Disneyland/Disney World thread

[TummieGaruda]

Suicide at the Disneyland parking structure yesterday

https://snbc13.com/disneyland-suicid...VN0Wtej6MfFWLY

Reports are that he was a principal and was facing misdemeanor counts of child endangerment and battery and wrote a suicide note on his fb page. Real sad stuff...

[Anoat]

It’s kind of morbid to think about but many, many people come to Disney properties to kill themselves. Most do it in their hotel rooms so we don’t hear about it like this. But it happens more than you’d think.

[Anoat]

Just got new AP magnets in the mail. I swear Disney knows when you are thinking about planning a new trip cause they send you free stuff or offer some crazy deal at the right time.

[Anoat]

Cameras and phones have been banned on Space Mountain. I’m guessing too many cases of people losing them/flying off and striking someone

[Anoat]

Trying to plan a trip in January or February and it’s like dodging a minefield. Marathon weekend, Splash Mountain closing, Skyliner down for refurbishment, cheerleading competitions, Brazilian tour groups aaaaaahhhhh

Good news is looks like festival of the arts will be going on whatever days I pick anyway

[Astylla]

Trying to plan a trip in January or February and it’s like dodging a minefield. Marathon weekend, Splash Mountain closing, Skyliner down for refurbishment, cheerleading competitions, Brazilian tour groups aaaaaahhhhh

Good news is looks like festival of the arts will be going on whatever days I pick anyway

So where do you usually stay ?
If you're not looking into last minute DVC deals you're missing out. Deluxe resorts get late extra hours ( if they're still doing that) and especially for festival season can be good to stay at an Epcot resort for that reason.

But yeah it's like throwing a dart at the wall with cheer and dance season and yhe your groups back lol. For what it's worth festival of the arts is my favorite WDW festival now.
Trying to make it to flower and garden.

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[Astylla]

Some major changes are coming to DLR and WDW. WDW as usual gets the better perks lol but also given they have more parks I get it.
Still excited about park hopping returning to 11am is so much better especially as festival season comes !

Disney World updates:

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/bl...o-your-visits/

Disneyland updates:

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/bl...ibextid=Zxz2cZ

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[Ksandra]

Going on my Disney Cruise in two weeks! Super excited. Also, finally within the window for my July vacation to plan out which DVC resorts we were going to stay out. THAT was a nightmare. I wanted to stay at all of them. We're going for two weeks, and I ended up picking:

Kidani (Savannah View)
Riviera (Home Resort)
Boardwalk (Boardwalk View)
Floridian (Theme Park View)

All 1 bedroom but the Floridian (studio). I wanted that one or the Contemporary with themepark views, but those ones were mostly booked up. Floridian is at the end, though, so I figure I can precook anything at the Boardwalk one as needed.

Chose Kidani for the view and as a wow factor for the kids since this is the first time they are going to WDW.

Picked Boardwalk to honor my father. When we used to go as kids, we had a timeshare (nondisney), and when that boardwalk was built, y'all my father had us doing a tour there like every year. He wanted sooo badly to have the DVC there, and tried every year to convince my mom to get it. Rightly so, she never did let him (he at one point got a heart attack and was forced to retire early, and the timeshare we had was wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy cheaper than Disney. It didn't make financial sense.)

And obviously had to stay at Riviera since that's where we purchased.


Next step will be trying to plan out the schedule and the ticket madness since I can't just purchase them all at once (going for two weeks, and they expire after 7 days of usage.) Part of the reason we're going for so long is because I remember how exhausting it was as kids trying to shove in everything during a week. I want this first time where we literally try everything and then in future years the kids can tell me what they want to see. My husband, rightly so, also is not a fan of exhausting trips, so I gotta space it out so we have relaxing days. Going to make sure to shove in some waterpark days because I MISS THEM SO FUCKING MUCH. Probably more than the theme parks rofl. And obviously resort pool days.

For those who live and/or go there a lot, how are some of the outside stuff? My mom tells me a lot of really gotten rundown now, but not sure if that's nostalgia kicking in or if she's telling the truth. Some places I remember are:

-The dinner shows: I see that the Arabian Nights one no longer exists. Which ones are still running and are good (outside of Medieval Times and the Pirate one, as we have those here in CA.)? Or do they all suck. Reminder: This is a tourist good/bad question. lol
-Old Town: Mom says there's a lot of fights there now, is that more than before, or is it really bad and we should avoid?
-Downtown Disney: I heard they shut this down? Did they replace it with something?


What else do you recommend that I've probably forgotten and/or didn't exist when I've been that's worth seeing? (I haven't been in over ten years.)

[Melena]

I highly recommend Bay Lake Tower Lake view. I got that last year, and I was towards the edge of the lake, so I also had a perfect view of tomorrowland and the castle from my balcony. Was nice to sit on the patio and drink while watching halloween screams fireworks show.

[Ksandra]

I highly recommend Bay Lake Tower Lake view. I got that last year, and I was towards the edge of the lake, so I also had a perfect view of tomorrowland and the castle from my balcony. Was nice to sit on the patio and drink while watching halloween screams fireworks show.

Yeah, sadly Contemporary didn't fit into our schedule. I plan on our next trip trying to put that in and the wilderness lodge one. Too many to try, but a lot were booked already.

