Little E
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2016
Hi Disfriends!
We just returned from our DVC welcome home trip from 3/22-3/31. DH and I took DS 18 and DS's buddy, and we had our college DS fly in for most of the week with us. Our home resort is VGF, and we stayed one night at AKL-Kidani in a one bedroom, and then transferred to a 2 bedroom at VGF for the remainder of our trip. Here are some quick thoughts on our experiences...
1. We had terrific weather...late March is alway a little "iffy", but we had sunshine and mid 80's temps all week, with one day even reaching low 90's. We had 30 minutes of rain one night at dinner, and that was it for precipitation. Amazing!
2. We have never done a split stay. I was excited to try this, and my DH was very hesitant, as he likes to move in and get comfy. We did a "mini" split stay in that we stayed our first night at AKL-Kidani before moving to VGF. I asked lots of questions on the Disboards before we left about split stay strategy, and I thought I would love it as a way to try different and new-to-us resorts. And...I found out I didn't really love it. Even though I thought I was packing strategically, I found I had to dig through all our luggage a lot for that first night. I did not enjoy the transfer process, so, from now on, no split stays for us.
3. AKL-Kidani was amazing for animal viewing. We loved seeing all kinds of animals from lots of different viewing areas. The boys loved the Kidani pool, and The Mara was great for a quick, late night dinner. However, we thought overall it was very dark there, and it was so far away from the rest of the Disney bubble. I'm so glad we tried it, but AKL is a one and done for us.
4. On the other hand, we LOVED VGF. We had only stayed for a long weekend in a regular hotel room at GF in 2016, and we bought in to VGF sight unseen last year. This trip made us realize that we made the right choice for our home resort. We loved everything about our villa and the pools and the proximity to MK. The only downside was the fact that the walking path was closed. We'll be so excited when it opens back up and we can walk to MK!
5. Thanks to DH's lightning fast reflexes, we were able to snag VQs for both Tron and Guardians. Both rides were fantastic and so fun! Downside to Tron: it's really short. Like REALLY short. The VQ is tricky too. We snagged a VQ for our first day in MK, which was also the day we transferred from AK to GF. We had a breakfast reserved at GF Cafe, and we got our boarding notification just as we were about to go eat breakfast. CMs let us know that we needed to hightail it to MK in a hurry; it's not like Guardians where they will let you in later if you miss your boarding group window. If you snooze, you lose. So we had to explain our dilemma to the GF Cafe, and they were LOVELY about cancelling without penalty at the 11th hour. We rushed to MK and waited in a horrible line to tap in to the park, and then rushed to get to the Tron line. We made it with about 10 minutes to spare and it was so fun!! We learned from this experience that if you get into the VQ you need to watch your notifications like a hawk and be ready to drop everything to get to Tron on time. Guardians, on the other hand, is a lot more relaxed. You can arrive well after the boarding group expires and CMs don't care.
6. I had forgotten how long it takes to get from MK to EP via the monorail. We underestimated the time we needed to allot for this. Catching monorails was very hit or miss for us, and I had forgotten the actual length of time it takes to get from the TTC to Epcot. Note to self for future trips...give yourself plenty of time! On the flip side, we had really good experiences catching busses at VGF; we did not have to wait long at all for busses to the parks, which was a pleasant surprise.
7. Speaking of transportation, we booked Sunshine Flyer to transport us from MCO to AKL. NEVER AGAIN! We were the 4th stop on the SF and we were on the bus for just short of two hours! The stops before us were all over the place...SF folks made no effort to group resorts that were close to one another. We went to Coronado Springs, All Star Music, and Caribbean Beach before being dropped at AK. I thought this might have been a one time weird situation, but DS who flew in a couple days after us had the same experience with SF. He was the 5th stop and was on the bus well over two hours. Again, the stops had the SF criss crossing all of the Disney properties before dropping DS at the VGF. Note to self: spend the money to call an Uber from MCO!
