tAll Encompassing Disney Thread

[mdmost 43915]

7 minutes ago, Hornbeliever said:

Can't believe number of families I saw arguing with each other.  Told my wife we are so lucky to not be paying a bunch of money to be miserable.

You'll note it's "the Most Magical Place on Earth" at WDW and not "the Happiest Place on Earth" like at Disneyland. Wife and I would chuckle at all the parents going off on their kids. Everyone is good for at least one of those. It doesn't help that you're standing on the surface of the sun. You're paying so much money that it can be hard to relax. That's why Disneyland is a better option, IMO. 

[SimonBolivar 11062]

9 minutes ago, Hornbeliever said:

Can't believe number of fat people in electric scooters at parks.  

Can't believe number of families I saw arguing with each other.  Told my wife we are so lucky to not be paying a bunch of money to be miserable.

Those are two great reasons to go to WDW. People watching is fantastic. 

[mdmost 43915]

5 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

Those are two great reasons to go to WDW. People watching is fantastic. 

My damaged heels would beg to differ. S-heads with scooters and strollers constantly misjudging the distance between them and the back of my feet. 

[SimonBolivar 11062]

12 minutes ago, mdmost said:

My damaged heels would beg to differ. S-heads with scooters and strollers constantly misjudging the distance between them and the back of my feet. 

I once missed a showing of Impressions de France when a lady in a scooter in the small waiting room hit the gas instead of the brakes and hit the wall at full speed. They canceled the next showing to get the paramedics in to make sure she was still able to still purchase food for next 3 hours. 

[MNLonghornFUKM 8965]

Just went to MK and epcot.  Tron is legit but short.  GoG ride is also great.  
It's hot and tiring experience but for kids, gotta do it.  I would never pay money to go myself but since you're doing it for family, you can choose to be angry or try to have fun and it's much better to just change mindset.  
Standby skipper is key.  It basically gave us VIP experience without the cost as we always had Lightning Lanes waiting for us so we didn't wait in line anywhere really....But did have to traverse park various times and luckily our 13 and 7 year old didn't care (30,000 daily steps).  Tron LL pass was additional $80 for our family of 4, fyi, but bypass virtual queue of an hour.
Food sucks at MK so be prepared to eat weak cafeteria food.  Epcot food (and alcohol) way better.
Can't believe number of fat people in electric scooters at parks.  
Can't believe number of families I saw arguing with each other.  Told my wife we are so lucky to not be paying a bunch of money to be miserable.

LOL

The scooter folks always get me.Especially those who hop off and board without a problem. Olds and fats I get but I’ve seen some Able bodied people get out pretty easily to board rides

[mdmost 43915]

People keep wilding out at Epcot. Probably due to the alcohol.

 

[MNLonghornFUKM 8965]

I’ve never drank around the world but I can think of a thousand different places I’d rather get shitfaced than spend hundreds at freaking Epcot surrounded by families and getting kicked off of Los Cabbarellos of all rides

[mdmost 43915]

4 minutes ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

I’ve never drank around the world but I can think of a thousand different places I’d rather get shitfaced than spend hundreds at freaking Epcot surrounded by families and getting kicked off of Los Cabbarellos of all rides

One of the best comments is "Imagine your last ride in Disney ever to be 3 caballeros". 

[Ghost of LL 15681]

On 6/18/2023 at 9:31 AM, Hornbeliever said:

Can't believe number of fat people in electric scooters at parks.  

Can't believe number of families I saw arguing with each other.  Told my wife we are so lucky to not be paying a bunch of money to be miserable.

The scooters are a real problem when it's crowded (which is most of the time).  It's not just that they're slow, that their drivers will roll over the feet of the people around them, or that there's the occasional (but not infrequent) accidental acceleration.  It's that they take up the space in a crowd of three people.  And so in those small passageways that are frequent in MK, they really cause some serious bottlenecks.

