ASJHLJ's (George"s) spring break 2011 trip report

George · May 8, 2011

Dinosaur animatronics

Discussion of Attractions with Dinosaur Animatronics
Rating – 1) Dinosaur (DAK), 2) Jurassic Park (IoA), 3) Ellen’s Energy Adventure (EPCOT)
Look…Dinosaur is one of the most under-rated things in all of O’town. I know that the theme park cognoscenti get all ate up about whether or not this or that effect is working but the bottom line is this – it’s a fun, fun ride. The dinosaurs kick butt. There’s even a dinosaur eating a baby dinosaur. And don’t tell me you every time you go on it you don’t flinch at least a couple of times. Plus, the pre-show features Felicia Rashad. The queue has Bill Nye talking to us. The Dino Institute has terrible security. The ride itself does an awesome job of making you worried about what’s around each turn. Also, due to it’s location, it seems like a fair number of infrequent visitors are wholly unaware of it’s existence. Really, what’s not to love? Jurassic Park is also a good ride. The spitting velociraptors made Hannah cry when she got hit. This is one of the few cases where Disney out-scares Universal and we knew Dinosaur was out for her this trip after that moment. Tangentially related - Ellen Degeneres was in Universal during our visit. Apparently she was doing something at CityWalk. I wonder if now that she’s under the sway of NBC/Universal if she feels some desire to talk up/defend the attraction that features her on film and has a giant animatronic of her.

Sorry JP. You're number two in my families rankings of Dino rides. But you have some very photogenic moments.

George · May 8, 2011

Places we stayed

Places We Stayed

Best Western, Lake Buena Vista – Nice to stay at one of the LBV resorts if you don’t want complete Disney immersion.

Royal Pacific Resort, Universal – We stayed here so we could use our room keys to butt people all day. Plus, we got into Harry Potter an hour early. This made the uber expensive room worth it. The theming isn’t over the top like a Disney hotel. It’s more like a typical high end hotel room. My kids were enamored with the free lemonade in the lobby. I tried to explain it wasn’t really free, but they didn’t understand.

Old Key West – We’re DVC members and whenever we don’t plan ahead or have last second itinerary changes we stay here since you can always get a room. Like Dinosaur, it’s also under-rated. Big rooms, incredibly strong margaritas, and the best private pools featuring hot tubs and nice little play areas with sand. We never have any pics here. I think it has to do with the lackage of a fancy lobby area.

Boardwalk – Never stayed here before. I prefer the Beach Club, but it’s nice. When we were checking out a fruit rat was running around the entrance area on the outside. It wound up hiding behind a potted plant whilst children went and ogled the rodent. I was surprised since Disney World is the only sizeable chunk of land in central Florida where I don’t see gigantic roaches from time to time. Even fire ant mounds are few and far between. And there was an actual non-costumed rodent running around. On a side note, the boardwalk itself is really nice. My wife had an inexplicable negative reaction to the outdoor performers. She didn’t even want to stop and watch for a nanosecond. The slide in the fancy main pool gets you up to very high velocity. I would really have to make sure air was coming out of ye olde nasal passages right before hitting the water at the end.

Room at Universal -

Sweet, sweet Keurig machine at Royal Pacific

Welcome to Disney World sign near the LBV, non-Disney, but still containing 61.2% of the magic hotels -

Fire ants do exist on the far edges of the property

Dad earns his money on vacation

George · May 8, 2011

Boardwalk pics

Can you find me in this pic? Hint - I'm not the guy who is filled with magic.

Me and the boy. The promised swimsuit pics. At the boardwalk pool.

You get going really fast on this slide -

George · May 8, 2011

The Wizarding World of HP and MK’s response

I know that WWoHP has been around a while now and written about extensively. So, if you’re tired of reading about it, by all means skip this section. The second part of this section has some thoughts on the improvements made at MK.

Let me say this right off the bat - WWoHP is awesome. Really. No doubt about it. Now, to the details. The actually Harry Potter area is great. I think it’s the best themed area in all of Orlando. The crazy chimneys, the ice, Olivander’s, Hogwarts, etc., etc. Really, I’m not a big HP fan and I was in awe of the look and feel of the place. The two coasters were there already and I’m not going to comment much on them. The Forbidden Journey of Harry Potter is a great ride. The robot arm on the track really lets you interact with the environment. I’m not usually prone to motion sickness and about 30 seconds from the end of the ride I realized that I was going to yack if it went on for about another minute. Speaking of Forbidden Journey, the queue is the best one in Orlando. You may argue with me on this, but you’d be wrong. I would even recommend standing in this line to look at stuff if you didn’t want to go on the ride. Note: Alec wants me to let everyone know he ranks this as his second favorite ride behind Space Mountain.

