RailRider

They are aware of the gators and conducted numerous round ups of larger/aggressive gators. They placed multiple No Swimming Signs but opted to leave off the Alligators part, right or wrong that was their initial choice. Shades of Green which sits on Disney Property across from the Polynesian has multiple Alligator warning signs and I have seen multiple Alligators there.

Rocky Shoreline Replaces Sandy Beach at Grand Floridian. http://wdwnt.com/blog/2016/07/photos-rocky-shorline-replaces-sand-at-disneys-grand-floridian-resort/ Will be interesting to see if this happens at the other resorts on Bay Lake.

Location Location Location

Sorry just checking back in this forum. The Oasis class ships are so huge, so many unique areas and tons of activities daily. Meaning that with a large number of passengers it never feels that crowded. Honestly you can go escape in Central Park, or hang out on the top deck in the sun and see very few fellow passengers. We typically stick with the Main Dining Room for Diner, service and food are great. I don't see the need to venture in to the specialty dining venues. Although we will hit Johnny Rockets once a cruise, but for $5 per person it is all you can eat. Dangerous. Reserving Shows can be done months out so no reason to do it on the ship, but it isn't mandatory. You can line up 15 minutes before a show and get whats left, but reservations are much easier and take the hassle out. Disembarking has more to do with the port and customs than it does the ship. Some ports are just better than others. Miami and Canaveral are a breeze, Ft. Lauderdale can be hit or miss. We have always loved the Freedom Class ships with Royal, but the Oasis ships must be seen to be believed.

^ I had a poorly thought out response to this issue as I tried to express my concern over social and societal issues, but with everything that has happened lately I'm took exhausted to make a coherent statement. Fort Rapids and the entire area around it is just a sad situation. There was promise for the Resort, but they area could never support it nor did the area embrace it.

Are the trailers still in the woods by Diamondback?

Anyone seen PKI Punk at the park lately?

Send in the cranes

From what I hear the ride has continually worked out the kinks in operations and is averaging a 2 hour wait for most of the day. This is all good news seeing as the capacity of the updated Maelstrom Ride system has always been glitchy and low capacity.

Yes Animatronic driver. Whats funny about that is you can barely see the driver because of the amount of dirt and dust they have put on the windows plus if you are sitting past midway in the vehicle you can barely see the driver. I am surprised Universal went animatronic for the drivers when they could have used a screen for the back window and produced a more detailed interaction. Seems like a lot of work went in to something that has been poorly executed. Also the ride vehicles are just massive. 72 passengers and they tip the scale at 17 tons. The good news is when they are working this thing eats through the crowd, but unfortunately they are still struggling to keep them cycling reliably.

Yes the 2 motion bases worked for our ride, amazing they are still struggling with these seeing as how it is the same system used for the tram tour. There is still no transition from the tunnel to Kong. Just odd how abruptly you go from one to the other, from my understanding there is supposed to be a transition there. Also the ride while we were there opened at 5 both days, but we rode it at about 6 on Saturday and it was shut down a few hours later and evacuated. From my understanding they are struggling getting it to stay open for more than a few hours on a consistent basis. I would recommend getting in the holding area around 4 or 4:30 so that your chances of being one of the first groups on because the longer it is open the more likely it seems to close down. I think the biggest issue they are dealing with is the wifi vehicles, those things are proving to be a nightmare from my understanding with signal issues and their massive weight is causing issues with the motion base airbags. I doubt Marvel Island will get much TLC unless things have changed, because the area around Kong has not received any love nor has the areas around Potter. Just saying Universal seems to focus on the single attraction and not the area around it, but I hope I am wrong.

^ As a family we honestly had some of the most fun in Seuss Landing because of the smaller C and D ticket rides. Like you said bkroz I would take park wide TLC over any of the new attractions that are coming. Just another example The Cat in the Hat ride was suffering from inaudible audio in certain scenes and animatronics that were not working or out of synch. Plus it might just be my memory but I remember that ride spinning a lot more in certain places, like the Thing 1 and Thing 2 mess montage. Once again you have the beauty of Hogwarts next door to areas that are in serious need of some TLC. There are seasonal parks who keep things much cleaner and upkept than what I noticed at Universal. We walked in to the 90's kids area at Universal to ride ET and it is a sad excuse for a kids area. Kings Island's is much better and looks a lot prettier as well. There is the rumor floating around of a 3rd Universal Park coming, which is all well and good, but that makes me even more concerned about general upkeep of the other parks. If they struggle with 2 how will they do with 3?

