"DIS meets galore!" - Oct 15-23, 2016 -Link to New TR added - March 2nd

[UKDisneyJoe]

Camera is looking good so far Pete. Some nice shots from TGMR. Not been to AKL at all yet but doing some resort hopping next year on our trip and it is one I cant wait to see. Look forward to reading more of your trip as usual

 

[ALEXandFAB]

That camera is really working out!

 

[skier_pete]

Nice shots so far! I havent had a chance to check mine out yet. You are lucky that it's such a short trip to get to WDW. Wit the time it takes you, we still have half our plane ride left!

Thank you! I am very happy with the low light/no flash shots it is taking. The picture of the Ark of the covenant shows so much detail. We are lucky we can get to WDW fairly easily - and especially lucky that we have direct flights. Unfortunately whether they are available depends on the time of year. We are flying down (to visit "the dark side") in February for our winter break, and I couldn't get a flight out of Buffalo for under $400 RT - so instead we have to drive 4 hours to Pittsburgh. Saved like $900 total, so well worth it, but it's no longer such a quick flight. Oh - it's so much easier to just take DD out of school, I wish it didn't hit her so hard.

Yay for early flights!

I am with ya Pete AKL lobby is the best. I have never seen the WL lobby which was done by the same person but AKL is just beautiful.

I prefer the no Hat.

Great movie ride is still enjoyable but I am interested to see if the ride survives or becomes Mickey-fied like rumors say.

Yes - it's one of the few lobbies that I would be perfectly happy to just sit and absorb the ambience.

I am not a big fan of the GMR as I stated earlier - but I am not sure the "Great Moments with Mr. Mickey" concept is really something that will work well. The problem I have is that you never really feel like you are PART of the movie - as I said except for that LAST scene from the Wizard of Oz. It's one of those situations where I wish I could design the ride - I would pledge to "Make GMR Great again".

Camera is looking good so far Pete. Some nice shots from TGMR. Not been to AKL at all yet but doing some resort hopping next year on our trip and it is one I cant wait to see. Look forward to reading more of your trip as usual

The pictures don't show it, but off the back of the lobby you can walk you onto an observation deck and watch the animals on the Savannah.

That camera is really working out!

Thanks. We used it on the DLR trip in February - but many of the dark rides there move too fast.

 

[rteetz]

Make GMR Great again

WDWNT has shirts that say that...

 

[Joben]

Hey Pete: Joining in, saw you make a comment on rumor round up about TR so I thought I would take a look at it.

So I'm looking into getting a better camera for exactly the came reason you have stated. I have a "bridge" camera, and it works out pretty good. I didn't want to spend a small fortune on a DSLR but did want more than just a point and shoot. My only complaint with it is the sensor is small so it doesn't do well in low light situations. What camera did you go with?. Now that DSLR's are becoming more common I can get one that is around 5-8 years old for under $400, The mirrorless intrigue me, but actually I think with how small they are I would be dropping it all the time.

BTW we just took the DVC plunge and will be going to our first stay this March. After renting points for years we realized that what we spent renting points we could have owned by that point. Home resort is OKW, which I know is kind of dumb because that is the one that is easiest to get rooms at, but we followed the advice of choose the resort where you will always want to stay. Within three weeks of getting approval for our resale, they changed the rules about resales getting benefits...good timing.

We haven't been to F&W for two years now, and that is probably my favorite thing in WDW. However our last time ended on a Saturday. I often scoffed when I heard people complaining about how boozy it got at Epcot on the weekends thinking they were just tea-tottlers. Nope it was a different level, not enough for me to swear off F&W but not on a weekend again.

 

[skier_pete]

Hey Pete: Joining in, saw you make a comment on rumor round up about TR so I thought I would take a look at it.

So I'm looking into getting a better camera for exactly the came reason you have stated. I have a "bridge" camera, and it works out pretty good. I didn't want to spend a small fortune on a DSLR but did want more than just a point and shoot. My only complaint with it is the sensor is small so it doesn't do well in low light situations. What camera did you go with?. Now that DSLR's are becoming more common I can get one that is around 5-8 years old for under $400, The mirrorless intrigue me, but actually I think with how small they are I would be dropping it all the time.

BTW we just took the DVC plunge and will be going to our first stay this March. After renting points for years we realized that what we spent renting points we could have owned by that point. Home resort is OKW, which I know is kind of dumb because that is the one that is easiest to get rooms at, but we followed the advice of choose the resort where you will always want to stay. Within three weeks of getting approval for our resale, they changed the rules about resales getting benefits...good timing.

