Florida Part Eleven: Legoland

[gavin]

I’m kind of loathe to write this report as there’s really not a lot to say about the Florida parks that people don’t already know, there won’t be any pictures that people haven’t seen a thousand time before, and I tend to prefer to write about places that people might not have been to, but I suppose it’s a place to give opinions and stuff.

Unlike some people, who shall remain nameless – let’s call this person Gordanarichy – I’ll try not to take five years to get it done. I’m also not going to go into great detail about what each ride is or does since I’m assuming that most people know already.

There will probably be quite a lot of comparing and contrasting getting done given that I’ve now been to every Disney and Universal park (#bragging#suckit), so I’m sorry if that gets a bit annoying, but I think it’s natural. While this was an amazing trip, I’m not going to kiss everything’s arse and pretend that everything was wonderful because there are some definite flaws across the parks. Anyway…

Day 1 – Arriving

Ugh. Hong Kong to Orlando is a ballache. I got a good deal on price (about £600 return I think), and went Hong Kong-Seattle (12 hours), Seattle-Detroit (4 hours), Detroit-Orlando (2 hours). In terms of travel time, there really wasn’t too much that was a lot better, with nothing direct at all, and the slightly quicker options cost a hell of a lot more.

I would MUCH rather do this trip from the UK, but since I’ve only got school holidays to work with, I figured that Chinese New Year would be a good time to visit Florida since it’s not a holiday in the USA or Europe. My only other alternatives would be the summer or Christmas holidays, which just isn’t happening.

Because of a lack of car/driving license, I decided to stay at a Disney hotel for the first few days to make it easier to get to and from the parks. I made the horrendous mistake of using their free shuttle service from the airport. I think they call it “Magic Express” or something equally twee. I should have just paid $20 for a transfer service. Despite being very quiet, it took ages for a bus to arrive. Check in at the hotel, All Star Music Resort, also took forever because the staff/computer system were so bloody slow and there were only two people on the desk. There were literally two couples in front of me, and it took me twenty minutes to be seen by someone.

I’d landed at around 10:30pm and got through immigration and collected luggage very quickly. I actually got into my hotel room – a hotel that was about a twenty-minute drive from the airport – a few minutes before one in the morning. This is after 24 hours of planes and airports. Not a great start!

I was put in a room overlooking the pool area and very close to the food court, reception, and shuttle buses. Here are a couple of pictures that I took on the first morning from outside my room:

I’ll talk more about the hotel later; this is already getting too wordy and I know that most of you are just scrolling through for pictures anyway. First park coming up next.

 

[owentaylor121]

Re: Florida Part One

I actually really like reading the reports over the pictures, plus all your reports are always fantastic!

 

[nadroJ]

Re: Florida Part One

The hotel looks so gaudy <//3 I'm interested to hear in detail what actually happened to make you hate it so much after reading your FB updates!

 

[gavin]

Re: Florida Part One

^It's not so much that I hated it; I just expected a bit more. I'll get it out of the way now and then carry on with the report tomorrow.

Basically, the length of time the whole "Magic Express" and checking in process took was just totally unacceptable, so when I finally got to the room and it was essentially just a Travelodge with some towels folded in the shape of Mickey Mouse ears, I felt a bit let-down. The room was a decent size, was clean, was well maintained etc. It was just completely nondescript and generic in pretty much every way.

I had to change rooms after the second night after waking up stupidly early because of time differences and not being able to get back to sleep because of the music that's played 24 HOURS A DAY around the pool. It's not particularly loud, but once you notice it, you can't then ignore it and it was driving me insane. Ironically, it was "Don't Worry; Be Happy" that made me finally flip and call reception. Who's idea was it to pump music out all night in a family resort?

Just to make it clear before the Disney/Florida fanboys jump in, I KNOW that the All Star resorts are classed as more budget accommodation, but they're far from cheap. I wasn't expecting too much, just perhaps a little more than I got for what I'd paid. Even a $20 a night craphole will usually have tea and coffee in the rooms.

It was worth it for me to stay on Disney property as the transport to the parks is absolutely excellent. The buses run constantly all day and I never had to wait longer than ten minutes for one to get me both to and from the parks. I can't praise that enough.

One major issue is that the place itself is quite isolated. I was out at the parks pretty late most nights, but the couple of times I was back a bit earlier, I felt a bit trapped. There's a food court which is quite overpriced and doesn't have many options; it's all just burgers and pizza, and a shop that sells a few snacks, but that's it. The one night I tried to eat there, I gave up as it was just heaving with people who were all on some all-inclusive food plan and had somehow all decided to eat at once.

