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We will be taking our first trip to the parks of the new year this weekend as we wanted to avoid any and all of the holiday nonsense. I will be sure to post up some pics at the parks for crowd reference. We have had annual passes now for four years and this being our fifth. The lulls in between school holidays are the ideal time although you also have to take into account that there are times the overseas tourists like the Latin Americans flood the parks which can make it as much a nightmare.
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Jan 8, 2014 15:05
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TheBigBudgetSequel posted:I think Landscapes of Flavor at Art of Animation is aiming for that title now. I have never seen a better food court anywhere, let alone a hotel restaurant. Agreed. I think we got a whole large cheese pizza there for $13. That's a pretty good price for Disney. The pasta is really good too, from what I hear.
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Jan 8, 2014 23:38
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kloa posted:This is how our trip to Disney World looked like when we stayed for a week around the 2nd/3rd week of January 2012. That's exactly when we went, so it sounds like we were there at the same time! It was our tenth anniversary. We ate dinner at V&A's the night we arrived, and the restaurant was very reluctant to book our reservations, because if for some reason our flight was late and we missed dinner, were still out the $200 per person. We ordered the wine pairings, which we'll never do again. The wine was good, but there was so much of it. Every course they gave us another drink, and I remember there were seven courses. We were pretty toasted by the time they brought out the coffee. SPEAKING OF WHICH, here's how they make your coffee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39aGBQjOxyQ And this is us later that night, ripped to the tits, headed for the Magic Kingdom: 
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Jan 9, 2014 01:17
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Braksgirl posted:Agreed. I think we got a whole large cheese pizza there for $13. That's a pretty good price for Disney. The pasta is really good too, from what I hear. The pasta was great. A huge portion, they boil the pasta to order and mix in your sauce of choice and any of the toppings (even shrimp) that you'd like, and it comes with garlic bread. For a Quick Service credit I felt like I was a king among hungry men.
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Jan 9, 2014 06:29
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Gotten any special treatment with the hats? Are they a worthy investment?
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Jan 9, 2014 07:55
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Paul Allen posted:Gotten any special treatment with the hats? Are they a worthy investment? Depends. In our case, yes, absolutely, because we actually got married at WDW. Once a cast member finds that out (and doesn't think you're making up a story) you can get pretty special treatment. I think I told this story in the OP, but the morning after we were married at the Poly, we were making a dining reservation at Epcot. Wearing our bride-and-groom ears. The guy said congratulations and when he found out we got hitched on-property the day before, he asked us if we wanted our own waterfront table during Illuminations that night. So that evening it was just the two of us at a little bistro table with nothing between us and the show except a little wrought-iron fence. But that sort of thing is getting less common, I think. When we first started going in the late '90s, you could get a big button if it was your birthday or anniversary or something, and the cast members would always congratulate you or wish you a happy birthday. Then you could get one if it was your first visit. Then they added an "I'm special" button or whatever. So now everyone gets a drat button and the cast members spend all drat day jack-hammering the crowd with nonstop, "Happy birthday Lincoln!"s. "Congratulations Mr. and Mrs Lincoln!" "You're special, Lincoln!" Still, I think the honeymoon ears carry a lot more weight, because people aren't too willing to shell out the $40 or whatever just to game the system. And they're fun to wear. I'm one of those idiot adults who has no problem walking around the park with Goofy ears. I think I wore one of those cone-shaped princess hats one day.
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Jan 9, 2014 13:45
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I think we have buttons for just about every occasion and the cast members are pretty good at recognizing it. With the proliferation of buttons, you see just about every other person in the crowd wearing one now they have lost the special factor so you won't be getting sweet front of the line perks but it is always nice to have someone say Happy Anniversary! and call you by name.
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Jan 9, 2014 14:06
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Paul Allen posted:Gotten any special treatment with the hats? Are they a worthy investment? Gf and I went over last Thanksgiving...I got the R2D2 mickey hat and she got glittery Minnie ears. Other than fun remarks from Cast members, there wasn't anything extra EXCEPT A. Awesome memories of just having fun and being a bit goofy B. The amazement of little kids everywhere staring at your hat and asking their parents for one. They are just plain fun! Get em and don't give a seconds thought to how you look...you will at least be better than the 8 person family celebrating little Sarah's 8th birthday with matching shirts 
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Jan 9, 2014 18:14
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Do you guys have any recommendations for non-resort hotels with easy transport to both WDW and Universal? I'm going to be in town the first week of March for a work thing, and afterward a friend and I want to do one day at each. We're splitting the hotel bill, so we don't need to go ultra-cheap, but I'm not looking to break the bank either. I'd also prefer a shuttle or public transit rather than a rental car.
