Walt Disney World and Disneyland(s) Discussion

[Coheteboy]

Here's pics of the Disneyland A Christmas Fantasy Parade... counting down the days before I fly to Orlando (Friday). I got my Magic Band already.

 

[MegaPrime33]

I feel like Disney can do a whole lot better casting for Santa. I mean at least get a guy who has a real white beard.

 

[Coheteboy]

I feel like Disney can do a whole lot better casting for Santa. I mean at least get a guy who has a real white beard.

Ya know, they probably do have the better Santa for the actual meet & greets for kids.




So they had an Annual Passholder party a few weeks back for select folks (mostly people who have expiring passes) and I got to attend. The park was left open just for this party from 8pm to midnight.
You get to choose a red or green ornament:

And they had some super awesome meet & greets! I waited 40 minutes in this line:

By the time I got to the front, it rotated to Launchpad and Don Karnage.

It's a wonder why they couldn't pair Launchpad with Scrooge or with Darkwing since he's in both shows, but i guess Launchpad and Don are both pilots. And I know Scrooge is more regular out in Florida but we NEVER see him out in CA for whatever reason.

The Blue Fairy is another really rare character

Small World Holiday

The trail behind Big Thunder

Pocahontas, Meeko, and John Smith

Country Bears

And the Song of the South gang

Misc Indiana Jones Adventure

Misc Jingle Cruise

More Jingle Cruise

same scene at night:

 

[MegaPrime33]

Awesome. I dont know that I've ever seen Darkwing Duck in costume before.

 

[Coheteboy]

And a few more pics before I leave tomorrow morning...

The Pixie Hollow area at night is full of little surprises

There's a tree that has twinkling lights only occasionally. it's better in person because you get the music with it.

Trying to take pics on Space Mountain. It's tough.

It's Walt Disney's birthday tomorrow

And it's snowing at Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar

I'll post WDW pics when I get back in over a week!

 

[evenflow]

Just gt back this weekend and was so impressed with the Haunted Mansion holiday redo!

 

[Aerosmith]

Amazing pics as always!

 

[Ondi]

Amazing pics as usual, that lions den pick really made me LOL though

 

[Coheteboy]

I'm back from Orlando!! I spent two days at Universal Orlando and 4 1/2 days at Walt Disney World. Do you want pictures from both resorts or just Disney?

 

[cokebabies]

I'm back from Orlando!! I spent two days at Universal Orlando and 4 1/2 days at Walt Disney World. Do you want pictures from both resorts or just Disney?

EVERYTHING.

 

[Coheteboy]

EVERYTHING.

Everything the light touches?


Okay! I'll just break it down in the order I did things.... which might mean i hop around a lot. Stand by.

 

[Ondi]

I'm back from Orlando!! I spent two days at Universal Orlando and 4 1/2 days at Walt Disney World. Do you want pictures from both resorts or just Disney?

EVERYTHING.

Agreed!!

Give us.......

oh man I can't wait!

 

[Coheteboy]

We begin with Friday, Dec 5th. I left Los Angeles at 8am and arrived around 3:30 or 4, something around there. After a crazy taxi ride we arrived at our hotel for the weekend: Loew's Royal Pacific Resort, which is on Universal Property. From there, we uber'd it to Disney's Yacht Club to celebrate Walt's Birthday with a fine meal....

There's meat hanging and on display, aging before your eyes.

Learn thy cow

A really nice touch is that they have all of their steak options displayed out for you, making it easier for you to decide what you might want to eat. Or harder to decide...

Cow

My party all had some Old Fashioneds at Martha's Vineyard beforehand, which is a bar at the Yacht Club, and we also ordered a round of Scotch Mist, which is Walt's favorite drink.

The bread basket is complimentary and divine... comes with the creamiest butter I've ever had and roasted garlic.

This is a portion of the Caesar Salad. We ordered two of them ($12) and had them separate it out to three. I have no idea what it would look like as a full order.

This is the Peekytoed Crab-stuffed Donuts. It comes highly recommended but I would say skip it. It's GOOD... but you can't really tell if there's crab inside. If someone told you in advance it's a donut and you ate it, you'd think it was a good donut. It's $17 and i think they normally only give you two of them, so it probably isn't worth it. We ordered it because we were starving and living on the wild side.

There was four of us and we all ordered almost identical things. Two of us ordered the 16 oz ribeye and the other two ordered the Kansas Strip.

The Ribeye comes with bone marrow

And the Kansas Strip comes with really amazing fries. All steaks were ordered Rare Plus and it came that way.

Here's the menu if you care to look

Walked around the Boardwalk after and called it a night.

Next up: Universal Orlando Resort.

 

[Coheteboy]

Universal Orlando Resort.
Staying on Universal property, you get the following:
-close access to both Universal parks (you can walk to them! yay! or water taxi it)
-Early Entry into Diagon Alley, an hour before other guests
-Express Unlimited Pass, this is like a fast pass ticket for all rides and shows except for the two major Harry Potter ones.


Unfortunately I didn't get to explore the Royal Pacific, but it had a pseudo Hawaiian/South Asian/Pacific theme. It was an actual hotel (unlike most resorts at Walt Disney World) and was about a 5 minute walk to Islands of Adventure and Citywalk. 10 minute walk to Universal Studios Florida.

