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See.you Wednesday wdw and BOG!
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Apr 12, 2015 04:40
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We got to the park (MK) 20 minus ago and the wait for Mine Train is 70 minutes. Jesus Christ.
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Apr 12, 2015 05:14
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demonR6 posted:We got to the park (MK) 20 minus ago and the wait for Mine Train is 70 minutes. Jesus Christ. Mine Train is almost never as high as the wait time states, especially if the line is not outside the actual queue. If it wraps into the stroller parking area, then yeah, it's a long wait, probably more than the sign says. Also, it was posting 10 minutes at points tonight, so yeah, we really weren't busy. Thanks Rain!
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Apr 12, 2015 09:22
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Yeah, at 9:15 it was 70 minutes and the line was wrapping outside pretty far. Insanity. Hoping the rain this evening clears the park out so we can ride it around 9.
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Apr 12, 2015 20:46
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The posted 70 minutes was more like 20.. last night. We are at Epcot and the standby line was at 30 which is absurdly sorry.
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Apr 12, 2015 20:52
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So, for my trip in June, we are going to have a marriage proposal during Wishes one night. I'm the trip planner, I will be making sure we have a FP+ that evening, but I'm curious about one thing. Would I be able to somehow talk a CM photographer into photographing it, and discretely blending into the crowd behind us to not give the impression something is up? The CM photographers always get great nighttime pictures and if its possible I would try to arrange it. Does Disney offer this? Do I just ask the closest one I can find if they can do me a favor and slip them some $$? I can probably handle it, but to have someone in the background getting shots of it taking place, the reactions, etc, would be priceless I think.
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Apr 12, 2015 23:46
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My wife's coworker was engaged at MK. They got a friend to go ahead and speak to Tinkerbell who agreed to give ring. The friend hung out, handed the ring to the handler who was in on it as well. The handler have it to Tink and the rest is history. Also I'm at Epcot and just watched Village People perform.
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Apr 13, 2015 00:14
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demonR6 posted:My wife's coworker was engaged at MK. They got a friend to go ahead and speak to Tinkerbell who agreed to give ring. The friend hung out, handed the ring to the handler who was in on it as well. The handler have it to Tink and the rest is history. Holy poo poo, this just opened the floodgates with ideas. (Village People excluded)
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Apr 13, 2015 00:24
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Douchebag posted:Holy poo poo, this just opened the floodgates with ideas. Yeah my understanding was it was pretty slick. He took her to take a photo of them with Tinkerbell and his & her family was there waiting out of sight. During the photo it all went down and everyone appeared from the shadows to watch it happen. So last ride of the night we went to Spaceship Earth. We are ushered to our car and the cast member standing not five feet from us is picking his ear in plain view. My wife and I look at each other because he made a move to put something in his mouth. We laugh and she says he's picking it again so I turn and catch him putting something in his mouth! He's in plain sight of everyone coming around and getting on the ride!!! He ate his ear goblins! demonR6 fucked around with this message at 01:42 on Apr 13, 2015 |
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Apr 13, 2015 01:39
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I like my strategy of go to Halloween party dressed as Flynn and Rapunzel, pouring down rain so she opts to buy and change into a tshirt after an hour, ask her if she wants to go stand on the bridge to watch the fireworks but instead sees some good ground seating in front of the castle. I had to awkwardly take the ring out while we are sitting watching the fireworks come to the big end and while still sitting ask my soaking wet wife to be wearing an oversized day glow orange Halloween party tshirt to marry me. I wouldn't have had it any other way to be honest. The best part was our trip the year after, we did catch the fireworks at a good spot on the bridge and the guy behind us proposed. If it bad waited an extra year, I would have been so pissed.
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Apr 13, 2015 02:04
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I think you can arrange something with Disney Weddings. I'm pretty sure there are separate companies that you can hire to help arrange these things too.
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Apr 13, 2015 03:20
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I'm a professional wedding photographer with an annual pass and I live 15 minutes away. Contact me and and I can definitely capture it for you! My site is below, but I haven't updated my location/bio since I moved here last month. https://www.davidchildersphotography.com speaking of, it was a magical night with my little cousins on their first trip to the Kingdom. 