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Jan 9, 2014 21:11
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effervescible posted:Do you guys have any recommendations for non-resort hotels with easy transport to both WDW and Universal? I'm going to be in town the first week of March for a work thing, and afterward a friend and I want to do one day at each. We're splitting the hotel bill, so we don't need to go ultra-cheap, but I'm not looking to break the bank either. I'd also prefer a shuttle or public transit rather than a rental car. The Doubletree that's technically on site isn't great, but it's not terrible either, and Disney transport stops by there. I used my Hilton points, and had enough issues with the rooms that I got all my points refunded by the time I left, so for the fact that it was a free 8 night stay for only 3 room changes made it worth it.  Only real differences I noticed between that and staying at a Disney resort was that I couldn't have packages delivered, the bus stops are the furthest away from the entrances, and they have too many stops on the route. All in all, you pay less, you get less, and I still didn't have to rent a car/pay for parking. Have to get super-shuttle or one of its ilk to get to Universal, pretty painless process all in all, and since we only did universal 1 day during the trip, staying closer to DW was the priority. http://www.downtowndisneyhotels.com/ Fejsze fucked around with this message at 22:48 on Jan 9, 2014 |
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Jan 9, 2014 22:44
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I got a lot of cool stuff with my "Celebrating!" pin, which had "Graduation" written under it, because when I booked the trip I thought I was graduating a week before the trip. Turns out it got pushed back because my school is dumb, but they still gave me the button. I got free extra Grey Stff at Be Our Guest and a really neat dessert sampler at the Yachtsman (which i opted to eat over the desert included in my dining plan since I ate a whole loving cow. The porterhouse is huge.) It also started a few conversations that were well worth having. On the other hand, cast members who felt obliged to bring it up but didn't care were kind of annoying. "Congratulatins." "Oh thanks...hey where did they go?" Edit - Silly Hat Chat: It took all of my willpower to not buy these loving things. 
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Jan 9, 2014 23:31
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It wasn't your fault.. they pipe in subliminal messages all over the park and you end up buying mouse ears you will only wear once, eat emu legs being passed off as turkey, pay nine dollars for a small soda that is mostly ice.
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Jan 10, 2014 01:04
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I did buy a santa hat with Mickey ears attached, realized as soon as I walked out of the Empourium "gently caress. what am I going to do with this?" But I wore it on Christmas, so two uses. Not bad.
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Jan 10, 2014 01:54
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I do love their Christmas hats. Yeah, they're seasonal, and Florida heat even in December means they don't get much use due to their surprising insulation, but dammit they're festive!
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Jan 10, 2014 08:20
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TheBigBudgetSequel posted:I did buy a santa hat with Mickey ears attached, realized as soon as I walked out of the Empourium "gently caress. what am I going to do with this?" I bought 3 of these and gave them out to the family on Xmas eve. Even with my discount I had second thoughts about spending so much on once a year use, but eh it's the holidays. Kept me warm though, it was cold up here on Xmas.
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Jan 10, 2014 14:25
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In other news, i may have gone insane, but I am considering doing the College Program right after I graduate. this could be the worst thing.
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Jan 10, 2014 15:24
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TheBigBudgetSequel posted:In other news, i may have gone insane, but I am considering doing the College Program right after I graduate. this could be the worst thing. CPs are pretty much the work mules of the company so don't do it if you hate working. That being said, I'd say a good 95% of CPs absolutely love the time they spend here and a lot of them come back again and again.
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Jan 10, 2014 15:36
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Has anyone eaten at any of the 4 nicer restaurants at the swann and dolphin? Our work did a Christmas breakfast there but because I was working and couldn't go they gave us gift certs for what it would have cost so now I have a nice $100 gift cert to use at any of the restaurants there. I was thinking of going to Il Mulino but was just wondering if someone might suggest one of the others instead.
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Jan 10, 2014 16:48
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Roar posted:CPs are pretty much the work mules of the company so don't do it if you hate working. That much I know. It's not something I am considering doing for kicks, but at the same time it could be pretty irresponsible of me right out of school. or it could lead to better things (I desperately want to work for Yellow Shoes, their in house marketing and advertising firm)
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Jan 10, 2014 20:52
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Well, we were going tomorrow but found out it's marathon weekend so screw that. Going to Sea World.
