ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
Hope you have a full time moderator for that one!
Or just have threads auto poof in 24 hours
Hope you have a full time moderator for that one!
Indeed, and I know a lot of school groups and businesses in Canada have cancelled just out of fear of one of their students or colleagues being barred entry.
Edit to add:
Just saw a news article, Girl Guides of Canada has just cancelled all travel to the US until further notice. Interesting times.
I agree though SWL (while i don't like the placement) is not a deal-breaker for me. What is happening at DCA is, however
Meanwhile I just recently booked one (to WDW) for the first time in five years. Pandora and tickets at par helped... plus my general laissez fare attitude. The issues going on in the US are still very much "first world issues" compared to my usual travel adventures as far as I'm concerned.
But a good time for people to celebrate Canada's 150th. National Parks are free up here all year long!
Do you realize how ridiculous this sounds? Nobody can say we remove posts for such reasons.
If your statement was true, I don't think @WDW1974 would have any posts visible, and the forum would be down a few hundred thousand posts from others who share a similar view.
Spent the day at MK and the wait times looked like a day that in the past would have had phase closings.
By afternoon, the mountains were 90-140 min, Mansion was 90, Pirates was an hour, Jungle Cruise was 100+, the Fantasyland dark rides were an hour or two. Dumbo and Barnstormer were 75. Peoplemover's line was all the way to the edge of the Tomorrowland Speedway.
The Dwarfs ride was 60-70 min by 8:10 although the crowds didn't really pick up until 11 or so.
I know it's Spring Break, but I don't think I've ever seen wait times like those outside of July 4 or New Years. I glanced at Epcot's times and they were just as bad - Mission: Space was over an hour, Test Track was 140, Living with the Land and Figment(!) were both an hour.
Has FP+ impacted wait times and crowd distribution *that* much? I can't recall ever seeing Figment, much less Peoplemover, with a line like that except for New Years Eve.
Yeah. It is an issue. NBC Nightly News did a story last night (likely available online) about people having issues with Customs demanding passports of Americans and cell phone access and getting physical with people when they refuse. These are Americans who might live in Buffalo and drive to Canada for dinner and shopping and are hassled and abused when they return. It also is fully legal, although taking advantage of a loophole (like stealing soda from WDW ... see that segue to perfectly be on topic? )
I am going to be in and out of the USA multiple times in 2017 that I know of. ... I don't know whether or not I'd be willing to be arrested to protest this insanity.
Does anyone know if the percentage of FP+ has been increased in the last few months? Over Christmas the wait times were high, but the standby lines didn't seem to as long as would be expected. It felt like FP+ was around 90% or so. Has anyone heard what the current share of FP+ is? @lentesta @wdwmagic @marni1971 ?
Does anyone know if the percentage of FP+ has been increased in the last few months? Over Christmas the wait times were high, but the standby lines didn't seem to as long as would be expected. It felt like FP+ was around 90% or so. Has anyone heard what the current share of FP+ is? @lentesta @wdwmagic @marni1971 ?
They all hoping or holding FPs for ROL?I'd be surprised if it varies much from the 80% standard.
Today's wait times were something we were all surprised at. A 155-minute wait at Safaris is in the top 1-2% of all the wait times we've ever observed. And it happened at 7:30 pm.
I'd be surprised if it varies much from the 80% standard.
Today's wait times were something we were all surprised at. A 155-minute wait at Safaris is in the top 1-2% of all the wait times we've ever observed. And it happened at 7:30 pm.
How come no one ever sees or acknowledges my positive WDW (or Disney in general) posts. I am so thrilled for what DAK is becoming and think Pandora will be terrific. I said I'm even withholding judgment on the gondolas until they are built and in operation. I recently talked about how the signature dining locations have actually improved of late.
I think people see what they want to see and hear what they want, which is likely why you don't want politics on here (until your new board creation today!) People need to listen to what is said ...
A mess that they attempted to fix just so they can screw it up again.The Star Wars Experience is much worse for so many reasons. DCA has been a mess since Day 1, so it figures they'd destroy one thing they got right and fits with the theme to throw in dancing Groot.
Several have already posted excellent reasons why DLR is not in a rush to convert or add DVC rooms. I'll add to the mix.If I'm doing a little conjecture, I'd also guess there could be political negativity towards it too. DVC should create lower tax revenue long term for the Resort District versus hotel buildout. Though someone more in the know could comment on that, @ParentsOf4?
Several have already posted excellent reasons why DLR is not in a rush to convert or add DVC rooms. I'll add more to the mix.
As already noted, WDW does not have the same land restrictions as DLR. Buying an existing hotel and converting it to DVC is an expensive proposition, a problem Disney does not face at WDW. As a result, timeshare opportunities are much more enticing in Orlando than Anaheim.