Bottom Liner fucked around with this message at 06:04 on Apr 13, 2015 |
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Apr 13, 2015 03:38
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Douchebag posted:So, for my trip in June, we are going to have a marriage proposal during Wishes one night. I'm the trip planner, I will be making sure we have a FP+ that evening, but I'm curious about one thing. Would I be able to somehow talk a CM photographer into photographing it, and discretely blending into the crowd behind us to not give the impression something is up? The CM photographers always get great nighttime pictures and if its possible I would try to arrange it. While you can't arrange something in advance with the photographers, there are a few things you can try. If you visit the town square PhotoPass location, you can ask to speak to one of the managers to set something up. Based on staffing that day, they may be able to arrange something but you can't set it up in advance. It's tougher at night because they are all on tri pods - somewhat harder to blend in with the crowd. You won't be able to slip them any cash - photopass aren't tipped roles and could get in trouble for accepting tips and most would actually be really excited to do so - night time is the time of the CPs, they're still excited about the job haha. I believe weddings has the policy of not shooting engagement photos in the Magic Kingdom. Theyll shoot in the other parks but not MK for reasons.
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Apr 13, 2015 14:13
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Empties:
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Apr 13, 2015 14:43
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It's been about 6 weeks since we got back from our first WDW trip. We just got confirmation for our next trip. We're renting 6 nights at a 1BD BLT Villa next year. Wheee!
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Apr 13, 2015 18:54
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Braksgirl what is your vacation planning website? Kicking around the idea of a proper "trip planning" in December!
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Apr 13, 2015 23:36
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Ok, been here about 36 hours and I must say Fast Pass + sucks donkey balls.
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Apr 14, 2015 00:02
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How so?
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Apr 14, 2015 00:22
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I don't mind fp+ because there's less of me sprinting across the park at open to get a Toy Story fastpass. I also enjoy planning things out way in advance rather than just showing up and seeing what happens with crowds. The only downside I've seen is the typical less popular rides are now a lot longer wait (see pirates and haunted mansion) but in exchange, you get shorter waits at bigger rides.
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Apr 14, 2015 01:22
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Lincoln posted:Empties: gently caress yeah.
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Apr 14, 2015 01:45
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Lincoln posted:Ok, been here about 36 hours and I must say Fast Pass + sucks donkey balls. Aww man you're here and you didn't even ping me for a drive by gooning?
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Apr 14, 2015 03:37
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Abu Dave posted:Braksgirl what is your vacation planning website? Kicking around the idea of a proper "trip planning" in December! You can reach her at http://whodatmouse.com (that redirects to her Facebook page) or PM her. She's snoozin' right now. 
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Apr 14, 2015 05:38
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Lincoln posted:Ok, been here about 36 hours and I must say Fast Pass + sucks donkey balls. What the poo poo are you doing? I was in the Magic Kingdom on Monday (stuck to fantasyland) and I got a total of eight fastpasses. It was awesome. I had booked mine train, belle, and under the sea, then I just kept walking to the kiosks under PhillharMagic, getting another fp (always for within the next hour, most were active immediately) then doing another ride. It was great. I guess it does suck if you want to ride mine train five times or if you have a fp for something late so you can't have any same day extras, but I loved it.
