First trip to Disney World — Page 2

I like the design of Animal Kingdom. It's beautiful. I just can't see a full day there at all. Then again, I was much bigger on Animal Kingdom before they decided to dumb down all the conservation messaging to make it easier to swallow. I saw the original safari ride with both of the animatronic elephants and wish they didn't tone it down. The big raft ride that's supposed to be about deforestation now has a trashed forest on top with very little messaging to suggest why you're looking at a logging camp. The Yeti coaster rarely works right. I do enjoy the Dinosaur dark ride and the cat and mouse coaster in that part of the park.

You guys are right about Disney's Hollywood Studios. There's not a lot left there. The rides are good but there aren't many.

I go to Disney each year from the UK. I would certainly recommend that you buy the 'hopper' type ticket before you go. This is not available in the states. I think with it being ur first time I would go to all Disney parks, a must. Aspects of 'Magic Kingdom' do tend to focus more on the younger visitor, however we are all young at heart.

Try to look up and book online places that you fancy going for dinner. In the states they do appear to prefer to go early and it can get very very busy. You will walk walk and more walk, so think of ur footwear. It is a great idea to try and get to the parks when they open first thing, they are so so so much quieter. U can do the whole park by midday if you are lucky.

To say time queuing opt for the 'single rider' option, as you may get 2 or 3 rides for the time it takes you to wait in the standard line. I disagree with others, I luv 'fantastic' the night show at the movie park. You are on this forum, so u must love a good musical - 'finding nemo' at Animal Kingdom is worth the visit there alone.

I know lots of people are against Seaworld, however I do luv it. The shows with those sea creatures could bring a tear to a glass eye. Enjoy ur holiday ad roll on September for my return to the good US of A x

" For a bar there is Parliament House"

yeah ,but it's a 20-30 min from disney depending on I-4 TRAFFIC .

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I think this book will help you a lot.
http://www.amazon.com/Queens-Kingdom-Ultimate-Lesbian-Disney/dp/B001G8WE9U

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The California Pooh ride is a super-lame attempt at a traditional dark ride. It's just sort of shoehorned in the old Country Bear theaters and feels short and cheap. Magic Kingdom's is lovely, and the new exterior queue is quite fun. Tokyo's is on a whole different level, that ride is one of the most incredible things you will ever ride. The bouncing sequence alone is insane. I think I rode it 7 times in 4 days. THAT is a new-age dark ride, it's insane that there hasn't been development into bringing a ride with that technology to either of the stateside parks. (Tokyo has TWO trackless rides, Hong Kong has one, Paris is getting one this summer when Ratatouille opens).

Anyway, back to Orlando recommendations, I would say the Napoleon cake at the Boulangerie in EPCOT's France pavilion is the best food item for sale in the state of Florida. It's incredible. Also, when you go to Islands of Adventure, buy your butterbeer from the Hog's Head pub. The lines are always short, it's indoors and air-conditioned and if you tip the bartender, some "magic" happens. Have fun!

Wow, GuyfromGermany -- talk about a blast from the past!

Sorry to threadjack, but are you still in touch with our other, former, German residents YessicaB and Franklin_Shepard?

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Pli, thanks for that--I didn't realize the DL Pooh was so much worse than WDW's (which I haven't been on.) Hong Kong's new Mystic Manor or whatever looks awesome (too bad the park seems pretty underwhelming as a whole, especially with Shanghai coming in and Tokyo close by...)

Do you guys think one day for each Universal park is enough?

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The only time I've ever used Universal Express was when I visited during a holiday week. It's a pretty pricey add-on. I would only purchase it if you walk into the park and see that the times boards all have very long waits. Without it, I've had no issues navigating both parks in two days. Universal Studios Florida isn't quite there yet as a theme park and will take you less than a day (you'll just miss the new Diagon Alley expansion) while Islands of Adventure handles crowds really well.

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey will likely have the longest wait time in Islands of Adventure, but it is a continuously-loading ride that moves really fast. Going through the queue is also half of the ride experience. Plus, if I'm not mistaken, you can't use Universal Express on Potter.

We stayed at the Royal Pacific hotel at Universal, which is the cheapest of the three hotels there. Your room key lets you skip the lines on everything except the Harry Potter ride. (They are adding a budget hotel, but they won't be offering the line skipping perk.) Two of us were splitting the room cost, so it was fairly reasonable. We stayed two night and the had a three day admission and the passed worked on all three days.

That was more than enough time to see everything. The lines we skipped weren't even particularly long but we were there during non-school vacation time. What I loved about the parks was they are sort of like the anti-Disney. Or maybe like Disney's snotty younger brother. There was a level of wise-assery I really appreciated.

I so want to go back when the new Potter land opens.

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I, too, stayed at the Royal Pacific (and the Hard Rock once). It was a great way to bypass the major lines. Plus, I was really cracked out, so it was nice to just tumble back to the room.

Have I said too much? There's nothing more I can think of to say to you.

I can confirm your suspicions. I nearly crawled off that ride.

Brian, thank God DL kept Mr Toad (and their version is better, IMHO since they redid all their Fantasyland dark rides in the 1983 Tony Baxter led Fantasyland renovation, whereas the WDW versions are from the early 70s--although before it was stupidly torn down two years back, Snow White was already changed at WDW about ten years back to try to make it a bit less scary... sheesh, I thought that was the point :P )

Here's the ride video of Pooh in Tokyo Disneyland (that sounds attractive.) Hard to tell of course from these videos, but you can see the trackless system they use http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU88Bw_ivT8 They also use more sophisticated fully animatronic figures much more than DL (not sure about WDW.) And for another trackless ride, here's Hong Kong Disney's Mystic Manor which is kinda their version of the Haunted Mansion (except completely different.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwM2d4Wug4A