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Jan 11, 2014 02:22
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demonR6 posted:Well, we were going tomorrow but found out it's marathon weekend so screw that. Going to Sea World. Do you have APs to places like SeaWorld and Universal too, or do you just bite the bullet and buy a ticket?
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Jan 11, 2014 03:29
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So I've been working with my travel agent and they are recommending three hotels in particular: the Boardwalk, Saratoga Springs and Old Key West. Anyone here have experience what the differences are between these three? The best I can work out is Boardwalk is walking distance to Epcot while the other two are further away, with Saratoga being closer to Downtown Disney. There doesn't seem to be any major downsides that I can seem to find but I wanted to see if anyone here knows better.
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Jan 11, 2014 13:08
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mr_cardholder posted:So I've been working with my travel agent and they are recommending three hotels in particular: the Boardwalk, Saratoga Springs and Old Key West. Anyone here have experience what the differences are between these three? The best I can work out is Boardwalk is walking distance to Epcot while the other two are further away, with Saratoga being closer to Downtown Disney. There doesn't seem to be any major downsides that I can seem to find but I wanted to see if anyone here knows better. Boardwalk is in walking distance to both Epcot and Hollywood Studios (although HS is a bit of a trek) as well as being serviced by boat transportation that goes to both parks. Same with the Yacht and Beach Club (and the Swan and the Dolphin)
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Jan 11, 2014 14:04
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TheBigBudgetSequel posted:Boardwalk is in walking distance to both Epcot and Hollywood Studios (although HS is a bit of a trek) as well as being serviced by boat transportation that goes to both parks. Same with the Yacht and Beach Club (and the Swan and the Dolphin) Probably not going to be treking anywhere since my parents will be with me. Anything not right next door is going to be a bus ride.
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Jan 11, 2014 14:31
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TheBigBudgetSequel posted:Do you have APs to places like SeaWorld and Universal too, or do you just bite the bullet and buy a ticket? We have AP's to WDW we bought. My sister works at SW and they hand out AP's to family like candy so my wife and I were able to score two. Interesting when you think a company that small on the theme park scale hands their employees unrestricted annual passes to all their parks for immediate family. Her husband, both sons, my mother and my wife and I all have AP's thanks to that. Next weekend we are hitting Busch Gardens actually since we have not been there in a while and that is covered.. the AP's include parking as well. We do not have US though, I honestly would not pay for it since we already are paying for WDW. We chose WDW over US since we are on their back porch so to speak and can get there in a matter of minutes where US would be a 30-minute drive taking the longer route. I could cut through and take another route but there is a town with a 30 MPH speed limit enforced and the cops there are dicks. Having to obey the speed limit makes the commute just as long and I would just as much take the longer route and drive like a freaking lunatic down I-4. TheBigBudgetSequel posted:Boardwalk is in walking distance to both Epcot and Hollywood Studios (although HS is a bit of a trek) as well as being serviced by boat transportation that goes to both parks. Same with the Yacht and Beach Club (and the Swan and the Dolphin) We parked at Epcot and walked to HS for the Friday the 13th event.. if you don't mind walking, it is not that bad and the trek from those resorts is honestly nothing compared to what you walk at the park in a give day anyways.
