thanks. But i dont think id get my usage out of it. We only go to Disney every 3 or 4 years.

Yeah, it's probably not the best option for you. You can use it to go other places, but its not a good use of points.

GoT might know more, but I think you can rent out your points in the years you don't go.

We have talked about DVC for many years but each time we would have an unexpected expense in relation to my son's Autism. So it just kind of fell back to the back of the bus.

Here's an odd question....what is your oldest and most obscure momento that you have from all your visits to WDW?

You can rent them. You can use them to go to other places (most places in the world). You can bank them into the next year.

If you use your points to go somewhere else, you typically don't get as good of a rate for your points, so its more common to rent your points for cash, and use that cash to go where you want.

I convinced a guy at the Wilderness Lodge to give me the thing that they were around their necks. He said "I can't" about 4 times, and finally I offered to trade him a pin for it and he agreed.

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...e/DSC04508.jpg

Pretty cool....mine is a polo shirt with the Dixie Landings logo on it.

That's retro!

Here are some backstage pics of a old 20,000 leagues sub.

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...e/DSC_6669.jpg

Here are some photos of the Walt Disney Suite.

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...anBlue/8-1.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...Blue/photo.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...oManBlue/7.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...oManBlue/6.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...oManBlue/5.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...oManBlue/4.jpg


And here's my ticket from the opening day of Animal Kingdom.
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...e/IMG_0648.jpg

That's pretty cool......seeing the pics of the Disney Suite made me think. Have you tried to get into the Cinderella Castle Suite?

No. I have tried multiple times. The guys face I blurred out is one of the managers at the Grand Floridian. He's been a dear friend of mine for many years, and no matter where we stay, he always calls and upgrades us. I've tried so hard to even get a tour of the Castle Suite, and he says its the one thing even he can't get us close to.

That's pretty cool of him...one of the best times we had was getting upgraded to the Club Level at AKL. It was the year that they had those back to back hurricanes. We arrived and they had so many cancellations because people were sure they would get stuck in WDW during a hurricane. Kind of spoiled my kids....they thought every Disney trip should be that nice.

I am not even sure what it takes to get to Cinderella's Suite anymore....I know the one year they were picking one guest each day to spend the night there.

They did that during their "year of a million dreams" promotion. They also had one you could win that would take you on a private jet to all the disney parks one right after another and you'd be the Grand Marshall in each parade.

We won some 'Dream Fastpasses' - which was a FP to every ride in the park. Cool, but no Cinderella Castle Suite!

FP+ sucks donkey dick. It caused a line for Pirates of the Caribbean to snake around to the outside of the building yesterday. Total cluster****.

Finally getting my kids back to Disney this year. Planning on doing a day at Magic Kingdom, one at Animal Kingdom, and one at Universal Studios. One day likely isn't enough at Magic Kingdom, but I've never been to Universal and would like to get there.

Walt Disney World
 

It's great weather right now. Mid 70s and low 80s. Not too hot and still no humidity.

Next month with probably kick off the summer from hell.

Universal is fun but the clientele is more white-trashy than WDW.

Sounds Six Flags...ish.....

Is it worth the price of admission?

If you like rides go to Islands of Adventure or both parks. If you've never been you'll enjoy it..it'll be something new. I haven't been to the Harry Potter area yet.

Walt Disney World
 

I have about 10x more fun at Universal. I'm thinking about getting season passes there and wouldn't even contemplate doing the same for Disney..

Of course, that's just my personal preference. Plus I live like a mile away from Universal so it makes sense in more than one way.

I've got 4 kids (15, 9, 8, 6)....the 9 year old saw an ad for the Diagon Alley attraction and wanted to see it.

The service and the organization at WDW it makes me kind of not want to take a chance on another place. When I spend the money and time to go down there I feel like I want to make sure it's great.
Is Universal run like Disney?

That's exactly why I'm hesitant. I know what I'm going to get at WDW and I know my kids will love it. Magic Kingdom is too big to do in one day without being so exhausted at the end of the day, but I'm just not sure if a second day at Magic Kingdom is better than a day at Universal.

Another question..... is Animal Kingdom an all day type of park or more of a half day type of deal? The last time I was there, it seemed like it was more of a half day park.

My fiancee and I went last May and we didn't have enough time to enjoy everything we wanted to. All we went to was Walt Disney Parks (Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom, and EPCOT) one per day then we went to the 2 water parks another day and then spent 2 nights, one each on The Boardwalk and Downtown Disney with Cirque Du Soleil. Next time we go we're going to add one more day in so we can enjoy our hotel and have a lounging day.

We stayed at Coronado Springs, it was nice but we didn't have the time to enjoy it or even do anything there like lay by the pool or hot tub or even paddleboat etc cause we'd leave early to get to the parks then stay all day then come back in time to sleep and get back up and do it all over again the next day.

If you do go get the dining plan, it makes things so much easier to prepay for your meals and the way its set up it will make you feel like your getting away with murder at some of the restaurants. Don't bother with Fast Pass imo, just go to the parks on the weekdays and save the things you would be less interested in for Friday Saturday and Sunday. They have websites dedicated to letting you know what the traffic on certain days so you can plan out your trip better. Also it sucks waiting for a bus at the end of a long day, but if you stay at a Walt Disney World Resort just take the public transit, don't waste the money renting a car, that way you don't have to worry about getting lost even though the transit system and where the bus is going can be confusing sometimes.

Go to Ohana in the Polynesian resort, it was my favorite restaurant of the whole trip hands down and the portions they give you are ridiculously generous. Liberty Tree Tavern in Magic Kingdom is the same family style buffet as Ohana and its good American food that'll fill you up. Kouzzina (Cat Cora's Restaurant) on the Boardwalk as well as Jelly Rolls (Piano Bar) are amazing fun.

Disney World is a blast, I would recommend anyone go see it at least once and just spend a week there. People say it's childish, but it brings out your inner child and you can't help but have fun.

Half day for me. Bug's life show, Safari ride (through the zoo area), Dinosaur ride and the Mt Everest roller coaster are the must do stuff. If you are a Get there when the gates open type, you should be fine.

Animal Kingdom was our favorite park, by far. We really liked the different "villages" and would have liked to have eaten a lot more stuff there. We did it in a half day, and I wish we would have done a full day. The safari ride was just okay, but Expedition Everest was a great coaster. You can tell it's a new park because everything is really updated and well designed.

It's kind of weird because the attractions are sort of half day (in my opinion) but the time it takes you to get around is full day. My wife likes it though because she likes the Lion King and Nemo shows better than rides.

It's kind of a grind to me. Seems somehow hotter, too.

That safari ride can differ in terms of fun depending on the person doing the narration.

The safari ride is meh. Lion King show is good.

Universal is still fun, just not as serviceable as Disney. The best way I could compare it is Disney being Princess Cruise Lines or Royal Caribbean whereas Universal is Carnival.

Biergarten is one of my faves for a place to eat at Disney. It's in Epcot and it's a huge buffet of German food with everything made from scratch and they also have entertainment on a stage while you are eating.

Typically if you go in early in the morning the Safari ride is pretty cool and the animals are more active. Once it gets hot, the animals are looking for cover and they don't move much.

We took a ferry out to Fort Wilderness and ate at the Hoop-Dee-Doo one night. It was a TON of fun. They put a pitcher of beer in front of me and just kept filling it up. A silly, kitschy experience, but we had a great time.

Haven't been in forever, but we used to like the lunch buffet at Norway.

Love that too. So much smoked fish.

The ride needs to be updated....what you really want to do if you are at AK is take the Wild Animal Trek which lets you walk half of the Safari Ride. You get to walk a suspension bridge over the crocodiles and hippo's. After that you get to have a lunch in a picnic shelter right in the middle of the Savannah.

Disney needs to update a couple of the shows...keep the characters, but update the theme.

I hear the Harry Potter area is really damn fun. I'll be there in a couple of weeks.

Another fun thing to do at Fort Wilderness is the Chip-N-Dale Campfire Sing-A-long. You can bring along your own hot dogs and marshmallows or buy them there.

They have an old fashion sing-along and then you get to watch 2 Disney movies back to back that are shown on a screen outside.

Loved eating at the German, Italian and Norwegian exhibits. Especially love eating Dessert at the French Pavilion.

Honestly...all the places in the World Showcase have something that is special about them.

My experience is different....I have 10x more fun at Disney because of the way WDW is run. Like someone else said, think Six Flags when you think of Universal. I went once and honestly have no desire to go back to Universal, and I will admit it is part personal preference, and part how the 2 places are run differently.

Perfect analogy....

Not too interested in chippendale hot dogs. ;)

We'll have to try it, EPCOT is my favorite park out of them all just because of the insane amount of things you can experience and the fireworks show is stellar. We ate at the Aquarium Coral Reef restaurant and even though it was amazing views while eating the food wasn't that great. We'll head over there next time and give it a go, thanks for the recommendation.

The Wild Africa Trek is way too expensive for what it is. I'm glad we did it, but we will never do it again.

Festival of the Lion King is currently closed.

Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure is awesome. However, the new Harry Potter area at Universal Orlando isn't open yet. It's close, but not yet.

If you do go to WDW, get your tickets and reservations now so that you can book your Fastpasses before you go. Why no Epcot? I would split Hollywood Studios and AK in a single day and spend the third day at Epcot. Do Animal Kingdom in the morning (Safari, Everest, Dinosaur, Primeval Whirl, Tough to be a Bug) and then head to DHS for the afternoon and evening. Book your Fastpasses for DHS and avoid the line for Toy Story. Do Rock'n'Roller coaster, Star tours, toy story, tower of terror and then watch Fantasmic.

The dining plan is a ripoff. Avoid it.

Summer is almost here. These places will be packed and making millions.

Solid advice, all of it. Especially the dining plan, don't do it.

AK is definitely a 1/2 day for me, morning before it's too humid. Studios is easily a full day but if your whole trip is short the 1/2 day hopper AK&HS is the way to go, full days for MK and Epcot.

We're goin in 40 days, Beach Club. 1st evening trip is the back door of Epcot for Fish n Chips and a Black n Tan @ the pub. Be my 1st trip w/ the oldest son 21+, very much lookin forward to buyin my boy and I a couple beers and people watchin!

I agree it is pricey.....but it's no different than what you pay for if you do the Richard Petty Driving Experience...or go play any of the Disney Courses...or do the Fishing Expedition.

Any extra at WDW is going to cost. And it's usually something you do only once.

EPCOT has the most under-rated and under-recommended ride in all of WDW....Soarin'....

The Coral Reef is like a lot of WDW these days, especially the front part of EPCOT....in dire need of an update. The Test Track is nice, but beyond that and Soarin' it's really hard to get excited about EPCOT. Even the nightly fireworks display could use an update. It's nice...but, still.

The dining plan...completely agree. Been many times and have done better with buying my meals without the plan.

The best and most fun time to go to DHS is during the Star Wars Weekends. Although it is packed as it can be, there is so much more to do and characters to see....

I would say the only codicil to what you have said is to mix in what are the days that each Park has additional hours for on-property guests. We've been so many times that we have it down to an art on how to maximize our experience and see/ride what we want to. The only thing that will change for us in June and again in November is experiencing Magic Kingdom with all the changes for the first time.

We get the Park Hopper passes for the full time we are there...that way we go where we want when we want. Park Hopper isn't for everyone...

We didn't even do EPCOT with my family (which I kind of feel bad about). I think that a lot of what I liked was dictated by the fact I was there with a 5 and 7 year old. I didn't like Universal Studios much. The main reason we went was to do the Star Wars stuff, and the Star Wars ride made us all horribly nauseated (the kids getting to fight Vader was fun, of course). Tower of Terror wasn't that great, and my youngest son was too small to do the Aerosmith rock and roll ride.

So yeah, one of the reasons we might have liked AK is because our kids really enjoyed it. The atmosphere was also just really cool there as well.

The one thing I wish is that it was more cost effective for my family to stay on property. With 6 in the family & the oldest bringing a friend, it is too expensive to stay on property. We are driving it as well because flying all of us down is just to much.

My kids were around that age and then a year or two older, each when we went. We skipped Epcot, too. We go Magic Kingdom/AK/Magic Kingdom for the 3 days.

For those dogging the meal plan, were you doing the character sit down meals, or just the food around the park. The character meals are expensive!

I always did the meal plan and felt like I was stealing money, but I never did a full cost-benefit analysis.

The grandmothers took care of our trips, but I will say that the meal plan was REALLY nice to have when we were at the parks. I have no idea of the economics of it, but I know we were able to eat and snack like kings with zero concern for running out of meals on our meal plans.

Yeah, we did Mickey's Breakfast for our character meal, then we also did the Hoop-De-Doo, which was a double meal voucher as well. Like I said, the grandmas took care of it, but we were happy to not be shelling out cash/cards are every single meal and snack time.

We could have easily rented a locker and taken a picnic for our days at the parks as well, though.

Yeah, we had the regular dining plan:
Regular Dining
1 table-service meal
1 quick-service meal
1 snack
1 refillable mug

I could see the one below it not being worth the money, but this one might be. Seems that the sit down meals just for my 2 adults and 2 kids were at $200 some days.

Yeah, once you exceed 5 people the cost doubles for on property stays because they have very few options for families larger than 5 unless you want to camp or fork over the big bucks. That said, I really do love the on property experience. Never having to drive a vehicle the entire time you are there really makes a difference.

WE did the meal plan once because it was free dining promo. I did enjoy that but when I did a cost analysis had I paid for it, it is cheaper to just buy as you go. One thing I picked up on quickly is that we never wasted time on the snacks. Also, the younger kids are generally stuck with the kids meals everywhere you go and they do get sick of the same 3-4 options at every meal.

I also feel that the refillable mug is a rip off unless you plan on spending a LOT of time at your hotel room. That is the only place you can use it.

