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Wow, I just checked WDW website on a whim because my wife & I were texting about needing a vacation -- found a water-view room at the GF for 25% off in February. Booked it instantly with a deposit, then texted the old lady with, "hey...how about Disney World in February? I'll get you a view of the lagoon." Great idea, she said. Whew. So we'll be there the week of Feb 5. That's almost a 3-year gap since our previous visit, and we used to go like every 18 months. It's gotten so drat expensive to stay at any monorail hotel, we just can't do it as often, and we always wait for a room rate discount or free dining. VERY EXCITED. We need this trip real, real bad. edit:Hey, what's the best way to get a special magic band for my wife to use while we're there? If we just show up with our own magic bands (not the plain ones they mail to us), can we use those instead? No idea how that system works. Lincoln fucked around with this message at 17:13 on Oct 17, 2017 |
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Oct 17, 2017 15:33
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 22:02 |
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Are the new bands the ones that show up at my house before I leave?
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Oct 17, 2017 18:10
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How many days out can we book fast passes? Also, can FPs be cancelled (and then re-booked for a different park) if we decide to go to a different park on a given day? We have no idea what parks we're going to on each day... or what part of the day we'll be in a given park (we park hop a lot)... and won't know any of those things when our FP window opens several weeks before our trip... and honestly we don't want to have to make those decisions weeks beforehand in the first place. Basically, there's a 100% chance our actual park touring will not accommodate the schedule of FPs we pick ahead of time -- so can we cancel & re-select Wednesday's FPs on Tuesday evening when we decide we'd rather go to AK tomorrow instead of MK? UNRELATED QUESTION: Magical Express now works with Southwest Airlines, right? We're using SW for the first time (to WDW, I mean) because they now have much better departure/arrival times for us, and because we had quite a few miles piled up. In fact, this will be the least-expensive trip we've ever taken to WDW. Both round trip tickets combined was about $200 (we had to pay for wifey's outbound flight), and we got 25% off a water-view room at the G-Flo. Less than $3,900 for five nights with park-hoppers & airfare. Normally that would be a little more than the cost of just the room. gently caress, the Floridian is overpriced.
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Oct 22, 2017 19:52
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Is navi river journey FastPass-mandatory? What about the new Soarin? 7 Dawrfs Mine Train? OK, to simplify: what rides absolutely require FP?
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Oct 27, 2017 17:17
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Tim Whatley posted:Disney randomly dropped this Galaxy's Edge photo and said more details coming Saturday Hnnnnnngggg
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Dec 13, 2017 22:38
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Wow you guys sure are invested in what robot is in the Hall of Presidents. My wife and I are visiting in February — we’ll go see HOP, walk out of the building, and continue with our lives as if nothing major had happened to us.
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Dec 19, 2017 21:46
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It’s noon on Christmas Day, and the MDE app says there’s a 175 minute wait for Seven Dwarfs. Ugh, I don’t get it.
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Dec 25, 2017 18:08
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We want to hit Traders Sams Grog Grotto on Monday Feb 5, the day we arrive. Assuming we check in at the bar early evening, what kind of wait can we expect? The Undercover Tourist crowd calendar says that day is a 3/10, if that matters.
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Jan 7, 2018 19:23
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Well it looks like we'll be there the evening of Monday, Feb 5. Hours unknown, but probably early evening -- we're going to MK as soon as we check into the hotel, and the park closes at 8 that night. If anyone else can swing by, look for us. I'll be the goofy-looking guy with the pretty wife.
