Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground, Disney World, Orlando, Florida
Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and joy are in His dwelling place. ~ I Chronicles 16:27
NOTE: It’s now February 9th, and I’m about to launch into the joy of re-living our vacation! We’re totally and completely exhausted! And our bodies are speaking loud and clear – – “No More!!” Good thing we move today. 😊
Our time here has definitely been considered vacation time. Since retirement, we can think of nowhere else we’ve spent so much money. All the other things we’ve done since retirement have been just living expenses. This, without a doubt falls into the vacation line item.
We all know Disney rakes in a boatload of money. In fact, my research says Walt Disney World alone collected $5Billion last year (they now have 11 parks all over the world, which adds to their empire). $5B sounds like an extraordinary amount, but consider what their overhead must be: wages for thousands of people, food (for people and animals), ‘party’ supplies, cleaning supplies, restroom supplies, linens, utilities, transportation, trash services, landscaping, repairs, construction, and countless other things, including but not limited to, “an extensive mosquito prevention and monitoring program” (so grateful we didn’t have to contend with those!); part of which is to supply complimentary repellent, which is about the only complimentary thing in the place besides paper towels and toilet paper. I couldn’t find a profit margin anywhere when I researched it, but I’ll bet it’s not as much as we might think.
So is it expensive to vacation here? Yes. But not much more per day than a day at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio (America’s Roller Coast). And you can curb your expenses by not caving to the lure of purchasing high priced items they sell here – like mouse ears (which are $27.99!) – that you’ll never use again. And they let you bring in your own food and water. Cedar Point doesn’t allow that. (To clarify – – Disney lets you carry your stuff all over. Cedar Point, only to a picnic area.) And you’d best bring your own food most of the time, because eating here costs a small fortune – even for two. A single banana is $1.69. Those individual bags of chips you put in kid’s lunches? $2.25. A 16 oz bottle of Coke? $4.25. You can’t find a meal here for less than $12, and those are scarce.
And just as an FYI, Walt Disney World has separate Theme Parks within it. In order of their opening:
Magic Kingdom (1971) – Walt Disney World is tribute to the philosophy and life of Walter Elias Disney . . . and to the talents, the dedication, and the loyalty of the entire Disney organization that made Walt Disney’s dream come true. May Walt Disney World bring joy and inspiration and new knowledge to all who come to this happy place . . . a Magic Kingdom where the young at heart of all ages can laugh and pay and learn – together. ~ Roy O. Disney (That’s Walt’s brother. Remember, Walt died in 1966)
EPCOT (1982) – To all who come to this place of joy, hope and friendship – Welcome! EPCOT is inspired by Walt Disney’s creative vision. Here, human achievements are celebrated through imagination, wonders of enterprise and concepts of a future that promises new and exciting benefits for all. May EPCOT Center entertain, inform and inspire and above all, may it instill a new sense of belief and pride in man’s ability to shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere. ~ E. Cardon Walker (Disney’s corporate leader from 1971-1983)
MGM Studios/Hollywood Studios (1989/2008) – The World you have entered was created by the Walt Disney Company and is dedicated to Hollywood – not a place on a map, but a state of mind that exists wherever people dream and wonder and imagine, a place where illusion and reality are fused by technological magic. We welcome you to a Hollywood that never was – and always will be. ~ Michael Eisner (The Chairman and CEO from 1984-2005) The reason for the name change in 2008? According to the press release by Meg Crofton, president of WDW; “The new name reflects how the park has grown from representing the golden age of movies to a celebration of the new entertainment that today’s Hollywood has to offer – in music, television, movies and theater.”
Typhoon Lagoon (1989) – I couldn’t find a dedication speech for this one. But it’s a water park.
Blizzard Beach (1995) – Another water park. No speech for this one either. Aren’t you glad? 😊
Animal Kingdom (1998) – Welcome to a kingdom of animals . . . real, ancient and imagined: a kingdom ruled by lions, dinosaurs and dragons; a kingdom of balance, harmony and survival; a kingdom we enter to share in the wonder, gaze at the beauty, thrill at the drams, and learn. ~ Michael Eisner (This park is the largest of all the Disney theme parks in the world and encompasses 500 acres. It’s also accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums)
We didn’t visit either of the water parks. Who has time???
So now – – – – here we go!
We woke to heavy fog and cool weather, and we were out the door by 7:00am.
