reddening's thread of DISNEY PARKS gossip

People go to Disney World without kids? I literally have no concept of what we're talking about.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a0/WDW-ClubCoolInside.jpg/800px-WDW-ClubCoolInside.jpg

Club Cool bender for three straight days. That's what we're talking about.

My wife and I went for 8 days as adults and I don't think we ever ran out of stuff to do. It definitely is the triumph of attention to detail. We even wanted to, like, relax and watch a movie on the lawn of our resort and we never fit it in!

We rented Frozen when we got back home

Each of the Epcot World Showcase pavilions is run by its host country, including the chefs, restaurants, servers and whatnot, so the food is the real deal, as are the dodads and snacks sold in the shops; my wife, who spent part of her childhood in Germany, found a brand of spicy mustard in the store that she had not seen since she was little.but even the other restaurants are pretty high quality. My parents ate with us two years ago at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, just a few weeks after they had gotten back from Africa, and they said the food was better quality and more authentic at Disney World than what was served to them in Africa.

I try to get in a week or so of WDW every 2-3 years, on average. The focus is usually on Epcot but I always hit all of the parks. As noted, food and drink (specifically as consumed around the World Showcase) are pretty central to the trip. I dig a lot of the rides and the astonishing attention to detail and the general organization and layout of the whole enterprise (a more ambitious and focused version of me would be driving towards becoming an Imagineer). I plan on fitting in at least one of the backstage tours (some of which last most of a day) on my next trip. Also, for whatever reason, that whole hermetically-sealed experience is so much more relaxing for me than trips to almost anywhere else, where my anxiety has me fretting excessively about every little variable. But it really is a huge place with tons to do and the trip is what you make of it. You can maintain a hectic pace and hit tons of stuff, but it's also a great place to take it slow and just sit somewhere for a stretch and take in the sights.

There's plenty to criticize about the whole endeavor, though, don't get me wrong. The forced cheerfulness starts to feel a little sinister at a point, and a week in is usually the point where I'm fairly ready to return to the real world.

Each of the Epcot World Showcase pavilions is run by its host country, including the chefs, restaurants, servers and whatnot, so the food is the real deal

It's worth noting that both the Food & Wine and Flower & Garden festivals at Epcot include an obscene number of additional kiosks featuring food and drink from even more countries than are usually represented.

My parents ate with us two years ago at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, just a few weeks after they had gotten back from Africa, and they said the food was better quality and more authentic at Disney World than what was served to them in Africa.

Jiko? I've wanted to go for years but it's so damn far. Best collection of South African wines in the U.S.

if you don't want forced cheerfulness, or really any cheerfulness at all, but want all the rest, try Disneyland Paris!

I would love a version of WDW where all of the employees are surly.

xpost No, Boma. Great buffet with all sorts of good stuff, including several African beers as well as a bunch of Florida beers, too. Plus wine, natch.

Cocktails stink across the board at Disney, btw. But beer and wine are great, especially during Food & Wine, ie now. Germany had soooooo many beers.

I've never gotten a vibe of forced cheerfulness so much as a well trained, enthusiastic staff, a la Trader Joe's. They all seem to be into it, and willing to bend over backwards to help you have a good time. When my daughter and I were stuck on Space Mountain for 20 minutes, the cast guy closest to us was super fun and funny, and no one seemed to be stressed at all. Including, I should say, the guests. I've seen very few totally freaked out or crying kids, let alone adults, at WDW. Kids are usually engaged or, if they're young, asleep in strollers, and unlike, say, Six Flags, you don't see a lot of trash behavior. Probably because Disney attracts kids and parents with kids, plus adults, but not many teens, in my experience. The obvious theory is that the price is relatively prohibitive. Who would go if they weren't into it?

The rumor mill has it that Pleasure Island (RIP) was closed down because it was in Downtown Disney (which is free to the general public) and attracted a lot of troublemakin' townies.

Downtown Disney definitely has a slightly rowdier vibe compared to the parks. Lots of what seemed to be local teens were there on the weekend we went.

My parents ate with us two years ago at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, just a few weeks after they had gotten back from Africa, and they said the food was better quality and more authentic at Disney World than what was served to them in Africa.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, November 7, 2014 9:21 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no offense to your parents, but this is some 'better than real africa' yelp review nonsense.

Downtown Disney is a joke: a bland shopping mall. It had so much more life as the Walt Disney World Shopping Village.

xpost Dude, why do you have to be a dick about it? I didn't say they went street fooding it in Lagos. They took a trip to Tanzania. The food they were served on their trip in Tanzania was less "African" and less good than the (pan) African food they were served in Disney. I have no doubt the food served to them on their trip in Tanzania was what the tour imagined Americans or other non-Africans wanted to eat, which was not necessarily indigenous food, and not necessarily good. Ergo, "the food was better quality and more authentic at Disney World than what was served to them in Africa." It's really no different than someone saying they had better French food in America than they had in France. It's possible. A chef is a chef is a chef and a recipe is a recipe.