8. We did the Disney After Hours event at HS on 3/29 and had a FANTASTIC experience! Yes, the lines were long from about 9:30-10 pm, but after 10 pm, we felt as though we had the park to ourselves. It was so much fun to have very short lines and be able to ride things multiple times. We also saw Chewy walking around the Star Wars area, and we got lots of time to hang out with and hug Daisy and Donald Duck...we had them all to ourselves! The only downside was that we felt there were not many snack carts available. They were very spread out. For example, there were no snack carts in the whole Star Wars area, and there were none that we could see at the very front of the park. We had the best luck with snack carts by the Muppets area and by Tower of Terror. I would definitely do an after hours event again!
9. We enjoyed great food during our trip. Our favorite meals were at Steakhouse 71 and (surprisingly) at Beaches and Cream. We enjoyed drinks at The Enchanted Rose two nights in a row, and we enjoyed the food booths in Epcot as well. Our best CM interaction was with "Uncle Dale", our waiter at 50's Prime Time Cafe...he was hilarious! DH and I realized we have to get better at asking for DVC discounts at TS restaurants. We forgot to mention that we are DVC at several places...ggggrrr. Hazard of being DVC newbies, I guess.
10. Using DVC points, I was really worried about not having daily mousekeeping, and I thought for sure that I would want to purchase a day or two of mousekeeping. Surprisingly, I found myself using the washer/dryer almost daily, and not having to worry about when mousekeeping would come was so freeing. I did a load of towels most days, to keep us in clean, dry towels, and I loved throwing a load of clothes in as needed. I never felt the need to purchase extra mousekeeping. It was nice to have housekeeping on our 4th day, and having trash and towel service on day 8 was great. We were gone most days at the parks, and we discovered our trash and recycling had been emptied almost daily? I assumed that was when CMs came to do checks? Regardless, I found not having daily mousekeeping was just fine. Knowing I can do laundry as needed, I think we'll try to just do carry ons when we fly for future trips.
We had a terrific time, and we feel lucky that our kiddos are still Disney lovers and are still willing to do Disney with us. DH and I left feeling really good about our choice to purchase DVC, and we have already booked a trip for the runDisney event in November. Feel free to ask me any questions!
We just returned from our DVC welcome home trip from 3/22-3/31. DH and I took DS 18 and DS's buddy, and we had our college DS fly in for most of the week with us. Our home resort is VGF, and we stayed one night at AKL-Kidani in a one bedroom, and then transferred to a 2 bedroom at VGF for the remainder of our trip. Here are some quick thoughts on our experiences...
1. We had terrific weather...late March is alway a little "iffy", but we had sunshine and mid 80's temps all week, with one day even reaching low 90's. We had 30 minutes of rain one night at dinner, and that was it for precipitation. Amazing!
2. We have never done a split stay. I was excited to try this, and my DH was very hesitant, as he likes to move in and get comfy. We did a "mini" split stay in that we stayed our first night at AKL-Kidani before moving to VGF. I asked lots of questions on the Disboards before we left about split stay strategy, and I thought I would love it as a way to try different and new-to-us resorts. And...I found out I didn't really love it. Even though I thought I was packing strategically, I found I had to dig through all our luggage a lot for that first night. I did not enjoy the transfer process, so, from now on, no split stays for us.
3. AKL-Kidani was amazing for animal viewing. We loved seeing all kinds of animals from lots of different viewing areas. The boys loved the Kidani pool, and The Mara was great for a quick, late night dinner. However, we thought overall it was very dark there, and it was so far away from the rest of the Disney bubble. I'm so glad we tried it, but AKL is a one and done for us.
4. On the other hand, we LOVED VGF. We had only stayed for a long weekend in a regular hotel room at GF in 2016, and we bought in to VGF sight unseen last year. This trip made us realize that we made the right choice for our home resort. We loved everything about our villa and the pools and the proximity to MK. The only downside was the fact that the walking path was closed. We'll be so excited when it opens back up and we can walk to MK!