Edit: It was actually harder to get any studio rooms than it was the 1 bedrooms. I wanted some studio days to save on points a bit.

[Astylla]

I'll try to address all this later Ksandra but really quick, Downtown Disney is now called Disney Springs in Florida..and it's MASSIVE.

Some great food options though , shopping district, AMC theater , etc.

AKL is my new favorite resort and while I love savanna rooms when I get a deal, I've been staying standard view including a 1 bedroom last night and I am spoiled and cheaper on points. There are SO MANY animal viewing areas and the internal shuttle between Jambo and Kidani it's nice if points to burn but don't get too obsessed with it either

I wills ay Boardwalk is going into refurb soon and it NEEDS it , the DVC side is just really lacking given other spots.

Speaking of Riviera , just checked in myself, love this resort !

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[Anoat]

Regarding stuff outside the Disney bubble, Old Town is very much the “we have Disney at home!” for the locals. It’s cheap, rundown, and sketchy as all fuck. I couldn’t imagine going there instead of Disney unless you literally couldn’t afford to go to Disney. Which you can, so don’t. The ICON park in downtown Orlando has some restaurants, an aquarium, a wax museum, and a few rides like the Orlando Eye (gigantic Ferris wheel, can see most of metro Orlando from it), it’s also unfortunately the place where that one teenager died in the accident a few months ago that you might remember. Those rides have all been shut down while investigations are ongoing.

You’ve also got Sea World which is definitely worth a one day trip, and the Universal parks. Lego Land, Busch Gardens, Kennedy Space Center are all about an hours drive from Orlando if you rent a car.

Otherwise you got your kitschy tourist stuff like mini golf, Ripley’s, medieval times, and all those side of the road stores that are like “Disney shirts 5 for $10!!!” Btw those are all bootlegs

If you want real Disney merch for cheap you can go to the character outlet store in the mall, shit there is ridiculously marked down because it’s stuff Disney didn’t sell in the last “season” so it won’t be the latest merch but it will be official merch that is cheap.

[Anoat]

Man for all the things Galaxy’s Edge got wrong one of the things they definitely got right was the audio ambience. When you hear the sound of a TIE Fighter screaming by you actually stop to look up and expect to see one flying by.

[Ksandra]

Thanks for the tips everyone!

Guess I’ll avoid Old Town. I May have us do a day at Bush Gardens, not sure. We have Universal, Legoland, and Sea World in CA, so I’ll probably skip those this time around.


Oh and I’m definitely going to the bootleg shops just for nostalgia purposes. You have no idea how many of those t-shirts anoat mentioned I had growing up…oh and shell necklaces rofl.

[Anoat]

Just keep in mind every sea world is different and that universal in Florida has two whole ass other parks. Islands of Adventure and Volcano Bay (this one is a water park)

[Ksandra]

Yeah I get that, but we’re limited on time so I got to prioritize.

[Astylla]

Yeah I get that, but we’re limited on time so I got to prioritize.

Universal in Orlando is NOTHING like Hollywood, Hollywood is trash compared lol. Seriously I was treated to Universal in 2019 by my bf for the first time and I loooooved it.
I'm a huge Harry Potter fan too and it was so awesome. Definitely worth it if it fits in.

Dinner shows - Have you ever done Hoop de doo revue at Fort Wilderness ?? If not you must go !

Definitely go the actual Disney outlet as mentioned above, I need to make a time to visit myself as there are amazing finds there.
If I lived local I'd be a personal shopper there.

How much time will you have ?
What are things you really think are important ?

Skip Old Town for sure , agreed, just don't do it. Instead spend a day in Disney Springs ,
T Rex Cafe may be fun for your kids and hear it's better than Rainforest Cafe.

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[synistar]

Universal Island Adventures usually hangs around the top-10 in the worldwide Best Amusement Park rankings.

[Ksandra]

I have my family to consider. My kids are still young and aren’t going to want to go on 80% of the rides at Universal. They’re scaredy cats about big rides still. I appreciate the suggestions for sure, but yeah, Universal won’t be on the list until the next trip. It would be a waste of time/money for us. Remember, we are DVC owners. This won’t be the last time we go to Orlando. So if we skip it now, doesn’t mean we’ll never go.


I’ll definitely look into the fort wilderness show. I want to do some dinner theater as my sister lives in FL and I can’t stand her husband. My plan is to have us go to a medieval times-style show so I won’t have to look at/talk with him much. It looks like a lot of the ones I’ve remembered have shut down though.

We’re there for 14 days. I plan on doing 6 Disney days, 3-4 Waterpark days. 1 Downtown Disney day, which leaves 4-5 days of relaxing/extra stuff.

[Melena]

Hoop De Doo will for sure handle that theatre show itch, and you'll come out stuffed as it's all you can eat.

When you go to Disney Springs, check out Giddeon's cookies. It's a small shop and usually has a line to get in cause the food is that good, but the inside of the shop is super trippy, kind of a Harry Potter meets the Occult vibe.

Check out Trader Sams Grotto at the Poly. They do have non alcoholic drinks and some food there, and the kids will love all the excitement when people order drinks and servers bring them out. I do recommend though getting there early as it's a small area and seating does fill up.