disneyfan1313

Amen! It is especially sad when you know some of the additions that were planned for the chain .. ( remind me to tell you in october if you are interested!)

Just as a side note - it is not official of course until the company announces it which they have not and probably will not for a very long time (if ever!). I would imagine there is still LOTS of negotiation going on much of which is going to be determined by the success of HKDL.

General upkeep. The park in general seems to keep getting dirtier. They aren't taking as good care of it as they used to. Even the trash cans are overflowing, where before they would not. There are a number of attractions in desperate need of a refurb. And I have to question the decision to build a giant playground on a key plot of land when it's been over a decade since the park got a major attraction. I personally feel recent expansion is just a little much for something that's supposed to be as unique as the Disney experience. It's true that it's been 50 years since the first Disney park open, but that's hardly relevant considering how many of the parks have been built in the last 15 years alone. Of course, we'll never know what actions Walt would have taken once WDW was completed. He may have made it into a rapidly spreading chain himself. Hmm.. I disagree with you here. The parks are no more dirtier now than when I started going to WDW in the late 80's. If anything upkeep is more consistent and timely than it was 10 years ago and things are planned and cycled so nothing gets too out of date. Yes a playground was built on the former 20k site - the que of the former 20k site! The entire back area is still there and undeveloped waiting for a future expansion. The playground takes up a very small area and is needed.

We will be there! Can't wait!!

meh. It's a very well made fan-film but most of the locations are kind of bland (and I'm a FL native who loves FL!) or obscure (Bok Tower gardens while great is not something that is known very well!). I applaud the effort but I think the next version of Soarin' would probably be a generic "World" or "America" to get big locations.

Yae! Stacey and I will be there also! ps...there are going to be some pretty cool enhancements to Mickey's not-so-scary this year also ..so make sure you go as well!

The discounts are designed to do two things. 1) Sell tickets on nights which NEVER sell out. (i.e weekday or sunday nights). The only HHN days which usually sell out are weekends and whatever day Halloween is on. Weekday nights will usually only see 20 min lines for houses as opposed to 2 hour ones. The discounts are designed to draw locals who even though they might have to work the next day will spend a few hours. 2) Give a good idea of attendance more in advance. With most of the discounts (fl res and advance savings if they are offering one) you have to purchase the tickets in advance - this allows better planning of staffing rather than paying tons of overtime that night when you realize it is busier than you thought.

Thanks for the great pics of HKDL Robb. (esp. the ones of the ticket booths.. ) I was surprised to see so many other people in your photos - were there a lot of people just hanging around and looking?

Wow! I'm loving this report - such an adventure! The skyway looks AMAZING..and the rest of the park.. meh! I've read a few articles where Ocean Park is going to try to clean up and boost their rep to compete with HKDL .. perhaps it will be a better place a few years from now. The train to HKDL officially opens on Aug 1st but will have soft openings before that. They should have all the gardens open near the entrance and down near the marina (mebee). When you are there try and picture the esplanade at DL with a future area for a second gate and a downtown disney area - it is set up remarkably like that already! It is ready to be expanded quickly!

Best. Trip Report. Ever. Seriously .. you need to not go to any parks this trip and just spend the rest of your time in the various hotel rooms and interacting with locals. LMAO all day...

You can see my comments earlier in the thread also.. It was installed in 1996 at 1 or 2 tunrstiles per park and then expanded to all turnstiles around 98.

IT IS NOT YOUR FINGERPRINT!!! Trust me! I am 100000000% sure of this! If you do not want to you can show a photo ID each time to match with your name and such but it is generally only used for people who are missing hands, etc.

Well..heat can be the problem.. but it is actually on the human end. Heat causes some folks hands to swell up quite a bit which will flag them as not having the correct biometrics.

Just a couple of notes... It is on all passes including one-days. The reason why it is done on one days also is to prevent pass-backs of tickets. (i.e. tour group leader buys large group of tickets, collects them back up once group A gets in the park.. waits 3 hours and then uses same tickets to let group B in) Second.. It is not a fingerprint! It is a measurement of the distance between 2 fingers and a few points on the outside of your fingers. It is an APPROXIMATE measurement that will flag if there is a large difference between people but not for example identical twins with a similar body type. Third..the data is really not specific to you (see above approximation) but even the data that is stored is not connected in ANY WAY to any personal information. The only way it is tied together is by the transaction. IMHO - I love data mining.. why? I want places I shop to know what I want just like I want my TiVO to send the data on the shows I watch to the networks..hopefully that means more products I like on the store shelves. There are some good reasons to be paranoid...but Ticket Tag (which has been in use since 1996 but apparently just entered the public mindset) is not one of them.