If you've got a hire car, then sure, you could go out somewhere else, but having a car would completely negate the reasons for staying there in the first place. The transport really is the only benefit of staying on-site. Elsewhere, you would get the same quality of room, or better, in a more convenient location where you weren't so isolated, and you'd pay a LOT less. You could also get transport to the parks at a lot of other hotels, though not as efficiently.

Yes, there's transport to Downtown Disney as well, but when you've just got back from a full day at a park and just want to grab something quickly and easily, the thought of getting back on the buses just isn't appealing.

The "extra magic hours" were, I thought, a bit of a pointless gimmick. You can arrive at 7AM instead of 8AM, or how about having an extra hour from 1am to 2am since a park that's open from 8am to 1am clearly isn't already giving you enough time. It's daft.

Basically, I'd absolutely stay on Disney property again if I wasn't driving. However, I'd pay more and stay in one of the places nearer to Downtown Disney so that I wouldn't feel quite so trapped in the evening and would have a few more options for food/drinks etc.

If you're driving though, staying at any of the All Star resorts just seems a bit stupid. You're not getting a high-quality "Disney" experience, yet you're paying way more than the going rate for the kind of place it actually is: a typical, American motel with no distinguishing features. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that kind of place; I've stayed in loads of them and always found them to be excellent value, but it's frustrating to be paying well over the going rate for that style of hotel (and I got a "cheap" off-season deal) just for an inclusive bus ride and a Mickey Mouse border around the ceiling.

Seriously, if you're driving to the parks anyway, you can get a lot more for your money and be better located than if you're staying there.

 

[peep]

Re: Florida Part One

I think you summed up my thoughts on their hotels spot on. If you get a deal with the food included and a hotel in a good location then it's a winner, otherwise it's not worth the money.

 

[Martyn B]

Re: Florida Part One

I found that some of them budget Disney Hotels can actually be cheaper than the scuzzy motels on International drive.

How did you get on with Fast Pass+?

 

[gavin]

Re: Florida Part One

^ I didn't really want to clog up a trip report about the whole Fastpass+ thing, so I started a separate topic for it here: http://forums.coasterforce.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=38784

Here's what I put in there:

The level of convenience is great; you can just stick the band on and then not have to think about park tickets, hotel key cards, money, credit cards etc. You could literally leave everything in the hotel.

It's great that pretty much every attraction is now on the fastpass system, as opposed to a more limited number of key attractions previously. However, I also felt that some people were inadvertently "wasting" fastpasses by selecting attractions which had no need of them. For example, I saw people using them for Muppet Vision or Captain EO, where regardless of whether you have a fastpass or not, you just pile into the same preshow area. As a park enthusiast, I like to think that I've got the "art" of using the traditional paper fastpass system down quite well, but I can see the appeal to a more casual visitor of being able to preselect.

Preplanned fastpasses are limited to three (though more can be chosen if they're all used) and are arranged in groups of attractions. This sometimes means that you may not be able to make the best possible choices as your preferred attractions may be grouped together and you can only choose one from that group. However, by using the phone app, you can change your fastpasses over the course of the day. I found this to be very useful when I found that certain attractions had lower waiting times than I expected, so I could change the fastpass to another attraction instead. For example, I'd selected Kali River Rapids at Animal Kingdom, expecting long lines, but found it to be a walk-on for most of the day. Instead of being stuck with a pointless fastpass, I could change it for something with longer lines.

I didn't use the band to pay for anything in the parks, preferring to just pay cash as I went - I'd put all hotels and park tickets on my card already, so preferred to keep track of daily spending through using cash. However, I can see the convenience of this system.

Personally, I didn't really like the idea of completely micromanaging my day before I'd even arrived in the country. The idea behind the bands is partly to allow for more freedom during the day as you've already nailed down your "must-do" list, potentially alleviating the stress of getting those things done as you don't need to worry about waiting times or rushing to do them before they get busy.

However, I thought the opposite was often true, with people rushing to make sure they met their fastpass deadlines (realistically there's a bit of leeway - up to 15 minutes from what I heard from staff) or to get to their restaurant reservations on time, taking away a lot of the spontaneity.

Also, being quite cynical, I also see the whole thing as a way for Disney to almost be in control of your day and keeping tabs on their guests. The bands are constantly transmitting, so there's the potential for the park/resort to know where their guests are at all times. I'm not saying this as some conspiracy-theory bollocks, because I don't buy into that, but it could be an extremely valuable marketing and data collection tool for the company. In addition, the cashless system undoubtedly creates more revenue from merchandise, food and drinks as people are't paying as much attention to what they're spending.

