Altair
01-22-2014, 07:24 PM
We went in early December and the weather was great. Highs were in the mid 80's and a few days were record highs.
We drove down and stopped off in St. Augustine to see the Castillo de San Marcos and Fort Mantanzas. Both of these are worth the time to see. Fort Mantanzas is a little harder to find, but is off Hwy A1A. There is an entrance fee to the Castillo, but the fort is free and includes a ferry boat ride to it. They are both National Monuments.
Our first day at a theme park was Universal. Last year we hit both IOA and the studios, this year we just went to the studios. We do like these parks and they are doing a really good job improving them, but we still don't get the same feeling as a Disney Park. The gap may be closing, though.
All other days were at Disney. We had six day Park Hoppers, but really did not need the hopper option since they added hours and shows.
The crowds were not bad. We did not use Fast Pass at all, except for one we got due to a breakdown on Haunted Mansion. It stopped with us under Little Leota at very end, so we got to do the entire ride plus get a Fast Pass too for the short wait to be "rescued".
We used the Fast Pass on the Jingle Jungle Cruise. We both felt the overlay for this ride was a waste and were not impressed.
We did not notice and rude CM's and did see some going out of their way to help.
The new system is making almost impossible to get walk-up seating for table service restaurants. Our only real problem was when we went to Guest Services to make reservations for the Biergarten. When we made the reservation, the CM implied the Candlelight Processional was included. We found out later, it was included, but at an additional charge. The ticket for that was removed at the end of our meal though.
The Holidays Around the World shows are fun to see and are well done.
The new food trucks at DTD did not seem to be very popular.
Speaking of DTD, get there early. One remaining parking lot is at the far end of the West Side. By the time we left, traffic coming in was a nightmare. Nobody seemed to know where to go.
One note on the tap water at WDW. We come from a place where the tap water is rated very high in taste tests and do not find the water in the parks bad. We don't stay on-site, so the resorts may be different. Now the water outside of the parks does taste bad.
Here are the links to my Flickr photos of the Disney part of our trip. Once you get to the site, if you click three times on the first photo you will go to the slide show. It's the easiest way to view them.
Disney set one
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/97695766@N00/sets/72157640053988075/)
Disney set two
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/97695766@N00/sets/72157640055911724/)
Thanks for looking. :mickey:
We drove down and stopped off in St. Augustine to see the Castillo de San Marcos and Fort Mantanzas. Both of these are worth the time to see. Fort Mantanzas is a little harder to find, but is off Hwy A1A. There is an entrance fee to the Castillo, but the fort is free and includes a ferry boat ride to it. They are both National Monuments.
Our first day at a theme park was Universal. Last year we hit both IOA and the studios, this year we just went to the studios. We do like these parks and they are doing a really good job improving them, but we still don't get the same feeling as a Disney Park. The gap may be closing, though.
All other days were at Disney. We had six day Park Hoppers, but really did not need the hopper option since they added hours and shows.
The crowds were not bad. We did not use Fast Pass at all, except for one we got due to a breakdown on Haunted Mansion. It stopped with us under Little Leota at very end, so we got to do the entire ride plus get a Fast Pass too for the short wait to be "rescued".
We used the Fast Pass on the Jingle Jungle Cruise. We both felt the overlay for this ride was a waste and were not impressed.
We did not notice and rude CM's and did see some going out of their way to help.
The new system is making almost impossible to get walk-up seating for table service restaurants. Our only real problem was when we went to Guest Services to make reservations for the Biergarten. When we made the reservation, the CM implied the Candlelight Processional was included. We found out later, it was included, but at an additional charge. The ticket for that was removed at the end of our meal though.
The Holidays Around the World shows are fun to see and are well done.
The new food trucks at DTD did not seem to be very popular.
Speaking of DTD, get there early. One remaining parking lot is at the far end of the West Side. By the time we left, traffic coming in was a nightmare. Nobody seemed to know where to go.
One note on the tap water at WDW. We come from a place where the tap water is rated very high in taste tests and do not find the water in the parks bad. We don't stay on-site, so the resorts may be different. Now the water outside of the parks does taste bad.
Here are the links to my Flickr photos of the Disney part of our trip. Once you get to the site, if you click three times on the first photo you will go to the slide show. It's the easiest way to view them.
Disney set one
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/97695766@N00/sets/72157640053988075/)
Disney set two
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/97695766@N00/sets/72157640055911724/)
Thanks for looking. :mickey: