WDWFigment
Well-Known Member
You fly Delta? I know someone who is taking advantage of their Asian deals right now.
And please share your TDR musings/experiences here. I went this week three years ago and had a great time with weather and crowds, but I did Monday-Thursday at the parks. No weekends, so I am interested in what you were able to see and do with the crowds and without the ability to book your rides on an iPhone months ahead of time!
I think the park' s structure is a home run. The template for a great park has existed since opening and they have steadily built and improved upon it.
I can't talk about the newest additions beyond saying they look great. And MM is highly regarded in the industry, which matters much more than fanbois drooling over YouTube clips. ... I think Main Street is quite detailed, but it doesn't have depth (literally, the shops don't go extend very deep). I'd still rather that version than MK's.
I love that the park has these new unique attractions that still are based on concepts done in the other castle parks but taken in completely new directions.
Not just you. But the scale of DL is smaller than the scale of MK or TDL as well.
I don't see it going anywhere anytime soon. It's not all that worse than the Toontown Fair type concept though. And with two pricey E-Tickets, they needed something cheap, and largely for kids.
When's the last time WDW opened an attraction that you'd put on par with MM?
Halloween is absolutely amazing at HKDL and VERY different than what is done at the other resorts. It's also the only time of year, thus far, they leave the park open until 11 p.m.
When I was there for Christmas, they had a parade (largely an overlay of the daytime parade with Let It Snow soundtrack), a nightly show and treelighting with Mickey, Minnie and, of course, Duffy and a little village setup in the Hub. Nice, but not nearly what they do for Halloween. Those shows you speak of are new.
TT has great food. They totally changed it between my 2008 and 2010 visits. It went to a largely Indian menu (India is a major market for the park) and the food was really tasty.
Did you do Crytsal Lotus? Great local cuisine there.
HKDL wasn't a half day park when I first went in 2008. But it wasn't -- and isn't -- worthy of more than two days (and that includes checking out both hotels and going at a leisurely pace). I tell folks you don't take a trip to HKDL, you take a trip to HK and spend a day or two at HKDL if you like Disney parks.
And 10 times on MM? No one will ever accuse you of being OCD!...I'm just looking forward to getting my first!
When will the pics be on the DBP? (or better, your site, since I really don't want to give Disney's site one click)
We flew United (which outsourced two of the flights to ANA...which was GREAT!), but I initially booked after receiving an email from Delta about the Asia promos. I went to ITA immediately (btw - anyone who flies a lot should learn the advanced code features of ITA...they are invaluable) and was able to find flights from Seattle and San Francisco to HKG and NRT for $776 inclusive. I was shocked when I searched for IND and found it was around $998 for the roughly the same flights, except through Chicago. The weekend we booked, United was matching Delta's prices, and since United has much better rewards, we opted to book it. Two days after we booked, United's prices approximately doubled, although I know Delta still has some pretty good deals going. Not sure why United stopped, as none of our flights were more than half full, at best. I suspect more Asia deals are coming down the pipeline.
We know not to visit TDR on the weekend, but like I said, we didn't have much choice. The weekend we visited, tickets literally sold out. TDL was absolutely packed Saturday, but aside from actually getting into the park, it wasn't a major problem. Those CMs are absolute pros when it comes to crowd control, and we just paid closer attention to getting FastPasses than we normally would, and focused on doing less-popular attractions and eating. There were some insane waits, but we never waited more than 30 minutes for an attraction. We were prepared for the worst, but it really wasn't that bad. If those were our only two days, we would have been disappointed as we skipped the headliners in TDL, but we were just able to do them on Monday, when TDL was comparatively dead.
The bigger issue was our hotel situation. We booked this trip fairly last minute (~2 months in advance). You know I'm "crazy" about wanting to stay close to the parks, and Hilton Tokyo Bay (where we stayed before for ~$150/night) was ~$300/night and the only thing on-property available, and I stubbornly was not willing to pay double what we paid before. So we stayed at what turned out to be a dive called "Family Fifty's" in Maihama...and it was absolutely awful. Mold and bugs in our room, and a terrible smell. It was about the only thing available in Maihama for a reasonable price. In retrospect, we should have just stayed in Tokyo, where nice accommodations were available for a reasonable price, and done the commute. (That nearby place you suggested previously was sold out.) Going forward, I know to look at hotels before booking airfare. Lesson learned on that one.
