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Post by tealpaperowl on Feb 21, 2022 20:16:02 GMT
We are going this Friday the 25th for 5 days! We rented a villa off site and car rental but will do Disney 3 days and of course shopping around Orlando  |
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blemon
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Post by blemon on Feb 22, 2022 3:10:41 GMT
I've been holding out until hotel discounts were released for summer so I wouldn't need to book then rebook once the discount came out but we might just go this route so someone else has to worry about it and I can just keep looking at food photos Nice plan! I've never used a travel agent before. I wish I could pay someone to get my Genie+ and ILL for me! Has anyone been recently and used them? It sounds do-able but I like to plan. I guess we're just going to go for it at Magic Kingdom and see how it works. When I went with my friend we split the cost of a room overlooking the lake at the Contemporary. It was cheaper than staying in the actual building with the monorail but we liked it back there. It was quiet and we could see the weird boat parade from our balcony. It's not something I could afford if I wasn't splitting it though. Once we stayed at Port Orleans Riverside and it was cool to be able to take the boat to Disney Springs but for everything else you had to take a bus. I liked the theming of it and we weren't far from a quiet pool that no one else was ever really using so that was great. Once we camped at the campground and that was rad. But last we we stayed at Pop Century and now we'll probably always stay there. We loved the skyliner. And since you can take it to Epcot and HS, we're staying there again this year. The rooms have a queen and then a murphy bed that's a queen. We always bring food so that we can eat breakfast in the room before we leave. Be bed packs up easily and you have a table and two chairs. It's great for the three of us. Maybe with 4 it would be a bit tight. We are going this Friday the 25th for 5 days! Oh wow! Have so much fun. Can't wait to hear all about it. Things should settle down after the President's Day weekend crowds settle down. Will the arts festival still be happening at epcot? That looks cool. I've never been but my daughter has 4 more years of school before college so when she's a Freshmen we'll take her. I heard it's really hard to take kids out of school for high school. |
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blemon
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Post by blemon on Feb 22, 2022 3:11:50 GMT
I have to add that I'd really love the stay at the Polynesian though.
It costs 4 x what we're paying to stay at Pop though. That's a lot.
Am I missing something? Are there rooms that don't cost 600 - 800 a night?
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Post by honeypea on Feb 22, 2022 5:25:27 GMT
I have to add that I'd really love the stay at the Polynesian though. It costs 4 x what we're paying to stay at Pop though. That's a lot. Am I missing something? Are there rooms that don't cost 600 - 800 a night? There are some that cost even more than that! Beach Club would be my pick. That pool is amazing. On our last trip to WDW in 2014 we stayed at the FW cabins. At $500 a night it’s the most expensive place we’ve stayed. As a family of six it was the most affordable place to stay on property though. Actually, two rooms at a value would’ve been a little less, but the cabins were considered a moderate resort, which allowed us to get a free dining plan, which worked in our favor. Now we live in CA and miss those many resort options. The hotels here are nothing special in comparison and cost so much more. 😵 2 of the 3 resorts are comparable to Pop, but $450 a night (and up at peak times). Crazy. We stay off property here. |
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dawnnikol
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Post by dawnnikol on Feb 22, 2022 13:00:50 GMT
Has anyone been recently and used them? It sounds do-able but I like to plan. I guess we're just going to go for it at Magic Kingdom and see how it works. I just know what I've read from people posting on Disboards. It honestly sounds terrible compared to being able to set your 3 FP ahead of time, but nothing to be done about it now. But last we we stayed at Pop Century and now we'll probably always stay there. We loved the skyliner. And since you can take it to Epcot and HS, we're staying there again this year. The rooms have a queen and then a murphy bed that's a queen. We always bring food so that we can eat breakfast in the room before we leave. Be bed packs up easily and you have a table and two chairs. It's great for the three of us. Maybe with 4 it would be a bit tight. That's why we stayed at Caribbean Beach Resort last time and the room I requested was perfect. It was right on the corner of the building right across the street from the Skyliner. I, literally, just stepped outside our door and