I am certainly being a dick, but it's the kind of thing someone says because it appears to have more clout than saying 'the food at disney was better than applebee's' when it really doesn't (as you point out). so the question is 'why say it at all?', and this is of course a question only someone being a dick would ask.

I've never gotten a vibe of forced cheerfulness so much as a well trained, enthusiastic staff, a la Trader Joe's.

See now I'm starting to get it because I REALLY like going to Trader Joe's, even as I understand in some objective way why other people find it cloying.

Did you know Trader Joe's will let you try anything in the store, no strings attached? They'll even open a package for you right there.

i hate trader joe's checkers -- they all dress like they just got out of bed & talk to me like they're my roommate

i would rather full scale plastic cheerfulness than cloaked 'hey we're pals wanna smoke a doobie' cheerfulness

have a magical day is 1000% more preferable to 'HAY WHATCHA GOT PLANNED FOR THE WEEKEND? ANYTHING FUN?'

so otm

Absolutely. I avoid Trader Joe's for that very reason. People pretending to be my bud because they're being paid to do so is thoroughly off-putting.

Sorry, I love my Joes bros and am gonna keep on thinking of them as my close personal Hawaiian-shirted buds. When they ask me what I'm doing this weekend, I tell them!

As for Disney, I am totally defeated by this FastPass system. I am trying to sign up for some rides, but when I click on a date, it says it is removing me from my party because my FastPass limit is reached. Is there some completely separate part of the site where I'm supposed to buy FastPasses so that I have them to use? Every indication I've gotten is that it would be monumentally stupid to just show up at the park on Christmas Day, but apparently the incredible attention to detail doesn't extend to building a usable website.

When I go to Trader Joes tomorrow and my bro asks me what I've got planned this weekend I'm gonna be all "planning to spend a few more hours struggling with My Disney Experience, dude, and you?"

OK update I think I understand what's going on here, some kind of complicated coordination issue with my sister's family who are linked to us on this reservation.

I've actually become friends with a couple of local TJ folks. Go figure, they're nice off the clock, too.

Fast passes, or at least early fast passes, tend to get snagged well in advance. Christmas is literally peak visiting time, so I wonder if that has anything to do with your problems.

the park, by the way, has many Fast Pass kiosks, with dedicated staff just there to help you with the fast pass stuff.

the kiosks were new and a bit of a mixed bag last time I was there because they had to have cast members operate them for you, so you were very likely to run into a case of old timer trying to interact with new technology. Some cast members knew all the short cuts and how to game the kiosk but others just didn't get it. It's probably improved since then.

Yeah, all the tech stuff gets better all the time. The kiosk cast was all young last week, and very helpful. We did a lot of fast pass swapping. If we had a fastpass for, say, Haunted Mansion later in the day, but the line was short, we would just wait in the line then use the fastpass for something else later.

Also, again, rider swap was awesome and easy. My older daughter and I used the fast pass for Space Mountain while my wife waited with our younger daughter (who doesn't like dark rides). We zipped through the line and onto the ride in now time, then popped out, tag-teamed, and left the kids waiting while she and I more or less immediately went on Space Mountain. So mechanical delay aside, I basically got to ride it twice in 10 minutes. All you have to do is tell a cast member when you head in.

With fast pass or rider swap, how are you not taking another patron's place in line?

It all goes pretty smoothly. It's not that you're taking someone's place so much as a feeding in from a second, faster line. So you wait in the regular line, and then every set amount of time they send in a batch of the fast pass holders. Keep in mind that fast pass is free and available to everyone, first come, first served (they're usually claimed if not months in advance than certainly early in the day). Ride swap, it's not a regular thing, or at least not too apparent. Just a person here or there. It makes it fairer for folks stuck babysitting or waiting with old folks or whomever, so they don't have to spend an hour sitting there, then another hour waiting in line themselves. You could say the assumption is they have been waiting in line with their family in spirit.

I should note they no longer have handicapped access lines, because too many assholes were pretending to be in wheelchairs and stuff to skip the line. But for all its elaborate design, WDW seems remarkably handicap accessible, from buses to rides. I should look for blog posts from folks in wheelchairs. I'm curious what they think.

If anything, the proliferation of scooters and strollers are the only things hampering the flow of things, but both are probably necessities. I saw mostly elderly and impaired (casts and crutches) young folks using scooters, which is only fair, because walking 10 to 15 miles a day can be tough on anyone.

it also should be noted that guests are limited to 3 fast passes per day, so you can't just load up on them like crazy.

One change I liked on my most recent trip was how rides like Haunted Mansion, Winnie the Pooh, and Harry Potter at Universal all had fun little interactive things for the kids to do throughout the line so that they don't get bored just standing around.

another thing we did on the last trip which was new-ish to me was going to Innoventions at Epcot. I hadn't gone in there since the 80s so had no idea what to expect. Usually we'd skip it but it sounded like there would be some activities that my 11-year-old son might like, and indeed he loved it. There's tons of interactive games and activities to do in there. It's maybe a little dull for an adult, but being the indulgent parent that I am, we ended up spending hours in there.

