RailRider

And here I was wishing for Busch Gardens Williamsburg to say April Fools regarding Tempesto or whatever they are calling their hideous new addition that they have been embarrassed to announce.

You have received some great advice on how to tour the park and such so I will add just a few minor things. Have some blue ice cream, a Kings Island must and go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Just a few things that make the park unique. Also the Reds Grill is a great place to sit down and have a meal in the park. Like others have said, Visit Holiday World if at all possible. Worth the effort. Most Importantly have fun

When you have a landlord you truly have very little say about what you do with the property you lease. Remember all rides will become property of the Fair Board if/when Kentucky Kingdom closes. They have a vested interest in what rides KK adds.

SeaWorld continues to attack. Whether alleged Trolls who disagree with SeaWorld or anyone else who speaks out against the company. What the park fails to realize is that continuing to attack anyone against them will not entice guests to come through the turnstiles. These actions are disengenious and lead consumers to further distrust and distance themselves from the brand. Obviously they have never heard that honesty is the best policy, so they continue to deny and defend. When they should admit the previous mistakes, implement changes and truthfully represent their animal care practices. The consumer is more informed about SeaWorlds practices than ever before, yet SeaWorld still views the consumer as being dumb and not very informed. Good luck down this path.

Well SeaWorld still can't get out of their own way. Their new #AskSeaWorld campaign has been a disaster and now @SeaWorld is getting a bit testy with folks on social media. What did you expect to happen? How did they not see this happening. Reading @SeaWorld Twitter feed is very amusing right now and and this is not helping after a dismal 2014 report. http://mashable.com/2015/03/27/seaworld-twitter-questions/

So what does this story have to do with Universal in Florida and targeting Disney competition? Seriously you are grasping at straws seeing as the article is about the Harry Potter tour at Warner Brother Studios in London and has zero mention of Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Disney, Florida or the USA. These are the misleading tactics that a group like PETA uses to sensationalise a story.

Sorry for the long delay in updates. The family has been wiped out the last few weeks with sickness and between that and work there has not been much time for anything else. This will be one of the last updates with pictures and it really is just some random shots that either didn't fit anywhere else or I forgot to add. These also include some of my favorites from the trip. One of my favorite pictures from the trip. Nothing makes Little Miss RailRider any happier than her Mickey Ears Balloon. Yes we purchase one every trip and it is typically the favorite item from the trip. There is nothing better than watching the joy a simple balloon brings to a child at Disney. I know I know, I sound overly sappy but just watch kids faces light up the next time you are at Disney as they get their balloon. Some balloons through the years. Something so simple can bring so much Joy... One of the neat things at the deluxe resorts during Christmas is they all have Giant Gingerbread House displays. Really something to behold and all were a different theme. The display at the Contemporary was a Frozen/Small World theme which was awesome, plus we were able to get a pin of it which was pretty neat. Pictures didn't turn out so well, but this is the house that was at the Grand Floridian. Awesome Christmas tree at the Grand Floridian My mother had waited for over 60 years to finally ride the Tea Cups Some other great TeaCup pictures Someone asked earlier about the Magic shots, here is Little Miss RR with Tink All in all a wonderful trip to DisneyWorld with some new Magic and some old. Christmas is a great time to go with all of the decorations and special events. The new My Magic / Disney Experience and Magic Band are an amazing system to use and honestly took much of the stress away from the vacation planning process. The features this system provide are great and while there are some growing pains I cannot wait to see how the system evolves. Thanks for taking the time to relive the trip. If you are contemplating a trip to the World, especially with children, Go... There is no place like it and it will create memories for a life time.

And why should a company as large as Seas take that risk?

It is the responsibility of the business to make sure consumers hear the right information and facts about their business. Don't be lazy and expect people to find the truth. Sticking your head in the sand and hoping the storm blows over is the wrong move every time. Sea World must pay for these mistakes, but having numerous customer service issues within the parks now and the automatic charging on folks credit cards shenanigans is making it easier for people to believe Blackfish.

And it wasn't like this message was coming from some obscure internet site that only had a small following. Instead it was receiving a national push and helped feed the 24/7 news cycle. After that many months public opinion views the situation as well they never responded so it must be true. In todays 24/7 News Cycle and instantaneous updates via Social Media. Companies must be on their game at all times, ready to respond and take action. A perfect example is how Carnival handled the "poop" cruise compared to how Royal Caribbean handled the fire on Grandeur of the Seas. Carnival was not fully reporting details while passengers were providing real time updates to the new media, yet Royal broke the news first about Grandeur. Both very bad incidents, yet one company is praised for how they handled it and another is lambasted in the public eye.

The New Kentucky Kingdom would have never opened without political support and will become even less likely to operate with the loss of political support. Hmmm politicians during an election year will more than likely distance themselves from this poison pill.

^ Yes the Yacht & Beach club is a very country clubish feel to it. Wasn't impressed with the resort or the Steakhouse there. Nothing about it screamed Disney to me. For the money the moderates are some of the nicest resorts on property.

And that fleet keeps growing.

That is excellent about the sister FastPass+. I love the ability to have 3 pre booked before arrival especially for the most popular attractions like the sisters and the 7D. V&A is very unique to Disney. Besides the dress code there is also an Age restriction of 10 and above and it is not part of the dinning plan. This is a very specialized venue that meets the clientele of the Grand Floridian. Gorgeous resort, but have no desire to stay there. Im not stuck up enough...

