Most Recent Reviews
Review of Contemporary Resort (Deluxe Resort)
Reviewed by aknlw2003 Review Date: 09/03/2015
Rating: (9) Recommended
Just returned from our trip to the Contemporary and had the most fabulous view of Bay Lake. Just spectacular! At night the water parade parked and we thoroughly enjoyed it from our balcony. The rooms at the Contemporary are large, and we just love that our kids can each have a bed with the pull down sofa bed available in room. So convenient to get to MK...just a short little walk over. And it's just too cool that the monorail runs through the hotel! Makes it so easy to pop over to the Poly or the GF for dinner, regardless of the weather outside. Which during the summer should definitely be a consideration given the regular tstorms in Orlando in the evenings.
The pool is a little boring, and the pool bar could use a facelift. But the pool staff tries super hard to make it fun for the kids. The good news is that you could always find a chair by the pool because it is large in size!
Pros:
Walk to MK!Cons:
Elevator waitsReview of Typhoon Lagoon
Reviewed by aknlw2003 Review Date: 09/03/2015
Rating: (10) Recommended
Disney's Typhoon Lagoon is a must stop if you've never done the waterparks. Our family had one of our favorite days of our trip at TL...and we highly recommend. There are plenty of chairs available, you just have to keep looking. They have tucked chairs throughout the park and we were able to grab some lovely chairs on the "beach". My kids absolutely LOVED the wave pool. Now, we have a beach house, but with all of the shark attacks this summer they couldn't just enjoy the waves like in summers past, so they were thrilled to be able to play in the waves. Crush and Gusher is a super fun time! We went three times so we could do all 3 runs. The line moves way faster than you think it will. The family raft ride is also a lot of fun! My complaint is that the wait times are manually updated, so they are always wrong. I know we're trying to stay rustic...but waiting 40 minutes for a simple body waterslide in a line that said 15 minutes is simply a little annoying, we would have made other choices.
The music is lively, and the lifeguards are absolutely amazing, and always on high alert. You really feel like you're on a Caribbean island while you're there.
The downside is really the food. Terrible food options at this park. We wished we had taken our own food in a cooler. Snacks were good though!
Pros:
Crush and GusherCons:
Wait timesReview of Typhoon Lagoon Counter Service
Reviewed by aknlw2003 Review Date: 09/03/2015
Rating: (5) Not Recommended
Leaning Palms is the only location at Typhoon Lagoon that offers gluten free food. My husband settled for a hamburger with pineapple and pork on it on a GF bun, it was average. My kids ate chicken nuggets- same one you get everywhere at Disney.
The point is, this could be soooo much more. A beach themed restaurant should be easy...steamed shrimp or fish sticks. Instead the food is completely uninspired.
I recommend packing a cooler with counter service from your hotel and bringing your own food in!
Pros:
LocationCons:
Just not goodReview of Blizzard Beach Counter Service
Reviewed by aknlw2003 Review Date: 09/03/2015
Rating: (8) Recommended
Ate lunch at the Lottawatta Lodge during our recent trip. My daughter was celebrating her birthday, and the order taker noticed and gave her a small cup of the frozen drink with a Mickey straw. Made her super happy, and was such a nice gesture!
I ate the salad which was fresh and healthy, and my kids at the nuggets. Food here was much better than Typhoon Lagoon in my opinion.
We chose to forego desserts for bottles of water on the DDP. I love this new option, because I have wasted many desserts over the years simply not wanting them, but ordering them b/c they are included!
Pros:
Super nice to my daughter on her bday!Cons:
Food uninspiredReviewed by miket75 Review Date: 09/09/2015
Rating: (9) Recommended
Had a 9am breakfast on August 27th and this was the highlight of our week-long trip. Our son LOOOOOOVES Jake! He dressed as Captain Jake for the character breakfast and the real Jake spent lots of one-on-one time with him, dancing around the restaurant hand-in-hand! Honestly, I hesitate to add that the characters came around so often that we barely had time to eat as a con because that's really what you want to happen at a character breakfast like this. Comparatively, at the Crystal Palace, the characters came around twice each. At the Disney Junior Character Breakfast, we saw them each three times - at least! - and they did dancing for the kids to come up and interact with the characters. I cannot say enough good things about this character breakfast, but wish the venue's bathrooms were taken better care of. (I'm told its because it shares bathrooms with 50's Prime Time, the bathrooms are small, and the nearest alternative bathrooms are very far away.)
