50 MAGICal Enhancements for the 50th ...

[Kman101]

You are. ... I don't and wouldn't advocate ever doing so.

It's not real arguing It's all in fun Spirit. I was never knocking anyone's opinion. I don't try and come at anyone. We all have our own experiences and yes, time does color some things but I feel like you think I should shut it.

And no, I don't think it's the "bestest ever". But I still find things to enjoy. If you skim any of my posts I call the company out quite often and plenty. They have a lot of work to do. It's nowhere near what it could or should be as far as I'm concerned. Have a wonderful weekend and I appreciate the information you share with us. Was just trying to give some clarity on me. Time to shut up

 

[RSoxNo1]

Well, Alaska is amazing (until the government decides to destroy it) so no sympathy there. I have been trying to get back there since I was there last in 2003! ... But I will give you a short lecture that @WDWFigment is much better at. And that is a trip to Tokyo is not nearly as pricey as you may think and 'can' (doesn't mean will) be less expensive than a similar visit to WDW.

We are in the midst of finalizing plans for our trip and everything from hotels (4-star caliber) to admission media to food (again, depending on where we eat) is less than what people pay in O-Town. And the flights are quite reasonable now as well ... not the old days where a fare under $1,800 would be considered great. Now, flights from the west coast can often be had for not much more than $500 round trip.

People make a lot of excuses, and some have valid reasons, but the bottom line is a visit to Tokyo may well be less expensive than a visit to the swamps.

I stayed at Mira Costa for four nights and the Sheraton Tokyo Bay during the rest of my time there. Less expensive than staying at the Wilderness Lodge in most cases.

 

[RSoxNo1]

I don't put my exact travel plans online for obvious reasons. And I am not flying from the west coast. That said, I regularly see very inexpensive fares out of LAX, SFO, SEA gateways.

I generally use Kayak, but also play around with many sites. (almost took an Asian discounter from Shanghai to Tokyo for a ridiculously low airfare that would have eliminated the cost of a hotel one night, which was also the bad thing too since it was a 1 a.m. departure and 5 a.m. arrival). But they absolutely are out there ...

I caution you and others to not use Kayak for booking international travel. I ran into an issue where I never received notice that my flight to Tokyo was cancelled and I was put on a flight 3 hours before I planned on showing up at the airport.

 

[BrianLo]

I caution you and others to not use Kayak for booking international travel. I ran into an issue where I never received notice that my flight to Tokyo was cancelled and I was put on a flight 3 hours before I planned on showing up at the airport.

That would have been the fault of the carrier, not kayak. Kayak is just a booking tool, carriers should then e-mail you about flight changes.

 

[HMF]

It still worked. The whole pavilion did ...

Rolly Crump would say otherwise.

 

[Bolna]

I caution you and others to not use Kayak for booking international travel. I ran into an issue where I never received notice that my flight to Tokyo was cancelled and I was put on a flight 3 hours before I planned on showing up at the airport.

I like Kayak for finding flights, but I never booked through them. My preference is to always book with the airline itself if in any way possible to avoid things like that. To me this is worth a slightly higher fare. I never found one where the airline direct would have been more than maybe 25$ more. But then I am flying from Europe and fares from here might be different.

That would have been the fault of the carrier, not kayak. Kayak is just a booking tool, carriers should then e-mail you about flight changes.

When I booked with Expedia, I got a notice from Expedia about change in flight time. So, I think the booking tool is responsible for alerting you. Or at least for passing on the email address to the airline. So it could have been Kayak's fault - or the airline's. I guess he will never find out.

 

[Kman101]

I'd expect the carrier to alert the passenger, but that's just me. It's their fault, not the booking sites. But courtesy ... so, hard to say what should have happened in that case.

 

[Scuttle]

No. Do you think I should have?

Do you have a problem with trees?

No, I two, have noticed the declining oxygen levels at WDW.

