[jo-jo]

Originally Posted by Soundgod

I saw 18% tip added to our bill at Jiko only. At Flying Fish, the tip was left up to me for the OOP portion. At Jiko, it was explained that if part of the party is dining plan, they automatically add the tip to non plan guests.
For people who are worrying about Boma, I'm wondering if it's because of the big build up, or if it's part of a seeming trend that has all of the buffets' dinners tasting less than spectacular as they dumb down and streamline restaurants' offerings. Could they have swapped executive chefs? Or maybe some of the offerings are too off the path for mainstream tastes?
You won't know for yourself until you've dined there yourself.

As far as tipping, I thought it was odd that we had the exact same party set up at Ohana and CP, but only Ohana added the tip.

As far as Boma, It's my DD's new favorite. My DH seems to be switching from CP to Boma. I just wasn't that crazy about some of the foods. DH thought a soup , clams or something, was great, I thought it was yuck. When asked about which three places he would go back to, DH answer (1) Ohana (2) Boma (3) still a toss up. (notice le cellier isn't in the list)

[jo-jo]

rooms

We stayed at POP for a few days. Our room was at the 60's building on the side away from the pool. About 4 rooms from the corner closest to the food court. We needed to pass 4 rooms, walk under the stair and pass the front of the pool to get to the food court. I'd say about 2 min walk. Closest room we ever had. We really like POP. The food court is good as long as you hit off hours. I like the buses lines, no last min line jumpers. I like the baby pool and pop jets set ups. I like the lake area to walk around. The room is a place to sleep, nothing fancy but good enough.


Then we moved to BCV. We were sort of lost, having never been, but all the CM were very nice. Everytime and I mean everytime we walked in or out, someone said hello or enjoy your day or something like that. When we went to check in, we gave the CM our info and she directed us to a room next door to relax. It had lemon water and large baskets of apples. So a few min later, she comes in and we sit on the sofa and she explains this and that paper. I just felt so special. Now maybe it's because I'm used to values, but when we got to our 2 bdr, I just ran around going WOW. I've seen the pictures, but there was just soooo much space. In the master bedroom, there is a king size bed you need a bus to get to the other side. A chair, a real chair, not a kitchen type chair, a living room type chair. My DH loved that chair. Every morning he sat there with his coffee watching CNBC. Of course the tv in the living room had mickey cartoons on. The bathroom complex is bigger than my kitchen. First of all there are about 12 doors, you could get lost. Well really, there are three or four doors. The giant tub that even I could fit in, separate shower stall, two sinks in separate areas and about 4 different towel racks. The living room area had a sofa, a chair, a chest/coffee table,endtable and of course the tv with dvd/vcr combo. Soundgod is right about the lack of stations. I had brought along a few dvds for my DGD in case Mickeymouse clubhouse wasn't on at the right time. And I was pretty sure, we wouldn't see any Dora or sesame street, so I had everything covered. The kitchen area had bench type sitting for two or three with a table. The was also some sitting at a bar type thing but you would be staring at a divider, so that was sort of dumb. The kitchen it self had a small full size fridge, stove, dishwasher, microwave, coffee maker, and toaster. The toaster and coffee maker got used the most. It was nice having a fridge for keeping any left overs. The other bedroom (studio part) has the standard bathroom, queen size bed, sleep sofa and a small table with 2 chairs. It also had small fridge (bigger than the dorm ones, you get at the resorts), microwave, toaster and coffee maker. My understanding is this what a "lockout" 2 br is. Not having a "lockout" , the "kitchen" area would be a closet and the room would have 2 beds, not a sleep sofa. I thought have the kitchen area would be good for having a toddler and midnight snacks. So having a conecting door between our rooms, Alex just loved being able to run next door to grandma's. So often mornings would be Mommy and Daddy would be getting a few more ZZZZ, grandpa is watching CNBC with coffee in the master bedroom, and Alex and I are either watching cartoons or out on the balcony eating a oatmeal bar with our sippycup talking about birdies and buses that went by. And don't forget the biggest thrill......a washer and dryer.....sure came in handy with a toddler. We only did two loads, but Becky did about 5 or 6. My DH enjoyed the quiet pool a few times. There must have been 6 other people there. My DD went to stormalong bay a few times, but mostly for alex to play in the sand area. Our room was about a 5-10 min walk to Epcot. I just loved being able to watch the fireworks from the bridge by england and be home by 9:30. From our room ,which was on the third floor, we could see some of the high fireworks. Some trees were in the way, I'm sure the folks on the fifth floor could see so much more. And even though we had a large layout of cash to join DVC, our six nights at BCV cost us 219 points or about $1100 in point value. That's cheaper than what Becky paid her room at Poly even with her 40 % discount rate. I guess you could say I was happy with the room. Now to take off the rose colored glasses, I did notice some wear and tear, but nothing that took away from my enjoyment.

[jo-jo]

weather and other stuff

Hot and rainy. A few days we had lots of on and off heavy showers. Most days it was just one or two quick passing showers. On Oct 1, lots of people were at Epcot for the special fireworks. It had rained a little earlier, but about 8:30 nothing was coming down. All of a sudden it was like someone turn on a fire hose. In a matter of moments, rain was coming down in buckets. People started running for cover. So out comes our pouchos and we wait. About 8:55 the rain stops. Great timing. I start talking to some guy who came over from work just to see the fireworks. So at that point we realize they didn't do the "in 15 min ......due to lower lighting levels...." you know the drill. At 9:02 the still nothing. At 9:03, the PA system comes on...."due to the inclement weather...(you could almost feel the groan coming from the people)....illumanations will be delayed a few mins" So I guess about 9:05 they started. First the standard stuff and then about 6 min of just solid fireworks.

One day the fountain at Epcot wasn't working right. Just bubbling a bit, but no dancing. (can't wait till my birthday trip. I love watching the fountain dancing in time to Christmas carols)

Photopass - We tried the prepaid photopass cd thing. My DD got over a 100 pictures of she and her family. The other 100 or so are of the rest of the crew in different size groups. The are some pictures I am disappointed in. We had a tough time getting everybody together for group pictures. And in a few pictures the photographer had us hold our hands like TA DA. Well in the photo, people faces are covered by the hands of the person next to them. Out of 200 odd pictures, we probably only have 10 group pictures and some of them are like those above. I had really wished to have had more group pictures, but it seemed so hard to get people together. Plus it seemed before there were photographers every two feet in the parks, now we had trouble finding them except for main steet at MK.

Rude people - Happily only had two small incidents. Once on an almost empty bus, someone thought we (all 6 of us) would enjoy hearing their radio. And (2) standing in line at POP's food court. The section was almost ready to open and a women and 2 kids were standing at the opening of the ropes discussing what to have for breakfast. So the shop opens and this other man says excuse me to get by her and then she said "oh I was here first". Ok. So we follow her thru the ropes and she gets up to the counter and then continues with "do you want eggs or oatmeals or you can get....." I know I knew what I wanted and the man seemed to be ready to jump in, if she didn't know what she wanted, why did she need to be first?

[mickeysgirlz]

Good report . . . very informative!! Like the food reviews! Thanks for sharing!

[llama]

Wow - lots of details - thanks for giving us all the great food reviews and resort details. I know what you mean about the "doors" in the DVC properties - I get lost in them on a daily basis.