Most Recent Reviews
Review of Captain's Grille Lunch/Dinner
Reviewed by jjod25 Review Date: 12/22/2016
Rating: (9) Recommended
If you can't secure the World Showcase reservation you want, are staying at the Epcot area resorts, or just want a break from the parks I would highly recommend the Captains Grill. Have dined here with a family of five the past two years and both experiences have been excellent. The staff is amongst the best I've encountered and the food is top notch.
Pros:
Great food, service and staffCons:
NoneReview of Ft. Wilderness Cabins (Moderate Resort)
Reviewed by AJ Potts Review Date: 12/22/2016
Rating: (9) Recommended
We stayed in the Ft Wilderness cabins from December 11th to 16th.
Our first night we stayed at the All Star Movies and just went to Disney Springs for dinner. We got up very early on our first full day and took our bags to the luggage area to be sent to Ft Wilderness, then we were off to Hollywood Studios for Extra Magic Hour. Around 1400 I received a text with our cabin number and a map of the resort. After a full day at Hollywood Studios and dinner and the Candlelight Processional at Epcot my husband took the bus to Ft Wilderness while my son and I enjoyed a couple more hours in Epcot. He went to the front desk where they told him our luggage was in the cabin but when he arrived in the cabin it was not there. One quick phone call and the luggage arrived. A few hours later my son and I took the monorail and then boat to the resort. It felt like quite an adventure but after a long day at the parks we LOVED the boat ride. (excuse us desert dwellers from Nevada as we are unusually intrigued by water) When we got to the end of the dock two security officers were sitting there in golf carts. I don't know if we looked confused but one of them asked us if we needed anything and we explained it was our first night at the resort and we weren't quite sure how to get to our cabin. He had us jump on his golf cart and quickly drove us right to our front door. Along the way he pointed out spots which might be of interest during our stay. He also made sure to welcome us home and waited until we were safely inside. He was one of many fantastic cast members we encountered at Ft Wilderness.
The cabin was even better than I had imagined. I had read they were newly renovated and this was evident throughout. My son slept on the sofa bed in the living room and felt like he had some privacy from his parents' snoring. (teenagers!) The bathroom had plenty of towels, a hair dryer, toiletries and bug spray if we felt we needed it. The room attendant must have figured out that I like to use towels because every day they put just one more out for us. It got to be a game and I would race in at the end of the day to see how they were arranged. The kitchen was perfectly appointed. One bit of advice...bring coffee filters if you don't plan to use their coffee. (standard basket filter) We made breakfast every day and saved a couple of our snacks for mid day breaks during the week. We brought an extra suitcase with coffee, creamer, hot chocolate and snacks for our day packs. We also brought smores supplies but did not end up using them.
I regret that we didn't use more of the recreation at the resort but we could see it everywhere. I think if we stayed at Ft Wilderness on a future visit we would do more and build in a day of just Ft Wilderness activities.
I had read plenty of complaints about the internal bus system so I requested a cabin near a bus stop. It was the closest cabin to the bus stop at the 2400 loop. We never waited more than 3 minutes for a bus and it never took us longer than 5 minutes to get to the Settlement docks. I don't know if that might be due to the time of year. We only used the external bus when we went to Animal Kingdom. We all loved the boat so much and the boat captains were always so friendly. One night on our way "home" from the Very Merry Christmas party it was our coldest night and the boat captain handed me a hand warmer. All week long little things like this happened on our boat.
I would certainly stay at Ft Wilderness again but imagine we will stay at another resort on Bay Lake next visit just for some variety.
Pros:
Cabins were roomy, quiet and clean.Cons:
Not close to restaurants.Reviewed by AJ Potts Review Date: 12/22/2016
Rating: (9) Recommended
We went to Boma on 12/15/16 for dinner. Before dinner we toured the Animal Kingdom Lodge and took some photos from the Savanna viewing areas. The Christmas tree and decorations were stunning and we took plenty of photos in the lobby. This was my favorite Christmas tree the entire week. We had about an hour until our ADR so we went to Victoria Falls Lounge. I had the Cape Collection Wine Flight and my husband tried the two African beers. Our teenager had a lemonade and was welcome to join us. There were no small children in the lounge, just my son and couple of sleeping babies. The Lounge was very relaxing and we could see Boma below. It was a great way to unwind after a day on our feet in Animal Kingdom. We were seated at Boma immediately and our server arrived quickly. She was friendly and attentive even though we could see she had a plenty of tables. The food was delicious. My favorites were the black olive hummus, the salmon and of course the Zebra Domes. We liked that there was a good mix of more exotic dishes with some familiar flavors. Our only complaint and it was minor was that there was occasionally a line for the hot foods on the buffet. I would go to Boma again and I would recommend it.
