villa virgin
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2003
- Messages
- 10
Just back from a marvellous two weeks in the Home of the Mouse, and The Hulk of course.
We travelled with TCD, on their Air Atlanta flights. Old 747-200s, but good legroom, and good flights both ways. ALL food and drink (apart from water and the main meals) is charged for, so pack some crisps, biscuits, muffins, nuts, box drinks etc. in your carry-on bags and save money. No seat-back screens, so take books to read.
We stayed in a fairly old villa in the Lake Buena Ventura area off Osceola Parkway, but everything was provided, and it all worked. You cant beat swimming in your own pool at 7am, watching the sun rise over the lake.
Net-heads will be interested to know of a good internet café, just 100 yards away from the TCD offices in the Lake Buena Vista stores complex on the 535. 10 bucks for an hour, and the owner was happy for me to connect my SmartMedia reader to his laptop, and use my own CD to download my piccies. He serves good coffee, and the shop has loads of Brit favourite foods and sweets too imported from the UK. A little gem of a place.
Someone provided a good tip on free iced water from the cafes at the WDW parks, it works, and also at the Universal parks too. Yes, it does taste a little funny, but free iced water at 92 degrees, whos complaining!?
We arrived on the 28/8, and by 01/09, it seemed as if we were the only people there! All the crowds and queues had gone, the longest wait on any ride was 10 minutes, most of the FastPass machines were covered over, and we whizzed around the best rides in all the parks, two or even three times on most of them.
Mission Space? great ride, no-one in our party was sick anyway. Maybe they have toned the motion effects down a bit, but the g-forces are pretty impressive. I agree with an earlier submission, the ending is a bit twee, and unexpectedly short, but dont be put off, go and ride it.
Oh yeah, Typhoon Lagoon is closed now, so Blizzard Beach was busy, still short queues though. I did the Vomit Plummet (sorry, Summit Plummet), what a ride! No tips, just go do it for yourself.
Travelling home for us was on 11/9 (or as the Americans know it - 9/11). A word of warning, the TSA screening at Sanford is very slow, it took us over 30 mins of queuing to get through the scanners. Dont arrive late for check-in and expect to rush through.
A very brief report, I hope it helps, pleased to reply to any questions.
Cheers
VV
We travelled with TCD, on their Air Atlanta flights. Old 747-200s, but good legroom, and good flights both ways. ALL food and drink (apart from water and the main meals) is charged for, so pack some crisps, biscuits, muffins, nuts, box drinks etc. in your carry-on bags and save money. No seat-back screens, so take books to read.
We stayed in a fairly old villa in the Lake Buena Ventura area off Osceola Parkway, but everything was provided, and it all worked. You cant beat swimming in your own pool at 7am, watching the sun rise over the lake.
Net-heads will be interested to know of a good internet café, just 100 yards away from the TCD offices in the Lake Buena Vista stores complex on the 535. 10 bucks for an hour, and the owner was happy for me to connect my SmartMedia reader to his laptop, and use my own CD to download my piccies. He serves good coffee, and the shop has loads of Brit favourite foods and sweets too imported from the UK. A little gem of a place.
Someone provided a good tip on free iced water from the cafes at the WDW parks, it works, and also at the Universal parks too. Yes, it does taste a little funny, but free iced water at 92 degrees, whos complaining!?
We arrived on the 28/8, and by 01/09, it seemed as if we were the only people there! All the crowds and queues had gone, the longest wait on any ride was 10 minutes, most of the FastPass machines were covered over, and we whizzed around the best rides in all the parks, two or even three times on most of them.
Mission Space? great ride, no-one in our party was sick anyway. Maybe they have toned the motion effects down a bit, but the g-forces are pretty impressive. I agree with an earlier submission, the ending is a bit twee, and unexpectedly short, but dont be put off, go and ride it.
Oh yeah, Typhoon Lagoon is closed now, so Blizzard Beach was busy, still short queues though. I did the Vomit Plummet (sorry, Summit Plummet), what a ride! No tips, just go do it for yourself.
Travelling home for us was on 11/9 (or as the Americans know it - 9/11). A word of warning, the TSA screening at Sanford is very slow, it took us over 30 mins of queuing to get through the scanners. Dont arrive late for check-in and expect to rush through.
A very brief report, I hope it helps, pleased to reply to any questions.
Cheers
VV
Its sounds as though we will be staying in the same area any info gratefully received about location of shops, restaurants etc.
