Paul_Eisenberg

alliegator: Thanks for mentioning Aquatica. I’m going to ease coverage into the book gradually as we hear more about it from our community and writers, and I’m eager to check it out, too.

Panhandle, thanks for confirming about the photogs. I agree that Photopass is a remarkable development; the ability to e-mail around the link of your photos to family and friends is a major time saver.

Caroly, sorry to hear that your photos didn’t arrive in acceptable shape; please keep us posted about how WDW handles your request to replace them. BTW, how far in advance did you have to make your California Grill reservation?

These are fantastic posts, everyone – my continuing thanks.
Paul

ellen_griswold

Hey mma, re soarin - are you sure you mean the 1st row? I thought the top / 3rd row was the one where you didn't see dangling feet? Anyone know for sure?

swisshiker

re Soarin' - it's definitely the first row where you don't see feet dangling. Much better! Plus it seems as if you are flying higher!

Feel like a trip to France but the high Euro is getting you down? Head on over to Epcot's France pavillion and watch the movie "Impressions de France". This is a 180-degree sit-down movie (with a/c in the summer!) that takes you on a romantic, picturesque journey thru all regions of France. The music is fabulous. (I've even got it on my MP-3).

After the movie, stop at the Boulangerie for a Cappuccino and a Napoleon!

GoTravel

Paul, one of my favorite things about Disney is that there is a lot just for adults!

My husband and I haven't been in a couple of years but we've gone extensively over the years.

We love to hit The World Showcase for happy hour and drink our way around the world. Since we are using Disney transportation, the designated driver is included!

The best piece of advice anyone has ever given me was to check www.MouseSavers.com for discount codes for the hotels. I've stayed at the All Stars for as little as $49 off season and $77 peak season.

Also, sometimes if you can get a discount code, it is actually cheaper to book a club room at the upper tier hotels. The club floor always includes breakfast and a lunch snack and dinner nibles and a cocktail or two.

You can count on breakfast and lunch being at least $10 per person at the cheapest restaurants. Four people that is a savings of $80 per day.

At the All Stars, if you have kids, get them the refillable drink cup. Good for adults also because while you are there, all your drink refills are included.

My biggest piece of advice would be to not stay off site if you are visiting Disney. While it does work better for some families, part of the Disney experience is staying onsite.

BetsyinKY

Most of these comments seem to be about the Disney parks, but since you mentioned Universal in the first post, I have a few comments about both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. We took a group of about 35 teens and parents to Orlando last spring. We spent a day each at Universal and Islands of Adventure. The consensus among the kids was that, on the whole, Islands of Adventure was more fun because it has the bigger rides. I think that hands down, the favorite ride there was the Hulk. (I know it is in my personal top three coasters now!) At Universal, the favorite attraction seemed to be The Mummy. I have two tips for these two parks. One, if you love to ride and the park is the least bit crowded, spring for their version of a fast pass. It lets you skip to the front of the line, and while its only supposed to be good for one turn on each ride, as closing time approached, the turnstile workers grew more lenient and the kids rode some rides (like the Hulk) 3 and 4 times in a row, using their passes. My second tip is that if you want to eat at one of the sit down restaurants in/on the park property, go to one of the information kiosks and make a "reservation". It's not a true reservation, but gets your name on the list for the next available table. Our entire group didn't try to eat together, but this made it easier to get a table for 6 at the Hard Rock and a table for 6 at Emeril's, etc. all around the same time.

