medford

according to Walt Disney World's website: a 4 day park pass, is $279 for an adult, $260 for a child ages 3-9 a 5 day park pass is $289 for an adult, $270 for a chile ages 3-9 a 6 day park pass is $299/$280 taxes for all of those is roughly $70 a ticket ($75 for a 6 day pass) So in figuring the cost of a WDW vacation, assuming your looking at a minimum 4 day window, but you're going to be in town longer, there is minimal savings/ticket if you don't extend your ticket package out the full time that your down there (Obviously if you know for certain that if you go down for a week, there will be at least 1 or multiple days you're going somewhere else, say like Universal or out to the ocean/gulf, then it would be a waste of money to spend the extra day, but if your going to remain on property the entire time, even a day spent at the pool can turn into a quick evening at one of the parks, so I'd go for it. In either case, when it comes to budgeting, it doesn't make a big difference to the overall budget. so, if we pick the 5 day package in the middle , and I look at my family of 4, that is $1,190.68 including tax. I happened to look at hotel packages the other day, and it seems that a middle of the line disney hotel room, that would fit a family of four was running approx. $160 a night, plus taxes. If I figured I needed 6 days of a hotel, to spend those 5 days in the park, that would run me another $1000+ by the time I factored in taxes. Add it up, and you're looking at over $2,000 before you start talking about gas, transportation costs, food, souveniors, etc... Obviously you can find ways to save over the average person, find a hotel room w/ a microwave and/or sink so that you can make some cheap lunches, breakfastes or dinners in your hotel room. $10,000 would make for a very nice, plush vacation at WDW for a family of 4, but as its something on my mind to do in the next 2-4 years, I've been tucking about $4000-$5000 into the back of my mind budget.

I've had to cough on more than one occasion when get "checked" at the doctor.

The KI website is official that ERT is 11:30 Thanks, avoiding 1 word posts.

The cost of fast pass was already figured into the cost of admission. From the cost of maintance, new installations, character costumes, parking lots, transportations, to advertising, salaries, state, local and federal taxes and everything in between, its all factored into the cost of your admission, and anything they anticipate the average park attendee will purchase inside the park. If taxes are raised, the costs to attend the park will rise, because they don't pay taxes, their customers pay the taxes. If they expand into a big new area at the cost of millions and millions of dollars, those costs are ultimately paid by the park attendees. If they spend 1.5 billion on a fastpass+ system, those are ultimately paid for by the park attendees. If you believe otherwise, they've done a brilliant job of selling you a bill of goods. Similar to the pop at Holiday World, they want you to feel like you're getting "something for free" because it helps install better sense of goodwill and happiness, but in reality those costs were already accounted for the minute you paid for admission.

As an added note, according to accuweather, the average daily temperatures for April 18th are a high of 66 and a low of 44. If that day hits right on average w/ a decent amount of sunshine, it would be a glorius weather day. However, it is Good Friday, and it seems like it rains significantly on Good Friday about 75% of the time.

OK, so my wife and I were already planning on taking that day off, but leaving the kids at the sitters, basically bumming out, catching a movie, etc... Then I saw that KI was opening up that day, so I have the same question. Weather permitting, we're planning on heading down first thing, someone posted that it was going to be open for ERT for gold pass holders, so we thought about taking advantage of that. However, neither one of us has a huge interest in sitting in a 3-4 hour line. The park opens at 12:00, I read ERT was at 11:30, though I don't know if that was official or just somebody on here making a guess, I haven't seen anything official regarding ERT on Banshee that day. If we got to the park around 11:00, and waited for the rope drop for gold pass holders, how long do you think the line would be? I don't need to be on the 1st train, and we're not going to run back to the ride to get on 1st thing. Did Diamondback open up on a Friday? While it is Good Friday, not all companies observe that holiday and make it a day off (I'm personally taking vacation, but I was doing that anyways). On top of that, with it being Easter weekend, there will be a number of people that will have family commitments on that weekend, so even if they have a vacation day, they may be hitting the road for a trip to grandma's house. I suppose no one knows exactly what that day will look like; if we have to get to the park at 10:00, just to avoid having a 2 hour wait, then I'll probably just skip the day, or weather permitting, get there at lunch time and enjoy the short wait times on Diamondback and The Beast.