We haven't been to F&W for two years now, and that is probably my favorite thing in WDW. However our last time ended on a Saturday. I often scoffed when I heard people complaining about how boozy it got at Epcot on the weekends thinking they were just tea-tottlers. Nope it was a different level, not enough for me to swear off F&W but not on a weekend again.

That's what I got - a Sony mirrorless camera. Love that it uses "real" lens while having a very compact body. I got the A5100 I think. (I can't remember the # off the top of my head.) Really love it.

Nothing wrong with buying at OKW - low buy-in and you are totally right to choose a resort you want to stay at. We had heard the same advice on AKV - why buy there, the annual dues are high and you can always get in there at 7 months - but you have to have a place you are happy to be at when you can't get in elsewhere at 7 months. SSR is the "smartest" DVC to buy financially. (Actually buying SSR but staying OKW is the "cheapest" route to go. But really even OKW you are not guaranteed to get in there every day of the year - busy times in Oct-Dec there are days where they are booked at 7 months.) The only "bad" buys to me are HHI and VeroBeach - at least if you buy them wanting to stay at WDW a lot! Good for you getting in before they changed the benefits. I would probably still have bought resale, but the benefits are pretty sweet to have access to.

We've only ever seen F&W on a Friday - not a Saturday - but yeah don't need that crap. I really wish Disney would police it more. Fine if you want to get sloshed, but when people start acting out it's time to kick them out.

 

[dlavender]

They are also hard to book because there’s only 18 of them

I never realized they were that rare.

Trip looks great so far. Early flights are definitely the best. Im with you on GMR. Haven't been on it in 5 years and have no desire to change that anytime soon.

 

[skier_pete]

I never realized they were that rare.

Trip looks great so far. Early flights are definitely the best. Im with you on GMR. Haven't been on it in 5 years and have no desire to change that anytime soon.

We hadn't been on the GMR in probably 7-8 years because DD was always afraid of it. Last year we made her ride it, and she loved it so much we had to ride it twice. This year only once. I am not a big fan, though.

AKV Value rooms: The AKV value rooms are in the front two wings of the resort. These are shown on the Ostrich and Giraffe trails below. There are 8 studios and 10 lock-off 2-bedrooms, meaning in theory you can make as many as 18 studios and 10 1-bedrooms. Some of the rooms have parking lot views, some pool views, some savannah views. You can't request which style room you get. As I said earlier - these are smaller rooms than the rest of the DVC rooms at the resort. I will be talking more about the rooms as this TR goes on.



BTW - this map shows ALL the rooms in Jambo House that are DVC - except the FIVE lock-off 2-bedrooms that are concierge level on the 6th floor. There are more Savannah view rooms than Standard view rooms - however some of the standard view rooms are actually Savanna view at Jambo House - and the split is actually fairly even from a points standpoint.
Savanna View:24 Dedicated Studios, 33 Lock-Offs, 6 Grand Villas
Standard View: (pool/partial Savanna) 14 Dedicated Studios, 34 Lock-Offs
Value: 8 Dedicated Studios, 10 Lock-Offs
Club Level: (not on map, 6th floor) 5 Lock-Offs

There's obviously many more DVC rooms in Kidani. Kidani has no dedicated studios - but 168 lock-offs and 140 dedicated 2-bedrooms + 16 Grand Villas.

 

[skier_pete]

Coming out of the GMR they were doing the Star Wars stage show. DD got her first Frozen Lemonade of the trip – she subsists mostly on Frozen Lemonade and Mickey Pretzels at WDW, and we stood out to watch the show. It was really pretty stupid. Basically each character comes out and poses for the audience for like 15 seconds, while a bunch of videos play. Cool for kids maybe, but as an adult pretty boring. Since I’m a Star Wars nerd I took pictures anyways.















Fortunately, there’s more Star Wars here than just this…so we headed over to use our first FP+ of the day – Star Tours. Standby was showing 40 minutes, so we were happy to have a quick load to a galaxy far, far away.









DW showing off her Star Wars shirt that was such a trial to get last year.



Getting ready for transport.



Coming off the ride –we got a surprise of our first DIS meet of the trip. We ran into our friend @DarthVader92 who was working the exit of the ride!