Pros:
attentive and friendly server and delicious foodCons:
very busy with occasional long lines for buffetReview of Caribbean Beach Resort (Moderate Resort)
Reviewed by roogirl Review Date: 12/24/2016
Rating: (10) Recommended
I loved this hotel. My husband and I couldn't say how much we loved it. It was very beautiful, every question we had we answered very quickly and with a smile. Yes it is very big as some people have said but the morning walk to go to port royale was wonderful. We were in the Aruba section building 55. I will say the first day we got there we were walking in circles because we couldn't find our room lol a mousekeeper saw we were lost and stop what she was doing and helped us find our room. I cant wait to stay here again next year.
Pros:
Beautiful location, great room, friendly castmembersCons:
noneReviewed by cg12086 Review Date: 12/24/2016
Rating: (7) Not Recommended
Stayed here Sept 2016 for 6 nights with 4 adults and one child. The beds were comfy and fit us all and my 3 year old loved the pull down bed. The transportation was timely all except for one night we waited 30 mins for a bus to get back to the resort from Disney Springs. Probably should have taken the boat back for as long as it took.
The size of the resort was confusing and not fun to navigate in the rain. However I knew this ahead of time and so at least it wasn't as much of a shock. If I choose to stay here again I would definitely pay the extra to have a preferred room.
Pros:
quiet, pools, room themeing, transportationCons:
large and confusingReview of Spirit of Aloha Dinner
Reviewed by mlawson519 Review Date: 12/30/2016
Rating: (2) Not Recommended
I experienced this show as a child back in the 1980's and it was wonderful along with the food being great. I took my kids on November 9, 2016 and it was awful. The ribs were boneless globs of fat and the rest of the food wasn't much better. The dessert was obviously thawed from frozen and even my kids would't eat it and they are not picky about sweet stuff. Our category 3 seating wasn't bad but considering I made or reservation 180 days out it would have been nice to have been at the front of the category 3 area instead of in the very back next to a bathroom. Now the show, the entire first half of the show was not even watched by the audience. I felt terrible for the actors because the audience was talking the entire time. The story was silly and kind of an insult to real Polynesian luaus. Finally after dinner was over they did some traditional dancing and the fire dancer which were great but by then it was too little too late. If they had just served even a mediocre dinner and then done the second half of the show I would have been happy but we will never go back to this. Do yourself a favor and skip this and do Hoop De Doo instead. That is a show that after many years does not dissapoint.
Pros:
fire dancerCons:
bad food bad first half of showReview of Morimoto Asia
Reviewed by Collette Review Date: 12/25/2016
Rating: (8) Recommended
We've been here twice and very much like the food. The Peking duck is fabulous, and the hot and sour soup is really good. Some of the sides are pretty plain. The wine list by-the-glass is somewhat limited. As a couple, once we got a nicely-located table for two, but once we got put in a really lousy location.
Pros:
Beautiful space, good foodCons:
PriceyReview of Flying Fish
Reviewed by Collette Review Date: 01/01/2017
Rating: (9) Recommended
The new decor is gorgeous; much nicer than it was. It was a lot of fun to try the new wine system, where you can try several wines in whatever size pour you'd like (one-ounce, three-ounce, etc). Both appetizers we had were great—a rare tuna on watermelon, and a stone-fruit salad. The main courses were exceptional—the filet mignon was perfectly cooked and accompanied by a really nice concoction of vegetables; the bison strip steak was even better, though the ancient grains accompaniment wasn't as nice as the veggies with the beef. The lemon and blueberry cheesecake was very good, the napoleon was very beautiful and also good. The only thing that really bothered me was paying $7.50 for a pot of tea afterwards! The desserts were only $9 and $10 each, so the tea seemed a little out of proportion. This is the first time we've experienced an "apathetic" server, due to knowing we were on Tables in Wonderland, perhaps? Or maybe it was just due to the tiring week of Christmas.
