tips for walt disney world

after having returned from our trip to walt disney world [wdw] which i think for me makes trip #6 to the most magical place on earth i have decided to put some well learned tips here for anyone who is planning on going anytime in the future:

1. do NOT attempt to go to wdw in the months of may thru september - it's hot and the rides are a pain to get on because apparently everyone likes going when it's a dutch oven down there in florida.

2. stay in a wdw resort - there's buses that take you to every park that wdw owns and you can affordably stay in one of the three all-star resorts or pop century resort for $82/night. you really can't beat that price.

3. go with the disney dining plan - you would think we would have figured this out before this trip but we finally learned of the disney dining plan. we were on the basic plan that is around $40/$45 per person per day. the food at disney is EXPENSIVE as it is in any other theme park. if you get the dining plan here's what you get per person:
1 snack per day - can include any non-alcoholic bottled drink or ice cream item typically under $4.00
1 quick service meal - entree, dessert, and non-alcoholic drink at any of the burger/pizza/salad/fast food joints in the park - these meals typically run around $15 to $20 per person
1 table service meal - entree, dessert, and non-alocholic drink at any of the very nice sit down restaurants in the park - these meals typically run around $40 to $80 per person
the only problem with the dining plan is if you somehow manage not to use all of your dining plan so make sure you're spending the correct meals and keep track of what you've got left which is pretty simple as it's listed on your receipt after you're done eating.

4. get to the early parks when they open - if you're staying at a wdw resort and you have the parkhopper pass for the four main parks [epcot, mgm now known as hollywood studios, magic kingdom, and animal kingdom] which you should have if you're going then you're allowed to go into a park a day an hour earlier and a park a day will stay open three or more extra hours. the ones that open early that day are the ones that you want to hit. as soon as you get to the early park hit up the most thrilling ride for a fastpass and then go ride the second most thrilling ride. by the time you're done with the second most thrilling ride it will be time to redeem your fastpass and walk straight to the front of the line of the first most thrilling ride. i know that sounded sorta involved but read it through a coupla times and it'll make sense.

5. make your reservations for food 90 days in advance - this is as soon as you can book your reservations and the good ones will be gone if you wait too long. here's a list of where we enjoyed eating the most. every single restaurant is at epcot.

• Yakitori House - Japan - i suggest the ninja alcoholic beverage which is a mix of sake and plum wine along with the teriyaki steak and ice cream - most excellent service i have ever seen
  
• Les Chefs de France - France - even with the disney dining plan you can still do the traditional three course meal here and get an appetizer if you order off their exclusive three course menu - i highly recommend the french onion soup - second most excellent service i have ever seen
• Le Cellier - Canada - steak...eat the steak...
• Coral Reef Restaurant - Living Seas
• The Garden Grill Restaurant - The Land - i always suggest everyone get dirt. what meal is complete without it?

6. get a photo pass - they're free. you can look at all the pics before purchasing them and the disney crew can do some really neat stuff with your pictures. plus all the photo pass folks will take pics of you with your own camera if you let them take a couple with theirs as well. apparently nowadays they'll give you every photo they've taken for a whole $11.95 onto a memory card. i find that a pretty good deal as it can literally contain HUNDREDS of photos. i'll have to make sure that's completely accurate though because we didn't do it, just heard it in passing.

7. if you're at least two days out from departure have whatever you buy in the park shipped to your room - make sure to tell the cashier this in advance otherwise they have to complete your purchase all over again but it's a great way to get the stuff you want and not have to lug it around the park.

for now that's all the tips i can think of but i may remember more later. here's a really specific one - if you end up staying at the sprawling coronado springs resort and wonder where all the wdw buses are, they stop initially at stop 2 and barely ever make it to stops 4 and 1 as they are always full by that point so go to stop 2 first.

anywho for now...enjoy the silence.

wow it's been over a month...

okay so i've been insanely busy. isn't that ridiculous? on top of research, class, working, raiding, the pets, and other gaming life has left me with little to no time. today i had time and i used it to do 4 loads of laundry, the dishes, some vacuuming, and was even able to squeeze in some quality time with rukia and eros. we'll start with movies, move to life in general, and finish up with games i think.