Actually, being in Orlando and going to the giant theme parks can crystallize one’s thinking. I realized that IoA is exactly analogous to MK (lands versus islands, no edutainment at all) and that explains a lot of Disney’s response. In the short term what they’re doing is making everything a little nicer at MK. (Note: I know of the new Star Wars ride and that is also part of the short term response) We showed up before rope drop one morning and we saw the first talking head Mickey thing we’ve ever seen. I bet each one of those heads costs 50K. It’s amazing. My daughter commented that we were finally seeing the real Mickey. The new queues for Winnie the Pooh and HM are really fun. We went back through the line on Pooh just to play since my kids complained they didn’t get enough time the first time. I’d be lying if I told you the wife and I weren’t jumping on feet to get gophers to pop up and wiping virtual honey away to see what Pooh character would appear. It creates an interesting choice. Do you slog on ahead in line or stop and play with all the cool toys?

Also, the projection show (Magic, Memories, and You) is awesome. The night we saw it, the awesomeness was confirmed by the man on my left who was gathering up his family to leave. When he was informed that it was only the pre-show, he said, “Holy ____**!” That was a pre-show!?!?!?!?” My son saw himself on the castle and I saw my daughter. They were both happy.

Random stuff from Forbidden Journey queue

Really, this is fantastic

George · May 8, 2011

More pics related to last section

The should have made Olivander's bigger. Realism isn't always good, especially when it revolves around fantasy.

Lady with owl admitted Olivander's should be bigger -

In front of magic train (hey, I ain't no expert). The boy has his wand. He spent 32 bucks on it and it does jack and ____**, but it makes him happy.

George · May 8, 2011

HM and Pooh queues

I bet 98% of the people will jump on feet to make gophers come up -

We got in line just to wipe honey -

Haunted piano -

Spooky instruments -

Look, the playground as queue is genius.

George · May 8, 2011

Pirate League versus BBB and Pirate adventure boat ride

My son did Pirate League and my daughter did BBB. We compared notes and Pirate League is a much better deal. You get more stuff and there is the hidden room, etc. Plus, there is the pirate parade if your kid wants to do it. That being said, BBB was a huge hit with my daughter. Cindy took her to some official princess photo shoot later that day. This was in the middle of our trip and Hannah had to do the complete set of model poses she learned at the photo shoot for the rest of our trip.

Alec said that the Caribbean Beach pirate adventure is better than the Grand Floridian’s since it involves skeletons, caskets, and hauntings.

Pirate Adventure boat ride

Post-ride photo

Start of BB process

Mid-makeover -

OMG! I got my nails done!

Finished product

Alec was stuck with dad who only had a camera phone, so let's look at the finished product of Pirate League -

George · May 8, 2011

Dining

We did a mix of old school bringing our own food with us into the park and eating out this trip. We did a meal deal thing at Universal and had two fast food type meals. Cindy and I had sweet and sour chicken/pork or something at an eatery in the comic book area of IoA (Comic Strip Café). It was really awful. I got an egg roll as a side. Overcooked and hard as a brick. Then for dinner we ate some sandwich joint (The Burger Digs) in Jurassic Park and had chicken breast sandwiches. Pretty sweet if you like really, really dry chicken. Fortunately, you have access to unlimited mayo. I know Mythos wins awards and the like, but when it comes to counter service Disney crushes Universal based on my data. Also, at the sandwich place, I had a conversation with the dude sweeping up. I told him about shopping while we were visiting the WWoHP. His reply was, “So, you tried to sell some stuff?” I was confused and said no, we were shopping like most of the other tourists. He said, “You should really try and sell stuff.” Also, he tried to sweep up the food people had thrown on the ground with a broom and wound up smearing inedible chocolate frosting and the like aimlessly around. That being said, if you don’t mind living on a liquid diet, I would recommend doing nothing but living off of Butterbeer. This is a product for people who don’t think cream soda has enough calories and it’s fantastic. Ideally, you’ll bring a thermos and fill it to the brim by 9:30 because any later than this and you won’t be able to lower your arm without bonking someone on the head with your elbow. The pumpkin juice was a big hit with me, but the rest of the family found it disgusting. It tastes just like liquid pumpkin pie.

