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Joeslop posted:Every ride has Fastpass (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastpass). You should absolutely take advantage of this. 30 minute wait for Space Mountain? Slide your tickets through the Fastpass, get a paper ticket, and go do something else for however long until your Fastpass is ready. Come back, present said ticket to the ride operator and you get put in the Fastpass line, which is much shorter. Sure, you technically had to "wait" for as long or longer than the actual line but at least you were off doing something instead of just standing around in line. This is not exactly true, at least not yet. Almost all of the major attractions have fastpasses and what time they'll be for is based on how popular the attraction is. They will be revamping the system soon, though - I haven't been paying attention to how much is public knowledge. As a side note, 30 minutes for Space Mountain is a drop in the bucket. With its popularity and frequent breakdowns, 80 minutes is closer to the norm. quote:For the love of God, have a plan if you get separated, whether it's on purpose or not. My girlfriend was with her daughter at one of the Finding Nemo things at EPCOT, and I wanted to do that MISSION: SPACE thing because I thought all the rides shutdown when the park closes at 9 (they don't, it seems). Well, in the meantime her phone died. I return to where we parked the stroller, she's not there. I wait around a bit, and go inside the ice cream shop that is literally 10 feet away. I come back, and oh the stroller is gone. Turns out she came looking for me at the stroller, saw I wasn't there, and took the stroller to go find me. This is a point of contention between us and I don't see the argument ending anytime soon. The point is, if you don't have a way to charge your phone, set up a meeting place beforehand, or even certain times throughout the day to meet if you're going to be separated most of the day. If your kids get lost at the park and are found by cast members and they are under 12, they'll be brought to the Baby Care center. If they're over 12, they'll be brought to Guest Relations.
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Apr 19, 2013 15:36
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Nathilus posted:Hahaha, yep. That's definitely the place. I get a huge kick out of it. Having lunch by a fake river in the fake evening in fake Mexico with a random volcano painted on in the background has this pleasurably surrealist vibe that can't be had anywhere else. It's all fake, sure, but it's also super peaceful as hell. One of the chillest places in EPCOT.
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May 3, 2013 16:24
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Lincoln posted:The best thing I've come up with: aside from all the fun and food and service, you always have the knowledge that you're wrapped in an envelope of vacation security. Nothing bad will happen while you're there, and your hosts will always take care of you. You'll never get conned by some trinket-selling local, and you'll never have to take the "scenic route" in a smelly cab. Try getting that at some all-inclusive in St. Thomas. Or wherever. This is mostly true, as long as you stay ON Disney property. A lot of people that come to Disney get cheaper rooms on I-drive or 192, and some pockets of those places are just as dirty and full of con artists as anywhere else. Just do some research if you decide to stay off-property and you should be fine. Or just, you know, stay on Disney property.
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May 26, 2013 00:03
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lamb posted:Fun trick - get the Italian soda and tell your spouse "this is AWESOME, you have to try it". Have someone with a camera ready to capture the look on their face. I picked up a few shifts there years ago. It's pretty hilarious to watch kids do this. Half the time they can't even get the words out before losing it. "Mmmmppphh Hey Mom, try this soda from ItaHHAHAHAHAHMMMHMPPPHHH" I brought my kids there all the time when they were 2-3 years old. I loved to give them Italy because they seemed to like it and it drove my wife crazy.
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Jun 6, 2013 23:20
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President Ark posted:Also if there's an unexpected all-day rainstorm stopping you from enjoying the rides, go to Downtown Disney. Disneyquest there is basically a 3? story, gigantic arcade in which everything is free beyond admission. This is a good idea but remember that everyone else will have a similar idea. I love DQ but it isn't as fun when it's absolutely packed with people.
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Jun 16, 2013 11:19
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Except that Universal will never do it based entirely on the fact that they want to keep the marvel poo poo on their side of the Orlando battleground. Getting rid of Marvel would gut a lot of IoA.
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Jun 18, 2013 20:00
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Remulak posted:So is today unusually busy? Because holy poo poo the number of people and wait times are nuts. It's summer so yeah it's gonna be crazy. Go early and get fastpasses ASAP. Paul Allen posted:So my question: is late April a good time to visit, crowd-wise? Or would we push to early April or late March? It should be mentioned that both our birthdays are in early April, so that could totally work as a "celebratory" trip as well. The earlier the better. April isn't great because of spring break; mid-late March would be better.