The families arguing is just really fascinating to me.  I mean, I get why one would be frustrated.  It's hot; it's expensive; there's a ton of pressure for everybody to have infinite amounts of fucking fun!  But at the same time, just fucking relax.  How hard is it to let shit go?

[CooterBrown 18285]

Even worse than the scooters was a brief moment in time about 5 years ago when everyone had these monstrosities at DLR. Disney banned them at all parks after about a month of them coming on the market. Unfortunately, we were there when they could be used and it was insane how in the way these things were.

[BHMCruiser 1828]

I actually thought there were fewer fat scooter people this time than the last time I went

[Hornbeliever 727]

3 hours ago, BHMCruiser said:

I actually thought there were fewer fat scooter people this time than the last time I went

You must have gone on National Pancake Day because there were lots and lots of fat scooter people last week.

To balance it out, we’re in Portsmouth New Hampshire now and haven’t seen one obese person nor a scooter here.  While I’m thinking about it, haven’t seen a Waffle House either.

[MNLonghornFUKM 8965]

You must have gone on National Pancake Day because there were lots and lots of fat scooter people last week.
To balance it out, we’re in Portsmouth New Hampshire now and haven’t seen one obese person nor a scooter here.  While I’m thinking about it, haven’t seen a Waffle House either.

Fuck Waffle House would slam right about now tho

[The Dog 44853]

Not sure if anyone here is familiar with "The DIS" or Disboards, but there's some drama there:

 

https://tattle.life/wiki/the-disunplugged#

from the reddit post:

Quote

For those who aren’t aware, The Dis was (and still kind of is) a major Disney trip planning forum that has been around for a long time. Pete Werner used to co-own it with John Magi, who still seems to have an active interest in the company.

Pete Werner is being sued by Amex, there’s something like $900,000 worth that he is owed.

Dustin West and Sean Faulk, both former employees of Pete and Sean is a confirmed ex-boyfriend (I wouldn’t necessarily put Dustin in this group because he maintains the relationship was non-consensual, down to the point where Pete TOLD him that they were in a relationship) have both came out with allegations of abuse and assault.

The Dis released a statement regarding that Pete is no longer a part of it.

Pete has also deleted nearly all of his social media.

 

[Ghost of LL 15681]

The cabin on the Galactic Starcruiser is small, but that view is pretty sweet.

[Ghost of LL 15681]

On 6/19/2023 at 2:28 PM, BHMCruiser said:

I actually thought there were fewer fat scooter people this time than the last time I went

Just back from Disney World, and I had this same experience.  It's not that they were completely absent.  But it is that they were a much smaller percentage than my previous experience.

But that may be because of a specific circumstance this past weekend.  I don't know what was going on, but the number of Brits there was noticeable.  Couple that with the beginning of school, and the percentage of Americans at Disney World was low compared by my previous experience.  There were a ton of Brits, a fair number of Australians, and a decent number of Japanese.

 

 

 

 

Oh, and by the way, the "Virtual Queue" is completely incomprehensible.  The slots are taken within seconds.  We just ended up doing the Individual Lightning Lane for Tron and Guardians of the Galaxy because we could never get a Virtual Queue spot.

Edited August 16, 2023 by Ghost of LL

[MNLonghornFUKM 8965]

It’s a better play to do ILL than VQ. You get to choose your time and not have to pivot because your boarding group is called.

VQ lines for tron can extend outside of the ride with no shade. Miserable experience that’ll likely take well over an hr if you’re standing well outside.

The VQ for guardians is at least all indoors. But the 1PM for Guardians doesn’t sell out as fast as 7AM history shows.

Yea the Brits are definitely noticeable. I feel Americans are the foreigners inside all Orlando parks

[SimonBolivar 11062]

1 hour ago, Ghost of LL said:

 

Oh, and by the way, the "Virtual Queue" is completely incomprehensible.  The slots are taken within seconds.  We just ended up doing the Individual Lightning Lane for Tron and Guardians of the Galaxy because we could never get a Virtual Queue spot.

