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A Night at the Movies with the TCD Gang


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No.  If it weren't for your TRs, I wouldn't know the difference.

If you go through life looking like that, you will NEVER nail Elsa. 

It's time for an update.   We left off right in the middle of last Saturday's FOF parade.   After the Brave float comes the Sleeping Beauty crew.  Minus the princess.  Aurora was robbed by this parade

Funny jab about the Disneyland castle model. When the twins make it out there for the College Program you're gonna have to stop that! ;)

 

Good to know that someone is actually reading the witty commentary!

 

Good job.

 

I only kid about the Disneyland castle because I love it.

 

And, of course I will stop if the twins are working out there.

 

TCD

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How did I forget about Robin Hood? My memory is failing. That's not good. 

 

And believe it or not, I don't read my boyfriend's forum as much as I read here. Don't tell him. 

 

If I had known that these guys were getting their data straight from Disney,  I would have paid better attention.  I figured all along that they were just spitballing numbers.

 

How was it helpful?  Was there that much of a discrepancy between the posted and actual wait times?

 

TCD

 

Well, when we were at AK, the posted wait for Dinosaur was 20 minutes... that's really pushing it for me. The estimated wait was 11 minutes. We were OK with that, and it really was that long. In that case, the posted was almost double. 

 

I agree that it's a shame that they don't have information about the buildings at DHS. I will look at it with new eyes when we return. 

 

That build your own pasta station was LAME. Are the build your own pasta station and Yee Haw Bob both at Riverside? If so, that sounds like a fun non-park night for our next trip. 

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I am very thankful for bonus content!  I actually groaned out loud when i read that those were to be the last photos from your trip to the Movies.  My 18yob was worried something was truly wrong!  LOL  I reassured him that you had promised bonus content.

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How did I forget about Robin Hood? My memory is failing. That's not good. 

 

And believe it or not, I don't read my boyfriend's forum as much as I read here. Don't tell him. 

 

 

Well, when we were at AK, the posted wait for Dinosaur was 20 minutes... that's really pushing it for me. The estimated wait was 11 minutes. We were OK with that, and it really was that long. In that case, the posted was almost double. 

 

I agree that it's a shame that they don't have information about the buildings at DHS. I will look at it with new eyes when we return. 

 

That build your own pasta station was LAME. Are the build your own pasta station and Yee Haw Bob both at Riverside? If so, that sounds like a fun non-park night for our next trip. 

 

They say the memory is the first thing to go.

 

I'm disappointed to find out after the fact that your boyfriend was posting actual data direct from Disney. I would love to know what the real wait time is as opposed to the posted wait time.  Like I said earlier, I never trusted the geeks who posted these actual wait times, as it never occurred to me that Disney kept track and published the real wait times.  It's too bad that information apparently is no longer accessible for the bloggers to provide.

 

If you are interested in the DHS architecture, make sure to read all four of those blog articles.  There is so much detail at DHS that I never appreciated before reading those articles.

 

Yes, the pasta station at All Star Music is LAME.  It's wrong for them to call it the same thing as it's called at Port Orleans Riverside and Art of Animation, because there is no comparison.  We were all really disappointed.

 

Yes, POR is a great place to visit for an inexpensive night of fun.

 

I had to read the comment about the castle twice. I chuckled.

 

As for make your own pasta at POR- that sounds awesome and that's where we're staying next week. I can't wait!

 

I hope that you give the pasta a try.  But, there are other good choices there too.  I really like the choices they have there.

 

That Pasta Stop Makes Me All Kinds Of Happy. Out Of All The Italian Restaurants On Property, No One Serves Fettachini Alfredo. You Have Made My Day ;0)

 

Really?  Not even in Epcot?  That's hard to believe.

 

I should have mentioned that the Create-You-Own pasta at POR and AOA is a big serving.  Two people could share it.

 

BTW I Too Got A Chuckle From The Castle Comment. Poor Vertically Challenged Castle.

 

LOL.  Remember, never mention the size of the castle to any Disneyland fan.  They are very sensitive about it.  Just pretend that you don't notice.  And, whatever you do, don't stare!

