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Mouse Chat Disney Radio – A Disney Radio Show by Disney Fans for Fans
There are loads of options when stay at Walt Disney World. From Disney Value Resorts for many a quick stay all the way up for three bedroom grand villas and suites for large families, corporate outings or many a special occasion. This week we cover our favorite Walt Disney World Resorts and review why they made our list.
We also talk a little bit about off property Disney Resorts. There are many great off property resorts in Orlando and we don’t get into the details, but make sure you do your homework before booking that teaser room rate. Some hotels offer a low rate but then charge you to self park, and charge you a per day resort fee to have a phone with local calls and access to their gym or a newspaper, etc. And these fees are not optional. Also check the bus schedule for your resort before you stay off property. Some off property hotels charge a per guest fee to take the bus to and from Disney World and often they share a bus with several other resorts. Some resorts have buses that come only once an hour and have only certain
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Join Us for the First Ever Mouse Chat Disney World Meet up!
WE HAVE ROOMS STILL AVAILABLE for our Mouse Chat Meet in September.
Our VIP Dessert Party and our Magic Kingdom Scavenger Hunt are SOLD OUT!
You can still join us in the Parks and put Mikey Stickers in Chris’ hair or join us at the
FREE EPCOT Dine Around Event at World Showcase.
Mouse Chat is turning three and we would love to celebrate with everyone.
We have our first ever Disney World Mouse Chat Fan meet up and you are invited.
Friday the 13th is Disney Villain’s Day so we will be attending those Limited Time Magic events I am sure. We also have a VIP Private Fantasmic Dessert Party planned on Friday the 13th. Keep reading, here is now to save some money on your stay and also here are the events we have planned.
STAY
We have reserved rooms at Disney World at a discounted rate for everyone. WOW ONLY $226.17 a Night at the Beach Club!!
We have Discounted Rooms at Disney’s Beach Club Resort. At $226.17 a night plus tax. This also can be booked as a Disney Vacation Package (Discounted Room, Discounted Park Tickets, Disney Dining Plan and a FREE Disney Water Park ticket OR DisneyQuest ticket, one per person in your party.) We can also get you a room at a Disney Value or Moderate Resort. Just let us know what you want and we will get you a quote. Please let us know on the quote request form that you are interested in the Mouse Chat Fan Meet.
Note: You need to book the package offer (Room and Park Tickets) with at least two days of Disney Park Tickets to get the Free Disney Water Park OR DisneyQuest ticket.
Booking Window: Now – August, 12, 2013
Travel Window: September 12 – 15, 2013
(Contact Pixie Vacations if you would like to stay longer, special rates based on availability)
We will have MouseChat events on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Get a Quote Now for the MouseChat Villain’s Weekend Offer
Or Call Pixie Vacations at: 678-815-1584
PLAY
Come join us for some fun.
Private VIP Fantasmic Dessert Party at Disney Hollywood Studios (SOLD OUT)
Start off the witching hours on Friday the 13th from 8:30 – 9:30 PM for a private viewing area at Disney’s Fantasmic. We have a Private Dessert Party filled with scrumptious desserts for you to enjoy while watching Disney’s Fantasmic. Continue the night with Disney’s Limited Time Magic at Disney Hollywood Studios with a Special Villain treat and the park staying open until the Witching Hour (13th hour 1 AM)
We can only hold a limited number of fans for this event so please RSVP today. Once these are gone they are gone.
When: Sept. 13 (Friday the 13th) at Disney Hollywood Studios (Fantasmic Private VIP viewing area – “Small Fantasmic Patio”) 8:30 PM – 9:30 PM
Cost: $39 per person* (adult or children) (SOLD OUT)
*Disney Park Admission is required and not included in the event price.
Tickets will not be sold at the event.
Walt Disney World Scavenger Hunt with an extra treat (SOLD OUT)
On Saturday, September 14 be sure to join us for the Mouse Chat Magic Kingdom Scavenger Hunt. This is a Free event.
When and Where: Sept. 14, 2013 at the Magic Kingdom Hub Area (This is the area in the center of the park close to the Walt status)
TIME: 11 AM
Cost: FREE
How to book: (SOLD OUT)
*Disney Park Admission is required and not included
Dine Around the World with Mouse Chat
On Sunday Sept 15 we will be sampling food around EPCOT World Showcase. If you want to hang out with us you are welcome to.
When and Where: Sept. 15, 2013 at EPCOT on the steps of Mexico.
Cost: FREE
How to book:
Disney World Restaurant Reviews – Walt Disney World Resort, Artist Point, Citricos, Be Our Guest For lunch.
We have several popular Disney World Dining reviews this week.
Disney’s Wilderness Lodge Artist Point Review
Disney’s Grand Floridian Beach Resort Citricos Chefs Domain
Magic Kingdoms Be Our Guest for Lunch
*Disney Park Admission is required and not included
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I agree with Port Orleans being the best moderate. Great point that it works for both adults and kids. The grounds are so peaceful, and our kids love the pool and the activities.
They have the best food court of the moderates. French Quarter’s food court is really below par.
I enjoyed the insight on the resort preferences. My first time at WDW was May 2012 and we stayed at the Polynesian. My fiance and I were uber stressed and wanted something that was nice, relaxing, good food/pool and not swamped with kids bouncing off the walls. I felt like the Poly met that nicely. My fiance had stayed at other non-deluxe resorts in the past and thought the Poly was worth it, comparatively speaking.