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Jan 8, 2018 12:44
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Spent some time this weekend mapping out our plans for next month. This can be a struggle, especially now with FP+, as my wife (and to some extent, me) is NOT a hyper-plan person. Still, I think we got pretty much what we wanted out of the new system. Monday, Feb 5 - Undercover Tourist crowd level 3 Plane lands at MCO at like 11:45 AM, so we should be checking into the GF by -- Big Thunder -- 7 Dwarfs -- Space Mountain When the park closes at 8, we're heading to the Poly to visit Trader Sam's for the first time. It was open the last time we went (almost 3 years ago!), but we didn't get to go in because my parents were with us and a 3-hour wait was out of the question. Jeez. We even stayed at the Poly! poo poo! Tuesday, Feb 6 - crowd level 3 Breakfast at O'hana, then off to Epcot. We have FP for Frozen Ever After that afternoon, but the wife will be eager to see it, so we'll probably head straight to it at opening and pray for a short line. In fact, all our FP are mid-day to mid-afternoon: -- 11:30 Mission Space -- 1 PM Spacehip Earth -- 4 PM Frozen ...and since we couldn't get a FP for Soarin', we'll probably run straight there after Frozen. Not sure what we're doing after the last FP at 4:00. We love Restaurant Marakesh and Biergarten, so we may have dinner at one of those. But we've both said we want to do stuff this time that we've never done before (I don't mean butt-stuff), so who knows. Suggestions welcome. Wednesday, Feb 7 - crowd level 3 Starting the day at DHS with these FP: -- 9 Star Tours -- 10 Toy Story -- 11:30 TOT I can't imagine we'll spend more than half day here, and our afternoon is completely open. We have Park Hoppers, so everything is on the menu. Again, suggestions welcome. We have a dinner reservation at Paddlefish. Disney Springs wasn't up last time we went, so this should be interesting. We had visited Downtown Disney once or twice in years past (going back to 1999), and never found it very interesting. Supposedly the rebuild is designed to attract people like us. We'll see. Thursday, Feb 8 - crowd level 5 Nothing planned for the AM, but we have afternoon FP at MK: -- 1 PM Peter Pan -- 3 Splash -- 5:30 Seven Dwarfs We're definitely NOT sit-by-the-pool people, so we may hit AK at opening and get in line for the Avatar rides. We have Friday (tomorrow) FP for Flight of Passage, but not for N'avi River, so this may be the way to go. We're planning on an evening trip to AK tomorrow, so we'd really only be visiting to take advantage of opening-hour waits in Avatarland. Still, we gotta get back to MK by mid-day for our FP and the Tomorrowland Dessert Fireworks Party --or whatever it's called-- that evening. I'd just as soon watch the fireworks from Main Street and keep the $158, but the little lady likes to feel fancy so I bought the reservations. Friday, Feb 9 - crowd level 5 This is our last full day. No morning plans...we'll just see what we want more of and go there. But we need to be at AK by mid-day because: -- 12:45 Tiffins reservation -- 3 PM Everest -- 5 PM Flight of Passage -- 6:45 Kilamanjaro Safari Safari at night! Should be cool. Also, lunch at Tiffins includes seating at Rivers of Light. Saturday, Feb 10 - crowd level 5 We always spend our last day at MK: -- 9:35 Space Mountain -- 10:45 Big Thunder -- 12:30 Seven Dwarfs Last time (almost 3 years ago) was our first post-FP+ visit, and we made the rookie mistake of booking the earliest-available FP, thinking we'd be able to start getting new ones once they had been used. Not so much. All the good ones are gone by then, or they're so late in the day we can't use them because we plan to park hop and/or have a dinner reservation. Our flight leaves at 5:30 PM, so we'll need to be on the Magical Express bus at 2:30. We'll request a late checkout, fingers crossed. I defintely prefer having the room right up until it's time to go. [rant]So far, I think FP+ sucks donkey balls. I vastly prefer the old system of running to the FP machines at rope-drop and getting what you could. No, seriously. The fact that I have the schedule above is because I was FORCED to have it. We've never ever had this level of planning and structure to our WDW vacations before (we've been like a dozen times going back almost 20 years). It fuckin sucks. I can't even imagine what it must be like for first-timer families with no idea what's going on. Enjoy the 3-hour waits, dipshits![/rant] We're seeing/doing a ton of new stuff this time, and I'm excited. The Avatar stuff is new, Rivers of Light, new Soarin', new Mission Space, Frozen Ever After, Trump in Hall of Presidents (This is really the best attraction out there. Far, far better than anything that third-world theme park Six Flags has to offer. Totally classy, all the way, definitely the best. The imagineers said it would cost $100 million, $150 million -- I came in and we got it done for $75 million. Those other president robots are way, way behind me in the polls, and nobody likes them. The Obama robot looks like the guy from Mad magazine, and Chester Arthur barely moves. My robot is fully articulated, state of the art, top-of-the-line all the way, and the numbers prove it.), and probably a few other things I can't think of right now. Lincoln fucked around with this message at 01:45 on Jan 10, 2018 |
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Jan 9, 2018 23:09
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Yeah that was a typo. I meant 1 PM.
