Review: Disney World - Tony's Town Square

We had dinner with a group of 3 (including one 3 year old).  The food was pretty average to below average.  We had a calamari appetizer and it was chewy and ended up being left mostly untouched by our family. 

Our waitress was very kind and we discussed if the kids Ariel cup was considered a specialty beverage and she said there was discussion last week that it was but if its not she would not charge us.  She confirmed it was not considered a specialty beverage but did not charge us so my daughter was a happy camper.  She also suggested we get our daughter an adult appetizer because my husband and I both wanted a salad bur wanted to try the calamari.  She even reminded us that we could order my daughter an adult meal (since we were on the deluxe dining plan) but she was happy with the kids pizza.

We have been to Tony's a couple time before and really enjoyed our meals. However, this meal was not worth the price at all and I would have been even more disappointed if I had paid out of pocket because the check was one of the most expensive of our trip.  So, I have to agree with the reviews of hit or miss with this place. 

Not a specialty drink

Review: Disney World - Akershus Royal Banquet Hall

There is a check in station near the main walking path toward the lake side.  Its easy to walk past it if you only are looking for the restaurant sign and then you have to head back toward the lake and look for the check in station again.

We had dinner with a group of 6 (including one 3 year old).  The food was good standard breakfast food.  My family is not adventuress enough to try the lunch or dinner options so we stick to breakfast here.  Its a good mix of buffet and family style where you can go immediately to the buffet and they bring your table the warm options of eggs, potatoes, bacon and sausage.

Our waitress was good just as you would expect.

The characters were good and spent plenty of time with us. They have a princess parade which my toddler enjoyed but it was a little odd because she was big enough to want to participate but not big enough to go on her own.

Overall this is a good use of a Disney dining credit and a good option if you cant get an ADR (Advance Dining Reservation) at Cinderella's castle. 

3 Adults and 1 Child

Review: Tucker Boulder Park

Tucker Boulder Park, Appalachian Highway, Davis, WV, 26260
GPS: 39.132675, -79.473774
Website

Visit Day and Time: April 6, 2018
Temperature at visit: 50-65 degrees (mild but warm enough to enjoy it)
Crowd level: None

Pros

• Very unique park 
• New park
• Nice seating
• Multiple levels of climbing from little kids to adults 

Cons

• If you have a hard time letting your kids climb and fall it might be a stressful park for you
• If your child climbs up and panics might be hard to get them back down

Trash Info

• No trash around
• Trash Cans available 

Shade Info

• There are a few trees around so probably some shade for the benches but the climbing rock are out in the full sun.

Adult Seating

• Several nice metal benches available 
• Bleachers are near by at the baseball feild

Swings

• None

Slides

• None

Access

• Handicap Parking very close 
• Pathways are only gravel and might be harder to navigate

Misc

• There is a donation box onsite to collect funds for Rock #3 so be sure to take some cash with you if you get to enjoy this park or better yet donate online via their website.

Broken equipment

• None

Rock #1 basic climber

Rock #2 Complex Climber

Climbing Park 2 Rocks with room for one more

Benches and Trash

Parking is pretty close

Review: Grand Vue Park Playground

GPS: 39.940031, -80.729304

Website

Visit Day and Time: Thursday 5/10/2018
Temperature at visit: Hot
Crowd level: Low

Pros

• New play structure 
• Lots of variety in the activities 
• Music based play spaces

  

  They had these drums and an electric piano activity.

Cons

• All of the the play structures are out in the sun, so my toddler complained the slides were hot.
• The road getting to the park is narrow in some spots and is generally very out of the way.

Trash Info

• There were several cans along 

Shade Info

• There is a covered picnic structure but otherwise not much shade for the play structures. 

Adult Seating

• There are several benches around the play area.
• There is a covered picnic area with multiple tables at the front of the park.

Sheltered area with picnic tables

Swings

• There are several swings including a couple accessible swings.

Unique swing

Slides

• There were six open air slides.

  

   Slides in the younger children section

  

   Slides in the younger children section

  
  
  
  

  

   Slides in the younger children section

Access

• Accessible swings available.
• There is a sidewalk all the way around the play structure.

Misc

• Restrooms were onsite at the entry to the play structure.
• There is also a pool very close to the play ground.  Check it out here.

Broken equipment

• None

Climbing structure in the older children's area

Climbing structure in they younger children's area

Lots of parking

As you enter from the parking lot there is a building with restrooms to the left

Review: Idlewild

GPS: 40.262589, -79.276311
Address: Idlewild & SoakZone, 2574 U.S. 30, Ligonier, PA 15658
Facebook
Website

Meet and Greet with Daniel Tiger

Pros

• Little kids can join parents on most rides
• Lots of spaces for preschool age kids
• Plenty of active play areas
• Seem to be play spaces with limited entrance and exits to make it easier to keep track of your kids
• Variety of food onsite
• Refillable drink cup options
• Crowds seem manageable (when we have been there especially on the extra bring a buddy days)

Cons

• Park is pretty old and some areas really show their age
• Sometimes their staff is limited causing rides or booths to be closed (especially when the local schools go back in late august)  
• Food onsite is pretty pricey (combat this by bringing your own or getting the season meal pass)

Cleanliness

• Its pretty clean but older so some areas seem dingy even though there is not trash littered around

Adult Info

• The younger your kids are the more they will enjoy themselves
• If your older kids like water parks they will probably be happy as well 

Access

• There are gravel paths and some steeper inclines in areas so be area when we have our stroller they suggest going in via the parking area immediately to the left after the gates.
• Some of the restrooms are smaller (due to their age) and you might need to be aware of that.
• Wave pool is a zero entry pool as far as I could tell from passing by it.
• They do have wheelchair rentals available. 

Restrooms

• There are plenty of restrooms around but some are older so they are little and kind of dingy (but they free of trash)

Misc

• We enjoy this park with our toddler.  I like using the bring a buddy days to drag along friends and relatives that are not sure the park is worth it.  
• We had passes several years ago with our older daughter one year.
• We have had passes for 2017 and 2018 with our toddler.  
• I purchased one of the 2018 All Season Dining Pass on Black Friday for $69.99 I will try and report back on the value of this as the season goes on.  Comment below if you have any questions.
• There is a Chick-Fil-A about 30 minutes before you get to the park (coming from the west) and we would get sandwiches and put them in a cooler and have after we spend a couple hours in the park.  
• We tend to get to park at opening and stay until 3-5pm so we can make it a day trip (we drive about an hour and 40 minutes to get there)

Pricing

• At the gate price is $44.99 - DON'T pay that you can get it as low as $29.99 for just ordering online before you go or a 4 pack starting at $114
• Season passes start for just $59.99 (This is a great option if you are planning on going a couple times during the summer)
• If you plan to go during the week you can get the platinum or gold pass and use the buddy passes for someone in your family.  (Example family of 4 could get 2 gold passes for $74.99 each and take 2 trips (Monday - Friday) and end up paying $18.75 each for the two trips.  If you can squeeze a trip on the extra bring a buddy days you can keep bringing that price down.
• You can always pay the price difference to the next level of pass and get more buddy passes.  NOTE:  I bought a pass on Black Friday and upgraded it and they only charged me the current difference from the price of my current pass to the one I upgraded.  So don't worry if you get a great Black Friday deal you don't lose any of that discount.
• Towards the end of the season they will offer discounts to purchase a season pass for the following year and you get the rest of the current year.  I actually renewed my summer only pass at the end of august to the gold level season pass for next year and got buddy passes for the current year and next year.
• In 2017 my summer only pass was also given access to the fall leaf weekend for no additional charge (September weekend but not the Hallowboo weekends.) So make sure you follow them on Facebook and check to see if any additional bonuses have been added to your passes.
• Tickets and Passes

Review: Disney World - The Garden Grill Review

First off this was the best character meal we had during our last visit.

We had dinner with a group of 6 (including one 3 year old).  The food was great, basically all of it.  More specifically the meats were great even the french fries were amazing.  The broccoli was great too.  The mac and cheese was extremely cheesy.  Honestly all the food was good standard home cooked food.

Our waiter was amazing had been working at Disney for something like 26 years.  My family is a bunch of jokers so we had some great moments of banter.  He was funny and very attentive we never had to worry about our drinks going empty.  Additionally he confirmed that Garden Grill is one of the few places on property that brews their own sweet tea.  That's huge plus for my husband as he drinks a ton of tea and was bummed by the gold peak tea everywhere else.  So as a part of our waiter's joking my husband ended up with multiple glasses of tea at a time which was great because he drank the majority of them or filled up our portable travel bottle when we left.

The characters were great and spent plenty of time with us and even a couple even made it around more than just once.  Which was great because we were not waiting on that last character when we really wanted to be on our way.

This was the first time we ate here but definitely will not be the last.  We already plan to stop there on our next trip.

3 Adults and 1 Child