Disney World

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Just got back from five days at Disney World with my wife and daughters. In case anyone was wondering, that place is a blast! My legs are sore as heck from all the walking, and my wallet's a bit sorer yet, but the kids loved it and that's what matters, right?

And for anyone that remembers my thread about my daughter and her love for tornadoes and other severe weather, there's an attraction at Epcot called Storm Struck that let's you experience a hurricane/severe storm first hand. The kid was in heaven!

Just thought I'd share. Now off to finish DA:O, start and finish MW2 then go pick up L4D2...

Disney World is one of my favorite places. Even in tough times, my mother would save all year to take my brother and I when we were kids. We went on an all-inclusive gold key plan (much more affordable in the 80's than it is now) where we'd be able to go anywhere, rent boats, get golf/tennis lessons, get unlimited arcade tokens, and eat whatever/wherever we wanted for three meals a day for a single flat rate. All we had to do was present our gold key card for anything. It was a complete escape for a few days where we could do anything we wanted.

As an imagineer-at-heart, I continued going and my wife caught on quickly when we first got together. Now we're both pros! We have the best time when we bring friends and family along with us. In fact, I've been jonesing for another vacation with my friends - some of whom are Goodjers too.

Any tips on getting great deals? I think we're flying down during Spring Break next year, and I'd love suggestions on getting the best kinds of deals (we plan on staying on the DW grounds).

Mousesavers.com

my wife and I were married at Disney, and had our reception dinner under water at the living seas followed by fireworks in epcot lagoon. You could say were fans.

My cousins chose Disney World as the place they wanted to travel to for their Make-A-Wish wish. And the had a blast and really enjoyed meeting all of the characters they could possibly. Looking at the pictures, they still talk about it here and there. Man, it's been a long time since they went.

Does proposing to your wife by the wishing well at Disneyland count as being a fan?

Not sure about the deals, my wife did all the planning/booking. I can tell you she found this book indispensable. It was recommended to us by friends who went earlier in the year, and really helps plan things out.

I can also tell you that the dining plan is supposed to be the way to go if you're staying on the resort. It seemed to work for us alright, but I'll be damned if I could ever figure out the details of how it worked.

My honeymoon was at Disney World! If anyone ever rides the Matterhorn at Disney Land, my grandfather helped build that...

All the Disneyworld information you need to know:
Magic Kingdom: No beer.
MGM Studios: Crappy beer.
EPCOT: Good beer.

Disney World is awesome! Yes, some might say that it's a hyper-sanitized corporate propaganda machine, but I went there twice and had such a blast both times that I cannot wait to bring my family there (my wife and two sons have never been). Going there and having that child-like sense of wonder rekindled is a rare and precious thing. That, and Space Mountain is awesome!

dhaelis wrote:

Disney World is awesome! Yes, some might say that it's a hyper-sanitized corporate propaganda machine, but I went there twice and had such a blast both times that I cannot wait to bring my family there (my wife and two sons have never been). Going there and having that child-like sense of wonder rekindled is a rare and precious thing. That, and Space Mountain is awesome!

Watching your kids experience that same sense of wonder is even better.

When went to Disney this summer, Space Mountain was CLOSED! I remember standing there in Futureworld with my sisters, and brother-in-law and summed up my distate for this new development. "f*ck Futureworld. Lets go to Epcot." My Disneyworld experience was lacking that time. On the plus side, I hear they're revamping Star Tours at MGM or whatever its called now. Considering how much fun I have ever time I go on it, that could be awesome. Unless Jar Jar's there.

We couldn't ride Space Mountain, my littlest was about 3" too short. She did make the cut for the Test Crash ride, Soaring and Thunder Mountain though. She loved them all.

Star Tours at Hollywood Studios (the old MGM) was kind of neat, both my girls enjoy Star Wars so they loved seeing all the robots. And no Jar Jar. Unfortunately other than that the rest of the attractions at Hollywood Studios were a disappointment for us. Too many shows, too few rides. Nice for the wife and I, less so for the kids.

Rainsmercy wrote:

My honeymoon was at Disney World! If anyone ever rides the Matterhorn at Disney Land, my grandfather helped build that...

Heh heh, the Matterhorn is the ride at Disneyland that breaks down the most often, in my experience. That's still pretty sweet though.

Grenn wrote:

When went to Disney this summer, Space Mountain was CLOSED!

The Aerosmith ride is better anyway.

Teneman wrote:

We couldn't ride Space Mountain, my littlest was about 3" too short. She did make the cut for the Test Crash ride, Soaring and Thunder Mountain though. She loved them all.

For folks with young children: If your wife or a friend is along, you can ask for a "baby swap" pass at all of the rides which have a height restriction.

- Go up to the cast member at the entrance to the ride and ask for a baby swap pass. They'll want to see the kid and who is staying with them. You'll be handed a pass.
- The person holding the pass waits with the kid while the rest of you get to go on the ride (via the normal line or fastpass if you have one).
- After the first person rides, they wait with the kid.
- The person holding the pass gets to bring along up to two other folks via the fastpass line to ride with them.

Disney doesn't advertise this service well, so most folks don't know about it.

One more tip: Head to our friend Deb Wills' site for TONS more Disney info. She's the best!

Deb Wills' allears.net site really is great. I'd never gone to Disney World until I went with my wife years ago. I think we've gone every year since. I find it to be a very relaxing vacation, but at this point I don't feel the need to hit all the rides or anything. We just wander around and enjoy. Now we have a little one, so thanks for the info, Lou! I knew the program existed, but I didn't know much of anything about it.

EDIT:
With all these Disney fans, we should try for an S&T over there! The logistics might be tough, but it could be fun. I'm hoping to go in January or February.