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Jan 10, 2018 01:47
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Oops, I forgot to include this in the Hall of Presidents part of my post: I made it just for that! Looks kinda like Barbara Bush at that size.
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Jan 10, 2018 16:19
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This might be my imagination, but I've been hearing about the monorails being down a LOT over the past couple years. I know they're old, but what causes the breakdowns? It can't be one of the trains, because they can just wheel it into the maintenance bay & replace it, right? If the whole system is down because of a problem with the track, that's odd because it has virtually no moving parts. If the problem is old trains, poo poo Disney, spend a zillion dollars and replace them. The monorail system is central to that resort functioning properly.
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Jan 12, 2018 21:34
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My wife is excited because we’re arriving the day after the Super Bowl, and she’s convinced the MVP will be running around the parks that week. If it’s Tom Brady she will JUST DIE.
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Jan 19, 2018 16:05
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The biggest foul-up we ever had was when we had 4 guests’ worth of Dining Plan meals instead of 2. Their solution was to ask us to “only use half of them.” I think I even mentioned it in the OP. We leave for our next visit in 10 days. I’ll tell all of you if we experience a comparable vacation nightmare. Hey, speaking of the OP, it still needs a major overhaul. A few thread participants have messaged me to discuss taking it over, but it’s been awhile since anyone contacted me. If anyone out there is still interested, please PM me. If you’re not plat, we can find some other way to communicate. I HAVE A REAL JOB NOW.
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Jan 26, 2018 22:12
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couldcareless posted:Your real job should be forking over cash to the mouse I consider our vacation to be moonlighting. Actually, this will be our first real vacation since I became fully self-employed. I’m bringing the laptop and I’ll spend some time each morning and/or evening responding to customers’ voice- and e-mails. We’ve gone on trips in the past couple years, but they were either low-maintenance long weekends or work-related trips. WDW has always been our 100% fun space, and neither of us is too thrilled at the idea of sweating work details while we’re there.
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Jan 27, 2018 13:47
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Saladman posted:I am, however, familiar with AC. Animal Cingdom, sure.
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Jan 28, 2018 22:27
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How do you request a Minnie van? Can you request/pay for Minnie van the MDE app? How?
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Jan 30, 2018 19:37
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Got here early afternoon Monday. MK was packed with insufferable Eagles fans here to watch the parade, making GBS threads up our wait times. Tuesday was supposed to be a 3/10 crowd, but still had long lines at Epcot all day. Met a nice couple from New York & hung out with them for a couple of hours at Cava Del Tequila. Frozen ride sucks. Today it’s HS, followed by we’ll see. Hope to post pics soon. loving Eagles fans.
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Feb 7, 2018 13:33
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Pretty sure I’m in Brazil right now.
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Feb 9, 2018 17:26
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Line for flight of passage was 210 minutes one hour after opening this morning.
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Feb 9, 2018 17:29
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Had Tiffin’s for lunch. Good, not great. Do not understand the hype.
