My Clients experience from a trip to America: Part 1 of 2
My clients stayed in Orlando at the 3 Star - Disney's All Star Movie in New York and at the 4 Star - The Westin New York Grand Central in Washington and at the 3 Star Courtyard Washington DC/US Capitol.
Take a look what my clients had to say about their family holiday.
We LOVED our trip. It was really enjoyable and we had a fantastic time as a family.
The flights to Orlando were all non-eventful and went quickly with the main flight being overnight. The connection was well timed due to the long customs queues - we were patient as it took about 90 minutes from getting off the plane to having our luggage in our hands.
Disney World - Orlando This is a fantastic family break and everyone enjoyed the parks. As a South African family, this is an expensive holiday and my recommendation for you to get the most out of the parks is to ensure that your kids are from 10 years of age upwards so that they can enjoy all the activities.
Check in at Disney All Star Movies: The Check in process took some time (approx 30 minutes) but when we were served we got full attention.
The hotel offered good quality for money and gave us quick access to the parks. It has a good canteen system for breakfast (& all other meals if needed with lots of variety from the fridge or freshly cooked) which is quick and effective. Their special - buy a Disney "cup" and refill with coffee, soda's & water for US$19.95 each is an absolute win, especially over our seven days when you consider individual purchase prices range from $2.50 for each fill up. The staff were friendly & helpful. Te pool area was great and they had a nice bar area for "refreshments" although a beer costs $9 and wine at $10, this is expensive when travelling on the Rand – but iit did not stop us though.
The room was big enough for all four of us, especially considering how littel time we spent in it. Don't expect anything grand or large - space is limited and the bathrooms only have a bath / shower combination, it is quite small - but was fine for us.
Check out: This was a breeze, it is all electronic so there are no "in person" requirements. They charge you and send you the bill - and the bill was delivered the night before for us to peruse too.
The bus system between the parks & the hotel worked really well and buses are frequent enough (every 20-30 minutes) to keep everyone happy. I feel this bus package is a must with such a wide amount of ground to cover between parks and hotels. The closest park was 3.5km and the, the furthest was 10km - it is massive!
The “magic band” system is Awesome too. Everything can be charged to your band anywhere in Disney. It is very useful especially at the water parks when you are wet or for when you have no cash on you.
The one thing we did not do well initially was “tag” our bands to get all our photo opportunities – you can get 100’s of photos for one price from professional Disney photographers placed in a central place for your viewing and purchasing later – I believe that this is a must!
Saturday 24 Sep 16 We started in The Magic Kingdom on Saturday, even with jetlag, and we watched the fireworks and parade that evening too - it was awesome!
Sunday 25 Sep 16 We headed for the Blizzard Beach, this is a fantastic ski resort themed water park. The kids and I “played” from the 10 am opening to 3pm when we left - it was really good fun. M...... lay on the "beach" and relaxed so fun for her too. After the "beach" we went back to the hotel showered up and headed for Epcot. We were very lucky to have the international food and beverage show on - what an awesome evening of tasting food and "beverages". Haul out your wallet though - there is some pain for a good time with our Rand!
Monday 26 Sep 16 We started at the Magical Kingdom as we could not get it all done on the day that we arrived. We visited Space Mountain twice in an hour and many other rides. At about 3 pm we headed for Disney Springs - wow, it's a very nice shopping and eating / drinking area with movies, etc. We enjoyed a few "refreshments" overlooking the lake and chatting as a family.
Tuesday 27 Sep 16 We hired a car and headed for the Kennedy Space Centre which is about 100 km away. Alamo collected us in a shuttle from the hotel took as to their rental station in Disney and we drove from there (and dropped the car back there and we were shuttled back). My South African drivers license was enough for the hire.
NASA is very interesting & enjoyable by about 2 PM our kids wer ready for the next adventure.
In the evening we went to Animal Kingdom - we had some fun - it is best suited to young kids. There were some fun rides and good viewing moments which kept us busy for two hours, but that was enough. At the exit we stopped at the Rain Forest Cafe and there we had a great meal and the kids really enjoyed themselves.
Wednesday 28 Sep 16 We headed for Typhoon Lagoon, the other water park (It is very similar to Sun City), it is mainly geared towards little kids and not nearly as exciting as Blizzard Beach. We finished up after lunch (it opens at 10am). Afterwards we headed for Disney Springs for a movie (great new movie houses) and some "refreshments" and a light meal. This was nice and chilled especially after a hectic few days.
Thursday 29 Sep 16 We took a trip (with a taxi) to Sea World. We enjoyed the Manta (the You Tubed the video) – it was an awesome ride and is not for the faint hearted. We also experienced the dolphin and killer whale shows. Other than looking at some seals and some odd looking sea "animals" which was interesting we headed back to the hotel at about 3 PM. At the hotel we chilled at the great big pool, the kids swam for a few hours and enjoyed some "refreshments" and had our first early night.
The rest of our trip is continued in part 2