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Reviews

HOTEL REVIEW -NEWPORT BAY CLUB

This review is based on a visit by my family to Disneyland Paris in December 2010. The Newport bay club is a mid range hotel. It has a nautical theme and is thought by some to be similarly themed to Disney’s Yacht club. The Hotel overlooks lake Disney and is within 10 minutes walk to the Disneyland Parks.

 

The first thing to mention is that this hotel is huge! With over 1000 rooms it is one of the largest hotels in Europe. This means that reception can be extremely busy. When we arrived it was approximately 6pm and it still took some time to check in. However the lobby is beautiful and was very elegantly decorated for Christmas at the time. As I said before the hotel is very large and those who have rooms at the farthest ends of the wings will have a considerable walk to their rooms. We were lucky enough to get a room that was fairly central, one floor below the lobby.

Our room was spotlessly clean and decorated in a nautical colour scheme . The room was of an adequate size for the four of us with two double beds. We felt that the hotel was beginning to show it’s age. There were chips in some of the furniture, and a cracked tile in the bathroom   Obviously Disney agreed with us as it has just been announced that the Hotel is to undergo refurbishment.

The hotel has a large gift shop with a great range of Disney merchandise but unlike the hotel shops in Florida it does not stock basics, we asked for headache tablets and were directed to an offsite pharmacy.  There are also occasional character meet and greets in the hotel lobby.

Off the lobby is a restaurant and a very pleasant bar with a view over the lake. It has an extensive cocktail menu and I can personally recommend the Mojitos.

The hotel does have a swimming pool and a games room but i cant comment on these as we didn’t use them. December in Paris is not peak swimming season.

All the Disneyland Paris hotels operate on a bed and breakfast basis. We had been warned to expect long queues for the restaurant but didn’t find this to be a problem. In peak season i imagine this would be different. There was a good selection of cereals, croissants, yoghurt, cold meats and cheeses. There was tea, coffee, hot chocolate and assorted fruit juices. All of these were serve yourself and we saw several people taking extras for lunch.

 

There was a regular bus service from outside the hotel to the bus station outside the parks, it is also possible to walk to the parks.  On the way to the park you pass this lighthouse,

 

It’s a fun landmark but again could do with renovation.

Overall we loved staying in this hotel, the staff  were helpful and we had a great time.

If you have persevered this far  thank you for putting up with my ramblings.

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In the Parks Reviews

Restaurant Review – Liberty Tree Tavern

Hi, Julie here with another Disney World restaurant review for you. Last month we were at WDW and had made some pre-trip restaurant reservations, but we are always open to changing our plans last minute if our mood doesn’t fit the restaurant we chose. On our day at the Magic Kingdom we had originally planned on eating at the Wave at the Contemporary Resort. Then it was so stinking hot and humid that I had to go back to the hotel every day from about 12-3. I decided that I didn’t want to leave the park and waste time travelling out of the park and back again after dinner. Luckily when I checked at 1 pm there was a reservation available at one of our favorite Magic Kingdom restaurants, the Liberty Tree Tavern.

We got there about 2 minutes before our reservation, I usually like to show up earlier, but it was pouring out and we decided to try and run over to space mountain for our fastpass time and run back in one of the rain breaks. It wasn’t really a break per say, but lets just say it was pouring less heavily! Lucky for us though it was at the tail end of the dinner crowd and it seemed that some people had left the park because of the rain, so it wasn’t as busy as I had expected it to be. We only had to wait about 5 minutes before our table was ready.  Which is really too bad, since I love the décor so much here, and I didn’t have any time to look around like I usually do.

Our waiter, Tyler, came right over to our table and took our drink order and informed us that dinner was family style and our food would be out shortly. The family style meal included rolls with a sweet butter, roasted turkey breast, carved beef, and sliced pork, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, salad with a strawberry vinaigrette dressing, and apple craisin cake with ice cream.

The salad and rolls came out first and were delicious as usual. I love the sweet butter they used for the rolls. I also love the strawberry vinaigrette dressing for the salad and this time I finally got up the nerve to ask our waiter if it was possible to get the recipe for the dressing. He said it was and brought it right out to me. I can’t tell you how awesome that was. I always knew you could ask for recipes at WDW and most restaurants would give them to you, but I had never actually asked to get one. It was nice to finally find out how easy it was to do so.

