Mid December 2011 Post Trip Report About This Page:

[GoHerdIBG]

Dec 9-17, 2011 Grand Floridian Trip Report

We recently returned from an 8 night/9 day trip to the World from December 9 - 17, 2011. We stayed at the Grand Floridian with a split-reservation because our 40% off PIN did not start until the 11th. We had a 2 day MYW reservation with 8 day park hopper tickets and 2 days on the Quick Service Dining Plan.

Overall, our trip was very fun and rewarding as a family vacation. It was our (me, wife, and 2 girls) 4th trip in the last 5 years. Our previous 3 trips were February 2007 (Wilderness Lodge), December 2007 (WL Again), and August 2009 (Poly).

The first 3 days we had off and on rain with temps in the mid 70's. On Sunday the 11th we attended MVMCP and it rained fairly hard a few times for 20-30 minutes each time. The rest of the week had some overcast days with temps still in the lower to mid 70's and low humidity. The last day we were there it was sunny and 80. Unfortunately, we had to leave for DME at 1:00pm so we missed out on the best day. From what I heard about last December, we were extremely lucky with our weather. I did get sick on our second day there and felt nauseous for about 2 days but pushed through for the kids. Some of the rides did become a bigger challenge, however .

From the 10th to the 15th the crowds were GREAT for rides and for restaurants. HDDR didn't have anyone on the second level at all (more on that later). We always ate QS at around 1:00 for lunch and almost always had the restaurants to ourselves. However, on Friday the 16th the crowds more than doubled. Proper vacation research and planning pays off as research showed the 2nd week of December to be low crowds! I used TouringPlans.com for my daily park pick and it worked out great.


GRAND FLORIDIAN:

During our previous December trip in 2007 we visited the GF and loved it so we decided to try it this trip even though we knew it was expensive - even with the 40% off PIN. We booked a Theme Park view and requested Sago Cay with an upper floor room. We ended up getting Sago on the 3rd floor and the view was amazing. I could literally feel the booms from the fireworks at night.

Everything at the Grand was extremely well done and very clean. Some of the wood trim did look a little old - with multiple layers of high gloss paint covering it. For some reason I pay attention to those details and it detracted from some of the magic of the Grand. The room was very clean....but smaller than I expected with very little clothes storage. We only had 4 small drawers in the TV cabinet. My wife and I ended up living out of our suitcases. Not what I expected for the price.

I chose Sago Cay for multiple reasons - one of them being close access to Gasparillas, the 24 hour QS restaurant. Gasparillas is definitely not the best QS restaurant but was adequate. The main problem I had with Gasparillas was they shut down the grill at 10pm and only served a very limited menu.

I know this may sound a little hypocritical since we "visited" the Grand during our 2007 trip, but all of the visiting people in the lobby constantly milling around became a little wearing after a week long stay. At times, it was difficult to even get pictures of our kids in front of the Gingerbread House (which is magnificent) and the Christmas tree without others in the frame. I felt like yelling out "this is my hotel, get out" . Me = hypocrite!

It will probably be our last stay at the Grand. It was just not worth the extra price in my opinion.


DINING:

We decided not to do the regular dining plan this trip since I now have an 11 year old. On most days, we saved quite a bit of money over what we would have spent on the plan and still had more than enough to eat. Our daily cost on the DDP would have been $150. My receipts show on multiple days we spent around $115 between CS lunch, TS dinner, and snacks...so we saved quite a bit. IMO, the age for an adult needs to be raised to a reasonable level - like 14 or 15.

We did opt to go with the QS plan for our first 2 day reservation since my calculations showed that 2 days was the break-even point when you factor in the cost of the refillable mug ($14 each). Anything over 2 days and the QS plan becomes less attractive.

Coral Reef: Not good quality food at all. Very disappointing. The only good part of Coral Reef was the aquarium and even that was not great since we were on the back row of the seating area. If I recall, none of us even finished our meals - which says a lot. A 4 out of 10.

50's Prime Time: 50's was a hoot. We had Mikey as our waiter and he was great - especially with the kids. My oldest daughter ordered sprite to drink then decided she wanted lemonade and Mikey brought her back 5 cups (coke, diet coke, lemonade, root beer, and water) and said "Here brat, just in case you change your mind again!" I about spit my drink out because I was laughing so hard. I had the fried chicken dinner and it was good food. I asked for a refill on my coke and Mikey brought me 4 full glasses and said "here you go camel" and later brought a park map with all of the bathrooms circled. Good food and good times for a good price. I believe our total cost of 4 dinners and tip was $65. Highly recommended. A 9.5 out of 10.

Narcoossees: Good atmosphere. We had a window seat so we could see the castle from our seats. I had the lobster tail and filet and it was cooked to perfection. I think my wife had the Grilled Salmon and it was also good. The waiter was a little dry and always gave us the impression he was in a hurry to go somewhere else. The only other negative was the amount of mosquitoes/bug in the waiting area. It is on the lake so it's not unexpected. An 8 out of 10.

