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Brought to you by...
John and Donna Gross "The Full Mickey - At a Discount!" The Wall Street Journal
Terry visited WDW in June, 2005: "My family and I and another family recently stayed at the [Port Orleans] Riverside (6/14/05 to 6/22/05). We had problems getting our Magical Express tags (we finally received them 1 day before the trip). The service at the airport went flawlessly and we arrived at our hotel within an hour of getting into the airport. The grounds of the Riverside were very nice, but the bus transportation from the resort was horrendous. We had a character lunch at the castle booked and the bus was so late (1 hour and 15 minute wait) that we had to sprint through Magic Kingdom just to make it to the reservation. During our time at Disney, we had 4 waits for a bus that were an hour or more. One of these was from Blizzard Beach back to the resort and the others were all from the East bus stop going to a water park, magic kingdom and an MGM bus. The other family we were with also had these problems. The buses seem to be better at the main bus stop, but that is a major walk. The food court wasn't that great either (we actually liked the food court better at Pop Century last year). Other than these problems the vacation was fun, but the parks did seem a lot busier than they were at the same time last year and the prior year." We book our room near the South depot (the main bus stop next to the store) and we rarely wait longer than 15 minutes. An hour wait is unacceptable. |
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RJ and MJ visited Disney World in 2005 and here are some of their insights: 1. "When riding the monorail, make your request from the platform attendant to ride with the driver (max of 4 people). Once you board the monorail, they do not allow you to come up front; they only take requests from the platform. 2. We stayed at the Contemporary Resort and had a great time. We were fortunate to have a room that faced Magic Kingdom so that we could watch the fireworks from the comfort of our balcony (we only needed to join the crowds one night to realize that with the heat and time of day, the 10 p.m. showing was a bit much on site for our 8 and 10 year old children). Additionally, this resort has refrigerators in the room which came in handy for the leftovers and cold drinks. 3. We caught one of the first daily showings of the Lion King at Animal Kingdom. The guidebook said to arrive a half hour early which we did. Given the heat and humidity, this was quite a stretch, especially since the performance began 20 minutes late as the attendants continued to wait for late arrivals in order to fill the theater. The show was incredible! 4. If you are northerners like we are, you might not be familiar with the grocery chains in Florida. There are a couple of Publix stores near the entrance to Disney World which provide an abundant selection of supplies as well as reasonably priced Disney souvenirs."
Mike visited WDW in June, 2005: "Hi John, Disney World was awesome. We left on 6/24 at 3 am and rested overnight in South Carolina after 16 hrs on the road. We had breakfast in New Jersey, lunch in Virginia and dinner in South Carolina. We passed by M&T Bank Stadium and Camden Yards in Baltimore. We arrived in WDW at 1:05 on 6/25. It took about 20 hours of travel time, breaks and sleep time not included. We stayed at the All-Star Sports resort with a baseball theme. They also had basketball, football, tennis and surfing. Excellent accommodations not far from the food court (good food ). it had two pools, one at our place and two buildings over in the surfing section. We only had a short walk to the bus stop. When you stay there Disney runs a free shuttle to all parks. They run every 20 minutes. We visited Epcot, Magic Kingdom, MGM Studios, and Animal Kingdom. My favorite is Epcot. I rode on Mission Space twice and the Test Track. At the other parks I rode on the Tower of Terror, Soarin', and Space Mountain. (Dramamine came in handy ) We saw the Lights, Motors, Action! extreme stunt show from France at MGM. At Animal Kingdom we went on the Kilamanjaro Safari. We went on the Kali River Rapids. We saw the 3-d shows "It's Tough to Be a Bug!" and Mickey's Philharmagic. We took the Maharajah Jungle Trek. We took a trip to Splash Mountain. We saw Cinderella's coronation at Cinderellabration (brought in from Tokyo for the 50th). We rode on the monorail. We took the backlot tour at MGM. We saw the Indiana Jones epic stunt spectacular show. I enjoyed the eleven countries at Epcot. We had an egg roll in China and a frankfurter in Germany! The fireworks at Epcot were something to see with music and narration. It's called IllumiNations. Clever. The Magic Kingdom fireworks show was held at the Castle. Wow! Again it was nothing like I had ever seen and it began with Tinkerbell flying overhead from the Castle directly over us and beyond (on a cable). The narration and music was entertaining and fit the fireworks perfectly. And what a fireworks show it was. Earlier in the evening we saw the nightime parade of characters on floats all lit up with elaborate designs. We also saw two daytime parades on Main street USA. Even the barbershop quartet was as musical as they were funny. That is about all I can remember. I'm sure I missed something. I took plenty of pictures and video. We didn't have time for all that Disney has but we made a point to see what we wanted to this time. We want to go again but aren't sure when we'll be back. When you're there you lose track of time and the days. I was skeptical at first but was convinced the place has a certain unexplainable magic to it. Kids of all ages will agree. The weather was hot and tropical with sporadic showers. After Disney we spent a day at SeaWorld and went shopping the next day at the Florida Mall. We left for home on 7/2. I sure felt that WDW withdrawal too and look forward to returning sometime in the future. Thanks for the informative and helpful website!" Wow, Mike. My feet hurt just reading about all that you saw! You're right. There is something magical about the way Disney fills us with a childlike joy that we long for, but cannot experience, when we get back home. I think Disney puts something in the water! :) I'm glad we were able to play a part in helping you have such a wonderful vacation. Thanks for the feedback!
