Yes, it has taken me a while to actually write this up, but this is my trip report for Jan 21-30 2012 to WDW (staying at GF).
WHO WENT ?
Me and my sister !
WHY WAS I THERE ?
I was fortunate to be sent by work to attend a 4 day Workshop being held at Disney World. The workshop itself was held at the Grand Floridian conference facility.
I decided to bring my sister with me (being the nice thing to do, and fearing I would never live it down if I did not :-) ). She did not attend the workshop -- instead she got to spend the 4 days I was at the workshop exploring the parks :-)
You will note by the dates that I extended my trip (yes, at my own expense!!). My employer paid for my airfare (I paid for my sister's), for the five hotel nights I would have had if I did not extend, and a meal and incidental allowance for me for the un-extended time. Everything else I paid for; but not a bad way to do Disney !
WHERE WE STAYED
One thing I learned very quickly is that the "Conventionears" rate for the Grand Floridian is relatively inexpensive -- it was only $199 a night, half or less the going rate, and it was available for a certain number of days before and after the workshop itself, so one could stay longer for the same rate. We decided to stay at GF because we figured that this was a once in a lifetime chance to get such a low rate for GF, so we should take advantage of it and enjoy ourselves as we may never get the chance to stay at GF again.
Plus, for the workshop days, it was much much easier being at the "conference" hotel than elsewhere (I have long ago learned this lesson when it comes to conferences/seminars/workshops/meetings/whateveronewantstocall'em: if you can, stay at the host hotel). Whether it was grabbing a quick breakfast at Gasparilla in the morning, or food and a refill of my resort mug and a dash to the room at lunch, the convenience was significant. And one of the nights had an evening session, so even though this is Disney, as a female alone, I still appreciated being at my resort and not having to then do a bunch of travelling to another resort by my lonesome late at night while carrying workshop material.
We loved GF. The Cast Members were wonderful, the grounds beautiful, the room clean and it had enough space for the two of us. We really liked the convenience of the monorail, and the buses were generally fairly quick and direct.
On a previous visit we stayed at Wilderness Lodge, and I do have to admit that I prefer WL to GF, mostly because WL is in one building and is thus more compact with not as much walking. But we had good weather most days, so I just considered the walking to be getting some exercise. That said, nothing beats sneaking down to Roaring Forks in one's yoga pants or passable-in-public-PJ pants and PJ top for hot chocolate late at night... I wasn't willing to sneak across all the way over to Gasparilla the same way, and we made less use of our resort mug at GF than at WL because of the walk needed to use it...
For Conventionears that did not want to stay at GF, they did have similar bargain Conventionear rates at other resorts.
PARK PASSES
Disney offers Conventionears (and their accompanying guests) a variety of park pass options, including special passes only available to Conventionears, like "after 2pm" and "after 4pm" one and two day passes.
We choose to get a Multi-Day Park Hopper pass. Because it was a Conventionear multi-day Parkhopper, there were a few things that made it different than a normal park-hopper:
1) the maximum number of days you could get it for was only 8 (we got the 8 day)
2) it included one "free" visit to a water park or... some other options, but I forget what; we used it for the water park (Blizzard Beach)
3) it was cheaper ! (IIRC at the time we saved about $50 each)
Now, we were actually there for 10 days, but that included arrival and departure day. Arrival was late afternoon, so we explored the resort and relaxed. Departure day was a late flight, so we lounged at the resort then left our luggage with the Bell Service and went to downtown Disney then back to GF to be picked up by Magical Express for the ride to the airport. It worked out well, and we would relax on our "travel days".
So, sister got eight whole days in the parks. I got 4 whole days and 3 evenings and 1 few hours in the evening after an evening workshop event (took advantage of evening EMH that night). We parkhopped, though my sister more than me -- I think every day but one she spent in at least two parks, and I think one day she may even have managed all 4.
CHECK IN & OTHER ADMINISTRIVIA
We used Magical Express to get to and from the airport, though on arrival we picked up our own bags from baggage claim (I wanted to know that they had arrived in Orlando, TYVM) and brough them to ME. This was the first time we used ME. On our previous trip as adults, we used a Town Car service with a grocery store stop.