A couple of observations: The Racer has grown many inches since it first opened Interesting to see the changes in the depection of Scoobie Doo/Woodstock Express Did the train originally operate in the direction indicated on the original map? Its shown running the opposite direction of how it runs today, unless of course they ran the train backwards in the day. I wonder if people complained in 1979 about how The Beast transformed the look of rivertown the way people complain today about how Diamondback transformed the same area. I wonder if people told those people to shut up and be thankful for the wonderful new coaster they got to ride. Its amazing how much the park has expanded since its early days.

I understand and have always understood the Fast Pass systems, new and old. What upsets me is that I'm paying big bucks to try and have a good time at a given park, and someone with even more bucks gets to cut in front of me. If those people and myself were having a shrimp dinner at Red Lobster, and they had a Red Lobster Fast Pass, would they be seated before me? (I don't believe Red Lobster takes reservations). Having a reservation at a restaurant is fine - but I didn't have to pay to get into the establishment, nor did I pay for parking. I don't know what Red Lobster's official policy is, but I'm guessing on more than one occasion, somebody walked into a Red Lobster with an hour long wait, and either knew the hostess personally, or quietly slipped him/her a little extra money to get seated before those that arrived before them. I'll assume that is against company policy, for the obvious bad PR it would create, but I'd be shocked if it hasn't happened. Same principle applies to just about anything in life that a specific value can be placed upon. I can pay extra money and get a part "quick shipped" so that I have it in my hands quicker than the guy who paid regular freight. I can pay the butcher a little extra and get a better cut of meat. I know a lady who shops at a particular small, local grocery store so much that they give her free hams (about a $50 value) several times a year. I don't get that benefit by shopping there a handful of times a year because I'm looking for something that the local Krogers doesn't carry or have in the same quality as the specialty grocery store.

I understand and have always understood the Fast Pass systems, new and old. What upsets me is that I'm paying big bucks to try and have a good time at a given park, and someone with even more bucks gets to cut in front of me. If those people and myself were having a shrimp dinner at Red Lobster, and they had a Red Lobster Fast Pass, would they be seated before me? (I don't believe Red Lobster takes reservations). Having a reservation at a restaurant is fine - but I didn't have to pay to get into the establishment, nor did I pay for parking. The legacy Fastpass system and the new Fastpass+ system were/are free with your paid admission. Any park guest may choose to use either system at no extra cost. So because someone uses the Fastpass+ system to bypass the stand by line you are in, does not mean they spent any extra money than you. Merely they are taking advantage of a free system to better use the time they have in the park, as a park guest you have the same opportunity. Without spending any extra Nickles. This system is very different that the upcharge system KI uses. I'd certainly aruge that Fastpass system is "FREE". Kind of like the pop at Holiday World, its included with the cost of admission, its a perk some guests choose (knowingly or unknowningly) to not participate in. Also like the pop with "free" refills at a restaurant, the anticipated refills are built into the original price of the pop, some take more advantage of the perk than others.

another question, Lets say you book your fastpass+ tier one fast pass a month in advance, does it give you a specific time window that it is good for that day, or do you have the flexability to use it at any point in the day? The one downside of the old fastpass system, was that you could get to the park in the morning like we did for Animal Kingdom, then get our fastpass for Expedition Everest (or whatever its called, can't remember the exact name) which was a decent amount of time into the day. What if that time wasn't good for you? What if you found yourself in another part of the park and didn't feel like moving over? Granted, you know pretty well in advance when your time slot was, and you had an hour to meet it, but it did limit you in a sense (though I honestly can say, I never felt limited by the times, just something to work around, which given the abundance of options wasn't so bad) If fastpass+ gives you an open ended fastpass for that particular day, that could be a step in the right direction; means you could use it any time you like (of course that also means there is no way to predict how long the fastpass+ line would be, which could create issues)

