We are here Live Report

[dixonsontour]

Thanks for taking the time to do the updates

 

[wayneg]

Hi Reid
A question from Karen. How long was the line to see Merida?

 

[paulh]

Hi Reid
A question from Karen. How long was the line to see Merida?

you might see her before 3.30 am
Paul

 

[paulh]

you might see her before 3.30 am
Paul

thought your on a early,but that was yesterday
Paul

 

[wayneg]

thought your on a early,but that was yesterday
Paul

Yes, up early this morning, tomorrow sleep in til 7am.

 

[Cyrano]

Hi Reid
A question from Karen. How long was the line to see Merida?

Last years trip I spent at least an hour waiting with Robyn to see Tangled so went with the same expectation.
However for Merida the line was more like 20 mins at 10.30am.

Thursday 28 June
Wake up at 6.45 and the sun is shining...it is going to be a belter.
We head to Animal Kingdom and get there for rope drop.
As usual I head to Everest to grab fast passes .

The others are waiting at Kilmanjaro Safari but we skip this hoping to do it later.
As Robyn conquers her fears and does Dinosaur for the first time, we ride this a couple more times.
Lunch is a change for us and we go to Pizzasafari. We share 2 pizzas and 2 hot Italian meat sandwiches.
Afterwards it is time for our soaking on Kali Rapids.
As we head out of the park we use the first of our snack credits and get frozen lemonades and blue raspberry drinks. The troops like theirs but mine is promptly binned as I was not expecting it to be fizzy. Only 65 snack credits to go !!

The main pool was not as busy as yesterday and we probably spent about an hour here this afternoon.
Our ADR tonight was a change of plan from my original ADRs.
We should have been in Chef de France for lunch today and the a counter service for supper.
However as we had already been in EPCOT. Twice because of the weather I cancelled Chef and looked for ADRs in Animal Kingdom. Yak and Yeti was available at 4.45 or Tusker House at 5.55pm. Since we had a good experience at Tusker House for lunch on a past trip we decided to try here for an evening meal. Some liked it better than Sanaa, but Sanaa is still by favourite.
There was a good selection of food which was replenished frequently.
Our lot enjoy the choices that a buffet offer

After food we tried for late night safari but the wait time was 70 mins. Therefore th girls headed for Dinosaur while I went to Jack's preference Primeval Whirl.
Our last ride of the night was our Fastpass ride on Kali. We picked up the FP as we were leaving the park.
Two good meals and lasting until park was closing made this a brilliant day

 

[Cyrano]

Lovely

I now know what you love about DVC

 

[disneyholic family]

primeval hurl, you mean

sounds like a great day Reid!!!

i love the frozen lemonades at AK (the drinking kind, not the solid ones you eat with a spoon)...
that's one of my must haves!!

 

[wayneg]

I now know what you love about DVC

After staying at OKW a few times I now also understand why people buy into DVC but still overpriced for me, the annual dues are about right IMO but its having to put the lump sum in upfont, that parts not for me. Take that into account with annual dues and cost is too much. I am glad we enjoy a £30/night offsite stay just as much or it would have cost us a fortune buying into DVC.

Hope we get a 20 min wait to see Merida, they also had to wait over a hour for Rapunzel last August.

Glad the sun is out.

 

[Tony Toon]

Thanks for the updates. I love reading about everyone's trips and yet never manage to do it myself - maybe I'll break my duck this year!

Great to hear that the sun is finally shining where you are (a bit damp over here). Hope it holds out for our arrival on Wednesday. Interested to hear you've hardly made a dent in your snack credits. DH seems to think he'll manage to munch his way through all of ours easily.

Mrs TT

 

[wayneg]

DH seems to think he'll manage to munch his way through all of ours easily.

Mrs TT

Before we tried DDP we were thinking, CS, TS & snack PLUS going to Publix for extras. In reality its too much food, I know many who have had dining credits left and most have to take things home to use up snack credits.
We like our food, above average appetite, anoyone with a small appetite will have a lot of credits left.
Last year we had 25 snacks left after 16 days, this year after 21 days we will need an extra suitcase.