girlonthego

Well we have also been to Disney/Universal several times in the last 10 years.
The week after Thanksgiving is a very nice time with everything decorated. We did several park specials in the evenings. Magic Kingdom sold special tickets to the park for after hours. They had shows and gave out hot chocolate. It snowed on Main St.!
We also did the dinner and show at Epcot with John Tesch telling the story of the birth of Christ. Very moving and fitting for the season.
We went to Universal in June two years ago, and it was Hot HOt Hot!! I recommend staying at the Universal parks hotels. They offer a deal where you put your room key in the slot and get a fast pass for the ride. We were not staying at the hotels on site and paid 150 extra just for this priveledge pass. It was so hot and the lines were so long, it was worth not waiting too long for the rides. We loved, loved, loved the Spiderman ride!It was our favorite and we rode numerous times.
We found Sea World rather dull and quiet compared to Disney and Universal. Big rides=Universal, Good shows=Disney.
Stay on site at Disney as well. It does offer numerous perks. We liked the Port Orleans in the moderate hotel line and also it has a great pool area.
We also stayed at the Polynesian. It was very convenient being on the monorail. We had my parents with us and this made it easier for all of us to come and go to the hotel as we wanted. We have also stayed at the Hilton in downtown Disney twice. We had hilton points and used them there. It was a nice hotel with a good location, but agree on the fact that staying on site at the different parks has it's perks.
The other big thing is to make reservations to dine where you want as far in advance as they now allow. I believe when we went it was about 3mos. We did Cinderella's breakfast, and many of the character dinners. It is very hard to get in these restaurants without reservations way in advance. Remember when you are taking a vacation, most likely so is everyone else! At least it feels that way at Disney! It is really never quiet.

carolv

Paul, I made my California Grill reservations about a month in advance. I'm not sure if it's harder to get reservations during the fireworks (10pm). Note that they take a credit card number, so you really want to be sure of your plans (the cancellation policy was a day or so).

I just heard from Photopass, and they are resending my photos. BTW, I order prints on the Internet all the time and have never once had anything arrived damaged - lucky, perhaps.

bennnie

People go crazy trying to get reservations for Cinderella's breakfast at the MK Castle. But sometimes you can get lucky and see Cinderella during dinner. She won't be upstairs in the dining room but rather in the waiting area downstairs. You don't even have to have dinner reservations, just walk past the check in desk to the waiting room. There has always been a character there. Sometimes its another princess or the Fairy Godmother but sometimes its Cinderella.

MP07950

ttt

321go

Speaking of Aquatica, the new SeaWorld park, they're in the "soft opening" phase. Here's what the Orlando Sentinel had to say:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/ytb4bf

loveyblue

Two years ago my husband had a meeting in Orlando and we opted to stay at the Grand Floridian. I really, really wanted to go on the Garden Tour at Epcot and although my husband has been drug on many garden tours over the years with me he just didn't want to spend the time at Epcot doing a garden tour.

Well, because we have been married 25 years we were able to come to a "compromise" and I made reservations for the tour.

You guessed it! He was entharalled. He still talks about what a great tour it was. I get really tickled when I hear him recommending it to anyone that is plannig a Disney trip.

It was a very good tour and a great way to see Epcot as the tour takes place and hour before the park opens.

loveyblue

MiamiBeachMomma

As a Florida resident we have been to all the Orlando parks way too many times(and my kids are only 5 & 8.)

With that said -
Tip 1
- We used to only stay on Disney property until one visit we had to wait a ridiculous amount of time for the bus. DH will never be without a car at the parks again.

2 - Universal - only stay at one of the Universal hotels - the free express pass make your kids feel like movie stars - we were there in August and it was HOT and we never had to wait in a line more than 15 minutes. Unreal!!!! The only big ride that had no special line was at Islands of Adventure - the dinosaur area - Pterandon Flyers - the line was about 55 minutes long - we did not wait.

3 - Visit the parks in January after all the kids go back to school. This was the best trip we had a Disney. It happened to be very cold - but that was a fluke. The parks were empty - we had so much fun. We never had to rush, we had lots of picture time with soo many characters.

4 - Character Meals - even though the food is really bad, take your kids while they are really young to character meal. They will just be amazed and as they older it jsut wont mean as much to them.


Thats all for now HTH

Weadles

We just got back from Universal with our teenage son. My biggest tip is this: Leave the backpack or pocketbook locked up at your hotel. Many of the rides ( MEN IN BLACK, THE MUMMY, etc.) will not let you carry on anything that can't fit into your pockets. You have to use one of the provided lockers.

The lockers use fingerprint IDS for opening and closing. But it turns out that the lockers don't work well when exposed to the sun ( who designed these for a park in Orlando??), so we had to call a tech several times for help. As did everyone else in line.

