tAll Encompassing Disney Thread

[Baboontyme 2806]

Resident experts: Mr. Phlegm, Rippin Lips, mdmost

Ask away.

Me  - I'm thinking about trip #4 in 5 years to WDW this summer because free condo and I can't think of anything else my kids would rather do at their ages. I also may have some weasel tips for you if you stay off property. 

[mdmost 42694]

It's A tAll World After All

[Baboontyme 2806]

md have you ever seen the (more recent) Simpsons episode where they go to "Diz-nee World" and ride "Mr. Bugs Slow Crawl"? 

New Simpsons are <<< Old Simpsons but that was pretty solid. 

[Brew 2993]

Just dropped my kids and wife at the airport for them to head to Disney. I’m going to fly down later this week just in time for it to get close to 90 degrees. Man I’m (not) excited. Looks like we’re heading to DL this summer as well, so if someone can repost the recs at some point for places to stay around it I would be appreciative. We’re going to do one day at each park and then head over to San Diego for a few days.

My wife and I were on the same page about never going to Disney, but somewhere along the way she changed her mine because that will be 4 trips inside of 24 months.

[mdmost 42694]

We stayed at the Howard Johnson and  The Grand Legacy at the Park. Depending on the age of your kids, the HJ is pretty good for younger kids as it has a splash park and a few slides. Next to it is the Embassy Suites which had slides and a pool for bigger kids. Both were under a 10 minute walk from the gate

[CooterBrown 17850]

Been to DLR 12 times in the past 4 years.  We generally stay at the Hyatt Regency. The kids suites are a good price and it has a solid bar that has good SoCal brews on tap and decent food.  It has it's own private shuttle to DLR every hour.

We are going again in November and for a change of pace we are renting this house that is a 15 minute walk to parking garage shuttle stop.

https://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p683589vb

 

[MrPhlegm 3413]

19 hours ago, Baboontyme said:

Resident experts: Mr. Phlegm, Rippin Lips, mdmost

Ask away.

Me  - I'm thinking about trip #4 in 5 years to WDW this summer because free condo and I can't think of anything else my kids would rather do at their ages. I also may have some weasel tips for you if you stay off property. 

Goddamn evil shit.

 

Twice I have been in that evil shit ride, once at the worlds fair once at MK.

never again

[Brew 2993]

New Pandora rides are solid, but there is no way I’m waiting 3+ hours for a ride like some of these people. One ride with a FastPass was plenty.

[Pato del Muerto 52228]

Headed to the airport in a couple of hours, 2 day passes with max pass in hand for aneheim.

One thing that worries me is one of our boys has some sensory issues, and if he gets on an attraction that scares him, he may not go on anything else. 

Is there anything that I should avoid until the end of the day?

[mdmost 42694]

What is he most sensitive to? Lights? Sounds? Graphics? A combo? How old?

Lights- there are some flashes when they take your picture on rides like Space Mountain, Guardians (I'd advise against this until the very end). Indiana Jones has a lot of flashing lights and is a pretty dark ride.

Sounds-not very many of the rides are loud. It can get loud in the Indy ride. The motor sound on the Autorama is loud. 

Graphics-you have to wear 3D glasses on Midway Mania and Star Tours.

[Pato del Muerto 52228]

Speed, height, unexpected drops, darkness. I think he would be ok with lights and sounds. 

[mdmost 42694]

Big Thunder doesn't have a ton of drops but maybe save that one for later. Space Mountain I would skip. It's has all 4 of those. Guardians too. Indy goes pretty fast and is open air but has dark parts. It's a car based ride. Pirates has two smallish drops, one after the beginning and one near the middle, IIRC. Splash Mountain has a large drop but it's near the end and is outside. Matterhorn is fast and bumpy but all mostly outdoors and not in darkness. You won't have to worry about California Screamin since it's down for the Pixar Pier redo. 

Edited April 1, 2018 by mdmost

[Pato del Muerto 52228]

Splash mountain is down too. Was planning on skipping space mountain. 

Didnt see California screamin in the list of offline attractions, but maybe I was only looking at the Disneyland list. 

[ShaggyBevo RIP 3867]

9 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Speed, height, unexpected drops, darkness. I think he would be ok with lights and sounds. 

Pirates has a drop in the dark. 

[Pato del Muerto 52228]

Well, we just spent 10 hours tearing up DLR. Headed back im an hour for fireworks then space mountain with one kid. Maxpass and fastpass are the shit.  Wasn’t sure about it but now I see that it’s a great load balancing tool for the park.

Play in the pacific tomorrow, then DCA Wednesday. 

[mdmost 42694]

Big Thunder at night is pretty kickass. I'd suggest another ride on that before it's all over.

[Pato del Muerto 52228]

45 minutes ago, mdmost said:

Big Thunder at night is pretty kickass. I'd suggest another ride on that before it's all over.

Space mountain fastpass is for 11:15. We will try the stand by line after fireworks but if it’s long we may head over and ride that again while we wait. And pirates. Missed that one today. 

Star tours is an amazing experience.

Edited April 3, 2018 by Pato del Muerto

[mdmost 42694]

Pirates you really have to do before noon. At DCA, try to get the Radiator Racers MaxPass first thing. If you’re doing Guardians too, you have to choose which one to MP and then head for the other one as both book up pretty quickly.   When you’re MP allows for the next booking, go for Midway Mania and then Soarin. If you’re only taking one kid on Guardians, you can see about a rider swap and that kid gets to ride with both parents. 

I think we booked Radiator, went to Midway Mania and then booked Guardians after that. We got a MP for Soarin for lunchtime. DCA isn’t going to have as much with the Pixar Pier renovations going on. Definitely make some time for the Redwood Challenge course. Kids will enjoy that. You can also get some decent beers in DCA.

[Pato del Muerto 52228]

Good day. More crowded than Monday. Booked radiator springs first thing, but by 830 when we finally got into the park it was already at 100 for fp. Next was guardians, at 330. Things filled up quick after that so soaring was 9 pm and midway mania at 930. 

But got it all in. 

Sensory son loved radiator springs, and did well on thunder mountain. Didn’t go on much else fast or dark though. 

Fitbit said 18 miles walked at dlr on Monday, and 13 today. 

Thanks for all the recs. Stayed at the Hilton at the convention center. Less than a mile walk, and for whatever reason got it for $125 a night this week. 

[mdmost 42694]

Cars Land is why I know Star Wars Land will be really well done. I'm not that big a fan of the Cars series but I love how well Cars Land was laid out. And Radiator Racers is great. It is a themed version of Test Track in Epcot but the hills and fake mountains really help sell the illusion. Glad y'all had a good time. 

[RexWilson 1341]

We stayed at the Anaheim Desert Inn and Suites. Not the fanciest place but it's a 5 minute walk to the gate and free breakfast (also not fancy but stuff you can grab and save for the park). The biggest con was the noise. People were loud as they walk past room and there was a garbage truck every morning at 6:45ish emptying a dumpster.

[RexWilson 1341]

Also, any of you Disney Vacation club members? I know timeshares in general seem to be kind of a scam. Didn't know if this was any different.

[ShaggyBevo RIP 3867]

8 minutes ago, RexWilson said:

Also, any of you Disney Vacation club members? I know timeshares in general seem to be kind of a scam. Didn't know if this was any different.

No different.  Annual maintenance fees are ridiculously high.  If it didn't benefit them they wouldn't push them so much.

We have Disney crazy family and don't want to be locked in for 40 years. There is a secondary market of both people selling theirs and renting out their points.

https://www.dvcresalemarket.com

http://www.dvc-resales.com/

http://www.disneytouristblog.com/renting-disney-vacation-club-points/

Edited April 5, 2018 by ShaggyBevo RIP

[Pato del Muerto 52228]

41 minutes ago, mdmost said:

Cars Land is why I know Star Wars Land will be really well done. I'm not that big a fan of the Cars series but I love how well Cars Land was laid out. And Radiator Racers is great. It is a themed version of Test Track in Epcot but the hills and fake mountains really help sell the illusion. Glad y'all had a good time. 

Kids want to go back as soon as Star Wars is done. Also want to ride whatever California screamin is called when it reopens. 

There an announced expected opening for those 2?

[mdmost 42694]

Star Wars Land isn't until summer 2019. We'll give it a full six months before we even think about going. It's going to be a mess for a good while but it should provide some relief to the other areas of the park. 

Pixarfied California Screamin will be back this August when the whole Pixar Pier gets up and running. 