Misty visited WDW in May, 2005: "This past May my husband and I brought our two children, ages 4 and 6, to Disney World for the first time. I was 27 years old and it was my first time to Disney World as well. We were all so excited. I probably watched the free video 10 times just trying to plan my whole vacation. We booked our room at the Pop Century Resort, which was excellent. We didn't really feel that we needed the park hopper tickets (especially since it was our first time there), so we bought 2 adult 10 day tickets with the magic plus option for the water parks and such. We bought 2 children's 7 day tickets with the magic plus option as well. I will never forget how excited we all were as we pulled into the parking lot of our hotel. It was one of the neatest things I have ever seen. Our room was in the fifties section, and everything they had done to the outside of the hotel was wonderful. We got to the hotel before check-in, so we loaded onto the bus for Magic Kingdom. It was truly a magical day. My children were so excited to see all the Disney Characters. And I must admit that I was pretty excited too. The service at the parks was wonderful. The Fastpass was awesome. I am so used to standing in line at amusement parks, so I was surprised how little we had to wait with the fast pass. However, one of our tickets was eaten by the fastpass machine. While we were waiting for someone to come and retrieve it, they gave us a fastpass to use right then for all four of us, plus when we got our ticket back we still had a fastpass to use. We spent the entire day at Magic Kingdom and still didn't see half of what we wanted to. We spent an entire day at Animal Kingdom, which was probably my favorite park. I loved the Safari and trails. Plus, they had plenty of fun rides. We spent an entire day at Epcot, each water park, MGM, and another full day at Magic Kingdom. We went to Downtown Disney 2 nights, and it was so pretty there with all of the lights. A lot of people told us it wouldn't take us a couple of hours at Epcot with two kids. No one thought that they would enjoy it, but we ran out of time. Of course we were there when they had all of the flowers. The characters cut into the flowers and shrubbery was one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen. Next time I come I am bringing my mother (she's an avid gardener). Anyway, we did the trip around the world, which our kids loved. They had to stop at each of the Kidcot stops. We were also doing the penny presses, and we got a bunch at Epcot. The new ride Soarin' was awesome. My daughter was just tall enough for the 40" requirement for most rides. She even rode the Tower of Terror at MGM. All in all, it was the best vacation I have ever had. We can't wait to come back. It will probably be a few years before we can afford it again, but it was a trip that was well worth the money it cost." Thank you, Misty, for the great feedback!
Jim sent us some comments about his April, 2005 vacation at WDW: "Disney Dining Experience Card: I noticed some inconsistency in the use of this card. SO why do I get 2? One as a back-up? I thought so but when I went to Chef Mickey's I was told if I had both cards I could have used them for all 13 in my party. I only took one card with me that day but had both of them for the next meal at Sci-Fi. I had one Priority seating number with two tables and got 20% off for all 13 of us. At 'Ohana and 1900 Park Faire I only got the discount for 10. If you get two tables (with less than 8), sometimes you are not charged the automatic gratuity of 18-20 %. I saved over $200 on that trip. If you are an educator, check out the Disney YES Program. It is great! (The DDE is for Florida residents and AP holders. See Beth's comments about the DDE. See our book for info on Disney's Yes Program.) Disney Characters: I have never seen more characters out than this time at WDW. On the Wednesday night when MK was open 3 hours later, the characters poured out at 9:00 PM. There was no Spectromagic parade that night do I don't know if there was any connection there. American Adventure: The EPCOT Vybes and Voices of Liberty are now performing back to back for 15 minutes each before the American Adventure begins. They are as good as ever. Kevin (former Voice of Liberty) is now a Dapper Dan. He was the voice at EPCOT in the late 80's and early 90's. Every night before Illuminations you could hear his voice all around the World Showcase Promenade saying "Ladies and Gentlemen, in just 15 minutes..."
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