Rather than issuing a bunch of moderations I’ll issue a warning...next Covid related post gets ejected. Take it to the Covid thread. Thanks.

I hear ya and don’t disagree with the point you make at all. Nevertheless, take it to the Covid thread please, that is the decision of the mod team. If that means this particular thread has less action for awhile then so be it, we will not allow this thread to become a Covid debate filled with participants who were ejected from the Covid thread.

You are certainly allowed to discuss Disney parks in the Covid thread. Have at it.

Went to Orlando for a week in late September. We did five Disney park days and one day at both Universal parks. Incredible time. Going to go back in 2022, might add in a day at Seaworld.2B151108-E4E6-4EEE-9950-09584C55433F (resized).jpeg

So, we did every single ride at all four parks with very few exceptions (the Aerosmith one at Hollywood Studios being the only significant miss).

Here were our favorites for each park:

Magic Kingdom:

1) Big Thunder (the olfactory sensation of this ride put me right back to being a kid…it was incredible since I hadn’t been to Disney in over 30 years).
2) Haunted House.
3) tie: Pirates and 7 Dwarfs

*notable comment, the Teekee Room was hysterical…I’m glad both it and the country bears were still there.

Hollywood Studios:

1) Twilight Zone / Tower of Terror
2) Rise of the Republic
3) Slink Dog

Animal Kingdom:

1) Safari
2) Everest
3) Dino Ride

Epcot

1) can’t remember what it was called, hoisted us into the air for a four video of planet earth film with fresh air and various smells. Was very cool.
2) the big Epcot ball
3) Frozen

*note on Epcot, it also had the only ride we did not enjoy the entire week. The one simulating the force of blasting off from earth by spinning you around really fast…gave us a head ache and sent us packing early that day.

Did Flight of Passage, absolutely loved it. The problem is that 45 inch requirement, our smallest companion can’t get on the 45 inch rides. I didn’t understand why that ride was 45 inches honestly…42 should be more than fine.

Any thoughts on those shoes that add an extra inch? We are going back next year and will really need it.

Yep, worst ride ever. I’m sure it must have its fans, but DAMN!!!

I loved that room. They should never change. I also enjoy the wheel of progress funny enough.

The line now for Rise of the Resistance is typically three hours…I wish they would go back to the virtual queue…

Passes are fully booked for my family’s return trip in late feb early March next year. I wish they would have another night of Magic Kingdom being open till midnight, that was amazing in September for Halloween.

I’m optimistic about this new skip the line feature. I wonder what the cost point will be?

Next Feb we are doing Epcot on the Sunday, Animal Kingdom on the Monday, Magic Kingdom on the Tuesday, and Hollywood Studios on the Wednesday. Our Disney agent said these were the best days. What are y’all’s opinion?

My son is 42 and half inches bare foot. I need another two and half inches for most of the good rides outside of Magic Kingdom (and for Space Mountain). Which shoes are my best bet? Should I grow his hair long and spike it? (Obviously I’m kidding about the hair, but what other than massive shoes can I possibly do for that two and inches).

All the same, anyone have some ideas for me to consider? What are the best lift shoes? What sort of scalp extenders will look legit?

Hmm, maybe we can practice that some and see if it helps. 45 inches is really necessary to get the most out of the parks other than Magic Kingdom…and you need to be 45 inches for almost all of the good things at Universal. As far as safety, I don’t really see how it’s safer to be a couple inches taller on Space Mountain. You are strapped in the same either way.

Thanks for all the safety concern, I certainly appreciate and value all input. If we were talking six inches and fifteen pounds for inversion based roller coasters I’d not be asking these questions.

That said, we are talking an inch and half for Space Mountain and Flight of Passage (he is 42.5 inches bare foot and we need to hit 44 inches)…so if possible let us change the discussion direction from whether I should do this to how do I pull this caper off…

I liked the idea Fizz had of hitting those rides first thing in the morning. Maybe I can harness a centimeter for him from that way. A baseball hat doesn’t seem like an answer, too easy to make him take it off. The shoes are the only path I see and I’ll need 1.5 inches to be certain. The booster shoes I see online are for three inches (too much) and for adults. I need something that blends in with normal. Any suggestions?