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Feb 9, 2018 19:32
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Flight of Passage awesome
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Feb 9, 2018 23:57
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Wow that trip was insane. Got home late last night, and the first thing my wife & I talked about this morning was the crowds. I don't subscribe to Touring Plans, so I don't know what their calendar said, but Undercover Tourist had our six days as 3, 3, 3, 5, 5, 6 (of 10). BULLSHIT. 75 minute wait for Pirates is not a 3. Day 1 was understandable, as we hit the MK about 1 PM after checking in, and immediately saw a million Eagles jerseys. We figured the Super Bowl parade would be that day, so we rolled with it. Still, insanely crowded with even minor attractions having 60 minute waits and all the headliners at 90 to 150. We has FP+ for Space, Dwarves and Big Thunder. Then we got a fourth for...I don't remember. Buzz Lightyear, maybe. SPEAKING OF WHICH, we've been coming to WDW regularly since 1999, and I surprised my wife with the news that you can just hold the button down on Buzz and the gun will fire continuously. the view from our room:  Big Pine Key, 5th floor, lagoon view. No view of the castle (would normally cost extra, or you ask for a free upgrade), but we were really happy with the room. My default request is always for "highest floor available." Tomorrowland, viewed from Teacups:  This is a pretty good "average" crowd density while we were there. Sometimes lighter, sometimes heavier. Me, flirting with death:  I didn't actually lick it. Finished the evening at Tambu Lounge, next to O'hana. We walked into Trader Sam's, but there wasn't any good seating. It wasn't really that crowded, and there were a few empty seats (none together), but it was incredibly loud. I'm hard of hearing (very, very old) and it was too much for me. So we're like 'gently caress this noise,' and we went upstairs for $12 cocktails. Ugh. Like, a glass of beer is $11 at Tambu Lounge. Crazy.  Day 2 began with breakfast at O'hana. We took the monorail rather than walk. Thank heaven Disney is keeping us safe:  for reference: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-disney-epcot-monorail-doors-open-20180109-story.html Went back to the Flo after breakfast, then got on a bus to Hollywood Studios. They now have these monitors at the bus stations, which were really handy:  The ETAs would go up or down based on the bus' proximity, so it's a pretty sophisticated system. This is HS 30 minutes before the turnstiles opened:  This is the least-popular park, on a Tuesday that's supposed to have very light crowds, 30 minutes before they even open the gate. We still had to wait another 20 or so for rope-drop. So much for the "crowds will thin after the Eagles fans go home" theory. So we ran to RNR Coaster, rode it twice, then did ToT, then did all our FP+ rides. We did all the headliners by late-morning, and took a boat to Epcot. Spent the rest of the day there and got drunk with a retired couple from upstate New York that afternoon. Visited la Cava del Tequila for the first time ever. The guy recommended the jalapeño margarita. It was awful. Then beers at Germany, then Frozen Ever After. I believe I posted my opinion on that attraction immediately after riding. Day 3, back to MK. Still crowded AF:  I bought that hat earlier in the day after losing mine on Splash Mountain. We immediately rode Big Thunder, and my wife lost her just-purchased sunglasses as we were pulling back into the station after the ride was over. At least I lost my hat during the Chick-a-pin Hill drop. And by just-purchased, I mean she bought them at the Emporium on the way into the park that morning. Dumbo looks great at night:  Day 4 we hit Epcot at rope-drop, did all the headliners and hung out at World Showcase for a more leisurely mid-day and afternoon. We had to get back to MK late-afternoon for the Tomorrowland Terrace fireworks dessert party. Nice view:  Between the 7:15 castle projection show and the 8:00 fireworks, this lady came out to give every table a big cellophane-wrapped souvenir bag of M&Ms. This one guy apparently couldn't wait the 30 seconds it was going to take for her to make it around to his table, so he went up to her cart when her attention was elsewhere and tried to grab two bags with one hand. He must have poked a hole in one with his finger, because as soon as he lifted it off the cart it opened up and a million M&Ms went K-CHHHHHHHH all over the floor. Karma. Holy poo poo that lady was mad. Day 5 was Animal Kingdom day. We weren't able to make rope-drop, but we had FP to Flight of Passage, Everest and the night-time safari. We waited in the stand-by line for Na'vi River Journey, and while it was nice, it sure as poo poo wasn't worth the posted 75-minute wait (we actually waited in line for exactly one hour). Flight of Passage was great, but should have been built with a higher capacity. I predict 2-hour