Originally Posted By SJHYM My wife and I went out to EPCOT today for our 25th wedding anniversary. A couple of observations from our day. 1) EPCOT seemed semi crowded for a Thursday in early October. Lots of families with children too. Doesn't anyone go to school anymore? We were surprised that Spaceship Earth was a walk on at 9:30. Thats because everyone is at... 2) Soarin (which I really like) has changed the guest patterns in the park and has made The Land THE place to be. We got into the park at 9:30 and went right to Soarin. 30 min standby. 11:20 FP return. But the place was packed. I cant remember the last time I saw The Land full. At 11:30 the standby line was 60 mins. Listen to the Land was at a 45 mins Standby. Even the Circle of Life movie was pretty full. When we left The Land we walked right onto Imagination. 3) Mission:Space had a 20 min standby and Test Track was at 40 mins. We skipped Space but did single rider for Test Track. 4) The Food and Wine Festival. Lots of booths. We stopped at 3 along the way but honestly some of the prices as compared to their portions was outragous. $3-$4 for something that has 2-3 forkfulls of food? The Australian Wine Walk-thru was $7 to do. Several years ago Mondavi had the same thing for free. We skipped it. 4) Kudos to Sam Adams. Always an interesting class on beer and FREE samples of their best beers including a very nice one created for the 10th anniversary of the Food and Wine Festival. 5) EPCOT has always been my favorite park, but today some of the energy that used to be there seems to be missing. I cant put my finger on it yet but some things caught my eye: very generic merchandise in the Disney shops, I was surprised how several of the WS shops have large areas taken over with the Kid Stops or nothing. Kind of takes away from the great window shopping of World Showcase. Just seems to be a homogenization of the park. More to come on this as I sort it out. 6) The Akershus Restaurant is doing the Princess lunch and the place was PACKED. And I mean PACKED. We had to manuever our way around the crowds to head into the shops. Maelstrom had a 5 min standby wait. 7) I was shocked at the number of Disney meal plan people we ran into. Every location we ate at we heard many people presenting their cards. The restaurants were booked for dinner but most had tables for lunch. Interestingly Guest Services at the front of the park had a sign outside that showed dining availability and had only 2 restaurants listed at full, though we had asked at almost everyone and were told that they were booked for dinner. 8) Mexico can use a sponsor. The Rio Del Tiempo (River of Time) is stuck in the 70's. It doesnt need a full makeover but a couple of new films would do wonders. 9)We had intended to eat lunch at one of the WS countries but we had a big breakfast and after a couple of samplings at the Food and Wine we ended up having lunch at the Fish and Chips place because its my wife's favorite. 10) Boy has the Disney workforce gotten older. Everyone was friendly but when we first started going to Disney (we honeymooned there) everyone was young and bright eyes. I would say a good 60% of the CM's we encountered were in their 60's. 11) My new pet peeve. It amazed me that Disney can charge $8 to park your car, offer 2 parking attendants and NO trams. What a rip off.
Originally Posted By basas <<11) My new pet peeve. It amazed me that Disney can charge $8 to park your car, offer 2 parking attendants and NO trams. What a rip off.>> Does Epcot not run trams all the time? I've always been able to take the tram. Thanks for the mini-report. What'd you think of the new "Land"?
Originally Posted By SJHYM EPCOT will not begin to run trams till they begin parking the backlots. Today that meant around lunchtime and then only one. Sorry but $8 to park at Disney is ridiculous (same for the other theme parks). Their land, their property, their parks...what a rip off if you think about it. Its not like parking in the middle of the city for an event. Highway robbery in my opinion.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 <4) The Food and Wine Festival. Lots of booths. We stopped at 3 along the way but honestly some of the prices as compared to their portions was outragous. $3-$4 for something that has 2-3 forkfulls of food?< seriously - this doesn't seem bad to me -- the taste of Chicago - a huge 10 day food affair held in Millenium Park downtown -- 10 years ago the prices were at $3- $4 for samplers ( you actually buy tickets at $1 each and you use tickets) -- this year most items were in the $7 - $10 range - now for $8 you get a rib sampler - 3 bones ! A piece of Eli's cheesecake - a very small sliver -$7 -- etc... The $3-$4 may to a lot -- but it seems in line for this type of event --
Originally Posted By vbdad55 <Sorry but $8 to park at Disney is ridiculous (same for the other theme parks). Their land, their property, their parks...what a rip off if you think about it. Its not like parking in the middle of the city for an event. Highway robbery in my opinion.< agree but don't forget people staying on the grounds = fee parking -- they are going t make that revenue up somewhere. As for $8 parking in the middle of a city for an event...............hahahahahhaa hahahahah OK--in Orlando you are probably right. downtown Chicago $24 for the first 30 minutes - $28- $30 all day -- and New York higher now the last time I was there.... the reason I had to laugh is when my daughter was home from college , her boyfriend who is from Oklahoma City told her if he couldn't find a place to park for $5 or less -- they wouldn't park downtwon here..... After 2 trips here now, he understands Oklahoma City is not the 'big city' -- he has sticker shock all the time
Originally Posted By vbdad55 SJHYM -- it sounds like you and the misses had a great time....that is excellent. btw -- two more weeks until those freebie meal plans are over I understand and then maybe back to normalcy p.s be nice to those 60 something CM's -- in the not too distant future that may be me
Originally Posted By SJHYM The 60 somethings we met were very nice, in fact every CM we met today was friendly. If you think about if for a second, Disney and other theme parks have a racket. THe only reason to park at the EPCOT lot is to go to EPCOT. If EPCOT wasnt there the lot would be useless. So they charge $60 to get in the park and then $8 for the priveledge of leaving your car in THEIR lot to go to THEIR park. Its just one of those things I find strange that they do it and we pay it. It especially struck me today because the lot only had 2 CM's and no trams. We did have a nice day. But I must be getting old. I was beat by mid afternoon and in the end I think I would have rather gone to the beach (if it weren't raining) than gone to EPCOT. Funny thing...we went to the Sam Adams beer tasting at 12:30. Small group of people there but half of them were AP holders who had been there several times already since the Food and Wine Festival began. They knew the Sam Adams hostess by name. LOL
Originally Posted By basas <<EPCOT will not begin to run trams till they begin parking the backlots. Today that meant around lunchtime and then only one. Sorry but $8 to park at Disney is ridiculous (same for the other theme parks). Their land, their property, their parks...what a rip off if you think about it. Its not like parking in the middle of the city for an event. Highway robbery in my opinion.>> Interesting...never knew that. Any other parks have similar operations? I know when i parked in the top-right corner (forget the name) of MK's parking lot, we were directed to the VERY end and had to walk...it honestly felt like a mile walk.