We were hoping to see him later in the trip, but unfortunately this was the only chance. We chatted for about 5 minutes and then he offered us a second ride on the ride. (DIS friends are the greatest!) So we cut back to the loading area and were loaded on a second time. (Both times we were in the back row.) The second ride we ended up with all the same scenes except for one. I love the Jakara scene they added from Force Awakens, but it’s time to re-randomize the show. C’mon Disney!
After saying Bye to Matt, we moved outside and used the restrooms over by Muppetvision. We didn’t see the show – it’s actually been too long – but DD has this thing against 3D shows that is pure stubbornness or residual terror from when she was younger and she won’t watch them so we didn’t do it again this trip. However, I wanted to try and get some snaps of the upcoming PizzaRizzo restaurant, as well as the tear-down of the Streets of America. This little nook is very dead-endy right now – and it makes for an odd location, but it’s the only real spot you can see all the removal.













Once I was done taking pictures, we went over to the Sci-Fi and met our friends. I am going to refrain from using names – but these were the friends that motivated the timing of our trip. On the Backstage Magic trip we took in 2013 there were two sisters from New Zealand that we got along with really well. One sister was having health issues, and passed away shortly after the trip. The other was coming back to the states with husband and son (same age as our DD), and so several of us planned this trip around their visit – as well as helped them with their plans.

Our family had gotten a reservation at the Sci-Fi at 180 days out, but we found out that our DHS days would overlap, and that they also wanted to go to the Sci-Fi, so I had been watching for a ADR for 6 people, and was able to snatch up one just a week before the trip. It involved moving around some Fastpasses, but overall was pretty easy. The time wasn’t great (2:40 PM) but actually it was a cool break during the heat of the day.

(I didn’t mention the weather at all – but today was the only day that we saw any significant rain – but really only a hard shower while we were driving on the ME, and another brief shower later in the afternoon. The rest of the trip was pretty much the same every day – sun and warm in the mid-eighties, but humidity wasn’t too bad. It really only got uncomfortable from 2 PM to 5 PM each day – and we “headed for the room” a lot of the time. )

Our meal at the Sci-Fi was pretty good. I love the old ‘50s movies trailers. In addition to being a Disney fan, I’m a big Mystery Science Theater fan, and they’ve riffed on many of the movies that are shown in clips during the meal – so I actually can identify most of the clips as to what movies they are from.



We put the two kids in the front of the car together - they didn't really talk much but by later in the trip they had gotten more friendly.







DD had the turkey club sandwich and an order of Onion Rings. DW and I both tried the specialty burger. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of our food. (DIS-board SIN!) Overall, the food was good but not great – never expect great things here. Our waitress was great though – and we got a 10% DVC discount so that was nice!

To be continued...

 

[Malia78]

Hi Pete. First time commenting on one of your reports.

In my opinion, the most beautiful lobby on Disney property:

Completely agree. AKL is also our home resort and after trying both Jambo and Kidani this year, I find that I prefer staying at Kidani and enjoying the easy access to Jambo for dining and such. Kidani feels more peaceful, views of my favorite savannah and always a fan of bus preference.

 

[franandaj]

Looks like a fun time at sci-fi. I've always been pleased with the food there. It's no V&A's, but the burgers have always been decent.

Meeting up with friends was probably the highlight of my trip, so I'm glad you got to see some folks right on the first day.

You're really on top of things! I had no idea about the PizzaRizzo place until our last day and that's because ads started showing up in my FB feed.

 

[rteetz]

Even though I haven't seen that Star Wars stage show in person yet I agree that it seems rather stupid. Star Wars sells though so I guess it works for Disney.

Star tours is always fun, awesome that you saw someone you know and that they got you a second ride!

Sci-fi is nice. Nothing spectacular but decent food and a nice atmosphere.

 

[skier_pete]

Hi Pete. First time commenting on one of your reports.

Completely agree. AKL is also our home resort and after trying both Jambo and Kidani this year, I find that I prefer staying at Kidani and enjoying the easy access to Jambo for dining and such. Kidani feels more peaceful, views of my favorite savannah and always a fan of bus preference.

Hey - thanks for joining in with a comment. I always enjoy the feedback! I will hold back whether we ended up liking Kidani or Jambo better. This was our first time visiting Kidani. I will agree with you that as far as buses go, I do prefer to be the "First" stop, and so Kidani definitely wins for the bus service.

Looks like a fun time at sci-fi. I've always been pleased with the food there. It's no V&A's, but the burgers have always been decent.

Meeting up with friends was probably the highlight of my trip, so I'm glad you got to see some folks right on the first day.

You're really on top of things! I had no idea about the PizzaRizzo place until our last day and that's because ads started showing up in my FB feed.

Meeting up with friends was DEFINITELY the highlight for us. We've met friends before, but never spent so much time with them. It really added a new layer of fun. I especially liked riding the rides I usually have to ride alone with someone else.