Pros:
Characters came around a lot!Cons:
Bathrooms need better cleaning/renvoationReview of Restaurantosaurus
Reviewed by Zimee70 Review Date: 09/06/2015
Rating: (7) Recommended
Great quick service for a burger, salad, or breast nuggets. Our son loves the bucket and shovel that the kids meal comes with. He takes it to the sand dig area at the playground in the same area. He always gets the corn dog nuggets which are large and tasty. They have a chicken blt salad that looked good. Our teenaged son loved the bacon cheeseburger but then again he would eat any burger with bacon.
You can refill your drinks here which is a big plus and they have a burger topping bar with grilled onions, veggies, but no plastic cheese 😒
If you go here when it's busy you should have someone in your party snag a seat while the rest of you stand in line. This has got to be the coldest restaurant in Animal Kingdom.
Pros:
Great theming and COOL insideCons:
Hard to find seatingReview of Flame Tree Barbecue
Reviewed by Zimee70 Review Date: 09/06/2015
Rating: (6) Recommended
We have eaten here 4 times and twice it was delicious and the other two times the food was average or even worse. They took the coleslaw off of the menu and we loved it so we were disappointed. You have to eat here early for more tender ribs because both times that the ribs were like shoe leather was when we ate after the lunch rush. In place of the slaw they added a jalapeño cornbread which has a good flavor but is so dry and crumbly that you cannot bear to finish it.
We didn't have the onion rings but those looked batter dipped and left us wishing we would have ordered those. $27 for two rib dinners but this time eating there left us feeling ripped off.
Pros:
Variety of food choices and lots of seatingCons:
Tough, dry ribs and dry cornbreadReviewed by joplin Review Date: 09/07/2015
Rating: (10) Recommended
First time staying in the new Polynesian DVC. Room layout is impressive. Disney's attention to detail and quality is seen throughout this new area. Thank you WDW!!!!
Pros:
Room design, location, dining and recreationCons:
Construction until next yearReviewed by matt6816 Review Date: 12/14/2015
Rating: (6) Recommended
OKW is our favorite resort and it is large so I did not understand when I was assigned to a second floor room when I requested a first floor room. I have rheumatoid arthritis and a reconstructed right knee so the walk up and down stairs is very painful. When I called to be moved I was told that requests are not guaranteed. When I told them I had medical reasons for the switch, they offered to have us move on 12/8. We moved into our room on 12/5 and were leaving on 12/11. I told them it made no sense to disturb my family so I dealt with the disrespect so I would not have to disturb my family. It just seems that Disney Corporation knows you will return because you are DVC so little interest it considered in requests.
Pros:
size of roomsCons:
disregard for DVC member requestsReview of My Disney Experience
Reviewed by ChallengerHK1 Review Date: 09/08/2015
Rating: (3) Not Recommended
The idea behind MDE is sound. Give people control of their entire vacation at their fingertips.
The implementation is horrendous. I'll give you two examples, but I could go one for pages about this terrible product.
I took a couple to Disney, friends that I hardly get to spend time with. They had never been to WDW and knew nothing about it, so I was the person in charge of planning (before MDE, I used to enjoy the planning; now it's become a chore). When I booked the rooms, I was told that I had to give them the names of the people staying in each room. My warning bells were going off, so I asked if I could still make changes to the reservations once I did this. I was assured that I could. When I later called back to alter the reservation, I was told that the second room was reserved in the name of the other couple, and I couldn't change it. I explained that not only had I made the reservation but also that I had paid for it. No matter, this reservation was not mine to change. On the third attempt I was told that I could change "their" reservation is I could supply his address, phone number, or social security number. Problem is, I was working in Saudi Arabia at the time, and I didn't want to leave anyone else's personal data around unsecured, so I didn't have it available.
Flash forward, to when I'm planning another trip with my girlfriend. I noticed that the couple mentioned above were still on my MDE account. I tried to delete them...but I couldn't. I called Disney, and I was told that once I've added someone to my MDE account, they're they forever. I told them that when I wanted to make FastPass reservations for the upcoming trip I didn't want to be slowed by by having to deselect this couple. Tough; I've added them to my account, and that's final. I did finally get them removed, but it took four phone calls, plus the approval of the CEO apparently, to accomplish this.
And that's really my beef. This system is supposed to give the user control of the vacation, but what it really does is consolidate control of the vacation with Disney. They get all your information, and lots of benefits that go along with that, and I was willing to give them this information in exchange for flexibility and ease of use. MDE is neither flexible no easy to use.
