Seals

April 1974

April 1974

1982

Your son is adorable. He looks like he's enjoying every minute.

"The most common is that a young boy died after swimming in the water when an amoeba attacked his brain in 1980, this was never Disney’s fault. The same amoeba has taken several lives all across Florida, the most recent was earlier this year."

Someone really needs to catch that amoeba.

I just thought of another big issue in the system

 

One thing that is going to be difficult even once the system is fully implemented is a group of unrelated folks to FP+ together (like the Fiends).  Our reservations are rarely linked together, and if a few of us decided to tour a park together (even if we plan it the day before), it's going to be a pain to friend each other, link the reservations, link the our MDE, and all get FP+ at the same time.

 

Then a few days later a totally different mix of folks might want to tour together, then we have to repeat that process for the next group. ACK!!!

 

It's also going to cause troubles for our December RADP meets. A lot of times on the schedule, is the first order of business is to go get a FP for attraction A, then meet over at Attraction B for the first ride of the day.

 

There is a huge mix of folks in that group, resort guests, locals, off-site guests, AP holders. The above scenario is impossible now to all get a FP time in the same general window

 

I doubt very seriously they have taken into consideration loosely associated groups of friends wanting to tour together.

Disney spin -- Spend some magical quality time visiting with your friends and catching up with their lives. 

On a totally unrelated note, every time I see that commercial with that guy who won the Super Bowl saying he's going to Disney World, I'm hoping he made his FP+ reservations and ADR well before he even knew he was playing in the Super Bowl. 

I know nothing about Good Sam ratings, but I think it's interesting/amusing/a little sad that not having WiFi in a campground could lower the rating. Who would have thunk that about 10 years ago!

Check out this page: http://www.orlandoinformer.com/universal/on-site-hotel-annual-pass-discount/

This is what we did the two times we went to Universal, 2011 and 2012. The annual pass rates for the hotel were a big discount over the regular rates. You don't have to have the annual pass in hand to make the reservation. Only one person on the reservation has to have the annual pass and you can also use it to get 10% off everyone's food in the parks. I remembered there was a code I entered on the Loew's hotel reservation page. This page says it was APH. We stayed at Royal Pacific which was pretty nice and had a huge pool. It was the least expensive of the three hotels. a new motel is opening this summer but it won't have front of the line privileges. If you do this check with someone to make sure it all still works this way.

We really enjoyed both parks at Universal. It's not Disney but we found a lot to do and there were rides for the coaster riders and the non-coaster riders. The front of the line passes and being able to walk to the parks made the cost of staying onsite vs offsite worth it.

Also forgot to add that we used the one annual pass to get discounts on the other tickets.

I've only stayed in 2000 and I always thought that bus stop was only for 2000. Maybe I'm wrong.

 

So I have a question for the young parents reading along. If all you've got is a 2-year-old, why do you bring them to Disney? I mean, the kid isn't going to remember it. And all you're going to do is hate life, pushing a double-wide stroller through a park that wasn't designed for double-wide strollers. And your kid is going to scream the whole way, annoying me.

 

 I'll jump in and answer your question. In 2003 I brought TWO 2 year olds, actually they were 2 years and 50 weeks old, to WDW because I didn't have to pay for them.  And, they don't count toward room total number of people restrictions for rooms.  So we stayed in one room in All Star Movies with 3 kids and 2 adults and only had to pay for one kid and two adult tickets.  Plus, they don't eat very much. Plus, two year olds don't really care what souvenir they get as long as they get something.  It was our cheapest trip to Disney by far.  We couldn't afford to go back for 5 years after that.  You are right, however, they don't remember that trip at all. But I do. And now that they are teenagers I enjoy looking back at the photos of that trip.

So, the question should really be why bring 3 year olds to Disney?  

Did you know sometimes you can find cached versions of things through Google.

