Florida flowers and Caribbean cruising LIVE TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 3/8 - Page 11 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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I have to say I thought that when I posted it this morning!
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It is just so unbelievable that a company as large as Disney who works so hard to bring technology into their experiences has such a poor website. In trying to explore excursions on the cruise line site the other day, I had a pop up survey. They are looking at redoing that area and it had all types of questions about that. Sounds encouraging at least.
Well that's something... let's hope things improve!
Your plans are really coming along. We are staying at OKW on our upcoming trip and I definitely have to put breakfast at Olivia's on our list while we are there. Those breakfast descriptions sound so yummy! I hope the balloon company gets back to you soon. That is so neat that you and Jennifer will be on the same cruise.
Your plans are really coming along. We are staying at OKW on our upcoming trip and I definitely have to put breakfast at Olivia's on our list while we are there. Those breakfast descriptions sound so yummy! I hope the balloon company gets back to you soon. That is so neat that you and Jennifer will be on the same cruise.
I'm so excited about that, it'll be great to see her again!
Pre-trip report – part eight: ugh, Disney your website is just a nightmare!
Monday 20 October
Four months today, we’ll be flying out! I have to say that is a very nice thought, given how the nights seem to be rapidly closing in right now. Every night, one of us seems to say “it’s xx:xx o’clock and look how dark it is outside” and the clocks go back this weekend. Winter really is upon us…
I got my weekly DVC News newsletter through, and it contained details of the dinner menu for Trattoria al Forno, the new restaurant on the BoardWalk. I have to say I’m a bit disappointed by the lack of fish/vegetarian items on the menu, as it does seem very meat heavy, and given it’s an Italian restaurant and so many great Italian dishes don’t involve meat, that’s a shame, but there’s still plenty I can enjoy. Best of all, they have tiramisu down for dessert, so I already know what I’m going to get for that course!
Even better, apparently dining reservations for it open tomorrow, so hopefully I should be able to snag an ADR there… fingers crossed!
Tuesday 21 October
So… I went online about 1:00pm EST to make our ADR for Trattoria al Forno, and guess what? You got it – no sign of availability full stop. I don’t just mean that it showed up under no availability, I mean it just wasn’t there at all. It was as if it didn’t exist. Come on Disney, if you say bookings open on a day, please ensure they do!
I tried again about half an hour later, and wouldn’t you know it? Now I could make reservations! Honestly, Disney’s website is just a complete law unto itself… at least I was able to get exactly what I wanted, dinner for four of us, including Bob and Larry, so I believe that concludes the votes of the British jury (sorry, that’s a Eurovision song contest reference and therefore not funny to you guys at all , but that’s it, all ADRs now made – finally!
Thursday 23 October
After reading a couple of trip reports on the boards about SeaWorld, and hearing how horrendous the lines are for Empire of the Penguin, one of the things I really want to see there, I had a nose around on the SeaWorld site. I’ve never considered their front of the line pass before, but I figured it might be worth it, as that attraction is included, and so is TurtleTrek, which is another one we’ll do. I wanted to see how much it might cost, as they start from $19.99 and, if that’s the price, that’s not too bad for guaranteed entry into those. However, there are no prices available beyond the end of 2014. Good grief, don’t the non-Disney theme parks understand that we need to plan ahead?
Saturday 25 October
When I logged on to the boards this morning, I found out that the Sorceror’s Hat at the Studios would be disappearing in 2015. There doesn’t, at this stage anyway, seem to be any more definitive timescale for this, but I’ll say here that part of me hopes it’s gone by the time we go, as it’s never done that much for me. I always used to love walking into the Studios and seeing classic Hollywood at the end. The hat just got in the way of that for me. Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was a fun celebration, but I figured it would only be there for maybe a year, and it’s been there a heck of a lot longer. For me, it’s definitely out stayed its welcome!
Sunday 26 October
We are now booked at our airport hotel for the night before we fly out to Orlando. Usually we go for the Hilton when we’re flying out of the south terminal, but this time I decided we’d try something news, the BLOC hotel, which has opened up in 2013, and is apparently now the closest you get to the terminal building. It’s a bit cheaper than the Hilton, and heck, if we don’t like it, we can always go back to the Hilton next time around, but let’s give it a go, as it’s good reviews so far, and see what we make of it.
Monday 27 October
It’s funny how sometimes you feel like someone’s trying to tell you something. I read a trip report this morning ( Dave it’s yours! ) about Mizner’s Lounge at the Grand Floridian, and I realised we’d never been there. Then what happens later on? I’m driving back from our Brighton office, listening to podcasts as I do, and I went with one of Lou Mongello’s WDW Radio ones, and it was a live review from… guess where? You got it – Mizner’s Lounge. They seemed to really enjoy it, and while they were eating there, and we really won’t be able to fit that in during our stay, maybe we’ll see if we can go there for drinks at least… We’ve got dinner at Citrico’s one night, so possibly we can head there before or afterwards?
Tuesday 28 October
Today I woke up to an email from the Disney Cruise Line, reminding me that we could make our reservations for our cruise on 10 November. Oddly enough, I already had that date on my calendar… In all honesty, we’re probably only going to make bookings for Palo and maybe Remy, as we don’t plan on getting off at all at Nassau, and we won’t be booking anything for Castaway Cay either. In fact, and I know this one may come as a shock for you, but we’re thinking of not getting off that day either, and just spending all our time on board, enjoying all the amenities. We’ll see on the day…
I heard back from Viator about the complaint I put in about the hot air balloon company, although I had to re-submit it yesterday, not having heard anything back from them when I submitted the original complaint. I can only assume it never went through, as I got a response quickly enough this time around, but then again, I had kept screen grabs this time of the complaint, just in case I heard nothing – then I’d have proof of the fact I’d submitted it. We’ll see what happens now with this one, and I’ll keep you posted.