Yes the biggest thing that is a no-no are tanktops. Other than that you will see all facets of dress. A signature within a park is much more casual than a late evening meal at California Grill. Typically I have always opted for jeans and golf polo at non park signature locations and that has always been more than enough. Plus dressing up just a little makes the evening even more special. My daughter loves wearing a fancy outfit to signature meals.

One of our favorite parts of a Disney World vacation is the dinning. We view our evening meals as Mom and Dad's treat for spending a long day in the park and we have managed to eat at the majority of the Signature Restaurants on property. Thanks to the dinning plan and typically going during the free dinning promotion, we also usually upgrade to the Deluxe Plan because of our intentions to eat at Signature locations. We would never go somewhere like California Grill if we were paying out of pocket seeing as our meals there have typically been over $200, but with the dinning plan we pay gratuity and no more. Pretty awesome way to experience some of Disney's finer things and cutting out the need to eat fried theme park food everyday. Here are some of our highlights from this past trip. We love to start every trip with dinner at California Grill high above the Contemporary Resort. Planned right you get amazing nighttime views of Magic Kingdom and one of the best seats for the fireworks. They pipe the music in so it is quite the experience. Cali Grill also has some of the best food and sushi on property. One of our absolute favorites. Not a bad view from our table, pardon the grainy cell phone picture. You get the idea This year we were treated to Holiday Wishes and Fireworks come from every direction. Very awesome to be this high up and watch the show. Great way to get even more excited about the parks. While adults enjoy some of the best sushi on property, kids have a great dessert sushi option. How awesome is that? One of our new restaurants this trip was the Flying Fish Cafe at Disney's Boardwalk. This was a great surprise and I loved the location at the Boardwalk Resort. Great meal and then a relaxing stroll out on the Boardwalk to work dinner off. The decor in the Flying Fish fits in perfectly with the Overall Boardwalk Theme. Potato wrapped Snapper and NY Strip Steak. Love some surf and turf and this was fabulous. No better way to wrap up a day at Epcot than with a meal at Le Cellier. I believe they have the best steak on property. While a tougher reservation to get because of size, the food is still first class After this trip here is a quick rundown of the Signatures Locations we have experienced. Artist Point California Grill Cinderellas Royal Table Flying Fish Cafe The Hollywood Brown Derby Jiko Le Cellier Narcoossee's Yachtsman Steakhouse Not a bad list and quite the unique collection of meals and some of the best food I have experienced. Up Next. No Rhyme or Reason.

Will Pandora be sponsored by Pandora?

Neat update on Avatarland at AK and the video shows some of the model, plans, and bio luminescent plants. The floating mountains really look amazing, will be neat to see once it is fully realized. http://wdwnt.com/blog/2015/02/artwork-video-disney-reveals-avatar-land-model-gives-first-look-at-bio-luminescent-plants/

Disney decided the new My Disney Experience (Magic Bands, FP+, etc) was a better investment option for a Billion $ than the monorail extension. After using the new system I tend to agree and it is having a very positive impact on the bottom line. The monorail doesn't make money.

I really like Universal, but the park is so simulator heavy. Kong and Jaws were 2 of the best rides in the park. I know I know, great additions went in their place, but those rides were very unique to the park and added diversity. IOE offers a much more diverse ride line up compared to the sister park.

Right, guess I should have written that better. I am lumping all of the moving vehicle motion simulators in to one category. Those with screens, physical sets, props and etc. Any combination of technology they all fit in the same category for me. Indy being my favorite.

And I still think out of all of the various rides that incorporate screens, physical sets and motion simulators the California Indiana Jones is by far and away the best. I think the next evolution in this technology is to take a ride system like Indy and Dinosaur and incorporate more of the 3D mapping technology along with real sets and the occasional movie screen. Sorry but to me many of these rides are all movie screen and very little else. The set dressing is almost an afterthought. Thats why Indy blows me away still to this day, the scene with the rope bridge and watching other rovers cross it is very impressive.

^ Great update over at WDW News Today http://wdwnt.com/blog/2015/02/photos-first-section-of-new-magic-kingdom-hub-opens-to-guests/ Yes it does look fancy. Love the grass area for Wishes viewing and photos from last night showed everyone sitting down and enjoying the grass for the fireworks. Much better option than standing in the a herd. Also reported that Universal single day tickets are now $102 and a one day 2 park ticket is $147.

I heard about the addition of the new fence. Not surprising seeing as the number of people that walk up in the flowers to get pictures is insane. I know waiting to get this pic we saw multiple folks do it. The new fencing is almost identical to that at Disneyland. Be our Guest is great for the atmosphere and I am very happy they are doing ADR's now. I like to book as many ADR's as possible. Makes the trip much less stressful and meals are important when taking advantage of the dinning plan. I think a character breakfast could be awesome, especially seeing as how Cinderellas Royal Table is very tiny for a breakfast meet n greet. I would love to see Belle and Beast do a character breakfast at Be our Guest with Gaston of course. Would be a very unique meet n greet and an almost impossible reservation to get. The theming is not to be missed. The food is just ok in my opinion.

I believe part of the hub is ready to open or will in the next few days. The other side is a little further behind. The monorail is great and I wish Disney would have gone through extending the line to connect more parks and such, but the cost of doing so is quite high. After staying at Contemporary's Bay Lake Tower on our December trip I loved having the monorail line at our fingertips, boat transportation to the other resorts in the area, being able to walk to Magic Kingdom all before ever needing a bus. The bus system is ok and will become a greater priority as visitor attendance continues to climb. Off season is becoming less and less of a thing at the World.