The Commish
Footballguy
Morimoto was way better than I expected. Really liked the specialty drinks and the spare ribs were(only did the 3 rib appetizer)
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Disney Vacation (4 Viewers)
- Thread starter DOVCommish
- Start date
Osaurus
Footballguy
glvsav37
Footballguy
2 good pieces of news:
The college program officially welcomed back their 1st group of students since shutting down in March of last year. This brings an influx of CMs needed to open more of the resort.
Fireworks and Happily Ever After return to the Magic Kingdom on July 1st.
The college program officially welcomed back their 1st group of students since shutting down in March of last year. This brings an influx of CMs needed to open more of the resort.
Fireworks and Happily Ever After return to the Magic Kingdom on July 1st.
ragincajun
Footballguy
I will be in Orlando this week. I will not be at Disney except for staying at the Dolphin for National Beta Convention. Will be going to Seaworld for 1 day and Universal for 2 days. Looking for some restaurant recommendations for a family with two boys 7&9. Thoughts.
ragincajun
Footballguy
Also really bummed Ohana is still closed.
Osaurus
Footballguy
I like Ravenous Pig in Winter Park and Yellow Dog Eats in Windermere. Very different places, but both very good imo.
ragincajun
Footballguy
Gracias Sir
ragincajun
Footballguy
So I know everyone is curious on my food adventure so far.
Arrived in Orlando
Sat night: Dinner:Cracker Barrel.
Sunday: SeaWorld All Day Dining pass. The BBQ at Voyager was decent for amusement park fare, but would stink outside the gates.
Monday: Breakfast was a pop tart. Lunch and Dinner no clue.
I plan on hitting the two restaurants Osaurus recommended for dinner this week.
Arrived in Orlando
Sat night: Dinner:Cracker Barrel.
Sunday: SeaWorld All Day Dining pass. The BBQ at Voyager was decent for amusement park fare, but would stink outside the gates.
Monday: Breakfast was a pop tart. Lunch and Dinner no clue.
I plan on hitting the two restaurants Osaurus recommended for dinner this week.
Capella
Footballguy
ragincajun
Footballguy
Indeed it has been.
glvsav37
Footballguy
strong rumor out of DL Paris saying that they are ending their free fastpass system in August and replacing it with a paid version called "Disney Premier Access." It is the same name as the paid-for FP program in Shanghai DL.
"DPA" will be something that needs to be purchased the day of use. Something to keep an eye on as WDW has yet to say anything about the return of their free FP system.
"DPA" will be something that needs to be purchased the day of use. Something to keep an eye on as WDW has yet to say anything about the return of their free FP system.
Capella
Footballguy
Osaurus
Footballguy
glvsav37
Footballguy
I'm not completely up on any of the international parks, but I did find this write up on the cost of FP at each park. It is pretty recent (April 2021), so i'm assuming the info is current
Basics:
WDW
• Fastpass+: Free, preselect 3 attractions at 1st and then 1 per after
DL
• Fastpass: Free, but like the old paper FP you need to physically visit each attraction to claim the FP
• Maxpass: $15 per day/per person. Similar to reg FP but you can schedule your FPs right from your phone and save time walking between attractions. These are not prescheduled. It is day of selections like the old paper FP system.
DL Paris (right now)
• Fastpass: Free, similar to DL's system
• Super FP: $30/pp/pd Access to 3 attractions w/o prescheduling them. Just walk up and scan your app.
• Ultimate FP: $175/pp/pd Access to 9 attractions
• Certain on site hotel guests also get additional FP depending on where/what level you are staying.
Hong Kong DL
• Fastpass: Free, similar to DL system
• Annual pass holders get additional FPs as a perk
Shanghai DL
• Standby Pass: free for 4 major attractions. However depending on the parks volume, it may or may not be available. Works like DL Max pass as you make the FP's reservations on your phone.
• Premier Access: Varies by the day, from $17 to $123. Gives you 8 attractions in either a "Family" or "Adventure" set. Or you can purchase individual attractions for a set price for each.
Tokyo DL
• Standby pass: Free, Similar to DL Maxpass system
Edit to add:
Universal orlando's system
• Express pass: skip the line at ANY attraction 1x per day. $69/pp for 1 park or $79/pp for 2 parks
• Express pass unlimited: Skip the line on ANY attraction as often as you want. $99/pp for 1 day or $109/pp for both parks.
• Guests staying at one of the 3 top level resorts get EXPass Unlimited as a perk.
(IMO, EXPass Unlimited is freaking awesome and we use it when we visit. We stay on site and get it as a perk, before moving to WDW for the remainder of our trip. We walk around like we own the place and it makes the average theme park experience soooooo much easier.)
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Senor Schmutzig
Footballguy
I don't know much about Disney or Universal so kick me out if this is the wrong place to post....
I'm going to be at Universal in September for a work conference and wanted to bring some clients out for a nice dinner somewhere that would be easy to get to. Are there any options in Universal that you would recommend? If not at Universal directly, somewhere close that we could Uber to? Everything I looked at appeared to be too "chainy" or touristy/kitschy.