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Jun 19, 2013 22:28
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The cheese soup is literally one of the best foods I've ever eaten. It's the highlight of the Food and Wine festival for me since I've never gotten around to actually eating at the physical restaurant.
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Jun 21, 2013 19:18
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Honestly when it comes to DHS I'm in love with Mama Melroses. It's amazing Italian food in a Italy meets California kind of atmosphere. My family and I do it every year around Christmas time right before seeing the Osbourne lights.
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Jun 26, 2013 14:23
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7/4 is one of the worst, non week-after-christmas days you can go to Disney.
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Jul 5, 2013 18:20
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Take caution in parking at GF; if you're not staying at the property or have dining reservations at the resort, they have been known to close the guest lots during extreme peak times. Same with the Polynesian and I'm pretty sure the Contemporary too.
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Jul 7, 2013 16:40
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GMR is extremely dependent on the CMs you get. It's unfortunate that I've gotten quite a few lemons but I personally know quite a few very, VERY dedicated people who love it and treat every trip like it was the best one ever. GMR cast (the older ones, at least) love the ride to the point of culthood; the problem is getting the tired college program kid who's about ready to go home the next week. Go early in the morning when you have the best chance of getting an upbeat CM.
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Jul 10, 2013 14:33
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Definitely MK, you can tell by the costumed CM in the back. As a fun fact, those turkey legs are 1000 calories a piece.
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Jul 11, 2013 02:48
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demonR6 posted:No costume at DL similar to that? I can't be sure whether Disneyland has those costumes hanging around too since I haven't been there since I was six but I am 100% certain that that is a MK Big Thunder Mountain costume. DL's version is much brighter in hue and includes a bandana around the neck for females.
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Jul 11, 2013 16:39
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TheBigBudgetSequel posted:Uh, World of Disney is still kicking, as is pretty much every retailer who has moved in in the last several years. The nightculbs are almost all torn down (except The Adventurer's Club, which sits there, sadly awaiting the day.) I haven't versed myself much in the Disney Springs plan but I can say with some degree of confidence that they would never shut down the WoD, it's the biggest store at WDW and makes an enormous amount of money. Stupidly crowded at all times, too. As for the Adventure Club, Disney got the permits to demolish it back in 2011 so it's only a matter of time as you said. They just demolished the Comedy Warehouse last week so welp time is very slowly running our.
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Jul 28, 2013 12:45
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zmcnulty posted:So if they're legit tickets, surely they're sourcing them from somewhere. Do they also buy tickets from people? They buy tickets from people who still have a day or two left on their multi-day passes. Since Disney checks for fingerprints now, this makes the tickets you buy for a huge discount in Kissimmee completely worthless.
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Jul 31, 2013 17:28
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Fastpass+ is the new version of Fastpass where you can pick three attractions, shows or experiences from your computer or smart phone before you even arrive at the parks. You can also do it from the parks day of depending on availability. There's going to be a stupid number of FP options available including priority parade viewing and shows, it something like doubles the amount of experiences available.
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Aug 4, 2013 14:32
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One of the big reasons that fast pass was implemented was because the major attractions lines were getting literally too long. Look at Soarin in Florida for a good example; the queue line is a quarter mile long and it still fills up to the brim and spills out into the rotunda and that's WITH Fastpass. I'm not a huge fan of the system (or, more specifically, with people who abuse the FP or Guest Assistance Cars systems) but it does have merit in that sense at least.
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Aug 8, 2013 13:14
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DNova posted:Why is Soarin' so popular? My theory is that it's a ride that the widest range of ages and wussyness levels will go on. Although, I have some family members who won't even go on that out of fear. Fear of sitting in a chair that moves around a bit and sprays you with orange scent. The wide range is a big part of it. It's a technologically amazing attraction, or it was at the time anyways. Mostly it's just as "easy" as you can get with a "thrill ride". People are scared of it because of the heights involved; it goes up 35-65 feet depending on the row you're in.
