re: Disney World Review - 11/16 through 11/25

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Can you change something else to add Ohana back in on another day?

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We have dinner ADR's at California Grill (during fireworks), The Yachtsman, Flying Fish, San Angel Inn, Chefs de France and now Victoria and Alberts.

Are any of these worth switching for O'hana?

On an unrelated note, for our last 3 visits I have used a website called touring plans to make custom plans. You put in the rides/attractions you want and it creates a plan to reduce your wait times. To my surprise it has been very accurate.

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Saturday was Animal Kingdom during the day. Did the Safari first, and spent most of the day wandering around, doing rides and characters and shows. AK does not currently have a parade. They were supposed to have the new nighttime show, Rivers of Light, up and going, but it is not.

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Yeah, that was supposed to debut in April....it made it's media preview this week. By all accounts I've read, it's a technical marvel and very impressive but boring with no "wow" moment. We're going back in early January so I'm going to make sure to watch if it's running.

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Instead, they have a thing at night where they do a light and projection show on the Tree of Life. It was pretty meh.

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Interesting, I've heard nothing but rave reviews and saw a bit of it online and the projection tech looks incredible. This is the first I've seen where someone hasn't been impressed.

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Centra Care. Got there, real nice people. Thankfully our health insurance worked there. Got seen, and they even can fill prescriptions there as well. She had a double ear infection but otherwise ok. Went to go pay, and the lady says, hey, we have a free shuttle, what hotel do you need to go to? NICE!

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Good to know. Ours will be nearly 2 and 5 in January and both have had tubes but still get colds all the time. I'll make sure to remember this place since we're flying.

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Wednesday was Epcot. Did the Frozen ride (basically they took Malestrom and swapped out all the props, I was not impressed),

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They did a it more than just swap out props. Yes, the track is the same and it's in the same building, but it's a completely new attraction and one of the best Disney dark rides they've ever done. The Olaf animatronic is highly impressive and the Elsa sequence has some great effects. Is it worth the long wait? I don't think any ride is. That's why I make sure to get a FastPass for it.

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We did all our fastpasses and when we had an option to then get a 4th one, we got one for Illuminations - the nightly fireworks show. It wasn't really needed - there were plenty of good places to watch it - but it was nice to have. Walked up about 15 min before the show and got a spot. As far as the show….. eh. I've seen it a bunch of times and I'm ready for something new. They change up some of the stuff, but it's time for a new idea. If you have never seen it before, it is neat.

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I think we'll see a new Illuminations show in the near future. Some comments were passed at the recent Destination D event that basically said that Future World is going to get a massive overhaul. With that, you have to expect a show that's 20ish years old to get overhauled or replaced.



A couple of questions, did you guys check out the new version of Soarin'? We did in October, and I'm curious to see how other people feel about it.

Also, did you catch the new drone show they do at night in Disney Springs?

Where can one find the dole whip w rum
Been many times but didn't know they had this

From my experience last April, We learned to use our fastpasses early and then keep doing the ones that pop up as you go throughout the day. That way we werent waiting in between rides for our next fastpass. Our kid loved the mine train, i think we rode it 4 times one day-all with fast passes.

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Where can one find the dole whip w rum

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During events in Epcot (Flower and Garden, Food & Wine, etc) you can find it in Epcot but it is not available each day at Tamu Tamu Refreshments in Animal Kingdom.

My wife gets the spiked dole whip and I get a Lost on Safari and we can sit at the Dawa Bar for an hour or two.

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Yeah, that was supposed to debut in April....it made it's media preview this week. By all accounts I've read, it's a technical marvel and very impressive but boring with no "wow" moment. We're going back in early January so I'm going to make sure to watch if it's running.

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When they did the soft openings and testing in last spring, those technical marvels gave them fits. So I guess they got it all fixed. I've heard the same... I'm curious to hear your thoughts once you see it.

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Interesting, I've heard nothing but rave reviews and saw a bit of it online and the projection tech looks incredible. This is the first I've seen where someone hasn't been impressed.

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I guess I was expecting more? Disney is big into projection right now... you have this, you have the Jingle Bam show in Hollywood Studios, as well as castle projection shows at MK. I just thought the Tree of life one was the weakest of the bunch. As much as I read about it, I was expecting this blow me away performance, and it was just meh. Glad I saw it, would not need to see it again.

