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december 3-11 trip report

Posted: December 13th, 2013, 6:32 am
by kbingel
:D Well....it was all good..... First off, I did fax my request in and got exactly what I asked for. We arrived around 2:00, after using magical express. Yes, we were the last stop but oh well....someone has to be. We didn't have to wait. Our room was ready. We asked for a top floor corner room in Oak Manor with a front view. Loved our room. as for the beds, we both felt they were very comfortable. Why people complain, I do not know. We were so tired each evening, we would have slept on rocks....but found them very satisfactory. As I said previously, the white doesn't bother me as I prefer a clean bed to a pretty one. And with the bed scarf, I thought it looked fine. If you are a coffee drinker, make sure to get some good water at the counter and use that, It makes all the difference in the world. The water from the tap really is nasty. :!:

We didn't spent much time at the big pool because of the the noise. Some would call it music, ha ha....but the quiet pool was nice, and quiet when they were not working there with their power machines. I wonder why they do not have hot tubs at the quiet pools. The one at the big pool was so small.....for that many rooms???? That is probably my only complaint of the place.

I really did love coming home to Riverside. I found it so peaceful after a hectic day at the parks. I also thought it was as nice as some of the deluxe places as well. I only ate breakfast once there. It was ok. I didn't like the theme of the bootwirghts and with so many wonderful places to eat, it wasn't high on my list.

We did have the free Dining plan. Not sure it was a great value. IE, a room discount may have been more useful than the free plan as we could not eat that much! I never thought I would say that! ha....but seriously, I wanted snacks but couldn't find room or time for them. As it was, we had 10 snack credits left so went to DTD to the goofy store and spent them there. They have some fun things to get there for your snacks. We even used one of our leftover counter service for 3 snacks at the dining hall.

We made ADRs and most were good. Standouts were: Narcosse, Sanna, La Hacienda de ?, where we watched the Epcot fireworks from our table. We also like Be our Guest. We had to ask them to put us in the dining room however as originally they put us in the side room. What is the fun in that? I could have been in a restaurant anywhere. The worst one was the sit down restaurant in Morrocco.....the food was pretty bad and I love moroccan food. I think their counter service is way better.

the buses were hard to figure out. We mostly took the south depot ones since we usually stopped by there or one reason or another. I liked to take water to the parks with me so I got ice water there every day and then liked to get water for the room as well on the way back. We did use the East stop twice. It was about the same distance so only when it came there first, before south and we didn't need anything. So getting a room closer the South worked for us as that is where we had to go anyways. As to where they would stop first, or go all around or straight to the park, never saw any rime or reason.... gave it up. We had to stand a few times, but mostly not. After Epcot one night, we had a long wait....even though we tried to stay in the park and hang around till everyone was gone. Oh well, not bad odds, all in all.

As for me, 8 days was too much. I did burn out on crowds. I think 5 or 6 days would have been enough, and then some chill time at a beach. ha ha....but I would stay at Riverside any time I went back as It is a great place. Enjoy your vacation there and you get what you put in so be kind and spread it around....