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Aug.dog - Unless you have the Park Hopper option (which runs an extra $50.00 per person) you will not be able to use two park admissions on the same day on a Magic your way ticket. You could still go to another Disney park but would haft to buy a separate one day admission, which would make it cheaper to just get the park hopper option. I do not want to sound like a know it all, but I don’t want you to get to your last day to find out the info above and then have limited options. I hope you guys have a great time I look forward to hearing from you when you get back.

Too much info RailRider and besides I hope you blew your nose before you typed out your response. eww

LOL - thanks I needed that good laugh.

aug.dog – your children are the perfect ages for Disney, you guys are going to have some great memories to bring home. Your itinerary looks good and as far as your park selection for each day as far as crowd size goes you picked the right park for the right day. I usually recommend that on your last night that you should include a show or night firework show. I was going to suggest a few things that you could do after Animal kingdom, but noticed it closes later on Friday night at 8PM. I did not know if you had dinner reservations on Tuesday at the studios but if I was to recommend anything at all, I would switch Tuesday studios visit to be Animal Kingdom and then do Hollywood Studious on Friday. That way you would be able to see the spectacular Fantasmic show at Hollywood Studios on your last night. I think you’re ok either way especially now I see Animal Kingdom is open later. Just one more thing you probably know already but just in case; which ever day you go to Hollywood Studios make sure the first thing you do is get Fast Pass for Toy Story Mania. If you get there right when they open go ahead and ride it after you get your Fast Pass (the line should be short and that way you get too ride it twice in the same day. Also remember your Fast Passes do not expire after the last time stamped on the ticket. Even if you ticket return time is by11AM you can use that ticket all day until they close. Have fun we want to hear about your trip when you get back. RailRider – thanks for the info, we have went to Opryland on time for a hockey tournament my son played in. It is a spectacular hotel and I bet you are right it would be a great place to spend a weekend during the holidays.thanks

Gator – outstanding report! Now take two bows, one for taking you family to Disney and stepping up when you wife was sick and the second for taking the time to write this report. I know how long it takes and I appreciate you taking the time to share your trip Sounds like you and Gatorgirl got some quality one on one time while down there. I did not care for the Tie Dye Cheesecake either in fact I don’t think I have heard anybody who thought they were more than just OK. I agree with you about going back for a forth straight year, but we went ahead and at least booked the bounce back deal. We can always cancel later. Although Disney’s current deal is a good one especially for those staying at a moderate or deluxe resort. If your staying at the Value resorts then the Free Dinning is a better deal, plus you only half to stay a minimum of 3 nights. I also took a picture last year of the abandoned legendary years at the POP. DeLorean Rider – honestly I liked your commentary a lot and we thought you where one of the best Jungle Skippers we have had. Luff – I truly enjoyed the pictures you posted from your trip and in the PM you sent. I think you had a unique experience too, so if you ever decide to do a trip report about your Disney Cruise, just know I would enjoy reading it.

Auge.dog your trip is right around the corner and looks like you guys are in for a great time. One request, please bring back some warmer weather. I can not remember the ages of your children, if they can make it the second Spectro Magic parade after wishes is a lot less crowded. Plus after the wishes fireworks ¾ of the park leaves, so we usually stay for the second night parade while everybody else is waiting for buses. I love Animal Kingdom, I just wished it stayed open longer. I assume Friday is you last day, are you doing anything special that night (restaurant, show, ect)? Well if I don’t hear from you, I hope you guys have a safe fun filled family vacation. Edit to add – Let us know what you thought about the ICE show at Gaylord Palms.

RailRider – thanks for the warnings you are very patent and understanding (a sign of a great father). Just one question are you trying to introduce me to Lorenzo the Magnificent (you know he’s R.I.P.) or are you hinting at inviting me to a wonderful trip to Italy?

Another great installment on your overall report Gator, thanks for taking the time to write it. So is Dad considered “The Beast”? Oh those melt downs, I feel your pain there. You need to frame that picture of Gator Girl eating the Mickey Bar, priceless! At the same park Lisa and Miss Rae while getting ice cream from a stand, while I was ridding Rock “n” Roller Coaster, where told their ice cream was on Mickey too. That Mickey sure knows how to treat his guests when they pay a visit to him, what a great guy. Yeah I think a serious update to Star Tours is badly needed, I did not even ride the last time we went and probably won’t until it’s updated. Nice pictures and from the looks of them some special family moments took place as well. Well I have already tuned in the channel for your final episode and look forward to it. RailRider – I am glad you responded to my last post; now you have no excuse later. To think I was tying to give you an out excuse too. Well more responses like that will be cause for double pours.