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Apr 15, 2015 13:36
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Hey All, So my dining reservations open in a couple weeks so I'm in hardcore planning mode but I need some thoughts for people who have been recently. It's just my daughter (will be 7 years old) & I going. I'm just trying to figure out if there's a better way to do things. I've got 8 day park hopper tickets & regular dining plan if that influences any thoughts. What I'm really stuck on is the day to day schedule, so thoughts/revisions etc. would be welcome. I'm going from October 25-November 1. Here's what I've got so far: Restaurants my daughter has chosen to eat at: Boma, Garden Grill (because it rotates), Cinderella's Royal Table, The Wave, T-Rex (ugh), and Tusker House. Ideally she wants to do breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table (she wants to share scrambled eggs... I'm not sure why). I'm just going to take what I can get though (if anything). My main issues are: Doing Hollywood Studios and Do I do Epcot as 1 long day, or split it into 2 two smaller days (mainly so I can get fast passes for Test Track and Soarin') October 25 - Plane lands around 9:30am. I figure my daughter will sleep on the plane and we'll be fine to hit a park by noon. Problem here is I'm at a loss as to which park. Options currently are Hollywood Studios w/ T-Rex for dinner, Do 1/2 of Epcot and Garden Grill for dinner I really don't have any desire to do Hollywood Studios at all, but I know my daughter will. So my general thought is I either cram it into 5-6 hours the first day, get it over with and have an early end to the day, or do it one of my full days and just jump over to Epcot once we've finished it. October 26 - Animal Kingdom w/ Tusker House for Lunch or Dinner October 27 - Magic Kingdom with the Halloween Party in the evening - Go to The Wave for dinner then back for the party or try for Royal Table reservations sometime this day? October 28 - Epcot? Hollywood Studios and then Epcot (depending on what is done on Oct 25)? I start falling apart here October 29 - Back to Magic Kingdom. It's a party night, but we're not going so we'll be out of the park early. Would do whichever restaurant I don't do on the first MK day. October 30 & 31 Not a drat clue, probably at least one more day at MK. No idea what to do with the other. November 1 Don't need to be at the Airport until around 5pm, so ideas to kill half a day? Would it be warm enough for a water park? ETA: One thing I forgot, the Halloween party - Last time we went we only stayed to see the first parade. My daughter doesn't like loud noises so fireworks tend to upset her, but I love the Boo to You parade so I have to see it each time I'm down for Halloween. We won't be staying all night. Maybe hit a dance party, do some trick or treating, watch the parade and then head out. Happitoo fucked around with this message at 15:40 on Apr 15, 2015 |
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Apr 15, 2015 15:30
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Have you looked at any crowd calendars? That should be a pretty slow time other than Halloween, so I would plan on going to anything but the most crowded park each day and try to book your dining based on that. Also, 8 days with a 7 year old is quite the drat feat, best of luck. In other news, I signed up for the Goofy challenge race and a half for the 2016 marathon!
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Apr 15, 2015 15:35
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Bottom Liner posted:Have you looked at any crowd calendars? That should be a pretty slow time other than Halloween, so I would plan on going to anything but the most crowded park each day and try to book your dining based on that. Also, 8 days with a 7 year old is quite the drat feat, best of luck. Haven't looked at crowd calendars, but going from past experience I know to avoid Magic Kingdom on Mondays, and party days tend to have lower attendance since the park shuts down at 7pm. The other parks I'm not too worried about attendance. We generally take our time and don't rush things and are out of the parks by 7pm. Like on one MK day we may only do Adventureland, Frontierland and Liberty Square and then the other day come back and do Fantasyland & Tomorrowland. Last time we went (when she was 5) we spent the first hour of one day riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad over and over. I just sort of lay out a general plan (which park, where we eat our sit down meal) and let her handle the rest. Something tells me I'm going to be watching a lot of Enchanted Tiki Room this time... she loves that song on the CD we have of park music. Good luck with running. I know I couldn't do that poo poo, so I don't even try .
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Apr 15, 2015 16:04
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What we do is, fly into Orlando early, hop on the bus to the resort, check in (or dump our bags) and go right to MK and have fun for the afternoon. I will have fast passes setup for the afternoon that day too. Rest of my week I try to plan around breakfast reservations and hit the appropriate or nearest park. Skip T-Rex. Definitely do Cinderellas Royal Table. Coral Reef is a great place to eat, kids love it. If the weather is warm that week, try to plan some downtime. Spend a few afternoons at the pool, do the parks in the morning or evening. As for the last day, we usually just relax at the pool at the resort or do some shopping at Downtown, as we usually fly out late in the day.
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Apr 15, 2015 16:23
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Get late reservations for breakfast and lunch at the character meals. Breakfast is always cheaper than lunch, and lunch is always cheaper than dinner, so have breakfast for lunch and lunch for dinner! (Pack some things to eat in the early mornings and evenings so you won't get hungry). Plus the restaurant will likely be less busy near the end, so you'll probably get more time with the characters. If you can't swing Cinderella's Royal Table, try Akershus. They have Belle instead of Cinderella out front, and the setting isn't as "princessy" (it's based on the castle fort in Oslo) but you'll meet the same princesses table-side.
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Apr 15, 2015 17:19
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Happitoo posted:November 1 Don't need to be at the Airport until around 5pm, so ideas to kill half a day? Would it be warm enough for a water park? Is your kid old enough for miniature golf? If so, there are two spectacular courses (each with two 18-hole sides) -- one near Blizzard Beach, the other near the Swan and Dolphin.
