reddening's thread of DISNEY PARKS gossip

We are using the hell out of the app plusWDW Lines.

My wife is such a pro at planning.

Just learned they are building an Avatar Land here, how dumb.

Josh are you guys gonna swing by Universal Orlando for Harry Potter land?

Harry Potter ride at Islands of Adventure is sick, spider man ride is pretty amazing too

We didn't hit Universal this year because it was my girlfriend's first WDW trip since she was a kid but next time for sure. That Harry Potter ride is supposed to be the best thing in the Orlando area so I'm pretty psyched.

Don't want to pay full park price for just Harry Potter.

Other rides too intense for my kids, generally.

have they started construction on avatar land yet? i keep hoping that they'll wake up one day and be like "oh wait! this franchise is flash-in-the-pan nonsense!" and shutter the whole thing.

Fun thread. WiFi no trouble, Josh? I may live blog in December.

xpost Right? It seems so short-sighted. I could see making a ride, but a whole subsection of the park is just nuts.

Mr. Toad taps his webbed foot at your talk of flash-in-the-pan nonsense.

WiFi has been solid.

Boma at animal lodge remains a fave. Now fitting in some Epcot.

Food and Wine Fest in progress. makes me appreciate living in a city that has good food and beer all the time.

when I was here two years ago we walked past Sugar Ray performing. Tonight, I just walked past boys II men! At the Eat to the Beat stage.

ha -- I was at the MK on Grad Nite when Cathy Dennis performed.

People going nuts for Motown Philly.

food and wine fest is sweet, nothing beats drinking around the world

Disney full of drunk idiots a bad scene.

Epcot is great when it's not Food & Wine Festival. I've seen fiftysomethings yak in the bushes in front of Germany.

Food & Wine is awesome (Taylor Dayne last time I was there!). We were at Epcot for the Flower & Garden Festival this year, which (protip) was basically just Food & Wine with a vague gardening theme.

I was at Food & Garden and saw Paul Revere and the Raiders! (RIP)

I saw Paul Revere and the Raiders at Magic Mountain (LA area amusement park) back in the 70s! My first "name" act live concert.

and now, just 3 daily later, the Magic Kingdom is totally Christmas out.

Three days.

Running low on things to do, so ... Enchanted tiki room. Yes, it has come to that.

go on the monorail pub crawl!

They forgot to charge us for an expensive character meal, so we get a bonus buffet feast.

don't knock the tiki room, it's a good place to rest for a bit and sing some goofy songs with singing birds and plants. Make sure to get a pineapple whip while you are there.

the Tiki Room at Disneyland is easily in my top 5 park attractions

xpost And I think they finally got rid of Zazu and Iago, which is another major point currently in its favor.

I hate pineapple whip.

Back to Epcot in a bit for my daughter's 10th. We have so many leftover food credits I fear for my health.

xpost

Yes, Zazu and Iago and the whole re-vamped tiki room was a travesty and I'm glad they fixed this at WDW

?? none of that shit at the Disneyland one, which has remained unchanged since time immemorial afaik

Aerosmith and Everest and Dwarves all awesome additions, BTW. Epcot still sort of worthless, though they do update exhibits pretty often to keep them more timely.

has Test Track been Tron-ified yet

looks like that was a couple years ago.

Total Tron.

My kids love Soarin, but I think it's dumb. At least there is no 3d involved.

fire breathing sleeping beauty dragon at the magic kingdom parade was awesome.

best Disney genius idea by the way is to buy some Disney doo dads, t shirts and stuff, at Target before you leave, and give it to the kids at the park. Probably saves you hundreds of dollars.

another is to give your kids each a $20 gift card, and tell them they can spend it on whatever they want, but they are not getting more.

yeah my first Disney World trip in 1997 featured cracking open the owl-shaped coin bank we had been feeding change to my entire life (I was 8) and me and my sister each got $40 for spending there. I got a ceramic figurine of Mickey in the Sorcerer's Apprentice hat.

Does anyone have a good book on WDW? I'd love to learn how it works.

the DL tiki room hasn't added anything, but they did remove a full musical number from it during the nineties due to kids these days and their attention spans and their gameboys, etc.

it is amazing how many kids and tweens I have seen with their headphones on, staring at a screen.

I say, as I type into my phone.

just a reflektor maaaaaan

I learned so much this trip I will relate when I'm back to a computer.

Does anyone have a good book on WDW? I'd love to learn how it works.

I have the Imagineering Field Guides for each of the four parks, and they provide a lot of interesting background info. Disney Editions has three big Imagineering books that I'm aware of, and a couple actual Imagineers have written their own books. Jim Hill's site is pretty decent for behind the scenes stuff. And if you want the seedier behind the scenes stories, check out the websites dedicated to the bitchings of people who've participated in Disney's college program.

There's a wonderful eye-opening book about the history of WDW published about six or seven years ago: a full history. I don't remember its name.