News Round Up 2019

[The Pho]

it's about time! We tried to go to that park when it was "Jazzland". But, the Jackson Square area -- including the Aquarium and Zoo -- always won out. Really disappointed how Six Flags treated that park. Kinda like how they treated Astroworld. Both really were ignored and we eventually lost both.

I’m not sure it’s fair to blame Six Flags entirely for what happened to the park. It was utterly devastated by Katrina. The park was flooded in up to 20 feet for a month, which destroyed all the flat rides. 80% of its buildings were destroyed during the storm. Batman was the only ride not structurally compromised after it hit, although they did manage to salvage 3 others.


And despite Six Flags not doing very well financially while they ran it, they still invested in it. It was only open for 5.5 years, and controlled by Six Flags for 3.5 of those, and they were going to announce an expansion the week that Katrina hit. I believe it was their second worst performing park at the time after Astroworld.

Astroworld was a very different situation and that is squarely on Six Flags.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

NEWS

https://twitter.com/x/status/1148955382515150853

 

[jade1]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1148746122833334273

https://twitter.com/x/status/1148764971624554497

https://twitter.com/x/status/1148786191904452608

Gran Destino is beautiful! So much different from other moderates.

Dahlia Bar is awesome. Beverages and views.

Toledo is a great dining venue. Views are amazing. Atmosphere is amazing. Food is very good. Now this wasn’t my favorite meal on property. California Grill still holds that but I would go back.

I remember when I had my first beer.

Looks refreshing.

I'm kidding rteetz (although I do remember my first beer at WDW).

Kinda of new world down there over 21, my kids love that aspect.

Thanks for the pic updates.

 

[tlmadden73]

News

https://www.wdwmagic.com/attraction...-to-get-an-all-new-look-later-this-summer.htm

Interesting .. I wonder what it will look like? Tron-style fonts?

News

Chewbacca and Kylo-Ren meet and greets in Disney’s Hollywood Studios have gone to Digital Photopass Photographers. No Cast Member taking pictures in these meet & greets.

BB-8 still has the Cast Member Photopass Photographer.

Boo .. some of the best photos from our last few trips was some of the candid shots during the Chewbacca M&Gs. To me this just makes M&Gs less personal and less appealing.

The awesome photos a box wouldnt capture:
1) I was wearing a shirt with Indiana Jones finding a frozen Han on it. Chewie looked at it, growled with sadness, and I covered it in embarassment. The photographer stepped to the side to capture this exchange.

2) My sisters family was getting picture taken and as she was standing next to Chewbacca, she just looks up .. amazed by his height and has this look of starstruck awe (while the rest of her family was just smiling normally). Not sure if a box would have caught that moment.

3) My son has gotten to the age where he goes up (unprompted) to hug the characters by himself. We get a lot of great photos when the photog is able to roam around and get good angles at those brief, tender moments.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

CONSTRUCTION UPDATE

including a number of shots of the Skyliner - surprised how much you can see them from inside the parks per a few shots in here (at just over 1 minute mark and again at just over 2 minute mark)

news has been a bit slow today (guess the bloggers are recovering from their meals at Destino last night ) so just posting what I can fine

 

[rteetz]

Back to regularly scheduled programming tomorrow. Waiting for my tragical express to the airport.

Had some great experiences on this trip. Crowds were manageable and tried some new things.

 

[only hope]

Can descriptions be added with the twitter links? On phones there’s no preview of the tweet. The only thing that shows is the link, so to find out what the post is about the link has to be opened. I kept wondering why people were posting a link with no info til I looked at DIS on my laptop and saw that there, twitter links come with a title and often a picture.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Can descriptions be added with the twitter links? On phones there’s no preview of the tweet. The only thing that shows is the link, so to find out what the post is about the link has to be opened. I kept wondering why people were posting a link with no info til I looked at DIS on my laptop and saw that there, twitter links come with a title and often a picture.

You should be able to see it on your phone - they come through fine on mine ... Below is a screen shot of what I see

 

[rteetz]

You should be able to see it on your phone - they come through fine on mine ... Below is a screen shot of what I see
View attachment 416023

Yeah the DIS update allows for tweet previews so you should be able to see it.

 

[splash327]

Yeah the DIS update allows for tweet previews so you should be able to see it.

I noticed that there is a delay sometimes with the phone if you are on a slow wifi. Give it a little bit and they will load.

 

[The Pho]

Can descriptions be added with the twitter links? On phones there’s no preview of the tweet. The only thing that shows is the link, so to find out what the post is about the link has to be opened. I kept wondering why people were posting a link with no info til I looked at DIS on my laptop and saw that there, twitter links come with a title and often a picture.