We enjoyed ME and will used it again. We had no problems, and the wait at the airport was minimal. Returning to the airport, we had plenty of time from arrival until our flight -- enough actually, to get a massage, which was a nice treat at the end of a long trip :-)
Checking in at GF was a bit of a challenge.
I had already paid for our passes and a deposit for the room over the phone, so all that remained was paying for the reoom. This is where we ran into trouble: work was paying for 5 specific nights, and I was paying for the remaining nights. This meant **two different credit cards**, both in my name, but one a corporate card and one a personal card. Apparently this is a challenge for the system to handle. We ended up having three Cast Members helping with the check-in at the desk itself, and **it took over thirty minutes**. It was frustrating, but it was also clear the CMs were doing the best they could and it was more the computer system was refusing to co-operate. We all had some good laughs and kept positive and had a good conversation during it all. The primary CM I was dealing with actually thanked me for being so polite and nice, noting that many other people would not have been, and she gave us both "We're Celebrating" buttons.
I don't know if anything could have been done differently to make the check-in go smoothly, but take this as a word of caution for anyone who might find themselves in a similar place because they are a Conventionear with work paying for part of it and you paying for the rest: be prepared that check-in could take a while, and just remember you are in the Disney Bubble and relax :-) A good idea, too: send those you are travelling with off to explore the lobby to keep them occupied :-)
RENTING A CAR
On both our last visit and this visit we have rented a car for 24 hours, via National at the Car Care Centre. It has been well worth it. This trip, having used ME, made it even more valuable.
Well in advance of the trip I reserved an Intermediate car via National's website. Then on a regular basis I kept checking their website to see if there were better rates. Nearer the date of departure, there was a cheaper rate, so I reserved the cheaper rate and cancelled the original reservation. We have done this for both this trip and the previous trip, so this seems to be a pattern in their pricing.
We got an Intermediate for ~$36. When I arrived at the CCC I was given, without comment, a Luxury car at the Intermediate rate -- so a free upgrade, though I do not know the reason for it. A nice surprise.
This is what we do: We had aerrived on a Saturday. The reservation for the car was for the Sunday morning. On late Saturday PM, I called National at the CCC to arrange their shuttle to pick me up at the GF early the next morning. Sunday morning, sister slept in while I got picked up by the car rental shuttle and taken to the CCC where I picked up the car. I drove back to the GF and parked in self parking and walked back to the room and made sister get up :-)
After breakky we headed to Target for some shopping. The Target we had chosen was a Supertarget with a full grocery store. We were there **early** so traffic on the roads was pretty light (this I liked!!). We spent a couple hours shopping and getting groceries (bottled water, sandwich and breakfast fixings, snacks, etc), then headed back to GF. Now, in anticipation of our grocery shopping trip, I had brought some reusable grocery bags from home (like these:
http://www.sobeyssustainability.com/..._reduction.gif ) to make carrying our "haul" easier, instead of having eighty-million plastic bags, we had consolidated and sturdier reusable bags.
We spent the bulk of that day at the parks, then for dinner we drove offsite to Outback Steakhouse. Early Monday morning we got up and sister headed to MK while I headed to return the car. I had the rental shuttle drop me off at the TTC because I wanted to take the ferry to MK. Sister and I then met up at MK.
Lessons learned:
- picking up and dropping off in the early morning means less traffic = less stress
- picking up the day after you arrive means no worries about your plane being late, etc (and if your flight is cancelled, you will probably know well in advance of the reservation cancelation time limit)
- renting from the CCC is convenient, but
- make your reservation, but **keep checking back to see if there is a lower rate** and rebook if there is
FOOD
We bought a resort mug for each of us, and used it enough to get more than our money's worth, plus it is a nice souvenir that we make use of at home.
As noted above, we went grocery shopping. This meant we had bottled water to drink in the room or bring with us into the parks. We also had snacks (granola bars, crackers, fruit, carrots) and food (e.g. instant oatmeal) for breakfast. And we got sandwich fixings, which gave us some lunches (and the odd breakfast) and some light dinners when that is all we felt like.
With the conventionear room rate you cannot buy a meal plan, but having done the math for our previous trip, and then doing it again this trip, *for us* we are better off without a meal plan anyway when we are gettign a really good room rate deal.