When we went about 4.5 years ago, I believe the system was, you could get up to two (or perhaps it was just 1) fast passes per ticket at one time, but couldn't pick up an additional one until you used up one or both of your original fast passes, or their time slots expired. So you could get a fast pass for something w/ an hour+ long wait, for a couple of hours away, then spend the time eating lunch, riding a few rides w/ shorter lines, then use your fast pass, enjoy the big attraction, then go get another fast pass. I really liked that system, it allowed you to set up mini blocks to your day depending on what you wanted to ride for sure, then fill in the rest of the day getting on other rides. Even better, your mini blocks didn't have to be planned out. It had been a good 20+ years since my prior visit as a kid, so aside from my own child hood memories, I couldn't say I had the park mapped out very well like the way I do Kings Island. If I'm reading this correctly, does that now mean, if I want to do a fast pass for Space mountain, even if I set it up a month in advance, does that mean once I hop off Space Mountain, I no longer can get a fast pass for Big Thunder mountain? Seems like a big mis-step from the previous system. To echo the comments above, Peter Pan was alright when we went 4.5 years ago. I believe we used one of our fast passes for that as it fit into our time slot, and our then 1 year old son could ride with us. I think we had lunch and rode Dumbo while we were waiting for our fast pass time slot to que up. IIRC, the listed wait time was about 70 or 75 minutes, definently over an hour. Knowing what I do now about the ride, no way in hades I'm waiting an hour+ for that ride, nor am I going to use my only fast pass+ ticket for it. Am I reading this correctly? I've never been to Universal, though it certainly intrigues me. If nothing else, this seems like more incentive to spend my vacation money there, rather than in Disney Parks.

I know more than 1 person that has fallen asleep while seated atop the water closet, including at least 1 person who went there specifically to catch a nap, not to do "other thing" The restroom can certainly be a place to catch some relief.

Wait a couple hours, wait a couple of days, either way seems like your waiting for something.

I'm not sure that would make sense with Congo Falls, The Bat, or even Banshee, whereas Festhaus and Viking Fury fit in line with the Oktoberfest theming. But I can't for the life of me imagine what a re-theming of Action Zone could be. With names like The Bat and Banshee, the only thing that comes to mind are the classic Vincent Price/Christopher Lee Hammer horror movies, folk lore, and urban legends, but how does that fit Congo Falls, Drop Tower, Delirium, and Invertigo? Of course, this is if there's going to be a re-theming at all this year. How does Viking Fury fit in with Oktoberfest exactly? Vikings may be northern Germanic tribes, but they're mostly associated with where those people settled in Norway, Sweeden, Russia, etc..Oktoberfest has southern Germany roots, namely in Bavaria. The Viking Age has long since been over when Oktoberfest became an annual tradition.

According to Wiki, the first HP book came out in 1997. I know the books were popular amongst tweens, teens, young adults and adults alike, but lets assume for a moment, that the books first starting catching the imagination of 10 year olds in 1997. That was 17 years ago, which would make those 10 year olds 27 today, and right about the time, or perhaps shortly after the time people that age get married and have kids of their own. Obviously there are 27 year olds today, who read the books as a youth and now with kids old enough to read the series themselves. But the 2nd generation of the book is just starting to begin. According to wiki, the last book came out in 2007, which means that the series spanned an entire decade, which means there will be, at a minimum a decade long gap of parents who first read it as kids, and are looking forward to the day they can read it with their own children when they move into adult hood. Since many familes have more than 1 kid, often spanning 5 years or more difference, you can tack on anothe 5 years to that. I think HP can maintain its popularity well into 15+ years. Or, think about it this way. The Chronicles of Narnia were written sometime around 1950. In 2005, they came out with a big budget release of The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe. The movie was successful enough to produce three more stories from that series, with the potential for them to produce more down the road (and for those that haven't read the entire series, it moves in such a way that it doesn't matter that the original characters have all grown up by now as the characters shift in the novels). I never actually read Harry Potter, nor have I seen a ton of the movies, I've seen parts, of a handful, not sure if I've ever seen the whole thing, I was in college when it came out, and never got into it. My wife is the same way. However, we are both still excited to introduce it to our current 5 year old in a couple of years. Though he's never seen the movies, he's asked about HP on more than one occasion, which means its talked about in kindergarten. Back to the Future had 3 movies, all produced realatively close to one another. While they remained popular, it didn't have the shear volume of media to span across an entire generation, a generation that could then happily pass it along to another generation behind them, and another behind them again. time will tell, but there is no doubt in my mind that Harry Potter will remain an important part of Pop Culture well into the next couple of decades.

