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Disney Vacation (3 Viewers)
- Thread starter DOVCommish
- Start date
parasaurolophus
Footballguy
kind of a last minute trip add for us and we have never gone in the summer. June 27th-30th. Just a short weekend trip. According to crowd calendars that should be an ok time frame. Much higher than we are used to, but considering we crush the parks early, I think we can manage.
Quez
Footballguy
I'm headed back this weekend. We are going to check out Hollywood Studio's. I don't think I have been there since the Tower of Terror opened. Staying at the Wyndham by downtown Disney. They have a decent pool for a non-Disney hotel. Looks like the weather will be good.
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Bruce Dickinson
Footballguy
Good to hear. Wife and daughter aren't into classic rock enough to go Hard Rock, and the Portofino didn't seem to be worth the premium price. I'll enjoy being able to walk to the park, especially if the water taxis aren't running.Gotta say as great as WDW is and has been for us, I'm pretty fired up about the Universal leg of the trip. The Harry Potter expansion into Studios should be complete, as well as the Hogwarts Express connecting the HP sections between the parks. The Despicable Me Minions ride will also be new to us, and IIRC there's a newish Transformers ride that's supposed to be pretty good.
belljr
Footballguy
Yeah the train looked almost done. Transformers is cool but my problem is all those rides become the same. 3d world in a car. Still cool.
No need for the water taxi...you really are walking backwards to get there. The path comes up right at margaritaville.
Pro tip. Take advantage of the army hour for Harry potter.
get there 730ish. They open the gates around 750
Daughter loved the minion ride. Express was well worth it
No need for the water taxi...you really are walking backwards to get there. The path comes up right at margaritaville.
Pro tip. Take advantage of the army hour for Harry potter.
get there 730ish. They open the gates around 750
Daughter loved the minion ride. Express was well worth it
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Bruce Dickinson
Footballguy
All noted. We're the types who like to be there when the rope drops in the morning, so good to know that behavior is rewarded for HP. The funny thing is, the last time we went, we were so enamored with the amazing world-building HP and Suess, plus the Marvel rides, we didn't even see the back half of IOA.During TOAL I, we did Xmas Eve morning at IOA. We had already hit HP and Seuss hard earlier in the trip. The rope drops, and 99% of the people at the opening went charging right to be first into HP and Seuss. We go left, and there's no line for Hulk, Spidey, or Dr. Doom. None. My daughter and I rode Hulk multiple times with no wait. The operator for Dr. Doom didn't even make us unbuckle to ride again. I have no recollection of what the Spidey queue looks like because we didn't have to stop once from the entry to the loading zone.
ETA: Awesome avatar. Baseball Stars >> RBI Baseball.
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NIU Kicker
Footballguy
Tie.
All the moderates are the same. Big properties spread out. I rate all of them the same. The question isn't what moderate to stay at as it is to make sure you get a prefered room close to the pool/store/bus stop.
Bruce Dickinson
Footballguy
It's going to be "only" 70-75 degrees F in early December, maybe 80 if you're lucky. That's a welcome respite from December temps in most of the country, but it's still on the cool side for a water park. There also won't be a ton of sunlight, either: sunrise a little after 7:00, sunset at about 5:30.
Bruce Dickinson
Footballguy
Great post. I've realized my crush on Fellow moderate Port Orleans Riverside was largely based on how close I could park my car to our room door.
(I ended up breaking the tie by putting off an unrelated purchase until next year and booking Wilderness Lodge plus free Dining Plan.)
parasaurolophus
Footballguy
Booked fastpass + for the new mine train ride. Excited to see it.
Mr. Ected
Footballguy
Anyone ever heard of, or use Tables in Wonderland? It seems to get you a 20% discount at WDW restaurants. My guess is it is like the Entertainment card.
Evilgrin 72
Distributor of Pain
December is a crap shoot. Sometimes it's 65 by day, sometimes 85. The temp won't be quite as important as the wind. The water is heated at these parks so if it's 75 degrees out and the air is still and the sun is shining, it will be good water park weather. If it's 75 and windy, you'll be cold out of the water when you're wet.
