Any Disney World Fans?

Donovan759
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Donovan759 6/12/2018 7:40am
6/12/2018 7:40am
Donovan759 wrote:
I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures soon. I'm going for the first time in a month. The wife and I will be on a family...
I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures soon. I'm going for the first time in a month. The wife and I will be on a family vacation w/ her whole family down near Universal Studios. We're so close we figured we might as well go for a day. At first I was pretty indifferent about it all, but now that the time is getting closer, I'm really looking forward to it.
TXDirt wrote:
You won't get much covered in a day!! What park are you going to? I rank the parks in this order. 1. Magic Kingdom 2. Animal...
You won't get much covered in a day!! What park are you going to?

I rank the parks in this order.

1. Magic Kingdom
2. Animal Kingdom
3. Hollywood Studios
4. Epcot

They are all fun and different.

The new Pandora area at Animal Kingdom is awesome. They have two rides there. The Navi river which was cool and then the big attraction is the Flight of Passage. Which is one of the coolest rides I have ever been on. The lines are long. I highly recommend Fast Passes for both rides. Or get to the park an hour early and be one of the first in and make your way to that area. If you have a Fast Pass the wait is 20-30 minutes. If you are in the general line then the wait can be 2+ hours.

If I had one day to go to one park it would be Magic Kingdom. That's where most of the rides are. You have the iconic castle, main street etc. Space Mtn, Thunder Mtn, Splash Mtn, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Peter Pans Flight, It's a Small World, Swiss Family Treehouse, Tom Sawyer Island, etc etc.
We're planning to go to Magic Kingdom and spend the whole day there. I think we're using our fast passes at Space Mtn, Peter Pans Flight, and Thunder Mtn. I'm not 100% sure on that though. The wife did all the planning.
lumpy790
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lumpy790 7/4/2018 10:51am
7/4/2018 10:51am
My wife and I have gone 1 other time and are going for 5 days right after thanksgiving on the 1st day they are open after Christmas decorations. We buy everything from Disney and get the hotel, food plan, speed passes pictures. Flew in the last time and the whole experience is amazing with the bus ride and returned back to the airport already passed through security with bags checked at the hotel.

The Disney staffs friendliness and attention can not be matched anywhere!
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TXDirt
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TXDirt 7/5/2018 1:55pm
7/5/2018 1:55pm
lumpy790 wrote:
My wife and I have gone 1 other time and are going for 5 days right after thanksgiving on the 1st day they are open after...
My wife and I have gone 1 other time and are going for 5 days right after thanksgiving on the 1st day they are open after Christmas decorations. We buy everything from Disney and get the hotel, food plan, speed passes pictures. Flew in the last time and the whole experience is amazing with the bus ride and returned back to the airport already passed through security with bags checked at the hotel.

The Disney staffs friendliness and attention can not be matched anywhere!
That's the way to do it!!

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level
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level 7/7/2018 5:10pm
7/7/2018 5:10pm
I was miserable when we went. Maybe we didn’t do it right. The issue was it was so damn hot. I mean it was just brutal. Then the long lines. It was not a good experience.
lumpy790
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lumpy790 7/7/2018 5:38pm
7/7/2018 5:38pm
crashnuke wrote:
Favorite restaurant: [img]https://p.vitalmx.com/photos/forums/2018/07/05/272311/s1200_sci_fi_dine_in.jpg[/img]
Favorite restaurant:


Cool wife already made reservation
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FLmxer
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FLmxer 7/8/2018 6:26am
7/8/2018 6:26am
level wrote:
I was miserable when we went. Maybe we didn’t do it right. The issue was it was so damn hot. I mean it was just brutal...
I was miserable when we went. Maybe we didn’t do it right. The issue was it was so damn hot. I mean it was just brutal. Then the long lines. It was not a good experience.
Here is the key to a successful trip. Go October or November. Stay at a Disney resort so you get early entry to parks. For Magic kingdom set your 3 fast passes for the right side of the park. Enter park and head left at circle towards wilderness area and start there counter clockwise. Everyone is memorized by the castle and space mountain and 90 percent go straight through castle or right to futureland. People are like sheep and very predictable in these situations. You can ride 4 to 6 rides before there is lines going that direction and then fast pass. Works everytime. We wait in only a couple longish lines max and ride every ride. Life is a strategic puzzle. Smile
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TXDirt
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TXDirt 1/3/2019 4:15pm
1/3/2019 4:15pm
We booked yesterday for 10 days at Disney World. Staying at The Contemporary hotel. We loved The Wilderness Lodge so really hoping we like The Contemporary hotel. It's close proximity to Magic Kingdom will be nice since I have four kids. (9,8,4,2).