had a great shot of the Skyliner and the water next to it. It was also a quick walk down the steps to get to the Uber / Taxi drop off and pick up and a little more to the bus. We were big, big fans. Except when the wind kicked up and shut down the Skyliner. Hah!! Am I missing something? Are there rooms that don't cost 600 - 800 a night? I definitely did not pay that for CBR nor is it that high for the reservation we have this year for Dolphin. We're a family of 5, so we're limited similar to honeypea without having to get 2 rooms. I also booked through Undercover Tourist so I get a great cancellation policy and Rakuten cash back. Oh wow! Have so much fun. Can't wait to hear all about it. Things should settle down after the President's Day weekend crowds settle down. Will the arts festival still be happening at epcot? That looks cool. I've never been but my daughter has 4 more years of school before college so when she's a Freshmen we'll take her. I heard it's really hard to take kids out of school for high school. I heard President's Day was blowing away crowds during Christmas. That's insane!! The Art Fest should be wrapping up. That's part of why we went in Jan/Feb of 2020 and it was SO GOOD! I highly recommend it. Now we live in CA and miss those many resort options. The hotels here are nothing special in comparison and cost so much more. 😵 2 of the 3 resorts are comparable to Pop, but $450 a night (and up at peak times). Crazy. We stay off property here. We considered doing DL instead of DW this time, but when comparing the rates, it made more sense to go to DW for the cost. We're centrally located so the drive is going to be long regardless. When we did go to DL, we stayed off property, too. |
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Post by cme37 on Feb 22, 2022 14:34:09 GMT
I was there last week. We stayed at French Quarter. I really like this resort. It is a moderate but small. We went in the middle of the week because I thought the crowds would be small. Nope. I couldn't believe how crowded it was for a random Tuesday/Wednesday in February. January and February were my go to months for Disney because of lower crowds. I guess that is gone now.
The main reason we went was that I was able to snag a reservation at the Space 220 restaurant. It was really cool. And the food was good.
We did try the Genie+ on Wednesday. I really didn't care for it. You can only schedule one ride at a time. I much prefer the old fastpasses mostly because you can plan three of them before you got there. And it was free! $15 a person and you don't even get a chance at the big rides. Those are additional! If we didn't live in FL and have annual passes, I don't know if I would be planning any more Disney trips for a while.
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Post by cynipidae17 on Feb 22, 2022 15:43:33 GMT
My family has a split stay (Disney/universal) scheduled for mid October. We were originally scheduled for mid-March. We moved it due to a health reason, but looking at the crowds I am hoping October will be better.
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Post by jenna on Feb 22, 2022 17:15:17 GMT
I've moved our week around between a couple at the end of Sept/early Oct but yesterday my boyfriend texted me "so and so from work bought (yes bought! 🤣) a travel agency and she said she'll help us out" so I need to finally just pick one and go from there. I've been holding out until hotel discounts were released for summer so I wouldn't need to book then rebook once the discount came out but we might just go this route so someone else has to worry about it and I can just keep looking at food photos  From what I'm reading and seeing (I've been watching prices for months), you should book sooner rather than later. Just check the cancellation policy, of course. DW also just raised their ticket prices. What hotels do you like? We stayed at CBR in Feb 2020 and liked it, but might swap it up this trip. My biggest first pump moment for planning so far has been getting a Club level room for cheaper than a regular room at Royal Pacific for Universal. I couldn't believe it. We're DL'ers so our hotels are definitely limited in comparison! And also.. basically all 500+ a night.. without magic morning 🙃 Hoping a lot of people are choosing to stay at a hotel on Harbor rather than onsite without the benefit of the early morning. We like being in the bubble, it's just annoying that it costs an arm and a leg. DL did get the World of Color/Fantasmic/Mainstreet Electrical Parade announcement today though! Everything back this spring with plenty of time for the kinks to get ironed out before we want to be there in September. 🤞🤞🤞🤞 hopefully at least, and it doesn't mean more time for things to get cancelled in the meantime lol |
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blemon
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Post by blemon on Feb 23, 2022 2:14:37 GMT