Mr. Ected
Footballguy
Quez
Footballguy
Went to AK today to kill the last day on a 3 day pass I had to use before June 1. Wasn't really a big fan of the place with a toddler. It seems like there are a ton of little shops and stuff, but not very much to do. The gorillas were very cool to see. Much better vantage point compared to Busch Gardens, where they always seem to be sleeping in a corner where you can barely see them. The one thing we wanted to do, the safari, had FP booked up until 3:00-4:00. We got there at about 9:00am, so they must of got booked by the FP+ people online. The dinosaur area was good for a small kid, but it reminded me of a non-disney theme park. It looks like they just put a bunch of stuff on a parking lot. There are actually parking spot lines on the blacktop by the dumbo like dinosaur ride. Not sure what that is about.
MK was cool. Hadn't been on Pirates since they re-branded with the movie. The Johnny Depp animatronic looked amazingly real.
There was also a massive bladder holding back the moat that goes around the middle of the park by the Tommorowland cafe. I wonder what they are going to do there? Maybe the thing was leaking and they are fixing it or something.
MK was cool. Hadn't been on Pirates since they re-branded with the movie. The Johnny Depp animatronic looked amazingly real.
There was also a massive bladder holding back the moat that goes around the middle of the park by the Tommorowland cafe. I wonder what they are going to do there? Maybe the thing was leaking and they are fixing it or something.
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avoiding injuries
Footballguy
About the parking lot, I thought they were going for a carnival theme or state fair with the parking lot feel. It was kind of weird.
avoiding injuries
Footballguy
We had fast pass for the rapids ride at AK, but the wait was almost 2 hrs on a Sunday at 11am when we went. The ride was about a minute long. I couldn't believe it. Very disappointing.
glvsav37
Footballguy
on the MK moat....they are expanding "The hub" which is the circular area around the in front of the castle. Unfortunately is is a mad house during fireworks and parades during peak time and this expansion will dramatically help crowd flow.
overview here
As for Dinoland...there is a very elaborate backstory there, but your not the first, last or anywhere in-between to miss it.
Chester and Hester were 2 locals who owned a gas station in "Diggs County" FL, a little nothing town. However, dino bones were discovered there and soon became a hot bed of Dino and archaeological activity—so much that a Dino institute was created there. Same for the Bone Yard dig site playground area.
Chester and Hester wanted to capitalize on the pop in tourism and converted their gas station to a gift shop. The institute grew and created time travel, selling trips to tourists which grew the amount of visitor. C & H wanted to capitalize on the growth and opened a carnival and midway on the parking lot of the gas station called Dino-Rama (hence the lines, missmatched pavement and cheesey 50's ere billboards).
Thats the basic story line, if you spend time looking at all the details, you can see lots of evidence of the backstory or theming
• The oil cans in the gas station are "Sinclaiir Oil" — Sinclair Oil Corporation sponsored a dinosaur pavilion at the worlds fairs in 1933 and 64
• The clothing hanging in the loft of lodge is b/c years ago researchers would sleep up there and hang their laundry to dry in the rafters
• Being they were not a service station any more, they used old tires for planters and other decorative items.
• Same for the bush letters outside Dino-rama which are formed from old license plates.
• Also license plates are painted over for other signs like "Exit" and "Enter" signs.
• The operating parts of Primevial whirl are actually old hub caps and other re-used car parts.
Is it still a bit chesey...yes, but it proves you can put a story over anything.
•
Billy Bats
Footballguy
You sure it wasn't really him?! Its been said he actually likes to hang out in the ride in full costume occasionally. There are 3 Jack Sparrows, if there were four Jacks in the ride then one was actually him.
avoiding injuries
Footballguy
After going to Disney for my first time the other week I thought I'd share my thoughts in case it could help someone else.
We went for 7 nights, stayed in Port Orleans Riverside and had 7 day park passes.
