RailRider

As the news reports have stated the resort is shut down for the next 8 weeks to resolve the reported issues. I imagine serious fumigation will be going on to battle the bed bugs and roaches that have been prevalent for many years. I wonder if guests will be willing to come back, at this point it might be wise to reimagine the resort. Change names, theme, new attraction or 2, something to go along with a cleaner, safer, better environment. We visited the resort about 4 years ago and stayed in the new build villas on site. The rooms were pretty nice, the water park had lots of potential and some unique attractions, and the resort had potential. Management was horrible to deal with over random charges they put on our account and we felt overall the resort was at a tipping point. Either improvements would be made or it would be allowed to spiral downward. Very unfortunate the state it is in now. Surprised Great Wolf or Kalahari has not built in Columbus, something the town is truly missing during the winter.

Business aspects taken out of this comment and I will reflect with rose colored glasses. I always loved Geauga Lake and then Six Flags Worlds of Adventure. Such a pretty setting and a neat concept. I wish it would have succeeded like they planned, but it like so many other parks ultimately failed. This video is almost as depressing as walking from Opryland Hotel to Opry Mills and passing the remnants of Opryland

So our 6 day park ticket, no hopper works out to $340 per person or roughly $56 per day per person.

Great idea that will now end up within Disney Parks for twice the price.

Mmmmm Dole Whip candles

SoG by design and concept was not built with higher rank individuals in mind. As I said it is a Holiday Inn approach on prime Disney realestate. Providing military families a much more cost effective Disney option on property.

Seems like a great idea when a large percentage of guests are leaving your product.

SoG also has some of the biggest rooms on property, but as Terpy mentioned you either need to be Military or with Military to stay there. Having stayed there once, the price is fantastic as is the location, but the rooms are more Holiday Inn. A great benefit for our Service Members. The great things about staying at the Contemporary or Bay Lake is you are 5 minute walk to the Front Gates of the Magic Kingdom.

Last chance to sell the park before it all goes away.

Not trying to be picky, but here is a listing of rides that rely heavily on screens for the majority of the attraction at Universal Studios: Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem Harry Potter Escape from Gringotts Shrek 4-D T2 3-D The Simpsons Ride Transformer The Ride I would even listen to the argument that Hogwarts Express is screen based. Rides Opening Soon at Universal Studios with Screens: Fast and the Furious Race Through New York Rides at Universal Studios that are not Screen based: ET Rip Ride Rockit Kang & Kodos Twirl Men in Black Revenge of the Mummy Add in to that the Screen Based rides IoA has: Amazing Adventures of Spider Man Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and soon to open Kong attraction. By the end of a few days at Universal I feel like I have done nothing more than waited in line for a bunch of movies. That is why for me rides like MiB, ET and Mummy are some of my favorites and I am one of the few who was very sad to see Jaws leveled for another HP Screen Ride. Now Earthquake has been removed for another Screen Ride in FaF. This is one of the major reasons that I would spend time at IoA over Universal Studios because they have a much better mix of rides and don't rely on Screens so much. For me rides like The Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland, Dinosaur at AK, even the 7 Dwarfs Mine Train are better than any of the screen based rides Universal has done. I like physical effects and the screen based stuff never coveys the same realism that rides with physical effects do.

And Universal has 3 more screen based rides opening soon. Kong, Fast and Furious and New York thing. Just my opinion but they have driven the whole screen based ride concept in to the ground.

The size and scope of the construction projects at Disney World is frequently overlooked by folks. That being said the rearrangement of key personnel within Imagineering is a largely due the extended timelines some projects have taken. ie New Fantasyland. Yet, Pandora is on pace to open early 2017, Frozen Ever After and Soarin Around the World are slated to open Spring/Early Summer 2016 as is Animal Kingdoms New Rivers of Light and other minor attractions within that park. Lastly Downtown Disney has been undergoing the massive makeover becoming Disney Springs with the new Town Center coming online in early 2016 along with other key restaurants like STK. This doesn't even account for the rumor that the new Toy Story land is opening late 2016 and Star Wars land starts construction by the end of the month. These projects are all happening after the completion of New Fantasyland and the resort wide implementation of Magic Bands and the new Fast Pass+ system (which is often overlooked, but was a massive undertaking). The World is under a massive transformation all while roughly 50 million people visit each year.