We are lucky that there are only 3 of us so Pop was like $200/night. I got the standard room because we don't need to be close to the lobby/restaurant. I am just hoping we get the '50s again. I loved that pool and the whole vibe. DL did get the World of Color/Fantasmic/Mainstreet Electrical Parade announcement today though! Everything back this spring with plenty of time for the kinks to get ironed out before we want to be there in September. 🤞🤞🤞🤞 hopefully at least, and it doesn't mean more time for things to get cancelled in the meantime lol I saw all of the announcements. We were at Disney for our first time as adults in 2018 I think and they did the Electric Parade. It was amazing. I hope to see it again one day. My family has a split stay (Disney/universal) scheduled for mid October. We were originally scheduled for mid-March. We moved it due to a health reason, but looking at the crowds I am hoping October will be better. I hope for you it is! I'm worried about May but we will cancel last minute and change dates if we have to. They just made one crowd level change so even though they are predicting overall a 5, I know it will be higher. We did try the Genie+ on Wednesday. I really didn't care for it. You can only schedule one ride at a time. I totally agree with you on the FP. I would much rather have only 3 that I can book in advance than the uncertainty of Genie+. That is not how I roll. I do have a question for you though. I read that if you book a time then an earlier time pops up, it will automatically move your time earlier. Is that true? What if you can't get there in time? That's why we stayed at Caribbean Beach Resort last time and the room I requested was perfect. It was right on the corner of the building right across the street from the Skyliner. I'm intrigued by CBR. How do you like the styling? I like a good theme. Does anyone use Touring Plans? I am an addict. |
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Post by honeypea on Feb 23, 2022 4:39:12 GMT
blemon Yes, I loved Touring Plans for our WDW trips! I lived by the crowd calendar.
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caangel
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Post by caangel on Feb 23, 2022 5:42:02 GMT
We live 25 min from DLR and have passes. So very excited for all the night time shows returning! Still waiting for Mickey's Magical map and the new parade to return. I only saw the new parade once (Feb 2020) and I absolutely loved it!
My friends and I had a mom's morning at DCA today (#stayinschoolkids 😉😆). There were a bunch of people working on the World of Color hardware in the lake. I've got a reservation for Monday at DL and think I'll just go by myself that morning, just to do it. Just have to make it back in time to pick up the carpool.
I'm doing a monthly stats page in my 2022 scrapbook and I have a repeating Disney card with #of trips this month/# of trips this year. I had 0 this month until today so had to fix that!
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dawnnikol
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Post by dawnnikol on Feb 23, 2022 12:25:16 GMT
I'm intrigued by CBR. How do you like the styling? I like a good theme. I mean, it's okay? Like, when we stayed at Royal Pacific for Universal we walked in and went "Wow!!!" Definitely not the same reaction when we opened our CBR door, but, from the outside? It's beautiful. The fact that it's only 2 stories and we could walk from our Skyliner room to the main lobby easily was nice. I know that's not feasible for everybody because the lack of elevators, but it was great for us. I used the DISBoards Resort thread to go through CBR before we got there to give me a better idea of the layout. Does anyone use Touring Plans? I am an addict. I know I can borrow the book from the library, but I always like having my own copy and then using the code for the discount is a bonus. When we're 100% going, I'll start going more in depth on figuring things out, but as has been mentioned G+ is going to be less helpful than FP. I'm already letting the family know this trip could be funky. It's also one of the reasons I booked Universal after Disney, since they're way more laid back. |
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Post by cme37 on Feb 23, 2022 13:13:12 GMT
I totally agree with you on the FP. I would much rather have only 3 that I can book in advance than the uncertainty of Genie+. That is not how I roll. I do have a question for you though. I read that if you book a time then an earlier time pops up, it will automatically move your time earlier. Is that true? What if you can't get there in time? It did not move any of ours. I found the system hard to use. We park hopped over to Epcot from HS and I could not figure out how to move the genie+ to the new park. I had to visit guest services. You have to click on tip board under genie+ and then change it. Not user friendly at all, IMO. |
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Post by honeypea on Feb 23, 2022 14:48:24 GMT
cme37 Do you have any guesses when shows will come back the Hyperion Theatre?