We ate at Peco’s Bills for the first time in a long time. I had forgotten that the burgers there are really good burgers. Fish and chips in the UK at EPCOT always hits the spot. My family grabbed a table in a prime Illuminations viewing spot that unbeknownst to them was reserved. It was roped off after they sat down. Therefore, minutes later when I was trying to get to them I had to negotiate with two CMs who initially weren’t going to let me through, but my panicked look and the 4 full meals and 4 drinks on the two plastic trays caused them to take pity on me. We had to eat in a timely manner so when the bigwigs showed up we would be gone. In other weird EPCOT eating news, the kids wanted apple ham sandwiches in Norway and Cindy and I wanted brats in Germany. Like most of you, I consulted my mental EPCOT map and decided that carrying a tray of brats to my family in Norway would be a good idea. This works until you’re actually walking by the outpost and China with a tray of food and you think, “this really isn’t that short of a walk.” Plus, an incredibly obese woman commented to her husband that she would like to mug me and grab my delicious, German meat tubes.

If your route to WDW takes you through Atlanta on I-75, a good tip is stop at the Varsity. It’s swarming with WDWmagicers. We met SweetMagic, Brkgnews, and Wilt Dasney. It was a lot o’fun. Plus, the BFO (Big Frosted Orange) is really good. I would also recommend the hot dogs, and onion rings. My wife said that even the grilled chicken sandwich was tasty.

We had a really nice cookout at a friend’s house in Orlando. Which leads me to the following tip - Befriend people in line who are locals and invite yourself to their house for free meals on your present or future trips. The conversation will go something like –
You, “So…this is a great ride huh?”
Person, “It sure is. I’ve been on it hundreds of times.”
You, “Are you from around here?”
Person, “Yep. How about yourself?”
You, “I don’t see that it matters. Anyhoo, now that we’ve developed this close personal bond can I have your name and phone number so that we can get together at your house for a free meal?”
If you do this 21 times you’re set up with enough meals for a week! Be sure to note your closest “friends”, because these are the people at whose house you’ll be breakfasting before heading to some park for an early morning rope drop. Finally, don’t waste your time talking to non-locals.

We did eat at one nice sit down place. While we were at the Boardwalk I befriended this 60ish couple from New York. Anyhoo, the man insisted that I could eat at the “Greek place” without any reservations. I had a conversation with the rest of my family about this and said that I knew this guy was wrong. (I should note that I know there is no rule about eating without reservations, I was working under the assumption that it would be well nigh impossible to gain a seat without a 2 hour wait over spring break). So, I went up to the greeter at Kouzinna and said, “Can you eat here without any reservations?” She said, “We have one table free if you don’t mind being seated right now.” A free table at a Disney sit down restaurant at 6PM during spring break? What kind of bizarro parallel universe am I inhabiting? Anyway, we sat down and ate some of the best food I’ve ever had on property. Over the years, I would estimate that I’ve eaten at most of the sit-down restaurants in the theme parks and about 34.8% of the sit down places on the rest of the property. Cat Cora’s Kouzzina is up there with the best of them. Cindy had this – “Kouzzina Trio - Tasting size portions of Greek-style Lasagna, Char-grilled Lamb Burger, and Cinnamon-stewed Chicken with Orzo $21.99” and I had this – “Oak-fired Pork Tenderloin - with Feta Gremolata, Wilted Greens, and Zucchini Corn Pie $27.49.” Both were excellent. This isn’t faint praise. TwoTigersMom can confirm that I can prepare food, especially meat. In fact, I oftentimes won’t eat pork at a restaurant because my assumption is that it won’t be as good as what I make. However, this pork was succulent, well spiced and not overcooked.

George · May 8, 2011

Me with a Butterbeer double shot -

Butterbeer stash.