From your first concern about being able to ride intense rides I would visit Disney over Universal. Also for your love of Star Wars it makes more sense. Something to think about the parks will be a bit more crowded since Monday is MLK day and most schools are shut down. I would only consider doing 2 Disney parks and not 3. Since Magic Kingdom will have larger than normal crowds and AK is not recommended because it has Extra Magic Hours in the morning which will pull in thousands of extra resort guests. With that in mind I mind this would be my recommendation for visiting Disney on Monday. First I would avoid all coasters since you mentioned you are unable to ride them. Not worth the chance plus it will cut out some big lines and crowds for you. I would rope drop Magic Kingdom, park opens at 9am I would be at the front gate by 8:20 ready to go. I would spend most of my day here until about 3pm. Either catch the Festival of Fantasy Parade or leave at 3pm and catch the bus to the Studios where you spend the rest of the day focused on Star Wars. You can hit Star Tours, Launch Bay and don't forget the nightly Star Wars Fireworks at 8pm. Also crowd wise the Studios should be the least crowded park of the day making it much easier to come in later and hit some of the more popular attractions. Your touring strategy within Magic Kingdom will be determined on if you want to ride the classics in Fantasyland or not. If not I would head straight for Pirates, Jungle Cruise and work my way from Adventureland to the Haunted Mansion then over to Tomorrowland. If you are wanting to his some of the classics in Fantasyland I would ropedrop PeterPan (SevenDwarfs if you think you can handle it) then Pooh, Little Mermaid, Dumbo, Small World, Haunted Mansion, Pirates and Jungle Cruise. These are just rough ideas of how I would do things on a tight schedule. The key will be staying ahead of the crowd that is why it is so important to rope drop the park and hit a ride that within the first 30 minutes of opening will have the largest building line. See the below touring plans for great additional info and tips. Josh at Easy WDW makes touring almost fool proof. Here is some suggested reading that will give you a great plan for how to attack the parks. Also you will need a 1 day Magic Kingdom ticket with Hopper, should be around $165 per ticket. Magic Kingdom Touring Plans http://www.easywdw.com/easy/magic-kingdom/magic-kingdom-touring-plans-rope-drop-wait-times-and-fastpass-priority/ Hollywood Studios Touring Plans http://www.easywdw.com/easy/hollywood-studios/hollywood-studios-touring-plans-rope-drop-wait-times-and-fastpass-priority/ StarWars Launch Bay Touring Strategy http://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/new-jedi-training-academy-trials-of-the-temple-signup-star-wars-launch-bay-strategy-chewbacca-and-vader-meet-and-greets-path-of-the-jedi-new-food-options-at-backlot-express-royal-guard-burger-and/ Video of the StarWars Fireworks http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1659478#p1659478 Great Review of all the StarWars happenings at the Studios right now http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1656872#p1656872 Go luck and I expect a trip report on how Monday goes.od

This continues to gain steam and details are now emerging about the show box these drones would occupy. Sounds very awesome if this gets off the ground. http://wdwnt.com/blog/2016/01/rumor-disney-files-to-add-drones-to-fireworks-tangled-lanterns-new-epcot-show/ Also I am sure some of you have seen this video making the rounds of this synchronized drone flight done by Intel. This could be an awesome addition to a show.

Nothing like keeping up with the Joneses

And so it begins

Wow I am working on almost 11 years at this point. Seriously? That is crazy. Amazing how this place has changed, some for the better, some not so much. Many a user has come and gone and some of us haven't gotten the hint to leave yet.

Beliefs aside, the Ark will open 7/7/2016 and in my opinion will have a far greater impact on Kentucky than what many believe. The construction site is absolutely massive.

So did those permits ever get issued? Guess not.

Ahh yes attention to detail, not one of their strong suits

Yes they still have a campground at Ft. Wilderness and the World is still in Florida.

I always love when the whole argument of Disney hates the Middle Class is made or that going to Disney is a right not a privilege. Disney has done a fabulous job of make people think that way, well done. Many have already made my argument against these points so let me add some numbers to support this. Disney World can be done lavishly and frugally, the choice and budget is your decision. December 2014 my family of 4 plus my parents did Disney lavishly. We stayed at Bay Lake Towers (1 bedroom Lake View Condo), which is a deluxe Vacation Club resort and a short walk from the Magic Kingdom, we were on the Deluxe Dinning Plan (upgraded from free dinning), had multi day tickets, Memory Maker photopass, Tickets to Mickeys Christmas Party and flew to Orlando. This trip roughly cost $8,500. Yes this was a very expensive once in a lifetime trip, but something that we saved and planned for a year or so in advance plus it wasn't solely coming from my pocket either. Vacation and Christmas wrapped in to one. Should every family take a trip like this? No its not for everyone, but we planned, saved and prepared for this long in advance. This September we are doing a much more budget friendly trip to Disney World. Family of 4, staying 7 Nights at a Moderate Resort (Port Orleans Riverside), 6 day tickets, Free dinning and will be flying. We are spending under $2,500 for this trip. We could have opted for a Value Resort and spent about $500 less. Is this expensive? Maybe, but go to a beach for a week and figure in food and entertainment and I imagine you are close to this cost for a family of 4. Then again I work a second job with the specific purpose of paying for Disney or any other vacation we choose to go on. We work hard so we can play hard and for my family Disney has become almost an annual trip and for us is well worth the money spent.

Metal detectors will stop a lot more than not having metal detectors. Also this is very timely after the incident at Magic Kingdom a few days earlier this week. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-andrew-gerson-arrested-gun-disney-20151212-story.html

I was always a fan of Don Miears, he always treated me very well.

Grab some popcorn and a soda, its an entertaining read