Originally Posted By A Happy Haunt ^^^El pirata...was open in June.. We also saw a lot of Streetmousphere back in June..the characature guy was out, the BarberShop quartet..the Victorian Ladies..Shiela Shufflefoot was handing out her cards by Town Hall.. Although, we did the extra hours nite at Epcot & had a hard time finding a place to eat after 10pm!! we ended up in France..the fruit tarts were great but, I would have liked a MEAL..
Originally Posted By magnet Tom, are you staying in the Best Western that has that awful blasted parrot in the lobby?
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom Yes magnet that would be the one, LOL. I could do a trip report just on the Hotel. A buddy that is vacationing with KJ and myself currently works for Hyatt Hotels and has worked for Marriott, Sheraton, etc. He says he thinks our hotel is OK, not really up to par with Best Westerns standards. The internet service is here is awful. I swear all the rooms are sharing a single DSL connection. We literally are picking up 18 wireless connections, and they are all faster than ours. We are even picking up the Sheraton Vistana Villages where my sister and her family are staying. And that has got to be over a mile away. I think I already mentioned that the reason why we ended up with this hotel is because we got a very good deal and because we knew my sister was staying at the Sheraton Vistana Villages. My sister and her husband said after only 12 hours they would never stay at the Sheraton Vistana again. The property is a timeshare property and apparently the agents have been using hard sell tactics. My sister and her husband are not intrested in buying a timeshare.
Originally Posted By magnet Yep, I know this hotel and I too have a lot of stories about it. There's a desk immediately to the right of the elevators where some folks are always trying to get you to come look at something (timeshares, I think). They want you to spend several hours touring these properties, yada, yada, yada. They're right by the elevators and they try to draw you in on your way up to the rooms. The hotel pulls this nasty prank on you when you sign in. They give you this slip that entitles you to a "free gift" and you're supposed to go over to this table I just mentioned to collect it. Well, what you don't know is that when you go over there these people are going to chew your ear off about timeshares before giving you the dang bag that has something like a tiny tube of toothpaste and a stick of chewing gum in it. I told these folks about four times I wasn't going to tour anything before they capitulated and gave me the free gift. I'm pretty sure the saleswoman was dumping all the good stuff out of the bag while she was talking to me. Right at the end she finally lost it and told me off (and I had been nothing but polite, yet firm in telling her that I wasn't interested). I liked our room and we were able to go out on the balcony to watch MK's fireworks, but the air conditioning situation left a whole lot to be desired. Tell me, Tom, do you have any control whatsoever over the AC in your room there? I moved between a few rooms during my stay because none of the thermostats in the rooms work! Just try to get some heat out of that thing! We nearly froze to death every night, and at the time they only had one repair guy on duty who could barely speak English (he was Indian). Not only could you not get heat, but you also could not get the cooling turned off, it just blew cold air constantly!
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<Right now WDW is packed. My party stood in line today for 110 minutes to ride Toy Story.>> As I've said elsewhere, it's been a holiday weekend. I'd be curious as to whether those crowds hold up. If they do, it again speaks volumes of management with all of the cutbacks that have been going on. As for waiting 110 minutes, all I can say is are you crazy? ;-) <<And the strollers are everywhere even at Disney Hollywood Studios. I don't have a problem with people using strollers when they have small children. But its gotten way out of hand. And in my opinion, if I child can walk then they should be walking.>> That's what they do in Paris and Hong Kong (and Tokyo from what I've been told), but Americans are lazy and they pass that on to their kids. If a child can walk, they should. Period. No ands, ifs or buts about it. They walk. <<What also annoys the heck out of me is that long ago Disney management took away the Skyway which would have been a great mode of transportation and just leave the walkways to the stoller and scooter crowd.>> Well, the stroller/ECV problem has just exploded in the past decade. It wasn't nearly as bad back in early 99 when the Skyway closed. But I still wish it were still there. <<My party spent last night with my sister and her husband ( we drove from Orlando to Ft Lauderdale (( a three hour drive )) to eat at Mai Kai a Tiki inspired lounge/ restaurant, easily the best part of this trip so far.>> It is a great restaurant and a South Florida institution. Anyone thinking of seeing the dinner show at the Poly should drive down here instead. Glad you enjoyed! << Anyway, my sister and her husband said it took them and their children an hour dodging strollers just to make their way up Main Street this past saturday. They also shared the same complaints that the strollers have gotten way out of hand. I will take pictures and post them here. And the crowds are huge! I will take pics of the crowds and post them here as well. You folks that are use to DL ain't seen nothing like the crowds at WDW. And what is with running rides at half capacity? We went on the Great Movie Ride, the wait was 25 minutes and found that it was running at half capacity.>> I wonder if the crowds would be as bad as they appear if Disney wasn't running attractions at half capacity (gotta save on all those $7 an hr CMs, after all) and if Fastpass and strollers/ECVs weren't overstressing the walkways. I just don't believe WDW's Columbus Day numbers are anything more than what would traditionally be termed 'moderate' but I haven't seen them ...
