Sheilaras
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2009
US: Me - 45 (bday on trip!) DH - 47, DDs - 13, 10, 5 and DSs 10, 8 + Danish au pair - 19
Dates Travelled: 10/9-14/2015
We won our most recent trip at a charity auction benefiting the American Cancer Society. Included in the package were:
6 days/5 nights for 4 people at Buena Vista Palace (I'd never stayed or even heard of it, we're usually on-property snobs)
5 park hoppers per person (20 individual 1-day park hoppers)
1 Water Park Pass pp (I had these converted to MNSSHP)
VIP tour for 8 hours
We are a party of 8, so I didn't think it would be a big deal to double the package. The hotel upgraded our room to a suite and we had to pay $99/night for the adjoining extra room. We had to buy 4 extra MNSSHP tix. We only planned on going into the parks 3 days, so we bought an extra 1 day park hopper and a 3-day park hopper for my 5 year old to maximize the savings. They let all 8 of us on the VIP tour w/out an additional charge.
I set up my MDE account and began to make ADRs and FP+ only like 2 weeks before trip. There was a lot of coordinating involved with the company we won the package through and I was waiting on them. Had huge amounts of trouble adding all my tix and assigning them to the right person. The cards would show up in one screen but the tickets didn't register in the other. After about 3+ hours with Disney help desk (no exaggeration) we got it straightened out. They said that if we were staying on property they could've sent us a gift basket or something. Boo. Decided to buy Magic Bands to coordinate our 30 hard tickets since I (and Disney help desk) thought it would be too much to manage and too easy to mix up. Plus I wanted them, so fun! I was a little nervous about how they'd stay on and losing them, especially with the littles. They came quick and I added them to MDE w/out any problem.
I was nervous about the hotel after reading reviews online. It was such a mixed bag, but there was nothing we could do about it but be positive and hope for the best. Bummed about no Magic Bands or Magical Express.
I booked the Mears van for $85 online, individual tix on their bus would've been over $230! Flight was great. Mears guy was awesome, the kids were thrilled to see someone waiting with our name on a board!
Check-in at BVP was ok, they didn't tell us where to go or anything, so some other guest showed us how to get to our room! It was in the island building, too bad the entire island was a construction zone. All the amazing pools were ripped up. Thankfully, I had read a recent review saying this was starting or I would've really been bummed out. Our room was pretty clean compared to reviews. Stains on the couch, only 1 blanket for both rooms, balcony views of whatcouldvebeenawesome pool area construction zone. People above us liked to move patio furniture around a lot at midnight and you could hear people peeing above you but other than that, no real complaints, never saw or heard anyone else.
Night 1 we went to DTD. Path was right off our building. DTD bus terminal was right across the street from path, but no crosswalk. Crosswalk was about a block walk away, building an elevated crosswalk now that is not finished yet. That will add another layer of effort to get across, you'll have to go up, cross and come back down by using stairs or elevator. Dinner ADR was at Splitsville. Sat right away but dinner took over 75 minutes to get to us, no effort from server to get us apps or bread or even crackers. Manager took care of entire bill! We left tip. DTD was crowded! I was nervous about how the parks would be the next day.
More to come!
Dates Travelled: 10/9-14/2015
We won our most recent trip at a charity auction benefiting the American Cancer Society. Included in the package were:
6 days/5 nights for 4 people at Buena Vista Palace (I'd never stayed or even heard of it, we're usually on-property snobs)
5 park hoppers per person (20 individual 1-day park hoppers)
1 Water Park Pass pp (I had these converted to MNSSHP)
VIP tour for 8 hours
We are a party of 8, so I didn't think it would be a big deal to double the package. The hotel upgraded our room to a suite and we had to pay $99/night for the adjoining extra room. We had to buy 4 extra MNSSHP tix. We only planned on going into the parks 3 days, so we bought an extra 1 day park hopper and a 3-day park hopper for my 5 year old to maximize the savings. They let all 8 of us on the VIP tour w/out an additional charge.
I set up my MDE account and began to make ADRs and FP+ only like 2 weeks before trip. There was a lot of coordinating involved with the company we won the package through and I was waiting on them. Had huge amounts of trouble adding all my tix and assigning them to the right person. The cards would show up in one screen but the tickets didn't register in the other. After about 3+ hours with Disney help desk (no exaggeration) we got it straightened out. They said that if we were staying on property they could've sent us a gift basket or something. Boo. Decided to buy Magic Bands to coordinate our 30 hard tickets since I (and Disney help desk) thought it would be too much to manage and too easy to mix up. Plus I wanted them, so fun! I was a little nervous about how they'd stay on and losing them, especially with the littles. They came quick and I added them to MDE w/out any problem.
I was nervous about the hotel after reading reviews online. It was such a mixed bag, but there was nothing we could do about it but be positive and hope for the best. Bummed about no Magic Bands or Magical Express.
I booked the Mears van for $85 online, individual tix on their bus would've been over $230! Flight was great. Mears guy was awesome, the kids were thrilled to see someone waiting with our name on a board!
