jvmacross Posted February 16 Author Posted February 16 Looks like Splah Mountain's replacement is coming this summer at WDW... https://www.wdwmagic.com/attractions/tianas-bayou-adventure/news/13feb2024-disney-announces-opening-for-tianas-bayou-adventure-at-walt-disney-world-and-a-first-look-at-new-animatronics.htm May head to DL instead....haven't been there in over a decade... Quote
TangledThorns Posted February 16 Posted February 16 1 hour ago, jvmacross said: Looks like Splah Mountain's replacement is coming this summer at WDW... https://www.wdwmagic.com/attractions/tianas-bayou-adventure/news/13feb2024-disney-announces-opening-for-tianas-bayou-adventure-at-walt-disney-world-and-a-first-look-at-new-animatronics.htm May head to DL instead....haven't been there in over a decade... I recall they were planning on that during my family's trip to WDW back in 2022 and my son LOVED Splash Mountain too. Probably one of the easier renovations they ever did since it remains a southern themed ride. Quote
Dynaman Posted February 16 Posted February 16 1 hour ago, TangledThorns said: I recall they were planning on that during my family's trip to WDW back in 2022 and my son LOVED Splash Mountain too. Probably one of the easier renovations they ever did since it remains a southern themed ride. It might be easy but not due to the theme. They had to rip out and replace all the foliage and a large chunk of the animatronics (though from rumors the animatronics are mostly just gone). The mechanical part of the ride is identical so they didn't spend anything on that. Over at Mickey Views on youtube (young guy but he does a heck of a good job) I saw the new Tianna animatronic and that one is very impressive - so we are losing a bunch but at least one of the new ones is well done. Quote
jvmacross Posted April 2 Author Posted April 2 (edited) https://wdwnt.com/2024/04/breaking-tianas-bayou-adventure-attraction-poster-and-more-critter-characters-revealed/ https://wdwnt.com/2024/03/first-look-at-new-tianas-bayou-adventure-critter-characters-and-more-story-revealed/ Edited April 2 by jvmacross Quote
jvmacross Posted April 9 Author Posted April 9 First world problems.... https://screenrant.com/star-wars-disney-theme-parks-galaxys-edge-batuu-continuity-explained/ Quote
Dynaman Posted April 10 Posted April 10 4 hours ago, jvmacross said: First world problems.... https://screenrant.com/star-wars-disney-theme-parks-galaxys-edge-batuu-continuity-explained/ It's screenrant - meaningless stuff like this is what they exist for. More interesting is Disney is actually starting to make good on that promise to invest in the parks. Work on Dinoland (well replacing it) at Animal Kingdom, an update to Test Track at EPCOT, and a large new section around Big Thunder Mountain at MK. OK, the last one has not been officially announced yet but should be soon. Quote
jvmacross Posted April 10 Author Posted April 10 Looks like they have updated Star Tours again...this time it included Disney + content..... Quote
TangledThorns Posted April 10 Posted April 10 Awesome. Looking forward to this when we go to Disneyland this August! Quote
jvmacross Posted June 2 Author Posted June 2 Seems like Disney has lost it's laughing place..... The ride mechanics are clearly unchanged....the re-theme just seems sort of dull... Quote
Dynaman Posted July 4 Posted July 4 Lightning Lane finally getting a plan ahead option. Depending on price I may start using it. The old version where I had to get up at 7 to sign up was a drag. Even worse was having to take the first open time slot. Once again though, price will determine if it is a ripoff (ok, from one sense charging for something that was free is an automatic ripoff) Quote
jvmacross Posted July 4 Author Posted July 4 Yeah...read about this...glad it's coming back....IMO....not being able to pick 3 rides as you could before the whole Covid mess started was worse than park reservations....especially coming from out of state.... Now we'll be able plan much better....still....nothing beats the old days when you could just show up and more or less get to enjoy everything you wanted out of the park with hardly any advanced planning....those days are never coming back.... Quote
jvmacross Posted July 24 Author Posted July 24 Just went through the new Disney lighting lane multi/single pass process for WDW and I was very impressed....I had a bad feeling that Disney was going to mess up on its first day of roll-out...but it actually went very smoothly.... Not only was I able to get everything I needed...but I also was able to get everything I wanted....initial ride picks for each park and park hops are all setup with the times I needed to coincide with my lunch and dinner reservations.... I had already mentally prepared myself to get up each day of my visit to pick all my rides using Genie+ and then had a feeling of dread when they announced that Genie+ would get lauched today just a few days before our trip is to start...luckily I already knew what parks and rides I was going to go for...so getting all that done ahead of my trip was an unexpected bonus!... With that said....Still need to snag our virtual queues for the few rides that are still available....not going for those free virtual queues, under the current pay to play system, is like leaving 100's of dollars on the table....at least that is how I see it....luckily they are fairly easy to snag...at least they were the last few times we have been at WDW.... Quote
