Spirited Spring Break News, Observations & Thoughts ...

[WDW1974]

There's something sleazy about the Turnpike Service Plazas. I love 'em.

Not to mention, the West Palm Service Plaza has a Cheeburger Cheeburger, which gets it quite a few points.

I have had many interesting service plaza encounters, but I had never been picked up by a MAGICal member while in a line for Dunkin Donuts before. It was so wild and unexpected and put a perfect capper on a bizarre trip!

To be fair, SHE was far more attractive than the dude named Barney who wanted me to do bad things to him in the Fort Pierce restroom!

 

[WDW1974]

Out of respect for the establishment

Too many people lack respect, be it self respect or just respect for others ... and it really does bother me at fine dining locales.

 

[WDW1974]

One note on the expanded hours and crowds today. I don't think it's early Easter crowds at all.

Yesterday was a miserable day in O-Town. ABout 68 degrees and pouring rain most of the day after 90 and sunny on Monday. I'm pretty certain that many folks opted to stay inside and away from the parks. I know it was one reason (of many) that I wound up not seeing EPCOT.

Today, it was supposed to be sunny and mid 70s (we call that perfect in Spirit Land). I don't think you'll start seeing the Easter crowds much before the weekend.

 

[Sped2424]

Nothing compares to the is she pregnant or not woman I saw at Be our guest today who wore an outfit similar to Daisy Duke from the Dukes hazard, belly shirt and all. Except again her stomach dragged over her short shorts and flowed with each movement, how she was allowed to go anywhere in that restaurant as such is beyond me.

 

[wedenterprises]

Yacht Club DVC?

 

[asianway]

One note on the expanded hours and crowds today. I don't think it's early Easter crowds at all.

Yesterday was a miserable day in O-Town. ABout 68 degrees and pouring rain most of the day after 90 and sunny on Monday. I'm pretty certain that many folks opted to stay inside and away from the parks. I know it was one reason (of many) that I wound up not seeing EPCOT.

Today, it was supposed to be sunny and mid 70s (we call that perfect in Spirit Land). I don't think you'll start seeing the Easter crowds much before the weekend.

Did you make it to #ragandisney?

Mommy blogger w**** up starts this week in Anaheim if you want to see more money ed away

 

[WDW1974]

Nothing compares to the is she pregnant or not woman I saw at Be our guest today who wore an outfit similar to Daisy Duke from the Dukes hazard, belly shirt and all. Except again her stomach dragged over her short shorts and flowed with each movement, how she was allowed to go anywhere in that restaurant as such is beyond me.

Disney will not turn guests away, no matter how badly they dress unless they have some large obscenity written on their shirt (and, even that, isn't a guarantee).

 

[jlsHouston]

I'm a total advocate of dressing for your venue. I also believe accessories make the outfit. I always have one suitcase just for shoes and purses.

 

[doctornick]

Yacht Club DVC?

I'd be interested in seeing a new hotel alone the Epcot Monorail line near Bambi Lake.

 

[asianway]

Disney will not turn guests away, no matter how badly they dress unless they have some large obscenity written on their shirt (and, even that, isn't a guarantee).

I know you can promote your lifestyle blog on your apparel

 

[jlsHouston]

No, but Small World should it's in such an appalling state. More embarrassing with Disney celebrating its 50th anniversary.

While I generally thought show quality at MK was better, most notably on Splash Mountain, Small World remains a mess ... I was talking to a friend and I think part of it is that due to the song and the bright colors and kinetics that Disney can really let the thing go to hell and very few people will notice versus something like Pirates.

I know and that is another sad thing about FL. All that money for the expansion and no love for IASW.

 

[WDW1974]

Yacht Club DVC?

Nope. Only room is where CC is and that is too big a money-maker. I suppose they could move parking into a structure across the street, but, even then, there doesn't seem like enough room and I have never heard it under consideration.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Yacht Club DVC?

It's a nice idea but, because of its Convention Center, the smallish Yacht Club (630 rooms) is one of the few WDW Deluxe Resorts that consistently runs at a high occupancy rate. Realistically, there's no good place to squeeze in a new DVC building and converting hotel rooms to DVC there doesn't make a lot of financial sense.

 

[WDW1974]

Did you make it to #ragandisney?

Mommy blogger w**** up starts this week in Anaheim if you want to see more money ed away

No, I bet Dr. Blondie, Bland Tommy and Crazy Gary were expecting me. The joys of FP+ advanced ressies means that people who don't like you in the company could stalk you without you ever knowing.