 

I am very thankful for bonus content!  I actually groaned out loud when i read that those were to be the last photos from your trip to the Movies.  My 18yob was worried something was truly wrong!  LOL  I reassured him that you had promised bonus content.

 

I'm glad you're looking forward to the bonus content.  Some is coming your way now!

 

TCD

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lol "and whatever you do, don't stare" lol.

 

In another thread I asked for options on a good Italian restaurant.  I researched the 6 that I am aware of. 5 are park offered restaurants and 1 is at DTD.  None offer on their menus Fettachini Alfredo.  I was shocked and thought maybe I could request it as an off menu item, but I am not sure. It appears that POA and AOA are the only two spots to enjoy this yummy dish. 

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lol "and whatever you do, don't stare" lol.

 

In another thread I asked for options on a good Italian restaurant.  I researched the 6 that I am aware of. 5 are park offered restaurants and 1 is at DTD.  None offer on their menus Fettachini Alfredo.  I was shocked and thought maybe I could request it as an off menu item, but I am not sure. It appears that POA and AOA are the only two spots to enjoy this yummy dish. 

 

I've had fettuccini alfredo at the Wilderness Lodge quick serve- Roaring Forks.  But, that was over a year ago, and it was a special.  It wasn't very good either.

 

TCD

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Here comes some of that bonus content I was telling you about.

 

So, we left WDW on January 31 with no definite plans on when we might return.

 

During the ensuing week, Twin #1 let us know that a friend of hers from school with an annual pass was going to be heading down to WDW on Saturday, the 7th, and she was going to join him.  Twin #2 decided to join in, and the girls got ahold of Twin #2's former DCP roommate to see if they could crash at her place on Saturday night.  She said they could, so they were going to head back already.  At the last minute, Twin #2 had to back out, because she had some schoolwork to do, and also was not feeling well.  So, Twin #1 was going to go with her friend anyway. 

 

Then some wires got crossed, and Twin #1 didn't confirm the crashing at the apartment thing.  She called home on Saturday and said that she decided she would head over to our house Saturday night rather than driving back to Gainesville.  So that's what happened.  There were FP+'s scheduled for Sunday, and Twin #1 was also planning to head to Animal Kingdom to see the Tree of Life now that some of the construction walls were down.  She wanted to go back to WDW and then head back to Gainesville from there.  That's when I invited myself, and we made a new plan- we would do a day trip to WDW on Sunday the 8th, and then she could drive back to school on Monday in time to get to her first class in the afternoon.

 

So, we headed over on Sunday morning.  On the way there, I told Twin #1 about the great breakfast sandwich I had at the Contempo Café the week before.  She was up for trying one, so that was our first stop.  There wasn't one of those restricted parking signs posted today, and the guard waved us by after taking just a quick glance at my drivers' license.

 

I like the kiosks they have at the Contempo Café, where you can order for yourself:

 

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The only other resort quick serve location that had these was the Polynesian, and they have removed theirs.

 

Here's a photo of the breakfast sandwich- this would be something that would be good to split- each half is about the size of what you would get as one sandwich at a regular fast food place:

 

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It was really busy there in the seating area for the Contempo Café, so we enjoyed our breakfast in the seating area for the Outer Rim lounge.  This was our view:

 

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It was fun to sit there and watch all the guests heading to and from Chef Mickey's.  What a gold mine that place is for Disney:

 

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Ordinarily, I would have moved my car out of the Contemporary parking lot after breakfast, but there were a lot of open spaces, and it seemed like we would be OK leaving the car, so we did.

 

We hopped a bus to Animal Kingdom.

 

The Contemporary shares with the Polynesian on that route, so we had to stop there on the way:

 

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I thought we'd also have to stop at the Grand Floridian, but we didn't.  We headed right to the Animal Kingdom next.

 

We got a good view of the big construction project going on for Avatarland as we headed in.  I didn't know this would be so tall or so visible from the parking lot.  I'm guessing this will be made to look like another fake mountain before it's all said and done:

 

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There have been walls up all over Animal Kingdom for a while now.  We were looking forward to our first look at the Tree of Life with the walls finally down.

 

But, this is what we saw instead:

 

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What the Fort?

 

The Disney Parks Blog had just reported the day before that the walls had come down.