Universal Orlando Resort is:
-Two Parks: Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure
-Shopping and dining and entertainment: Universal Citywalk Orlando - there's mini golf, restaurants, bars, clubs, shopping, movies
-Four hotels: Portofino, Hard Rock Hotel, Royal Pacific, and their newest Cabana Bay. ALL are in walking distance from the parks and city walk. There's a 5th hotel being built called Sapphire Falls or something like that opening in 2016. It's located between the Royal Pacific and Cabana Bay.


Shall we begin:

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS FLORIDA is the only park with early entry.

They teamed up with Macy's to have balloon floats on display. There were lots more but i didn't bother taking pics of all of them.

Universal Orlando wasn't supposed to get Transformers originally, but it was so popular in Hollywood that they went ahead and did it. And they got a way cooler exterior than Hollywood too, which is always a great sign. Sometimes I noticed with Disney parks is that a cloned ride not always be improved upon in its second going (winnie the pooh, tower of terror, pirates of the caribbean, to name a few).

Just look at that Optimus!

We're walking towards diagon alley now... passing San Francisco Wharf on the way,

King's Cross Station... this is where you park hop to Islands of Adventure and vice versa... via Hogwarts Express.

The Knight Bus is parked for pictures

Interactive shrunken head

This here is the entrance to Diagon Alley

And it is awesome

Harry Potter and the Escape From Gringotts is the main ride here, entrance at the center of the land.

Unfortunately for Universal, you need to stow your belongings in a locker before EVERY ride... or at least 95% of them. The lockers ARE free for a limited time, depending on the queue. If a ride breaks down and you're stuck longer, they don't charge you extra. So... basically, no pictures from inside the queue. I took some with my cellphone but I guess it's better to leave the surprise for when you experience it.


There is a Bank of Gringotts area where you can trade in your cash for Gringotts money and spend it anywhere in the park really. It's actually a great way to score some credit on your credit card. And trust me, you WILL use the money.

Really smart of Universal to package Gilly Water and also their own made-on-premises Pumpkin Juice.

And of course there's Butter Beer

More later...

 

[Ondi]

Amazing, amazing, amazing!

Can't wait for the next installment Coheteboy

 

[Coheteboy]

Amazing, amazing, amazing!

Can't wait for the next installment Coheteboy

Thanks!!

We're still in Universal Studios Florida, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Diagon Alley.

There's places to explore...

Undiscovered shopping

Interactive elements that talk and sing

Just... detail at every corner.

Something in every window..

Hand scooped ice cream and soft serve... INCLUDING butter beer!

Ollivander's is here..

More detail

The dining location The Leaky Cauldron

I really don't want to leave this place!

 

[Coheteboy]

Slight detour with a shark.

Back at King's Cross Station, it's about a 10 minute wait to board the Hogwarts Express. Why so low? Well... you only use it if you want to go to the other park really. This way to Platform 9 3/4!

The train awaits

The journey to Islands of Adventure (Hogwarts) is different than the journey to London (Diagon Alley).

Arriving in Hogsmeade.

 

[Ondi]

Wow, I can't believe how big the whole Harry Potter area (I don't know what to call it) is, it seems like a theme park of its own

 

[cokebabies]

Royal Pacific is probably the best overall Universal resort - the best compromise of quality and price. We've stayed there our last two trips.

And the Yachtsman is the truth. The roasted garlic with the bread, the truffle mac and cheese, the steaks... hot DAMN.

 

[Coheteboy]

Royal Pacific is probably the best overall Universal resort - the best compromise of quality and price. We've stayed there our last two trips.

And the Yachtsman is the truth. The roasted garlic with the bread, the truffle mac and cheese, the steaks... hot DAMN.

Right, and that's probably why I went with it. Hard Rock and Portofino are still decently priced compared to WDW but don't know if you really get that much more out of it.

Thing about the Royal Pacific though is that it's not particularly memorable. It seems like a normal hotel and I admit that I really didn't do as much exploring as I should have, but there was something about it that didn't make me want to explore it. The bars weren't particularly inviting or comfortable, and the hotel itself isn't breathtaking visually. In fact... checking my camera, i took NO pictures of the hotel whatsoever, which is a first for me.




Back at Hogsmeade, which is at Islands of Adventure (try to keep up).

Dragon Challenge. This is two roller coasters, one queue. One side is the Hungarian Horntail and the other is the Chinese... fireball? I forgot.

The theme of the queue is the Triwizard Tournament so in the queue you'll find the Triwizard Cup and the Goblet of Fire. Again, you have to put everything in a locker when you get in there so I didn't take pictures on my fancy camera. I did post photos from my phone on instagram if you wanna look there. The flying car has crashed in the queue though.

Welcome to Hogsmeade

The wait for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey was 45 minutes so we decided to explore other parts of the park. The first land we stumbled into is:

And then into Toon Lagoon. The amount of IP Universal has to pay for in this land is staggering. They'll probably redo this area eventually as it probably costs more money than they make on it.

Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls... really fun drop

Marvel Super Hero Island

The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man.. still a solid ride.

The Hulk... an amazing roller coaster