Which of course just happens to be a way that the mouse can make some extra money, funny how that works. 

 

Also, I enjoy seeing the scooter people and observing their culture. 95% of the time they're miserable, hot, and complaining. When I was cast, you'd have a ton of them try to wheel onto the attractions themselves (I was at Innoventions where they were allowed in the building) which was hilarious watching the mental gymnastics there trying to work.

 

On the DISboard drama, that place is always kinda funky with weird optimism that the hardcore fans shouldn't have in 2023. The pessimism of WDWMagic is much more Surly approved, but family friendly of course. i will say though that I do like perusing the DISboard trip report board

But Why Is The Rum Gone?-A May 2022 Disney/Universal DTR- Completed 8/5 | The DIS Disney Discussion Forums - DISboards.com

You know for the pics of....food.

Edited August 16, 2023 by SimonBolivar

[Steamboat1874 4302]

So what is Disney World like around Christmas ?

We are thinking of going the week before Christmas.

[SimonBolivar 11062]

3 minutes ago, Steamboat1874 said:

So what is Disney World like around Christmas ?

We are thinking of going the week before Christmas.

A madhouse and they used to do decoration up right, but some people have been disappointed in recent years. I'm sure if you haven't been around the holidays though that you'll find the decoration to still be good. I will say though that the week before Christmas is infinitely better than the week after. New Year's at Disney can be pure misery if you're going to ride rides instead of enjoying the party. 

[Steamboat1874 4302]

2 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

A madhouse and they used to do decoration up right, but some people have been disappointed in recent years. I'm sure if you haven't been around the holidays though that you'll find the decoration to still be good. I will say though that the week before Christmas is infinitely better than the week after. New Year's at Disney can be pure misery if you're going to ride rides instead of enjoying the party. 

Thanks for ther heads up. Last and only time we went was around 2000 and we went in June.

[mdleast 8518]

7 hours ago, Steamboat1874 said:

So what is Disney World like around Christmas ?

We are thinking of going the week before Christmas.

Went to DW the weekend before Thanksgiving in 2015 and it was fully decorated for Christmas and I don't remember it being crowded at all.  YMMV

Edited September 6, 2023 by mdleast

[ShaggyBevo RIP 3873]

On 9/6/2023 at 9:34 AM, Steamboat1874 said:

So what is Disney World like around Christmas ?

We are thinking of going the week before Christmas.

If you can go 12/15 to 12/22 it should be awesome.  I miss when the kids' school schedule aligned with that. Check all the school schedules to see if you can sneak in a low crowd week before the busiest 10-14 days of the year.

If your dates don't revolve around the school calendar Pop Warner at WDW is over on 12/09 making 12/10-12/17 a great choice.

[ShaggyBevo RIP 3873]

On 9/6/2023 at 5:31 PM, mdleast said:

Went to DW the weekend before Thanksgiving in 2015 and it was fully decorated for Christmas and I don't remember it being crowded at all.  YMMV

48 hours after Veterans Day all the parks are fully decorated for Christmas.

[Baboontyme 2881]

Is it too late to get tickets to the Christmas Party? That's a much better idea I would think than general admission. 

[ShaggyBevo RIP 3873]

10 minutes ago, Baboontyme said:

Is it too late to get tickets to the Christmas Party? That's a much better idea I would think than general admission. 

Umm, yes and no. If you want to strictly ride rides or participate in Xmas party only activities yes. Doing both is challenging.

I'm  a big fan hitting MK at rope drop for both Halloween party nights and Christmas party nights.  Most people w/o party tickets don't go on party days due to 7pm cutoff for being in the park and people with party tickets don't go early as they are going to be there late. If you want keep it going head to Disney Springs after you leave MK. We usually head to Boma for dinner  and back to the hotel on those days.

 

 

[mdmost 43915]

You hear that, Ed? Bears. Now you're putting the whole Magic Kingdom in jeopardy!