Getting excited!! Already started booking our dining plans.
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TXDirt
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TXDirt 1/10/2019 5:57am
1/10/2019 5:57am
GeorgiePorgie wrote:
What’s the orange band?
The orange band (comes in other colors) is used to get into parks, pay for food and souvenirs, unlock your hotel room door, use your fast passes, etc. Each paying member has one. Though for example my kids can use theirs to get in park, get in hotel room, etc, they can’t use it to buy anything.

The wristband is your key to the kingdom so to speak.
Harry Backmon 1/10/2019 11:43am
1/10/2019 11:43am
I'm glad you guys like it. There is a certain charm about the place, but it has just got so crowded and so expensive. Back in the early 1980s you could go the weekend after any major holiday and ride every ride without waiting. Now days, so many people are just self-centered jerks and I don't want to be around them.

To sum up... I had rather kiss a rattle snake on the snout than spend one more minute there.
OldPro277
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OldPro277 1/10/2019 1:08pm
1/10/2019 1:08pm
We went from 12/15-12/23 .4 days at the Disney parks and 4 days at Universal. We didn't stay at the Contemporary ,but we have. Its pretty nice for being one of the first Disney hotels built. Coolest part is that the Monorail runs right thru it. The above advice is correct. Fast passes are a must. The only thing that sucks is that Disney restricts your Fast Passes to 3 rides per day. Universal's Express pass can be used as many times as possible in a day,BIG difference. The wrist bands that Disney uses also is matched to your thumbprint/fingerprint, so if you lose it(which I did after waaaay too many beverages at Disney Springs) it can't be used by another person.
For my money, being that we have no youngun's (my daughter is 29) Universal is vastly more fun.That being said, Soaring in Epcot, and the Avatar Flight in Animal Kingdom are super bad-ass.
As far as crowds........ They've actually have had to close entry to Magic Kingdom a few times. Apparently the Christmas vacation season is the busiest of the year, who knew ?? Lol. I was told by a couple of Disney people that max capacity of MK is 100,000. Not sure if thats true, but it gives you an idea how many people these places hold. Beyond all of that both Disney and Universal are great vacation spots...
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FLmxer
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FLmxer 1/11/2019 8:06am
1/11/2019 8:06am Edited Date/Time 1/11/2019 10:09am
Awesome. Looks like you guys had a great time. Just spent a week at Animal Kingdom lodge. We like to get 2 suites at the end so we can see both sides of the animal habitat. Love it there, our home away from home. The VIP room is awesome too for 24 hour food and beverage. The resort is like another park in itself. Giraffes sleep right outside your window. Our daughter planned this whole trip and we timed it perfectly. 6 days 2 parks a day except one relax day. So fun. Caught a real bad flu tho but worth it. They have to raise the prices because they get too many visitors now with the economy and all vacation rentals are booked more than ever. It's crazy they are getting 3 times the visitors on their slowest days.
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TXDirt
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TXDirt 6/4/2019 8:13am
6/4/2019 8:13am
We just got back from a 10 day Disney World trip. Stayed at The Contemporary Resort and it was a great place. We stayed at a smaller building (I think it's called The Garden Wing) on the resort property and it was perfect because we had beach and pool access nearly right outside our door. An incredible family trip. Went to every park multiple times. Ate like kings at places like California Grill, Tiffins, Tony's, Be Our Guest, Princess Dinning, Chef Mickey, The Wave, etc.

The staff was amazing as always. They go the extra mile for the kids. When I get some time I'll detail a few examples. A great trip with memories that will last a life time.
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motosmith
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motosmith 6/4/2019 8:50am
6/4/2019 8:50am
brlatm wrote:
Take a big fat ass wallet for just eating there. We went about 5yrs ago, stayed at the Animal Kingdom resort. I was more mad that...
Take a big fat ass wallet for just eating there. We went about 5yrs ago, stayed at the Animal Kingdom resort. I was more mad that I had to pay $40 for a buffet breakfast than anything. Not really a fan of overpaying for stuff and my kids are 19 and 15 now so I won't be going back.