The Ragan thing made me want to puke. Did you see some of the tweets from there? Tommy was talking about social media being something Walt would have been into. And all the whores were kissing up to the DBP team ... and God only knows what folks like Shel Holtz were paid for their participation. It is such a sleazy thing ... it is slightly more real than bitcoin or credit default swaps ... it's all largely made up to keep people employed.

 

[Cody5242]

I know I keep hearing about how busy MK is (BTW, none of the parks I went to were anything even close to busy ... the first two weeks in April are generally dead when Easter is so late!), but I honestly don't get how folks aren't able to do anything unless they are dragging three kids under seven with them.

One night, I went and did 11 attractions (all three Mountains, three other E-Tix, Pan etc) and saw Celebrate the Magic and MSEP all in under four hours with no rushing at all. I know I am exceptional, but c'mon it isn't that tough.

I don't understand the point of FPP for Wishes when I'm able to get a prime spot on Main Street 5 min before it starts

 

[Sped2424]

Disney will not turn guests away, no matter how badly they dress unless they have some large obscenity written on their shirt (and, even that, isn't a guarantee).

I think it's time to change that policy as she was obscene looking to say the least.

 

[WDW1974]

I'd be interested in seeing a new hotel alone the Epcot Monorail line near Bambi Lake.

I'd be interested in never seeing another hotel built at WDW. Ever. I thought they were overbuilt 15 years ago.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

No, but Small World should it's in such an appalling state. More embarrassing with Disney celebrating its 50th anniversary.

While I generally thought show quality at MK was better, most notably on Splash Mountain, Small World remains a mess ... I was talking to a friend and I think part of it is that due to the song and the bright colors and kinetics that Disney can really let the thing go to hell and very few people will notice versus something like Pirates.

I was just watching old home movies of Disney World the other day, had some from the early 90's before the budget slashes began. Particularly found some footage of Small World from that era (91-93) and it was quite a breath of fresh air to see how impeccable the upkeep on the ride was back then. Everything was sparkling clean, all colors kept bright and painted (NO mold or dirt to be seen anywhere) and all the figures were present and moving smoothly as they should. Also had some video of Splash Mountain's earlier years as well, looking new and pristine. I've not ridden it again since it was heavily refurbed last year but it was a joy to see it working like new in my old videos (I hear tell it's looking good again now thankfully, we'll see how long THAT ends up lasting though).

Just looking around the outside environments in the old videos there weren't any signs of dirt or peeling paint anywhere, everything was kept in fantastically great condition. Oh and especially almost no burnt out lightbulbs to be seen at all anywhere, including especially on Main Street and Grand Floridian. I know they did recently do some work to both in the past couple of years but i'd imagine they're not going to hold up unless they changed to LED's, night crews don't seem to do preventative maintenance on lightbulbs anymore. Last time I visited in early 2012 there were still issues everywhere. A couple of decades ago it wasn't out of the question to see maybe one out in a strand of hundreds, but never more than that (it had been common in recent years to see a good quarter out at LEAST in strands of hundreds). I gather that besides the fact that night crews used to be proactive about replacing dead bulbs every day, it was company policy back then to also replace any that had reached 80% of their life expectancy (even if they weren't dead yet). The only time you ever saw burnt out bulbs was when you got a defective one that died well before it was intended to (and again night crews took care of them right away).

Sadly didn't have any footage of long lost classics from EPCOT (besides the ascent at the beginning of the sorely missed World of Motion). Though given the virtually perfect upkeep everywhere else I can't have seen those ride being any different. We've always got Martin for quality ride throughs of old attractions. Did love seeing the original Illuminations again with the old music and inclusion of the many countries in the show (imo better than the new one). It looked from the videos like 3-5 year old me, my mom AND all the other crowds of people at EPCOT were loving the place as it originally was.

 

[TalkingHead]

Disney will not turn guests away, no matter how badly they dress unless they have some large obscenity written on their shirt (and, even that, isn't a guarantee).

I realize there's a big difference between attire in upscale restaurants and attire for walking around the theme parks.

However, when I was at Uni a few weeks ago (in the heart of Spring Break, admittedly), I kept noticing people (all guys, drat) who were walking around without shirts on.

I must've counted at least 7 or 8 between the two parks. I realize the IOA water rides are soakers, but come on. The Team Members didn't seem too intent on speaking to them, either.

 

[WDW1974]

I don't understand the point of FPP for Wishes when I'm able to get a prime spot on Main Street 5 min before it starts

To make people who don't know any better pick one up, so they don't get one for Space Mountain or Peter Pan. FP+ is a giant shell game to make up for Disney not having enough capacity in the MK.

I saw that Monday, BTMRR was down for a quickee three day closure (workers were all over the track) and Pirates, Mansion and Small World were all running waits of 35-45 minutes ... I didn't even look at Splash, but saw a considerable line.