 

They obviously weren't referring to these walls, which were all still very much up:

 

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Once we passed through that too narrow passageway, we emerged to see this view:

 

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That was better.

 

There had been walls all the way across this view for a long time.  Now, they're gone.

 

This area has been opened up, and they've added some new features.  Like this planting area, which contains some fake roots.  Presumably from the Tree of Life:

 

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There are some new light posts here too:

 

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They have created a nice new place for guests to stand and admire the Tree of Life.  These roots and the carvings on them are new:

 

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Like on the Tree of Life, there are animal images carved in to the new roots.  Some are easy to spot, like this deer:

 

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and this elephant:

 

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This new area provides a great, closer view of the tree:

 

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They really did a good job with this.  It's fun to stare and see what you can see:

 

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There were photopass photographers here.  That's good for families who want a nice photo with the Tree of Life in the background, but no so good for guests who want to look at all the new stuff.  I wanted to get a photo of this root with no people in the way, but that wasn't going to happen this morning:

 

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We took another look at the root with the elephant image, and noticed this carving of what must be a Komodo dragon:

 

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Did you notice the parrot?:

 

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There's a big old gator over here to one side:

 

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And there's a ram there:

 

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On closer examination, I think the gator is a croc:

 

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A week earlier, we noticed quite a few tour groups. There was a big one passing by here. This was one of the loud, chanting types:

 

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There were CM's with iPads outside of the gift shop across from the It's Tough to Be a Bug entrance, so we stopped by there to do some FP+ research.  We presented the CM's there with two of the blank MB's I have with no tickets attached from an earlier Fort trip. The CM scanned those, and offered us three FP+'s for later in the day.  All AK FP+ attractions were available, but Expedition Everest and Dinosaur did not have availability until after 4 pm.   So, extra MB's do work at the kiosks still.  That might be good if you were planning to spend the whole day at AK, but we weren't and we had real FP+'s scheduled at two other parks.  So, we had passed.

 

Since we had no FP+'s, there was no point in trying to ride any of the good rides here.  They had 40+ minute waits posted.

 

But, we were right on time to catch the 11 am showing of the Lion King show, so we headed to Harambe.

 

On the way there, we passed this closed gift shop, which will soon be the Animal Kingdom Starbucks:

 

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I can just picture a giant white cup with a satanic mermaid emblazoned on the side sitting up there on the roof.

 

I like the new Lion King theater.  The standby line is great here, and I don't see any good reason to waste a FP+ for this show.  We arrived at the standby line at about 10:45, and were able to line up for the show:

 

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They did a great job theming back here:

 

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After just a couple of minutes of standing, they started letting us in to the theater.  We ended up being seated in the warthog section, about halfway up, right behind the FP+ guests who had to line up earlier than us.  The FP+ guests who continued to show up had to sit behind us.  Again, those folks wasted a FP+ choice.

 

The show was great, as usual. The last time we were here, there was some problem and the Tumble Monkeys didn't do their part of the show. They were back today.  My only complaint is that the role of the older, larger, man was played be a skinny young guy.  He had a great voice, but was too young and scrawny in my opinion.

 

After the Lion King, it was time to go.  We had some FP+'s reserved at Hollywood Studios, and it was time for me to see if one of my FP+ hacks still worked.

 

Spoiler alert:  it didn't.  Those of you who enjoy FP+ hacks will want to pay close attention to the next update.

 

TCD

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Is that a baby elephant under the adult elephants trunk in the the photo of the parrot?  I looks to be and if so is really cute.  Thanks for the info on the splitable sandwich, it looks really good and would make a quick on-the-go breakfast on our way to MK.

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That sandwich looks good. I need to get the turkey, apple, brie one for lunch or dinner on my next trip.

 

The Tree of Life looks even cooler than before. I'm excited to see it in person.

 

Do you think FP+ would be needed at FOTLK the day before Easter? I'm on the fence and can't decide. 

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Is that a baby elephant under the adult elephants trunk in the the photo of the parrot?  I looks to be and if so is really cute.  Thanks for the info on the splitable sandwich, it looks really good and would make a quick on-the-go breakfast on our way to MK.