Basically, as a piece of technology, it's pretty amazing, but as someone with a bit more common sense/experience of the older paper system, I definitely prefer that. Disney World are really crap with single rider as well. At the California parks, especially California Adventure, using a combination of single rider and traditional fastpass, I barely waited for a single thing all day, despite it being the middle of summer.

 

[Jordanovichy]

Re: Florida Part One

Unlike some people, who shall remain nameless – let’s call this person Gordanarichy – I’ll try not to take five years to get it done. I’m also not going to go into great detail about what each ride is or does since I’m assuming that most people know already.

He sounds like a right plonker if you ask me. Maybe he wants to write a detailed trip report of his first major theme park trip? I'm sure he enjoys writing them...even if, and he understands this is most likely the case, no one reads

I've been looking forward to reading this report though. I think for the first time (at least since I've been on the forums, I doubt you've written too many Thorpe Park reports recently) you're reporting on somewhere I have been so yeah, looking forward to it.

 

[gavin]

Re: Florida Part One

^I'll have to do a Thorpe Park report one day.

Day Two: Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Since the travelling the previous day had been pretty full-on, I knew that I wanted to do one of the more slightly chilled-out parks for my first day. I wasn’t really planning to get to the park right for opening, but I woke up way earlier than I’d planned, so just decided to head out rather than try and get back to sleep for a couple of hours.

Animal Kingdom was the only Disney park in the world that I hadn’t been to at that point, though to be fair, the other three Florida parks have changed dramatically since I was there as a kid, so they might as well have been new for the most part.

I had fast passes for Kilimanjaro Safaris and Kalahari River Rapids and Dinosaur, figuring that they were likely to get fairly big queues. Everest is one of very few rides over the entire Disney World resort to have a single rider line, so I knew I wouldn’t need to use a fast pass for that.

Expecting crap capacity, I headed straight for the crappy Reverchon spinners in the Dinosaur area to get those done and dusted. I really didn’t want to spend time queuing up for them.

Only the right side was open when I first arrived, but the left side opened up later in the day. I ended up changing my Kali fastpass , which was totally unnecessary, for this piece of crap because I didn’t want to wait for it, and I really didn’t really need it for anything else.

I HATED this area. I know it’s supposed to look like one of those cheap, American, craphole roadside entertainment things, but they’ve done too good a job of it and really feels like a cheap craphole. Luckily, the rest of the park is, also very authentically, themed to much nicer environments.

I had a fastpass for Dinosaur, but it was walk-on at this point, so I gave it a go anyway.

I managed to get quite a few rides in over the course of the day, never having to wait more than about 10-15 minutes. I really liked it, but it wasn’t a patch on Indiana Jones, which I found out is the exact same ride but with a completely different theme. You’d really never know that the actual mechanics and layout of the rides are the same.

After that, it was round to Expedition Everest for my first of five rides over the course of the day. The single rider line meant that the waiting time ranged from walk-on to about 5 minutes.

I liked it; I didn’t love it. It’s a pretty intense coaster as far as Disney coasters go, and I really liked the main drop out of the mountain. The backward section was longer and more intense than I was expecting, too, but it’s executed pretty poorly.

You’re left looking at the broken track for far too long, so you know exactly what’s about to happen; there’s nothing else that could happen. I think they’ve basically perfected it now with Big Grizzly Mountain in Hong Kong. It looks and feels like a regular lift hill, with the impression that you’re going to over the top as normal, when it suddenly “breaks” near the top and drops you backwards.

Kali River Rapids was walk-on, which was surprising as it was starting to get a bit busy and rapids rides often get some of the longest queues in parks. I ended up with a boat to myself.

I really liked this. The main drop was great and came as a total surprise the first time since my boat didn’t get stopped first. I got a bit of a soaking, so just thought I’d get a second ride in before I dried off and wouldn’t have wanted to get wet again.

The second time, the boat got stopped at the top of the drop while the previous boat cleared, which kind of ruins the effect. I had the same issue with Grizzly River Run as well. You’ve got a great drop, but the whole flow of the ride is spoiled by the barriers stopping the boats before you go down it.

I had a walk around to see some of the animals around that area while I dried off a bit. The whole thing looks great, but the animals themselves were pretty predictable. There’s nothing really there that you couldn’t see at pretty much any halfway decent zoo; they’re just presented in a much more aesthetically pleasing way.

At some point during the day I did It’s Tough to be a Bug. I’d skipped this in California last summer. Well, less “skipped” and more “intended to go back for it and forgot”, so I thought I should give it a go despite not being a massive fan of most 3D/4D shows.

I actually really liked it though. The 3D film itself is a bit crap, but everything else going on in the theatre is very well done, especially the animatronic of Hopper, which is stunning.