The transportation from airport to resort was great. The bus system to the parks was good too. It was about 20 minutes gate to gate with another 10-15 minute wait for the buses to arrive. A little crowded at peak hours but nothing too bad.
The Riverside resort was great. The main pool was a little crowded, but there were other smaller pools near the rooms that were almost always pretty empty.
We did not do the meal plan. My magic band bill at the end of the week came to about $800 for meals, snacks, ice cream and a few souvenirs for 3 people. We had nice dinners every night including character (princess) meals so it wasn't like we were pinching. The meal plan would have been $950 and I am glad we decided against it. The food court at the resort had pretty good food and not overly expensive ($10 per meal). Every other restaurant we went to the food was well below expectations. I actually wish there was something in the first post of this thread with people's recommendations because I was searching for a good meal, unsuccessfully.
Riverside also had a ferry going to downtown Disney that we used two nights and was pretty cool.
The parks seemed to be pretty empty from when it opened at 9 until about 11 with little to no lines. We would get there early, ride as much as we wanted and then schedule our FP's between 11-2. By 2 we had done what we wanted so we would head back to resort to swim, shower and them come back to park for dinner and more rides. We didn't do the hopper and I don't regret it.
In 7 days, we did MK 3 days, AP 1, Hollywood 1 and Epcot 1. On the last day we told my daughter to pick her favorite park so we ended up back at MK. I don't think AP is more than a 1 day park. Hollywood and Epcot could have been 2, but 1 was plenty.
The service from everyone there was second to none. Very well done. The whole trip cost $750 for 3 flights, $2400 for the resort and park tickets and then $800 spending money. I thought that was pretty reasonable and now that I know what to expect, I could probably have booked it myself for a little cheaper.
I'd like to go back soon, but on the last couple of days, we found ourselves doing things we had already done. I must have ridden Splash mountain and Thunder Mountain 15 times each. I may need a year or two.
We went for 7 nights, stayed in Port Orleans Riverside and had 7 day park passes.
The transportation from airport to resort was great. The bus system to the parks was good too. It was about 20 minutes gate to gate with another 10-15 minute wait for the buses to arrive. A little crowded at peak hours but nothing too bad.
The Riverside resort was great. The main pool was a little crowded, but there were other smaller pools near the rooms that were almost always pretty empty.
We did not do the meal plan. My magic band bill at the end of the week came to about $800 for meals, snacks, ice cream and a few souvenirs for 3 people. We had nice dinners every night including character (princess) meals so it wasn't like we were pinching. The meal plan would have been $950 and I am glad we decided against it. The food court at the resort had pretty good food and not overly expensive ($10 per meal). Every other restaurant we went to the food was well below expectations. I actually wish there was something in the first post of this thread with people's recommendations because I was searching for a good meal, unsuccessfully.
Riverside also had a ferry going to downtown Disney that we used two nights and was pretty cool.
The parks seemed to be pretty empty from when it opened at 9 until about 11 with little to no lines. We would get there early, ride as much as we wanted and then schedule our FP's between 11-2. By 2 we had done what we wanted so we would head back to resort to swim, shower and them come back to park for dinner and more rides. We didn't do the hopper and I don't regret it.
In 7 days, we did MK 3 days, AP 1, Hollywood 1 and Epcot 1. On the last day we told my daughter to pick her favorite park so we ended up back at MK. I don't think AP is more than a 1 day park. Hollywood and Epcot could have been 2, but 1 was plenty.
The service from everyone there was second to none. Very well done. The whole trip cost $750 for 3 flights, $2400 for the resort and park tickets and then $800 spending money. I thought that was pretty reasonable and now that I know what to expect, I could probably have booked it myself for a little cheaper.
I'd like to go back soon, but on the last couple of days, we found ourselves doing things we had already done. I must have ridden Splash mountain and Thunder Mountain 15 times each. I may need a year or two.
Quez
Footballguy
I could see how you all would get burnt out being at Disney for 7 days. I would recommend renting a car and venturing to other places in & near Orlando if you are going to be there that long. Universal, Lego Land, and Busch Gardens are all within an 1:30 drive. You could also hit up a beach.