After we had our fill of salad and rolls, the main course came out. It all looked and smelled fantastic. Once we loaded up our plates we got down to eating and it tasted as good as it looked and smelled.  We filled up so much on the turkey and trimmings that we totally forgot to leave room for dessert, so I can’t report on that, but the rest of our meal was fantastic.

Service here was also impeccable. Our waiter, Tyler, was very attentive and checked up on us several times. He even came over and wiped off the AC vent that was occasionally dripping on me. He spent several minutes chatting with us too. I always like when the wait staff has a minute or two to chat with us. It definitely makes you feel more at home when they do. I think the poor guy needed a break though, he was really running around, had dropped a few items and had a couple of extra-large groups to serve that were not so nice to him. One group ordered a whole new round of drinks and then left 2 seconds after he brought them to the table. We felt bad for him, and since he had been so nice to us, we left him an extra big tip and made sure to mention to the management how much we enjoyed his service. Hopefully it made his night a little bit better.

All said and done, we definitely enjoyed our meal here. The LTT has never disappointed us and we will continue to call this one of our favorite places to eat in the World. It may not be the most daring or exciting food, but it is excellent fare and its a place that makes us feel like we are visiting good friends for a home cooked meal. Here is the recipe for the Strawberry Vinaigrette Dressing that they gave me. I can’t wait to make some for myself. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Liberty Tree Tavern Strawberry Vinaigrette

8 Tbsp. strawberry vinegar
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 oz. frozen strawberries
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
dash Tabasco sauce
dash white pepper
3 cups salad oil
4 Tbsp. water

Place strawberry vinegar, salt, sugar, strawberries, Dijon mustard, Tabasco sauce, and white pepper in a bowl. Using a hand-held blender, blend ingredients well. Add oil in four parts, blending thoroughly after each addition. Add water and blend one last time.

 

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In the Parks Reviews

Restaurant Review – Sci-Fi Dine-in Theater

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be able go to Florida and stay at the Swan for almost a week with my husband while he went to a convention. I only had two months to plan our trip, so many of the most popular restaurants that we love to eat at were all booked up.  One place that I have really wanted to try again for a while was the Sci-Fi Dine-in Theater. The last time I went was in 2005.  They updated their menu in September 2011 and it has gotten some good reviews since then. Luckily there was an available dinner reservation for the day we were going to be at Hollywood Studios.

We showed up about 15 minutes before our reservation to check-in and found the restaurant to be extremely crowded. There were quite a few families already waiting for tables. We had to wait about 30 minutes to get seated ourselves.  Once inside we were seated in the back row of one of the car tables along with another family. Our waitress came to our table right away to take our drink order. I ordered a coke with cherry flavoring, and my husband just got water, since it was incredibly hot out. We looked over the menu while we waited for our drinks. I decided to get the much talked about Reuben and my husband opted for the Shrimp Pasta.

Our drinks were brought to us and we placed our order.  I tried my cherry flavored coke and didn’t like it at all. I was really disappointed, since I really like cherry coke. I am pretty sure it was the dye they used in the cherry flavoring that made me dislike it. I am very sensitive to them, and often find them to add a bitter taste to things. While I waited for a regular coke to arrive to replace the cherry flavored coke, I took in the atmosphere of the restaurant.

There is a huge movie screen that you watch from the comfort of your car, that shows clips from old sci-fi movies, cartoons and even some old space related Disney clips. This was a great way to pass the time while you waited for your food. It also worked really well at keeping the kids from the family in front of us entertained and quiet. Aside from the main attraction of the restaurant there are lots of little things to look at to remind you of drive-ins from the 50s. The entrance to the kitchen had a huge lit up sign over it stating it was the snack bar, there were speakers next to your car playing the movie sounds, and many nostalgic signs on the walls around you to look at as well. Overall I give it a 10 in my book for atmosphere!

Our food came in about 10-15 minutes, which was great because we were hungry after a long hot day at Star Wars Weekends. My sandwich came with fries and a pickle, but I could have gotten a cucumber salad instead of fries if I had wished. My husband got a fairly good sized portion of pasta. My Reuben was fantastic. Definitely lived up to the reviews I have read about it. Just the right amount of corned beef and sauerkraut and nicely toasted. There also wasn’t a lot of sauce on it to make the toasted bread soggy, it was just right. My husband’s pasta was good, but nothing special. I certainly could have made the same dish at home, it wasn’t bad just unexciting.