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They did a it more than just swap out props. Yes, the track is the same and it's in the same building, but it's a completely new attraction and one of the best Disney dark rides they've ever done. The Olaf animatronic is highly impressive and the Elsa sequence has some great effects. Is it worth the long wait? I don't think any ride is. That's why I make sure to get a FastPass for it.

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Out of everyone in our group, I was the only one who was kind of blah about it. Everyone else loved it. I am biased... I'm still annoyed they took out the Malestrom props. You are right, the Olaf and the Elsa sequence are well done. We did FP as well... I would have been annoyed if I stood in line for it.

You know if you had never been on Malestrom, you would be blown away. But the entire time, I kept thinking, oh, this used to be here, this used to be there, ok, we are about to go backwards, etc.

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I think we'll see a new Illuminations show in the near future. Some comments were passed at the recent Destination D event that basically said that Future World is going to get a massive overhaul. With that, you have to expect a show that's 20ish years old to get overhauled or replaced.

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We were there when D23 was happening. So heard a lot about it. I'm looking forward to it. Future World needs a lot of work. Innovations is a shell of what it once was. The Land (outside Soarin) and the Seas could use a lot of work. Energy is still great for a break, but that has run it's course. Imagination with Figment hasn't been touched in years. Mission Space seems to have run it's course - wait times were as low as 15 minutes. Test Track is great.

I'd also like to see work on some of the countries. Maybe add a couple. Maybe add rides to a couple. for example, a Mulan themed ride in China.

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did you guys check out the new version of Soarin'? We did in October, and I'm curious to see how other people feel about it.

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I liked the new version. I like how they kept the smell part of it. I liked the scenes. I thought they might have updated the pre-show more (the video). But the old versio was awesome as well. Maybe over time, they could do two concourses of new and one of old?

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Also, did you catch the new drone show they do at night in Disney Springs?

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We did not. We went to the Springs during the day on the first Thursday, and had wanted to make it back one night, but did not. I have heard it's neat though.

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From my experience last April, We learned to use our fastpasses early and then keep doing the ones that pop up as you go throughout the day. That way we werent waiting in between rides for our next fastpass. Our kid loved the mine train, i think we rode it 4 times one day-all with fast passes.

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Good point. You kind of have to force this a bit in My Disney Experience as it wants to spread you throughout the day. Now, not all rides need fastpasses.

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I liked the new version. I like how they kept the smell part of it. I liked the scenes. I thought they might have updated the pre-show more (the video). But the old versio was awesome as well. Maybe over time, they could do two concourses of new and one of old?

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I thought the locations were perfect picks and the smells were spot on. The score was a great homage to the original while still being an update. The thing that bothered me, though, were all of the CGI transitions and insertions they made. I didn't need to see fake polar bears or whales...they added nothing to the film and actually took away the authenticity, IMO. But it was still an enjoyable attraction.

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I'd also like to see work on some of the countries. Maybe add a couple. Maybe add rides to a couple. for example, a Mulan themed ride in China.

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I think we may see more rides added in the future to World Showcase. Everyone is pointing to the Ratatouille ride from Paris as a possible addition. There's actually a show building in Japan for the originally planned Mt. Fuji ride that never happened. I would love to see them revisit the idea since the facility is already in place. Germany was supposed to have a Rhine River cruise...they could add that as well. I think adding rides is more likely than new pavilions (but I'd love that to happen as well)

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Cinderella Castle is the worst meal on Disney Property. You are paying to see the inside of the castle and meet princesses. You can meet the princesses at a million other events and not waste the money on LSU concessions grade food.

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But it's a Disney bucket list item. My only daughter is 11 and is out of the princess stage. But we're going just to say we've eaten inside the castle. It helps that we have free dining, even though it takes up 2 credits.

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The thing that bothered me, though, were all of the CGI transitions and insertions they made. I didn't need to see fake polar bears or whales...they added nothing to the film and actually took away the authenticity, IMO.

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I thought the transistions were a bit choppy, like wow complete shift gears. But, and this may be my simple mind, but I did not realize there were CGI insertions. Interesting.