We weren’t sure how long Disney’s transportation would take to get us to their Hollywood Studios Theme Park. Today they open an hour early for resort guests. They do that at a different park every day, so we planned our week around that schedule.
After passing through security (which included a fingerprint scan), we began at the Tower of Terror. This was, and still is, our favorite ride at this Park! When we rode with the boys, we went several times in a row, and on one of them, the ride didn’t perform as normal. We were stuck up at the top! Blaine says, “Uh, oh. It’s not supposed to do this.” And freaked out the teenage girls in front of us, who started screaming, but at least remained seated. The speaker came on with a chilling male voice (in character for the ride of course) who told us all was well and they’d lower us slowly, with they did. We then had the option of riding again immediately, which we did, but the girls took off as fast as they could go. 😊
This, among other reasons, is why God blessed me with sons!
We had a FastPass today for this ride. And for those of you who don’t know, here’s how that works. You can try to get a FastPass at any time, but in order to get what we wanted, we did ours two months in advance. That really is necessary for the more popular rides or shows. Essentially, a FastPass allows you to enter near the front of the line. Everyone has access to FastPasses, but only a limited number of them are allotted for certain times. You have an hour’s grace period from your assigned time to enter the que.
There are FastPass entrances and Standby entrances. If you don’t have a FastPass, you enter Standby. They post wait times at the entrance.
This morning, there was hardly any wait and it wasn’t time for our FastPass yet, so we went in and were able to ride three times in a row! You sit in a car and travel around and then up you fly – 130’! You stop, doors in front of you open and you get a very quick glimpse at the rest of the Park before the doors close and you drop – several times. It was a blast! Don’t worry. I don’t plan on giving you details on all the rides. This one’s just special. 😊
So later, when it was time for our FastPass, we received a text message from Disney telling us the ride was broke down. We discovered that we could wait and use our FastPass for the Tower anytime that day, or we could use it on any other attraction in Hollywood that day. We chose to wait it out and fortunately, they were able to reopen it later in the day. Joy!! And the FastPass worked great! The Standby wait time was 50 minutes and we were only 11 minutes from when we entered, to when we exited!
The early hours also allowed us to ride a coaster. This one was very rough in the back and hurt my head and Blaine’s neck. We also had a FastPass for this ride, but fortunately, it was for later in the afternoon! The second time we were able to sit near the front and it was much smoother!
We loved walking around the newer Toy Story Land, even though we weren’t able to do anything other than walk around and fight the crowds.
And of course, let’s not forget Buzz and Woody. So fun! But look at all the people!
The Indiana Jones show has changed since we were here with the boys. It’s now more about Marian (she does most of the stunts and ‘fighting’) than Indy. I’m certain that has something to do with all the recent focus on women. I’m sorry, but I missed Indy! They did have a really good plant in their audience participation though!
There was soooo much more we did than I’m sharing about!
Disney’s preparing to capitalize on their recently acquired Star Wars and the phenomenon that goes along with it. By building a gigantic area here in Hollywood. It’s all new construction on previously unused property and it’s enormous! It’s supposed to open this Fall.
We were astounded by the number of infants and toddlers! There were hundreds!
Also, in 1995, we (I) noted how clean everything was, including the bathrooms, but you never saw anyone cleaning anything. Not anymore. They’re everywhere – picking up trash with graspers, wiping down restrooms, emptying trash cans (and there are lots of trash cans!) Even with all that, things are often less than spotless. But it’s still pretty clean everywhere considering how many people are here. Our mission this week is to thank those who are most overlooked – the clean up crew. Most of the ones we spoke with today seemed very surprised to hear a thank you, and that’s just sad.
Hopefully, we can brighten the day of some of them this week!
Today is also Super Bowl Sunday. The New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams. It wasn’t a particularly good game, made even worse by the fact that the Patriots won. Again. And the commercials weren’t particularly good this year either. Blaine had the game set to record since we didn’t know when we’d return, but we weren’t out late.
In the past, I’ve made lots of high calorie junk food to piece on during the game and commercials. This year wasn’t much different, although we only had wings and con queso. That’s it. Tyson frozen chicken nuggets with the Geechee sauce we bought at Nigel’s in Charleston, South Carolina and homemade con queso and Scoops.
It was really good, but about as unhealthy as you can get. Which is why it was sooo good!
Tomorrow, a different Theme!