Yeah, the cup was a bit of a bummer, but it was nice to fill it up a few times at the end of the day without worrying about it. My Mom paid for it last year and said we came ahead. It looks like the quick meal plan screws you over pretty good though, because those are not very expensive at all. Of course my kids are picky, so they are used to eating the same few things over and over again, lol.

My kids were always upset they couldn't eat what I was eating. I eventually just purchased some adult meals for them to make them happy. Fortunately, I hadn't paid outright for the meal plan so I didn't feel like I wasted money.

The only time I would ever do the meal plan is if it is the free dining promo based on my experience. Other than that, it just isn't worth it. I feel the same about the park hopper pass as well. I find it very easy to do one park per day and never get bored. We did the PH the second time we went and found we only used it one single time because the kids were happy with the park they were in and didn't want to waste time getting to a different park.

Free dining usually means you're paying more for your room than usual. Or you're paying rack rate. It's just not a good deal all around. There are websites that give you a cost benefit analysis for the dining plans. I haven't ever seen it be worth it.

You don't think I did that. LMAO

I definitely saved money on that particular trip. The deals they put out now are nowhere near as good as they were 3-4 years ago though.

No, not you. I'm just saying that you don't ever get something for FREE at Disney. They're still gouging you somewhere, whether it's on the room or the meal plan.

We did a few hops. But it was little kids, or kids afraid to ride anything too big. But I could see not using it as well.

Epcot is the dumbest ****ing park ever. **** that place. Why go there?

My kids absolutely LOVED Epcot.

I hate Epcot. It's terrible. I ended up spending a shit ton of money "drinking around the world" and looking at overpriced bullshit in all the shops.

I feel like kids would hate it.

They have really gone out of their way to make Epcot more interesting to kids. My kids love the KimPossible missions out in the World Showcase. They get to run around looking for clues and learning some history without even realizing it.

I honestly thought they would HATE Epcot but they can't wait to get there each time we go. They love the rides, the views, the fireworks, the food. Everything. They show more interest in what is going on there than in any of the other parks.

Yeah, I remember when I went all the kids had these little devices (I thought they were phones) and they'd stop at certain areas in the park. It was obviously some weird ass hunt or whatever.

Then we get to Future World or whatever and the only thing I half enjoyed was Mission to Mars.

Highlight of my time there was seeing Mulan. Bitch was fine as hell, I had to wave and give her a cheesy ass smile. My girlfriend was like "You're such a flirt".... I loved that girl.

Mmmmm. Mulan.

Seriously. I loved that girl.. Whoever she was.

.. And I'm pretty sure she wanted the D.

I've loved Epcot since I was a little kid. Everything about it just appeals to me.

Kids will love:

Soarin' - Hang gliding simulator

Test Track - Come on, it's a fast ride

Mission: Space (Orange side) - Another awesome simulator

Under the Seas with Nemo - Nemo ride part appeals to little kids, and the rest of the aquarium is always filled with wide-eyed kids. Never seen a kid be bored at the Seas. I love aquariums, too, so I love it.

Sum of All Thrills - Design and ride your own roller coaster. Awesome.

Kids probably won't love: Spaceship Earth - Very history oriented, but cool for adults. They will like the end of the ride when they get to see themselves animated on screen, though.

Livin' with the Land - Boat ride about aquaponics and sustainable agriculture

Ellen's Energy Adventure - Long. Boring. But they'll probably fall asleep because it's 45 minutes. I like the animatronic dinosaurs, though.

In world showcase, there's the Maelstrom boat ride in Norway, 3 caballeros boat ride in Mexico, chinese acrobats, and the Agent P world showcase adventure. They'll probably also love eating at Biergarten, because there's a show that likes to involve kids.

Does Epcot need some love? Absolutely. But there's a TON to love about the park. You just have to go in realizing that it's not a park that is centered around rides. That makes it one of a kind. And hey, if you hate it, there's a tequila bar in the basement of Mexico.

That is everything I wanted to say but was too lazy to type it all. Kudos!!!

Our girls (4 and 6) love epcot. The coral reef restaurant is neat. The wall of it is part of the seas aquarium and fish, sharks,rays, and scuba divers swim by u while u eat

I don't know if it's still there but the Michael Jackson 3D movie was pretty cool, plus it's air conditioned if you or the kids need a 20-30 minute break from the heat. It was still there 2.5 years ago when I last went.

It is still there. Little kids might like it, but it could also be scary for them. I can't imagine a kid approaching their teen years or older would find it anything but cheesy and dumb.

Little kids would also love Journey into Imagination, even though it's the worst ride in the world, especially for adults. Fun colors and all that. I wish they would bring the original ride back. It used to be awesome.

When I was a kid I loved Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. I thought it was awesome. But I guess that's Pooh or something now.


That new Goofy roller coaster in Magic Kingdom is kind of a waste. Whole thing takes like 20 seconds.