Our service was great overall. The waitress was very attentive, and never let our drinks become less than half-full. She even offered to take our photo together for us when she saw me taking lots of pictures. They didn’t turn out great but it was nice to have our photo together.

The only negative things I have to say about our dinner there was that it was really dark inside the restaurant, and though it made us feel really cool compared to the heat outside, it was not great for taking photos and felt like we were eating in the dark, and that it took a long time to get our check at the end of our meal. I think our server might have gone on a break just about that time, so that may explain the 20 minute wait we had to get our check. I also wouldn’t recommend getting the cherry flavoring for the sodas if you are sensitive to the taste of artificial dyes.

Overall it was a great place to eat, has a great atmosphere, and was fairly cheap ($40) for a table service dinner. I would highly recommend it to anyone!

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Reviews

It’s not a zoo, but breakfast there may feel like it…

I am back with another round of restaurant reviews. I thought long and hard about what establishment I wanted to review this time. I decided that I wanted to chat about a character meal and what better one to highlight than one that I frequent on every trip. So get ready for a chaotic, fun-filled experience! My kids LOVE rides! And the ride that they love the most is Expedition Everest. Even though I can only ride once or MAYBE twice a day, they can ride over and over again. I think that is one of the main reasons that we started eating with our friend Donald before the park opened at Animal Kingdom. Just like at the Magic Kingdom, one of the biggest advantages to dragging your butt out of bed early in the morning for a breakfast reservation is to be in the park before opening so that you can be on those rides before most even get to the park. (Yes, you late sleepers know who you are…) I personally don’t care as much about being the first on a ride, but I do love taking pictures of the parks without a mass of people in them. So we choose a day to get up early, make a reservation, get on that early bus, and we end up here.

I have mixed feelings about this breakfast. I do so hate to be negative about anything Disney, since I love the World so much, but I both love and hate breakfast at Tusker House. Now here’s one thing that I don’t like about these breakfasts. I don’t like the picture that they take at the front then try to sell you for $30 bucks or so. I almost always say no, and my hubby always feels bad saying no. However, the photographers are very nice and understanding. And when I asked for the Cast Member to take a picture with my own camera, he not only did so, but he took multiple pictures zooming in and out. I thought that was incredibly nice of him.

There is usually a line to get in, but they are experts at getting through it quickly. I mean really, one thing that Tusker House is good at is being a revolving door getting people in and out. That is actually one of the things that makes me a little uncomfortable eating there. I always feel that I’m being rushed out the door. It is a benefit when trying to get in though. Although I suppose being in the first seating certainly doesn’t hurt. Another thing, it is crowded and loud. They certainly know how to pack those tables in there! I think it is more noticeable than at other places becuase it’s just rectangular tables in rows. You can see all the rows of tables behind the kids.

Upon arriving, the characters came around right away. At some places you’ll get outstanding character interactions. We have always had fabulous luck at ‘Ohanas and Cape May Cafe, but at Tusker House it is pretty much quick take a picture, sign a book, and move on. Which is fine. I know that there are a lot of people waiting to see the characters. I just wouldn’t say that this is where you’ll find the best interaction for your buck. That being said, you will find Daisy here, which my girls love. We also saw Mickey and Goofy in fun safari gear. Here’s an example.

It’s loud, it’s crowded, it’s fast paced…you may ask why we keep going back every trip. Well, the answer to that is simple- besides the early park arrival that is. Food. We love our food. And Tusker House has a breakfast menu that is just different enough from the other breakfast buffets to make it worth it to us. There is cereal, donuts, yogurt, granola, eggs, bacon, sausage, rice, potatoes, some sort of quiche, and don’t forget the POG juice. Yum! I love the big buffet stations. They are so spread out that they never feel crowded like Crystal Palace can.

I mean seriously, those potatoes are GOOD! They have just a bit of spice to them. MMM. And that quiche is yummy too!

So even with its faults, we take the bad with the good and we find that it is worth it for us to continue visiting on our trips. If you decide to visit, make sure to say hello to my girl Daisy for me!

-Jenn

 

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In the Parks Reviews Travel Tips

Disney Vacation Club

Disney Vacation Club

If you’ve been to any of the Disney parks you’ve probably seen many signs for Disney’s Vacation Club.

