🦙Live from Utopia 🦙- Sailing with Daryl 🦙8/2-8/5 🏰with bonus feature of a week at Disney Parks post cruise🏰

[bobmacliberty]

14 hours ago, George C said:

I hate Disney...way to few bars .

 

You've either not been to Epcot, or you didn't do it right. 😜  Do a Google search for "Epcot drinking around the world".

 

When my daughter was doing competitive dance, The Dance Worlds competition was in the World Showplace Pavilion at Epcot, between Canada (Moosehead beer stand) and the United Kingdom (Rose and Crown Pub).  When we had downtime between performances, which was a lot, we'd find a bar at one of the "countries".  One year, one of the parents made drinking around the world passports.  You had to do two things at each country...get a drink and get a picture taken with something from the gift shop like a Mexican sombrero or a Norwegian Viking helmet.  One of the cast members at each country had to sign or stamp your passport as proof.  It's a good thing that we had buses back to our hotel.  🤪

 

 

 

[Momof3gurlz]

19 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

You've either not been to Epcot, or you didn't do it right. 😜  Do a Google search for "Epcot drinking around the world".

 

When my daughter was doing competitive dance, The Dance Worlds competition was in the World Showplace Pavilion at Epcot, between Canada (Moosehead beer stand) and the United Kingdom (Rose and Crown Pub).  When we had downtime between performances, which was a lot, we'd find a bar at one of the "countries".  One year, one of the parents made drinking around the world passports.  You had to do two things at each country...get a drink and get a picture taken with something from the gift shop like a Mexican sombrero or a Norwegian Viking helmet.  One of the cast members at each country had to sign or stamp your passport as proof.  It's a good thing that we had buses back to our hotel.  🤪

 

 

 

Epcot drinking around the world is an every trip occurrence for my daughters & SIL’s 🍻🍷🍸🍹🥂.  Andy & I keep all the grandkids at the resort for a pool afternoon and takeout pizza dinner.  We usually feel much better the next day 😉!

[Luckynana]

3 hours ago, h20skibum said:

Then you don’t want to look now.  I read somewhere that something like 80% of families are going into debt to do a Disney vacation.   

Wow.  WDW should be ashamed of themselves.  The prices are so out of control.  I'm glad our several trips to Disney with children and grandchildren are in the past.  

[Luckynana]

17 minutes ago, Momof3gurlz said:

Epcot drinking around the world is an every trip occurrence for my daughters & SIL’s 🍻🍷🍸🍹🥂.  Andy & I keep all the grandkids at the resort for a pool afternoon and takeout pizza dinner.  We usually feel much better the next day 😉!

Love it!🥰

[harryfat1]

Disney just announced earnings today and their park revenue is below expectations as people cut back on going to the parks:

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/disney-may-parks-problem-134048631.html

 

There is no argument that the Disney experience is expensive but similar to cruising, you can opt for higher-end cruise ships with all the bells and whistles and staying in suites or you can opt to cruise with older ships and stay at the inside cabins.  It’s a question of what type of vacation experience you want.

 

For DisneyWorld, if you stay off-property in the Kissimmee area, you can get a 3-star hotel for $150/night for a family of 4. 

 

Park tickets for 4 days are $400/pp or $100/day.

 

So assume a 5-night stay for a 4-day visit to the parks, it’s $150 X 5 nights = $750 plus $400 tickets X 4 people = $1,600 or $2,350 plus food and parking at the parks.

 

Disney allows you to bring outside food into their parks and has lockers to rent you can store cold sandwiches/chips in the lockers so you can save on lunch food costs and leave the park by dinner to eat outside.

 

 

Will you have the same magical experience as Mark is enjoying now with his family?  Of course not. But you will be at the parks for rides/parades/nighttime shows.

 

Just like cruising, there are different budgets/experiences that you can have with a Disney vacation.

[h20skibum]

2 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

You've either not been to Epcot, or you didn't do it right. 😜  Do a Google search for "Epcot drinking around the world".

We park hopped to Epcot this afternoon, and I saw several people wearing drinking around the world t-shirts on.  

[alishac]

On 8/3/2024 at 11:26 PM, perfect match said:

Entertainment reservations opened up for our September 8th cruise opened up August 1. Everything but the Headliner show was available and I was able to get to get bookings for our group for all available shows. Hope yours show up soon. 

For Utopia? I'm sailing 9/2 and no reservations online yet.

[BonTexasNY]

20 hours ago, h20skibum said:

Did it really go upside down?  I must have missed that unless it happened in the dark. 
 

My grandson was a little apprehensive, because he is not a fan of going backwards.  I tried to keep him more focused on seeing things than worrying about what the ride would do next. 
 

I would probably do some of the rides again, just to notice the things you may miss the first time around. 

Many years ago I went on Space Mountain with a cousin in Disneyland.  My eyes were tightly closed the whole time and I was sick to my stomach. Bathrooms were located very close to the end of the ride for obvious reasons.  AND I was only in my 30's!

[h20skibum]

15 minutes ago, alishac said:

For Utopia? I'm sailing 9/2 and no reservations online yet.

I mentioned in the cruise portion of the report that we only had about a 12 hour window, three days before the cruise, that we could book. 

[h20skibum]

After we got our late start, and did that Winnie the Pooh ride, we went to It’s a Small World to get our ear worm for the day. 
 

Lines were pretty long, because we were doing standby today. 
 

 

I have sailed on happier cruises. 

 

 

 

We left the park around 11:30 to hop to Epcot. Figured we would have lunch, then do the Guardians of the Galaxy ride. 
 