George · May 8, 2011

The Flower and Garden Festival

Like WWoHP, this is sweet. Even if you don’t give a crap about foliage in general, there is over the top eye candy everywhere as you walk around the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. The pictures will speak for themselves. However, don’t make the following mistake - For months we thought that we would be going during the first week or two of June. So, I had my Star Wars obsessed 7 year old pumped up about the new Star Tours and Star Wars Weekends which we had already attended and knew was pretty sweet. However, due to my wife’s work we had to change plans. It is impossible to engender the same level of excitement in an embittered 7 year old about the Flower and Garden Festival.

If you're gonna advertise a movie, do it right.

Belle and her beau

Did you know all the topiaries are created by one hourly employee named Bob?

Greed has been the downfall of many.

They must use hundreds of flowers for this -

What makes you so sure that this temporary building is the butterfly house -

George · May 8, 2011

Behind the Seeds Tour

This was an experiment to see how the kids would handle something like this. Our tour clocked in at 100 minutes and the kids were starting to flag by the end, but they handled it OK. There was just enough touching of potential food and releasing of beneficial insects into the greenhouse to hold their attention.

Lady Bug release -

Look! A hidden Mickey!

Sometimes they take the hidden Mickey thing a bit far

I think this is kind of a neat pic of the greenhouse

Feeding frenzy!

Now that we're allowed to touch something, we're going to quit.

George · May 8, 2011

Character Meet and Greets

My daughter loves these. She gives out full body hugs every time. The boy can be picky about who he meets. Photos below.

This Wolverine shows that Uni has different standards for character quality control -

I'm posting this because no one in our family knows what these penguins are from -

Mr. Incredible and Frozone -

Donald often has a tough time of it, but this should help.

Newish princess area. I like how they can look and gauge each other's popularity at a glance. Should lead to some cattiness.

Even monsters need hugs -

Knowing how to make a 5 year old laugh, priceless.

George · May 8, 2011

Random Attractions/Rides/Shows

Captain EO – This brings back memories of HS for me. I used to live down there and have seen this many, many times. In the middle of our trip we took a day off from theme parking and met my sister, and BIL. My sister let out a gasp of pure jealousy when she heard that I had seen Captain EO. After years of no MJ exposure I realized that nobody and I mean nobody dances that well anymore. Also, Captain EO is worried about being drummed out of the corps? Exactly, what kind of corps is this? Why is the crew manned with species that aren’t tall enough to reach the instrument controls? But, I digress. Seeing this again made me smile for hours.

Big Thunder Mountain and Spiderman – Two big girl rides Hannah did. She gave both an “awesome.” Spiderman is great ride. On our awesome MK day, I rode BTMRR 3 times in row (twice with Hannah and once with the whole family) using FP’s we grabbed in the morning since we got there for an 8AM rope drop (also the morning we saw the moving/talking Mickey head which is completely awesome and disturbing all at once). I felt some glares from people in the stand by line as I traipsed by for my third straight ride, but hey, haul your butt out of bed buddy.

Space Mountain – I went on this 4 times with the boy. The video games look interesting, but we still only did waits that were less than 15 minutes or FP’s. At the age of 41, I now know that 4 times is the max I can take. I feel like I’ve been in a prize fight after this. I barely have enough leg room for my legs and the backpack I’m always carrying. Also, I wear that DVC neck thing. Once, when I was getting in the ride vehicle, as I was trying to fit in my sit, I bent over and my DVC neck thing bonked the woman sitting in front of me square in the face. Awkward.

Mission Space – Does everyone try on the helmets after the ride? Does anyone purchase these? Will they be the source of a massive head lice epidemic?

Me, Alec, Father in law -

Poseidon’s Fury/Jungle Cruise – Grouped together because they combine quality and cheesiness which is very rare. It seems like PF needs some love from Uni. The big battle between Darkanon and Poseidon loses something when you can’t even see some of the projections.

George · May 8, 2011

Kilimanjaro Safaris

We had one of the best safaris we’ve ever had. It had two stops so “researchers” could move animals that had gotten in the path of our jeep. So, it took a while. Animals were out and about. We saw 18.32% more wildlife than the average safari. Pics below.

Promised full rear nudity -

Elephant baby -

Rhinos were running around, active, and in the road.

Warthog -

Claw sharpening -

George · May 8, 2011

Test Track – Does anyone else find the quality of this ride very variable? We had a very fast ride, but the velocity on the outside portion seems variable. Also, sometimes I really feel like I’m out of control when there is no anti-lock brakes, but not always. Another “awesome” from Hannah.

