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[Disney_David]

Welp the time has come for last update for the evening, it's basically time for bed now. I should have cell signal (there's also wifi as well) so hopefully I can post a pic or two if I can.

I'll try to keep up with the shenanigans here (and boy there's a lot of that going on ) as well as keep up the updates from anyone at Disney/Universal or elsewhere!

Night fellow DISers

Say it ain’t so. I might FAGE in protest! Safe travels!! Post pics if you can!

 

[bcwife76]

Welp the time has come for last update for the evening, it's basically time for bed now. I should have cell signal (there's also wifi as well) so hopefully I can post a pic or two if I can.

I'll try to keep up with the shenanigans here (and boy there's a lot of that going on ) as well as keep up the updates from anyone at Disney/Universal or elsewhere!

Night fellow DISers

Have a wonderful time Safe travels!!

 

[MsChristy12]

I am going at this time primarily to see the decorations both at WDW and UO - the crowds (large or smaller) never really bother me a whole lot to be honest. I make sure to get my ADRs. plan my itineraries and always assume it will be busy. If its slower, then its a bonus. I also like to stack my park days around weekdays versus weekends and do the resorts or luxuriate somewhere on the weekends where I don't feel as jostled around.

As an example, I will sit in the Riviera coffee shop off the lobby (whether we are staying there or not) for an hour or two and just relax with no need to feel like I have to be somewhere or see something. The lounge at the top of the Gran Destino across from Toledos is a nice relaxing spot. I realize this is not everyone's touring style, especially if you have young ones. But with all adults, its a nice way to spend some non-park time. Also, since we go more than once a year, there isn't this need to get everything done on one trip - which I can also appreciate for those that travel to WDW less.

Love that! Slow down and enjoy where you are! Our Disney trips these days are kinda similar to yours now that we are older. We just expect parks to be busy all the time, so that at least there won't be as much disappointment. But I still try to plan our trips around the "crowd calendar" though, just because there's still SOME truth to it. We avoid MK Sat/Sun, and if we are staying longer than a week, Saturday is usually our non-park day to do whatevers.

DH and I agree upon each park day, which rides are must do (usually just a handful) + shows, and if we can do more, that's bonus. We definitely aren't doing Disney like we were in our 20s anymore! We can't! Physically, it's just draining and we know if we try to push it and "make it worth it" (we don't have AP), it will just bite us in the behind!! We now understand and appreciate the importance of a quality Disney vacation (or any vacation for that matter). We rather do less, but enjoy everything we do, and not get ourselves exhausted. It's a vacation! It SHOULDN'T be exhausting, that's just wrong. We don't rope drop anymore either, not really necessary for us. EXCEPT the two times when we got Group 2 for both Guardians and ROTR! (patting myself on the back! haha!) We had to rush to get ready and headed to the park right away!! For ROTR, our call back time was before HS even opened! I seriously thought we could go back to sleep for at least an hour not expecting we would be able to get anything in the early morning. But I won't complain! It was very nice just walking on both rides first thing in the AM. I would do that again and again!
A friend of mine, have 2 boys both under 10 and the last time they went to WDW, they flew into MCO on a redeye, then went straight to MK!! I was like...are you insane?! That sounds like torture to me! Unless someone pays me enough, otherwise that's a heck no!

On parks days, since we aren't in a rush to get to the parks, I like to have my coffee on our balcony (if we have one) and take our time. We definitely like to find a nice spot for an afternoon break. We wanted to check out that lounge at the Gran Destino last trip, but didn't make it over there. It will be on our list for sure next time! Btw, we did visit RIV and enjoyed the Riva bar by the pool! We met a CM that was a CP years ago like us, and he also met his wife during their CPs days, made a connection with him so that was pretty neat!

 

[MsChristy12]

@Mackenzie Click-Mickelson Safe travels and have a fantastic time!!
And wowzers at your hub's spreadsheet!! I thought I was a little cray cray with the details and color coding...he beat me!! haha Kudos to him!

 

[MsChristy12]

Haha yes!!! Darcey and Stacey - it’s a little cringey, not gonna lie

Oh Darcey that's right! Yeah she has always been cringey to me! Especially when she was dating the guy from the UK...Yikes! She says she's not desperate...but her actions says otherwise!

