sachilles
DVC coming to this space soon
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2013
- Messages
- 2,541
This isn't really a trip report. It's more of a report of some of the more recently debated issues from this section and what I noticed in the parks.
DHS
Kylo Ren was in the meet and Greet area with Chewy. Kylo Ren pulls off the creepy vibe, my son could barely look at him.
Went to bid farewell to Lights, Motors, Action. Sad to see it go, but understand why it needs to.
Got a couple pictures of Catastrophe Canyon, click on the thumbnails for bigger version. Still a bit of work tearing it down. They were actively working on it.
Star Tours. Seemed to have 2 new Jakku scenes, or more correctly, it's the same scene with a very minor difference. We rode it 4 times, and it was 50/50. I thought it was a nice addition.
The star wars fireworks were pretty cool. Watched them by the ice cream dinosaur, which wasn't crowded and offered a nice view.
Jedi Training signup moved to the Indiana Jones gift shop. We were there at park opening, on a 2 rated day, and ended up with a 4pm time slot.
Animal Kingdom.
The new painted dogs on Safari are pretty active in the morning, and were nice to see.
Nothing really new on Avatar that I could notice.
Rivers of Light. It looks really close. The control building on the EE side of the bridge, they were doing the accent painting to give it the aged look. Seating looked complete...and I probably owe a couple people a beer as the back benches are indeed clear underneath.
Looks like railing are the next step in the process.
Magic Kingdom. They were painting the castle, with one crane. They were painting a lot of railings in several spots. Lots of damn painters. Not sure if I was watching it more because of the lay offs or what, but they really were wet paint signs(and painters) everywhere.
Lines were pretty short, but found that all over WDW, if there was more than one load area, it was likely shut down. Noticed it on Big Thunder, space mountain, Pirates and Star Tours.
Also noticed a little more care in loading Pirates. In addition to using the number of people in the party, I could see them dividing up the size of folks. I'm guessing to help with water intrusion in the boats.
Metal detectors. Appeared to only screen those in the bag check lines. Wife was checked twice in the same day, first at DHS then at the international gateway at Epcot.
Epcot
We got some heavy rain on the morning that we hit Epcot. I was surprised how well future world soaked up the people. As much as we think it needs work, it does quite well in the rain scenarios, as there is a lot of cover. We had no problem getting on to rides and occupying our time until the rain passed.
Flower and Garden Kiosks are out.
Norway is well under construction.
China also had scaffolding up around the main building that houses the Terra Cotta figures.
Stayed at All Star Movies. I wasn't really impressed. Seemed everyone there was smoking. My son liked it, which is all that matters to me though. We only stayed one night.
Saratoga was our home for 3 nights. My first visit there, and really liked it. We had the best darn bus luck we've ever had on this trip. Only once did we miss a bus leaving a park. Only once, did we not magically hit the correct park bus on the first bus at the stop.
3.5 days really isn't enough time. We missed a fair amount of stuff. We booked the trip last minute, and as a result, our fast pass choices really didn't work for us. We maybe used 2 fast passes the whole trip. Lines were short enough that we got away with it.
DHS
Kylo Ren was in the meet and Greet area with Chewy. Kylo Ren pulls off the creepy vibe, my son could barely look at him.
Went to bid farewell to Lights, Motors, Action. Sad to see it go, but understand why it needs to.
Got a couple pictures of Catastrophe Canyon, click on the thumbnails for bigger version. Still a bit of work tearing it down. They were actively working on it.
Star Tours. Seemed to have 2 new Jakku scenes, or more correctly, it's the same scene with a very minor difference. We rode it 4 times, and it was 50/50. I thought it was a nice addition.
The star wars fireworks were pretty cool. Watched them by the ice cream dinosaur, which wasn't crowded and offered a nice view.
Jedi Training signup moved to the Indiana Jones gift shop. We were there at park opening, on a 2 rated day, and ended up with a 4pm time slot.
Animal Kingdom.
The new painted dogs on Safari are pretty active in the morning, and were nice to see.
Nothing really new on Avatar that I could notice.
Rivers of Light. It looks really close. The control building on the EE side of the bridge, they were doing the accent painting to give it the aged look. Seating looked complete...and I probably owe a couple people a beer as the back benches are indeed clear underneath.
Looks like railing are the next step in the process.
Magic Kingdom. They were painting the castle, with one crane. They were painting a lot of railings in several spots. Lots of damn painters. Not sure if I was watching it more because of the lay offs or what, but they really were wet paint signs(and painters) everywhere.
Lines were pretty short, but found that all over WDW, if there was more than one load area, it was likely shut down. Noticed it on Big Thunder, space mountain, Pirates and Star Tours.
Also noticed a little more care in loading Pirates. In addition to using the number of people in the party, I could see them dividing up the size of folks. I'm guessing to help with water intrusion in the boats.
Metal detectors. Appeared to only screen those in the bag check lines. Wife was checked twice in the same day, first at DHS then at the international gateway at Epcot.
Epcot
We got some heavy rain on the morning that we hit Epcot. I was surprised how well future world soaked up the people. As much as we think it needs work, it does quite well in the rain scenarios, as there is a lot of cover. We had no problem getting on to rides and occupying our time until the rain passed.
Flower and Garden Kiosks are out.
Norway is well under construction.
China also had scaffolding up around the main building that houses the Terra Cotta figures.
Stayed at All Star Movies. I wasn't really impressed. Seemed everyone there was smoking. My son liked it, which is all that matters to me though. We only stayed one night.
Saratoga was our home for 3 nights. My first visit there, and really liked it. We had the best darn bus luck we've ever had on this trip. Only once did we miss a bus leaving a park. Only once, did we not magically hit the correct park bus on the first bus at the stop.
3.5 days really isn't enough time. We missed a fair amount of stuff. We booked the trip last minute, and as a result, our fast pass choices really didn't work for us. We maybe used 2 fast passes the whole trip. Lines were short enough that we got away with it.
I don't care about such matters, though. Takes just a few extra seconds. We stayed at VWL and construction is full apace. Starts about 8, ends about 4:30-4:45, and didn't include weekend days. Whole south wing being refurbed to DVC and scaffolding encapsulates the entire side facing the main pool. Roofing being replaced on Villas (at least part of it), and the same area was having balconies repainted, though come to think of it, the actual balcony railing appeared to be different than the old ones. Hmmm. Piping being laid for the building going up on the beach, and all the topiaries at the Lodge are gone.