The rides are pretty cool inside the park, the Aerosmith one and the one that drops the shit out of you (can't recall the name).
TXDirt wrote:
Tower of Terror and Rock N Roll Coaster over at Hollywood Studios. Two great rides. Yes, you do pay a lot for food depending on where...
Tower of Terror and Rock N Roll Coaster over at Hollywood Studios. Two great rides.

Yes, you do pay a lot for food depending on where you eat. It's more of a case of pay as much or as little as you want.

If you want to go cheap, then go with the quick serve places.

The expensive places will be either the fine dinning, or the character dining places. For example, at Chef Mickey all of the characters come around to your table. Micky, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, etc. You can get pictures with all the kids and the characters. At Chef Mickey is was buffet style breakfast but it was easily the best buffet breakfast I've ever had. But you are really paying for those character interactions, not the food. Breakfast cost me around $250 for our group of seven. So around $40 a person. Really not that bad.

You can meet the characters in the parks, but be prepared for long lines and waiting in the heat to get a photo. So paying the extra money at the character dining to get several characters at once, and enjoy some good food at the same time isn't a bad deal.

We also did character dining at the princess castle. And all of the princesses come to your table one by one and you get pictures, kisses, etc. And the food was absolutely awesome! It wasn't buffet style. You had a menu. Again, for our group of seven it was around $300. But it was totally worth it to see the kids enjoyment from meeting all of the princesses.

We also did character dinning at Be our Guest which is at the Beasts castle. Probably the hardest place to get a reservation. The food was absolutely amazing and you got your picture with the Beast. It's a great experience and worth the money if you have kids.

Tower of Terror damaged me. That ride is fucked. I went last week at California Adventure. The ride is now Guardians of the Galaxy..
TXDirt
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TXDirt 6/4/2019 9:48am
6/4/2019 9:48am
motosmith wrote:
Tower of Terror damaged me. That ride is fucked. I went last week at California Adventure. The ride is now Guardians of the Galaxy..
At Disney World it's still Tower of Terror. But there is talks of it being changed to Guardians of the Galaxy. I think that would be a shame as the Tower of Terror is iconic and still a great ride and the inside is themed so well. Proof that people still enjoy it is by the two hour ride lines for it.

We used Fast Passes on it every day we went to Hollywood studios so wait time was maybe 15 minutes.
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TXDirt
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TXDirt 6/7/2019 7:09am
6/7/2019 7:09am
Just a sample of our meals there.

















FLmxer
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FLmxer 6/7/2019 11:13am
6/7/2019 11:13am
I just got back again and the food was amazing. Caught the cold for the 4 th visit in a row but this is just a cough and not bad at all. Actually already planning another and got my daughter a week next week for het birthday. We average 6 trips a year. We are only 3 hours away though. We just love the place.
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TXDirt
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TXDirt 6/7/2019 1:00pm
6/7/2019 1:00pm
FLmxer wrote:
I just got back again and the food was amazing. Caught the cold for the 4 th visit in a row but this is just a...
I just got back again and the food was amazing. Caught the cold for the 4 th visit in a row but this is just a cough and not bad at all. Actually already planning another and got my daughter a week next week for het birthday. We average 6 trips a year. We are only 3 hours away though. We just love the place.
I think out of everything I had this trip I think the Shrimp Scampi at Tony’s was my favorite still. Which I get every trip. California Grill was awesome. Nine Dragons in Epcot was also really good. And of course we ate dinner at the princess castle and also dinner at Be Our Guest in the west wing with the rose on display. The Wave at the Contemporary was good for breakfast lunch and dinner. We loved that hotel. Our room was in the perfect location for us.

First thing I did when I got back home was started looking at dates and prices for when we can go back!! Amazing place!!
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Elbows
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Elbows 6/9/2019 9:58am
6/9/2019 9:58am Edited Date/Time 6/9/2019 10:02am
I’ve been to Disney World probably 25 times and love the place. People ask me about going and what they need to know. I always tell them there’s two rules for going to Disney. Don’t go when it’s hot and don’t go when it’s crowded. I realize that’s getting harder to do every year but we always pick the least crowded weeks to go in the fall or winter. Standing in long lines in 90+ degree heat is not a lot of fun. We went on a Disney cruise last September and it was awesome! I would highly recommend it even though the prices are high.

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