Splash Mountain – The bees weren’t spinning around one of the hives causing me to realize that I wasn’t actually immersed in a cartoon. Actually, great ride as always. It broke down for roughly 5 minutes while we were at the base of the last lift hill (buzzards looking at us, etc.) and that heightened dramatic effect.

TSMM – A studios CM was trying to get 400,000. He was in line right behind us.

Buzz – Alec got 801,100. Far and away the best score anyone in our family has achieved.

Peter Pan – Is it a rule than anytime you get a FP for a fantasyland ride, you get Philharmagic FP’s?

Soarin’ – People still clap. The clapping has gone down over the years, but people still clap.

American Idol – We watched some of the final on the exterior building video screen. I had to admit it, but this looks really well done. If I had my druthers, they would do this with America’s Got Talent. You’d see some really weird acts.

Illuminations viewing tip – Go upstairs on the exterior of the main building in Japan. Watch from there. Hannah cracked me up because every time there was grand music and the LED picture ball would be featured she would let out a big “BORING.”

Indy Jones Stunt Show – The boy really loves this, so we always watch it. They didn’t do the climb up on the ladder part of the city fight scene. Is that a permanent change? Did I miss a news blurb where someone got injured?

Cat in the Hat – The spinning is fun, but it exists to at least partially obscure the fact that the stuff to look at isn’t that great.

CaroSeussel – Great carousel. I like this much better than a regular carousel due it’s theming. While we’re in Seuss Island I should note that the kids really like the one fish, two fish spinner. It has a really catchy song that doesn’t seem to stay with you when you’re not near the ride, so I appreciated that.

Gran Fiesta Tour – At least there’s no wait. I had the same reaction to El Rio del Tiempo. Why can’t the coolness of the volcano/restaurant start be carried throughout the ride?

Kim Possible – We did Norway this trip, completing all the adventures. Germany is our family’s favorite. This is a fun thing. Question: At what age will the kids stop arguing about who gets to hold the cell phone? On second thought, don’t answer that. Warning: Following images contain KP spoilers.

Climax of Norwegian mystery

Scene from KP in Germany -

George · May 8, 2011

More ride thoughts

Festival of the Lion King – You may not like this show. You would be wrong. For about a year, I would have to sing “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” and twirl Hannah around as I carried her to bed. She called it the “Fly Like a Birdy Song.”

High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride – There is a bump where you sit that is very poorly located. That is all I’m going to say about that.

Pirates of the Caribbean – Worth mentioning for two reasons. 1) One day the Davy Jones water projection was working and one day it wasn’t. 2) However, on the day it wasn’t working an entertaining group was sitting in front of me and the man on the outside of his row was bidding on the comely maid that was being auctioned off. His wife, without missing a beat said, “If you’re talking to a dummy, does that make you a fool?”

George · May 8, 2011

I'll close with a thought about MK's opening ceremony

So, the morning we got up early for MK, we saw the talking Mickey head. I didn't shoot video, but see how Mickey's eyes are closed and it looks like he's in an altered state of mind -

Really, seeing his mouth move in such a realistic fashion when he speaks is mind blowing.

Cindy's castle at 8. Notice the lackage of people.

I rode BTMRR all by myself as I was running around gathering FP's (the rest of the family was meeting princesses). There were 5 people on the train. I was in front, a mother and daughter behind me (they wouldn't take my offer of front) and a father and son in the back row. That was the whole train. Very cool.

And with that thought, I bid you adieu. BTW, I uploaded about 220 pictures into 3 albums on my magic space page if you're bored and want to see more.

NemoRocks78 · May 8, 2011

This was good. :king:

Laura · May 8, 2011

NemoRocks said:
This was good. :king:

And that's all he has to say about that.

Felt like I was flying all over Orlando with that report. My brain only works chronologically. :lol:

Been so long since I've been over here I had no idea they did new queues for Pooh and Mansion. Almost makes me wanna go to Disney World. (Almost) :lookaroun

I am curious about the random BBQ in Orlando.

The Varsity was obv. the best part of the trip, right?

ASJHLJ's (George"s) spring break 2011 trip report

George

Liker of Things

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NemoRocks78

Seized

Laura

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