[ShaggyBevo RIP 3867]

34 minutes ago, mdmost said:

Star Wars Land isn't until summer 2019. We'll give it a full six months before we even think about going. It's going to be a mess for a good while but it should provide some relief to the other areas of the park. 

Pixarfied California Screamin will be back this August when the whole Pixar Pier gets up and running. 

Definitely wait until SWL has been open in both parks. DL is going to be crazy with opening first.

[Pato del Muerto 52228]

As a bit of a lessons learned post, I’ll say this after reflection. 

I’d for sure get the magic hour or whatever it’s called. One hour earlier in the Park means to start your fast pass clock one hour earlier, meaning your pass times are earlier. 

Max pass was the key to our successful visit. Being able to not only pull a new fast pass at your next time for any ride from anywhere in the park, but also being able to compare available time slots for each of them to know which fast passes were going away the quickest so I knew which to select. 

Didnt get park hopper passes, and didn’t find any need for it. Maybe when the boys are older and want 4-6 rides only across both parks, but we did many of the smaller things and easily spent all day each day at each park. 

I was surprised how much I enjoyed the fantasmic show. Really cool. Better than world of color because of the live action aspect. 

Rode space mountain in 1986 in Orlando as an 8 year old. 32 years later it’s just as fun, though the cars seem to have gotten smaller. 

First time doing guardians/tower of terror. That’s an incredibly fun trip. 

[skipperj 377]

I get to go to a conference at Swan and Dolphin for a conference event in July. Sounds like I just get to enjoy the heat of Orlando in July and the crowds that are Disney without actually entering the parks for anything. Sounds awesome.

Thinking about staying an extra day and drinking around the world at Epcot by myself.

[mdmost 42694]

I would definitely like to do the drinking around the world at Epcot if I had some reason to be in Orlando by myself. The hefeweizen at Biergarten was a nice reward for racing my ass around the park to get the kids the rides they wanted. 

I just don't think CA has enough to do to justify not getting the park hopper. We even used that to ride Guardians late at night back in October because they switched it to a monster theme after 6pm. I agree with you on Maxpass. I wish WDW would take up that option instead of the 90 days in advance ones which puts you at a disadvantage to people who are staying earlier than you and can map out their whole stay. 

Edited April 7, 2018 by mdmost

[Ogie Ogilthorpe 637]

Drinking Epcot is great, if you are Swan and Dolphin you can get in right by UK/France. Have a pint at the pub in the UK then head to France and around. If timing is right you can see Tyko drums in Japan while enjoying a Kirin. Then head to Germany for a beer and a pretzel. Eventually you will end up with Canada and another pint in the UK.

[ShaggyBevo RIP 3867]

Educate me on DL or what sites to learn the ins and outs of DL. I haven't been in 40 years. I know WDW extremely well; we have APs.  Our planned WDW trip at the end of May beginning of June, that I booked months ago, has been borked by others' travel plans for coming in for our eldest's HS graduation. Which in turn makes the calendar for college orientation week and then move-in week come into play.  Trying to talk the family out of Orlando in the middle of the summer.

Is 5 days too long at DL? Mix in Knott's Berry or SD Wild Animal Park?

Edited April 16, 2018 by ShaggyBevo RIP

[mdmost 42694]

The site I really like is disneylanddaily.com/. She does a really good job of spelling out the best strategies to use for the new MaxPass system and some of the nighttime dining and fireworks/Fantasmic packages. We used her plans the last time we went in October and it worked perfectly. She also has a good Facebook feed if you're on there.

We've done 4 days on our first trip and 2+1/2 on our 2nd. I would mix in a beach/LA day if you like Southern California. Our first trip we did DLR on Day 1, CA on Day 2, back to DLR for Day 3, beach/sightseeing in LA day 4, and DLR in the morning, Huntington Beach for a few hours and a final night at DLR for day 5.  

FIrst trip had no park hopper. Shorter trip was with park hopper. 

Edited April 16, 2018 by mdmost

[CooterBrown 17850]

5 days is a long time at DLR. We've done everything from 1 to 5.  3 is our sweet spot. We haven't done park hopper in a long time but we may do park hopper on just the third day in November. I need to look and see if it's cheaper to get a 2-day + 1-park hopper or a 3-day park hopper.