I'm going to be at Universal in September for a work conference and wanted to bring some clients out for a nice dinner somewhere that would be easy to get to. Are there any options in Universal that you would recommend? If not at Universal directly, somewhere close that we could Uber to? Everything I looked at appeared to be too "chainy" or touristy/kitschy.
AcerFC
Footballguy
Guests can choose to purchase Disney Premier Access via the Disneyland Paris App, or at select locations inside the parks. They can then use the digital service to book an assigned time slot for some attractions and skip the standby queue. Prices vary from 8€ to 15€ ($9.46 to $17.74) per person per ride, depending on the attraction and day of use.Capella said:
jb1020
Footballguy
I've taken my finger off the Disney pulse for nearly a year now...but my twitter feed suggests people are at a tipping point with all the new charges. I'm scared to even look into pricing a trip now.
Disney pushing the limits to the max this time? Has anything really come out yet, or is this all just rumors still?
Disney pushing the limits to the max this time? Has anything really come out yet, or is this all just rumors still?
Osaurus
Footballguy
AAABatteries
Footballguy
Holy crap. So I pay ~$100 a day for a park ticket and then $10 per ride? So a single day for my family of 6 is going to be about 1k if I want to do FP? I've said it numerous times in this thread but I'm so happy that my kids are older now and we got lucky with most of our trips being paper FPs. I think we've been once in the last 2 years and not sure when we will take the kids again. Honestly, it makes me sad thinking that our family fun at Disney is potentially over. I had thought we would start taking grandkids in ~5 years but I just can't justify the cost. I can do a few vacations a year plus a couple other 3 day weekends for the cost of one Disney trip.
Capella
Footballguy
Just got back from another long holiday weekend there. Had Topolino’s for breakfast again - place is really amazing. Highly recommend it. Otherwise food has really gone down in quality the two times we’ve been now post-covid. A lot of the food has always been rough on property but it has become worse.
Beaches and Cream - like 5 sandwiches on the menu and that’s it. Was meh. Not a bad burger but just boring and no variety. If you’re into giant piles of ice cream I guess check it out but you can get that anywhere.
Via Napoli - routinely our favorite place on property but it sucked this time. First time I’ve had a bad meal there, I was crushed lol. Pizza was over sauced, the dough wasn’t cooked - they need to bring back the real pizza makers from Italy or whatever they were doing. This was a mess.
Trattoria al Forno - god awful. Had high hopes for this one and it was a worse steak than the shoe I had at Kona a few months ago. I order my steaks medium rare and understand I am not at a famous steakhouse so will be pleased with medium. Why is overcooked gray and dry all they can produce? There is nobody at these places who can leave some moisture in a steak?
On the plus side we loved staying at the dolphin. Nice room, loved the boat rides everywhere, lots of stuff for the kid to do, A+. Parks weren’t as packed as one would think too, likely due to the storms I guess. Got to do a lot.
Beaches and Cream - like 5 sandwiches on the menu and that’s it. Was meh. Not a bad burger but just boring and no variety. If you’re into giant piles of ice cream I guess check it out but you can get that anywhere.
Via Napoli - routinely our favorite place on property but it sucked this time. First time I’ve had a bad meal there, I was crushed lol. Pizza was over sauced, the dough wasn’t cooked - they need to bring back the real pizza makers from Italy or whatever they were doing. This was a mess.
Trattoria al Forno - god awful. Had high hopes for this one and it was a worse steak than the shoe I had at Kona a few months ago. I order my steaks medium rare and understand I am not at a famous steakhouse so will be pleased with medium. Why is overcooked gray and dry all they can produce? There is nobody at these places who can leave some moisture in a steak?
On the plus side we loved staying at the dolphin. Nice room, loved the boat rides everywhere, lots of stuff for the kid to do, A+. Parks weren’t as packed as one would think too, likely due to the storms I guess. Got to do a lot.
The Commish
Footballguy
International Drive has hundreds of millions of restaurant options and you'll be right in that area it sounds like. Depending on the food though....all kinds of food options in that area....more than you'd want probably.
Haven't been there but based on reputation from other locations I would expect The Palm at the Hard Rock Hotel to be good quality. We were at Universal a couple of weeks ago but we tend to hit the restaurants at City Walk and I'm not sure any of them qualify as nice dinner spots. Most people there are in park attire so the ambience is probably not what you're looking for to impress clients.
The Commish
Footballguy
How the heck did you get in there? It took me a year to get in, then COVID hit and canceled my reservation. Don't have the time to try it again. All I want to do is take the kids for an "after school celebration" and put ourselves in a sugar coma with that kitchen sink ice cream thing...more as a gag than anything. I didn't even know they had actual food
Capella
Footballguy
My wife works that app religiously lol. The kitchen sink looked gigantic. We got the Minnie sink one - it’s smaller. No doubt the ice cream was good but if you want a real meal I guess maybe eat somewhere else before going there for dessert. I was freaking starving though.How the heck did you get in there? It took me a year to get in, then COVID hit and canceled my reservation. Don't have the time to try it again. All I want to do is take the kids for an "after school celebration" and put ourselves in a sugar coma with that kitchen sink ice cream thing...more as a gag than anything. I didn't even know they had actual food
glvsav37
Footballguy
they just enlarged the overall restaurant by taking over the arcade next door. Yes they have food, but as @Capella said, its not a lot and mostly things like simple diner food--grilled cheese type stuff.How the heck did you get in there? It took me a year to get in, then COVID hit and canceled my reservation. Don't have the time to try it again. All I want to do is take the kids for an "after school celebration" and put ourselves in a sugar coma with that kitchen sink ice cream thing...more as a gag than anything. I didn't even know they had actual food
Capella
Footballguy
They still have the arcade but I believe it’s smaller! I played the hell out of the gigantic floor to ceiling space invaders game while we waited for our table.
