First off, I’d like to say that we had a fantastic time. Once again my pre-planning worked to our advantage and we had the opportunity to experience some things that we had never done before. And a few that we’ll probably never do again.
To begin, I’d like to remind those of you who don’t know that we live on the West Coast. And as such flying to the East Coast to take vacations is very expensive for a family of four. It has always galled me a bit to spend $1600 to fly to the east coast to “just go on a cruise,” or to “just go to Disney World.” And as a result I have always dreamed of combining the two. Well, that experiment is over and I have to say it failed. Here’s why: One, our plan of action was flawed. We did the cruise first and Disney World second. To paraphrase my wife’s words, “We went from having our every whim cared for to being part of crowd control.” Starting with Disney World, if you are going to go this route, is the way to go. It is hectic with early mornings and late nights, it is crowds and long lines, it is busses and transportation nightmares. The cruise is leisurely, compact, with a handful of people who are there to make your experience the best possible. Two, It’s a long vacation. I thought that a three night cruise and a four night cruise followed by three nights at Disney World would be plenty. Well, in the sense that we fatigued ourselves it was. But truly, we really felt that we had not gotten enough of either. A full one week cruise or a full one week trip to Disney World would have been a bit more satisfying. That all said, here’s my play by play rundown of how the vacation went.
The Flight: Here’s an experiment that went horribly awry. I had been able to cash in some flight miles for free tickets. Yay! Who doesn’t like free tickets? Well, booking the rest of us on that same flight was going to cost a small fortune which negated the free tickets. So, Laura and Leah got the free flight and Stuart and I were off to a different airline. To complicate matters our travelling partners were on still another flight. Here’s my tip, if you can’t afford to get everyone in your party free tickets with your miles then don’t bother. Juggling the schedules was a nightmare. Add to that, Laura’s flight was delayed in Washington DC thus causing us to have to wait for her in Orlando with a driver on the clock!
Transportation: We used FL Tours for our transportation needs in Orlando. They were very prompt and courteous. The cost is much better than using Disney Cruise Transfers if your party is greater than three. I had originally thought to rent a car but really the cost wasn’t that beneficial since we would need two cars with the size of our group (7). Plus we got the aid of a driver who knew the area well rather than us, who would have had to rely on GPS. I had to pay the guy extra for holding the bus for us while we awaited Laura’s flight, but I still think it was a win.
Port Canaveral: We stayed at Comfort Inn & Suites. I Priceline’d two rooms and got them for $55 apiece and they come with a free breakfast. The total of which was cheaper than one room at Ron Jon’s. So we were ahead. The rooms were nice and had the benefit of facing the Port so when the ship came, in the morning, we could see it from our room. From there we took a cab to the port. Easy. They do have a free shuttle that will take you to the ship, they however forgot to relay this information to me and too add ourselves to their list would put us arriving at the port at 1:00pm much to late for our 11:00am boarding time.
The Disney Dream: Like I said before, we had two different cruises. We started with the three night and had an inside cabin. The location of which was Aft and on Deck 7. I actually liked the placement of the room. It was located in a small hallway off of the main Starboard hall. Not heavily travelled so it was quiet. It was near the Aft elevators which made it handy to most of the dining places on board. Much has been said online about the aft elevators and the fact that they drop you off in the middle of Cabanas (one of the main eating establishments.) And while odd, I quickly got used to it and even liked its proximity. On the Second cruise we had a verandah room, Deck 5 Forward. I cannot say enough good about this room. Whereas the previous room was a connecting room, this one was not. The best part about that is there seems to be less storage space in a connecting room. The Room when I booked it was categorized as a 5E room and as such was the cheapest verandah room to be had. Since then it has been re-categorized as a 4E which was a 5 category upgrade. Still worth it in my opinion. The verandah’s in these rooms are HUGE. And if you have the added benefit of being on the Starboard side you can see the fireworks from your verandah with literally a front seat view ability.
