Disney! Wheeee!

[DigitalGypsy66]

Another park capacity day in the books. Yesterday, we did Hollywood Studios. Managed to end the day with Rise of the Resistance, which was as good as advertised. The wait was 2+ hours all day, and then at 7:30, it dropped to 60 minutes for some reason. It was actually closer to 40 minutes, which wasn't too bad. Also liked the Mickey and Minnie Runaway Railway, which replaced the Great Movie ride (which was very dated). Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular was back after being shutdown for COVID, and that's always fun (I've always managed to see it since my first trip there in 89 or 90). Standing room only 30 minutes before the show started, which was nuts...

Not surprisingly, Disney is making it ever so difficult to stay at off-resort hotels/lodging, especially when the park is busy. Park Resort guests get a two hour head start on paid Lightning Lane passes and Genie+ selections, so the popular rides are sold out of Lightning Lane passes in minutes. We've done an Airbnb condo for years to save money and also to have more space - being stuck in a hotel room with kids (and now teenagers) would be miserable. Locked into Disney food options gets pricey.

Anyhoo, off to Epcot for our last day in Orlando. Expected to be at capacity, again. We've got an early-ish Soarin' booked. Can't wait to eat my way around the park today lol.

[LITT]

runaway railway was great. very nice addition

[meow]

My 8 year old went completely ape **** during Rise of the Resistance. He kept trying to talk to the officers and they kept calling him rebel scum. It was hilarious

[NAN]

runaway railway was great. very nice addition

Yeah, we enjoyed that ride. Road it twice.

It rained the day we were at HS, so it was a light crowd day, so we got to do all the popular rides minus ROTR twice at the very least.

[tifosi77]

Rain days are the best at the Florida parks. Everyone ducks into the free indoor spaces, and the dark rides become effectively walk-ons. First thing we'd do is buy cheapo rain ponchos for like $3, then actually wait for the (inevitable in spring and summer) mid-day rains, then just pick which ride we wanted. It was rare if you waited more than 5 minutes.

[nocera]

Spent a lot of the morning watching reviews/walkthroughs of the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser. That's as close as I'll ever come to experiencing it. It definitely looks like a good time, and it **** better be for the cost. A few things: I don't think I'd want to stay in a room without windows. Yeah, sure, you can look into "space" but that feels like it would get claustrophobic real fast. It basically looks like a really expensive "cruise." The games you can play are similar to anything you'll see in a Dave & Busters. The ship is surprisingly small, you'll see everything there is to see in one day. You do get priority boarding for Rise of the Resistance so that's cool. And the cast members are great. It's basically a Star Wars LARP cruise. Complete with really cringy "activities." I'm surprised that after seeing what it is, I don't really care to experience it. Maybe at a third of the cost...

[CBear3]

Rain days are the best at the Florida parks. Everyone ducks into the free indoor spaces, and the dark rides become effectively walk-ons. First thing we'd do is buy cheapo rain ponchos for like $3, then actually wait for the (inevitable in spring and summer) mid-day rains, then just pick which ride we wanted. It was rare if you waited more than 5 minutes.

My favorite memories from our last trip are of my son absolutely cackling like a lunatic as we rode Big Thunder Railroad in a complete downpour.

[DigitalGypsy66]

From the looks of things, the Guardians of the Galaxy ride at Epcot looks close to being ready. Big Nova Force starfighter outside the new building. Lots of construction at Epcot, and Italy food options were closed yesterday. Only two places were doing mobile food ordering, which worked really well for us.

Also, starting today at DW, they've taken a few rides from the paid Lightning Lane tier and put them into regular Genie+ lightning lane. Runaway Railway, Frozen, and Space Mountain are the rides.

[LITT]

i assume everest will fall there a well when it reopens

[tifosi77]

Spent a lot of the morning watching reviews/walkthroughs of the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser. That's as close as I'll ever come to experiencing it. It definitely looks like a good time, and it **** better be for the cost. A few things: I don't think I'd want to stay in a room without windows. Yeah, sure, you can look into "space" but that feels like it would get claustrophobic real fast. It basically looks like a really expensive "cruise." The games you can play are similar to anything you'll see in a Dave & Busters. The ship is surprisingly small, you'll see everything there is to see in one day. You do get priority boarding for Rise of the Resistance so that's cool. And the cast members are great. It's basically a Star Wars LARP cruise. Complete with really cringy "activities." I'm surprised that after seeing what it is, I don't really care to experience it. Maybe at a third of the cost...

This is another one of those things that I've seen bombarded by negative 'reviews' a la LOTR: TROP. People are bagging on it months before they've been able to partake. I'm not saying I want to do it and am snarked off by the bad press (I'm a big fat nope on the concept of cruises, generally). I've just had it up to *here* with people s**tcanning stuff they've not actually seen/done/experienced because of vaguely annoyed white people reasons.

[nocera]

The reviews and videos I’ve seen are all vloggers/press who were invited to the media preview. This Polygon write up is particularly good:
https://www.polygon.com/22949892/star-w ... otel-video

[tifosi77]

Savi's Workshop is such a fantastic experience. Maybe 15 minutes from entry to exit, and I still feel like I'm 10 years old. I'm on tablet right now, but I'll post a couple pics later.

So fun.

[LITT]

going to make another run at disney for a few days in may. got pretty nice digs at the wildnerness lodge; have never stayed there before.

[nocera]

We’ll be spending two days at Disneyland Paris in July. I’m researching now but now I know how it feels to try to plan a Disney trip with zero knowledge of the park.

[tifosi77]

The Haunted Mansion, or whatever it's called, in Paris is supposed to be cool.

[Nuge]

I’d be hard pressed to spend any time in Paris at a Disney park.

[nocera]

I’d be hard pressed to spend any time in Paris at a Disney park.

Our bucket list is to visit every Disney park. We’ll be in London & Paris for 2 weeks with only 2 days spent at DLP. I think we’ll have plenty of time.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Local news is annoying, but this looks fun lol

[LITT]

Got reservations for oga’s when we are at WDW next month. Pretty jazzed

[tifosi77]

Spent five minutes trying to find the nocera thread of Disney (that thread exists, right?). Sorry.

My wife took our daughter to this at AMT in Lancaster tonight. She said it's really good. I looked at the cast... Really impressive names on there. OG Meg from Hercules which is fun and some big Broadway names.

https://www.disneyconcerts.com/princess/#cast

[nocera]

“The nocera thread.” This is tif’s doing. Blame him!

[shafnutz05]

Whatever...

[tifosi77]

It was literally go to pg2-Ctrl+F"Disney"....... oh, there it is.

You lazy NTP66.

[Stoosh]

Going to Disney World in early December and I absolutely cannot wait. We'll be there for five nights, and I plan on spending at least a full day at Galaxy's Edge. I already told my wife to count on me sobbing like a baby the first time I round that bend and see the Falcon, and probably again when I go through the experience at Savi's (I've seen enough videos of it, but I've heard the videos don't come close to doing the experience justice). We're going to try to spend a day at Animal Kingdom, and then probably a full day at Epcot, and we'll split up the remaining time in either Magic Kingdom or some combo of the above, depending on what we like. Also meeting up with my mom and dad (they moved to Ocala four years ago), so that will be awesome.

I can't wait. This has been a long time coming. I can't f'ing wait.

[DigitalGypsy66]

The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas should be good for crowd levels. Have fun!