Originally Posted By 999HAUNTS I think it's all subjective. If you are at DL every week, WDW becomes a wonderland of a vacation.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Personally I really do love WDW. My Disney park obsession began there and despite whatever management has done to screw it up it really is an incredible place. There is simply nothing else like it on Earth. That said, Disneyland was always closer to home, so I could visit more frequently growing up and thus I have a special connection with the place. Now, with DL now a more complete resort destination, I'm pretty satisfied visiting it every 2-3 years without much desire to visit WDW. I'm long overdue for a trip, but I've outgrown my Disney park obsession a bit and frankly I'd rather spend my time and money vacationing somewhere else. I wish that WDW was adjacent to a more interesting city like the other Disney resorts. I can't think of a more uninteresting city to take a side trip to than Orlando.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Are you telling me that Orlando is a CITY and not just an airport? WHO KNEW??
Originally Posted By dennis-in-ct Has anyone seen the nets being built over the Tough to be a Bug queue? What a horrific exaggerated response <a href="http://damouse.com/2012/06/06/tree-of-life-surrounded-by-new-netting-structures-as-safety-precaution/" target="_blank">http://damouse.com/2012/06/06/...caution/</a> Looks ugly and unnecessary
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper <<Looks ugly and unnecessary>> Unfortunately they are very necessary.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones Well, there are less Disney theme park obsessives and foamers in Florida to point these things out. I've never been to Disney World and never want to go.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I also like WDW best as I think it has more to offer. But, personally I find the food at WDW to be highly over priced and highly over rated. I have to say overall I find the food to be better at DL. AND, when you consider that within a 10 minute walk from the DL castle, I can be at half a dozen restaurants out on the strip outside of DL. Not surprisingly, when I spent a week at DL I mostly ate outside the park or in Downtown Disney. Also, many of these restaurants are open for much longer hours ( some 24 hours ) out on the strip outside of DL. Where as the WDW restaurants are only open during park hours.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros DL's restaurants (not including those on Harbor Blvd or in DTD) are all quite similar. At WDW, however, there is a huge variety of options. Each park has a lot of options (Epcot's range is incredible), as well as the various hotels. And they all have unique menus. At DL, restaurants of a similar type (Mexican, burgers, etc) have the same menu in both parks; in WDW, there seemed to be some similarities, but they were largely different overall. It's one of those things that simply comes from the scale of the two resorts, and the average length of a visitor's stay. At DLR, guests are only there for a couple days, so there are enough options for different meals for about 3 days, then the cycle starts over. In WDW, guests tend to stay much longer, so they need a bigger variety of options; I think it would be pretty easy to spend 10-15 days there without repeating a meal (except breakfast, which can only have so many variations). At DL, a lot of people stay off property and can walk over, stopping at the restaurants along the way. Even if guests in WDW stay off property, they'll be driving, making it much more difficult to grab a bite along the way. Although WDW is harmed by its scale and focus on tourists in a lot of ways, I believe that the food is a place where it really benefits. It doesn't have a Napa Rose-type flagship restaurant (maybe Victoria & Albert's), but the overall slate is so much stronger than DLR's that it's just kind of laughable to me
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I point out the vast variety of chain restaurants available within a ten minute walk from the gates of DL on Harbour Blvd, many of which are open twenty-four hours a day, all of which are going to be cheaper, and better quality then the vast majority of food found on property at WDW, and you call that laughable? Try to get a bite to eat at WDW in any of the parks or resorts between 2am - 6am. All the resorts stop serving food, including room service between 10pm and midnight. The only food options available after midnight can be found in DTD. That to me is kinda pitiful when you consider the tens of thousands of guests staying at WDW on any given evening. In my home town there are a variety of restaurants that are open 24 hours a day. And more importantly than food is being able to get something cold to drink while on WDW property between midnight and 6am. Sure, the food court doors may be kept unlocked. But, my experience is that the soda machines are offline as they are being cleaned so you can't even use your WDW refillable mugs for something to drink. And, I'm not going to drink water out of the tap at a WDW resort. Furthermore, now thanks to WDW overly complicated Disney dining plan, which artifically and needlessly creates a frustrating dining experience. Where without reservations, there is often little hope of eating at a sitdown restaurant on property. Something DLR has never, ever, seen the like of. Yes, WDW has lots and lots of sitdown restaurants that thanks to the Disney dining plan, you can never get into. I'll take the chain restaurants on Harbor Blvd!