Which browser are you using? All the tweets load automatically on certain browsers, Safari, Edge, Chrome, Opera, etc. If your using something more privacy focused, Firefox, DuckDuckGo, Tor, etc. it might be getting blocked from loading. Changing settings should be able to fix it.

 

[jade1]

I noticed that there is a delay sometimes with the phone if you are on a slow wifi. Give it a little bit and they will load.

Yep, even my laptop sometimes takes a while.

 

[WebmasterJackie]

Back to regularly scheduled programming tomorrow. Waiting for my tragical express to the airport.

Had some great experiences on this trip. Crowds were manageable and tried some new things.

Sorry I missed you again this time! I ended up not going down to Orlando after all. Loved seeing all your posts from there, though!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

RUMOR

http://blogmickey.com/2019/07/alcoh...rs-galaxys-edge-at-disneys-hollywood-studios/

 

[rteetz]

Sorry I missed you again this time! I ended up not going down to Orlando after all. Loved seeing all your posts from there, though!

One of these times we will meet up!

 

[Q-man]

`
think this is probably true, and I totally agree, some of my favorite restaurants on property command “one dining credit” (I’ve never bothered with the dining plan, why pre-pay for food imo? But I’m a 29 year old guy without a family, not about to get suckered into that nonsense).

Sorry to be critical to those that enjoy it, it’s just so easy to do the math with the room only discounts and realize it’s a mediocre at best deal (I’d say bad deal but please dining plan evangelists, spare me).

And thanks a lot maxrebo for your always thoughtful responses.

It has been pretty well discussed that the only way to hit that savings up to XX% Disney advertises is to eat the most expensive thing at the most expensive option every meal. For the average person they are likely paying for convenience and not savings. There are a few DDP calculator sites to see whether or not the math works for your situation.

For my family taking the room discount and one person in the party buying an AP and Tables in Wonderland is usually the best deal. But I haven't done the math with the latest AP price increase.

 

[Farro]

It has been pretty well discussed that there only way to hit that savings up to XX% Disney advertises is to eat the most expensive thing at the most expensive option every meal. For the average person they are paying for convenience and not savings. There are a few DDP calculator sites to see whether or not the math works for your situation.

Nope. I get people don't like restrictions, but what you are saying just simply isn't true as a blanket statement.

For regular dining plan ($78.01 per adult):

QS - need to spend about $23
Table Service - need to spend about $46 (each)


Now that alcohol is included, it is hard to not come out ahead.
Dinner, say $28 for an entree, $11-13 for a glass of wine and then dessert - you can hit $46 easy.
Counter service - 11-18 for lunch and then an 11-13 drink!!! Way ahead

 

[SG131]

Nope. I get people don't like restrictions, but what you are saying just simply isn'true.

For regular dining plan:

QS - need to spend about $23
Table Service - need to spend about $46 (each)


Now that alcohol is included, it is hard to not come out ahead.
Dinner, say $28 for an entree, $11-13 for a glass of wine and then dessert - you can hit $46 easy.
Counter service - 11-18 for lunch and then an 11-13 drink!!! Way ahead

It really does depend on your party structure. I've done the math for a trip that was two adult two kids very character heavy and free dining saved us more than room only. I also do the math every time I take a solo trip because I'd rather pre-pay and get it over with, but can never justify it. I also rarely drink especially in the heat. If I would drink at my meals the benefit would be much different.

And then you have families like my cousins, who go with both sets of in-laws and choose the dining plan even when its not free because it's a lot easier to have everyone pay their share ahead of time then have to work it out every meal! In their situation even if it meant paying a little bit more I would probably opt for the same!

 

[Farro]

It really does depend on your party structure. I've done the math for a trip that was two adult two kids very character heavy and free dining saved us more than room only. I also do the math every time I take a solo trip because I'd rather pre-pay and get it over with, but can never justify it. I also rarely drink especially in the heat. If I would drink at my meals the benefit would be much different.

And then you have families like my cousins, who go with both sets of in-laws and choose the dining plan even when its not free because it's a lot easier to have everyone pay their share ahead of time then have to work it out every meal! In their situation even if it meant paying a little bit more I would probably opt for the same!

Yep. You definitely have to drink the alcohol to make the most of it, luckily that is not an issue for us.

 

[rteetz]

News

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/b...eisure-readers/?CMP=SOC-DPFY19Q4wo0704190010C