 

[princesscinderella]

I used to not be so bad at packing

But like I needed two outfits per day for Mexico one for the day one for the meals at night and assuming I'll spend the rest in my swimsuits and then I needed two additional outfits for backup, the pjs, the underwear, a few socks, and shoes okay I needed tennis shoes then sandals but then cute sandals. I usually only pack like 2 or 3 pairs of shoes (including the ones I wear to the airport) but nope couldn't work that this time.

I'm going to need some serious help for the cruise because we cannot take as much stuff (baggage and just stuff). Not looking forward to that packing day.



Oh you want schedules and spreadsheets well this one was Puerto Rico that my husband made (just part of it)

View attachment 752222


Here's a snippet from WDW/USO last year that I made:
View attachment 752223
View attachment 752224

I'm right there with ya on color coded and everything!

Yeah left that thread not sure what the deal was really

But I had other things to worry about like packing and now catching up on this wonderful thread appreciate the support

I hope you have a grand fiesta of a time on your trip. The spreadsheets are amazing!!

 

[john7994]

Love that! Slow down and enjoy where you are! Our Disney trips these days are kinda similar to yours now that we are older. We just expect parks to be busy all the time, so that at least there won't be as much disappointment. But I still try to plan our trips around the "crowd calendar" though, just because there's still SOME truth to it. We avoid MK Sat/Sun, and if we are staying longer than a week, Saturday is usually our non-park day to do whatevers.

DH and I agree upon each park day, which rides are must do (usually just a handful) + shows, and if we can do more, that's bonus. We definitely aren't doing Disney like we were in our 20s anymore! We can't! Physically, it's just draining and we know if we try to push it and "make it worth it" (we don't have AP), it will just bite us in the behind!! We now understand and appreciate the importance of a quality Disney vacation (or any vacation for that matter). We rather do less, but enjoy everything we do, and not get ourselves exhausted. It's a vacation! It SHOULDN'T be exhausting, that's just wrong. We don't rope drop anymore either, not really necessary for us. EXCEPT the two times when we got Group 2 for both Guardians and ROTR! (patting myself on the back! haha!) We had to rush to get ready and headed to the park right away!! For ROTR, our call back time was before HS even opened! I seriously thought we could go back to sleep for at least an hour not expecting we would be able to get anything in the early morning. But I won't complain! It was very nice just walking on both rides first thing in the AM. I would do that again and again!
A friend of mine, have 2 boys both under 10 and the last time they went to WDW, they flew into MCO on a redeye, then went straight to MK!! I was like...are you insane?! That sounds like torture to me! Unless someone pays me enough, otherwise that's a heck no!

On parks days, since we aren't in a rush to get to the parks, I like to have my coffee on our balcony (if we have one) and take our time. We definitely like to find a nice spot for an afternoon break. We wanted to check out that lounge at the Gran Destino last trip, but didn't make it over there. It will be on our list for sure next time! Btw, we did visit RIV and enjoyed the Riva bar by the pool! We met a CM that was a CP years ago like us, and he also met his wife during their CPs days, made a connection with him so that was pretty neat!

I am always fascinated by people's touring styles primarily as adult groups (we haven't been to WDW with kids since 2017 - and they were the children of our friends). So, thank you for sharing. As mentioned, we are DVC and go to WDW multiple times per year (~3-4), mostly in sprints of 4 - 6 days - the group size varies from just the two of us to as many as 10 and often the schedule is dictated by whim, availability of our dog/cat sitter, and when other couples or family might be available. We are pretty flexible because we can drive down relatively easily from Atlanta.

The common thread in our approach is everyone gets to sleep in until 9 or 10A except for me as I am an early riser regardless and I setup Genie+, purchase the ILLs and the first LL of the park we are targeting. Often, we are not rolling into any park before 11A - by then - we usually have our ILL, First LL and likely the second LL before we are even going through security. Breakfast is often grab and go unless we did a specific character breakfast for that day (Tusker and Topps are favorites). If no breakfast, we are planning for a more early lunch at HS (Brown Derby), or Steakhouse 71 if at MK, Nomad Lounge at AKL, or just the booths at Epcot. At this point, we have stacked the LLs for headliner rides at the various parks. By 2-3P we take a break, head over to a Resort and Luxuriate for a while. We may go back to the park or head back to the villa to relax and change for dinner. We may return to the park or just call it a night depending on the time of dinner and play different games depending on who we are traveling with.