I actually spend most of my time on the DIS on the "News and Rumors" board than on the main page or with TRs.

Even though I haven't seen that Star Wars stage show in person yet I agree that it seems rather stupid. Star Wars sells though so I guess it works for Disney.

Star tours is always fun, awesome that you saw someone you know and that they got you a second ride!

Sci-fi is nice. Nothing spectacular but decent food and a nice atmosphere.

The stage show is a pretty obvious placeholder. The problem with Disney Parks moving so slow is that they can't capitalize on the initial return of Star Wars very well. Four years after acquiring it and it's still 3 years away from being in the parks. Not that it won't be a huge hit when it arrives...

 

[skier_pete]

After lunch/dinner we had a Toy Story Mania FP+ to use, so I had agreed to ride Tower of Terror with the other family later in the day - so we arranged to meet up for that later. We headed off to TSMM with our FP+. We were a few minutes early – so checked out the other spot for viewing all the removal. The end of Pixar Place – which used to be Backlot Express and the Backlot Tour, and the Honey I Shrunk the kids playground is now a whole lot of nothing behind walls:





The ban on selfie stick prevents me from getting a good shot over the wall – but that also would likely have gotten me thrown out as well.
While we were there, the green army men came out to do a show:





It was time to ride - Standby was only 30 minutes – I guess that’s what the new track does for you!





We were lucky enough to be sent down the hall to the new track.





The new load area – it’s pretty easy to tell the difference as it holds half the # of cars:










DW and DD rode together, so I had the side of the car to myself, so I decided to take some (no flash) pictures ON the ride:







I had a pretty good score I think – I won the car anyways!


I liked this pile of blocks says “YOU DID IT!”

Another weird long hallway out.


We had decided to sit down and plan out what was left. It was about an hour until our ToT fastpass –and then 1.5 hours until the Indiana Jones stunt show –after that, we had nothing left until the Star Wars fireworks which were scheduled for 8 PM, 2 hours later. While planning, we were given a treat – a stuffed pretzel with ham and cheese. I am not sure why – maybe they were trying to get cart to be more popular. It was tasty, but this short after our big meal, we weren’t much for food.



So –we ended up going over to Beauty and the Beast – while there – we decided that after the show (and my ToT FP) we would head back to the room. DD didn’t really care about the Star Wars show, so we figured she could stay in the room and DW and I would come back to the park. I’ve seen B&tB so many times I have had enough of it.



So 5 minutes into the show, I headed off to ToT –






Continued in next post.

 

[skier_pete]

Day 1 - Continued

The NZ family was also calling it a day – so we walked out of the park together. But not before getting a group picture;





We messed up going to the wrong bus stop – Animal Kingdom and Animal Kingdom LODGE are NOT the same – but the bus came quickly within 5 minutes and we were on our way. Our room was ready and our luggage was already there. We were actually very happy with the room. It was a pool view, but it was very close to the lobby, and it was also right next to the elevator down to the pool and food court – like literally 10 steps. Some pictures of the room itself.















So (and I apologize if this comes off as a brag) for those wondering if DVC is “worth it”, I figure that we are paying roughly $8.35 / point in 2016. (The “buy-in”, while expensive, was essentially $2 per point (160 points per year x 42 years x $2 per point = $13,000) and maintenance fees are $6.42 in 2016 – meaning that we are paying $8.42 a point. This room cost us 12 points on Saturday but only 9 points the next 3 days. That’s $101 for Saturday night – and $75.78 for the other 3 nights, and there’s no room tax on that. This makes this the cheapest room we’ve ever stayed in on Disney property - incluiding value stays. And this is the view from our balcony.



Our standard room the last four nights averaged 13 points a night – or $109.46 a night – so even without the “cheapest” room it’s still a great deal. Not that I’m a salesperson for DVC, but resale DVC was the best move we ever made. We lost the ability to use free dining, but with the restrictions lately and the fact that as we get older we can’t eat as much, I was losing interest in Free Dining. We get to stay in resorts that we never could afford otherwise, at prices that simply can’t be beat. (The biggest negative of DVC – I desperately want more points so we can go more often!)

Enough DVC sales pitch – we did some small amount of unpacking. (Because we are switching rooms we wanted to keep the clothes in the suitcases.) We also got a few basics from the store (milk, juice, eggs, bread) for breakfast. Once that was done, we left DD and headed back to DHS. I really wanted to see the Star Wars protection show. We also were scheduled for our THIRD DIS-meet of the day with @Disneymom1126 and her daughter. We didn’t get a picture together.