Now a word about changing cabins on a Back to Back. Don’t do it. It was a hassle. We had to pack up at the end of the three night cruise and unpack at the beginning of the four. In Laura’s words it was a big interruption in our cruise. The “turn” day (as a friend terms the change from one cruise to another) went pretty smoothly, we had to leave the ship and re-check in. but we were escorted to the Concierge lounge to wait for clearance then allowed to re-board. The whole process took about an hour. Having an empty ship was a plus but we were banned from our rooms so we did feel a bit out of place. I took advantage of the pre-cruise boarding to secure a brunch reservation at Palo which had been booked up online. Since there are always reservations available for people to book on arrival to the ship I was able to snag one of these. I could write a whole article on the Dream and may still, but suffice to say It is definitely an upgrade to the previous ships. There is plenty they got right and a few things they blew it on. But you’ll not be dissatisfied with the ship as a whole. It is beautiful.
Animal Kingdom Lodge (AKL): We had never stayed at a deluxe resort before. During our stay we couldn’t help but compare it to our favorite moderate resort, Port Orleans: Riverside (POR). Since we got free dining, it was worth it to upgrade to the higher accommodations. The food court: it was small (probably since the upper crust that visits deluxe resorts don’t eat in food courts) and I felt that the food selection was not that great. Winner: POR. The Pool: Beautiful. But the kids thought the waterslide was un-inspired. It was very secluded though (but so is POR’s). Winner: TIE. The resort: There is much to be said for internal climate controlled halls and AKL has them. The theming is awesome too. You don’t get that feeling of grandeur when looking at the buildings like you do with the Mansions at POR but you do get a balcony that overlooks an animal filled savannah. Winner: AKL. Transportation: I’ve heard much about the buses from AKL being overfilled from their stop at Kidani Village prior to their Jambo House stop. I found this to be often true. POR buses can also be pretty full, but I’ve never seen one turn down passengers. I did at AKL. One group of people had to wait three buses to finally board. Winner: POR. Location: AKL is slightly out of the way for everything but Animal Kingdom Park, but I really didn’t notice a longer than usual bus ride. Winner: TIE. Price: While AKL is a deluxe, it and the Wilderness lodge are priced pretty well. It usually isn’t too much extra to upgrade to these deluxes. But worth the price? For us the fact that our food was paid for made this a worthy experiment. Winner: POR. Overall: I have to give it to POR. We really like the resort. There’s just enough eye-candy to make us think that we’re at a deluxe resort without the cost of the deluxe. But the thing that really tips the scales is the food court. We’re NEVER disappointed there.
Dining in the Parks: With such a short trip, we really didn’t have an opportunity to eat at too many sit down restaurants. I will highly recommend the Sci-Fi Dine-In. Wow! What a blast! It is a large room filled with 1950’s “cars” that are really tables arrayed around a giant movie screen which plays clips from old “B” horror/sci-fi flicks. Everyone had a blast with this one. At Epcot we ate at The Seas. It was definitely more upscale than the previous but served great food and the large windows into the aquarium were awesome. With sharks, sea turtles and a myriad of fish constantly swimming by, it was hard to concentrate of your food. Again another big recommendation from us. Although this was not inside the park we did take in the Hoop Dee Doo Review. Because of my early planning with making reservations we had a table close to the front near the stage. The kids always love the menu of ribs and chicken and the actors are great at making the audience feel like they are a part of the show. This isn’t something you need to do on every trip to WDW but every once in awhile it is worth indulging in. We also ate at AKL in BOMA for breakfast. It was buffet style and judging by the price, it was not such a good use of a dining credit. It was a nice brunch to send us off to the airports with so I can’t say anything bad about it. They were attentive to our need to hurry and seated us promptly. The food was as much as you can expect from a buffet.
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party: If you’re in WDW during September or October, this is something not to be missed. Trick-or-treating in the park, riding rides with little to no lines, The best Disney Parade ever (IMHO) and a special fireworks show you’ll not see anywhere else. You’ll also see Disney Characters in costume and plenty of characters that are rarely ever seen in the park.
Well, that’s it for now. I hope to edit some video soon for a better look at how our trip went.
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