I was going to say, land that is now White Water Canyon. It may be, but until a wiki search, I had no memory or knowledge that a Nature Trail existed at KI. Wiki says the entrance was near "The Beast" entrance (actually behind it) so it would potentiall be in that area, though not neccessarily.

Well the footprints acted as more than just a "guide to the ride" they actually used as a "placeholder" for the line as it often extended out beyond the que for those rides. I distinctly remembering, that once you got into the "gated" area of the que for Vortex, it was pretty quick from there to getting on the train, but there was never a good way to judge how long it would take you to get from where the line ended amongst the painted part of the line and where the fenced off area started near the exit for shake rattle and roll. While you could make a good guess of it, it somewhat dependened on how "spaced out" a group of riders were. I "slow" day at KI, meant that the que for Vortex started where the fencing starts today. A normal day meant the line extended out along the painted symbols. I don't remember The Beast extending out beyond its que as often, but there were definently times those paw prints were very much a part of the line.

In Action Zone? Or potential the "former Action Zone"? I guess it depends on what you mean by kiddie rides. Flight Deck was a 48" requirement, I assume that sticks as it evolves into The Bat. Congo Falls is a 46" requirement. Drop Zone is a 48" requirement. Delerium is something higher, can't recall exactly, but I know our 5 year old couldn't get on it last season when he hit 48". Invertigo is the same story I believe. Skyflyer is 48" I believe, but we never got him on that as we weren't willing to pay for the upcharge, though we promised him we'd take him on it "someday". Adventure Express, while not in Action Zone, is just around the corner, 48" requirement. If you're talking about kids smaller than that, then there really isn't anything for them there, other than the bridge on Congo Falls, which most kids seem to enjoy that I see waiting there for the splash down. What is kiddie friendly depends on your kids. My 5 year old was on drop zone, Flight Deck, Vortex, The Beast and pretty much everything he could do once he hit 48" last year, I'm guessing he's not the norm. Our 1 year old enjoyed sitting in her stroller at the base of Drop Zone and getting blasted with the burst of air that hits you when the ride drops back to earth. She also enjoyed the breaks she would get from the stroller and getting to walk around the old SOB que that runs right next to the Flight Deck que while mom and son rode Flight Deck, then we traded off so I could ride it with our son. I'm guessing that won't be quite as convinent this season as we never saw that part of Flight Deck's que backed up to that point, so we were easily out of anyone's way.

yes, the paw prints as shown above. Vortex had the hand gripping the twisted track, I believe it extended back to about where the slege hammer game is now. I don't remember them for any other ride, but then again, I didn't remember them for Flight Commander so its possible they were elsewhere

Ahh, the slide, another thing I wish they'd bring back.

beaten by "thaaaaattt" much.

That can't be right...Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Maybe the world ends, or perhaps they're still figuring out their august schedule leading into the Haunt.

Its impossible for me to tell from the webcam, and I haven't been following the live stream to know exactly where they're building, but it almost looks like they've got all of the supports up, and just need to install the last 2-3 pieces of track to get to the brake run. I've been wrong before on figuring out what exactly is going on, and this is even harder to tell w/ all that steel in place, and one support/track blending in with the supports/track behind it. Either way, weather and schedule depending, looks like they could be done tomorrow.

May I point out that that the King doesn't own the Island, it is and should be Kings Island

Assuming decent working weather conditions, they could be done laying out track by the end of this week. Doesn't look like we'll have ideal working conditions, at least early morning over the next couple of weeks, but they've worked in worse, so we shall see. Thanks for all of your updates davidw, they really add to the construction progress and understanding what they've been doing.