 

[ChipnDaleRule]

Before we left for our holiday i found a really useful thread, which basically lists every single Dining Plan snack option, it was a massive help and we used it a lot. Heres the link
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2853528

 

[disneyholic family]

After staying at OKW a few times I now also understand why people buy into DVC but still overpriced for me, the annual dues are about right IMO but its having to put the lump sum in upfont, that parts not for me. Take that into account with annual dues and cost is too much. I am glad we enjoy a £30/night offsite stay just as much or it would have cost us a fortune buying into DVC.

Hope we get a 20 min wait to see Merida, they also had to wait over a hour for Rapunzel last August.

Glad the sun is out.

we could kick ourselves that we didn't buy into OKW when it was first offered to us....it was offered to us way back in the very first round (at the beginning of the 90's? - i don't remember)...it was incredibly cheap compared to what it is today....but at that time we asked a few questions regarding being able to use it every 3 years or so (since at the time we didn't realise we'd be visiting every year), and got the wrong answers....had we received the correct answers we would most definitely have bought it at the time...
oh well...i guess it wasn't to be....

Before we tried DDP we were thinking, CS, TS & snack PLUS going to Publix for extras. In reality its too much food, I know many who have had dining credits left and most have to take things home to use up snack credits.
We like our food, above average appetite, anoyone with a small appetite will have a lot of credits left.
Last year we had 25 snacks left after 16 days, this year after 21 days we will need an extra suitcase.

we're one of the families that was left with TS credits at the end...also CS and also snack..
for the 6 of us, we had 8 TS credits left, a bunch of CS and a bunch of snacks...i don't remember how many...
but we were eating all the time....all the time...all the time....so i don't know how we ended up with anything left....really, we were so stuffed all the time, it's inconceivable to me that anyone could manage to consume it all!!!

the TS credits were left because DS and DDIL arrived late the first day, so we had CS that night instead of our TS....somehow we never made up that TS credit...and then we had an extra 2 because DS and DDIL had to leave a day early to avoid the hurricane that was going to hit the day they were scheduled to leave...
and then all those CS and snack credits...who knows....as i said, we ate all the time, so it's a mystery to me how so much was left at the end..

 

[Bexx]

I now know what you love about DVC

I'm really pleased you are enjoying OKW. We just love it, and despite the varied choice of other DVC resorts even my two young DDs say we have to stay there when we go to WDW!!

Glad the weather has got better.

 

[Cyrano]

After staying at OKW a few times I now also understand why people buy into DVC but still overpriced for me, the annual dues are about right IMO but its having to put the lump sum in upfont, that parts not for me. Take that into account with annual dues and cost is too much. I am glad we enjoy a £30/night offsite stay just as much or it would have cost us a fortune buying into DVC.

Hope we get a 20 min wait to see Merida, they also had to wait over a hour for Rapunzel last August.

Glad the sun is out.

We looked at DvC last year and came to the same conclusion about the up front cost.

Jack has been taking photos of food (when we remember) so will post up some when we get home as the wifi would not cope.

BTW tip for the wifi. When it starts to slow down phone ext 56 to get ICT support. They talked me through checking the connection on the iPad and when they were happy that it was a correct IP address reset the wifi within 30 mins
We have done this a couple of times already.

Regarding Dining Credits we should have no TS left and currently I have calculated 12 CS being unused. Snack credits we have 65 left to use up in 8 days so we may have a few Goofy's candy.

 

[dixonsontour]

If you have cs left maybe pop in earl of snadwich and get some sandwiches for the plane on the last day.

 

[Bexx]

We looked at DvC last year and came to the same conclusion about the up front cost.

We bought resale 11 years ago, so significantly cheaper (despite a rubbish exchange rate!) than it would be to do it now. Wouldn't pay the prices they are asking now, particularly with the kind of offers they do on OKW and SSR.

 

[chmurf]

We bought resale 11 years ago, so significantly cheaper (despite a rubbish exchange rate!) than it would be to do it now. Wouldn't pay the prices they are asking now, particularly with the kind of offers they do on OKW and SSR.