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Apr 15, 2015 17:45
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My general thoughts in no particular order - Skip T-Rex unless she really really wants to go. It's just rainforest cafe with dinosaurs. We went, my son is 3 and LOVES dino's, the food and service was good, but making the trek to Downtown Disney to eat at a non Disney themed restaurant is a bit of a pain. Especially if you're not already there for other reasons. - The day you leave... Are you doing Disney Magical Express? The bus leaves about 3 hours before your flight does, and room checkout is usually 11AM, so between waking up and packing, dropping the bags off at DME, and then transit time from resort to park and back you might not have as much time as you think. Our DME bus left at 1PM and we didn't even try to get to a park the last day. -Hollywood studios can definitely be done your first day there, especially if you have no interest in the roller coaster or tower of terror. I rode ToT and we did TSM with FP+, and then we did the 3D Muppet thing and the kids took pictures with Phineas and Ferb, Cinderella's carriage and the Cars characters. We did a little shopping and that was about it for HS. -Tusker House breakfast is awesome, we had an early reservation and the crowds weren't too heavy the day we went. We setup FP for everest in the late morning, but after bfast had plenty of time to do the safari tour and catch the Lion King performance before going to the other side of AK. The weather should be good, but I personally recommend getting to AK early and doing it in the morning when the animals are more awake. I try not to get too crazy with the scheduling as I prefer a more relaxed vacation experience, I tend to clump my dining reservations with my fast passes into either morning or evening and then just do whatever during the other part of the day. My kids are 5 and 3 and still need naps so we basically broke each day into 2 sections. They also love Magic Kingdom so we spent almost every night there. For example. Animal Kingdom day this is what we did Wake up early travel to AK - Tusker House for Character Breakfast -Festival of the Lion King - Kilimanjaro Safari I think that put us around 11:15 to 11:30 or so. that covered everything we wanted to do in Africa, then we went to Asia We skipped river rapids, no one really likes to get wet in our party and we had small kids We had FP+ for Everest between 11:50 to 12:50 so a few of the adults did that then we got a snack and a drink and waited for the 1PM Nemo Musical, which both of my kids basically slept through and was cool, but not worth seeing again. After that we hit Dinoland, rode the TTop Spin a few times with the kids, I went on the Whirl, the kids played some midway games, and hit the boneyard playground for a while. We had some ice cream and it was pushing 3PM so we took the bus back to the resort for naps and R&R. Woke the kids up around 5:30, went to MK and had a QS dinner and walked around did did random stuff the rest of the night.
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Apr 15, 2015 18:15
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Douchebag posted:Skip T-Rex. Definitely do Cinderellas Royal Table. Coral Reef is a great place to eat, kids love it. skipdogg posted:- Skip T-Rex Would skip T-Rex if I could. It's one of the things she thought was super cool. She doesn't actually know we're going so getting her to choose restaurants was hard (we played a game where we pretended to be planning a trip to Disney World). T-Rex was one of the things that jumped out at her. Hopefully reservations will be all booked up, or only available at bullshit hours. I have an ungodly hatred of Coral Reef. I don't know what it is. I know people really enjoy it, but every time I've been there it's just been a bad experience (not necessarily due to the restaurant every time), to the point that I just avoid it. I would go for Akershus in a second over the castle but for some reason she's insistent that we share scrambled eggs and bacon in the castle. It is my back-up if I can't get Royal Table reservations though. Which I guess would impact if I'm doing a full day at Epcot or not. quote:- The day you leave... Are you doing Disney Magical Express? The bus leaves about 3 hours before your flight does, and room checkout is usually 11AM, so between waking up and packing, dropping the bags off at DME, and then transit time from resort to park and back you might not have as much time as you think. Our DME bus left at 1PM and we didn't even try to get to a park the last day. Plane leaves at 8:30pm. I think magical express pick up is 3-4 hours before (can't remember what it is for international flights) so I know I've got at least until around 3pm to go somewhere. Last time I just dumped the bags with the bellhops and took off for the day, seemed to work out fine. WhiteHowler posted:Is your kid old enough for miniature golf? If so, there are two spectacular courses (each with two 18-hole sides) -- one near Blizzard Beach, the other near the Swan and Dolphin. Yes, she loves mini-golf. That was one of my other ideas for the first day was hit up the mini-golf by Swan/Dolphin and then head into Epcot No idea if she'll try Tower of Terror this time. She HATED it last time. She's too small to go on Rockin' Roller Coaster. So getting through Hollywood Studios should be a breeze. Lots of good thoughts and some things to think about. This is the part of going to Disney World that I hate doing. Once I get through nailing down dining and which park when I'm fine, but for the next couple weeks it's all writing in notebooks like a crazy person.