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Aug 8, 2013 14:42
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Fish Of Doom posted:I know this post is from like 3 months ago, but my tip if you want to ride Splash Mountain is to go at night. Once the sun sets, the wait times go from about 2 hours to 5 minutes. As someone who goes to a Disney park every 2 years or so, I can't remember the last time I rode it during the day. That part of the park way off in the corner of Frontierland gets very quiet after about 8 pm, since there aren't any shows or restaurants there and everyone's gathering for the fireworks. You can ride Splash and Thunder mountains as many times in a row as you want and personally I find that there's something really peaceful about Splash Mountain in the dark with little ambient sound from the streets below. I've even managed to catch the fireworks while riding Splash Mountain. It's tough to time right, but getting to the very top of the big drop and having fireworks exploding over the expanse of the park you can see for that split second is very cool. On the flipside, as of a few years ago they were having issues with the smoke alarms going off during the fireworks which would mean an evacuation from the ride. I dunno if they ever ended up fixing it.
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Aug 10, 2013 16:48
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quote:I was there in December and rode it during the fireworks, so if there ever was a problem, it certainly wasn't apparent. Fish Of Doom posted:Apparently the Space Mountain in California was shut down for a couple months early this year for unsafe backstage areas. Eh. The older attractions have older catwalks and stuff, a lot of the maintenance crews have been working there for decades and can crawl along the catwalks like Catwoman. poo poo like this only comes out when someone screws up and gets hurt. Sometimes not their fault, sometimes totally their fault but if they can blame it on faulty and non-up-to-date equipment they will. The newer (>1997ish) attractions though are super safe backstage which makes them kind of boring and uninteresting.
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Aug 11, 2013 05:15
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Test Track and Rock n' Rollercoaster have single riders too.
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Aug 13, 2013 02:18
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In other words, once your stay is over the machine will stop dispensing to your mug. You have to scan it on a dohickey near the machines and that turns on the voodoo or something. I'm not entirely versed on it obviously.
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Aug 15, 2013 04:07
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Every once and a while, Disney gets tired of people blatantly abusing the systems they have out for guests. They let people use fastpasses well after their expiration times for nearly a decade which drove up wait times and skewed the statistics for seeing whether the drat things worked properly or not. This is no different. Why not just let everyone get free sodas if we let people buy one soda four years ago and get them forever? I fully agree that it's probably not THAT big of a deal but speaking for myself, I get tired of people getting super mad that businesses won't let them break the rules anymore. What happened to just following the rules like a civilized society?
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Aug 16, 2013 00:57
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Braksgirl posted:The people that steal soda from the machines are the same people that tell me that their kid is 4 but looks 3 so can I just put them down as 2 on the reservation so they don't have to pay. Or the people who will shove ice cream bars in kids shoes to make them tall enough to ride Soarin. Lincoln posted:What do you tell them? If the answer isn't "Eat poo poo" I'm going to be super sad.
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Aug 16, 2013 03:16
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September is the best month of the year to avoid crowds for the most part. Disney is (relatively) empty.
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Sep 6, 2013 21:30
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During the first week or two, the WS gets pretty crowded. As in it may take thirty seconds to cross from one side of the street to the other instead of ten seconds. The rest of the park is generally unchanged.
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Sep 9, 2013 15:34
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Lincoln posted:So everyone can get a better idea of the crowd density in your photos, I took the liberty of brightening the shadows in one of your DHS pictures: Good lord, that looks like hell. I like WDW parties as much as the next guy but trying to traverse that madhouse...nope.
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Sep 15, 2013 20:38
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Mykkel posted:Officially, only DVC members can use the pools at other resorts, but I've never been asked to show my key at any of the resort pools. This will most likely be changed by the magic bands once they go completely live, if the rumors I've heard are true.
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Sep 17, 2013 20:58
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Ignore both Cosmic Rays and Pecos Bill and eat at Casey's. I can't think of a single other QSR location at MK that even comes close to Casey's. Columbia Harbor House mayyybeee but it's too expensive for what you get.