 

[Scuttle]

Yeah, your mom's comment is one that was heard a lot in the 80s and 90s ... And Disney Parks and booze, where to even begin? You can't walk 20 feet without walking into an ODV cart or pop-up bar now. Disney's big push going forward is interactive bars like Trader Sam's where you can sell geeks weak drinks and then get them to add hundreds of dollars on 'collector's' mugs. There are multiple in the pipeline for both WDW and DLR right now.

I don't get the Trader Sam's following. I'd rather hangout at the Tambu Lounge talking with Francisco the bartender. I'm not old... yet!

 

[ford91exploder]

Yeah, your mom's comment is one that was heard a lot in the 80s and 90s ... And Disney Parks and booze, where to even begin? You can't walk 20 feet without walking into an ODV cart or pop-up bar now. Disney's big push going forward is interactive bars like Trader Sam's where you can sell geeks weak drinks and then get them to add hundreds of dollars on 'collector's' mugs. There are multiple in the pipeline for both WDW and DLR right now.

Just ugh for the proliferation of bars at WDW. I like a quality adult beverage once and a while like a good craft IPA or Porter. But the overpriced weak drinks cheapen the WDW experience

 

[The Empress Lilly]

I love the Mexico boat ride
I remember when my family found it (I want to say that was the 2000 trip, but it could have been 1998). We really enjoyed the peaceful ambiance.
U
It's embarrassing to think about how many current Epcot attractions I haven't been on. Mission:Space? No. Test Track? No. Energy? No. Imagination? No. Anything added since spring 2008? Nope.

El Rio del Tiempo is an old fav of mine! Three rides for the price of one. Or four, including the fowl cartoon they play nowadays (which feels like a separate ride, one that strips the other ride of its payoff).

It's never had long lines. Nor felt popular. But it does have enormous capacity. Which may partly explain its low popularity, through an inverse TSMM/Soarin' effect: undercapacity rides beget a buzz, they are stampeded at park opening, their fastpassed are mobbed, they are the top feature in how to WDW guides, crows are always agitated and rushed. Which creates demand, a sense there's something not to be missed here.

Like its sister rides of If You had Wings and Small World the Mexico boat ride combines low key charm with tremendous capacity. Which could create a sense of skippable experience to the more hype sensitive modern crowds - who tend(ed) to scoff a bit at the other two too.



As for you never having ridden most of FW, what a pity! Today's offerings (many soon to be largely gone) are not classic FW by any standard, but by and large still quite enjoyable regardless:

The dinorama is five minutes of awesomeness in between 45 minutes of dull.
Space is a unique thrill in an otherwise skippable pavilion. Although one could argue this means they thus spend their budget with their priorities right. *gives side-eye to New Fantasyland*
TT is a bit lacklustre but still worth a ride. The old version was dreadfully ugly, the new version pretty and more fitting but has slightly lost an edge in the process.
And you haven't been to EPCOT if you've never seen Figment, even the travesty show.

 

[Princess Leia]

El Rio del Tiempo is an old fav of mine! Three rides for the price of one. Or four, including the fowl cartoon they play nowadays (which feels like a separate ride, one that strips the other ride of its payoff).

It's never had long lines. Nor felt popular. But it does have enormous capacity. Which may partly explain its low popularity, through an inverse TSMM/Soarin' effect: undercapacity rides beget a buzz, they are stampeded at park opening, their fastpassed are mobbed, they are the top feature in how to WDW guides, crows are always agitated and rushed. Which creates demand, a sense there's something not to be missed here.

Like its sister rides of If You had Wings and Small World the Mexico boat ride combines low key charm with tremendous capacity. Which could create a sense of skippable experience to the more hype sensitive modern crowds - who tend(ed) to scoff a bit at the other two too.



As for you never having ridden most of FW, what a pity! Today's offerings (many soon to be largely gone) are not classic FW by any standard, but by and large still quite enjoyable regardless:

The dinorama is five minutes of awesomeness in between 45 minutes of dull.
Space is a unique thrill in an otherwise skippable pavilion. Although one could argue this means they thus spend their budget with their priorities right. *gives side-eye to New Fantasyland*
TT is a bit lacklustre but still worth a ride. The old version was dreadfully ugly, the new version pretty and more fitting but has slightly lost an edge in the process.
And you haven't been to EPCOT if you've never seen Figment, even the travesty show.