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Apr 15, 2015 18:50
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I have to say, I'm super jealous. I'd love to take my oldest daughter for a girls trip. We'd have a blast. I just called and added the dining plan to our Nov trip. This will be the first time we've ever used it and the last year our oldest will be able to pay kid prices. I guess we'll see how it goes.
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Apr 15, 2015 18:55
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Download My Disney Experience - WDW app for Android and become one with it. All the parks have free guest wi-fi so you can check wait times, make dining reservations (or check existing), dick around with your fast passes there as well as see a full map with your current location in the event you do not know the park like the back of your hand. Also the wife and I are going to attend the October 3 Dapper Day at MK.. we're going Disney Bounding with wifey as the Toy Story couple of Jessie and I am going as Buzz Lightyear. Nerding out at Disney FTW.
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Apr 15, 2015 22:05
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We're doing that too, just trying to decide on costumes. I want to do vintage Mr. Incredible in a suit with the logo showing Clark Kent style.
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Apr 15, 2015 22:16
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Braksgirl posted:I just called and added the dining plan to our Nov trip. This will be the first time we've ever used it and the last year our oldest will be able to pay kid prices. I guess we'll see how it goes. I love the dining plan. There's two things I stress out greatly in life, money & travelling. Knowing that most of my food is paid for helps with the first as I'm not constantly focusing on how much I'm spending each day. I know it's not always the most economical option, but just being able to show up and not worry about paying for stuff while I'm there makes it worth it. Nothing except massive amounts of drugs helps with the travelling stress. Once the plane is in the air I'm fine, but everything leading up to that is horrible for me as I constantly fear the worst (what if I miss the plane, what if I have issues with customs etc.).
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Apr 16, 2015 01:20
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And that's the issue when someone asks me if the dining plan is "worth it". I always have to say "Well, that depends on you. Are you trying to spend the least amount of money possible, are you into convenience?" But it will be nice to experience it for myself so I can truly know what I'm talking about rather than knowing how it works in theory.
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Apr 16, 2015 02:06
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Staying on resort when you can get the free dining plan is the best possible solution. Low crowds and free food, can't beat it!
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Apr 16, 2015 06:33
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Braksgirl posted:And that's the issue when someone asks me if the dining plan is "worth it". I always have to say "Well, that depends on you. Are you trying to spend the least amount of money possible, are you into convenience?" But it will be nice to experience it for myself so I can truly know what I'm talking about rather than knowing how it works in theory. The last 4 times we went we did the dining plan and liked it. I think it's easy to manage, and we liked the convenience of it. Our upcoming trip we are skipping the dining plan and going with the Tables in Wonderland and/or my DVC discount. This is sort of a trial for us to see what we like better. We also have less ADR's this trip. I'm hoping the end result is I don't eat everything in the world this trip.
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Apr 16, 2015 12:49
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Douchebag posted:I'm hoping the end result is I don't eat everything in the world this trip. Why even bother going?
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Apr 16, 2015 14:39
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| # ? May 12, 2024 14:53 |
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Bottom Liner posted:Staying on resort when you can get the free dining plan is the best possible solution. Low crowds and free food, can't beat it! Not anymore. Usually, free dining is for the Fall months and those are getting increasingly popular, basically because of free dining. And to be honest, I don't even think free dining is always the greatest discount you can get. I like the promos they used to do where you'd get like a BOGO deal, stay 4 days get 3 free. They haven't done those in years, though. Stay/Play/Dine is still a great discount and it's been offered for Jan - March which is truly the off season. Late September and October are getting to be just as crowded as the summer months. For me, I'll always take the travel agent discount. I get half off any resort. That's always going to beat free dining.
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Apr 16, 2015 15:02
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