Seventh visit, with some twists...

[gallifreyan]

So this is my first trip report. I've been to WDW 7 times now (I think)... five at WL, one at Music, and one (the first) at AKL. The mouse has seen my niece go from about 3 to nearly 11 now. I won't cover every detail, just the high and low points.

We were there from 5/1-5/6. Biggest party I've ever gone with, eight including a toddler and her grandma. It was also the first time I've ever gone through a travel agent (Tanya at Small World Vacations was great) and the first time we've ever done meal plan. It was also the first time we've been unable to get into Crystal Palace.

In the interest of getting the most time on the property, we took a redeye out of Silicon Valley into MCO, arriving a bit after 5am. We took DME to the resort, and my brother's party met us about an hour and a half later, having come in from Mountain Time the night before.

The WL cast members are always great to work with, but ours managed to get us effectively three upgrades. First, they found us a room that was ready to occupy at about 6:30am. We'd expected to check our bags, get our keys, and come back at 3pm for a room.

We'd also expected to be miles from the other sub-party's room; we got a bunk bed room and they didn't, so we weren't going to be adjacent... but by changing us from woods view to pool view, they got a room next to us (but without the connecting door). And their room was ready soon after ours. So a higher grade of room, 8 hours sooner than expected, with my brother's party right next door... serious bonuses.

As I mentioned, our main disappointment was the popularity of Crystal Palace in MK. We've been there every time, often for my birthday breakfast with Pooh and crew. But it was not to be this time. On the upside, we discovered what seems to be a hidden gem in Disney's Hollywood Studios--Hollywood and Vine is very similar in style, with the buffet, and excellent wait staff to handle your beverages and mouse ear sprinkles for the kids' desserts (wonder if we can buy those after leaving the property). No character experience there, but it was never crowded and the food was diverse and very tasty. Oh... this is probably the first visit where I actually gained any weight.

There were two of our six days with some threat of inclement weather... very little actual rain but there were some brief monorail stoppages due to threat of lightning. One night the incoming MK crowds were overwhelming as we were leaving, so we did not come back for the fireworks, but we caught Wishes (and the daily photo show and MSEP) twice, three times for my brother and the kids. Apparently Tinkerbell was on holiday early in the week... another very minor disappointment.

A miniscule disappointment was that they didn't have the black-lid resort mugs when we checked in, so I went with yellow. It was a nice touch to have them included with the Deluxe Dining Plan, but even if you have to pay $13, it's worth it for breakfast and late night coffee/soda. I'd pay $25 if I could fill it up outside the resort, although with dining plan we had more than enough opportunities to beverage up.

I knew the rules on the dining plan going in, so while I would have liked to be able to share my extra meals with my brother's party (who got the standard plan, one TS one QS one Snack per day), I still feel it was a good deal. I think we left one snack and 1 meals on the plan when we left. Sometimes it's all about timing, but it was nice to not worry about what a meal would cost. Next time we'll go on the same reservation/dining plan and save some trouble.

Boma at AKL was incredible as usual. My SO was working in eastern Africa for many years, and her daughter was born there, so they've had their share of African food. But both were pleased with the experience, and in fact, I don't think either of them complained about any of the food. I was hoping to sneak away with SO for Jiko or even Artist Point, but it didn't work out this time. Found that early breakfast at Whispering Canyon Cafe in WL is a bit subdued, for the benefit of sleepers in rooms facing the main hall. They only had ten bottles of ketchup out, for example. But dinner was rambunctious as usual, and I even got a 2 litre jar of tea. Nearly finished it too!

I think this was the first time I didn't take a whole day off to just sleep and read and eat a whole meal-for-three at Whispering Canyon. A bit of our schedule was tempered by the toddler, and my brother's creative timekeeping, so other than a big blister and a painful bit on one foot, it actually wasn't as wearying as previous trips.

As I've mentioned on other threads, I got really good Internet connectivity all over the property with my Verizon phone (Thunderbolt 4G/LTE). My brother's 3G VZW phone was also pretty useful on the property, especially since we'd split the parties up in different ways sometimes. DME was very useful, although we couldn't check our bags at the resort before heading for the airport--random screening stuff that we were notified of on the morning of our checkout.

We're planning on going again in 9 months... probably only 6-7 of us, and I hear rumors of a pirate room at Caribbean Beach. And there's a distinct risk of a christmastime visit to Disneyland in the mean time.