We're back home!

[Keith]

Well we're back

We had a totally amazing time as always

Brief highs and lows

Highs

Port Orleans French Quarter - superb. I love Riverside too and think they're both the best moderates available but French Quarter does have that more intimate feeling.

Weather - wow! When we got there all the weather stations were saying rain and storms but in fact, apart from a couple of afternoons, it was simply hot and perfect the whole time.

Parks - not very busy at all! Wait times very good

American Idol experience - DW's favourite and even I had to admit it was very well done indeed

Uno Grill - really really nice informal place to eat. Great food, Great service!

Winter Garden Village - Slightly cheaper to get to by cab than the florida mall or mall at millenia and WAY less touristy! Great range of shops and nice people around generally. Winter Garden Village :: Winter Garden, FL

Polynesian Luau - not the most exciting background story nor the most authentic luau but loads of relaxing fun as always

California Grill - We went a few times and were really lucky to get window tables. I feel a bit emotional even remembering watching wishes from there. There's a great atmosphere there and the food has been consistently excellent IF you tell them how you want it cooked! Important for UKers particularly since we're not all great at describing how we want things cooked and the CG chefs seem to err towards the rare side if you don't specify. All I can say is, when someone says "the chef recommends this is rare is that ok?" it's just a recommendation and he/she isn't paying/eating so feel totally free to say "no, medium-well please" or however you like it. It's not making a fuss, it's absolutely the accepted thing to do There's no point saying nothing and then spending the meal moaning to each other.

Chinese Dragon Court - at the other end of the dining scale a very nice chinese buffet by crossroads. FAR less choice than at the super buffets but this is a GOOD thing meaning the food on offer was always hot and replaced frequently. Great staff too. I'm not saying you'll be wowed by the surroundings, but it's cheap and the best chinese buffet we've found in Orlando so far.

Lows

Virgin atlantic - I phoned to enquire about an upgrade a few weeks before going. They messed up the booking totally requiring hours on the phone to sort it out and resulting in DW and I being on separate reservations without the seats which we'd booked about a year earlier. Every phone call to them was painful and complaint to customer services resulted in them refunding our miles. I didn't care about the miles, I just wanted the booking back the way I had it WITH our seats.

TTA closed for refurb - Magic Kingdom EMH night just not the same without a few rides on the TTA

Mortons steakhouse - I've been before in Washington and enjoyed it. In Orlando it was a let down. Expensive overall and disinterested server. No desire to go back. Ruth's chris was better for a celebration dinner and Charleys at other times.

Prices - more expensive across the board ESPECIALLY inside Disney. Couldn't believe how much things had gone up!

Fantasmic - down to three shows a week and it's a total scrum. HIGHLY recommend the fantasmic dining package and still get there early! Why they reduced the number of shows I don't know. Well I do, money :/ but mad.

Disney busses - not great this time. They took AGES to arrive especially downtown disney ones. No shade at our bus stop at downtown disney so it was especially annoying.

Pushchairs & rude parents - always a problem at Disney. People using pushchairs as weapons to try and barge through queues/crowds etc. Large amount of parents who seem to think because it's their holiday, letting their kids run wild in a restaurant annoying other guests is fine. Heard several arguments between people when they complained about kids. In one case, server asked nicely could they stop the kids running all over and got a mouth full of abuse. Later one of the kids got tripped over and of course it was everyone else's fault Easy to generalise and of course it wasn't every family but Disney is there for everyone not just the kids or families with kids. 'nuff said.

[ukwdwnut]

well it certainly sounds like you had a great time keith as always....i soooooo hope we can go to POR or FQ will see if thats the same prive

[Isafari]

Pleased you both had a good time Keith
I need to find the Chinese Dragon Court for our next visit. You may laugh but....did they have fries too (I don't like rice)

[Debbie2]

Welcome back, Keith - happy to hear you had a great trip, despite a few annoying lows

[Keith]

Pleased you both had a good time Keith
I need to find the Chinese Dragon Court for our next visit. You may laugh but....did they have fries too (I don't like rice)

Not laughing at all! yep they have fries too

There are at least three Chinese buffets around crossroads, probably more. The most popular seems to be the New york china buffet. This is the one that made us very ill indeed and smelt of cat (not suggesting anything, just saying how it smelt).

The Dragon court one is across the road and they do loads of "normal" stuff as well as all the chinese. So fries, pizza, fried chicken and so on.

[catrancher]

Welcome back, Keith! Glad you had a good time and got Port Orleans warmed up for me.

Large amount of parents who seem to think because it's their holiday, letting their kids run wild in a restaurant annoying other guests is fine. Heard several arguments between people when they complained about kids. In one case, server asked nicely could they stop the kids running all over and got a mouth full of abuse.

Do NOT get me or my DW started on that subject.

The good news for me is that my DW spent 30 years as a kindergarten teacher before she retired so whenever we see children acting like that, she just gives them her "teacher look"!

Usually works!

Tom (... now, back to geekdom!)

[foreverducky]

Good to hear that you had a great time, even though there were some not so great moments.

Tom, I would love to be around you guys, especially with that 'teacher look.' I'm sure it comes in handy.

[catrancher]

I'm sure it comes in handy.

Extremely!

And amazingly, even after being retired for the past 6 years, she's still got it!

Tom (... few things more useful than a good "teacher look"!)

[Slowhand]

Glad to see that overall you seemed to have a great time Keith ...and welcome back.
You`ve just reminded me about Winter Garden. My DW and I had dinner at the Bonefish Restaurant there a while back and said [well my DW said] that we must return there one day for some shopping.
Just added it to my list of "must do`s" for this trip.

[Keith]

Glad to see that overall you seemed to have a great time Keith ...and welcome back.
You`ve just reminded me about Winter Garden. My DW and I had dinner at the Bonefish Restaurant there a while back and said [well my DW said] that we must return there one day for some shopping.
Just added it to my list of "must do`s" for this trip.

We were both very impressed indeed!

Now, it's pretty spread out and it was extremely hot the times we visited, so walking between places was a chore. However, all the places we like to visit were there in one place. Best buy, super target, barnes & noble etc.