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Sep 24, 2013 04:00
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Braksgirl posted:They are really cracking down on this. Thank Christ. Guest Assistance Cards were the worst thing. Hopefully the people who use these passes legitimately will have good luck with the new system and the abusers can eat poo poo. also quote:Annual passholder Sheryl Gangano of San Jose, California, says the policy change may cause her to drop her annual pass and reduce her seven to 10 annual trips to Disneyland. Gangano, who has complex regional pain syndrome, can walk but experiences "excruciating pain" from the lightest of touches or when she stands or sits in one position for too long. Oh no I can't skip all of the lines immediately anymore, guess I just won't go!
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Sep 24, 2013 20:12
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In my experience, the kids (and, for the most parts, special needs children) literally don't care less about the ride waits. 90% of the time it's the parents howling about their schedule and their precious angels not being able to handle it while they're all like "can I just go on the ride whenever please  "I'm not saying that there aren't special needs kids that don't have huge issues with waits but this new system shouldn't affect that, you just don't tell the kids that you're going on the ride right then, get the assistance then go ride some short/no wait rides or the river boat or something.
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Sep 24, 2013 22:36
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DNova posted:Hi, I used to be a kid and I went to Disney World and the waits were the loving worst. It was absolutely miserable waiting 2+ hours for the then-new Tower of Terror and Space Mountain. Fair point. What I mean is that kids aren't going to shriek about it to the manager of the poor kid at the front gate and they also usually aren't going to decide not to ride it - they're going to suck it up and ride it, complaints and all.
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Sep 25, 2013 00:42
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TheBigBudgetSequel posted:So Disney World has always kind of had a "Just in a wheelchair? Please use the normal line, it's wide enough" This is mostly true with the oldest rides being the exception of Magic Kingdom - rides like Peter Pan, Small World, Thunder Mountain, etc. WDW wasn't built to ADA compliance codes but have been working towards it with every ride refurb. Pretty sure the thing that will always keep them non-compliant is Swiss Family Treehouse. Can't walk? Lol grab a Dole Whip and watch your family from the ground!
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Sep 26, 2013 13:20
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Nathilus posted:I flat out dislike the Grand Floridian. Its spot on the monorail line is nice, it has the best restaurants, and the layout is great; but I don't find the price tag worth it at all and think the theme is unbearably pretentious. I'd much rather stay at The Contemporary or The Polynesian if I wanted one of the monorail loop hotels. The Poly isn't pretentious? And at least the Grand HAS a theme; the "modernistic" theme of the Contemporary doesn't really cut it in comparison. The Grand is the flagship hotel and is by far the best of the three. It's a lot easier for them to stick to the Victorian theme as opposed to giving a college kid a lei and telling them to say aloha. 
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Sep 28, 2013 23:33
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The website is pretty horrible, but to its credit it's never screwed up my reservations. Neither have the phone CMs either so take that as you will.
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Oct 8, 2013 02:35
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Part of the reasons fastpasses were installed was to reduce the physical size of the line. Take Soarin' for example; the queue line is a quarter-mile long. Even with the FP line, that quarter-mile fills up pretty frequently. Since it's a dispatched attraction with a minimum, unchangable dispatch time, you literally cannot make the line move faster than a certain point.
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Oct 24, 2013 16:24
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I agree about the busses for value resorts. They're absolutely awful late at night, and even if you're able to cram yourself into one there's going to be some altercation against the bus driver because Bill Bob's family of nine can't shove themselves in. It's awkward and upsetting and ruins my day; my wife and I swore never again, cars all the way.
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Nov 12, 2013 14:16
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I get what you're saying; there's no real reason for it to be fun, but I enjoy it anyways. I like the new version better but I miss the campiness of the old one too :/ fun fact, it opened a year ago today. Unless of course someone just said that, I'm on my phone so I haven't read everything yet. One neat thing about TT is that it goes backstage so if you wanna see Cast Member only areas it's pretty cool.
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Dec 7, 2013 00:06
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Circutron posted:This is... sadly pretty unlikely. The opening setpiece was something they always had problems with, and it's unlikely they're going to try and tackle it again. The most you (and I!) could hope for is a new version with the same characters, which I'd be totally down for. Better than what they have there now. Another fun fact: a lot of the original mechanics of the turntables are still there, under the current ride. It was easier to just cement and build over top of them then to get rid of them completely.
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Dec 8, 2013 12:26
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