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Jan 11, 2014 15:51
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mattfl posted:Has anyone eaten at any of the 4 nicer restaurants at the swann and dolphin? Our work did a Christmas breakfast there but because I was working and couldn't go they gave us gift certs for what it would have cost so now I have a nice $100 gift cert to use at any of the restaurants there. I was thinking of going to Il Mulino but was just wondering if someone might suggest one of the others instead. If you've got an $100.00 gift certificate, go to Blue Zoo. It's supposed to be outstanding, but it's very expensive and we've never gone ourselves. But my family has eaten at Il Mulino often and we love it! It's our favorite "secret" restaurant on Crescent Lake. (We're headed down pretty soon and I'm already looking forward to their mushroom risotto.) mr_cardholder posted:So I've been working with my travel agent and they are recommending three hotels in particular: the Boardwalk, Saratoga Springs and Old Key West. Anyone here have experience what the differences are between these three? The best I can work out is Boardwalk is walking distance to Epcot while the other two are further away, with Saratoga being closer to Downtown Disney. There doesn't seem to be any major downsides that I can seem to find but I wanted to see if anyone here knows better. Boardwalk is the most convenient to the parks and other resorts, since all the EPCOT-area resorts are along a very nice pathway around Crescent Lake and both EPCOT and the Studios are a lovely boat ride. You will have to take the bus to other attractions if you don't have a car, but in this case it's only two out of the four main parks. Boardwalk also has many decent eateries and entertainment in the evening, since it was originally meant to be a smaller version of Downtown Disney. We stayed at Saratoga Springs during our last visit and it was very nice. However, we made a point of requesting a room in the Carriage House building because it is relatively close to the main buildings and has a nice view of the river and a very nice walkway through the woods to Downtown Disney where we saw lots of wildlife along the way (Otters!  Coots!  Great Blue Herons in the trees!?!  ). Many of the other buildings are much farther away from the main areas and the famous treehouses are remote, like they have their own boat and bus stop. You may be in for an awful lot of walking depending on what building you're in. Also, except for Downtown Disney, you must take the bus everywhere. Still, it's very nice and it's especially fun to look for evidence of the old Disney Institute.And we haven't even visited Old Key West yet but it is supposedly very similar to Saratoga Springs except smaller, on a fork of the Sassagoula River so it's less convenient to resort-hop, and has a better restaurant. If you're trip is planned for later this year, I can ask my relatives who are stating there in March what they thought of it when they get back. Rahonavis fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Jan 11, 2014 |
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Jan 11, 2014 16:41
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We stayed at Boardwalk in November and it was great. Being walking distance to Epcot meant Illuminations every night if we wanted, there are boats to HS (although walking was fine given the amount of walking you do anyway), and we could walk through Epcot to the monorail for MK (not sure if this was faster than buses to MK, although I'm pretty certain it's faster coming back). Nice rooms, staff seemed nice, etc. Has a decent on-site microbrew with actual outside-world normal pricing for beer (or at least the sampler was a good price, certainly better than the laffo moment of hearing that Stella was a premium beer at $8.75). If the parents are scooter-bound I still think that was fine for getting around from there, but I didn't pay much attention. I think scooters were allowed on the boats to HS.
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Jan 11, 2014 19:26
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In less than three weeks I'm going on a Disney training cruise. We're sailing to Castaway Cay and back. I'm excited to check that out. I'm heading to Orlando a day early and probably splitting a room with another agent who's also cruising. We can slum it All Star Sports for $20 apiece with our discount but I think we may just get an Art of Animation suite just for giggles. I think we'll head over to Downtown Disney for Earl of Sandwich too. Should be fun.
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Jan 11, 2014 20:45
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mr_cardholder posted:Probably not going to be treking anywhere since my parents will be with me. Anything not right next door is going to be a bus ride. I could be wrong, but if you stay at a resort with boat service, they don't send a bus (for Epcot, at the very least)(The boats are like big comfy buses on water) TheBigBudgetSequel fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Jan 12, 2014 |
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Jan 12, 2014 02:23
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TheBigBudgetSequel posted:I could be wrong, but if you stay at a resort with boat service, they don't send a bus (for Epcot, at the very least)(The boats are like big comfy buses on water) No, you can get buses to Epcot and Hollywood at the Yacht/Beach for sure. That said, if you're actually dumb enough to take a bus to Epcot from there I don't know what to tell you. Hollywood can be a bit of a hike with small kids, but I still usually walk it down there when we go down.
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Jan 12, 2014 23:46
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Oh cool, the College Program dates I have as my choice include the summer. Which is convenient, because I sure do love heat.
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Jan 16, 2014 20:00
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TheBigBudgetSequel posted:Oh cool, the College Program dates I have as my choice include the summer. Which is convenient, because I sure do love sweltering heat that makes my skin feel like it is melting off like I just bathed in hot lava. Fixed that for you..
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Jan 16, 2014 20:16
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demonR6 posted:Fixed that for you.. I do love lava.
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Jan 16, 2014 20:25
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Mmm, liquid hot magma.
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Jan 17, 2014 14:51
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Braksgirl posted:Mmm, liquid hot magma. Is it too soon for a That's what she said joke?