I was in two minds whether to bother with Festival of the Lion King since I’ve seen it soooooo many times in Hong Kong. I was around the area when a show was about to start though, and since the park doesn’t have a huge number of attractions, I thought I might as well since I do like the Hong Kong show.

It’s not the same thing at all though; not even close. This one was f**king dire!

As a show, there’s no real coherence. There’s no story at all. It’s just a few songs from the film and some people in monkey costumes fannying about on some parallel bars, along with some overly-drawn-out audience participation. The theatre and staging look tacky and cheap as hell. Plus, you can clearly see into backstage areas and there are a bunch of stage managers just walking around the stage and moving stuff.

It was absolute f**king s**t!

The other show here, Finding Nemo the Musical, was better, but still not great. It was much better staged, with some excellent puppetry going on and some impressive visuals, but it just fell flat for me.

On the one hand, it’s great that they tried something different in making a musical out of a film that’s not a musical originally, with songs written especially for the show. However, on the other hand, I don’t feel that it worked. The songs themselves were a bit crap really, and I’m not sure that people want to see a “new” musical with songs they’re totally unfamiliar with at a place like Disney. You want to recognise stuff, to be able to hum along, to be reminded of the films and music that you already know and love.

I just don’t think that the gamble of a totally new musical paid off at all. They’d be better off choosing an existing musical film and adapting that. It’s Animal Kingdom; Jungle Book anybody? Tarzan?

Kilimanjaro Safaris was really impressive. Again, as far as the species of animals on display, it was predictable, but they’re presented perfectly.

I’ve never been on a real African safari to compare, but from what I’ve seen through photos and countless TV documentaries, they’ve really nailed it.

It’s a shame, yet understandable, that you’re driven through quite quickly without a lot of time to pause and get a decent look, but I know it must be unavoidable as they need to get the throughput. It’s the sort of thing you could do over and over again though, and get to have a bit of a different experience every time.

I got the train over to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. I’m not going to really bother commenting. What a waste of time and space. It’s basically a petting zoo and then an “educational” building with not much in it.

I’ll just chuck in a couple more Dinosaur pictures to rub it in for Jordanovichy, who DIDN’T BOTHER TO RIDE IT!

I finished up at Expedition Everest, wanting to whore it a bit before I left.

It broke down though, which was fine, as I’d got five rides in over the day. I’d never noticed from pictures the Tibetan village to the left of the lifthill. It’s a really impressive looking ride.

I’m just going to throw a few more pictures in here and then sum up what I thought of the place.

I really liked the place. Admittedly, it’s low on attractions and I can understand when some people call it a “half-day” park. However, it’s got a great atmosphere and is themed fantastically. As a said before though, the theming is too successful in Dinoland USA in that it’s not a pleasant area to spend time in and really jars with the rest of the park.

I liked how you’re not immediately confronted with a road full of shops at the entrance, and that you’re not forced down a “Main Street” area to a central hub; it feels a lot more organic.

The animal exhibits are stunningly presented, especially the safari ride, but the species on display are pretty generic. I suppose that’s what people want and expect to see in a zoo or animal park though, and the species on show fit in with the themed areas perfectly.

Back to theming then. The Africa and Asia areas are brilliantly presented. They haven’t tried to go with the “you’ve stumbled upon some undiscovered African/Asian village” or a “lost temple” kind of thing that you’d expect. Instead, you’re actually in areas that are themed to areas with a slight tourist industry.

It sounds weird and convoluted, but it works. The musicians around the place are playing for the tourists who’re in their village, and the signs are rusty, shoddily put together and written in broken English for example. You’re surrounded by other western tourists, which makes the whole premise more believable than if all these fat, white families with their iPhones had suddenly stumbled upon an African tribal village. It’s actually genius; it’s just too bad that it doesn’t “work” for Dinoland.

Anyway, it was a great start to the trip, and the perfect park to pick for a more chilled-out, less hectic day.

 

[Martyn B]

Re: Florida Part Two: Animal Kingdom

I didn't even know that Dinosaur and It's Tough to be a Bug existed, so I was pleasantly surprised by both!

The Animal Kingdom is beautiful. I'm glad they didn't go all out DISNEY with it, it has a nice subtle classy Disney feel.

But the parade can go die.

Expedition Everest on the other hand, I really enjoyed! The theming and attention to detail is amazing, it's just a shame inside the mountain is just steel beams. It also felt a little bit short compared to most other major Disney coasters. And I don't quite get the point in the beginning section of the ride. (Well, I get it, it's there as a build up to the big climb, but they could have done a bit more with it to make it worth while)

 

[Jordanovichy]

Re: Florida Part Two: Animal Kingdom

I’ll just chuck in a couple more Dinosaur pictures to rub it in for Jordanovichy, who DIDN’T BOTHER TO RIDE IT!