That up front price is what's keeping me from taking that leap of faith and purchase DVC.
First of all I don't like timeshare much, maybe it's got something to do with how other companies will bore you to death on meetings hoping that you'll eventually give in.

But what really keeps me away from all of this, that's all of those DVC kiosks all over the property. They're everywhere, but that's not what bothers me, no, what I find disturbing is that they always offer huge deals. I think they advertised up to 70% discount on our last stay.
I'm always wary of those who offer everlasting discounts. Why don't they lower the price in the fist place if they advertise a discount on a permanent basls ?
Fact is, with all the fuss they make around DVC, I have a hard time assessing the real value of the investment I could make by purchasing DVC.

I'm not hijacking the thread into a DVC thread, nor do I seek answers to my concerns.
But I'll join PP, what's the benefit of DVC when you get such discounts on OKW+free dining+14days ultimate+spending money from WDTC-UK ?

 

[paulh]

That up front price is what's keeping me from taking that leap of faith and purchase DVC.
First of all I don't like timeshare much, maybe it's got something to do with how other companies will bore you to death on meetings hoping that you'll eventually give in.

But what really keeps me away from all of this, that's all of those DVC kiosks all over the property. They're everywhere, but that's not what bothers me, no, what I find disturbing is that they always offer huge deals. I think they advertised up to 70% discount on our last stay.
I'm always wary of those who offer everlasting discounts. Why don't they lower the price in the fist place if they advertise a discount on a permanent basls ?
Fact is, with all the fuss they make around DVC, I have a hard time assessing the real value of the investment I could make by purchasing DVC.

I'm not hijacking the thread into a DVC thread, nor do I seek answers to my concerns.
But I'll join PP, what's the benefit of DVC when you get such discounts on OKW+free dining+14days ultimate+spending money from WDTC-UK ?

we bought in 1998 cost was £7k for 200 points,would say with dues added to that we have had holidays in Florida/California/Disney cruise every year since we bought(not all 3 each year mind)and average cost around £1500 per year so far.This will come down as more dues and less initial outlay.
We look at comparing if we stayed in a moderate,so it would pay for itself after 6-7 visits( and it has)
On the DDP and discounts.in the early years of free ddp where everything was included(tips/starters/main and desert plus snack credits were better) DVC was looking poor value.but as Disney made the free ddp a better tool for them get them hooked then change it. Removal of tips and starter,then QS plan at the values and mods only and regular ddp at the deluxes.
Also we buy our park tickets to last 3-4 holidays and like to visit more places off site
To us DVC the best thing we did,worse thing not buying into sooner
Paul

 

[disneyholic family]

we bought in 1998 cost was £7k for 200 points,would say with dues added to that we have had holidays in Florida/California/Disney cruise every year since we bought(not all 3 each year mind)and average cost around £1500 per year so far.This will come down as more dues and less initial outlay.
We look at comparing if we stayed in a moderate,so it would pay for itself after 6-7 visits( and it has)
On the DDP and discounts.in the early years of free ddp where everything was included(tips/starters/main and desert plus snack credits were better) DVC was looking poor value.but as Disney made the free ddp a better tool for them get them hooked then change it. Removal of tips and starter,then QS plan at the values and mods only and regular ddp at the deluxes.
Also we buy our park tickets to last 3-4 holidays and like to visit more places off site
To us DVC the best thing we did,worse thing not buying into sooner
Paul

yes, i think the original offer was about $10,000...
but at the time we were already living in israel and just didn't see how we would be able to travel there every year...
and when we asked the sales person if we could push points forward or back, he said no (when in fact you can push points into your next year)...

as it turned out, we did visit WDW every year....but who knew??

i'm very sorry we didn't...at $10,000 it was a steal..

the truth is last year they were offering OKW at a very good price, but that's it for us...the kids are grown up and the likelihood of yearly trips now is very low...
and with the cost of flights now ridiculously high, it's getting even less likely...