Originally Posted By LuvDatDisney Well, you could always park at the Beach Club and valet for $6 (which comes in handy at the end of the night or when it rains) or park at the Boardwalk for free, both of which I'm known to do. Although with an AP, I get free parking anyway.
Originally Posted By MrToadWildRider Again Happy 25 I have 2 questions - 1) I thought Akershus got rid of the character dining? If not how is their menu compared to say 2004? (If you knew what it was like then ) and 2) Is it possible to park at say the Poly in the morning or Contemporary and take the monorail? Or even some other park very early and take the bus? I think we used to park at the Poly when I was a kid but I think that may have been for the T&TC but I'm not sure. Basically is there a way to avoid the parking costs by utilizing the Disney transportation system (This is if you're staying off Disney property question - we have a timeshare) Anyway thanks for the update!
Originally Posted By LadyandtheTramp ^^I believe you can park at the Marketplace, then take the bus to one of the hotels, then to each particular park.
Originally Posted By LadyandtheTramp "Sorry but $8 to park at Disney is ridiculous (same for the other theme parks). Their land, their property, their parks...what a rip off if you think about it. Its not like parking in the middle of the city for an event. Highway robbery in my opinion." I go both ways on this one (though it really doesn't impact since we have APs). On the one hand, it does cost something to maintain the lots, have CMs there to direct traffic, provide tram service, etc., so the money to provide this has to be obtained somewhere. If you don't get it from the customers, then you have to obtain it from somewhere else, which in this case would mean higher park admissions. So at least the cost is being allocated/directed specifically to those using the service. On the other hand, geeze, I agree completely with you - the sole reason you're parking in that lot is to go to the park, so you'd think they'd want to encourage you to come by not charging an arm and a leg to rest your car. On the other hand (that's three for those of you counting), also every event you go to throughout the country charges for parking - think costs to park at baseball or football games, everyone has a fee (other than Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2006, whose owner just announced that parking will be free next year).
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA <If you think about if for a second, Disney and other theme parks have a racket. THe only reason to park at the EPCOT lot is to go to EPCOT. If EPCOT wasnt there the lot would be useless. So they charge $60 to get in the park and then $8 for the priveledge of leaving your car in THEIR lot to go to THEIR park. Its just one of those things I find strange that they do it and we pay it. It especially struck me today because the lot only had 2 CM's and no trams.> Man, do I agree with that sentiment, SJHYM. Same with Disneyland. What other options do you have to park? Enjoyed 'listening' to your 'something's missing' sentences regardking EPCOT. I'm intrigued to hear more from you, as EPCOT Center was my favorite park in Walt Disney World too. And having worked at WDW from 1986-1990, I definitely felt that same 'lack of something' when visiting in 2001. It didn't have the same level of energy and excitement as it did in 1986. Man that's almost 20 years ago -- I must be getting old too. *sob!*
Originally Posted By lesmisfan i went with a friend and its to bad we had very little money. i really didnt buy any samples. i was just going to see what i would like to taste and looked and the prices so i could save up some money and come back before it ends. Although my friend and i did sample a couple different wines we both liked. My favorite wine we tried, and we only tried two that day, so i should say my favorite one thus far is the plum wine we sampled in japan. Very very good. And to buy it only costs about ten dollars, so i might buy one bottle and have my friend keep in in here apartment since she lives in the tyep of apartment in the college program were she is allowed to have alcohol and i even though i am 21 i live in a wellness meaning, no alcohol at all. so i cant keep that wine i like in my apartment. then we tasted a wine that we kind of both liked at the greek booth over by canada and i can't remember the first name of it, but its a sweet red wine. Can't wait to go back and try some of the other wines and food.
Originally Posted By LesmisBro Man that sounds like it was a lot of fun. i wish i was old enough and i wish i were there. i especially wish i was there with my older brother lesmisfan. Hey bro wats up?????? well yeah. it sounds like everyone's having fun out at epcot.