 

[MNLonghornFUKM 8965]

[KCMasterpieceof 24]

Here’s to hoping the Galactic Starcruiser Hotel flop was a learning experience. Disney said Tuesday it will spend $60 billion on its global parks and cruise line over the next 10 years, doubling its investments from the last decade, according to the New York Times.

[CooterBrown 18285]

4 hours ago, KCMasterpieceof said:

Here’s to hoping the Galactic Starcruiser Hotel flop was a learning experience. Disney said Tuesday it will spend $60 billion on its global parks and cruise line over the next 10 years, doubling its investments from the last decade, according to the New York Times.

I wonder how much of that will go into the new land at DLR.  It'll have 4 new thrill rides (2 indoor 2 outdoor) and additional family rides.

 

 

[BHMCruiser 1828]

On 9/20/2023 at 11:07 AM, KCMasterpieceof said:

Here’s to hoping the Galactic Starcruiser Hotel flop was a learning experience. Disney said Tuesday it will spend $60 billion on its global parks and cruise line over the next 10 years, doubling its investments from the last decade, according to the New York Times.

Well that makes me want to sell my stock

[mdmost 43915]

On 9/20/2023 at 3:30 PM, CooterBrown said:

I wonder how much of that will go into the new land at DLR.  It'll have 4 new thrill rides (2 indoor 2 outdoor) and additional family rides.

 

 

That's a plan that's very long term given the City of Anaheim will need to approve all the changes. It's a pretty ambitious plan but I don't see that being a reality until well into the 2030s if it gets done. It took what, 5 years just to put Tron together? I'm not sure why Universal is so much better at construction than TWDC but the Epic Universe construction seems to be flying by. 

If I had to bet, I think a lot of that will be retheming the Dinoland part of Animal Kingdom. They've hinted at adding Encanto and Indiana Jones to that area. There's also talk of bringing Wakanda to the parks but that seems like something they could put in Animal Kingdom if that doesn't violate the Marvel rule East of the Mississippi. But I'd bet that's it for a while since Disney only seems to spend money putting in new lands overseas. I realize at this point, anything new will be for me to take my hopefully eventual grandchildren to since my kids are almost aging out of Disney. Though I did get the older one asking the other day when we planned to go back. Probably not till 2025. 

[Spur08 384]

Headed on a Disney cruise in a week on The Wish. (We'll do a day at magic kingdom the day before). Any tips or advice welcome. My wife planned this in conjuction with my inlaws (who are going) so I'm just along for the ride and the nut kicking.

[mdmost 43915]

Try to avoid getting diarrhea on the ship. 

[MNLonghornFUKM 8965]

Headed on a Disney cruise in a week on The Wish. (We'll do a day at magic kingdom the day before). Any tips or advice welcome. My wife planned this in conjuction with my inlaws (who are going) so I'm just along for the ride and the nut kicking.

Eh I’d start watching vlogs like ear scouts and his tips for magic kingdom. What we tell you here online can totally go over your head. I find it easier watching the vlogs. Earscouts does online graphics with the my Disney app so you have an idea of WTF is going on with the app.

If you’re using lightning lane/genie+, you can start booking rides at 7AM.

Buy the individual lightning lane for tron-it’s probably 15-20$ per person to ride. the virtual queue for tron can take up precious time. Ear scouts also dives into what order to book rides on G+ as they sell out throughout the duration of the day.


The food at magic kingdom is pretty meh. But character meals at be our guest or cinderellas castle is pricey af ($240+ for fam of 4)

Just do your homework with earscouts.

[BHMCruiser 1828]

Any insight on how to add a payment option to a minor's disney experience app so they can get fast passes/lightning lanes/etc.? My 16 year old is going on a school trip to Disney and I cannot figure this out.

[ShaggyBevo RIP 3873]

Eh I’d start watching vlogs like ear scouts and his tips for magic kingdom. What we tell you here online can totally go over your head. I find it easier watching the vlogs. Earscouts does online graphics with the my Disney app so you have an idea of WTF is going on with the app.