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "Try to get a bite to eat at WDW in any of the parks or resorts between 2am - 6am." Do the higher end hotels not have 24 hour room service?
Originally Posted By danyoung >Everything is fixable, even if you have to tear the ride down and build a new one.< Well, of course that's true. But is there a point where that becomes unfeasible? Just throwing numbers out there, but if Everest cost $100 mil to create, and it cost $50 mil to fix the yeti, is that feasible? >This is one thing, I know for sure, is 100% not true. He can be fixed without ripping the mountain apart.< You speak with such certainty, HS. Can you tell us the source of your info? Or more importantly, can you give any more detail about what's wrong and what needs to be done to fix him?
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Certainly when we were at Animal Kingdom Lodge, it was not possible to get anything after 11pm unless it came out of a vending machine. Even a holiday inn does better than that.
Originally Posted By HMButler79 The Resorts stop serving because they know everyone is going to get up at 6am for 7am ressies for the 600 character brkfasts they have. If it wasn't for the overload of character brkfasts there would probably be later dining,
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I'm just pointing out the obvious here. When you consider that WDW is the geographic size of Manhattan island, with tens of thousands of individuals staying in dozens of resorts, hotels, campsites, DVCs, non-Disney hotels and one Armed Forces Recreation Center, and there is no food or drink available between 2 am to 6 am not even room service, it really is pretty substandard.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom <<The Resorts stop serving because they know everyone is going to get up at 6am for 7am ressies for the 600 character brkfasts they have. If it wasn't for the overload of character brkfasts there would probably be later dining,>> I have to respectfully disagree. 24 hour room service is a pretty standard expectation at most hotels. You'd think Disney resorts would offer those services especially at the room rates charged. And whatever a resort offers at 7am doesn't make up for the lack of food and beverages available between 10pm and 6am. I'm going to have to take the non-Disney hotels out of the mix because I know for a fact you can get 24 hour room service at some, perhaps all the Downtown Disney Hotels. Harbor Blvd has a number of 24 hour restaurants at the gates of DL. They seem to be able to stay in business and maintain 24 hours of operation. Heck, even Publix in the Crossroads shopping center accross the street to Downtown Disney is open 24 hours. If only Disney resorts delivered.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Last time I stayed at the Grand Californian, they had 24 hour room service. That was a year after staying at AKL that did not.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Total non-issue as far as I'm concerned KT. Food courts open at 6 AM, so you are looking at four hours a day when you can't get something to eat on property... 2AM - 6 AM. I can't think of many times, either at home or at WDW, when I've wanted to dine during those hours. Maybe when I was in college and wanted some breakfast after the bars closed, but that would be about it. So there are 4 hours a day when you can't get soda. Big frigging deal. Drink water... it's better for you anyway! As for Holiday Inns... I've never been to one in my life that had 24-hour dining. Or a freaking Hilton for that matter. Even at the big hotels in Vegas, a 24-hour a day city, nothing other than the coffee-shop is usually open all night.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I probably should have specified. But, I was discussing "Disney resorts" in the context of WDW and not Disney resort hotels at any other Disney park. This is the WDW section after all. Hopefully, everyone here realizes I know the difference between the various Disney parks as well as resorts around the world. My point is, I find the food better at DL in California and I believe I explained why. Of course to each his own. But, when someone calls my response "laughable", and then I point out the obvious ( no food available at WDW between 2am-6am, not even 24 hour room service ). Maybe quests visiting DL in California have higher expectations versus guests at WDW whom have to lower their expectations a bit.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo I think you hit the nail on the head Tom. And most hotels I stay in with room service in Europe it is 24 hours in recognition that people may have delayed journeys or are from a different time zone. And it hasn't always been like this either. I remember my first trip to WDW in 1981, room service was 24 hours. Also I find the food in the MK to be subparagraph, but you can get good food in DL.
