Rainforest Cafe
Friday May 29, 2009
Our last day at Disney World :(
It was a fun week and we hated to leave Disney World, but we were happy about leaving the crowds behind and looking forward to the rest of our trip.
In the morning, I went out to get the van so that we could load everything up and the battery was dead. I guess not moving the van for the week meant no charge for the battery. Disney must deal with that a lot because they had a security guy there in no time with a portable battery charger.
The boys always like going to Downtown Disney to see the shops and especially the Lego store, so after packing the car we caught the bus to Downtown Disney and, since the Typhoon Lagoon Water Park is just across the street, we brought our swim suits and spent a few hours there as well.
After touring Downtown Disney we took the boat over to the Port Orleans Riverside resort. We had never been there before and thought it was really nice. We had dinner there and then took the boat to Port Orleans French Quarter. I thought the place looked fun with all the Mardi Gras like characters, but the kids thought they were a little spooky. We had a beautiful boat ride back to Downtown Disney. The weather was perfect and the boat driver was fun and told us all kinds of neat things during the trip. Downtown Disney was all lit up as we approached.
We went back to the Wilderness Lodge to get the van and head out, but the battery on the van was dead again. We had it jumped again and after all that we toyed with just staying at Disney another night, but couldn't justify the rates so we headed towards St Augustine. We didn't get far and decided to pack it in at Holiday Inn on the north side of Orlando. It looked fine from the outside, but it sucked on the inside -dirty and run down. The beds were comfortable enough though.
Below is a copy of a letter that I emailed to Disney regarding our trip:
My family of 4 (boys age 10 and 7) contemplated many possible vacation destinations for this summer and, finally, settled on Disney World based on the buy 4 nights get 3 promotion and the wonderful Disney World vacation we had 2 years ago. We are amazed at the scale of Disney and what a terrific job you do. However, our stay this year was not the slam dunk it was 2 years ago and we thought that we would pass on information that might help others.
Overcrowded
2 years ago we visited during the same time of year, Memorial Day week, and, although it was crowded, we were able to enjoy the parks. However, this year the parks were overcrowded. When the FastPasses for the popular rides run out by noon there’s something wrong. We understand that the parks are popular, but at some point the onus is on Disney to control the crowds enough so that people come away with a positive experience.
Suggestions: The parks are too expensive, especially when you stay on property (we stayed at Wilderness Lodge) for people to spend their time waiting in lines. We will never wait longer than 20-30 minutes in a line. Give us some tools to manage our experience. The FastPass is a good start, but not if they sell out. It seems reasonable to never wait more than 2-4 hours for a FastPass. Give us ways to determine how crowded the various parks are so that we can plan accordingly…before we get to the park.
Transportation
We loved the boat from Wilderness Lodge to Magic Kingdom! However, we waited almost an hour on 3 different occasions for buses. Once after closing down Blizzard Beach, once after closing down Typhoon Lagoon, and once after closing down Hollywood Studios. It was especially frustrating to see 3 different buses picking up for one of the other resorts while we waited for our first bus. Hollywood studios closed at midnight and we were not back at Wilderness Lodge until almost 1:30.
Suggestions: Again Disney vacations are too expensive to be waiting. We love the idea of parking our car for the week and using Disney transportation, but our expectation is to never wait more than 15-20 minutes for transportation and to be at our destination within 30 – many of the routes are too circuitous so that even if you are picked up within a reasonable amount of time you don’t reach your destination for an hour.
Wheelchairs\Scooters
We don’t mean to be insensitive, but something needs to be done. The parks were extremely crowded and the number of wheelchairs\scooters was unbelievable. It seemed to us that many of the wheelchair\scooter bound people had no medical need. It also seemed that they had very large extended families travelling with them. It’s extremely frustrating to wait in the heat in a long line and then see an overweight person in a scooter and their 10 family members be allowed to jump to the front every line. Not to mention the difficulty added to navigating the park walkways.
Suggestions: Toughen the requirement for who is considered “disabled” and only allow the disabled person and one handler to be given preference to move to the front of the ride lines.
Choice
We also visited Busch Gardens on our trip (after Disney) and guess which park our kids can’t stop talking about going back to? Busch Gardens. Of course Disney blows Busch Gardens away in so many ways, but for our boys being able to ride a bunch of rides with minimal wait overshadowed everything else. We love Disney for so many reasons…not just the rides, but the kids have to be able to ride within a reasonable amount of time. Our kids do not make decisions for us, but they certainly influence them.
Suggestions: Obviously you don’t have a problem attracting customers, but for us it’s hard to justify spending the kind of money a Disney vacation costs and then spend a lot of the time waiting…for rides, transportation, etc. There are too many other choices out there.
Helen and Adam returning with clean clothes for the next leg of our trip
Playing in the fountain at Downtown Disney
Downtown Disney shops
Have to visit the Lego store at Downtown Disney
Typhoon Lagoon Water Park
Every resort has a TV room for kids that shows Disney programs and our kids found it every time
Touring Port Orleans Riverside resort
Port Orleans French Quarter resort
Rainforest Cafe
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