 

 

[CooterBrown 17850]

Got the urge and booked a 3-day DLR trip over Memorial Day weekend. 

[Brew 2993]

Looks like we are going Fall Break plus adding in Universal while out there. I need to scan back through the Shaggy thread for info.

[mdmost 42694]

We're going to Universal Orlando the weekend of October 20th. Bye week for Texas and kids get an extra Fair Day that Friday so we're heading out Thursday after school. Staying at Royal Pacific so we can take advantage of the Universal version of Fastpass. Kids are big into Harry Potter so we're doing all the wizard shit with the wands and butter beer. Only doing 2.5 park days. 

[Brew 2993]

Their version of FastPass is the best system of any of the parks in my opinion. There is rarely much of a wait and kids can ride what they like over and over without it taking much time like they can with the single rider line at Disney.

[mdmost 42694]

Originally this was a Harry Potter World only trip. After looking over the park maps and reading about some of the attractions, we decided it was worth it to spend the extra and go for the "better" hotel. We'd rather stay at Cabana Bay but the ability to walk on rides was too good to pass up. I'll have to say, Universal's website and apps are awful. Just clunky and so much worse to use than the Disney ones. 

Edited May 16, 2018 by mdmost

[pepper brooks 579]

On 4/15/2018 at 11:13 PM, ShaggyBevo RIP said:

Educate me on DL or what sites to learn the ins and outs of DL. I haven't been in 40 years. I know WDW extremely well; we have APs.  Our planned WDW trip at the end of May beginning of June, that I booked months ago, has been borked by others' travel plans for coming in for our eldest's HS graduation. Which in turn makes the calendar for college orientation week and then move-in week come into play.  Trying to talk the family out of Orlando in the middle of the summer.

Is 5 days too long at DL? Mix in Knott's Berry or SD Wild Animal Park?

You could throw in a day at universal.  That’s totally worth it.  

[Knoxtnhorn 5923]

Going to DW for 7 days 3rd week of June.  Staying in Animal Kingdom.  I keep telling myself that it’s for the kids.  The amount of alcohol that seems to be on the premise is making me feel better.

[Txzen 498]

7 hours ago, pepper brooks said:

You could throw in a day at universal.  That’s totally worth it.  

This. Once upon a time, there was no 'there' there...but they've really continued to add attractions. 

[Baboontyme 2806]

1 hour ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

Going to DW for 7 days 3rd week of June.  Staying in Animal Kingdom.  I keep telling myself that it’s for the kids.  The amount of alcohol that seems to be on the premise is making me feel better.

powder your balls and wear compression short type underwear. 

[Brew 2993]

27 minutes ago, Baboontyme said:

powder your balls and wear compression short type underwear. 

It’s going to be hot and muggy for sure. We went the last week of March and the temps were in the 90’s. I’ve told my wife I’m only going between Fall break and Spring break, any other time and she is on her own.

[skipperj 377]

This picture in the article was bothering me until I noticed why. Now it’s annoying the shit out of me.

 

 

[mdmost 42694]

Why is MK backwards?

[ShaggyBevo RIP 3867]

10 hours ago, pepper brooks said:

You could throw in a day at universal.  That’s totally worth it.  

I lost out to WDW. On the plus side we have FPs for the opening weekend of Pixar Place.

[skipperj 377]

Why is MK backwards?

Exactly.

[Knoxtnhorn 5923]

Weird question.

Does anyone know what the gun policy is @ Disneyworld?  Before anyone gets the wrong idea, I don't want to take my gun into the park.  We're going to be driving all over the Southeastern US for almost 3 weeks with a stop @ Disney.  I would prefer to bring it with me for the driving part of the trip.  I've searched Disney.com and online and I keep seeing conflicting info. I've read no guns anywhere in park, check it in with security, and check it in at the resort desk.  I have no problem leaving it with security or checking it in somewhere.  Like I said, I have no desire to take it into the resort or park.  I do have a CCL fwiw.

[Brew 2993]

Just wear a come and take it shirt and MAGA hat and you should be good to go.

i believ they have a no gun policy on resort and in the parks. If you stay off site it can remain in your vehicle while at the parks. If you stay on resort it must be checked and held at the front desk. I would just double check it when you book a room.

[skipperj 377]

Don't shoot Goofy, plz.