 

Baby elephant?  Where?:

 

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OK- I see what you're talking about.  I would say that definitely is maybe a baby elephant.  I'd have to look from the side to be sure, but I think is see an eye and a trunk.  I'm terrible at spotting the animals.  I usually start out seeing part of one, and then realize that I had completely missed the whole thing.  It's fun when you finally see something that was hidden.  As I said, they did a good job with this.

 

That sandwich is a winner and is definitely big enough to share. I think it was $6.99 so it's a good deal to feed two people.

 

That sandwich looks good. I need to get the turkey, apple, brie one for lunch or dinner on my next trip.

 

The Tree of Life looks even cooler than before. I'm excited to see it in person.

 

Do you think FP+ would be needed at FOTLK the day before Easter? I'm on the fence and can't decide. 

 

Yes, this new closer view of the Tree of Life is good.

 

The day before Easter is probably going to be a busy one.  Even so, I'd bet you would make it in standby if you show up 30 minutes before the show.  Then again, after the Safari and Everest, spending a FP+ on FOTLK wouldn't be a bad use of it.  You'd probably get better seats with the FP+.  Z probably needs to be close to the floor so he can go out and help with the show.

 

TCD

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Glad to see this report continuing on, though I'm worried about a FP hack not working.   :(  I know that every time we tried a hack on our last trip just a week prior, it worked.  Guess I'll have to wait and see.  

 

I will be covering the FP+ hack fail in the next update.  I don't think this is a hack that you've used.  But, the fact that it didn't work suggests to me that some of the loopholes are being closed.

 

TCD

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I will be covering the FP+ hack fail in the next update.  I don't think this is a hack that you've used.  But, the fact that it didn't work suggests to me that some of the loopholes are being closed.

 

TCD

Does the holiday mean we need to wait another day for the next update?  (Just trying to prepare my lunch time entertainment.)

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Update time.

 

We are covering the day of Sunday, February 8th.  We began our day at Animal Kingdom, saw the new improvements around the Tree of Life, and a viewing of the Festival of the Lion King, and then hopped to Hollywood Studios.

 

And, here we are.  It is interesting to watch how people react when the first see what awaits at the end of the street:

 

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Here we are a little closer-it's going to be interesting to finally see the Great Movie Ride again:

 

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And, here's a closer shot still:

 

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It's interesting to see what's left of the hat, and how they've taken it apart.  I am not sure how the hat was held up in the first place, as it doesn't look like there are any supports under the ring that remains:

 

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We had some FP+ reservations that I thought we could use here at DHS.  I had just made them the night before, so I had to wait until after noon to get one FP+ reservation for Toy Story Midway Mania, but I had one.  Just one.  And there were two of us.  But, that had not been a problem during the entire time of the existence of FP+, because I knew a hack.  The hack was simple- the whole FP+ and Magicband thing is so glitchy that CM's were told in training that if one member of a party is missing a FP+, but the other members of the party have FP+'s, the guest without a FP+ should still be admitted.  The catch here with Magicbands is that the guest with no FP+'s literally had to have no FP+'s scheduled on his MB.  The best way to cover this was to have the guest with no FP+ wear a MB that was blank- like one with someone else's name from a prior Fort trip with no ticket attached to it. 

 

For today, I had made three FP+ reservations at DHS on Twin #2's MB.  The reason I did this is because Twin #1 had originally scheduled FP+'s at the MK for all four of our MB's.  She was planning to use them with Twin #2.  But, Twin #2 bailed on the trip.  Looking at the FP+ reservations, I wanted to keep the ones she had made for the Mine Train and for Wishes, so because of whose names those were made it, I could only cancel Twin #2's MK FP+ reservations, and made three new ones for DHS.  That wouldn't be a problem, based on our previous experiences.  All we needed to do was have Twin #1 wear one of Twin #2's MB's, and I would wear a blank one.

 

So, we swapped out our MB's and headed to the ride.