If you’re using lightning lane/genie+, you can start booking rides at 7AM.

Buy the individual lightning lane for tron-it’s probably 15-20$ per person to ride. the virtual queue for tron can take up precious time. Ear scouts also dives into what order to book rides on G+ as they sell out throughout the duration of the day.


The food at magic kingdom is pretty meh. But character meals at be our guest or cinderellas castle is pricey af ($240+ for fam of 4)

Just do your homework with earscouts.

Jungle Skipper Canteen is the best food in MK.

[ShaggyBevo RIP 3873]

Jungle Skipper Canteen is the best food in MK.

And one of 2-3 places in MK with alcohol.

Casey’s Corner hot dogs have a cult following among chefs as they are a custom blend no one else has and were developed 50+ years ago for Walt’s demands.

[mdmost 43915]

Season 2 of this is coming in November to Disney+. The first season was really good if you're a fan of the parks.

 

[mdmost 43915]

People are disgusting animals.

https://theblast.com/553099/poop-hallway-disney-absurd-trend-defecating-ride-lines/

[Steamboat1874 4302]

So we just got back from our 6 day stay at Disney World on Saturday.

Took the granddaughters who are 7 and 9.

Stayed at The Art Of Animation Resort on property. 

Wasn't too crowded either.

Everything was about as good as it could be. No complaints at all. Smooth direct flight both ways on American. Free beer on the plane too.

We paid extra for everything including a ride service to and from the airport. Use the "lightning lines" for most rides where the wait was usually around 5 to 10 minutes. We also rode some rides without that and the longest wait was about an hour which is not horrible.

Tron is pretty cool. Expedition Everest was better though. Surprisingly the Slinky Dog roller coaster in the Toy Story area was a damn good ride.

Ate Italian at Epcot and it was great. All of the food we ate was good and expensive of course.

Beer is readily available everywhere except Magic Kingdom and you pretty much had to have a sit down dinner to get a drink. All of the other parks have beer all over the place.

And the yoga pants were outstanding most everywhere and some were hideous as well. 

Had a great time and the weather was perfect all 6 days.

[MNLonghornFUKM 8965]

Via Napoli in Italy? If so we’ve had it once, gotta go back this next trip.


Everest is up there tied with guardians for my favorite overall ride.

Any pics of yoga pants for science?


We’re in the beginning stages of our 4th trip in 4 years. Wife and I are like “we don’t do anything fun…and the trip is a guaranteed blast etc” lol.

We’re gonna do park hoppers for the first time out of all of our trips. Just to ride guardians every day lol


Kids are only gonna be kids once. Sadly our 8 YO daughter is almost out of the princess dress stage. Which is sad but now we don’t need 4 costume changes per day, haha.

I can just swap tshirts with my son and we’re both vibin

[MNLonghornFUKM 8965]

Walt Disney world 2024 deals for resorts are 35% off.

We’re trying contemporary this year. A few days ago we reserved @ $7200 for 5 nights+ park hopper. Just shaved about $800 off that and added a night.

Some damn good deals


https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/special-offers/

[Mo Horn 8937]

We just booked a trip in May for WDW with our son and DIL who go at least every other year. They've been bugging us to go with them. We said we wouldn't go until they restarted the dining plan, which has now happened. We haven't been for over 20 years and I know tons of things have changed. We're staying at the boardwalk resort and I hear that's a nice place. This will definitely be a different trip than when our kids were young, no doubt. 

[Stringer 1487]

We're headed to Disney next week.  It will be the second time for our 7YO daughter and first for our 4YO son.  Our 7YO came, but she was only 2 at the time.  It was more of an extended family trip my wife didn't want to miss, so she'll be much more into it this time.  We're excited and I am trying to get everything planned.  I am not working right now, so I have the time, but I don't know how you do this with a real job.  It's exhausting combing through everything.  A couple of things I've noticed that frustrate me:

- This Genie+/Lightning Lane system is absurd.  I'd rather not be super stressed at 6:45am to buy my pass and to keep refreshing the page.  Also, would rather not be on my phone all day in the park trying to get it all booked.  Really fucking bad system and I can't believe they haven't changed it.