First day back from Universal and it was a great trip and I still can't believe we had our daughter surprised all the way to airport. We were able to ride Reign of Kong during a technical rehearsal Saturday afternoon. A few observations. The Skull Island area is very impressive, the building and such fit in with the Jurassic Park Area nicely, but it is right on the edge of creeping in to Toon Lagoon, which is a bit odd. Anyways the queue is very impressive and brings back memories of the old Dueling Dragons queue. They had Scareactors towards the end of the queue before boarding and it was amazing watching them surprise and frighten folks in the line. I saw them focus on adults and not children in the line. Not sure if that is by design or just by chance. Anyways the line while impressive has a very disjointed story. The outside portion you are making your way through an expedition base camp, then you enter the natives temple, which is filled with natives who don't like you and then before boarding you are back inside a supply area for the expedition. There is never any discussion or mention as to why you are there, why the natives aren't attacking the base camps and why we are getting on these giant safari vehicles. I got more of a feeling of hey lets build these really cool rooms with this effect or that effect. This lack of story feeds over to the attraction itself. Doc was our driver, who gives you a brief backstory as to why he is there, but still not sure why I am here or what we are doing, what's our mission? Then the ride itself is more of the same a bunch of really cool scenes that really don't tie together or have any flowing story, more of the same. Hey it would be really cool if we did this, ideas. Anyways with that being said and with the giant ape sized plot holes... Kong is Awesome. Seriously this attraction is a great mix of physical sets and insane projections. Read no further if you don't want SPOILERS...The outside portion while short is very cool and would be awesome at night. The bats and bug pit scene are awesome and thrilling, but the tunnel projection is really well done and provides a lot of excitement and action. There is so much going on during this scene I know I missed many things. Then you meet the big guy and the Kong Animatronic is awesome to behold. The sound system they use for this is what drives home the realism. Even if it is just Kong's head and shoulders, and the set does nothing to explain why you only see half the monkey, its more of the hey this would be really cool if, don't worry about the details. With that all being said Kong is Awesome and is a great addition, just don't expect much of cohesive story like Jurassic Park or the Potter rides. It is just a bunch of cool screen based scenes with a gigantic monkey at the end. Yet it is still impressive and a great addition Here are some other observations about Universal from this weekend. The Potter areas are amazing and very well done, great additions to the parks, but as someone who first visited IOA during its first year it hasn't seen much TLC outside of Potter, neither has the Studios. My wife and I both got the feeling that all of the time, money and effort has gone in to the Potter areas and the rest of the parks have taken a back seat. Dirty concrete, faded buildings, lots of things need painted, and lots of attractions partially or not working at all. Really kind of sad to see the shape the parks were, especially IoA. Seuss Landing was just dirty and needs a good power washing and painting. Many of the Dino's on the Jurassic Park River Adventure were not working and a few were missing. The quote from the original movie from Malcom continually went through my head "There will eventually be Dinosaurs on this tour." These were just a few of the things we noticed, I could list all of the rides that were having some serious issues but I'm not here to bash Universal. We had a great time, it was just sad to see how outside of Potter the parks have gone down hill. Especially when their price point is right there with Disney, their level of service and park experience outside of Potter is nowhere near Disney. This was just a common theme we saw the whole weekend, even at the Royal Pacific, beautiful resort that needed some serious TLC. All in all we had an amazing time, Kong is Awesome, a great 1 or 2 day diversion from Disney, not practical to visit with smaller children (there is nothing for them), and please Universal put in some non screen based rides.

I have had an interesting observation regarding both Frozen Ever After and Reign of Kong. 2 brand new rides that have incredible technology behind them, yet executed very differently, and both with draw huge lines. That being said Disney excels at the boat style dark ride and Universal is sticking with screen based attractions. I think the ultimate dark ride lies somewhere between, some mix of these technologies and Frozen Ever After gives me extremely high hopes for the new Avatar Dark Ride.

We sailed Saturday May 7th through Saturday May 14th. We will be venturing on the the Harmony next May, traveling to Labadee, San Juan, and St. Martin

There was a time in this sites history where I would spend hours upon hours posting pictures and telling the story of our most recent adventure. Be it Disneyland, Walt Disney World or even Kings Island. For good or bad the site has changed dramatically since those days and trip reports of that nature are no longer feasible. Which brings me to this Trip Report. I am trying something new. A video trip report or greatest highlights from our recent family vacation this past May aboard Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas. Yes I know this is not a theme or amusement park, but it still falls within the Leisure Travel Industry and there is a carousel aboard the ship. Oasis of the Seas is considered one of the Largest Cruise Liners at sea, carrying roughly 6,000 passengers and weighing over 225.000 tons. Big does not do this ship justice. The amenities and neighborhoods on this ship are breathtaking and truly make for a floating resort/city. The cruise itself left from Ft. Lauderdale FL and made stops in Labadee Haiti, Falmouth Jamaica, and Cozumel Mexico. The video covers some ship and port highlights. Enjoy the video and let me know your thoughts. Feel free to ask any questions and most importantly enjoy relieving our trip. Footage was shot with a GoPro Hero3+ Silver