HDDR: The show has changed a little from the last time we were there and seemed a little slower. The food was excellent as always. As I said above, all of the seats on the second level were empty. Not sure if it was due to the time of year or recent changes to the show. A 7 out of 10.

CRT: We had dinner at CRT. The Princesses were very attentive and not rushed in any way. The food was ok but not worthy of the price - but in all honesty, you shouldn't be going to CRT for the food in my opinion. A 9 out of 10.

MISC:

Monorail: The monorail was down (only) twice while we were there - that I know of. I say only because I expected it to be down more from the trip reports I had read leading up to our vacation. Of course, having the monorail down while staying at a monorail resort did make me somewhat upset but surprisingly not as much as I thought I would be. Of the 2 times it was down, we were only directly impacted once and had to take the boat to MK. Not a huge issue.

20% discount from QS restaurant: One of the reasons I have a Disney VISA is for the discount I receive at the stores. However, they were handing out the 20% discount slips like they were candy. Granted, you did have to do your shopping before noon and only in select stores....but I now feel as though my Disney VISA "benefit" was diminished. I did take advantage of the 20% as much as possible so I do feel a little hypocritical complaining about it

La Nouba: I highly recommend La Nouba especially if you have children. While it is outrageously expensive it is worth it.

ECV's: Do I really want to beat this dead horse???? I have severe plantar faciatis on one foot and never thought once about using a wheelchair or ECV - I did take Tylenol to help and was fine after a while. I understand there are people who have hidden disabilities and I try not to judge. However, I did see a younger (16ish) boy using an ECV when we got into line for a certain ride. After the ride, another boy about the same age got into the same ECV while the original boy walked along side of him. The kind of thing that makes me suspicious of most of the ECV riders - especially the ones who use them because their disability appears to be their weight.

The other part of the ECV thing that bothered me is how they are able to "jump" the line for buses. We were leaving Animal Kingdom around closing time and for some reason no GF buses had come for quite a while. We were about 20 or so people back in the line when we arrived so I expected to get on the first bus to arrive. 25 minutes had passed and an ECV arrived and immediately went to the side where they load. After 5 minutes a bus finally arrived. As usual, the bus driver opened the back door for the ECV to load, loaded the ECV, then proceeded to load 15 more people who were with the ECV rider. After loading the ECV, the rider, and the additional 15 people, since we were 20 people back we could not get on the bus because it filled up a few people before us. I waited in the line for 25 minutes to be "jumped" by 16 people??? BTW: the next bus did not come for another 25 minutes. I "somewhat" understand ECV riders getting their own line but not their entourage of 15 people. From a non-understanding point of view, why can't ECV's wait in line just like the rest of us at the end of a long day? If they can stay in the park for 8-12 hours, why can't they sit in line for the buses like the rest of us? Again, I know there are people who have severe physical and mental disabilities who can't necessarily wait in long lines. I am talking about the generally older person who has no mental disability but simply can't walk for 10 hours a day so they have an ECV.

RIDES:

Space Mountain: First time riding it following the refurb. Also the first time for my 8 year old to ride as she was too short the last time we were there when it was open. Not sure what they changed during the refurb but the ride seemed a little more jerky than I remember. My 8 year old did not want to ride it again and she is the adventurous kid. I did like the changes to the queue area with the interactive games.

Expedition Everest: We spent one day in AK and EE was down the entire time we were there. We did arrive a little later in the morning and it was down from the time we arrived until we left. Not sure why but it was a little disappointing.

TSM Rope Drop: Not sure what to say about this. This was my first time experiencing rope drop at DHS. From researching, we decided to get in line for TSM and skip the long line for the fastpasses as we didn't arrive at DHS until 8:55 and were pretty far back in the rope drop group. We were not going to stay at DHS the whole day so it seemed a little silly to try and get FP's. Our trip through the standby line was about 25 minutes. By the time we got out the wait time was up to 65 minutes and FP's were for 5:30pm. The one part that did irk me was the people who waited in the line for FP's then "caught up" to their group. They got the best of both worlds at my (and others) expense. I bet 20 people passed us in multiple ways. Some pushed their way through without a word, some jumped bars, and some even said "excuse me" though it didn't really help. Warned by my wife to not make a big deal out of it since it was our last full day I did not let it upset me while in line. However, Disney really needs to do something about it. I can see how it can get people upset. If you have to leave line to go to the restroom, I will happily let you by. BUT....this seems to be a known problem and Disney chooses to ignore it. OK, I'm stepping down from my soapbox now.

As I mentioned above, our trip was very rewarding and the positives far outweighed to small number of negatives. I do have to find a better time to go as my 6th grader did miss a lot of school work. The only problem is I hate the crowded times of year like spring break, winter break, and summer