Dynaman Posted July 27 Posted July 27 I did a test of the new Lightning Lane buy ahead option. Very nice, I just picked a Friday 3 days out, waited till mid day (not 7am) and found three open rides (Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Haunted House) starting at 5, 6, and 7. Perfect! It was easy to swap the times around too. If that keeps up it will be well worth it. Quote
Dynaman Posted August 12 Posted August 12 Disney is finally announcing a lot of new work to be done at the parks. I just hope they actually come through this time. Quote
TangledThorns Posted August 12 Posted August 12 (edited) We'll be at Disneyland (CA) next week. Recommendations for parks, rides and food?? On a good side note my wife received free park tickets through her office. However this was after I bought $500 worth of Disney gift cards for $50 off, lol. We'll use the gift cards for souvenirs & food and will save whatever funds are left on the gift cards for a future trip to Disney World in 2026. Edited August 12 by TangledThorns Quote
jvmacross Posted August 12 Author Posted August 12 15 hours ago, Dynaman said: Disney is finally announcing a lot of new work to be done at the parks. I just hope they actually come through this time. The one thing that was interesting was the idea of bringing Indiana Jones to...Animal Kingdom? With the dismantling of Dinoland....maybe they will just convert Dinosaur to the Indiana Jones ride from Disneyland....if so, and with apparently a new "Cars Land" coming to the Magic Kingdom....yet more reasons not to make the trip to Disneyland....ugh...I still want to make it out there during their Haunted Mansion Holiday though....which will probably never get brought over to Florida...lol Quote
jvmacross Posted August 12 Author Posted August 12 (edited) 4 hours ago, TangledThorns said: We'll be at Disneyland (CA) next week. Recommendations for parks, rides and food?? On a good side note my wife received free park tickets through her office. However this was after I bought $500 worth of Disney gift cards for $50 off, lol. We'll use the gift cards for souvenirs & food and will save whatever funds are left on the gift cards for a future trip to Disney World in 2026. I can burn through $500 via some pay to play rides or a couple of table restaurants at WDW.....not sure how far $500 goes at Disneyland....you'll get to experience the Haunted Mansion Holiday since Disney seems to kick off Halloween earlier each year! I would definitely hit all the Disneyland specific rides and attractions first....and definitely all of California Adventure since it is specific to the West Coast Disney park...as for food...the only "in park" restaurant I have always liked at Disneyland is the Blue Bayou....specifically their Monte Cristo during lunch...didn't care much for the Downtown Disney restaurants...but I am sure much has changed since I was last there....either way there will be no way not to enjoy your visit...just stay healthy before your trip starts! Edited August 12 by jvmacross Quote
TangledThorns Posted August 12 Posted August 12 I should have mentioned our visit to Disneyland is only for 1 day too. Quote
jvmacross Posted August 12 Author Posted August 12 8 minutes ago, TangledThorns said: I should have mentioned our visit to Disneyland is only for 1 day too. Ok...then definitely stick to Disneyland and pack in everything specific to CA vs FL.... Holiday Haunted Mansion Matterhorn Space Mountain (ok...only the music during the ride is different but imo much better than MK) Indiana Jones Temple of Forbidden Eye Mr. Toad's Wild Ride Snow White's Scary Adventures The rest are more or less the same as the FL rides..... Of course, this is just IMO....it can be argued that the entirety of California Adventure is unique and not available in FL....but personally if you only have one day....it's gotta be spent at the original Disneyland park! Quote
jvmacross Posted August 12 Author Posted August 12 I was able to ride the new Tiana's Bayou Adventure re-theme during my recent trip to WDW.... Splash Mountain imo was better...but that is probably my nostalgia for it having a greater sway on my opinion... The Bayou Adventure is fun, colorful and the music is great...but it just seems to be lacking that villian-danger factor that Splash Mountain had....they could have easily included Dr. Facilier and his signature song as you are about to go down the drop....the ride itself is the same...so still good fun Quote