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<My sister and her husband said after only 12 hours they would never stay at the Sheraton Vistana again. The property is a timeshare property and apparently the agents have been using hard sell tactics. My sister and her husband are not intrested in buying a timeshare.>> What did they expect? Timeshare properties are in business to sell timeshares. And Orlando is the timeshare capital of the world. I've stayed at Vistana and enjoyed it as it is a beautiful resort. I've just made it clear I'm not there to buy one and they left me alone. I guess they may be desperate with the economy crashing and thus the full court press with guests.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy << I just don't believe WDW's Columbus Day numbers >> Because in order to believe the numbers, you'd have to disbelieve all the other stuff you are saying on here.
Originally Posted By magnet I was there on Columbus Day and it was mildly crowded at the MK. Not the biggest crowds ever, but still enough to make it uncomfortable for my taste. The Halloween party that night was sold out, and I heard a lot of parents telling their kids, "Enjoy tonight because we are never doing this again." There was a lot of frustration voiced over the large numbers attending the park and the party. Yet, I didn't have trouble getting on any ride I wanted once the Not-So-Scary Party began. I didn't ride a bunch of stuff but most of the waits at the big-ticket attractions were no more than 10-15 minutes, which is pretty darn good considering the tremendous mess that operating FastPass creates during the normal operating day. A lot of the people complaining had heard stories from friends about the MK being nearly empty during these parties and were expecting to be able to walk right onto any ride. Even I had heard a lot of stories about people being able to ride Splash Mountain, for example, over and over again without even having to get off and reboard. So, expectations were set a little too high.
Originally Posted By fkurucz <<As for waiting 110 minutes, all I can say is are you crazy? ;-)>> LOL! We skipped Toy Story at DCA last August for this very reason.
Originally Posted By A Happy Haunt We were @ DHS on May 31 for TSMM opening day..Park opened at 9:00 on ride at 9:20.. The only way to avoid long lines for E-tickets is to get up EARLY!!!
Originally Posted By magnet >>>Park opened at 9:00 on ride at 9:20..<<< ride breaks down at 9:45... Hey, I was turned away, so I can be a little bitter.
Originally Posted By A Happy Haunt OOOWWWW!!!! Hey, as long as I off by the time it breaks down I don't care!! I think my sisters family had a break down on TSMM...haha!!
Originally Posted By CarolinaDisneyDad we've done the not so scary party 3 times. Once was last year on halloween and I think it was sold out. WE rode splash mountain 3 straight and only got off because we wanted to ride other rides. It was really crowded at first but after 9:30 to 10:00 alot of the kids are heading to bed. Even with naps in the afternoon we were usually out by 11pm. If you can stay later it gets less and less crowded. My family just has a hard time staying up so as soon as the crowds depart, we hit a few rides and then head back to the room. When it is really crowded we just get pictures with all the villians. There are alot of characters there that you don't normally see like Snow White with the 7 Dwarfs, Cruella, Queen of hearts, malificent, Evil Queen. Also last year my kids both dressed up as Malificent, and the Queen of Hearts and those character CMs make a big deal about it. Even during the parades they would point them out and gesture at them. It's worth going, just not every year because it throws off the next day too.
Originally Posted By magnet I wish I could have attended one of these Not-So-Scary parties where rides were almost unlimited. I stayed until the very end of this past Monday's party and the place was still packed as I left right at Midnight. Of course, people were leaving all through the evening, but a large number stayed all the way to the end. As an example, the walkways along the parade route for the 10:30 parade were so crowded I had to fight my way in to view the parade. I skipped the first one because I thought it would be easy to get a nice viewing location for the later parade, but I was sooo wrong. So, the park that night was loaded at the very least until 11 PM. I guess I have to chalk it up to the holiday.
Originally Posted By CarolinaDisneyDad Wow, it definitely must be more crowded than usual this year. I have seen it that way for extra magic hours at night but never for the halloween party. I hope the rest of your trip is better.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom We attended MNSSHP this past Monday night. We had a great time. We met up with my sister's family in the park. My sister had said that she had heard a cast member reads the legend of Sleepy Hollow over by the Liberty Bell and when the cast member finishes is when the Headless horseman rides across the bridge by Sleepy hollow snacks. In years past I thought the Parade started on Main Street and ended in Frontierland. Monday night the Parade started in Frontierland and ended on Main Street. In any case we were able to ride every ride we wanted to. The only ride we want to get on and have not yet is the Jungle Boat cruise.