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blemon
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Post by blemon on Feb 23, 2022 16:57:07 GMT
It did not move any of ours. I found the system hard to use. Thank you. This is what I wanted to hear! I know I can borrow the book from the library, I just use the website. I think it costs $15 per year. I only turn it on when I need it. My friend and I often share the same login. My friends and I had a mom's morning at DCA today (#stayinschoolkids 😉😆). There were a bunch of people working on the World of Color hardware in the lake. I've got a reservation for Monday at DL and think I'll just go by myself that morning, just to do it. This is so cool. How fun you live close and can do that. I need to do more stuff on my own just around here. blemon Yes, I loved Touring Plans for our WDW trips! I lived by the crowd calendar. Yup, totally love that crowd calendar. It's how I planned out each of our days. I love how they will send you an update if you have that date in your plans. I think we'll stick with what days we are going to which park unless something drastic happens. Right now everything is a 3 or 4 but I KNOW that will change. I make my own touring plans and put in every little detail so I don't forget (especially snacks). I forgot to buy one of those candy apples on Main St. last time and was so bummed. It was delicious to eat in the car on the drive home. Now I'm going to work on devising a strategy for my Genie+. I think I'm going to get Jungle Cruise first at 7 a.m. Then Peter Pan or something when I can get the second one at 9. Then we'll just use it to see what we can get that's close to us. I don't want to criss cross the park but it's not far to Thunder Mtn. from Haunted Mansion, stuff like that. I also love data and algorithms so I'm nerdy for it. On our first trip those times were accurate to within 5 minutes. But that was pre-COVID. Now all the data is a mess and they're doing their best. |
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blemon
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Post by blemon on Feb 25, 2022 21:58:51 GMT
Who else wants to stay in the Galactic Starcruiser. I am dying it looks so cool.
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Post by Skellinton on Feb 26, 2022 0:42:33 GMT
Who else wants to stay in the Galactic Starcruiser. I am dying it looks so cool. It looks amazing, but not at all worth the cost to me. If I won the lottery, sure, but I would never pay what it costs otherwise. I could do a heck of a lot of traveling for what those 2 nights cost. |
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blemon
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Post by blemon on Feb 26, 2022 1:16:03 GMT
I could do a heck of a lot of traveling for what those 2 nights cost. Holy hell I just looked at the price for 3 people. |
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scrapnnana
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Post by scrapnnana on Feb 26, 2022 3:52:04 GMT
Who else wants to stay in the Galactic Starcruiser. I am dying it looks so cool. I hope you get a chance to do it and have a fabulous time. You have to be really into the role playing as part of the immersive (role playing) experience, as well as be willing to shell out a lot of money for it. DH and I watched a video about it today. We’re planning to go to Galaxy’s Edge, but we’ll skip the cost and the experience of the Galactic Starcruiser. |
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malo
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Post by malo on Feb 26, 2022 7:12:53 GMT
Wow! The price!!!
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blemon
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Post by blemon on Mar 3, 2022 1:18:22 GMT
Yup. 5 grand for a family of 3. I hope you get a chance to do it and have a fabulous time. You have to be really into the role playing as part of the immersive (role playing) experience, as well as be willing to shell out a lot of money for it. I did NOT realize it was like one big role playing adventure. Hard pass for me. I don't go on vacation to hang out with strangers. Shudder. And there's no pool? Like there's no outdoors at all. I would need to be medicated. I should have read up on this a bit more before getting excited about it. I'd like to have a look around, shop, and eat the cool foods but then get the heck out. Anyway. WHINE: They just released official hours for MK for the day we'll be there and it's closing at 9 instead of 10. No Jungle Cruise or People Mover after dark. Oh well. |
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scrapnnana
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Post by scrapnnana on Mar 3, 2022 4:21:00 GMT
blemon, I don’t go on vacation to hang out with strangers, either. 
