Originally Posted By hopemax I just got home from 12 days in Central Florida. Not all days, involved trips to WDW, and 3 of them were for Epcot Pin Event activities, so even though I was at WDW, I didn't do much. Now that I visit twice per year, I don't do full days, so I don't do many things per park. So I don't have that many observations. It's been said before, but the parks are still very crowded. And like it is also said, people aren't buying. I was at the MK on the 24th. In mid afternoon, the Pirates queue filled most of the outside queue, but moved quickly. There was a LINE waiting to walk through the Treehouse, but the line at Aloha Isle was only 1-2 person deep. We watched the Stitch show, that day, major kudos to the performers for an energy filled show with that sun beating down on them. Thankfully, we were in the shade right in front of the control tower. But I could live without seeing the show again. I have to shake my head at how much money must have been spent in demolition, construction, design, etc. that could have been used for something great. I don't understand how people can know what the FL weather is like and think that is a good idea. Earlier in the day, we rode Carousel of Progress. The theater was almost completely full, and a really neat thing happened. Whenever the song would play (which is my ringtone, BTW) the crowd clapped and sang along. And it wasn't just one or two people who started it, and a few more would join in. It was loud clapping, spontaneously starting in multiple places in the theater. It was wonderful to see so many people enjoying the show. A similar thing happened over at the Country Bears. The CM did say the theater was known for its singing bears and its air conditioning, which got a good chuckle. But when certain songs would play, and certain bears would appear there was a very positive reaction from the full theater. I got a sense that people came for the AC but maybe forgot how nice the show was, or was enjoying it for the first time. Tried to see Luxo Jr at the Studios, but the one day I was over there, we had to leave by 1:00. I waited through a couple opportunities, but only managed to see a WDI person punching stuff into his computer and another guy coming out the window to work on some stuff. Also would have liked to have ridden Toy Story Mania again, but I've been spoiled since the previous 2 trips there were only half hour lines and a walk up to the FP machines. This time it was an hour line and almost as much of a line to get to the FP machine at 9:15. There are many new pressed coins around property, as all the "Happiest Celebration on Earth" coins have been replaced. Unfortunately, there were also several missing machines. And broken ones. My Mom has got to know the people that maintain the machines, and through her we learned that they CAN come out for same day repair, but most of the time no one bothers to call them. So if you see a broken machine for more than one day it's likely because someone is either too lazy to do anything about it, or doesn't know who they can contact to get them fixed. In our search for new corners to find in WDW, I had seen someone mention that they enjoyed Gasparilla Grill over at the Grand Floridian. I didn't even know that there WAS a quick service location at the GF, so I made it a quest to go over there. My parents doubted that it existed, since the amount of times he had been to the GF he never say a sign. And when you leave the main building to head for it, I couldn't see a sign either. They kept asking me if I was going the right way, so I backtracked to see if there was a sign. Someone asked where I was going and when I said Gasparilla's she pointed in the direction I thought it was, and reinforced that you had to walk around the building, but eventually you would get there. When we did get there, we found a nice little cove, with some outside tables. Someone just posted about quiet spots at WDW, and this is my nomination. I don't know what it is like at breakfast, but I think it would be a great place to sit with a coffee. We were there, late afternoon and it was pretty empty. I got a roast beef sandwich that was very tasty, and it came with a choice of coleslaw or cucumber salad. I got the cucumber salad, and it was really good. My Mom said it rivaled a friend's salad and that they would really enjoy the place. Another nomination for quiet spot would be one of the slider benches on Caribbean Cay at the Caribbean Beach resort. The updated pool area looks like a lot of fun. I think sometime I might like to stay at the resort, I just wish it was a little smaller. I also had an opportunity to eat at Seasons for the first time. I missed the salmon from Tusker House, and they have a similar salmon at one of the stations here. The garlic mashed potatoes had excellent flavor, and the carrots were slightly soft and slightly firm, just the way I like them. I sampled the Asian food choices off a friend's place. Didn't care much for the beef entree, but the chicken entree and Udon noodles were both tasty. On Sunday, I did have an opportunity to visit Hall of Presidents since one of our friends is a DVC member and they were doing previews. They did a really nice job with the update. We talked after, and we all felt it was a little weird to have both American Adventure and HOP cover a lot of the same material, "History of America" type stuff. The new show does a great job of shifting HOP to more about the history of the Presidency specifically. I thought the show had great flow, and Morgan Freeman does a great job. I spent some time trying to do things that I hadn't done in awhile...Electric Light Parade...and there were lots of people watching from the beach at the Polynesian...Festival of the Lion King...although I miss the fourth singer. The parks and resorts seemed to have a lot of maintenance activity going on, and most areas looked fresh and clean, but I did see several overflowing trash cans; especially near food service locations. More custodial/janitorial please! That's all that I remember for now, but will post more if something pops back into my head.
Originally Posted By MPierce Thanks for the review. It sounds like you had a real nice time. What is the deal with Luxo Jr? I thought they were suppose to have a show every 15 mins.
Originally Posted By hopemax I went on June 23rd, and he made his first appearance on the 22nd I think. So he was still in "soft opening" stage, I think. But yes, he is supposed to come out every quarter of an hour.
Originally Posted By MPierce To bad you missed it. Maybe you'll be able to catch both his daytime, and nighttime show on your next trip.