I know you wouldn't be able to post this day and resist mentioning this. Ha ha ha.

I disagree with you about Everest though, I thought it was great throughout personally. But I agree that that drop is the highlight <3

It's Tough To Be A Bug I also missed but it was shut so I didn't have much of a choice either way

I did enjoy Festival of the Lion King but I obviously can't compare it to Hong Kong's version because I'm wayyy too basic for that.

Looking forward to more

 

[nadroJ]

Re: Florida Part Two: Animal Kingdom

I did enjoy Festival of the Lion King but I obviously can't compare it to Hong Kong's version

This, I'm thinking Hong Kong's version must be pant-wettingly good because I've always thought of FotLK as one of Disney's better shows!

 

[gavin]

Re: Florida Part Two: Animal Kingdom

Even taking Hong Kong's out of the equation - it's not quite "pant-wettingly good" - the show at Animal Kingdom is poor.

There's just literally no coherence to it at all; it's a mess. Add in the clearly visible backstage areas when they just pull those black curtains back to wheel stuff on and off stage, and the stage managers running around in clear sight, and the whole thing is just shoddy. I was especially surprised since it's just been moved into a new, purpose-built theatre, yet it feels like they've just shoved something in to an existing space that was never designed for it.

Hong Kong's is actually a condensed version of the story. The premise is that Rafiki and the animals have gathered for the anniversary of Simba becoming king and are presenting his story to him as a tribute. The theatre is much nicer than animal Kingdom's, with the seats raked more steeply for better views. The stage itself is miles better, with trapdoors, raising/rotating levels etc. You're not getting bits of cheap, leftover parade tat getting dragged on and off by clearly visible stage managers.

 

[peep]

Re: Florida Part Two: Animal Kingdom

I think you totally summed up all my thoughts on Animal Kingdom and summarized how the theming is so perfect better than I ever could. Really looking forward to reading the rest of your report.

 

[TilenB]

Re: Florida Part Two: Animal Kingdom

That's the first report on Disney World that I've actually read on here... I've always found that place being presented in a rather boring/bland style, actually unexcited to put it that way. Your reports are always great, so I gave it ago and I have to say you didn't disappoint.

 

[ThomVD]

Re: Florida Part Two: Animal Kingdom

To be honest, from all the Disney World parks, Animal Kingdom looks the nicest to me. Not in terms of ride quality, but the theming and environments are absolutely stunning, and I think I'd like the atmosphere the most too. On top of that, I love animals so zoo/theme park combinations are always win <3

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

Re: Florida Part Two: Animal Kingdom

I was excited to hear your opinion about all the Disney parks, considering you've been to like, all of them! Your reports are always the best and you're very well traveled so it's always interesting to see what your perspective is.

Those hotels do look pretty dire, and though I don't know exactly what they run (overpriced I'm sure), some of the off site properties booked through Hotwire were like, $28/night which was nice, but the transportation, as you said, is awful if you don't have a car. It was good that you didn't have the extra hassle with the shuttles and all that nonsense, because that was one of the really annoying things about Disney for me that often made some of the mornings unenjoyable (the **** boat ride and shuttle to Magic Kingdom will go down in infamy for me and AJ, I think).

I think Animal Kingdom is underrated. I don't think it's a half day park like people say, unless you're just there for the main rides and then leave, which isn't the point of Disney. I could have easily been done in a few hours, but there's a lot of cool areas and exhibits to be seen that I think should be seen if you want to really experience the park the way it was intended to be experienced. Though, as you said, the animals are pretty predictable (sleeping, mostly). Everest was such an unexpected treat for me! It really blew me away as I wasn't sure what to expect, so maybe going on it having no idea what it did (yeah, I'm a great enthusiast) or what the layout was like ended up being a good thing.

Can't wait to read more!

 

[Ben]

Re: Florida Part Two: Animal Kingdom

Weirdly enough Gavin it was a Tarzan show that Finding Nemo replaced.

I like Animal Kingdom but it is a half day park. Dinosaur is FAB, Jordan you're an idiot, and Everest is good, probably a bit better than Grizzly.

I really hope you hate Epcot as much as I do when you do it <3

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

Re: Florida Part Two: Animal Kingdom

Oh yeah I forgot to say I disliked Dinosaur </3

 

[Martyn B]

Re: Florida Part Two: Animal Kingdom

Epcot is odd. Such a strange park, yet I really enjoyed it