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rodg12
Footballguy
Been to Disney 8 times before, heading back this June. We always stay off-site and sometimes buy our tickets ahead of time. We're also always there when the rope drops whenever we go to the parks. SOP is...go to our favorite ride at each park, get a FP, then ride 2-3 times right away. Talk to me about this FP+ stuff...should we register our tickets and use it? Does it change the times at the normal FP kiosks first thing in the morning so that the first times there are later?
glvsav37
Footballguy
You are an offsite guest and do rope drop?
If you are inside 30days and have your tix linked to the web site (mydisneyexperience.com) the. You can start picking 3 FP+'S per day.
The general advice is pick them starting at 10:30ish. Do rope drop, and you can get a lot of attractions out of the way before the crowds build. Then use your FPs and after you use #3, you can get another at the kiosk, then another. You can park hop after #3 as well
If you are at MK, don't get spooked by the crowd at rope drop....99% of them are running to Anna & Elsa.
If you are inside 30days and have your tix linked to the web site (mydisneyexperience.com) the. You can start picking 3 FP+'S per day.
The general advice is pick them starting at 10:30ish. Do rope drop, and you can get a lot of attractions out of the way before the crowds build. Then use your FPs and after you use #3, you can get another at the kiosk, then another. You can park hop after #3 as well
If you are at MK, don't get spooked by the crowd at rope drop....99% of them are running to Anna & Elsa.
avoiding injuries
Footballguy
I ran to Anna and Elsa one day at rope drop. 300 minute wait.
rodg12
Footballguy
Yep, always there for the rope drop because of the bolded. Just drive in and park.
Thanks for the info on the FP+. Will definitely have to get the tickets and get them linked soon. Think our first day is June 21st. We usually go last week July/first week of August, but going a little earlier this year. How do the FP+ work? Do I print off a FP ticket or is it just linked to my park ticket?
NIU Kicker
Footballguy
Disco Stu
Confirmed FBGal
That's at Epcot though, right? They are now at MK's Princess Fairytale Hall, which is a FP+ option.
Edit: Nevermind, I guess the crazy line transfered along with them. Can't believe people are spending their first four hours doing this.
I guess it's good for everyone else though.
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STEADYMOBBIN 22
Footballguy
Whats an FP?
(First time family here)
(First time family here)
Premier
Footballguy
Holy ####That's at Epcot though, right? They are now at MK's Princess Fairytale Hall, which is a FP+ option.
Edit: Nevermind, I guess the crazy line transfered along with them. Can't believe people are spending their first four hours doing this.
I guess it's good for everyone else though.
glvsav37
Footballguy
Steady: A FP+ is a "Reservation" for an attraction. You get a 1 hour window where you can go back to the attraction and go through a separate line that lasts only 0 > 15 or so min. They use to be a paper ticket you would pull outside each ride, and you could only get them day of, and hold 1 at a time. However, they revamped the system this year and now you can make 3 of them per day from home 60 days (for on site guests, 30 for off site) before you get there.
So for example, you are going to MK on your 1st day, you can reserve Big Thunder at 11am, splash mountain at 12:15 and then a meet and greet with mickey at 2. All from a special web site from home.
Once you are there, after you use your 3rd FP+, there are kiosks around the park where you can sched another FP+, and so on and so on.
Steady and Rodg: The reservation is linked to your Magic band. MB's are wrist bands that have RFID Chips in them that work as your park ticket, room key, tap-to-pay and FP+s. There is an app called "MyDisneyExperience" (web site too) that lets you track and manage all your FP+s.
If you are an on site guest, you get the magic band for free with your room reservation. Off site? I don't think they get one, you'll get a plastic card with the RFID chip that acts the same way. You can buy a MB for $20 or so at the gist shops and they will link the card with the band.
Rodg: I'd call Disney and ask how the reserving process works for off-site guests w/o tickets yet. We are annual passholders, and stay on site so we are always 'linked'
We just did all out FP+s for our July trip the other day. Its fairly easy and moving them around was no big deal. My only problem with it is, as a family with young kids, who tier easy and melt down hard, we really never know where or when we re going to be somewhere, let alone 60 days a head of time.
glvsav37
Footballguy
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Disco Stu
Confirmed FBGal
For offsite guests... buy your tickets in advance. When they come in the mail you can link them to your mydisneyexperience account.
The app is really nice for being able to change things on the fly. I had FP+ for Haunted Mansion, but it had just a 20 minute wait posted while Jungle Cruise was showing 40. So I switched the reservation to Jungle Cruise and did Haunted Mansion on standby.
Just don't expect that to work for the most popular attractions (Toy Story Mania, Soarin, Test Track, maybe the new Mine Train) as those reservations will fill up. You basically need to plan your day around those and meal reservations and be flexible with everything else.
Disco Stu
Confirmed FBGal
Alice is one of the characters they put out there early in the morning to disperse the crowd a bit. You're planning to beat the rush to Peter Pan's Flight, but "oh, look Alice!".
Disco Stu
Confirmed FBGal
Since you have annual passes, consider going later in the day. That park clears out after the parade. My son and I rode Everest three times in the last twenty or thirty minutes before closing.
Disco Stu
Confirmed FBGal
Yeah, it changed in the past month or so. The extra ones can only be acquired at the kiosks though. So you might be trading one line for another.
The Commish
Footballguy
(HULK)
(Smash)
JFT Ben
Footballguy
Just got back, won't be back. We spent two days at Disney, and using Park Hopper hit all four parks. We hit openings on both days, and crowds really didn't get too bad until the mid part of the day. Enjoyed Epcot, Hollywood Studios (Star Wars weekend on a Friday, bounced about 10:30 to 11 when it started to get busy), and Animal Kingdom (hit it about 3 pm one day when people were starting to leave, went off the beaten path and the kids liked the Wilderness Explorer thing). Hated Magic Kingdom (the worst - not designed for that many people and a kazillion strollers). I thought my wife was going to lose it there. We saw nearly everything we cared to see at the parks. Favorite rides were the Test Track and Mission Space at Epcot, Tower of Terror at HS and the safari ride at AK. The FP+ system worked great. We ordered tickets a couple weeks out, loaded the FastPass rides on them before we left and it worked brilliantly.
We stayed off-site in a gated community about 10-15 minutes from the park, $100/night all in for a 3-BR townhouse, including private hot tub and a resort pool and bar. Rented a car <$200 for six days all in, granted us great flexibility. We went to Cocoa Beach one day and met up with some friends for dinner one night. The kids (6, 8) had fun which is really what we were going for here, so for that it was a success. But not really our style. Now back at work, exhausted.
We stayed off-site in a gated community about 10-15 minutes from the park, $100/night all in for a 3-BR townhouse, including private hot tub and a resort pool and bar. Rented a car <$200 for six days all in, granted us great flexibility. We went to Cocoa Beach one day and met up with some friends for dinner one night. The kids (6, 8) had fun which is really what we were going for here, so for that it was a success. But not really our style. Now back at work, exhausted.
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Disco Stu
Confirmed FBGal
Well, that would certainly make it easier. But they might not necessarily want to make it that easy. There's a FP+ overuse tipping point somewhere. At some attractions, some would argue they already passed that point. Attractions like Haunted Mansion, Pirates, and Spaceship Earth have much longer standby lines than they did prior to FP+.
This feels like a concession made to the people who really loved pulling as many FP tickets as possible. The limit of three felt like a huge restriction to that minority. So they lifted that limit but made it kind of a hassle.
Yankee23Fan
Fair Tax!
Part of the FP system though is park flow and data mining. They can almost literally push the crowds in the park a certain way based on how the system is set up and I'm sure they are. Between the early reservation system and the DVC system they have a ton of information on just about every guest and moreso on people like me. I would not be shocked if Disney knew more about me than the government did.
Couple that now with Fastpass. Now Disney knows my demographic information, famiy size, ages etc... they know for the most part my vacation schedule as we go pretty much the same times every year. They know where we eat more often than not - espcially if you link your card to your room key and or band - and now they know the rides we covet enough to make sure we reserve them. I use this new system 2 or 3 times and an absolute pattern emerges.
5 years from now they will know down to an unmistakeable error factor how most of their guests operate - rides, in order, in season, by age etc etc etc. What was once done by simple feel in the parks was eventually changed by simplier data collection then added to it was the polls they grab people to take to all the internet reservation systems and now this.
Let's put it this way - the DVC office knew everything about us from our first trip to the one we were on when we sat down with them. From that point to today they know even more. I would not be shocked if in 5-10 years when we schedule a trip their system will default our preferences beyond simply internet settings to something akin to, " we see the last 5 times you were her you did this ride, then this ride, then this restaurant, and then this ride. At this time of year we would suggest the following scheduling.... and on and on."
And lets' not forget - those wristbands are GPS trackers for every guest that has one. More data there to. So all in all they will figure out how to make everything flow better I'm sure and this is just the beginning.
Couple that now with Fastpass. Now Disney knows my demographic information, famiy size, ages etc... they know for the most part my vacation schedule as we go pretty much the same times every year. They know where we eat more often than not - espcially if you link your card to your room key and or band - and now they know the rides we covet enough to make sure we reserve them. I use this new system 2 or 3 times and an absolute pattern emerges.
5 years from now they will know down to an unmistakeable error factor how most of their guests operate - rides, in order, in season, by age etc etc etc. What was once done by simple feel in the parks was eventually changed by simplier data collection then added to it was the polls they grab people to take to all the internet reservation systems and now this.
Let's put it this way - the DVC office knew everything about us from our first trip to the one we were on when we sat down with them. From that point to today they know even more. I would not be shocked if in 5-10 years when we schedule a trip their system will default our preferences beyond simply internet settings to something akin to, " we see the last 5 times you were her you did this ride, then this ride, then this restaurant, and then this ride. At this time of year we would suggest the following scheduling.... and on and on."
And lets' not forget - those wristbands are GPS trackers for every guest that has one. More data there to. So all in all they will figure out how to make everything flow better I'm sure and this is just the beginning.
glvsav37
Footballguy
agreed...the data available is insane.
as for changes through the app? I think for right now, they want you "In the park" to make FP+s. I'm sure as they add geofencing to the parks and attractions they will expand it to the app.
Imagine the amount of messaging and suggestive selling they could do with your GPS phone like offering deals as you walk past a gift shop or restaurant.
Quez
Footballguy
The wristbands are GPS devices? Can they track you outside the park? A GPS wristband would really only be necessary for people without cell phones. They could just as easily track you from your phone device over WiFi through an app.
If Disney was smart they would just outsource their data mining efforts to Google who already has everything on us.
If Disney was smart they would just outsource their data mining efforts to Google who already has everything on us.
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mphtrilogy
Footballguy
driving down in august
just booked hoop de doo review and aloha dinners for family of 5, $309 each dinner.
hope they are worth it
any other reco's for dinner shows?
we did cindy's castle last time around...
and any other worthwhile apps or online guides worth the $$
thanks!
just booked hoop de doo review and aloha dinners for family of 5, $309 each dinner.
hope they are worth it
any other reco's for dinner shows?
we did cindy's castle last time around...
and any other worthwhile apps or online guides worth the $$
thanks!
Yankee23Fan
Fair Tax!
By aloha dinner do you mean, O'Hana? If so.... well my friend, I hear that is pretty good.
Doing HDD Review and O'Hana in the same trip is a almost a perfect 10 for the food portion of your vacation. Congrats on being so awesome, on being the guy that other guys want to be and who dads want their daughters to marry. I bet you use Old Spice shower wash, hunt bears with your hands and Diet Dr. Pepper and use Duralast batteries in your car.