Paul_Eisenberg

carolv, thanks for the intel about California Grill. Very happy to hear WDW’s resending your photos and you’re reminding me that I better act on ordering mine before they expire.

ellen_griswold, I’m laughing re-reading your post about Buzz Lightyear, because my 8-year-old insisted up and down that on her first time on the ride she achieved some astronomically high score, and I’m wondering now if she hit that sweet spot on the Orange robot you refer to.

I appreciate the Universal tips that are coming in among the others; along the lines of the other parks, does anyone have a recent experience at Typhoon Lagoon or Blizzard Beach they’d want to share? I ask in part because Aquatica (thanks for the link, 321go) is positioning itself as an alternative to those parks and I know I need to learn more about what their strengths might be.

--Also: We’re pretty careful about noting in our books that Stitch’s Great Escape, despite efforts to make it less dark and noisy, can still be a little too intense for younger kids. I kept my kids off the ride based on this info. Can anyone report how their child might have done on this ride recently? This is definitely one I need to test on my own next chance I get.

Thanks again to all.
Paul

carolv

Paul, my Photopass pictures arrived today by Fedex in perfect condition...you know, magic memories!
: ) They definitely resolved the issue quickly.

Paul_Eisenberg

Glad to hear it, carolv. I hope you're more disciplined than I am about actually putting them into albums and frames.

npurpleh2

This is a fun post... I'm learning a lot that I definitely plan to use on my next WDW trip!

My advice to anyone visiting WDW is to take advantage of the "magic hours" at the parks. On most days, there is one park that is scheduled to open earlier than the normal time but the early admittance is only available to those visitors staying at one of the Disney property hotels. The extra hour may not seem like much but it can really help if you use it to your advantage. There are definitely less people in the parks when they first open plus there are only people staying within WDW who enter during the magic hours so there are really less people than normal during that time. If planned right, you can ride your favorite rides several times in a row with hardly a wait (depending on the ride and time of year of course). An example is that the safari ride at Animal Kingdom is a very popular ride with long wait times. However, if you go to Animal Kingdom first thing in the morning on the day it is scheduled to open early for the "magic hour", you can go directly to the line for the safari ride and get on the ride within just a few minutes with the added bonus of seeing the animals when they are active early in the morning. You can scurry around to your favorite rides or most anticipated rides during that first hour and then take your time enjoying the rest of the park the rest of the day and you won't be standing in line forever to get on that ride that is so popular because you will have already done it before the crowds got there.

panhandle

No offense to those who like magic hours but all of the touring plans I have read ,with the exception of the official guide, advise NOT to attend magic hours...in fact the majority of folks over at the Disboards as well as tourguidemike.com and my personal guide of choice "The unofficial guide" all say to visit the park that had magic hours the day BEFORE as it will be the slowest park.
Just my two cents.

npurpleh2

Panhandle - Yes, I've seen those forums too and after trying it both ways, my personal opinion is that the magic hour thing works for me. There are certainly opinions out there for both but this is the tip I wanted to provide that has worked well for me in the past.

gohedwig

Just returned form Disney World during first week of February. Had a great time. A few tips that worked well for us:
1. Start your day early - try for as many rides early in the day before the crowds grow
2. Always pick a ride to use FastPass as soon as you arrive at the park.
3. Use the single rider lines (if you dont have FastPass)
4. Reserve restaurants before you leave; if you change your mind/plans, you can always adjust onsite at WDW
5. Give yourself time during the day to recharge:
- plan to see an afternoon parade at one of the parks
- plan to see a show at one of the parks
- shop during the afternoon
6. Eat dinner at the park where you want to see the evening fireworks: they are spectacular
7. Plan at least 30-45 minutes travel/wait time when using Disney Transportation System

Favorite Rides: Soarin', Animal Kingdom Safari (saw animals whether went early in morning or later in the day), Tower of Terror, Test Track, Haunted Mansion (no FastPass), Spaceship Earth (now has an interactive piece to the ride), Pirates of Carribean

Favorite Restaurants: Boma Buffet, 50s Prime Time Cafe, Cape May Cafe ClamBake Buffet at Beach Club, House of Blues, Tonys on the Square in Magic Kingdom

Gohedwig