- The Disney website is garbage.  It's slow and hard to use.  Finding and booking restaurants is a pain the ass.  I know there's a lot going on, but just hire OpenTable to run it.  It would be so much easier.  I guess they don't feel the need to spend money on tech if everyone is coming anyway.

Looking forward to the trip.  We're going right before Spring Break, so it will hopefully be a little less nuts out there.  I know it will always be busy to an extent.  We'll see.

[MNLonghornFUKM 8965]

Good luck mate

G+ is a shitshow. They have an app called standby skipper. I forget what it costs for the week, like 40 bucks, and it does a lot of the g+ bookings for you so you don’t have to be glued to your phone. My wife’s in charge of mostly that stuff and she thought it worked out

I’d look into that, maybe a review or tutorial on YouTube. I like ear scouts on YouTube for G+ walk through/ tips/ pointers. He has on screen graphics so you kinda get a handle of what it’ll look like in real time. Rides like slinky, Remys, frozen, can all sell out so book those first for the day according to whatever park you’re heading to


We use another app called mouse dining for dinners. You can get texts for when a spot opens at a restaurant you want eat for your particular time frame. Also lots of times people just double book restaurants for days and the day of they cancel one and goto the other so there’ll be lots of movement on those days for openings

[MNLonghornFUKM 8965]

Also since you aren’t familiar with G+, rides with virtual queues are tron and guardians. So basically at 6:59:57AM you need to pulling down refresh on app to join the VQ because at 7:00:03 they’re sold out, if you fail to get a boarding group, try again at 1 but you need to physically be in the park to try. I know I’m confusing the hell of you. Watch ear scouts for booking these rides, the only way to really learn in any of this is to live it Lolol

[Stringer 1487]

8 hours ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

Good luck mate

G+ is a shitshow. They have an app called standby skipper. I forget what it costs for the week, like 40 bucks, and it does a lot of the g+ bookings for you so you don’t have to be glued to your phone. My wife’s in charge of mostly that stuff and she thought it worked out

I’d look into that, maybe a review or tutorial on YouTube. I like ear scouts on YouTube for G+ walk through/ tips/ pointers. He has on screen graphics so you kinda get a handle of what it’ll look like in real time. Rides like slinky, Remys, frozen, can all sell out so book those first for the day according to whatever park you’re heading to


We use another app called mouse dining for dinners. You can get texts for when a spot opens at a restaurant you want eat for your particular time frame. Also lots of times people just double book restaurants for days and the day of they cancel one and goto the other so there’ll be lots of movement on those days for openings

Thanks, that's helpful.  I actually watched a couple of Ear Scouts videos based on your rec earlier in the thread.  I had to have a lie down after, but they were very helpful to see how the app works.  I'll check out the standby skipper and mouse dining you mentioned.

[Baboontyme 2881]

I'm trying to come up with a summer vacation alternative that I'm able to use some points for and is economical. Remodel hitting the wallet pretty hard. LA/DL is on the list. Probably only a day in park, 2 max. We prefer a 2+ bedroom condo/airbnb. What should I be looking at? How do lightning lanes and all of that work at DLR? I have been to WDW many times but never to Anaheim. Thanks in advance. 

[Baboontyme 2881]

bump. I decided to book 5ish days and 4 nights in LA in late July. I think we will only do 1 park day at Disneyland and do other stuff for the rest of the time. Staying in Anaheim in a condo that apparently is walkable, or walkable to a shuttle. @mdmost is one day enough? I think our primary interest would be seeing the other version of the attractions that we like at the MK and certainly any can't misses that don't exist in wdw. Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated.