, yes, it is pretty campy humor, the adults found plenty of laughs too. The ribs, veggies, etc were all good, but the real standout for me was the fried chicken. I grew up in Oklahoma with two grandmothers both of whom were very good cooks. I know a little something about fried chicken, so I don’t find good fried chicken just anywhere. This was right up there with some of the best and was nice and hot when it arrived. Washing it down with Yuengling made it all the better (this never would have happened at Grandma’s). Strawberry Shortcake was a nice way to finish off the meal.
Friday brunch at Chef Mickey’s
We were (ok, I was) very excited to score an ADR for the new brunch at Chef Mickey’s as I’ve always heard such positive things about Chef Mickey’s. I unfortunately was a little disappointed. It felt like they’d just taken away the best stuff at breakfast and thrown in a couple of “lunch” items. It wasn’t bad, but breakfast at Hollywood and Vine was better. The character visits at Chef Mickey’s seemed a little more rushed than at other character meals. I wouldn’t be in a hurry to go back.
Saturday breakfast at Hollywood and Vine (Disney Jr Play ‘n’ Dine)
There were lots of very good breakfast options here including an “eggs-to-order” station and a breakfast bread pudding; otherwise, the food was fairly standard Disney breakfast fare but everything here just seemed a little fresher / hotter despite being there fairly late for breakfast (10:10 ADR). The “shows” that the characters put on here definitely make the greeting experience a little more maniacal, but they all did a great job making sure that all of the kids got their time with them.
Sunday lunch at Be Our Guest
We pre-ordered our meal and arrived about 15 minutes before our ADR as it had just started pouring down rain and we needed a place to stay dry. On arrival, our Magic Bands were scanned and we were told to sit wherever we liked and to leave our receipt on the table. We chose a table in the Rose Room and went in groups of two to get our drinks. About 15 minutes later, a cart arrived with our food without anyone ever having looked at our receipt (Big Brother is always watching). Most of us had the Croque Monsieur (basically a fancy ham and cheese) which I found to be ok. Maybe not the best choice for me as I can make a pretty good Croque Monsieur myself. The “pommes frites” were decent French fries though a real French chef would have shirked at them being called “pommes frites” (French chefs shirk at a lot of things). Dessert was really the only part of the meal that was any better than other QS meals. The Master’s Cupcake with “grey stuff” (cookies and cream) is good, but the Strawberry Cream Cheese Cupcake is where it’s at. It was divine.
In Summary
All the planning and preparation paid off even more than usual with such a large group. I’m blessed with a remarkable family that can get through an extended vacation with so little drama. We discovered some excellent new dining experiences, by accident or otherwise. As always, there were some minor disappointments, but overall the magic of Disney is very much alive. I feel so very blessed to have been there to see my family, from very young to, umm, retired, experience that magic. I can't wait to go back!
Port Orleans Riverside
We were in Room 2706, a “preferred room” with a view of a green area. We booked a Preferred Room in order to get the free dining promotion. The view was nice and, well, green, but nothing spectacular. We did find this to be a relatively quiet spot with the only noise penetrating our room coming from feet and drawers in the room above and an occasional faint flush of a neighbor’s jet-powered toilet. The room itself was a tight fit for a family of five with luggage for 9 days. The shortage of drawers didn’t help and we ended up just living out of suitcases. My smallish 10-year old girl found the fold down bed to be large enough but too hard.
I don’t think I could ever justify paying for a “preferred room” and maybe that’s because we were in building 27, the preferred building farthest from the lobby and food court, and we didn’t make the trip to the food court or lobby many times. The walk to the West Depot was only slightly longer and that’s where we ended up most trips as the South Depot was very crowded and buses were sometimes full when they arrived as it was often the last pickup point. On the other hand, the West Depot was frequently the first pickup point meaning most trips took an extra 10-15 minutes to hit the other three depots before heading to the park.
The in-room refrigerator was more than sufficient for our needs and held apple juice boxes, a half-gallon of milk, butter, yogurt, peanut butter, two 1-quart bottles, string cheese and a few other small items without being crowded. The new (to us, at least) Joffrey’s coffee pods were just good enough to keep me from bothering with bringing our own coffee (we grind beans in the store, so we are minor coffee snobs). Mousekeeping wasn’t what it used to be--it was still cleaner than the average hotel room, but not much and we saw zero towel animals. We loved the main pool as it had plenty of shady spots where you could keep an eye on the kids. The pool bar was pricey, but drinks were tasty and relatively potent. We enjoyed the burgers, fries and shakes at the food court. Nobody in our group tried Boatright’s. We stopped in on “Ye Haa Bob” one night and would have stayed longer if it weren’t so crowded and/or we hadn’t already had a very long day.
Bottom line: We enjoyed Riverside, but I’d consider some significant sacrifices to stay at French Quarter instead if for nothing other than being at a smaller resort with more efficient transit options. The pool at Riverside had more shady spots, but we could always walk over from French Quarter.
Crowd levels / Touring / Weather
Having spent 10+ years in Houston, I still wasn’t ready for the humidity and heat we experienced several days. A couple of afternoons, though the temperature was in the low 90’s, the heat index was well over 100. That’s sweat-through-your-shirt-can’t-keep-the-sweat-out-of-your-eyes-please-God-just-let-it-rain-maybe-we-should-just-ride-its-a-small-world-over-and-over oppressive heat. We put our Brita filter bottle and free ice water to good use. Thanks again to Disney for putting so many of their queues in the shade and/or inside otherwise we might have lost some of the older folks.
Labor Day weekend was decidedly more crowded and we expected this. FastPasses were a must for the headliners/slow loaders and waits for some of the less popular rides were a bit much for my taste (30 mins for a non-headliner) particularly between 11am and 8pm. After the weekend, on days when all 20 of us toured together, we couldn’t stay on schedule with our touring plan primarily because when you have that many people together, you’re always waiting on someone. At any given time, someone needs a bathroom break, a snack, water, diaper change, picture, to find something in their bag, etc. The mistake I made was pushing through to finish the plan when we should have cut out a step to get back on schedule. We instead ended up touring into mid-afternoon when it was hotter and more crowded. This also meant afternoon breaks were shortened and we didn’t get the rest / pool time we needed. On days I toured with just my five, between FastPasses, a smart touring plan, child swap and some flexibility we rode everything we wanted as many times as we wanted and generally stayed ahead of schedule. One minor disappointment was finding that there were very slim pickings for a fourth FastPass by early afternoon. I think we only used a fourth twice for the entire visit, but again, we didn’t really need it.
Rides / Shows
I won’t try to capture everything we did, but will just comment on anything that was new or surprised or disappointed us.
As a coaster, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was too tame for my taste but I understand it needs to appeal to a wide audience. It is a fairly smooth ride, the theming and animatronics are very nice and the projected faces look fantastic. My DD10 and DD13 enjoyed it as did some of the less adventurous older members of our party so I’d say Disney hit their mark. We did see this ride down a couple of times a day for reasons other than weather though it was usually back online fairly quickly. When it was shut down during our FastPass time, we’d receive a message saying our FastPass had been extended to be good through the end of the day.
This was our first time to experience Enchanted Tales with Belle and we loved it. Having five of our party selected to be part of the cast certainly helped. Great memories were made.
All of the kids in our party did extremely well with the dark / scary experiences. Even the two infants (less than a month away from 2 y.o.) sat through and even enjoyed It’s Tough To Be A Bug. We sat near exits just in case. DS1.9 even liked Haunted Mansion despite my constant fear that he was going to freak out at any second. My cousin’s DS1.9 had the most trouble with volume levels and would frequently put his hands over his ears.
At just shy of 44, I admit it. I’m done with Mission SPACE: Orange. I rode Green for the first time and found it to be a better experience for me. I don’t really get any extra thrills from Orange, just extra nausea.
Though we could tour more efficiently with the old paper FastPass system and didn't have to plan our days out to quite the same extent, I didn't particularly dislike the new system and understand what Disney is trying to accomplish. We are blessed to have the flexibility to visit during lower-crowd times and were still able to ride just about everything as many times as we wanted to ride.
Philharmagic, Spaceship Earth and the Laugh Floor were probably the three attractions that the group enjoyed considerably more than I expected they would. DS1.9 chose Spanish for us on “Spaceship Earth” before we knew what had happened, so I got to practice my Español. Mi Español es no bueno.
Dining
First, if you’re looking for advice on dining with a large party, I’ll tell you that it can happen. Even more than with a normal size group, be flexible, be diligent and book early. Book everything the online system will let you the first second it will allow it. As soon as the phone lines open call about everything that you couldn’t book online. All of the restaurants have a different cutoff on how large of a party they will book online. Some you’ll have to call the restaurant directly and still others, like Be Our Guest, will ask you to send an email.
Saturday dinner at Crystal Palace
Though they sat us at adjacent tables of four or five, we didn’t really get to sit together and we all had separate waitstaff. This was all fine but it was mildly annoying that we still paid the 18% gratuity on a buffet when we were effectively five separate tables…. And I’m over it. This meal was mostly about the characters and they didn’t disappoint. Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet were all very attentive and spent plenty of time taking pictures, giving hugs and high fives and signing autographs. I’ve found that the food at Crystal Palace is just ok, with one or two dishes standing out.
Sunday dinner at Boma
Boma put 16 of us at one table and four at another which was fine with the four grandparents as they were able to enjoy their food and company a little more. I’m sad to say that Boma, though good, disappointed me a little perhaps because it was so very good on our last visit. The carrot-ginger soup was particularly disappointing as this batch was just too sweet. The corn chowder was excellent. Your experience at Boma, I suspect, will depend largely on how well that night’s buffet matches your taste. There just weren’t as many dishes that pleased my palette as on our last visit. Bread pudding and zebra domes for dessert helped make it all better.