Thanks Terpy I feel better now. Honestly I have learned so much about the industry from your articles and really do appreciate you taking the time to share them with us. With all the informative articles you link us to; a fuddy duddy was bond to happen.

Terpy – thanks for the links to many informative articles, but this last one I would love to ask the author of the article a question; what did the title for the article have to do with the information in the article? After taking a minute to read that article to learn nothing new and to being so perplexed that I questioned myself that maybe I over read the article, so I wasted another minute to reread the article to find out what Shamu had to do with the article as the title suggests. I don’t blame you Terpy but I think that was the most meaningless article I have read in a long time and hope Connie was not paid for that. If I had a subscription I would be questioning how a article like that gets out to a paying audience.

I have always heard it is better to buss it to Magic Kingdom too, but have learned to never leave when 85% of the park leaves too, as that is a long wait for busses back to the resort. I have never had a car when we went down so I don’t know which way is better, the busses are hit and miss at times, but I have gotten somewhat used to them. I bet you had a tired little one hanging on you when you left. The picture of Gator Girl in the tea cup makes her look a bit older than in the others. I think it is wonderful that Disney makes sure most children are given extra special attention when down there and it looks like Gator Girl got her fair share. I know this is a sticky subject but man you just had to put a picture of the Dole Whip Floats up didn’t you? Now that craving for a Dole Whip for the next couple days, Thanks. If I read this report right you said this is your third trip to stay at Disney right? Well I went back through and looked at all the photos; I must have missed one because I did not see one of your rooms window being decorated. I would expect that from a newbie like RailRider but not from a Disney Veteran; please tell me its coming. The Ariel in the parade on your day and ours was ok but I thought the one in Ariel’s Grotto was by far the best I had seen from any of our visits.

OH, this is Bill’s work! Bill awesome video you have great talent I hope we see more of your exceptional work in the future. Just Awesome man.

Wishful thinking but I would love it if KI offered a photo pass type system too and even offer season pass holders a set price for season long photos on CD. I would buy. Speaking of Disney Photo Pass we just got ours yesterday, we had about 325 pictures taken by Disney (which if we didn’t I would never be in a picture) but after we added borders and cropping of some we ended up with 746 pictures. It cost us $99.00 for all the pictures on a CD with the rights to them, which even includes the shipping and handling. Below are 3 pictures of Test Track on ride photos. First is the original Second one with the border added. Last one is a copy of the original with cropping and borders added. Seriously I would buy a photo CD from KI if they offered it on a daily basis or a more expensive seasonal one. Here is to hoping.

Ryan great job on the video I enjoyed it and the music was just right. Coming home on Friday night after work and seeing this was a great way to perk me right up.

I very seldom buy pictures from the various photo venues at KI, unless it is a special occasion/event. I know the only reason why they offer them is to make money but in my opinion they hinder their full sales potential. Some times I like a picture at a ride, but quickly think do I want to pay money to carry a photo around all day and what if I damage it before we leave, so as soon as those thoughts enter my mind, I walk away. It would be nice if they offered for guests to pick them up on their way out at the keyhole kiosk (or a merchandise shop up front to entice further sales) on their way out in a line designated for ride photo pick-ups. Then another way to boost photo sales is to offer a set price for all photos on a CD (rides & park photos). If they order the CD they could go home and adjust the photos and add borders then have KI send them the completed CD with additional cost for shipping and HANDLEING. They must make some money selling photos at KI, but under the current structure it does little to entice me to purchase photos and believe it or not I am very interested on family keep sake photos.

Gator – thanks for part 2 I am enjoying reading your report. First I just want to tell you your Daughter is adorable, on the last day at KI I seen her with her full costume on, so seeing your daughter in the pictures really shows her true beauty. We love having dinner at the Grand Floridian too, that resort is nice and grand, if you know what I mean. The Mad Hater seems to be casted very well and I don’t think I have ever seen one not on his game. Looks like you had a great off day from the parks and did a lot of free activities while touring the deluxe resorts. Those towel animals are great, the kids really love them, last year we got tons this year just a couple, I am glad the maid took the time to go above and beyond to help cheer Gator Girl up. So which deluxe pool did you like the best and what Pop pool is the best? I am looking forward to part 3, great job so far. The long hints are great too.

Depending on which Disney resort you stay at the tax rate is 12.5% to 13%, Ouch. Some of the resorts run $400.00 a night that would be an extra $50.00 a night just in taxes. As far as not paying income tax, that is true they don’t but the employer usually justifies the lower Florida wages by pointing out they make more than others because of the no income tax.