(I remembered reading $49/day too.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:1jcmJX3DFu0J:www.rvtravel.com/%3Fq%3Drv-travel-newsletter-issue622+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

I explored it earlier this week and I am here to report that it is a monster RV park (I mean that in a good way) — 740 acres — the size of 560 football fields. Shuttle buses run through the park all day and night to transport campers from place to place. The only car parking, with a few exceptions, is at individual campsites. A lot of campers bring electric golf carts to get around. Others rent them ($49 a day).

I agree nice article. I also agree now it will be even harder to get a campsite.  :camp1: 

 

 

I had a thought while passing this basketball hoop. Mrs. Troll used to get angry at Junior Troll when the Troll Family would go out to a nice restaurant and Junior Troll would order something he could have at home.

 

Isn't this basketball hoop like that?

 

You're at the premier vacation destination in the WORLD and you're going to shoot hoops?

 

You can, you know, shoot hoops under an overpass in Miami.

 

Did you know there's a checkerboard in MK? Yeah. Pay $90 a person to get in a park and then play a crappy board game you can play on your phone for free...while stuck in traffic on I-75.

 

Fools.

 

 

 

 

I share these sentiments, and have said similar things to my children about eating and playing while on vacation. Even when I don't care where we eat on vacation my rule is it can't be a restaurant or fast food place we have in our town.  While I was walking touring around the Boardwalk one pleasant sunny morning during Thanksgiving week I passed by the fitness room at the Boardwalk Inn and couldn't believe how many people were walking and running on the treadmills.  I had to stop myself from banging on the window and yelling at them to go outside and walk or run in an actual place.  

Enjoying your report and look forward to reading more about what is happening right now. 

I agree that parking lot is the biggest problem.

 

But, still, the campground remains intact.  Nothing changes between the Settlement and the Outpost.

 

I am still poking around in the plans, and came across this interesting detail on a schedule where they list all the different kind of pavement (or hard-scape) they planned to use:

 

 

Alligator Tracks!

 

TCD

Is it possible the theme is the Mississippi River in general? Alligators in the Louisiana portion and then include the other portions, through the wilderness areas of the country/ frontier where the Fort and Settlement are. Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer. Does a little overlap with Port Orleans, though. Otherwise I'm stumped by alligator tracks and palm fronds if it's Missouri.

And Key West, New England, Atlantic City, New Orleans, Pacific northwest, Polynesia, Caribbean, and Mexico.

Why not Missouri? Walt grew up in Missouri and it was his inspiration for Main Street USA.

and Canada, England, France, Morocco, Italy, Japan, China, Norway and Germany. And outer space.

Note to self: Never be at the Fort on Jan. 2nd. Too depressing.  Have they not heard of the 12 days of Christmas -- when the wise men bring gold, frankincense and myrrh to Woodstock baby Jesus? 

My husband has been to Laugh Floor maybe four times and has been picked as Sully twice, but never "that guy". 

 

So, it is limiting FP+ selections to the number of days you have on your tickets?

 

Seals-if you are still reading along- are you limited to making FP+ reservations to just the number of days left on your tickets?

 

Yes, it limits me to the 5 remaining days I have on my ticket then it says that I'm not eligible to make any additional FP+ selections.

And when I first got the MB, I couldn't make any FP+ selections until I linked a ticket, even though I had a reservation. 

And FWIW both my MBs are yellow for no reason except I picked red, blue, green and gray for the rest of my family and there was no purple.

And it made me sad to make 5 random days of FP+ selections (several for It's a Small World) and then have to cancel them because it was only a test. 

Just did a test that might help someone with planning.  I have a non-expiring ticket that I linked to MBs in November when staying onsite and then used 3 of the 8 days. Just now I was able to pick a random date in Feb. and make FP+ reservations even though I don't have any onsite resort reservation for that day.  So apparently I could stay offsite next time and still make FP+ reservations ahead of time. Savings for staying offsite could offset cost of non-expiring tickets. 

Also, in November we stayed 4 nights onsite and then 3 nights at the Dolphin (which did not have the ability to make FP+ reservations ahead of time), but were still able to use all the FP+ reservations we made ahead of time for our parks day while staying at the Dolphin. So linked tickets (bought not as a package), after an initial resort reservation, seems to be the key to making FP+ while the tickets are still good. At least for now.