 

[nekonekoneko]

Which thread?

There's an eMuster drills on April 1 thread in the DCL forums here. The direction it's going.... WHEW!

 

[nekonekoneko]

I went to get some fried chicken tonight, and the place I went to usually has good chicken. But then I heard a couple of the cooks arguing about not setting timers on the pressure fryers. They served the chicken, anyway. Ugh...

 

[nw6675]

Good morning. Everyone stayed up and slept in. Except for @Mackenzie Click-Mickelson who stayed and was up before dawn!

I record it and watch it tomorrow. I need to be able to forward through commercials, unless it’s Ozempic of course

Sunday is usually 90 day fiancé/was the Last of Us

That's just mean! I finally got it out if my head. Here's one for y'all (or youins like my Pappy used to say)

Which thread?

I see someone else shared. At least it was only 8 pages or so and not 83.

 

[nw6675]

OMG, I am dying. I can’t unsee that. Also who the heck made the cut out of Walt, because they made him look portly!!! I think he out on 20lbs

 

[princesscinderella]

Good Morning! I started the day doing virtual parent teacher conferences from my balcony at Boardwalk. Checking out today and it’s always so sad to leave and get back to the real world where I have to cook, clean and drive myself around in crazy traffic. We have decided that over the summer months of our stays here that we will not go to the parks until around 4 or 5 have an early dinner there and then go on the rides once the sun goes down. We got on Rise at the end of the night in 20 minutes yesterday after watching the 8:30 Fantasmic show. It’s just too hot and miserable in the summer, we will hang at the resorts, sleep in go to the pool etc.

 

[Smugpugmug]

Morning everyone! I hope everyone (who celebrates) had a wonderful Easter!

Last night was fun but SO exhausting. Had a nice dinner at Vivo, though I have to give a shout out to whoever decided to blast Josh Groban at max volume while we were being seated lol I definitely recommend it for anyone who likes Italian food, though if you have authentic Italian places where you live you will most likely be disappointed. Reservations were also a must since it was a holiday weekend. I overheard the hostess turning away a walk up saying the restaurant was not accepting walk ups at all.

The parks weren't as bad as I thought they were going to be IMO. I've seen it way worse crowds wise and wait time wise. Hagrid's had a 3-3 1/2 hour wait the entire time we were there and yeah.......not doing that. Kong varied from 80-100 which is also nuts given what that ride is. Everything else was 50 or less. We rode Hulk, Spiderman, Hogwarts Express (Studios to IoA), Mummy x2, Gringotts, Men in Black and ended with Velocicoaster. Funny story on Mummy but we were in line after the Express/standby merge point and a group of teens from the single rider line tried to cut into the our line and in front of my group. I didn't let them pass us and my entire group gave them that disappointed parent look like "What you're doing is wrong". I wasn't planning on confronting them directly but I did see that they crept back to the single rider line. I see a lot of line cutting at theme parks and it's just so frustrating. I'm glad they chose to do the right thing and go back into the line they originally were in.

Also I did order a Butterbeer (no Fireball added ) and there was NO line in Hogsmeade. I have NEVER seen that before and I go to the parks at night often. The team member at the stand joked that everyone was at Disney LOL

 

[john7994]

Morning everyone! I hope everyone (who celebrates) had a wonderful Easter!

Last night was fun but SO exhausting. Had a nice dinner at Vivo, though I have to give a shout out to whoever decided to blast Josh Groban at max volume while we were being seated lol I definitely recommend it for anyone who likes Italian food, though if you have authentic Italian places where you live you will most likely be disappointed. Reservations were also a must since it was a holiday weekend. I overheard the hostess turning away a walk up saying the restaurant was not accepting walk ups at all.