 

As is often the case lately, we had to wait in a line for the FP+ scanner:

 

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The line was moving real slow, and we noticed that in addition to regular attractions CM, there was a guy there in a white shirt with an earpiece and an iPad:

 

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It didn't occur to either one of us that the guy in the white shirt's presence meant that anything had changed.  But, it did.  When it was our turn, Twin #1 scanned her MB first.  The light turned blue.  I knew for a fact that she had Twin #'2's MB on  and that there was a FP+ scheduled on it.  The regular attractions CM, however, said that her MB was blank and had no FP+ reservations on it.  She told Twin #1 to try again.  This time it turned green.  So, I scanned my blank MB.  I expected the light to be blue, and it was.  At this point, what always happened in the past is the CM would say to scan it again, and then would manually add a FP+ to the blank band.  Not today. The guy in the white shirt asked if he could scan my MB.  He looked at his iPad and said my MB was blank.  I said I must have goofed, but that I was with my daughter here, and she had a FP+ for the ride, so could he just add the FP+ to my blank MB, and we would be on our way. He said he couldn't do that.  We needed to go to guest relations.  I asked if he could just let us ride now, as my daughter had a FP+, and it would probably be expired by the time we went to Guest Relations and got back.  He said no.  She could ride, but I couldn't.  And, I needed to get out of the line now.

 

So, one of my favorite FP+ hacks failed.  And, I think they've changed a setting on the scanners so they can tell if the MB for the person trying to use the FP+ was scanned at the main park entrance.  I think that's why Twin #1 got the blue light initially, and why we had so many blue lights on our previous visit (in hindsight I think the blue lights came up when we were using my oldest daughter's MB for extra FP+'s).  At this point, using someone else's MB at the FP scanners still will work, but I think that's about to change too.

 

Without going in to any more boring details, let me tell you that the policy of letting one extra guest in with guests who do have FP+s appears to have changed.  It happened to us again later, and we saw other guests being turned away in instances where they would have been admitted in the past.

 

I told Twin #1 to go ahead and ride Toy Story without me.  But, that isn't much fun, so she passed.

 

We did have MK FP+'s, so we weren't too sad that our FP+ hack didn't work.  And, who's to say that this is a permanent change, or just something they were trying out here today?

 

It was clearly busy here at DHS, and we didn't feel like waiting in long lines, so we decided that it would be best to go ahead and hop over to the MK.

 

Here's one more photo of the soon-to-be-gone hat:

 

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We had been treated to a free drink at the soft opening of the DHS's Starbucks location last week, and we wanted to take a look at the store now that it was actually opened.  I told Twin #1 that would be OK, as long as we didn't buy anything in there, as I am faithfully supporting the Fiend Starbucks boycott until they bring back the Main Street Bakery Cinnamon Rolls.

 

Speaking of the Main Street Bakery, what do you make of the fact that the "freshly" "baked" goods offered here at the DHS Starbucks are identical to what is offered at the Main Street Bakery?:

 

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We had a thread on Fort Fiends here a few weeks back where we saw that the WDW and Disneyland Starbucks locations will be selling special mugs for each particular store.  This is the DHS mug:

 

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GDF asked if Star Wars Land was included in the artwork on the other side of the mug.  I think we all knew the answer to that, but in case you're wondering, here's what's on the other side:

 

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The inside of this store is nice-too nice to be wasted on a Starbucks if you ask me:

 

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Since we definitely did not buy any drinks, I'm not sure what we did when we sat out here by the tip board for a few minutes people watching.  We were not drinking Frappuccinos if that's what you're thinking, and shame on you for thinking that.

 

Anyway, we did sit on edge of the fountain and do a little people watching.  It's a good thing we were leaving, as the three good rides in the park all had waits of over an hour:

 

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And everything else was ten minutes or less. 

 

FP+ just doesn't work in this park.

 

If they are going to continue to close the FP+ loopholes we have been exploiting, then our visits to DHS are likely to be confined to an occasional rope drop.

 

After our break where we did not drink any Starbucks beverages, we headed out to the MK bus stop.

 

The MK bus stop at DHS is out in the open, near where outsiders have to catch their buses.  The Four Seasons riff-raff are dropped off and picked up here:

 

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Our bus came along in short order, and we were on our way.

 

The plan at the MK was to find some kind of snack and then claim a parade spot.  Later, we would be cashing in those FP+ reservations we had.