And the info on MDE said 8-day non-expiring tickets and then Expiration Date: December 31, 2030.  Maybe they know something I don't?

Similar advice from the opposite side. I wish we had explored the camper route when my kids were little. I'm sure you've heard it before, but I'll repeat it -- in a blink of the eye he/she/they will be teenagers with friends, activities, jobs and drivers licenses of their own. If you think you might want to do it, do it now.   We've tent camped and it's fun but a lot of equipment, set up and take down, and subject to the weather.  

I think there are many ways to look at the best time. You said "least crowded" so that can be determined by crowd calendar. I also like to look at who the crowds are. My son went in April with his entire 8th grade and said there were lots of school groups (teenagers) there. That is a particular type of crowd. We went at Thanksgiving and it was crowded, but the fourth Thursday of November is only a holiday in the United States so that had an impact on the type of crowd.  As others have said, you also have to balance in park hours (if you like to sleep late and the parks close early), ride refurbishments and weather and determine what is most desirable for you. 

To answer your original post, though, one year our kids didn't start school until early Sept because of construction so we went the last week of August and it wasn't too crowded. A lot of schools start in mid-August, especially in the South.

 

 

Hey look, there are a couple of turtles who have moved in:

 

 

 

 

Any chance those are rare turtles and their habitat has to be preserved? 

Damn Carol. you've given this a lot of thought! Is there something you would like to tell us?

These are many of the ideas my son and I thought of. We actually had this conversation while sitting in the lobby of WL and decided it was a pretty nice place to live.  We agreed we would probably get a refillable mug and keep extending it at various locations -- hot chocolate is pretty filling.   We said shower at the Fort would probably be easiest.  An alternative to laundry could be going to the various lost and founds and saying one lost a "blue t-shirt" or something. "Is this is?" "Yes, that's it!"  An Annual Pass, while expensive, would help supplement the locations one could hide out in (good long naps in the People Mover, for example). I'd love to give this a try. 

It looks like for 2014 a premium site rack rate adds up to $36,894. but that does include all the FREE transportation. Oh forgot the tax make that about $43,904 or $ 120.28/day Avg. or $3,658.66/ month avg.

 

looks doable for me ....If I retire when I'm 243 years old 

I can get that number down by sleeping in my tent in a tent/popup loop. Sometimes those are $60 a night I think. Utilities are included so I can take a lengthy shower every day for that price. I would hang out in various resort lounges on days when I'm not in the parks or when the weather is horrible.  I love people watching so that would be an activity that would keep me occupied for many days. I'd read and get lots of exercise walking around.  I'd only use my old car for going to a cheap grocery store for food. Splurge for meals occasionally.

I'm not thinking of a permanent stay, probably only for a year or so since there are a number of other places I'd like to live for a year. Yes, I'm a daydreamer!  And this is related to a fun conversation I had with my son about whether a kid (or "homeless" person) could hide out at WDW and for how long and what would he do to survive. 

Another observation: It looks like the pools are completely surrounded by the buildings, i.e. no one is getting to those pools without staying there. Probably need to swipe a MB to get out of the building to the pool.  If Disney is taking comments on this proposal, count me in as totally in favor of scrapping the entire project and moving the pool facility to the Meadow swimming pool area for Fort guests to enjoy. I did just comment on our post-visit survey that the Fort definitely needs a lazy river. 

 I'm sad to say that my gut feeling is that this is going to happen. Sigh. 

That is a day dream of mine too so I'm curious how it works (so that my daydream can be more detailed; I've got at least a decade until retirement unless the lottery thing works out  ).  Are there no restrictions on maximum reservations? Does one make a reservation for an entire year at once? Do you pre-pay? Is there a discount for long term?  

Acknowledges that some guests are not having the experience they expected.

I don't know if this is your phrase or his, but I really like it. It places no blame. Are they wrong for not providing the experience or are you wrong for expecting something that wasn't going to be provided.

I think I'll use it the next time I complain to someone. "Excuse me, but I'm not having the experience I expected."