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Post by honeypea on Mar 3, 2022 14:15:26 GMT
Hard pass for me. I don't go on vacation to hang out with strangers. Shudder. And there's no pool? Like there's no outdoors at all. I would need to be medicated. I should have read up on this a bit more before getting excited about it. I'd like to have a look around, shop, and eat the cool foods but then get the heck out. This made me LOLOL. Same, friend, SAME. 😅 Bummer! I just experienced Jungle Cruisecat night this January for the first time. It was not my favorite! I couldn’t see a thing. Made me feel a bit panicked and uncomfortable, actually! Daytime cruise gets my vote! 😆 |
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blemon
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Post by blemon on Mar 3, 2022 16:12:42 GMT
I just experienced Jungle Cruisecat night this January for the first time. It was not my favorite! I couldn’t see a thing. Made me feel a bit panicked and uncomfortable, actually! So the only time I've been on it at night was when I did the Christmas party with my friend. It was awesome. It's one of my favorite rides. I really like the classics. |
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dawnnikol
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Post by dawnnikol on Mar 3, 2022 17:07:52 GMT
So the only time I've been on it at night was when I did the Christmas party with my friend. It was awesome. It's one of my favorite rides. I really like the classics. I was just going to say how my kids did not enjoy JC when we visited last time, but I was hoping they'd appreciate it more if we make it back in November when it's "Jingle Cruise" and more festive. Glad to hear you enjoyed it! |
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blemon
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Post by blemon on Mar 3, 2022 17:39:44 GMT
I was just going to say how my kids did not enjoy JC when we visited last time There are different jokes and the scenes you float by have holiday additions. But the jokes are still all the cringy puns and dad jokes. I feel like little kids love them but older kids just groan. For me, that's why I love it. Have they seen the Jungle Cruise movie? I loved all the nods to the attraction. We weren't sure if we would like it or not but it was a great movie. Then we went and watched the OG movie that the attraction was based on. Oh, and then we got caught in a deep dive of reading about how that movie was made. It was Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. It's called the African Queen and you can rent it on Amazon. It was nominated for all the awards and the only oscar Bogart ever won. Anyway, obviously it snowed a lot this winter and we were stuck inside one long and snowy weekend. Ha ha! I can't say I'd recommend it to anyone but we learned about some history and now call our cat "Old Girl" even though she's only about 6. |
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blemon
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Post by blemon on Mar 11, 2022 22:27:54 GMT
Today we are 60 days out and I set an alarm for 5:58 to make dining reservations. We only want one: Oga's Cantina. I got one for 9:30 a.m. It was the only time available. Oga's is pretty much a bar with mostly alcoholic drinks and one snack option that is vegetarian. Gonna be a wild start to our day!! Woot. Also, has anyone been following Shimelle's Instagram? She has been rocking the Disney spreads this month. Shimelle |
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dawnnikol
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Post by dawnnikol on Mar 12, 2022 12:47:33 GMT
Gonna be a wild start to our day!! Woot. Congrats on the reservation and 60 day mark!!! I think we're at 238... hah! Also, has anyone been following Shimelle's Instagram? She has been rocking the Disney spreads this month. Yes! Her Disney bounding outfits have been so fun. |
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Post by jenna on Mar 12, 2022 19:34:49 GMT
blemonoga's has quite a few non alcoholic bevs as well! although.. getting tipsy by 10am isn't the worst  ~~ I like having trips paid for prior to going and finally got around to pricing everything out. Yikes @ what we still need to save but we'll get there lol
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blemon
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Post by blemon on Mar 13, 2022 19:13:54 GMT
I like having trips paid for prior to going and finally got around to pricing everything out. Yikes @ what we still need to save but we'll get there lol It's shocking to me how much it's costing. Everything just adds up. |
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