Check-in at BVP was ok, they didn't tell us where to go or anything, so some other guest showed us how to get to our room! It was in the island building, too bad the entire island was a construction zone. All the amazing pools were ripped up. Thankfully, I had read a recent review saying this was starting or I would've really been bummed out. Our room was pretty clean compared to reviews. Stains on the couch, only 1 blanket for both rooms, balcony views of whatcouldvebeenawesome pool area construction zone. People above us liked to move patio furniture around a lot at midnight and you could hear people peeing above you but other than that, no real complaints, never saw or heard anyone else.
Night 1 we went to DTD. Path was right off our building. DTD bus terminal was right across the street from path, but no crosswalk. Crosswalk was about a block walk away, building an elevated crosswalk now that is not finished yet. That will add another layer of effort to get across, you'll have to go up, cross and come back down by using stairs or elevator. Dinner ADR was at Splitsville. Sat right away but dinner took over 75 minutes to get to us, no effort from server to get us apps or bread or even crackers. Manager took care of entire bill! We left tip. DTD was crowded! I was nervous about how the parks would be the next day.
More to come!
I think this is the morning where the kids went swimming for an hour or so. The hotel only had one tiny, dirty pool open so it wasn't very fun. Breakfast was from the market at the hotel. Today's ADR was Chef Mickey at 2 pm. I figured that was a good strategy to get to a monorail (sing song) hotel and then straight into the park for the 4 pm entrance for the party night. We went to DTD shopping while DH worked in the room. We met DH at the DTD bus terminal to ride to the Contemporary. We were sat right away, had an OK meal and had a great time with all the characters. We were seated right at the window overlooking the MK, which was cool. Had a blast with all the classic characters although it was another $341 meal for a buffet. I think we are done with character dining, our family is just to large to justify the expense. (Hoop Dee Doo Review, though, totally worth it, and that is more! LOL) Hopped on the monorail (song) for the tour around to the MK. My 13 yo realized that she had forgotten her costume at the hotel, since we thought we'd be going back between DTD and Chef Mickey. She was so upset, DH volunteered to go back and get it. WOW. She cried when he left bc she felt so bad, but I knew he didn't mind doing it. Entered park right at 4 pm, got our bags and bracelets no problem. We had 3 FP+ for btwn 4-7: Space Mountain, Splash Mountain and BTM. Having just had the VIP tour here yesterday, we were really relaxed on what we wanted to do. We did all of our FP+ right away since they were all over by 7 pm, except Space Mountain since it closed when the first of us did the ride while the nanny watched the 5 yo. We had a rider switch pass for it as well as 2 now open FP+ on nanny and 5 yo. We sent them on Buzz at some point alone with their open FP+. We were able to stop and take a lot of photos that we didn't feel like we had the time for yesterday as well. The kids have been reading Swiss Family Robinson and were really excited to go up in the tree house. We went from there right over to the Merida Meet & Greet since my 13 yo looks a lot like her with her hair (big, not red). That is when DH showed up with the Pluto costume and DD was so excited to get it! The boys were just wearing Disney hoodies from Pirates and Mike W. of Monsters. The youngest was in an Anna dress and the 10 yo girl was dressed as Minnie. We were a little lame on the costumes. I had a cool glow in the dark Mickey skeleton shirt at least. The first party activity we did was the Lotso meet and greet since he is my 10 yo son's favorite. We hit the Astro Orbiters and the Tomorrowland Speedway and were able to switch drivers in the car and go a second lap. We went on Buzz as a family and the rest of the time until about 9 was a blur. I know the ride times were awesome, 5-10 minutes on most rides. At 10 pm and after several rides on BTM and SP over and over again, DH decided to leave and the 10 yo girl and 8 yo boy went willingly with him. The rest of us diehards were on BTM while the fireworks were going off and it was truly a magical moment. Next we went to Pirates. The 5 yo who didn't 100% enjoy it yesterday and I sat on Jack Sparrow's stage and waited. The fog and atmosphere were so amazing and so was the people watching with all their costumes! While we waited for them to come out, Jack appeared and we got in line. Timing was perfect when the others got off the ride, we were next for photos. We were TOT a lot after my DH left, we were filling our bags like crazy! We rode Aladdin's magic carpets and were allowed to stay on if we wanted. When we got to the hub, we began to watch the parade but realized it was 11:30 and we still had a rider switch pass for Space Mountain which was back up. The line was long bc it was shut down for a long time, so the passes were great. We rode Buzz one last time and headed out. On our way out, we did the talking Mickey, which I'd never experienced before. There was a problem with our photographer which I will chalk up to it being midnight, but Mickey didn't greet or talk to the kids, which was a big bummer. We took the Monorail (song) to the TTC where we had just missed our DTD bus. I asked a cab how much for our hotel and he said $24, so we just walked to our bus line. Another driver said he'd do it for $15 so we hopped in his taxi back to the hotel. The party was AMAZING! Not like some of the reviews I read at all. We had a blast!