Hmm. I'm kinda surprised by this - I'm not sure there is enough demand in Orlando for another water park. Wet and Wild and Water Mania seem to offer more and more discounts even during the summer and Cypress Gardens will open one soon also. We shall see though!

I think it was screamscape which mentioned that it was going to use the Posidens Fury building which would lead me to believe it will be just in IOA but I also imagine they would want to include mummy and fear factor to help increase attendance. All I know is I can't wait for October!

Yae Japan.. How I miss yee! How did you guys get the baseball tickets? We were thinking of doing it when we were there but had heard it was difficult. How much did they cost?

We did pizza hut one day in Paris just because it was the only place we could find open. It was darn good.. better than any pizza hut I have ever had in the US!

This is not a Disney sponsored event. WDW and DL are open to everyone on any day. Just as the company would not tell you or warn you there are large groups of tpr.com folks in the park they would not in this case either. ... plus...seriously.. its 2005 folks... not the 1800's

CAVE is already in use at WDI to visualize projects and theme parks. You can also see a primitive application of the basic concepts of it at Pirates of the Caribbean at Disney Quest.

I respectfully disagree 100% In todays day and age with all the information available to you on the net there is no reason to go to a travel agency and pay inflated prices/commission unless you are traveling somewhere very exotic. The internet is great because you can compare what is available, look at pictures and read reviews - not just get stuck with some motel on us192 that the the travel agent happens to get a kick back from but is pretty crappy. I have always booked all my travel online (from traveling 100 miles to going to Japan and Europe to cruises all over) and I have *never* had a problem at all. I work in the hospitality industry and see many more problems with people who book through travel agents than when they do it themselves. Good luck either way... i'm sure you will have a fabulous time.

Hey! Quite a bit has changed in 6 years so you will have a great time. Doing a first solo vacation can be fun, yet scary so it is great to plan ahead as much as possible. What is the time frame that you are looking to go in? I usually price all my airfare through Orbitz and Travelocity and then I book directly through the airlines website - it's usually a little cheaper that way. If you are staying on Disney property (can do it for as low as 70bucks a nite) then book directly through Disney. Otherwise I would look at hotels off property that offer transportation to WDW. Tickets I would buy directly at disney.com. Where are you flying out of? I'm assuming Syracuse or Rochester? Orlando is great because there is so much competition but unfortunately since you are flying from a smaller airport it might be a bit expensive. Honestly? The cheapest you can get! Just make sure you are there early enough - the airports really are not that bad! I would recommend staying at a Disney Resort if you are only doing WDW and you can afford it. That way you have complementary transportation for you and your baggage through Disney's Magical Express directly to your resort and then you would be able to use resort transportation while you are there. It might end up saving you money considering shuttles are about 20 bucks each way and many resorts in the area charge for their disney shuttles as well. Price it out and see what works best for you! A taxi from the airport to a Disney area hotel will run you 40 bucks or more depending on where you are going. See what works for you! If you think that you are going to be able to spend 70ish a night staying at a Disney Resort would be your best bet (see above). Otherwise it really depends on when you would be here on what would be the best value for you. Don't forget Animal Kingdom and possibly the water parks..etc. How long will your vacation be for? Check out www.disneyworld.com for all the ticket options. The longer you stay the cheaper the tickets become so that is a thing to consider. Hope that helps!

I have the screen blacking out problem as well. It does that on my PC.. I unfortunately can not get it to work on my Mac even though it is supposed to.. But it is still early in the beta so I am not worried about it at all.

It is fun! It's a lot better now that it is public beta.. there are actually people walking around! I think the part that I am most excited about is the interactive portion with the theme parks (i.e. you visit certain locations in the parks to get codes to get special items in game..) kinda a cool twist! I spent way to much time tonight trying to find all of the hidden mickeys... Ugh. I'm Aurora in the game.. if anyone sees me - say "Hi"!

yep.. It is from 11-2am.. Just one addition - you need a room key for each member of your party that will be participating in the event.