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Jan 19, 2014 01:46
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Went to MK today thinking it's Monday, holiday but kids in school so how bad can it be? Other than getting into Be Our Guest in under a half hour and there being boatloads of college / university cheerleaders everywhere I have nothing positive to say about the experience. Also Fast Pass+ can suck a hot bowl of donkey penises. The line at Buzz Lightyear on the mobile app said half hour, we had just left BOG so we said let's do it. On the way there notice that it is pretty crowded. We pass Cosmic Ray's and see just loads of people eating anywhere, on the curb, in planters, standing up. So we get to Buzz and the notice is 35 minutes stand by. When we eventually get around so we can see the front entrance again the FP line is around the building. An hour into the wait and we get to the part of the queue where FP and the stand by victims intersect. They were letting only 1 party go through to 15+ FP, we counted. Every ride was this way. FP+ is backed up, they are letting them go through in droves while the poor idiots who are on stand by sit there and wait until later. Disney should just make all the rides reservation only because honestly this is BS. Everyone in our line was pissed off at the wait and on the way out they had the idiots taking surveys and people were going off on them. I was so pissed off by the time we got to the ride I just sat there and rode it out. My wife actually participated in the ride but I was having nothing of it. Sorry but FP was bad, FP+ is just making GBS threads on anyone who is not using the system and that is not fun.
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Jan 20, 2014 22:41
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demonR6 posted:Went to MK today thinking it's Monday, holiday but kids in school so how bad can it be? I'm sure you figured this out by the time you got there, but schools were closed today.
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Jan 20, 2014 23:44
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mattfl posted:I'm sure you figured this out by the time you got there, but schools were closed today. Oh yeah, I knew that but typically this is not a major holiday, they type you pack up the entire family for a trek to Orlando. There were a lot of locals to be honest because the kids were wearing their school shirts and you could see all the annual passholders everywhere. I made a mistake with the kids in school holiday, I know they are off but what I meant is that it is not an extended holiday like Christmas or spring break.. demonR6 fucked around with this message at 01:00 on Jan 21, 2014 |
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Jan 21, 2014 00:45
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Yeah, but I always thought MLK day was, like, always oddly busy. I'm not really sure why, especially since you'd figure that just a 3-day weekend this close to the December holidays would lose some of the usual allure. I loved Fastpass+ when we went in December, but that might be to do with lower crowd levels. Maybe the system breaks down quickly as more people are added to it. It's freakin great with little ones wanting to meet the princesses, though. We generally don't get to the parks until afternoon at the earliest, so this system probably helps us more than the early arrivers.
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Jan 21, 2014 01:38
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demonR6 posted:Went to MK today thinking it's Monday, holiday but kids in school so how bad can it be? Other than getting into Be Our Guest in under a half hour and there being boatloads of college / university cheerleaders everywhere I have nothing positive to say about the experience. Also Fast Pass+ can suck a hot bowl of donkey penises. The line at Buzz Lightyear on the mobile app said half hour, we had just left BOG so we said let's do it. On the way there notice that it is pretty crowded. We pass Cosmic Ray's and see just loads of people eating anywhere, on the curb, in planters, standing up. So we get to Buzz and the notice is 35 minutes stand by. When we eventually get around so we can see the front entrance again the FP line is around the building. An hour into the wait and we get to the part of the queue where FP and the stand by victims intersect. They were letting only 1 party go through to 15+ FP, we counted. Every ride was this way. FP+ is backed up, they are letting them go through in droves while the poor idiots who are on stand by sit there and wait until later. Disney should just make all the rides reservation only because honestly this is BS. Everyone in our line was pissed off at the wait and on the way out they had the idiots taking surveys and people were going off on them. I was so pissed off by the time we got to the ride I just sat there and rode it out. My wife actually participated in the ride but I was having nothing of it. Sorry but FP was bad, FP+ is just making GBS threads on anyone who is not using the system and that is not fun. Seriously, never go to WDW without checking EasyWDW's crowd calendars first. I don't know how he's always so spot-on, here's what he said about MK today. quote:Magic Kingdom is, by far, the worst Park to visit today. First, it’s a national holiday, which will attract a fair amount of locals that have the day off. Although Martin Luther King Day doesn’t bring in a ton of people because it’s just one day and we’re coming off of the very busy holiday season, visiting locals are always a concern on holidays. Second, we have two rare main Street Electrical Parades scheduled, though the addition of the Parade tomorrow helps a bit. Finally, a lot of people travel over the weekend and naturally head to the Magic Kingdom on Monday for their first full day. All of this will make the Magic Kingdom incredibly busy today and any other day in the future this week would be less crowded, other than potentially this Saturday, which will have similar crowds and waits. For Main Street Electrical Parade viewing, tomorrow is the best day this week to see it. You can do well in the morning from 9am – 11am, but waits will be much longer than recommended days from there through close.
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Jan 21, 2014 02:25
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