Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Last Disney post--I promise...

Ok, so I am constantly broadening my Disney horizons and trying new things every time we go. This time we stayed in a different hotel and tried some new restaurants.
Comparing the resorts we've stayed in, I still think I like wilderness lodge the best and animal kingdom lodge comes in 2nd. The reason would be that magic kingdom is easier to get to from wilderness lodge. Also I think wilderness lodge has a better pool area, but animal kingdom definitely has a major plus with the animals everywhere. Wilderness lodge comes out ahead in cost because it is least expensive of the deluxe resorts. The other resorts we have stayed at are the contemporary and the Polynesian. Polynesian has a great pool area too, and is equivalent to the pool at wilderness lodge. It is also in magic kingdom area and on the monorail. I would say that the monorail and boat to magic kingdom from wilderness lodge are about equal. The contemporary is close enough to walk to magic kingdom and the rooms seemed to be bigger, but we didn't really like the atmosphere of contemporary. So all the resorts have their pros and cons, but my favorite is wilderness lodge still. Jared doesn't get to vote in that one until he stays at animal kingdom.
We tried two different signature restaurants--jiko and flying fish cafe. Jiko is at animal kingdom lodge and flying fish cafe is at the boardwalk inn. They were both good, but certainly not my favorites. I think my favorite so far is still California grill at the top of the contemporary, followed closely by artist point at wilderness lodge and portobello at downtown Disney. I think I even prefer le cellier at Epcot to either jiko or flying fish cafe. They are all excellent, but I have such high expectations for Disney signature restaurants now, and I have visited some of the best.
My favorite table service restaurant that is not signature is definitely liberty tree tavern in magic kingdom. Food is served family style and they always have a variety of meats (roast beef, turkey, and pork tenderloin), starches (mashed potatoes, stuffing, and macaroni and cheese), and vegetables. It is pretty much an all you can eat type set up, as we have asked for a second serving of certain things and it was never an added cost. Also Tony's town square is always good, though didn't seem quite as good this trip as it has been in the past.
We did the deluxe dining plan and I tallied the cost a little better this time to get an idea of the value of it. We certainly came out ahead this trip. It costs $89 per adult per day. Here is a rough rundown of our days--breakfast buffet $25, snacks totaling about $20 per day, and supper being about $55 per person. So we easily came out ahead, and that was being conservative on our dinner estimate. One night my entree was $35, and another it was $42. Each meal covers appetizer, entree, and dessert, so $55 for supper is easily on the low side. So it saves at least $10 per day, and I really like not having to worry about how much money to budget for food. It's included in the package and paid for ahead of time. The only thing we were responsible for was tip and alcohol.
I did read that the cost of the dining plan is going to increase to $99 per adult per day next year, so that might require me to really re-evaluate it in the future.
The parks seemed a little busier than I had expected. We have even going at the end of October, which has been great. Very little wait time at any ride. We had to wait a fair amount, especially at Winnie the Pooh. I have never waited to pirates of the Caribbean, and we waited about 15 min for it. We got fast passes for Peter Pan's flight, or otherwise we wouldn't have gotten to ride it. The wait was about 45 min every time we went by. I am anxious to see how the waits are when we go in January since we haven't been that time of year yet.
I really expected the not so scary party to be less busy, but I really couldn't tell much difference in the night we went and Halloween night when we have gone the last 2 years. And it even rained the night we went until about 9:00 or so.
So, another trip and more information gathered. A fun little weekend.

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