Originally Posted By davewasbaloo All those things do factor. We had a much better experience from Dixie Landings in 2000. We thought that by AKL having it's own bus and being a deluxe, the bus would be fine. In the end, we started using cabs. I kid you not - buses were often 40 min waits for us, and one even broke down at the MK and it took 30 mins for them to get us another (after already waiting 30 mins for this one to arrive). So we will not do it again. While the kids are young we will visit DLP and DL. And if we feel the urge to go to WDW, we will rent a car and stay off site at better hotels. If I start to read better reviews, we may try it again because we won't be able to do major off season after this year, and we're off to the Grand Californian in May.
Originally Posted By Mr X **Spending 3 hours of my day commuting does not feel like a vacation at all.** Well, if that was what you experienced I would say (with AKL being remote taken into consideration) that you probably had some very bad luck with the buses. I've probably been onboard the DisneyWorld buses a hundred times or more in my lifetime and it has never taken me 90 minutes to get ANYWHERE on property! Very sorry to hear that! In fairness, I'd have to say your choice of hotels was pretty poor if dealing with long bus waits and drives were a factor...any of the Epcot or Magic Kingdom resorts would have eliminated that sort of stress almost entirely!
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo We know that now. We fancied the remoteness of the resort, having heard great things. Plus we love Animals. We didn't want to have the sharing bus issue the Epcot resorts have. I really dislike the Grand Floridian (boring), the Poly is overpriced, and the Contemporary feels too much like being away for work. In retrospect, the Wilderness Lodge may have been a better choice. To be fair, bus service was excellent to Animal Kingdom - that was nice and quick. MGM was not too bad. But Epcot, MK and DTD were not good at all. In the end we would hop on whichever bus came first and then use the monorails. We did have bad luck. On our Epcot LP meet day - 4 MK buses came while we waited for an Epcot bus. We were 20 min late (allowing 90 mins should have been fine you would think!). When I placed a complaint with guest relations they shrugged and said they were busier than planned. It was the concierge at the Grand Fla that told us minibus cabs have baby seats. Once we learned this trick, that is what we did for the rest of the trip.
Originally Posted By Mr X **In the end, we started using cabs** Hindsight is always 20/20, right? I rented a car in Orlando this time and it cost around $220 for 8 days...if you really think about what frustrated you guys most this past trip, perhaps the notion that you could've spared yourself all that stress for just a couple hundred bucks (heck what's 200 on top of 12 thousand!? ) might make you feel better? Or worse? I dunno. Hey, happy new year by the way!
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Agreed, hindsight is indeed 20/20. For what it's worth, we did love our room at AKL. Nothing beat drinking a glass of wine on our balcony while the kids slept, and as the big blasts hit the sky, two giraffes walk into view. That was awesome.
Originally Posted By Mr X **We know that now. We fancied the remoteness of the resort, having heard great things. Plus we love Animals.** Please don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to slam your choice of hotels...I thought the AKL was awesome and I would probably consider staying there too especially cause of the animals. **We did have bad luck.** And that happens to all, at one time or another. I'm sorry to hear it happened frequently on such an elaborately planned vacation with all the young'uns and all! We had bad luck too, as far as when we happened upon an attraction, invariably the line was the longest of the day...or we'd be in line for a theater show like stitch or philharmagic and be walking forward, forward, forward, forward...only to be the first party STOPPED after everyone else got through. Seriously, that happened like a million times, FGM and I were getting downright annoyed (we blew off stitch and monsters and a couple of others after waiting 30 minutes for just that reason!). Timing is everything.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***Nothing beat drinking a glass of wine on our balcony while the kids slept, and as the big blasts hit the sky, two giraffes walk into view. That was awesome.*** See, now I'm jealous! I would say that that, alone, could be construed as "an experience of a lifetime". At least by us peons who spend most of our adult lives slumming at the All-Stars or worse.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<In retrospect, the Wilderness Lodge may have been a better choice.>> Wilderness Lodge is a wonderful resort, but the bus transportation from there is not real great either. If you are looking for good transportation options nothing beats the Epcot resorts. Both Epcot and MGM Studios are walking distance, and if you don't want to walk there is boat transit. The only time you need to take a bus is to the AK, MK and Downtown Disney.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Oh, and happy New Year. We still have 6.5 hours to go. Agreed, luck does happen. But like I say, there are a number of easy fixes that could be instrumented if they either reduced profit margins or increased prices. And I for one would be happy to pay the prices if the quality was there. For me, in my experience, DL and DLP offer better quality experiences. I will admit as well, I do not like the Florida climate either. And there were other cultural issues in my WDW that I have not encountered as much at the other resorts, so I may be biased in this regard too. I must say though, DAK and Epcot blow me away everytime I enter the gate. And we really had a blast at DHS in the Christmas celebrations too. So I am hoping we just had really bad luck. As I say, I am sure Pop Warner really had an impact as I read similar reviews of other people's experiences last year. Trying another time of year may help quite a bit.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Mr X - there were some wonderful once in a lifetime experiences, no doubt. Trippy - I think they would be wonderful with older kids or as a couple. We chose AKL as well, because we did not know how the kids would handle jey lag. Getting up at 3:30 am is not as painful if you have something interesting to look at out of the window for hours! ;-)
Originally Posted By Mr X **We chose AKL as well, because we did not know how the kids would handle jey lag. Getting up at 3:30 am is not as painful if you have something interesting to look at out of the window for hours! ;-)** You do realize that comments like that put you and Sarah firmly in the category of "awesome parents", right?
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo We try our best. It's like we now find Marriott Vacation Club gives us awesome vacations because there is room for them to run around. TVs and DVD Players, a full kitchen and a washer dryer. Sure takes a lot of the stress away.
Originally Posted By jonvn "You do realize that comments like that put you and Sarah firmly in the category of "awesome parents", right?" Is it the part about being up at 3:30 AM? Because I'm up at that time anyway, usually drunk from the night before. That makes me an awesome parent too, right?
Originally Posted By Mr X Running is good. TV's are good. Washer/dryers...now that's ESSENTIAL for the modern parent-type lol. (I won't go into details, but on our trip we made use of washers and/or dryers MUCH more than I thought we would, in many different places, and not under normal circumstances)
Originally Posted By Mr X By the way, I really wish they had a washer/dryer on the plane! Do your kids consistently puke on final approach too? "Is it the part about being up at 3:30 AM? Because I'm up at that time anyway, usually drunk from the night before. That makes me an awesome parent too, right?" Shut up, Jon.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Oh god, that's awful. Puking no, but Jessie loves to scream as her ears pop!!! the flight to Mallorca she screamed a storm.
Originally Posted By Mr X Alisa screams too. Every time. Then she pukes. Way uncool (in general she is an awesome, well behaved kid...final approach is not her favorite time though ESPECIALLY coming down from way up high on a 13 hour flight!).
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Hmmmmm - poor girl. Sadly kids do not know what is fully going on, and that pressure change is not fun for an adult. Did her head spin too?
Originally Posted By Mr X **Hmmmmm - poor girl. Sadly kids do not know...** Absolutely. It's always a case where "it hurts me more than it hurts you"..in the sense that it totally, completely SUCKS to sit there and watch your kid suffering and there is next to nothing you can do (besides cleaning up the vomit, of course) to make things better or help her understand what's up or that it'll be all done soon...ugh.