We mostly do Quick Service meals, but do do a few table service. We do NOT do ADRs far in advance, but so far have never had a problem with getting to eat where we wanted to.
For table service for this trip, with one exception, we have gone to the restaurant we wanted to eat at either a couple days in advance or a few hours in advance and made a reservation. The one exception was one lunch at GF which was spur of the moment and we walked up and they sat us, but there was also lots and lots of empty seats at the time.
FOOD ALLERGIES & EATING AT DISNEY
Now, I have severe food allergies (fish, seafood, nuts, peanuts, and now also milk though at the time I could still tolerate small amounts of milk/dairy). This complicates eating anywhere at the best of times. However, I have never felt safer "eating out" than I do eating at Disney.
Disney's food allergy policy and awareness among their food staff is stellar. Yes, sometimes we had to wait longer because it had to be the chef or the manager to make and prepare the order, but that was a minor inconvenience. And I was confident that they understood allergies and would prepare my food safely, and that is worth a little extra time. They asked the right questions. The wrote things down in their special yellow notebooks. They explained how they can modify a dish to it is safe for me. They showed me ingredient lists (and insisted I read them so that *I* knew a food was safe, even though they had read it and knew it was safe !!). One chef, on a slow lunch, spent time talking with me about Disney's policy and how it works.
We did learn that it is important if you ARE making a reservation (even if it is a walk-up reservation like we were), **to have any food allergies noted on the reservation**. this gives the chef a heads-up and they can prepare for you, including options they may need to prepare. We were kind of chastised in one restuarant for not having done this -- I explained that I didn't know we were supposed to, and they dropped the issue.
We encountered one problem, and that was at Restaurantosaurus. This is a quick service restaurant. My sister and I both wanted a hamburger, salad and soft drink. well, because I have a food allergy, we had to wait for the manager to come out and take our order. The order taker/cashier placed the proper request for the manager. And we waited. And waited. For over half an hour. The cashier placed multiple calls to the manager. He apologized profusely to me multiple times for the wait, growing increasingly embarrassed each time. He even went in person to talk to a supervisor to remind them that the manager was needed. After over 30 minutes, *finally* the proper manager comes and takes my order. It was prepared very quickly, but geez... they could have grown the cow while we waited !!! :-)
However, that was an anomoly and everywhere else we went managment was responsive in a timely manner.
Whenever I eat out at home I always compare how they handle food allergies to Disney World :-) Some restaurants are actually not too far off the mark, but most are nowhere near. Disney is the Gold Standard, in my book.
THE PARKS
Since we are both adults, we do not go on every ride. My sister likes rides more than I do, and I can no longer do most rollercoasters or other rides that really jerk you around a lot. So sometimes she will go on a ride while I will wait for her, and very rarely she will wait for me (but usually not). Having a smartphone with a movie, eBooks and/or data service is a good time-passer for those times :-)
My favourite park is Epcot. On our last trip, I went there every single day regardless of what other parks I also went to in a day (I don;t think I could do disney without a Park Hopper ;-)). Hollywood Studies I can be done with in several hours and that is all I need for a trip. Ak and MK are worthy of multiple visits. One water park for a few hours is enough for me -- I think we spent 3 hours at Blizzard Beach and that was enough for us.
My goal this trip was to go to every single Epcot country pavillion and I think I managed to pull that off. But I could spend hours and hours and hours there, even just sitting relaxing and enjoying it, not even *doing* anything.
We take advantage of EMH, though more the evening then that mornings, not being morning people, though we do drag ourselves up for the odd morning. It means we see a lot of the parks after dark :-)
We used Fastpass strategically for certain rides we really wanted to do. Other rides, like Soaring, we managed to walk on both times we went on it, the second time being the last run of the night and almost nobody there !
If you ask nicely at the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover and there is nobody waiting in line, they will let you just ride around and around without getting off -- we did this three times in a row before having enough for the evening :-)
Anyhow, hope you found this useful and interesting after reading all this way !!
-SW
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Pixie Dust
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I can't get over the rate you scored at the Grand Floridian! 
Dreams, Wishes, Hopes... these are the parts of childhood we should never lose.
Angie
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