Disney World And Universal Studios Orlando!

[Gail Simone]

I will be there next week, two of my favorite places to visit.

So I'm starting this thread for any tips, memories, complaints, or wishes about those two places. Anything from hotels to stay at, to weird things that happened, to food stories, whatever.

For the first time at a Disney World visit, we are staying at a non-Disney hotel, arranged by our hosts for Free Comic Book Day. It doesn't look very fancy, but it is very close, apparently, to Downtown
Disney, which can be a lot of fun at night. For the Universal part, we are staying at the much more expensive Royal Pacific hotel, which allows you to take a water taxi to the parks, and to front of the line passes
for your stay. They also have an absolutely exquisite Asian restaurant owned by Emeril Lagasse (sp?), that is one of my favorites, anywhere. Spendy, but worth it. I am not a big fan of celebrity chefs (Morimoto's
restaurant is BARELY passable), but this one brings the goods.

I have not yet seen the Harry Potter land, very excited!

Love the Spider-man ride at IoA, and the Simpsons ride at US.

At Animal Kingdom, we love EVEREST and the safari.
Typhoon Lagoon is a blast.
Favorite WDW restaurant is the African cuisine at BOMA, which is extraordinary.
I did throw up on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror the first time I rode it. OUCH.


What about you guys?

[DonC]

I just watched a Travel Channel show about unusual things people didn't know they could do at Disney World but the only thing I can remember right now is surfing lessons.

[bert]

too bad the new Fantasyland is not open yet

but if you've never tried this site, I highly recommend it!

http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/guide...om/mkindex.htm

lots of good info to dig around with. . including what's down for rehab and when
and also covers Universal!

speaking of "rehab". . here's the link to that directly:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/rehab.htm

I cannot emphasize this enough -- despite the wait, PLEASE do yourself a favor, and ride "Snow White's Scary Adventures". . it closes forever () at the end of May.

(looks like Big Thunder Mountain is down too during your visit).

hope this helps!

[Shurato2099]

They also have an absolutely exquisite Asian restaurant owned by Emeril Lagasse (sp?), that is one of my favorites, anywhere. Spendy, but worth it. I am not a big fan of celebrity chefs (Morimoto's restaurant is BARELY passable), but this one brings the goods.

Which one, just out of curiosity?

[Corrina]

I cannot love, I love the cheesy Special Effects ride at Disney Hollywood Studios.
And at Animal Kingdom, the Dinosaur ride was fun. Haven't been on Everest, it wasn't open when I went there.

Tower of Terror is my absolute favorite, though, since it's never the same ride twice. Sounds like that's out, tho.

Haven't been to Universal, yet, dammit.

[The Funketeer]

We were just there over Spring Break for our daugher's 6th birthday. We surprised her with a day trip while we were in Vero visiting my dad. We've been there a bunch of times though and this was, I think, her 5th visit.

While Fantasyland is under construction, most of it is still open. The only ride the might be closed is Dumbo but it was opened for test runs while we were there. Mickey's Toontown is gone however. They've got a wall covering up all the construction but you can see some of it peeking over the top and I'm guessing that if you ride Astro Orbiter or the People Mover you'll get an even better look.

The Magic Kingdom has a cool little card game you can play each day where you battle villains through portals hidden throughout the park. It's geared more towards kids but it's pretty fun to watch a few times at least. Mostly, it seems like it's designed to keep people out of lines for the rides during peak hours. Stop by the fire station on your way in each day to get your free set of cards and a lesson on how to play if you need one.

For veterans of the parks who don't mind a behind the scenes look at how things work, I always recommend one of the behind the scenes tours. They're different every time depending what rides are being worked on but the last time I went on one, we got to go beneath the America ride at Epcot, in the holiday warehouse where they store all the Christmas decorations, and in the utilidor that runs under the Magic Kingdom. It ruins a little bit of the magic but it's still fun to see how some of that stuff works.

The new Star Tours is open at Hollywood Studios and if you haven't done Toy Story Midway Mania yet, it's worth a wait in line (not 2 hours though, get a fast pass). Also at Hollywood Studios, my favorite restaurant, The Sci-Fi Drive-In.