^ Great photo opportunity. I am still nostalgic in regards to Universal. I loved all the rides with physical sets and am not a huge fan of Screen: The Ride. I will be sad this upcoming trip not being able to ride Jaws and hope that Diagon Alley is worthy of its location (I hear it is). Also Earthquake was an awesome experience and its removal for Fast and the Furious does nothing for me. Especially since it is confirmed it will be a direct copy of the Tram Tour and the 360 screen, plus F&F never entertained me. But with all of the aside I cannot wait to take Little Miss RR to these parks for the first time and especially when she sees IOA for the first time.

Just a few updates and thoughts on this tragedy. The Jungle Cruise immediately changed their spiel about children being left behind on the boat will be fed to the crocodiles. Also the issue with many of the gators at Disney is they have lost their fear of humans because guests constantly feed them. I fear that this gator may have come close hoping for food from this family and things went terribly wrong after that. Also having an almost 2 year old myself, children this age have little fear of things. I imagine this child if he saw the gator did not fear it, instead thought it more along the lines of a toy or something and did not alert his parents.

2 Things: Kong like many thought is a slightly expanded version of the Tram Tour at Universal Hollywood. Expect much the same from the new Fast and the Furious ride. Say what you will be Universal Orlando loves their screen based attractions because they do them really well, even if it might be beyond a tipping point now. Secondly Next Friday we are surprising Little Miss RailRider with a long weekend trip to Universal and IOA. She has zero idea about this trip and will not be telling her until we arrive at the Airport. That being said I hope technical rehearsals are still going on because I am very much looking forward to riding Kong. Kongfrontation was one of my favorite rides at Universal, so there is a bit of nostalgia for me. Will report back if we accomplish this ride.

This is very sad new and tragic for the family. Just a few thoughts. Florida has about a 10 to 1, Human to Alligator ratio. Meaning they are everywhere, especially Central Florida. Hard to eradicate a problem with that kind of population. Not too be funny think of them as cockroaches with teeth. Disney has cameras everywhere, I imagine this or a portion of these events have been captured on film, which will more than likely shed more light on this event. I will reserve further judgement until more details come out.

Here is the link to MouseSavers and listing for all 2016 Rack Rates. Just click on the resort you are interested in. This should be fairly close to 2017 prices. http://www.mousesavers.com/2016-disney-world-room-rates-season-dates/

Just a few insights to help guide you through the process. IF your biggest concern for a resort is close to the Magic Kingdom then you should stay at the Contemporary or Bay Lake Tower. You can walk to the front gate of Magic Kingdom in under 10 minutes. That cannot be understated. No waiting at the TTS or a bus to get to the Front Gate. We stayed at Bay Lake in December and it was worth every penny we spent on it. Our daughter was less than a year old and our oldest was 7. This was the most convenient Magic Kingdom resort I have every stayed at. Your time is at a premium if only visiting 2 days and wanting to accomplish a lot, I personally wouldn't waste the hours of bus travel getting from other resorts to MK, also if you are doing EMH or Rope Drop you will need to add an extra 1 to 2 hours on to your early morning for bus travel. That can be hard with a little one. I would also highly recommend having a nice stroller for the little one. More than just an umbrella stroller. Something for them to nap in easily and a little batter powered fan is great to keep air circulating on them when napping. Lastly even with huge crowds at MK, it is still very doable to hit what you want to ride. I would highly recommend visiting www.easywdw.com for both crowd calendars and how to tour Magic Kingdom and avoid the crowds and lines even during the busiest of months. Trust me it is worth having a plan before walking in the front gate. Josh at EasyWDW does an awesome job of providing Free Detailed plans on how to best visit the parks. Book now, prices will not drop. They will only increase

Correct the 3rd track reaches in to the building next door that formerly housed the Pirates of the Caribbean Adventure thingy that was Narnia before that I believe.

Nighttime rides on Storm Chaser, who wants to be in KK after dark? Not this guy

^ Agreed it does not seem much thought has gone in to the mess that is the parking lot. Severely needing repaved and painted, lets change the entrance and make the new traffic flow completely different and have zero employees directing traffic after they pay for parking. Great move in my book. Then again some new pavement and a few arrows here and there would go a long way in helping.