 

We decided to hunt down some Mickey head pretzels.

 

On the way there, I took some over the fence shots of the new fireworks viewing areas they've been working on for the past year. 

 

Here, we can see that they're getting closer to finishing-with landscaping being added:

 

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Note all the new lampposts.  I believe the large cylinders on them are speakers.  Also note that there looks like there is some unfinished electric work and fencing work yet to be done:

 

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It's still hard to figure out how much space for guests is going to be realized from all of this- it looks like there are large areas in this space that are plant beds:

 

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They have loads of plants and mulch here waiting to be installed:

 

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The area we've been looking at is the area in front of Casey's Corner. Those shots were all taken by holding my camera over the construction wall.

 

However, if you walk over to the Crystal Palace and take the bridge that leads over to the Adventureland entry area, you can get a good side view of this space.  Here, we can see a bunch of landscaping that is already in place. Also note the men working on the castle in the top left of this shot:

 

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You can see here that a big part of the moat was kept, and it looks pretty nice:

 

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You can see from this side view that they're missing the railing on the side of that faux bridge:

 

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We found what we were looking for in Frontierland:

 

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We then followed the parade route back toward the hub to find a nice spot to watch the Festival of Fantasy parade.

 

Here's your basic crane ruining the view of the castle shot:

 

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This is a view of the area of the hub that is currently fenced off, looking over the fence and in to the area where they're working.  They are reshaping the old flower beds:

 

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By the way, that box closest to us in that photo is the Partners statue, and the temporary looking eyesore you see further away is a stand they use for lighting for the castle shows.

 

In the area in front of the fenced in area, the different colored pavement is where they filled in the flower beds that used to be here:

 

2%208%2014%20070_zps5hajhwiw.jpg

 

I can't imagine that this is permanent.  They probably just filled in those planting areas temporarily to give guests a place to stand since so much of this area is now fenced off.

 

It's already hard for me to remember what the hub used to look like.  I found something called a Photo Sphere on Google maps that shows a 360 degree view of the hub from last year.  I hope this works for you:

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@28.418761,-81.581225,3a,75y,274.03h,91.75t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1sInbaXxzd3JIAAAQIt9ANJA!2e0!3e11

 

It was actually a warm afternoon, so we decided to look for a shady spot for the parade.  We headed back down Main Street.  On the way, I stopped at the construction wall, and took this shot of the same area we looked at earlier, but from the other side. You can see Crystal Palace in the back of this shot.  Also, here you can see that there is going to be a new fountain added to this area- look over to the right:

 

2%208%2014%20072_zpsjasxhif4.jpg

 

Next up, we snag a good parade spot, and I will share some Festival of Fantasy parade photos.  It's been just about a year since the parade debuted.  There have already been some changes made to it, and I will point out one interesting change that I have not seen mentioned anywhere in the next update.

 

TCD

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So explain to me why WDW closing up the loop holes will change how you approach your trips?  

 

Very simple- up until now, the limit of only being allowed a total of 3 FP+'s per day hasn't had a big effect on the TCD gang.  Through an array of hacks (some of which still work), we've been able to manage to use FP+'s at more than one park in one day, or to have more than 3 in a park on a given day. 

 

When all the loopholes are closed, we will be like the regular poor schlubs who only get 3 FP+'s per day, and then have to hope to that they can get a 4th after using the first three.  I'm not going to like that.  When that day comes, the new strategy will have to be rope drop at one park, and then using our ration of 3 FP+'s at another park.

 

TCD

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Got it. Thanks for explaining that for me. I am just starting to understand all the FP+ hacks but am pretty sure that by the time we get there, being able to rely on those hacks might be less than reliable.

 

Don't spend too much time worrying about FP+ hacks.  My obsession with hacking the system drives my daughters crazy.  They think it's a waste of time, and most of the time they're right.  It takes a lot of effort to try to outsmart the Mouse.  There are better and more effective ways to maximize the use of FP+'s through regular planning strategies like rope drop and going during slower times of the year.

 

Starbucks at HS SMB.

 

Preach it brother.  Our boycott is clearly turning the tide.  Well, that doesn't seem to be true, but it sounds good anyway.

 

TCD

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