[Erica J Heflin]

I'm always peddling La Nouba. I love Cirque shows and this one is entertaining. Get there a bit early because the clowns warm up routine is pretty darned funny. They periodically rotate a few of the acts in the show, so there's usually something new every six months or so. A guy who is currently doing the aerial acrobat routine looks like Nightwing, if he had tattoos.

Most of my advice goes toward traveling through Disney with very little kids. They've got great spaces dedicated to infants and toddlers, with rocking chairs, microwaves, little eating places with highchairs and Disney movies running throughout the day. They're great places to go for the kids snacks and to let them cool off if the weather is hot. My kids like the little rides, but also the short shows. The Country Bears act is indoors, air conditioned, and never very busy. It's short enough to keep little people amused by the talking animals, too. Pirates of the Carribean has an early part that is scary for kids who are afraid of the dark, but gets through to the fun parts fast. Its a small world always wins, no matter how much the parents hate it.

I usually stay at AK when I'm not doing day trips. In a couple weeks we're doing my son's birthday there and staying at the AK lodges. The area has a zero entry pool which is great for little folks. I do pay extra for the rooms with animal views, too. It's as much for me as it is for the kids and I love looking out the window to see the giraffes quietly roaming or the gazelles grazing.

I spend the least amount of time at Hollywood Studios with the small kids. Dining options aren't great, and there's little that is oriented toward really younger kids, but I love the FX acts.

I love Boma, and always rec getting reservations. I also like House of Blues at DT Disney. They just changed their menu and their chef makes some incredible fresh fish. If it has a wait time it's usually reasonable.

I shop at Hoypoloi - it's off one of the side streets on the La Nouba side of DT Disney. They've always got an eclectic art collection in their small space. I'm a fan of unusually artwork so it's always a stop. I like to hit the lego shop, too, less to buy and more to look at the lego structures outsides. DT Disney is pretty lively with the street performers and crowd from Pleasure Island.

[KJ!]

Funnily enough, my mother and sister are at Disneyworld right now!

First time overseas for both, trip of a lifetime. They live in a small country town, and consider a town of 100k people to be the big smoke, so America has been a huge surprise for them.

I've been worrying myself sick over them, but so far, so good. They're loving it. They wish I was with them, but several factors make that impossible (primarily that I've still got this damn pneumonia, and the other being that I wouldn't be able to bring a sufficient supply of my painkillers with me. They're all prescribed and legal, but there's some weirdness with how they're treated once I'm out of the country.)

They've promised to bring me back some Muppet Star Wars figurines, sounds great to me!

[bert]

While Fantasyland is under construction, most of it is still open. The only ride the might be closed is Dumbo but it was opened for test runs while we were there. Mickey's Toontown is gone however. They've got a wall covering up all the construction but you can see some of it peeking over the top and I'm guessing that if you ride Astro Orbiter or the People Mover you'll get an even better look.

I understand a big chunk of "old Fantasy land" is just walled off now (tho the dark rides (Snow White, Peter Pan, Winnie the Poo, etc) are still running. . but orignal Dumbo is now walled off).

But PARTS of new Fantasyland are operating - in particular, 1/2 of the new Dumbo area (eventually will have two spinners. . so doubling Dumbo's capacity). And they just re-opened the rethemed Goofy coaster (used to be called the Barnstormer).

but most of the new Fantastyland -- all the Princess Castles -- won't be open until later 2012


I 2nd your suggestion for Behind the Scenes. We've never done it. .but next time we go (next year hopefully), we're gonna do that for SURE.

I've heard a lot about the card "game". . . mainly from my online Theme Park Site I hang out at (Themeparkreview.com) hehe. . PLUG! Sounds like it could be a NIGHTMARE if the park is crowded on a particular day (and once everyone is taken off "easy" mode - which they currently have it set to in order to expedite folks thru the "stations").

but might be cool. . won't know until I've done it myself

[AndrewCrossett]

I was last at Disney World/Epcot about 25 years ago. I thought Epcot was the greatest thing ever, but I doubt it would seem the same today. All that high-tech stuff seemed amazing back then, but now it's gotten commonplace.

The national pavilions are probably still cool, though. Last time I was there Canada was the best place to eat, but Germany was the best place to drink. I wonder if China still has that 360-degree film.