Wednesday 29 October
Today I saw in the All Ears newsletter that the Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow will be closing next Thursday (6 November – our 15th wedding anniversary! ), which really surprised me, given it only opened two years ago, and I still remember the crowds to get into it not long after the opening. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, given that the previous attractions there didn’t have much of a lifespan, but this did seem like a more permanent addition. Obviously not.
I really am losing track of everything that’s going to be closed at the Studios on our trip. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s my least favourite park, so in a way, that doesn’t bother me that much, and I’m sure they’re all making way for new attractions (by the time you read this, you may have all the details ), but my goodness, in the meantime, it doesn’t make for the greatest impression, particularly if it happens to be your first visit there. I keep hearing lots of exciting rumours about what may come to the Studios, and I really hope they come off, as some of them would be amazing (I’m thinking Star Wars Land or CarsLand in particular! ), but come on Disney, put us out of our misery – give us a clue instead of just closing more and more down…
Sunday 2 November
As our friend Angie has now been fortunate enough to be taken on full time by Disney (congrats to her! ), I realised she now should have some regular working hours. If you remember, when I was trying to sort out dining before, she said that she couldn’t commit to anything, as she was only part-time then, but was hoping to be full time by the time we visited. Well, now she’s done it, and her days off are Wednesdays and Thursdays… well, that won’t work for our first week, as we’ll be on board the Dream but at least it works for week two. She’s now joining us for lunch at the Hollywood Brown Derby, but oh my goodness, what a saga that turned out to be!
Let me explain… we had a call from our credit card provider in the middle of the week, saying that they thought the card had been cloned, as someone had put through a 51p transaction, which looked weird, and of course it was, as it wasn’t us, so the card was cancelled. I thought it wouldn’t take long to get the new card through, being as how the same thing happened to me with my individual cards a couple of weeks ago. Let’s just say I think they got our numbers through the same website, as I know it was compromised a little while ago… that time, I found out about it on Monday night, and had my new cards by Wednesday afternoon. We’re still waiting, and we got the call on Wednesday night. Not good!
Of course, to change a reservation, you have to put a credit card down. I was hoping our old one would go through, as they’re not looking to charge it at this stage, but they obviously do check this (good to know at least…) and so I entered the details of one of my cards – not accepted. It was the same story with another one, so in the end I was about to give out. I just came out of trying to change the reservation, started again, put the card number in, and this time it worked fine. Honestly Disney, get that website of yours sorted out!
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I always hold my breath when I enter MDE, as you never do know if the website will work at all, or in part. Just crazy and infuriating. I thought the same thing about the Trattoria al Forno menu-- not much for veggies or pescetarians, but maybe there are some off-menu things. The appetizers looked creative and interesting, but not so much the entrees. Looks like you'll get your wish about a view of the theater from the DHS entrance!
I always hold my breath when I enter MDE, as you never do know if the website will work at all, or in part.
That is such a good way of putting it!
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Just crazy and infuriating. I thought the same thing about the Trattoria al Forno menu-- not much for veggies or pescetarians, but maybe there are some off-menu things. The appetizers looked creative and interesting, but not so much the entrees.
I'll be sure to report back about what we make of it there.
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How fun to be on the same cruise as Jennifer! That'll work out great. Looking forward to hearing about the Goofy breakfast at Four Seasons! (I already forgot the official name, doesn't roll off my tongue either!)
And yes, why can't the other local theme parks put their hours out ahead of time! They increase their park ticket prices when Disney does, they could at least put out their hours too.
Disney IT is something else. Frustrating!
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I feel like you need to send your Tr to Disney IT, so they can see how many times one person has run into website glitches planning just one trip (albeit a longer trip with more planning than the average visitor). Just crazy for such a large and prosperous company.
How fun to be on the same cruise as Jennifer! That'll work out great. Looking forward to hearing about the Goofy breakfast at Four Seasons! (I already forgot the official name, doesn't roll off my tongue either!)
And yes, why can't the other local theme parks put their hours out ahead of time! They increase their park ticket prices when Disney does, they could at least put out their hours too.
That is a really good point and one I hadn't thought of....
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I hope the balloon company gets back to you soon. That is so neat that you and Jennifer will be on the same cruise. 
Winter really is upon us… 
Honestly, Disney’s website is just a complete law unto itself… at least I was able to get exactly what I wanted, dinner for four of us, including Bob and Larry, so I believe that concludes the votes of the British jury (sorry, that’s a Eurovision song contest reference and therefore not funny to you guys at all 
We’ve got dinner at Citrico’s one night, so possibly we can head there before or afterwards? 
In all honesty, we’re probably only going to make bookings for Palo and maybe Remy, as we don’t plan on getting off at all at Nassau, and we won’t be booking anything for Castaway Cay either. In fact, and I know this one may come as a shock for you, but we’re thinking of not getting off that day either, and just spending all our time on board, enjoying all the amenities. We’ll see on the day… 
), which really surprised me, given it only opened two years ago, and I still remember the crowds to get into it not long after the opening. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, given that the previous attractions there didn’t have much of a lifespan, but this did seem like a more permanent addition. Obviously not. 
), but my goodness, in the meantime, it doesn’t make for the greatest impression, particularly if it happens to be your first visit there. I keep hearing lots of exciting rumours about what may come to the Studios, and I really hope they come off, as some of them would be amazing (I’m thinking Star Wars Land or CarsLand in particular! 
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