Good Morning! I'm sitting here with a cup of coffee watching CBS Sunday Morning (routine at my house). Well still on my "no spend February" and doing well. Really cutting down on grocery spending, taking time to watch prices and since my family is on Keto we're planning out our meals. I didn't purchase anyone Valentines gifts this year, I felt bad but no one said anything. Received lots of goodies from co-workers and my husband (he bought the flowers in advance so they we're discounted) :) So as my "to do" list is small today I decided to get on here and share my experience during Christmas at Disney World. As I previously posted my coast to coast trip during Christmas, our second stop was Orlando to visited Disney World. I love Disney World, and was excited to go since everything will be decorated for Christmas. Since we were flying in from New York we arrived in the afternoon and decided to go to Disney's Very Merry Christmas Party which is a special ticket after the park closes. I booked a room at Disney's All Star Sports hotel thru Travelocity, it was only $125 a night, the reason why I picked a Disney hotel was for their free transportation, Existent, once we finally found our room, no Disney personnel in site to ask for directions, it is exactly like a Motel 6 with Disney toiletries in the restroom. The beds are so small that my husband and I slept like Desi and Lucy in separate beds.
So we're checked in, we changed and headed to the park. We took the Disney bus and we're excited to get there. I figured it would not be as crowded plus they had lots of perks to the event like free snacks and special shows. So we arrived at closing and we're the first few in, tickets cost $200 for both of us. We headed to Tomorrow Land and decided to get on the People Mover ride since the line wasn't long, we get on right away and then the ride breaks. We sat there thinking it would start up soon but it didn't, 30 minutes later they decided to get us off and we had to wait until a cast member unlocked our car, then we proceeded to walk along the elevated trail then down the stairs to exit the ride. Another cast member was waiting for us and the exit with a Fast Pass coupon BUT it was only good for rides the day after (Fast Passes were not available for this special event), we'll we were only there for one day so we gave ours away. So now that the park is full we headed to find the free cookies they advertised in Tomorrow Land, it's marked by a large inflated candy cane, then saw the line, it was massive! We were hungry because we literally got off the plane checked into our hotel then straight to the park. With at least 80 people in line it took us 3 minutes to get our free hot chocolate and cookie, Disney knows what their doing and had dozens of people handing out the free items and herding everyone in and out like cattle. Then we went to Fantasy Land and their were so many people we we're literally shuffling our feet to get out of that area. So then we see people lining up for the parade, so we went to the entrance of the park to get a spot while a show was going on at Cinderella's Castle. We stood in our spot for 30 minutes but by the time the parade started we we're standing arm to arm like sardines. I was still able to see the parade but it was uncomfortable, and before it started my husband decided to grab a hot dog for us, because we haven't ate all day, we'll that took 20 minutes and he couldn't get back to me by the time the parade started. Once the parade ended, which was so cute! We tried to get back to the park but the crowds we're so intense we just went to the stores. Once we bought some souvenirs we we're so tired we decided to go. It was our fault for not stopping to eat first before going to the park but we didn't realize the park was going to be so crowded. The way they advertised the event it was a limited amount allowed to the event. It didn't seem like that to us, after reading the Disney blogs, things have changed and Disney did increase the amount of people let into the park after hours. I understand but it wasn't an enjoyable experience for us. We had to get up the next day at 5am to catch our flight to California so we headed back to our Disney hotel on the transportation they provide and called it a day.
Shuttle service would of cost $75, plus a rental car plus parking would of cost over $100. We've stayed a Disney Hotels before, Coronado Springs, Port Orleans, Animal Kingdom but once we checked in the special customer service your used to is non-
In the morning, w
e ate breakfast at the hotel and it was OK but very expensive, the gift shop wasn't open late or early so any last minute souvenirs I wanted to buy wasn't an option. Since it was early in the morning they only had one person at the check in/out counter and so I went up to her to check out, and she told me to step back I wasn't called yet, I looked around and their is NO ONE in the lobby. So while she logged into her computer and talked on the phone to someone she adjusted herself and then asked me to come up to the counter. Then we had to check in our bags with staff before we got on the bus to the airport, they asked for a transportation voucher which was suppose to be left on our door the night before, never got it and we explained that to staff even though we called the day before to schedule transportation, they huffed and rolled their eyes when we told them we didn't have the voucher and then told us we would make the bus late because they had to manually enter everything into the system since we didn't have a voucher (we we're sitting there 30 minutes before the bus was scheduled to leave) so we said no worries we'll just take our bags on the bus. So needless to say our experience wasn't the best at this Disney hotel or at the park, but I get it, you get what you paid for, and I normally don't express my displeasure because I work for a public entity so I know how it feels when someone yells at you, is it really worth upsetting the other person or yourself, not really plus I learned from this stay and will not do this again. Lesson learned, we did enjoy the fireworks show and the parade so I wouldn't say it wasn't worth it, even a small amount of time at Disney is always magical. Next post San Francisco.
In the morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel and it was OK but very expensive, the gift shop wasn't open late or early so any last minute souvenirs I wanted to buy wasn't an option. Since it was early in the morning they only had one person at the check in/out counter and so I went up to her to check out, and she told me to step back I wasn't called yet, I looked around and their is NO ONE in the lobby. So while she logged into her computer and talked on the phone to someone she adjusted herself and then asked me to come up to the counter. Then we had to check in our bags with staff before we got on the bus to the airport, they asked for a transportation voucher which was suppose to be left on our door the night before, never got it and we explained that to staff even though we called the day before to schedule transportation, they huffed and rolled their eyes when we told them we didn't have the voucher and then told us we would make the bus late because they had to manually enter everything into the system since we didn't have a voucher (we we're sitting there 30 minutes before the bus was scheduled to leave) so we said no worries we'll just take our bags on the bus. So needless to say our experience wasn't the best at this Disney hotel or at the park, but I get it, you get what you paid for, and I normally don't express my displeasure because I work for a public entity so I know how it feels when someone yells at you, is it really worth upsetting the other person or yourself, not really plus I learned from this stay and will not do this again. Lesson learned, we did enjoy the fireworks show and the parade so I wouldn't say it wasn't worth it, even a small amount of time at Disney is always magical. Next post San Francisco. 
Comments
Post a Comment