Taking the monorail from MK to Epcot requires a change at the ticket and transportation center.  So a half hour after leaving the park and taking the monorail to the ticket center, the monorail to Epcot arrived. The ride to Epcot took twelve minutes. 
 

 

[h20skibum]

We went to the Katsura Grill for some Asian food for lunch, and used some quick service credits from the dining plan. 
 

Although you can substitute alcohol, it must be limited in some places.  They had two cocktails on the menu, but the said we could not get them.  Had to settle for a Kirin. 

[h20skibum]

Now, a little about how the Virtual Queue worked for us.  

 

When I hit that lucky 7am window, it gave me a boarding group 78, with an estimated time to be called at 1:35pm.  At 1:28 we were notified group 78 had been called, and they give you an hour to show up. 

 

 

We scanned in at 1:35.
 

 

The VQ line seems much like a standby line. They give you several things to see as your line snakes forward. 

 

It took 15-20 minutes to reach these points. 
 

 

 

By 2:10, we were boarding the actual ride, and we were outside by 2:17.  

 

I will have to see how that time compares to the individual lightning lanes time when we do it on Friday. 

[h20skibum]

If today’s crowds at Magic Kingdom were supposed to be average, I would hate to be there when it was longest.  
 

 

The crowds were what I consider huge. 
 

Meanwhile, Daryl sent me photos of all the fun he was having in a less crowded  environment. . 

Having a ball in the pool

 

 

Chillin in some shades

 

 

Playing some mini golf

 

Having water gun battles 

 

 

Doing some fishing

 

 

Trying to keep the sun off his face. 
 

Riding a boogie board. 

 

Edited August 8 by h20skibum

[Parkhopper]

10 hours ago, h20skibum said:

Today is essentially being treated as a free day for us.  We plan to try out park hopping and use of standby lanes.  
 

Took our time getting to MK today. The park is packed


 

I read that many brought home Covid from the cruise, but we are all fine. I just thought if you don’t have it, this would be a good way to get something. 
 

 

I call that the pink eye wall

[BonTexasNY]

@h20skibum Daryl is living his best life!

[helen haywood]

Daryl has definitely perked back up!

[perfect match]

11 hours ago, alishac said:

For Utopia? I'm sailing 9/2 and no reservations online yet.

No, for Wonder. Sorry for causing confusion. I should have said which ship. Hope your Utopia entertainment opens soon. 

[h20skibum]

Dinner last night was at Chef Mickey’s at the Contemporary Resort. 
 

 

I didn’t realize we could take a boat from our resort there, so that is how we got there. 
 

Chef Mickey’s uses one table service credit on the dining plan, and it is a good option if kids want to meet characters. 
 

First, the drinks we substituted. I had a Mai Tai which was very good. 
 

 

Susan had a Pina Colava.  
 

 

Our grandson had a Mickey Mouse smoothie. 
 

 

It is a buffet style dinner, and there were lots of choices. This was just a small sample. 
 

 

Several desserts to delight. 
 

 

 

And we met, and had photos with all these characters. 
 

 

[h20skibum]

We have been lucky with the weather, and I haven’t had to get out the ponchos yet.  Back home in PA, we had heavy rain, high winds and lots of trees down. Not sure yet how bad it was at our house, but we didn’t loose electric. 
 

I had to do a remote log in to my home computer, because I forgot to bring my final schedule and I had been working from an earlier one. 
 

For you planners out there. 

 

 

 

[h20skibum]

As you can see from our schedule, we will be at Magic Kingdom all day today, with dinner at Be Our Guest tonight. 
 

Our pre booked rides for multi-pass lightning lanes we able to be booked on the 29th due to our resort stay. You can only book one from group 1 and two from group 2.  The strategy is to pick something early that you can finish fast, and once finished with that ride, you can select another. 
 

This is Disney’s list for this park. 

 

we have the single pass for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.  After talking with my daughter and the other two grandkids last night, they say Tron is less intense than Guardians,  I may try for a Virtual Queue for it this morning. Wish me luck. 

 

[h20skibum]

So how did snagging a virtual queue go?

At 6:59 I have it up ready to refresh to join the queue, and I selected as soon as the seconds hit 7:00:00

At 7:00:30, all the virtual queue spots were gone.  You have to be really fast. 
 

 

We are in boarding group 14.  Now, to see if I need to change other times. 
 

[juanrod]

I volunteer to fly out and babysit Darryl to keep him out of trouble while you are at the parks @h20skibum 😂

[Luckynana]

 

Mark, you must have the patience of a Saint, when it comes to queuing up for each of these rides and activities!!!!  It looks and sounds like a pretty awesome vacation for you, Susan, and your grandson!

[h20skibum]

Our day at Magic Kingdom started early.  We were on the boat at 7:40. Early entry for resort guests is a half hour before normal park opening.  We expected to get in at 8:30. 

 

My plan was to go to Adventure land and ride a couple of the more popular rides I hadn’t pre booked because of the three ride limit for lightning lanes.  

 

They let everyone in MainStreet early, probably to prevent a backup. This was Main Street at 7:59.
 

 

After walking to Adventure land, we find out that only Fantasyland and Tomorrowland would open early. 

 

We decided to try Space Mountain. This was the line ahead to the rope at 8:10. 

 

And the line behind at 8:20

 

 

We did manage Space Mountain without much wait. 

 

[h20skibum]

While we were in line for Space Mountain, our boarding group for Tron was called at 8:55. 

 

After we got off Space Mountain, we walked next door to Tron and boarded.  By 9:30 we were through with that ride. 

 

After talking with his cousins last night, they told him it was easier than Guardians of the Galaxy.  In the end, this was his favorite ride of the day.