waits will be the norm for the next several years. Disney could have built a few more ride-rooms into the system. Yes, the infrastructure is expensive, but why didn't they learn their lesson from having to add a third theater to Soarin'? Or a third track to Toy Story? One ride-room (don't know what else to call it) holds 16 people, and the ride itself is 4.5 minutes. I don't know how many ride-rooms they have, but even combined with the pre-show room, they don't take much space. The hourly capacity of the ride is about 1500/hour. That's worse than Space Mountain, Jungle Cruise, Soarin', ToT, RNR Coaster -- and on par with 7 Dwarfs. That's also the old hourly capacity of Toy Story before they added the third track, and the 2-track version was considered an epic disaster from a wait-time perspective. The reason we waited until our last full day to do the Avatar stuff was because it was the only day we could score a FP+ to FoP, and we booked our Fastpasses as soon as we could. We ran into multiple families that didn't know how to game the system properly, and went without FPes to a lot of headliner attractions. I don't care what anyone else here says, the system is deeply flawed, and actively screws over first-time visitors or people who can't plan 60 (not 59, 60) days in advance, for whatever reason. Keep in mind that we booked our AK Fastpasses 65 days early and still barely got a FoP FP. None were available any other day of our vacation. Day 6 was our final day, and we had to board our Magical Express bus at 2:00 PM. We checked our bags that morning (our boarding passes were delivered to our room overnight), and stashed our carry-ons with the bell desk. Our Magical Express experience was completely flawless, and is one of the best things Disney does. We went from the bus --> security check --> gate. No physical check-in, no bag-check. And we're both TSA Pre-Check, so we breezed through airport security. Highly recommended. Spent the half-day at MK from rope-drop to about 1:00 PM. We had FP+ for Space, Big Thunder and Dwarfs, so we hit all the other headliners right away, then rode whatever minor attractions we hadn't been on yet, as the lines were relatively short. I got to be a knight in Enchanted Tales with Belle:  I don't look too stalky here, do I? I do? Well, I'm actually looking at my wife, who's taking the picture. The two "knights" are the last characters to pose with Belle, and it's inevitably two creeper dads. Bog-standard poo poo-eating grins:  Man, that actress playing Belle has a really hard gig. She was 100% "on" the entire time, and they allow time for anyone who wants to interact with her. I know this because I had to hold up that knight's helmet for a good ten minutes after the actual show was over. Don't know what they pay her, but she earns it. I was amazed and disappointed at the number of grownups who insisted on getting a picture with her. She took it all in stride. Waiting to leave, one last shot at the hotel:  That's Richard, and he's been working at the GF forever. He greets people as they're arriving, and he was kind enough to pose for the pic. So, the crowds weren't close to July 4th or Christmas Day levels, of course, but they were way higher than we expected, and we specifically planned to visit that week because crowds were expected to be much lower. Talked to a few cast members about it, and the consensus seemed to be: BRAZILIANS It was still summer break for Brazilian and Argentinian students, and we definitely saw our share of tour groups. But they weren't loving everywhere like we've seen in the past, so that was good. Still, we heard more Portuguese than English some days. Always on guard for line-jumpers. At one point I told my wife, "We should go on vacation in Brazil and spend a week making GBS threads-up their country," but then I remembered they had beaten us to it. CHEERLEADERS The second half of our stay coincided with a dance/cheer competition, so there's another 15,000 people in the parks. HURRICANE IRMA A lot of people had their WDW vacations interrupted by Hurricane Irma in 2017, and Disney re-scheduled most of them for late January and February. So for our next visit, we've agreed on two things: we'll schedule it for fall (October or so), and we'll triple-check for special non-Disney events (cheerleaders, Pop Warner) that could impact crowd levels. Lincoln fucked around with this message at 17:55 on Feb 11, 2018 |
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Feb 11, 2018 17:11
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Who doesn't!
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Feb 11, 2018 18:39
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 22:02 |
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Let me be the first to welcome all of you to the Something Awful forums, where other people often tell offensive jokes. I think you’ll like it here.
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Feb 12, 2018 10:20
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