The Kona Cafe is great, easy/beautiful walk to Floridian and Contemporary, easy access to MK, very relaxed atmosphere and a not overwhelming amount of kids. It provided a great getaway and set the mood for me to propose at Magic Kingdom. Cliche maybe, but it was the highlight to my first WDW trip. We are going back for our honeymoon in 3 weeks and then looking to utilize your input on other resorts for trips in the future.
Your podcasts helped me outline a great strategy to move through the parks the first time through and we had really no issues. Thanks for the podcasts and insight. Much appreciated.
-Jared
We just got back from Disney World and stayed at Coronado Springs.
The trip was good except for a few things.
We paid more for a moderate resort and really didn’t get our money’s worth.
When we checked in our room was not ready and they had to prepare another. Seems that there was a lot of convention going on and they were busy. They forgot to activate our pin number on the room key so we had to go back next day to get it activated.
The first night there was chicken bones under the ottoman chair. I had to walk all the way back to the main area (it’s quite a long walk) to get a key for our room safe, it was missing. The duty manager was on it right away and personally changed the lock and gave us a new key. Kudos.
We hit the pool and there were no life jackets in the bin. Scanning the pool, I saw 3 children with life jackets. One reason for booking Coronado was the water slide. Our 6 year old daughter was so exited to go and now without a life jacket that would not be possible. Very disappointing. They did stock up the jackets 2 days later.
They did not clean the toilet for a few days in a row. There was a small piece of plastic on the floor in the bathroom that was never swept up at all. One day there was no garbage bag. They expect you to recycle and give you a recycling bag, it was taken away the second day and we never saw another. Some days you get an ice bucket liner some days not. The room was just slightly bigger than the other, you couldn’t really tell if I didn’t read that it was. The layout was exactly the same as Pop Century.
Our food at the resort for lunch and breakfast was terrible we only ate there once, they can’t even make scrambled eggs. After that we just ate in the park we were visiting for lunch and have bagel and fruit at the cafe and ate it in the hotel lounge.
Supper was a bit of a nightmare, what we did in the past do takeout. One of the main reasons for picking this resort is that it had a fancy restaurant. Last year we would have to go to another resort and bring it back. We would feed our daughter, have a drink, hit the pool, and eat when we felt like it. These sit down dinners are not up our ally and the 6 year old is just not into it.
I made a special trip to the Maya restaurant to see if I could get take out the next day. The guy at the podium said yes. We showed up the next day and the girl says they don’t do takeout. After a little “discussion” the manager must have said yes since we had our food about an hour later.
We tried this at least 3 other places. The first person says come back at this time and no problem. When you go back the next person says no. So it’s 5:00 and the only options you may have is a burger and you can’t spend you table credit on quick service meals.
We ate a lot of Wolfgang puck food at least it had value and tasted good. Earl of sandwich was good too but it is not a value if you use a quick service credit.
After 6 or 7 days I finally remembered the resort (Caribbean Beach) that did takeout last year. A short trip via animal kingdom we did that for 2 nights, delicious and we were able to get our value. The folks there are good at what they do. Kudos.
Even the concierge at Coronado resort said the Maya restaurant did takeout. We found out the next day that he was a temp and came to our resort to help with the overload of convention people that were saying there. He really did not know anything about our resort.
In the end we were unable to use 3 table services and a few quick services.
Poor
Last year we did Pop Century, it was great, no sit down so we did take out when we could.
A lot noisier at the pool.
Really appreciated your insight into the “best” resorts. We have been to Disney twice in the past two years, staying at 4 different hotels.
In 2011, we first stayed at the Buena Vista Palace for 4 nights while my husband was at a conference. It wasn’t as bad as Bob’s experience but I would probably not stay their again, either. The onsite food was terrible but the proximity to Downtown Disney was great! The buses weren’t bad…one left about every 30 minutes…they were shared with all the Downtown Disney resort area hotels, though so it sometimes took a while to get where you were going.
We then moved to the Holiday Inn on Hotel Plaza Blvd. for 5 nights…same great location ans same bus issues, but overall an improvement…much nicer hotel and definitely better food.
On our second trip, we decided to do another “split-stay” except this time we wanted to try a Disney hotel. We really went for it and stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge…it was easily the best hotel experience I have ever had. The theming was just amazing and I really felt like I had been transported to some exotic locale! The buses didn’t seem as bad as some say but that may just have been because we didn’t have anything better to compare it too. My husband would like to try a resort with more transportation options next time (thinking about Beach Club) but I am going to have a hard time not returning to AKL.
Last, but not least, we stayed at the Renaissance Orlando at Sea World. While a very different experience, I would not hesitate to return to this hotel either. The proximity to Sea World could not be beat and there was also a stop for the i-trolley right in front of the hotel which gave us access to loads of restaurants and shopping. The hotel also offered shuttle service to Universal.
I should also say that we didn’t have a car for either of these trips and really did not miss it…it was great to be able to relqx and let someone else worry about where we were going and the traffic.
Thanks for all you guys do…especially the “gals” being moms…this is surprisingly missing from a lot of Disney podcasts (lots of single dudes!!?) and that perspectives is one of the main reasons I listen to you all!