Yeah, Space Mountain has video games to play while waiting in line.

Thanks for the explanation. I was thinking about how pissed I'd be if I was waiting at the bank and a fast pass patron bumped ahead of me, but that's not how it is at all, I guess.

Sisney figures -- correctly -- that everyone will wait in line eventually.

OK, computer problems solved, Fastpasses obtained, etc!

Question: if we have a flight out of Orlando at 7:15pm on the last day, how long can we stay in the park? I have zero sense of the time involved in getting from place to place inside Disney. Our luggage will presumably be in the hotel so I guess this means I need to know how much time it takes to go park -> hotel -> airport.

Are you staying in a Disney resort?

Yep.

Also I don't really understand how this food thing works -- on that last day I really don't want to spend time having a full sit-down meal in the middle of the day, but will I literally not be able to obtain food for myself and my children if I don't reserve something?

there's plenty of counter service at the parks too

Disney rewards those who plan ahead, so planning ahead gets you the greatest benefits and flexibility. Ergo, a lot of the better sit down places/character spots are more or less booked weeks or months in advance. However, there are a number of what they call quick service spots that are fine in a pinch, with sandwiches, pizza, etc. Not the best food, but good enough. There are also what they call 'snacks,' which range from bananas to decadent sundaes. You can get these anywhere.

There's a Disney reservation line which can probably help you find a place to eat, if you're worried. But no, you will be able to obtain food of some sort, just not necessarily the best food or at the most coveted spots. Epcot could be an exception, because there are a ton of places to eat, and even in 2014 the sushi place or awesome Moroccan place does not pack them in as much as the pizza place. (The pizza place is very good, btw.)

If you are in a resort, in many cases they handle the bags for you via their magical express or whatever they call it That is, you don't see your bags again between the resort and your destination airport. So ideally, you check your bags at the resorts and hit the parks for another few hours. The airport is maybe 30 minutes away, so a 7:15 flight gives you lots of time (again, if you plan it).

planning ahead gets you the greatest benefits and flexibility.

I get that it offers benefits but how "flexibility?" This is exactly what's freaking me out. I'll be there with a 9-year-old and a 4-year-old -- even at home I don't know exactly what time they're gonna feel like eating! And now I have to make this decision eight weeks out.

Make a few reservations ahead of time for places you really want to check out but be realistic about how much you're going to want to plan around specific mealtimes. There are hundreds of places to eat around WDW, so no one's going to go hungry. I'd recommend that you buy the Unofficial Disney World Guide book that's put out every year. That thing is a godsend for planning your trip and it'll hopefully help alleviate some of the freaking out. Checking some of the WDW message boards should help, too. There are a lot of obsessives out there who I'm sure can precisely answer any questions you have.

I kinda can't stand things being too regimented so I just go to WDW in the spring or fall when all of the kids are in school and mostly wing it. Which seems to work out fairly well, although that obviously means that I haven't made it to any of the really top-shelf restaurants yet.

Oh yeah there really is no wrong way to do it, just better ways. I highly recommend a couple of the podcasts,too, since at the least you learn so much.

No children will starve regardless. Like a cruise you may all actually put on weight.

By flexibility I meant it is much better to have dining reservations, or fast passes, and not need to use them, then need to use them, and not have them. Nothing you plan for is binding, and it is very easy to change strategies on the fly. That's how a lot of the apps help, with lists of wait times and what not.

My wife really liked this one: http://wdwprepschool.com/

Really useful, so worth a scan of the blog or facebook site, at the least.

There is a free app called WDW Lines that is updated more or less in real time, too.

As WDW prep sums up, "most people don’t plan ahead of time and they end up missing out and wasting a lot of time during their trip." That's really what it's about. There is so much to do, like going to Los Angeles or New York or Chicago or any other big city, that if you go in with no plan there is a chance you'll get overwhelmed and miss out on something you wanted to do, since you'll spend so much time in line, or wandering around, or whatever. But just because the best or most popular restaurants get booked early does not mean there are not a hundred other options, at least when it comes to food. Rides, you can always get on anything, but fast passes speed things up significantly.

Also, if you are going with a 9 year old and 4 year old, consider bringing a cheap little umbrella stroller even if the 4 year old doesn't use one anymore. Last time we went one kid was 8 and the other 5, and it was a little tough on the younger one. This year they were 10 and 7, and both were troopers, but no joke, we really did walk at least 10 miles a day, at most 15 or so. We also brought a bunch of our own snacks, granola bars and stuff. Just to have handy.

Unless you've been several times, spontaneity + Disney don't mix, trust me.

I second the nod for The Unofficial Guide. Even I flip through the latest edition when published in August.

If you've got your heart set on a restaurant, make the reservation anyway around the time your kids usually eat.

My favorite forum: http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=12