Haven't been to Disney since I was 5, and my main memory is running away from a very realistic animatronic woman who was trying to kiss me, and who I now realize was a real woman in a costume.

Young Bonus was no Billy Everyteen.

We do the same thing, Poppin. We relax, take in the atmosphere, and do plenty of people watching. We've also developed a lot of habits which make the most of our time while letting us relax.

One of those: When you first get to a park in the morning, send someone with all of your group's tickets to the fastpass kiosks at one of the more popular attractions. Then go to another popular attraction and wait in the normal line while things are rather light. Once the park starts getting busier, you can use your fastpasses to bypass the line.

Though there is an enforced time limit between obtaining fastpasses, they DO NOT "expire" when the time is up! When your pass says to get there between 10am-11am, you can technically use it that day any time after 10am. We try to use ours during the assigned time, but it's no biggie if we go later.

EDIT: I'd also like to meet up with Goodjers there. We used to be active on rec.arts.disney.parks (RADP - where we met Deb), and we'd go to their events occasionally. It was lots of fun.

Disney World is great. We started going with our kids when our oldest was 18 months, and have gone an average of once a year since. (Some years twice, sometimes skipping a year.)

We're definitely slowing down on the visits, but even in the pre-teen years we get something new out of each visit. My 9-11 year old daughters really enjoyed the American Idol experience at MGM on our last visit earlier this year.

My favorite thing to do is to watch my daughters. To see the expression on their faces is simply amazing.

Poppinfresh wrote:

Deb Wills' allears.net site really is great. I'd never gone to Disney World until I went with my wife years ago. I think we've gone every year since. I find it to be a very relaxing vacation, but at this point I don't feel the need to hit all the rides or anything. We just wander around and enjoy. Now we have a little one, so thanks for the info, Lou! I knew the program existed, but I didn't know much of anything about it.

EDIT:
With all these Disney fans, we should try for an S&T over there! The logistics might be tough, but it could be fun. I'm hoping to go in January or February.

It's so much more fun when you don't feel compelled to hit the ground running out of the turnstile. Our third visit in 18 months happened to be on July 4th weekend this past summer. I witnessed some EPIC meltdowns that day, let me tell ya.

LouZiffer wrote:

Though there is an enforced time limit between obtaining fastpasses, they DO NOT "expire" when the time is up! When your pass says to get there between 10am-11am, you can technically use it that day any time after 10am. We try to use ours during the assigned time, but it's no biggie if we go later.

I'm just going to go ahead and pretend I didn't read that, mkay? We actually left our dinner at the Biergarten earlier than I wanted to so we could haul butt all the way back to the Test Crash ride in order to make sure we got there before our fast pass expired. Not only did I miss some more good German :drink:, but I literally had my heavy camera backpack strapped to me seven year old so I could carry her on my back while my wife carried the five year and we ran the whole way.

Seriously though, that's good to know for next year.

My brother and sister in law both work at Disney, and I live in Orlando about 20 min away, so we generally get to get in for free a couple times a year. It's the best!

Also, if you are in the area and don't want to shell out the $ to get in but want something tangentially related, there's the Downtown Disney area which is free to get in. There's a couple decent eateries (Cuban, Irish pub, etc), Virgin Megastore (I always go in and then get depressed... so much overpriced crap... but the classical/jazz/folk section is big), nice theater, Lego store + lots of neat lego statues, disney stores to buy stuff... There's a faux-English fast food place that has this awesome roast-beef/melted cheddar/horseradish sauce on baguette bread sandwich that is tasty Oh also there is the Planet Hollywood and Cirque de Soleil stuff right there too.

Khoram wrote:

There's a faux-English fast food place that has this awesome roast-beef/melted cheddar/horseradish sauce on baguette bread sandwich that is tasty :)

Earl of Sandwich, and that is the God of all sandwiches.

Edited to post a pic:

IMAGE(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2522/4112245625_fdf7dc0574_o.jpg)

Seriously, I don't know why they even have something else on the menu! I could eat one right now!

I am a big fan of Disney World, and for a number of reasons.

For me, the surreality of the place is way up there. My wife and I did a full DW experience a few years ago, and on our third day there we headed to the Animal Kingdom park.

Out front we disembarked from the bus and headed towards the gate. In amongst the throngs of people, I noticed a potted palm. "Oh," I thought to myself. "What an interesting place for a plant feature." Then the plant moved. Rolling along on a set of wheels, this potted palm when rolling up to a guest and made an acerbic comment about his hat. A moving, talking, potted plant.

Honestly the whole thing was so reality frissioning for a moment that I was taken aback. When I recovered I played 'spot the operator', and never managed to do so. My assumption is that the thing had a camera somewhere to make it fully functional.

Fantastic bit of 'guest fun', and a wonderfully weird moment for an early Floriday vacation day.

Live near Disney had family that worked there when I was growing up..so I'm pretty tired of Disney..Ok I lie not that tired of it. Don't go as often as I did when I was younger but something about the place is so great. Can't wait until my Son is old enough to take him so he can run around like I did when I was younger. Next thing we are planning as a family is actually staying at a Disney Resort and do the whole tourist treatment.

Now a days I still have a family member who works there so we usually just go when something new happens maybe once or twice in during the summer and around Christmas just to go see the lights and stuff.

My favorite place in the world. My wife and I took our 4 and 1 year old last April. We had no help and my wife was nursing a week old torn acl. We had a blast.

Tusker House Restaurant in Animal Kingdom was awesome! I can't believe I didn't know about it until last year.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Tusker House Restaurant in Animal Kingdom was awesome! I can't believe I didn't know about it until last year.

That was one of the highlights of our trip with you guys. Oh man what good stuff, and Disney-wise... it's cheap for what you get.

I remember eating sausage made out of a gator once there and then getting evil stares from gators when we went to Cape Canaveral the next day.

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