wlwiles
Footballguy
I'm in the same boat. Probably lost 80% of my drive to go back anytime soon. We had a trip scheduled for May last year that got auto-cancelled when WDW shut down for COVID, and since then we've briefly mentioned going back, but never to the point of actually going and pricing a trip out. Staying in the bubble when you're there is very "all-inclusive" so that you don't feel nickel and dimed, but with all the new changes and especially with FP+ system up in the air, that feeling is overwhelming the desire to return.
The Commish
Footballguy
I knew the reno was going on....it's still impossible to get a seat....as of Dec anyway. I gave up after that. It's my understanding we can't do the kitchen sink thing unless we have a table so......round and round I go (or went). @Capella would your wife be willing to lend her services to getting me a reservation? I'll pay
AcerFC
Footballguy
We did the kitchen sink. It was a lot of ice cream. I love ice cream and I hate wasting any, but alas, it was too much for us. It was fun. They make a big production of it when they bring it out.I knew the reno was going on....it's still impossible to get a seat....as of Dec anyway. I gave up after that. It's my understanding we can't do the kitchen sink thing unless we have a table so......round and round I go (or went). @Capella would your wife be willing to lend her services to getting me a reservation? I'll pay
the prime rib sandwich is good.
glvsav37
Footballguy
for anyone having issues booking, good news. The last 4 currently closed resorts now have opening dates
• Disney’s All-Star Music Resort opens Sept. 16
• Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – Riverside opens Oct. 14
• Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter opens Oct. 28
• Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort opens Dec. 9
you can begin booking these resorts today.
• Disney’s All-Star Music Resort opens Sept. 16
• Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – Riverside opens Oct. 14
• Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter opens Oct. 28
• Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort opens Dec. 9
you can begin booking these resorts today.
glvsav37
Footballguy
Really looking forward to the Jungle Cruise movie. Opens July 30th. Could it be the next Pirates franchise???
new, short behind the scenes video
new, short behind the scenes video
Capella
Footballguy
Oh we had a lot of fun walking around and ride times were fine, the food just sucks now. That’s a bummer.
Osaurus
Footballguy
That is a bummer. Especially Via Napoli because I had one of the best meals I’ve ever had in the parks there.
Deranged Hermit
Not cool & Pissed
Osaurus
Footballguy
Capella
Footballguy
Definitely our favorite place to go. Been countless times. I’m sure it’ll get better quick.
Deranged Hermit
Not cool & Pissed
My sister in law said the same thing. We like Coronado usually, but I think the wife would rather go to a different place next time.
Deranged Hermit
Not cool & Pissed
This is a bummer. Taking my niece to Disney for the first time this coming September and we've been talking it up.
Deranged Hermit
Not cool & Pissed
Has anyone heard when (or if) they are going to start doing the luau/dinner at the Poly?
Capella
Footballguy
glvsav37
Footballguy
Deranged Hermit
Not cool & Pissed
Just read a few reviews from last night. No way I'm going there for anything but breakfast anytime soon.
Capella
Footballguy
Yea I dunno. Pre-covid their shrimp cooked over the wood fire were fantastic. One of my favorite things on property. The beef and chicken were always over cooked and disgusting. The noodles were just noodles you could get from your local Chinese joint. The wings were ok I guess. Bread pudding was really good. It was really overpriced then unless you just went all-in on shrimp (that’s what I did - I always refused the other meats) but now with the shrimp off the menu there is 0 chance I go back.Osaurus said:
Plus after the whole covid thing and not going out to eat for a year I just can’t put back food like that anymore. We went out to eat the other night and I had a bowl of soup before the meal and I was full. I feel like somebody’s grandpa now.
That one guy
Footballguy
Capital Grille in Pointe Orlando off I-Drive was always our go-to client dinner destination when I was working at a law firm in Orlando. Depending on clients, the rest of Pointe Orlando is a nice walking around space to find bars and shops as well, the Eye or whatever it’s called now is there, a Madame Tussaud’s, aquarium, the big swing I’m pretty certain is walking distance too (I haven’t been to that yet, but I live here and do my best to avoid going unless truly necessary)
Capella
Footballguy
Deranged Hermit
Not cool & Pissed
A lot of it is, but there is some stuff about hotels, parks and whatnot. If you had a specific question though, there's a lot of Disney knowledge here. It's helped me in the past (including renting dvc points for my upcoming trip).Gilroy34 said:
