our recent oct. 23-30 trip

[aalan]

my wife and i had a great time during our last minute trip. a few observations:

-we stayed at the caribbean beach, and there are refrigerators in every room now.
long overdue, if you ask me. room was in decent shape, our maid came late in the
afternoon, which was not the most convenient. one day we were skipped, and had
to call housekeeping, who took care of the room while we went to dinner.

-the lagoon for 20000 leagues is completely walled up. i could peek a bit through a
crack, and the lagoon is gone, filled with dirt/sand. 20k was a slow loader, but a
great ride.

-wow, the 20 oz drinks really did go down in price from $2.50 to $2.00. bravo,
disney. (however, in the hotels and downtown disney, they were still $2.50.)

-the wall was down around the new stitch ride, and a cm was at the entrance
mainly to spread the company line: stitch officially opens nov 13 (i think). i
begged, pleaded, joked, and got no where with several different cm's trying to
find out about any early sneak previews. oh well.

-saturday evening the 23rd, it was packed at the mk. we waited over half an hour
for our food at the columbia harbour house: they couldnt get the food out fast
enough. as usual, almost all of the counter service workers/cashiers seemed
bored, or they had the "disney stare."

-how disney management works: while at the animal kingdom, the gorillas on the
walking trail were put into their pens, because a bird had wandered into the habitat. i'm sure disney wanted the bird out of there before anything ugly happened
to it. so picture this: there were five, count 'em, five management types with their radios and walkie talkies watching ONE person trying to catch the bird. priceless.

-we tried the not so scary halloween party and thought it was good, but overpriced
at $34 a pop. still, there were NO lines for anything, rode several things twice, and
got some decent candy. the special fireworks were good. the parade was, well, a
disney parade is a disney parade. overall, its a fun atmosphere and great to be able
to walk around the kingdom at night. despite the fact that it seemed like every 20
feet or so we'd run into the carts with all the lite-up stuff on them.

-i know october weather is sometimes iffy, but we had perfect weather: 85 degree days and 65 degree nights. light to moderate crowds, most of whom seemed to be from england. we think its a great time of the year to go.

- so despite a few minor complaints, overall it was a great trip. happy to answer any
questions.

 

[laceemouse]

Thanks for the report. it sounds like you had a good time. Some people have gotten to try Stitch, sorry you were not so lucky. Oh well, catch it next time.

 

[Muushka]

so picture this: there were five, count 'em, five management types with their radios and walkie talkies watching ONE person trying to catch the bird. priceless.

Funny, I didn't think this happened in the private sector!

 

[Dznefreek]

I was at IOA one day when JPRA was closed due to some Herons that had landed in the waterway for the ride and were bathing. They waited for them to leave before reopening the ride.