The parks weren't as bad as I thought they were going to be IMO. I've seen it way worse crowds wise and wait time wise. Hagrid's had a 3-3 1/2 hour wait the entire time we were there and yeah.......not doing that. Kong varied from 80-100 which is also nuts given what that ride is. Everything else was 50 or less. We rode Hulk, Spiderman, Hogwarts Express (Studios to IoA), Mummy x2, Gringotts, Men in Black and ended with Velocicoaster. Funny story on Mummy but we were in line after the Express/standby merge point and a group of teens from the single rider line tried to cut into the our line and in front of my group. I didn't let them pass us and my entire group gave them that disappointed parent look like "What you're doing is wrong". I wasn't planning on confronting them directly but I did see that they crept back to the single rider line. I see a lot of line cutting at theme parks and it's just so frustrating. I'm glad they chose to do the right thing and go back into the line they originally were in.

Also I did order a Butterbeer (no Fireball added ) and there was NO line in Hogsmeade. I have NEVER seen that before and I go to the parks at night often. The team member at the stand joked that everyone was at Disney LOL

Great update / review and always like seeing different points of view on the parks.
Anecdotally, in our last two visits (January / March), I am seeing this trend of "behavior" events specifically related to guests. It just seems like a downward trend of obnoxious behavior - even compared to the same time in 2022. I see complaints about CMs, service at restaurants, and time to get food - but I think the guest behavior spiral is more the headline to me.

 

[Anthony1971]

We now understand and appreciate the importance of a quality Disney vacation (or any vacation for that matter). We rather do less, but enjoy everything we do, and not get ourselves exhausted. It's a vacation! It SHOULDN'T be exhausting, that's just wrong. We don't rope drop anymore either, not really necessary for us.

I learned this in my late 20's maybe 30. I was laying on a Hammock at the POLY when they had them on the beach my I think she was my wife at that time who knows anymore went to take a shower a few hours later came back and I was still there just listing the train horn in the distance. This was mid afternoon never did make it back to a park that day... I do recall we had and yo had to buy length of stay tickets so what ever year that was but had to be very early 2000s. Since then we always had resort DAYS... Its a vacation.

 

[Smugpugmug]

Great update / review and always like seeing different points of view on the parks.
Anecdotally, in our last two visits (January / March), I am seeing this trend of "behavior" events specifically related to guests. It just seems like a downward trend of obnoxious behavior - even compared to the same time in 2022. I see complaints about CMs, service at restaurants, and time to get food - but I think the guest behavior spiral is more the headline to me.

Totally agree. I see line cutting at every theme park I've been to (except for the Disney parks in Japan). I've seen an increase in it over the past few months. No complaints with the cast members/team members. They're trying their best and some are incredible and make the experience special.

 

[john7994]

Totally agree. I see line cutting at every theme park I've been to (except for the Disney parks in Japan). I've seen an increase in it over the past few months. No complaints with the cast members/team members. They're trying their best and some are incredible and make the experience special.

Hopefully, its just hangover from the last of the revenge travelers ...

 

[nw6675]

What's everyone up to today? I'm finishing cleaning. Ugh, you never realize how much there is until you know someone's coming over!

For those that don't know, I'm a SAHM and I homeschool DD11. Fun times! (seriously).

 

[john7994]

What's everyone up to today? I'm finishing cleaning. Ugh, you never realize how much there is until you know someone's coming over!

For those that don't know, I'm a SAHM and I homeschool DD11. Fun times! (seriously).

Getting back into the grind after a somewhat soft last week. Need to assess cutting down some trees on our property that didn't quite make it through all the rain and wind last week. Looks I got through most of my planning for DL in June in the slow crawl of ADRs/Extras - one day at a time. I didn't realize how vastly different the interfaces, rules, and other considerations between WDW and DL.

 

[MsChristy12]

I am always fascinated by people's touring styles primarily as adult groups
Tusker and Topps are favorites). If no breakfast, we are planning for a more early lunch at HS (Brown Derby), or Steakhouse 71 if at MK, Nomad Lounge at AKL, or just the booths at Epcot.
Luxuriate for a while.

Our travel style often gets called out by friends/family that we are leisure bougie! Staying at luxury resorts would be my FT hobby if I won the lotto!.
Wow your guys favorites are pretty much same as ours! Those are also some of our "go-to"/must as well. We haven't tried Toppolinos, I know it's a lot of people's faves. Do you like their breakfast over dinner?
Btw I love that word! I don't know why I don't ever use it? It is absolutely fitting when we do some moo moo sharoo and resort hopping!