XGatorhead8904 – what do you mean finally, I was hoping you would have taken more time. In your post in the thread of your trip report from your last day at KI you said that you would be working on this report, so I said to myself that when he gets his Florida report up I will do my last day report. Looks like another evening is planned for this week. I like your style on your report I feel right at home Ha ha ha. I am enjoying your report and descriptions that had to be a stressful first couple hours. I have never dinned at the any of the French restaurants, I knew someone who did and said the portions where so small that they had to eat after they left. Sounds like we may need to go now after reading you description. I like you Spaceship Earth picture and you would think your daughter would be a least a little older looking not to mention a bit more grey hair for you. Sorry to hear Gator Girl was so ill on your first night I hope it got better, and we had a similar incident on our first trip where the Maid at 12:30 at night was right there when we needed extra towels. Just a bit of warning if you announce when your next part will be up, some smarty pants may call you on it if you get delayed. I will be looking forward to the next part; in the meantime I’ll try to figure out the hints.

Thanks guys for the information and suggestions, it really helps and from the sound of everyone’s warning about staying in the area, I will take extra care in researching a hotel in the area. Clearwater sounds to be the best option so far. I am going to be doing some homemade video slide shows in the next couple weeks, so when i get them done i will post them here, for those interested.

Beast1979 I hope you have a great time at Dollywood. We have always wanted to visit Dollywood.too so I will be looking forward to your report when you get back. Until then have a safe trip.

tigellinus – thanks for your INDOT insight, living here in Indianapolis the construction around 465 is never ending. It was in bad need of improvements and not just repairs but also in widening and better on/offs ramps. The thing is it seems as if they are on the slow speed at times but from your explanation, it looks as if they are taking there time and doing it right the first time. This is reassuring, thanks. It will be interesting to see what Californians end up doing. Speaking of ticket Tax isn’t time for Mason Ohio to bring up their Ticket Tax proposal again? I can hardly wait to see the reason they need it this time.

The increase of Indiana’s sales tax had nothing to due with Indiana’s budget other than shifting the home owner’s exceptionally high property tax, (which was delayed for over a decade) to be spread out and into an increase in the states sales tax. If you remember right since you live here in Indiana, many many politicians where tossed out of office even though they had nothing to do with the property tax fiasco. This was not a one side or the other issue; citizens all over the state on both sides rallied in the streets in protest and spoke out at the ballot box. The only solutions the politicians on both sides could do to give the home owners some relief was to increase the states sales tax which was not going to cover the whole amount so part of the states budget reserve was going to be needed to cover the shortfall in edition passing a increase to the business property tax through reassessments. The governor even seeing the anger of the citizens of the state has been working on putting caps on tax increases, so much so that he is trying to make it a state constitution amendment, so that the citizen can be reassured that the taxes will not be increased over a certain amount. I am very proud of Indiana citizens standing up and speaking out against tax increases, I hope they continue doing so in the future.

Yeah and that is after you paid income tax and were given what was left then you would get taxed 9.25% of that. How and why people go along with this I’ll never understand.

I am surprised this hit Disney this fast but I do anticipate that it is going to be a very rough road for Disney’s future. Disney has been deeply cutting their spending and have started to put their future projects on hold and even cancel some altogether. I think that is a huge mistake, at slower times theme/amusement parks rely on there season/annual pass holders and the local in there area to keep a cash flow coming in. The problem with Disney is they are not offering anything new to keep that fan base excited and saying to themselves I can’t wait to see/ride a new attraction /show offering. Give the people something to come back too. Sea World and Universal are cranking out new attractions and show, Sea World just opened a new 30 minute show and building a new coaster. Universal is scheduled to open a new coaster next year and a new park section of Harry potter. I myself question why go back to Disney when we go to Orlando, when there are new and exciting things going on right across town. I think Iger forgets consumers have choices and if you are not offering anything then the consumers will go else where. I also can not figure out why he delays these new projects, because one day the economy will rebound and Disney will even be more of the old same old same old while the others have been busy building during this time so when things get better they’ll be the better choice of the locals and yearly visitors. Everyone knows how Pro Disney I have been but watching some of these decisions make me scratch my head in disbelief. I would sell my Disney stock too right now. I don’t have the same information they do to understand what they are doing, but what information I do get has me disappointed with Iger. Now for those who have wanted to go, Disney just announced for dates of 1/4/09 – 6/19/09 if you pay for a room and tickets for 4 nights, Disney will throw in 3 more nights and tickets for free. Additionally if you go before 4/19/09 they give you a gift card of $200.00 to spend at various places on property. This is almost a 9/11 sale prices. In other words, As good as it gets. http://www.wdwinfo.com/disneypackages.htm

Awesome beach cams Captain! Now I know we want to stay on the Gulf and if Tampa is not the best place for a family then if any one has any suggestions, we’ll fly in then stay 2 nights someplace then go to Busch Gardens then drive to Disney to check-in.