Spending my birthday at Epcot this year, and I'm planning on trying to fit as much as I can in. I really wish I could remember if I rode the original Imagination. It's definitely possible but my 3 year old brain didn't develop it as a permanent memory

 

[Kman101]

Just ugh for the proliferation of bars at WDW. I like a quality adult beverage once and a while like a good craft IPA or Porter. But the overpriced weak drinks cheapen the WDW experience

I had two "adult beverages" this week in the world, and they were far from weak. But a lot of them are. It's a rip-off. They're over-priced anyway.

And having walked all four parks, it's really overblown on here about Drunkytown, etc. I do think three out of the four parks have a few too many booze stands but, at least for me, I didn't see the bad behavior. People are going to be loud, or get sick. It doesn't always have to do with alcohol.

 

[Bocabear]

The only place I ever really notice any of the "Drunkytown" behavior is around the UK Pub...and really, I have been going to the parks for decades, go to Food and Wine every year and the Party For The Senses, and I truthfully find very little bad behavior...Maybe someone's precious snowflake is offended by an adult having a beer, but if that is the case, keep them in The Magic Kingdom...

 

[jakeman]

I had two "adult beverages" this week in the world, and they were far from weak. But a lot of them are. It's a rip-off. They're over-priced anyway.

And having walked all four parks, it's really overblown on here about Drunkytown, etc. I do think three out of the four parks have a few too many booze stands but, at least for me, I didn't see the bad behavior. People are going to be loud, or get sick. It doesn't always have to do with alcohol.

You're forgetting that the rhetoric, not the facts, is what's important.

 

[Kman101]

You're forgetting that the rhetoric, not the facts, is what's important.

Clearly.

Just like the parks are dirty. Nope. I never saw an overflowing trashcan. I saw cast members constantly with brooms and two or three janitorial castmembers practically tripping over each other.

I do admit the bathrooms could be better attended but you'd have to literally position someone inside each of the restrooms at all times. I know some will claim it was spotless at all times, every second of every day in 1981 but things happen. I mean, sorry, but you may see popcorn on the ground, a guidemap, a left behind drink in the queue, but that's not a sign of an overall problem at the resort.

 

[ford91exploder]

The only place I ever really notice any of the "Drunkytown" behavior is around the UK Pub...and really, I have been going to the parks for decades, go to Food and Wine every year and the Party For The Senses, and I truthfully find very little bad behavior...Maybe someone's precious snowflake is offended by an adult having a beer, but if that is the case, keep them in The Magic Kingdom...

The Drunkytown behavior is really only seen during the F&W festivals and even then it's generally restricted to Friday-Sunday when the college students are out in force because they can now DRINK. As you note it's concentrated by the UK and a lesser degree Germany.

 

[jakeman]

The Drunkytown behavior is really only seen during the F&W festivals and even then it's generally restricted to Friday-Sunday when the college students are out in force because they can now DRINK. As you note it's concentrated by the UK and a lesser degree Germany.

College students can only drink on Friday and Saturday?

What a convoluted set of parameters you've instilled. The park as a whole is Drunkytown, but only on 16 days of the year in two pavilions.

Are the goalpost located in a truck for easier transport?

 

[Kman101]

So we're all in the parks from open to close to monitor behavior 24/7? Come on ... it's vastly overblown how unruly it can be. But it's also subjective. I could never see this behavior yet that is what someone sees every time. It's a bit more in the middle. We know they rely on booze sales but they've advertised drinking around the world for decades now. It's not one giant frat party all the time which is what's implied.

 

[Bocabear]

College students can only drink on Friday and Saturday?

What a convoluted set of parameters you've instilled. The park as a whole is Drunkytown, but only on 16 days of the year in two pavilions.

Are the goalpost located in a truck for easier transport?

LOL... Seems to be a little worse during F&W but I have never noticed it to be the problem people are always breathlessly reporting on here.
and Disney staff are always around if things get out of hand.I think the "Drunkytown" is WAY over stated.