jvmacross Posted August 12 Author Posted August 12 On 7/27/2024 at 6:12 PM, Dynaman said: I did a test of the new Lightning Lane buy ahead option. Very nice, I just picked a Friday 3 days out, waited till mid day (not 7am) and found three open rides (Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Haunted House) starting at 5, 6, and 7. Perfect! It was easy to swap the times around too. If that keeps up it will be well worth it. I assume you are staying off property? That is good that you were stil able to find open times.....I wonder what the availability would have been for park opening time though.... When I was there during week of July 28....most early morning slots were gone unless you had planned ahead for them, which we did....maybe Disney is purposely allocating a certain amount of fastpass times for folks that cannot book 7 days out (non-resort guests)? I hope so because otherwise paying for the app is pointless and a waste of money... Those late time slots you selected were available throughout the day up until maybe 1pm or so each day....then only really late slots were available in the app...of course, with kids heading back to school it should open up availability for all rides across WDW..... Quote
Big s Posted August 12 Posted August 12 6 hours ago, TangledThorns said: I should have mentioned our visit to Disneyland is only for 1 day too. If you happen to still be in the nearby area for breakfast, there an amazing place called Huckleberry’s on the walk area by the house of blues not too far from Disneyland. I highly recommend stopping in for breakfast. A lot of the food has a bit of a Cajun twist and they have a specialty brand of hot sauce. Not to mention that once you’ve been ripped off by Disney food prices, this place is an insane value. Was just there last summer to check out Emperor at the House of Blueswe weren’t expecting the plates to be so overstuffed and had a side order of their amazing beignets. The kids got different sets of chicken’n waffles and I had this Cajun style eggs Benedict thinking the food portions wouldn’t be too large. I was definitely wrong. I get the feeling you could turn any plate into a share meal. Definitely the best breakfast I’ve ever had in Anaheim, the city of brown Quote
Dynaman Posted August 12 Posted August 12 6 hours ago, jvmacross said: The one thing that was interesting was the idea of bringing Indiana Jones to...Animal Kingdom? With the dismantling of Dinoland....maybe they will just convert Dinosaur to the Indiana Jones ride from Disneyland....if so, and with apparently a new "Cars Land" coming to the Magic Kingdom....yet more reasons not to make the trip to Disneyland....ugh...I still want to make it out there during their Haunted Mansion Holiday though....which will probably never get brought over to Florida...lol I have only been to Disneyland once, luckily it was in December. Disneyland does a MUCH better job of holiday theming than Disney World does. Even the Small World attraction was fun with the Holiday decorations. Also all through the DL park the decorating for the Holiday is much better then Magic Kingdom. The DW hotels near Epcot do a nice job decorating though! Indiana Jones is going to use the old Dinosaur ride, it will be rethemed. I don't know if any kind of update to the ride itself will be done. Disney is also no longer interested in sticking to theming at the park - it also about stuff as much IP into each park as possible. I'm not all upset about that but I wish it were done with a teeny tiny bit more thought. Quote
TangledThorns Posted August 23 Posted August 23 We went to Disneyland last Monday thinking it would be a slower day there and ughhhhhh was I wrong. Took us 90 minutes just to get into the park because of slow paid parking and security lines. WTF! Lines for the rides were long and in 8 or 9 hours we only got on 6 rides. WDW is better managed it seems. On a side note we also visited Legoland in Carlsbad. We were quite bored from it with the unimaginative rides and lack of live characters. Not recommended. That being said it would have been cooler to integrate certain franchises, namely Star Wars and Harry Potter, with the experience. Overall I think the experience has turned my kids off from amusement parks ☹️ Quote
jvmacross Posted August 23 Author Posted August 23 14 minutes ago, TangledThorns said: We went to Disneyland last Monday thinking it would be a slower day there and ughhhhhh was I wrong. Took us 90 minutes just to get into the park because of slow paid parking and security lines. WTF! Lines for the rides were long and in 8 or 9 hours we only got on 6 rides. WDW is better managed it seems. On a side note we also visited Legoland in Carlsbad. We were quite bored from it with the unimaginative rides and lack of live characters. Not recommended. That being said it would have been cooler to integrate certain franchises, namely Star Wars and Harry Potter, with the experience. Overall I think the experience has turned my kids off from amusement parks ☹️ Sorry to hear that....the problem with DL is that it's a local amusement park with national/international demand.... So what rides did you actually end up riding? Quote
TangledThorns Posted August 23 Posted August 23 Just now, jvmacross said: Sorry to hear that....the problem with DL is that it's a local amusement park with national/international demand.... So what rides did you actually end up riding? I miscounted, it was actually 8 rides below however the last 2 was boring af so I completely forgot about them, lol. Star Tours Indiana Jones Thunder Mountain Haunted Mansion Grizzly River Run Buzz Lightyear Riverboat Jungle Cruise Quote