x-men origins: wolverine - 6.5/10 snaps - better than x3, pretty on par with x1, not better than x2. seeing as how gambit is my favorite of favorites comic character i was excited to see him in the film. he didn't have a large enough role and his accent slipped from cajun to southern to non-existent. the fighting scenes he had were nice and he looked hot enough so we'll forgive the accent bit. the other acting was pretty good in the film and i can even overlook some of the inconsistencies with folks' powers but [SPOILERS] the deadpool crap at the end was freaking ridiculous! let's pull off this bullshit move where we combine a whole bunch of mutants' powers through genetic engineering and make deadpool a controllable robot. who writes this crap? there are plenty of evil folks you can combine to have a kickass battle...why not do that? also some mutants had incorrect powers but hell in x3 they just kept adding mutants that to my knowledge don't exist in the x-men universe. eh if you love the x-men i'd say rent it. i don't suggest going to the movies to see it. also there are separate endings post the credits and we happened to get the 'drinking to remember' bs as opposed to the deadpool still being alive ending. at least make the endings comparable if there are going to be multiple ones.

star trek - 9.5/10 - FANTASTIC! i'm not a trekkie [spelling?]. i'm not a real big fan of the series. this movie is one of the best action films i've seen in a long time. it literally felt like i was in the theater for 20 minutes whereas the movie was actually 2 hours or so. i was surprised by a lot of the acting in this particular film as i'm used to silar in heroes and shaun from shaun of the dead and whatnot. a lot of big names. go see it if you haven't. even if you're into the series i think you'll find it enjoyable. i went with 3 trekkies who seemed to really enjoy it as much as i did.

terminator salvation - 5/10 - um...there were a lot of inconsistencies with this baby that really dropped it's score. the ending was another one of those 'you have to be shitting me i can't believe the editor let this go to production' endings. to tell you the truth, the ending of the film dropped it 2 snaps just by itself. i do think sam worthington did a really great job as marcus wright and look forward to seeing him as perseus in the remake of clash of the titans [as the old clash of the titans is one of my favorite films], anton yelchin also put in a good performance [charlie bartlett, also in star trek as chekov], in fact a lot of the actors were above par for this particular film. the screenplay is what gets them all in trouble. i find it hard to believe that christian bale read this and agreed to do it with that ending but as one of our other movie going friends stated it may be the millions of dollars that pushed him to it lol. also who the hell names their child moon bloodgood? seriously? um, i say wait for it to come out on usa...forget even paying to rent it unless you're a huge fan of the series and even then just go watch t2 and some of the sarah connor chronicles...

night at the museum: battle of the smithsonian - 6/10 - i swear to god amy adams is related to nicole kidman. anywho. movie was enjoyable enough. if you loved the first one go see this one. it's not quite as good but pretty close, otherwise rentable. eh you know the premise, stuff in the museum comes to life, there's some kind of evil bad guy they must overcome. would've been a lot more fun i think if jonah hill had more than a walk-on spot. he and ben stiller seem to play off one another really well.

alright done with movies. i think we're going to see up friday or next week. also i really want to see drag me to hell. i may have seen something else these past four weeks but apparently it's not as important as to post. if i remember later i'll stick it here somewhere.

life in general. aurora had her puppies. she had 7 total. 2 were stillborn. of the other 5 only 1 was born inside the placental sac. so i took all 5 to the vet when they were one day old as some of them weren't breathing well and weren't nursing so i was bottle feeding two of them. the vet told me that they all aspirated during birth and gave one of them oxygen and two of them a shot of antibiotics. sean and i took them back home and held 4 of them while they died. it was awful. i feel awful for the puppies, i feel awful for us, i feel awful for aurora but she seems pretty happy with just the one. so sean decided that we have to keep the remaining puppy [SEAN DECIDED, can you believe it wasn't me begging to keep the dog?] anywho so we didn't get her tail docked and her name is kuma [japanese for bear] as she looks like a little bear. i'll post a pic of her soon when she gets a little older. there's a cute photoshopped one of her on old school's myspace page wearing an old school shirt.

went to disney world with the folks, sean, and johnathon last week. we just got back yesterday. it was a fantastic time but man i have to lose some weight and get more fit. my feet were absolutely killing me the entire time after the first day. i'll get some pictures up from that trip as well. this semester went really well. i passed my qualifying exam for my phd. this means i've just got my comprehensive exam and my thesis defense to go. i wonder if i could do it in 3 years like my friend stephanie has done. time will tell i suppose.

on to the games. everquest 2 is my addiction of choice right now of course but i've been playing viva pinata again like a mad fiend as well. i found a pc copy for 7.99 at gamestop last week. i already have it on the 360 but man is it quicker with a mouse. also this week is SIMS 3. i cannot wait! i only have one more day to go huzzah!

eh i'm getting a bit tired so i'm heading off to bed. hopefully i'll be able to keep up a bit better with the blog now that it's summertime.

as for now...enjoy the silence...