DLR has 2500 Deluxe Resort rooms with very high margins. No need for the extensive mass transit system found at WDW. No need to offer "free" shuttle service to the airport. No need to offer evening Extra Magic Hours. WDW has over 23,000 non-DVC rooms, with Disney's Value and Moderate Resorts cannibalizing its Deluxe Resort business. It's a lot harder for WDW to fill its 5300 Deluxe Rooms than it is for DLR to fill its 2500 total rooms. At DLR, if you want to stay onsite, you have to dig deep to pay for one of its 3 hotels. At WDW, Disney offers many less expensive alternatives to its Deluxe Resorts.
Remember, even though hotel occupancy is up at the moment, as recently as 2013 occupancy was down to a weak (for Disney) 79%, with a lot of empty rooms centered at a couple of Deluxe Resorts and the two less popular Moderate Resorts. Low and behold, 4 years later and we've seen hotel rooms converted to DVC at two Deluxe Resorts, with more action underway at Disney's two least popular Moderate Resorts. These decisions were initiated years ago when Disney was genuinely concerned about its excess hotel inventory. At DLR, low hotel occupancy means a few hundred empty hotel rooms per night. At WDW, it means thousands of empty rooms every night.
If Disney taxes you so... please do care for your health and safety and give it a rest. People as political and involved as you that have no ability to influence the company really are doing themselves a disservice by getting wound up over a media conglomerate that is enjoyed by hundreds of millions of people all over the world. Is it cathartic for you to vent about Chappie and Iger in the same way Lutz used to vent about Pressler and Eisner? Because the people that were doing that didn't come out of the whole ordeal in good mental health. I'm not nearly as involved as I used to be, but friends and other "superfans" (which is what you are in your current capacity) like the Moseley's, Hill, Yee, Lutz (even before his other problems got the best of him), they all took a turn for the worse health wise due to how taxing everything got back in the early 2000's with DLR's constant problems back then. They got so caught up in everything that it really did require them to take a step back.
You're well on your way to needing this too, I'd imagine. You've already blown well past them in your opinion of your own clout in the company, when what you're truly doing is posting on a message board that's being read by a few hundred hardcore WDW fans. Your information is probably more widely disseminated though other more public channels and not credited to you- alluding to why you're always quick to trumpet when 1 or 2 of the 10 things you put out comes true when some other blogger tells a few hundred other people your "scoop". Of course, the innuendo and company bashing doesn't really filter through or affect anything- it's largely ignored because people want to know about the next attraction or next resort opening- they're mostly not there to hear you act like chairman of TWDC's board. Those rantings don't help the situation in the slightest. It just creates a few dozen jaded worshipers that constantly beg for your enlightenment in the same way comic book fans or video game fans throw tantrums over features that don't make the final cut after some developer shows an unfinished chapter or an unfinished level.
I'm a fan, I'm also working in industry, I'm privy to plenty of information that I can't or don't want to share just like plenty of others here and on countless other fan forums. I know that some people respect your opinion and they rely on your scoops for whatever reasons. I've been lurking on WDWMagic for over a decade and was a content contributor in the early days of this site (hope I'm not outing myself)! Throughout the years, I've always liked the 10% of your information that had any relevance, which is to say I am appreciative when you spill beans that others don't want or don't care to spill. Heck, I even felt the itch to "come back" to WDWMagic posting in order to combat your ridiculous opinions and to provide a bit of fair criticism towards your allegations. Anyway, if you're really having to struggle to show up and post, by all means take a break and re-evaluate your priorities. I know there will be a vocal minority crying out for you to shower them with more tabloid material- but resist the urge if it taxes you so.
Although it doesn't always appear this way, it's run by much smarter people.
I have two Masters degrees, and I'm disillusioned because many of my classmates read the books, passed the classes, and graduated with zero common sense.Working in a environment where most of my colleagues have Masters and PhD and even multiple PhD. Very smart people can make some very dumb decisions especially if they have poor quality data to work with
SWL as a land doesn't belong in Disneyland. But adding about 10K in park capacity to the most crowded (not most visited, but certainly most crowded) park on earth is not such a bad thing. Finally having an access point between Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Critter Country that doesn't cut through Fantasmic/Pirates bridge area is going to make things much better. Maybe the SW IP decision wasn't the best, but the things that it will do for the park infrastructure wise was needed since the late 1980's (which is why they've been wanting to do something like this for those past 35+ years). Disneyland's circular flow (haha for those who get the joke) will be incredibly upgraded by these changes. The park needs it desperately. DCA needs something to fix Hollywood desperately too. Marvel's an excellent fit there especially when development costs are split with the foreign parks and they can reap the cost savings (I know, saving money is evil). It's no more out of place than half of the other attractions at DCA that having nothing to do with California either.
I for one would have loved to see a Star Wars/ Marvel/ Avatar third gate. A fantasy realm if you will with Tatooine, Endor, Asgard, "The World", and Pandora would have made a great park. Still I'm happy to see those elements showing up in the parks anyway (I don't have the disdain for IP as much as many seem to have).
Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.