Disney’s Vacation Club (DVC) is a timeshare.  I am a DVC owner and will try to give a brief overview, and some of our thoughts both for and against ownership.  Unlike most other timeshares, you buy points which can be used at any time during the year,  banked for the next year, or borrowed to use a year earlier.    The lowest number of points on a contract is 25,  I do not believe there is a maximum.  Each year DVC send out a points chart, using this chart you can see how many points are needed at each resort each day of the year and you can use this information to plan your vacations.     Since bookings are point based, the length of stay, location, and size of accommodations are decided by you (and availability) when you book your stay.

Here is an partial point chart for 2013 from:  www.resalesdvc.com

DVC Animal Kingdom Villas
Walt Disney World Resort		 V – Value Accommodation
S – Standard View
SV – Savanna View
C – Kilimanjaro Club Concierge

2013

STUDIO
(sleeps up to 4)

ONE-BEDROOM VILLA
(Sleeps up to 4, most sleep 5)

TWO-BEDROOM VILLA
(Sleeps up to 8, most sleep 9)
Adventure Season

V

S

SV

C

V

S

SV

C

V

S

SV

C
Jan 1-31
Sep 1-30
Dec 1-14		 Sun-Th

9

11

14

17

 Sun-Th

19

22

29

35

 Sun-Th

25

30

37

47
Fri-Sat

12

13

16

20

 Fri-Sat

22

26

32

39

 Fri-Sat

30

35

44

54
Weekly

69

81

102

125

 Weekly

139

162

209

253

 Weekly

185

220

273

343

So if I wanted to stay at Kidani, from Friday, January 11 to Sunday, January 13, 2013 (Fri. and Sat. night), in a Savanah View Studio, I would need 32 points.   It would be 16 pts. each night of the stay.

DVC member have a “Home” resort, this is the resort  you are a part owner of.  Your yearly maintenance fees go towards the upkeep of your home resort and you are able to book stays 11 months in advance.   You can book at other resorts 7 months in advance.    We own at Kidani at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  We chose this resort mainly because it was for sale when we were ready to buy but also because a one bedroom sleeps 5 and has 2 full bathrooms. In the older resorts, a one bedroom has only 1 bathroom.  With three children moving into their teens year we thought we’d like the extra bathroom and now that we have three teens ages 14, 16 and 18; we NEED the extra bathroom.

View from Fire Pit to Kidani Lobby

Kidani Savanah view from room

Pros for my famiy:
We love staying at different resorts.  With DVC, we’ve been able to stay at Kidani, Bay Lake Towers, Saratoga Springs and Grand California (Disneyland).  So we’ve been lucky and reserving at the 7 month mark has worked for us!

Bay Lake Tower Courtyard

View of Grand Californian Hotel from Disney’s California Adventre

View from our room at Grand Californian Hotel

All the DVC rooms (except studios) have a washer and dryer in the unit.  We pack lightly (carry-ons only) and do laundry.   Each night we through a load of dirty clothes into the washer, move to the dryer in the morning and when we get back from the park,  we have clean clothes.

With a full kitchen or kitchenette, we eat breakfast in the unit most mornings.  Food can be delivered to the resort or brought at a local store.   It’s nice to eat without waiting in a line for breakfast and we save some money.  We personally have never eaten dinner in the unit but it would be easy with the full kitchen.

DVC perks are great.  DVC members get discounts on annual passes, water parks admission, some dinning and shopping.  DVC members can also pool hop (not to all pools or all dates though),  can buy the Tables in Wonderland dinning discount card,  and can add the dinning plan to their room without buying a package.   The lounge at the top of Bay Lake Towers is open to DVC members; what a fun way to see the Magic Kingdom fireworks.  However, perks are not guaranteed and can end at any time.

Bay Lake Tower Rooftop View

Staying at a deluxe resort in a one bedroom with a kitchen and laundry for the price of a value resort  (Meaning the amount of yearly maintenance fees and the cost of ownership spread over the 50 years).

Having a living room to sit and relax or wait for the rest of the family to get ready instead of sitting on the bed or waiting in the hall.

Cons for my family:
No discounts on room rates.

No free dinning plans.

Must pay maintenance fees every year.

After 50 years your ownership is over and you own nothing.

So is DVC for everyone?  No.  Is it for us? Yes!  We have vacationed at  Disney World, Disney Land or Disney Cruise Line 13 times in the past 13 years.   We’ve stayed at values, moderate and deluxe resorts.  As our family got older and bigger we wanted more room.  DVC was the answer for us.  We joined about 5 years ago and are looking forward to the next 45 years.  Some day we hope to take grandchildren to Disney World!