I wouldn’t worry about this too much. The rides at Disney are always doing whatever they can do with the technology at the time. Then they apply pieces of it in other rides (note how they implemented the technology from the Tower of Terror into Rise of the Resistance).

I just want Disney in Orlando to expand their various parks and keep pumping out new rides and experiences at as fast of a pace as possible to reduce line time.

Agreed, but if they are actually growing the size of the parks (which they can do in Orlando) they will reduce the lines eventually. The new rides may well have long lines but the older ones will enjoy reduced wait times. I do understand the number of guests keep increasing, this means growing the overall size of the parks remains important.

Gosh yes, I’m alright with 3D glasses on some rides of course, but Universal over uses that feature pretty significantly. I guess it was part of their trade dress early on before 3D became basically every movie theater in the country for every semi major release…

While on this subject, does anyone know if you can buy clip on 3D glasses (that clip on to your regular glasses) for Disney and/or universal? That would be so incredibly helpful since my regular glasses make putting on the 3D glasses over them such a problem.

That would have me booking there for certain.

So, today is the big day, we are heading back to Disney. My son now measures 43.75 bare foot. We think he will just squeeze in for Space Mountain and the other 44 inch rides. We shouldn’t even need to use the heel boosters.

Thanks! Back in October I just didn’t think it was possible (as my posts then likely indicated). Tomorrow is Epcot…so no opportunity to find out for sure till Monday. I’ll post some pics!

Yep, we’ve done that with Big Thunder before, it’s such an incredible experience.

Yep, we have a good number of Louisiana friends here or so we’ve noticed through social media. Our fellow Mardi Gras escapees.

Alas, we are off branding hotel wise this trip, just staying at a Marriott. We are doing two Universal days in addition to the four Disney days.

The lines were pretty rough at Disney. Genie+ was also not very user friendly. It took me a full day to figure it out, even after reading everything about it on the Disney site. I only got to do four rides with it one day, three rides with it on two days, and one day (at Hollywood Studios) only two rides. So, I averaged three line skips a day only…and I was spending 10+ hours at each park.

I’m not sure what Disney can do about the lines, it is the family destination so it will always have lines…the only answer is for them to: (a) build another park or two, (b) dramatically expand the existing parks with more attractions to eat up some of the lines, or (c) dramatically expand their hours of operation (stay open till midnight). I guess they could also increase prices to the point where people simply stop booking to go there and they are probably more inclined to do that than one of the other three suggestions.

I love Disney, but ouch to those lines. Universal’s express pass system worked better than Genie+ (though granted it was $120 a ticket rather than $15 a ticket).

If you are TSA pre and able to check your luggage outside you will be just fine as usual with half that time.

I learned about that this trip. This is seriously good advice everyone. I will absolutely be doing this next trip, without a doubt.

My vacation booking agent told me that last week was historically the second slowest week of the year…it sure didn’t seem like it. I don’t think there is an off season any longer at Disney. I’m sure the remote learning and work from home and what not have contributed to that as people are just thinking about vacationing year round now.

This is an interesting comment. One of the few things that is working well right now is it is relatively easy to get a table to sit down and eat when you order through your mobile ap. If they lengthened the dining experience they would quickly overcrowd capacity on that front as well…

Your points one and four would be helpful. Frankly though, I think adding more rides (by expanding parks, not taking away things from the parks) would help with capacity more than just about anything. Big new attractions will take pressure off the existing rides.

By the way, I totally agree with what you are saying. I hadn’t really thought of it this way but you have completely described how I was feeling this last trip…I was turned in to a total park commando…and not a happy one since I was constantly in lines…

4 at Universal and just 2 at Disney for me. The Genie+ system is an utter catastrophe at Disney and I actually enjoyed Universal more than Disney my last trip. If the lines were more reasonable at Disney I would certainly feel differently.

A lot of people kind of ripped the Dr. Sues area, particularly the cat in the hat ride, but I thought it was great. Also, the super hero world is great, rides like Spiderman are very kid friendly.