Monday dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s The Dining Room
We decided last minute to have dinner at Downtown Disney where the rest of the family had headed about 20 minutes before. While we were on the boat, they called and said they could get us all into T-Rex but we had to be there in 10 minutes. Not wanting to be rushed and not loving T-Rex, I declined. I found a reservation at Wolfgang Puck that was just perfect timing for us, took that as a sign and made the reservation. When we arrived, they had a little trouble finding the reservation and I explained I'd just made it and showed them the confirmation email. When they pointed us towards the elevator to head upstairs, it started to sink in. I'd made a reservation at The Dining Room at Wolfgang Puck (a 2 TS-credit meal). Up we went, DW, DD13, DD10 and DS 1.9(!). Thankfully, the dining room was empty except for a wedding party off in another room. We paid cash rather than burning our plan credits and escaped for just under $150 including tip. The kids were all very well-behaved. The food and service were fantastic and it was the quietest, calmest hour of the week. In short, it was exactly what we needed. I might just make that mistake again.
Tuesday dinner at Whispering Canyon
This was our first visit to Whispering Canyon and it was a great place for a large, mildly obnoxious group as the place is so loud that no one will notice. We had fun though there were definitely waiters and waitresses having more fun with their tables. The mashed potatoes, sausage and beef loin were probably my favorites from the “All You Care to Enjoy” skillet. The ribs were alright though some were dry to the point of being difficult to eat. Three of us consumed a total of 10 shakes thanks to the “bottomless” shakes with strawberry being the consensus favorite. We’d definitely like to go back though the commute to Wilderness Lodge is painful, so maybe some time after we can catch a cab without needing a car seat.
Wednesday dinner at ‘Ohana
This is my new favorite meal at WDW. Nearly everything here was fantastic (with the shrimp just being ok). From friendship (pineapple and coconut) bread to the Asian (?) noodles and pot stickers to the carnivores-delight of endless supplies of chicken, steak and shrimp. About five minutes after the meat sweats set in and I threw in the towel on the main course, the bread pudding arrived. I am a big fan of bread pudding when it’s done right and this was so, so very right and served ala mode. I couldn’t have eaten another bite.
Thursday dinner at Hoop-Dee-Doo
I can see why this dinner show has become a sort of cult favorite. The kids loved the show, including the lone teenager in the group and though, yes, it is pretty campy humor, the adults found plenty of laughs too. The ribs, veggies, etc were all good, but the real standout for me was the fried chicken. I grew up in Oklahoma with two grandmothers both of whom were very good cooks. I know a little something about fried chicken, so I don’t find good fried chicken just anywhere. This was right up there with some of the best and was nice and hot when it arrived. Washing it down with Yuengling made it all the better (this never would have happened at Grandma’s). Strawberry Shortcake was a nice way to finish off the meal.
Friday brunch at Chef Mickey’s
We were (ok, I was) very excited to score an ADR for the new brunch at Chef Mickey’s as I’ve always heard such positive things about Chef Mickey’s. I unfortunately was a little disappointed. It felt like they’d just taken away the best stuff at breakfast and thrown in a couple of “lunch” items. It wasn’t bad, but breakfast at Hollywood and Vine was better. The character visits at Chef Mickey’s seemed a little more rushed than at other character meals. I wouldn’t be in a hurry to go back.
Saturday breakfast at Hollywood and Vine (Disney Jr Play ‘n’ Dine)
There were lots of very good breakfast options here including an “eggs-to-order” station and a breakfast bread pudding; otherwise, the food was fairly standard Disney breakfast fare but everything here just seemed a little fresher / hotter despite being there fairly late for breakfast (10:10 ADR). The “shows” that the characters put on here definitely make the greeting experience a little more maniacal, but they all did a great job making sure that all of the kids got their time with them.
Sunday lunch at Be Our Guest
We pre-ordered our meal and arrived about 15 minutes before our ADR as it had just started pouring down rain and we needed a place to stay dry. On arrival, our Magic Bands were scanned and we were told to sit wherever we liked and to leave our receipt on the table. We chose a table in the Rose Room and went in groups of two to get our drinks. About 15 minutes later, a cart arrived with our food without anyone ever having looked at our receipt (Big Brother is always watching). Most of us had the Croque Monsieur (basically a fancy ham and cheese) which I found to be ok. Maybe not the best choice for me as I can make a pretty good Croque Monsieur myself. The “pommes frites” were decent French fries though a real French chef would have shirked at them being called “pommes frites” (French chefs shirk at a lot of things). Dessert was really the only part of the meal that was any better than other QS meals. The Master’s Cupcake with “grey stuff” (cookies and cream) is good, but the Strawberry Cream Cheese Cupcake is where it’s at. It was divine.
In Summary
All the planning and preparation paid off even more than usual with such a large group. I’m blessed with a remarkable family that can get through an extended vacation with so little drama. We discovered some excellent new dining experiences, by accident or otherwise. As always, there were some minor disappointments, but overall the magic of Disney is very much alive. I feel so very blessed to have been there to see my family, from very young to, umm, retired, experience that magic. I can't wait to go back!