Pros:
excellent foodCons:
extremely expensiveReview of Yuletide Fantasy - Parks and Hotels
Reviewed by pepperandchips Review Date: 01/03/2017
Rating: (3) Not Recommended
As a Disney Parks and Disney history enthusiast, this tour was the one experience I was most looking forward to during our recent December visit to WDW. As an educator and a history buff who regularly watch Jeopardy, listen to Disney history podcasts, and enjoy travel guides and other tours, I expected to greatly enjoy this "behind the scenes" look at the resort's holiday flair. Unfortunately, the Yuletide Fantasy tour turned out to be the most disappointing part of our trip. As a bit of a disclaimer, I believe that a better guide may have delivered a better experience.
In Epcot, we visited the Germany and America pavilions where we heard the tale of how "Silent Night" was written and looked at a piece of an aluminum Christmas tree and a Shiny Brite ornament. Our guide spent time discussing personal holiday traditions with the guests on the tour, but we felt like he may have missed "the point" of our visit to World Showcase as we mainly spent time looking at props from his shopping bag and these were not tied into the holiday traditions at the pavilions we visited. In addition, the guide's microphone did not work for the majority of the time we were visiting World Showcase, which resulted in a frustratingly long amount of time trying to get the microphone to work. In a group as big as ours, the microphone was essential, and I felt like our group may have suffered due to the technical difficulties. Unfortunately my take away from the Epcot portion was that the stories were too disjointed and overall I was bored.
The highlight of this tour was the time we spent visiting the holiday services warehouse, where we were able to watch cast members refreshing the autumn decorations. In addition, we walked through some of the warehouse area where we saw vast quantities of Christmas ornaments, glitter, the Epcot Flower and Garden artificial blooms, and other holiday decor. It was truly amazing seeing how much work goes into the decorations there and gave us a new sense of wonder when later visiting other parts of the resort.
Our other "parks" destination was a short stop in Magic Kingdom, where we looked at the garland outside of the hat shop for a few moments before spending the remainder of our time there on Center Street looking at a paperback copy of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (which our guide did not tie into the Disney parks at all, so I am not sure what we were missing there). We spent a very short amount of time in the Magic Kingdom and I am not sure why we even stopped there at all.
On the bus, our guide passed around a variety of "props" from his shopping bag, including photos of Santa over the years (which never made it back to us since we were seated in the back of the bus) and some Japanese dolls.
Our final stop was at the Wilderness Lodge, where we quickly walked past all of the gorgeous decorations in the lobby and were seated in the hotel's bar. For the following 30 minutes, our guide told us about a variety of pine cones and passed around pine cone specimens while the group was served small portions of hot cider. I would like to find something positive to say about this part of the tour but I have never been more disappointed or bored at Walt Disney World than I was for this part of the tour. I felt like I had stepped into a preschool class on pine cone day.
I would not take this tour again, and I would not recommend it for anyone else based on my experience. I have read other positive reviews from guests who experienced the tour in past years when the Grand Floridian was included on the tour (it was not a part of our tour, nor was the Japan pavilion, and the Italy pavilion was a brief pause outside of the wine bar). Our experience may have been shaped by our guide but it was a low part of our vacation. 3/10 for the guides' enthusiasm alone.
Pros:
Tour of holiday services warehouse, backstage views of World ShowcaseCons:
Boring, poor value, experience made by tour guideReviewed by pepperandchips Review Date: 01/03/2017
Rating: (9) Recommended
We really enjoyed this experience as a fun way to see more of the Fort Wilderness campground and a nice few hours out in nature. We could not have had a lovelier day of weather the day we experienced this tour - our party of two was led by guides Forrest and Ron.
We spent a few minutes learning the basics of Segway operation and then we were off traveling mainly along paved surfaces but had some fun riding through pine straw and over some "rough" terrain near the Settlement areas of the campground. We enjoyed seeing the wooded areas and some of the campers' holiday decorations.
The guides provided some facts and history of the campground and though some of the Disney facts were a bit rusty (e.g. Walt Disney's father referred to as "Elijah" rather than "Elias", had the wrong year for the closing of Discovery Island) there were also quite a few great nuggets about the history of the resort. It was a pleasure spending time with the guides, visiting the horses, and just riding the segways. We had a great time and I would absolutely recommend this tour as a way to experience something different. Allow plenty of time for travel using the campground's internal bus system, as our tour started at the bike barn nestled well within the sprawling grounds.