jenius Posted August 23 Posted August 23 LegoLand is great when your kids are too little for most amusement parks, like 2-6 years old. They can still get some mileage out of it 6-9. I rode the Matterhorn for the first time in 20 years. My daughter is 9 and she was at the park before I arrived and had ridden with her cousins. I said I wanted to go and she said "okay, but it's kinda scary" and seemed a little reluctant. We went on and I totally understood why with the Yeti yelling and chasing you. I had forgotten just how bumpy the ride is... One time was enough. Celebrated my anniversary at club 33. Wonderful experience. Quote
jvmacross Posted August 23 Author Posted August 23 6 minutes ago, TangledThorns said: I miscounted, it was actually 8 rides below however the last 2 was boring af so I completely forgot about them, lol. Star Tours Indiana Jones Thunder Mountain Haunted Mansion Grizzly River Run Buzz Lightyear Riverboat Jungle Cruise Welll....at least you rode them! Looks like The Riverboat is being dismantled at WDW to make room for new attraction....I won't miss it but it's good to at least ride it once....as for Jungle Cruise...it's all about the corny jokes...you either love it or think it's lame....more people than not consider it a classic so it's most likely not going to disappear anytime soon....for me...the "skipper" you get makes or breaks the ride.... The Haunted Mansion Holiday make over is unique to DL...so I hope you enjoyed it....the rest are replicated at WDW....mostly at Magic Kingdom Quote
Dynaman Posted August 24 Posted August 24 On 8/22/2024 at 8:34 PM, TangledThorns said: We went to Disneyland last Monday thinking it would be a slower day there and ughhhhhh was I wrong. Took us 90 minutes just to get into the park because of slow paid parking and security lines. WTF! Lines for the rides were long and in 8 or 9 hours we only got on 6 rides. WDW is better managed it seems. WDW can be just as bad - with the added problem of the monorail or boat trip from the parking lot to the park entrance. If at all busy I suggest taking the ferry over, the wait for the monorail can be pretty bad while the wait for the ferry is usually just till the next one arrives (and when it is busy they have at least two running). Quote
jvmacross Posted August 24 Author Posted August 24 One of the best things about staying at one of the three resorts on the monorail track is not having to deal with the driving to MK or Epcot....you can also easily walk to MK if staying at the Contemporay Resort... Quote
Dynaman Posted August 24 Posted August 24 40 minutes ago, jvmacross said: One of the best things about staying at one of the three resorts on the monorail track is not having to deal with the driving to MK or Epcot....you can also easily walk to MK if staying at the Contemporay Resort... The resorts also have resort only boats. I took the one from the campground and it was a nice trip. The Grand Floridian now has a walkway to MK as well. A longer trip then Contemporary but still possible. You could also walk to Polynesian from there but they may still have part of it blocked off for construction going on at Poly. Quote
jvmacross Posted August 24 Author Posted August 24 10 minutes ago, Dynaman said: The resorts also have resort only boats. I took the one from the campground and it was a nice trip. The Grand Floridian now has a walkway to MK as well. A longer trip then Contemporary but still possible. You could also walk to Polynesian from there but they may still have part of it blocked off for construction going on at Poly. Yep....still blocked during construction otherwise we would have walked during our last trip....the cool thing about these monorail resorts is that it makes it much easier to make the rope drops for MK and Epcot....haven't tested the Skyliner for early entry to HS and Epcot....but with a car it is not a problem....MK is always the biggest hassle when having to park... Quote
Big s Posted August 24 Posted August 24 On 8/22/2024 at 5:34 PM, TangledThorns said: We went to Disneyland last Monday thinking it would be a slower day there and ughhhhhh was I wrong. Took us 90 minutes just to get into the park because of slow paid parking and security lines. WTF! Lines for the rides were long and in 8 or 9 hours we only got on 6 rides. WDW is better managed it seems. On a side note we also visited Legoland in Carlsbad. We were quite bored from it with the unimaginative rides and lack of live characters. Not recommended. That being said it would have been cooler to integrate certain franchises, namely Star Wars and Harry Potter, with the experience. Overall I think the experience has turned my kids off from amusement parks ☹️ D land is honestly horrible in the summer. It’s hot and extremely aggravating. Fall is usually better, but I’d say just to go to magic mountain instead. The rides are way more fun. Also if you have a D+ subscription, make sure not to get injured or sick at D land parks or affiliated restaurants, seems there’s a clause even in one month subscriptions that limit your legal actions against them in case something goes wrong Quote
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