The show was pretty good – but there were some definite flaws – we actually had a decent position right between the two projection towers, but the problem is that because the trees and the different surfaces of the Chinese Theater – much of the projection looked muddled. The fireworks also occur off to the right of the theater – which makes the show seem oddly off center. Overall though – the music and the images were pretty cool. I don’t know if I would do this every time we came, but it’s worth a view.








We headed back to the resort at this point, and split a chicken pita from the Mara – as well as some Zebra Domes – which we managed to mangle – in fact we got Zebra Domes twice and I neglected to get a picture both times, mostly because we dumped the box both times and they looked pretty bad. They are in fact delicious though!

I usually tally up the number of rides/attractions we rode. And I also try to not wait more than 20 minutes for anything.

Day 1:
# of rides/attractions today: 5 (GMR, ST, TSMM, B&TB, ToT)
Total through trip: 5
Wait in excess of 20 minutes: 0

 

[rteetz]

Looks like a fun filled day!

Your room looks nice. Some day I'll stay at AKL.

Interesting notes about the Star Wars fireworks. I know viewing locations is the biggest problem but I haven't seen anyone say anything bad about the projections.

 

[skier_pete]

Day 2 - Sunday October 16th:

I used to insist we hit rope drop every day of our trip, but I have mellowed somewhat in that respect, though I still prefer trying to get to the park for opening. I only planned I think 4 rope drop days this week, but our first full day was one of them. The reason is I wanted to hit Soarin’ without a wait. So up in the morning and out the door by 8:15 AM, the bag check line was huge so we were maybe about 5 minutes late for the actual opening of the park – but close enough really.



So – off to the Land!





What time is our flight Patrick?



I didn’t take pictures on the ride (maybe I did later in the trip), but I have to say I really liked the new Soarin’. I liked that they kept the music in a very similar style. (I would’ve been very disappointed with the music change.) I liked the “Round the world” aspect of it. Some of the CGI was a little overdone, and some of the effects were a bit screwed up when you are off on the edges of the show. (The Eiffel Tower seemed to curl up beneath us.) But overall, I was happy with it. I would hope someday we see them alternate the shows, but for now I think this was great.

Post Soarin we headed to the Living with the Land ride. Our family always likes this one:











Next up we headed for The Seas.





This used to be DD very favorite place. Not quite as much anymore - but she still enjoys it:


Since Tier 2 FPs are pretty useless at Epcot other than Spaceship Earth, I always burn a FP+ on this ride. Why? Because you get to shortcut about 90% of the queue. Who designed this queue that you have to walk ¼ mile when the ride is a walk-on should be shot. (They probably also designed the Little Mermaid ride queue.)











We used to spend HOURS in this pavilion, now DD doesn’t even want to bother walking upstairs to the big tank. We did make her get the traditional “Bruce” picture though!





To be continued in next post!

 

[skier_pete]

Continued from previous post...

To complete the West side (Nature) side of WS – we headed for the Imagination Pavillion. I don’t hate this ride as much as many do, but it’s not very good.











I posted this shot on Facebook with the caption “DD and DW pretending to have fun at the Imagination Pavillion.”



After we did that – we wanted to check out the new DVC lounge. I thought we would come more than once, but this was our only stop here. This was actually really awesome – I’d love to see them keep this after the 25th anniversary, and maybe add a few more. It was nice getting a cold drink and a snack and sitting for 20 minutes. The only negative to it is the location being a bit out of the way if you are in say WS. Can’t beat the view though!







The drink machines were really nice, too.



We hung out for a little bit – but it still wasn’t yet 11 AM and we had another FP+ available for SSE so we figured we might as well use it.





I am not one to reminisce about the past of Epcot – but it is nice that this ride is more or less the traditional Epcot continuous loading “history” attraction – hopefully they keep it.










Next up - it's time, it's time, for Food and Wine!!!

 

[rteetz]

Looks like an awesome day at Epcot. I'm excited to see soarin myself. I haven't ridden it in years.

The DVC lounge looks nice.

 

[skier_pete]

Looks like an awesome day at Epcot. I'm excited to see soarin myself. I haven't ridden it in years.

The DVC lounge looks nice.

Years? What's wrong with you man - that ride is GREAT.

DVC lounge is really nice I only wish there were (a) bathrooms inside and (b) lounge chairs to nap in. That last one is just my little fantasyworld - if their was a place in the park to comfortably take a nap (besides the American Adventure) then I would probably stay all day!