5. Thanks to DH's lightning fast reflexes, we were able to snag VQs for both Tron and Guardians. Both rides were fantastic and so fun! Downside to Tron: it's really short. Like REALLY short. The VQ is tricky too. We snagged a VQ for our first day in MK, which was also the day we transferred from AK to GF. We had a breakfast reserved at GF Cafe, and we got our boarding notification just as we were about to go eat breakfast. CMs let us know that we needed to hightail it to MK in a hurry; it's not like Guardians where they will let you in later if you miss your boarding group window. If you snooze, you lose. So we had to explain our dilemma to the GF Cafe, and they were LOVELY about cancelling without penalty at the 11th hour. We rushed to MK and waited in a horrible line to tap in to the park, and then rushed to get to the Tron line. We made it with about 10 minutes to spare and it was so fun!! We learned from this experience that if you get into the VQ you need to watch your notifications like a hawk and be ready to drop everything to get to Tron on time. Guardians, on the other hand, is a lot more relaxed. You can arrive well after the boarding group expires and CMs don't care.
6. I had forgotten how long it takes to get from MK to EP via the monorail. We underestimated the time we needed to allot for this. Catching monorails was very hit or miss for us, and I had forgotten the actual length of time it takes to get from the TTC to Epcot. Note to self for future trips...give yourself plenty of time! On the flip side, we had really good experiences catching busses at VGF; we did not have to wait long at all for busses to the parks, which was a pleasant surprise.
7. Speaking of transportation, we booked Sunshine Flyer to transport us from MCO to AKL. NEVER AGAIN! We were the 4th stop on the SF and we were on the bus for just short of two hours! The stops before us were all over the place...SF folks made no effort to group resorts that were close to one another. We went to Coronado Springs, All Star Music, and Caribbean Beach before being dropped at AK. I thought this might have been a one time weird situation, but DS who flew in a couple days after us had the same experience with SF. He was the 5th stop and was on the bus well over two hours. Again, the stops had the SF criss crossing all of the Disney properties before dropping DS at the VGF. Note to self: spend the money to call an Uber from MCO!
8. We did the Disney After Hours event at HS on 3/29 and had a FANTASTIC experience! Yes, the lines were long from about 9:30-10 pm, but after 10 pm, we felt as though we had the park to ourselves. It was so much fun to have very short lines and be able to ride things multiple times. We also saw Chewy walking around the Star Wars area, and we got lots of time to hang out with and hug Daisy and Donald Duck...we had them all to ourselves! The only downside was that we felt there were not many snack carts available. They were very spread out. For example, there were no snack carts in the whole Star Wars area, and there were none that we could see at the very front of the park. We had the best luck with snack carts by the Muppets area and by Tower of Terror. I would definitely do an after hours event again!
9. We enjoyed great food during our trip. Our favorite meals were at Steakhouse 71 and (surprisingly) at Beaches and Cream. We enjoyed drinks at The Enchanted Rose two nights in a row, and we enjoyed the food booths in Epcot as well. Our best CM interaction was with "Uncle Dale", our waiter at 50's Prime Time Cafe...he was hilarious! DH and I realized we have to get better at asking for DVC discounts at TS restaurants. We forgot to mention that we are DVC at several places...ggggrrr. Hazard of being DVC newbies, I guess.
10. Using DVC points, I was really worried about not having daily mousekeeping, and I thought for sure that I would want to purchase a day or two of mousekeeping. Surprisingly, I found myself using the washer/dryer almost daily, and not having to worry about when mousekeeping would come was so freeing. I did a load of towels most days, to keep us in clean, dry towels, and I loved throwing a load of clothes in as needed. I never felt the need to purchase extra mousekeeping. It was nice to have housekeeping on our 4th day, and having trash and towel service on day 8 was great. We were gone most days at the parks, and we discovered our trash and recycling had been emptied almost daily? I assumed that was when CMs came to do checks? Regardless, I found not having daily mousekeeping was just fine. Knowing I can do laundry as needed, I think we'll try to just do carry ons when we fly for future trips.
We had a terrific time, and we feel lucky that our kiddos are still Disney lovers and are still willing to do Disney with us. DH and I left feeling really good about our choice to purchase DVC, and we have already booked a trip for the runDisney event in November. Feel free to ask me any questions!
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sounds like a fantastic trip!
