Hmmm. I'd like to get a picture with LT and Revis. That might be the best place to do it but it;s not worth chilling there all day.
Got here yesterday, did some strolling around Hollywood Studios last night and we were walking to Tower of Terror and Brandon Jacobs was leading the way for us. Later on we were at Downtown Disney and I legit bumped into Jake Locker. Pretty cool so far. Hoping to see Revis and Larry Fitzgerald today.
Just a tip for the rest of you. Disney offers a pretty cool feature in their bookings called a "pin code." Essentially, it's a discount code that is unique to you, as the person making a reservation. How do you get a pin code under your name? 1) Visit the Disneyworld site and "save" a particular vacation to review at a later date. Ex, 6 nights @ Wilderness Lodge for $3,000 2) Create custom maps 3) Request a vacation planning DVD. At the time when you "save" your vacation request, it won't necessarily reflect a pin discount. Instead, you'll have to call up Disney to see if a pin has been listed under your name. This came in quite handy for us for a booking in October, where, because of a blackout period, free-dining was not being offered. However, they were offering 40% off a deluxe resort under our pin. What this then translated into was booking a deluxe property for the same amount of money that you'd pay for a moderate. With the deluxe comes perks that you might not realize with a moderate. I wasn't even aware of such pin codes until I started reading up on them on the Disboards.com forum, but they do exist.
Got back a couple weeks ago. I miss it . We stayed at Bay Lake Tower. Place is awesome. Sucked sleeping on a pull out couch, but other than that it was great. The rooms aren't as big as in Old Key West (where we normally stay), but the view and the convenience of the monorail were well worth it. We only did four days at the park (skipped AK). Did 1.5 days at Magic Kingdom, 1.5 days at Epcot, and 1 day at Hollywood Studios. Went on the new Star Tours three times, was really cool. Went on Space Mountain for the first time since its refurb, was darker and such, but not a lot different. Still enjoyed it. Other than that, didn't really see much new at the parks. We went para-sailing at the contemporary, 650 ft up, could see everything from up there. Was such an amazing view. Like a dumb ass I left my camera on the boat, so I didn't get any pictures. I wanted to do jet skiing too, but I couldn't convince my gf to spend the money and didn't feel like going alone. Also, just a note, the Dole Whip at Magic Kingdom is awesome. Great soft serve. The pineapple ice cream is really good. Although I think I prefer the vanilla. Also, the one at the Polynesian resort wasn't as soft which was kind of disappointing. Also ate at Narcoossee's for the first time. Had a whole snapper, really good, also quite expensive. Ate at Via Napoli in Epcot, was actually pretty good. The pizza was probably the closest I've found to an authentic Italian pizza, I enjoyed it. Also did Ohana and pigged out on shrimp. I gained so much weight on the two weeks.
There's enough of us "Disney-afficianados" on the board where I think that thread will last for at least the next 5 years. My advice, don't bring a child who's too young. You're doing the right thing by waiting a few years.
Another good tip for my people. Disney Vacation Club (DVC) is Disney's timeshare group. Members can "rent" their points to civilians like you and I, where we don't have to bear the costs associated with yearly membership. There's sites you can visit for more information- one link I found had you "renting" 1 point @ $13. When I priced out the Wilderness Lodge Villas for 8 days and 7 nights, it came out to roughly $1,200 for next month. The benefit to looking at some of the DVC properties is that they tend to be larger and more suitable for families with more than 4 or 5 people, usually with separate bedrooms living rooms, kitchens etc. I'm not sure how it works in terms of the dining plan, and whether you can add it (I would hope that you could) but know that theme park tickets can always be purchased separately.
Just received a flyer from Universal... You can go an hour before opening to do the Harry Potter ride at Islands of Adventure if you stay at one of the three Universal's parks... Going to take advantage of this in December of this year.
Hey, don't ruin it... I still wanna see what the $250 million Universal put into it... Still never read the books though lol
Took my family to Walt Disney World for the first time this past June. We stayed by the Wilderness Lodge, which was pretty cool, and had plenty of Ferry Boats for quick access to the Magic Kingdom. Their Swimming pool was awesome as well, as well as the all-you-can-eat barbeque dinner.
Or, you can bring your 1 1/2 year old, and accept that you are going to ride on "It's a Small World" at least a dozen times. Considering it was 101 degrees that day, I didn't mind at all.
