Is one of your favorite holiday traditions driving around your neighborhood to look at lights? Well, one of the most magical neighborhoods on Earth is Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground. Ivonne on our team paid a visit to check out the decorations and grab a dinner via mobile order at P&J’s Southern Takeout. Let’s take a look at some of the festive and creative decorations around the campground and campsites.
Ivonne took the ferry boat from Magic Kingdom over to Disney’s Fort Wilderness. The boat ride over is so relaxing and full of Disney charm. All of the common areas at Fort Wilderness have rustic, country-style holiday decorations. Throughout the holiday season, campers tend to decorate their campsite. But the decorations tend to hit their peak as Christmas Day itself nears.
Guest decorations at Fort Wilderness CampgroundGuest decorations at Fort Wilderness CampgroundGuest decorations at Fort Wilderness CampgroundGuest decorations at Fort Wilderness CampgroundGuest decorations at Fort Wilderness CampgroundGuest decorations at Fort Wilderness Campground – looking down the streetGuest decorations at Fort Wilderness CampgroundGuest decorations at Fort Wilderness CampgroundGuest decorations at Fort Wilderness CampgroundGuest decorations at Fort Wilderness Campground
Have you ever stayed at Fort Wilderness Campground during the holidays? What’s the best decorations you saw?
Universal’s Express Pass is a popular splurge purchase for theme park fans who despise lines. But we are here to tell you there’s a better way: stay on site at a Universal Premier hotel. In this article, I will explain Express Pass, its variants, and show you how to price out a hotel with Express versus buying Express separately.
What is Express Pass?
Express Pass is Universal’s skip-the-line offering for attractions and shows. There are two Express Pass versions: a standard Express Pass, which is valid only once per attraction, and Express Unlimited Pass, which offers unlimited access for each attraction. Passes also have an option to upgrade the Express Pass to work at both theme parks.
Express is valid only for one day and for one person – each party member must have an Express Pass. Vaid theme park admission is still necessary for entry.
Unlike Disney’s FastPass+ no reservations or return times are required.
How Much Does Unlimited Express Pass Cost?
Express Pass starts at $59.99 per person for a base one-park Express Pass and $89.99 per person for a one-park Express Unlimited Pass. During holidays and weekends, these prices can inflate to astronomical amounts – during Christmas week the one-park Express Pass swells to an eye-watering $249.99 per person!
Vacation Hack – Stay at a Premier Hotel Instead
Universal’s Premier hotels (Loews Portofino Bay, Loews Royal Pacific, and Hard Rock Hotel) offer complimentary Express Unlimited Pass included in the price of the room. You heard that right–this isn’t just any Express, it’s the highest tier, two-park, unlimited Express that costs $99.99 to $289.99 per person per day. The complementary Express Passes are valid for each person in the room for every day of the stay, including check-in and check-out days.
Doing the Math
Let’s take a look at a long weekend trip for March 5 – 7, 2021. We are assuming you will spend three days, two nights at the parks for four guests. Checking Universal’s booking site the least expensive Premier hotel that weekend is Loews Royal Pacific at $1278 including taxes and fees for three days, two nights.
Three days, two nights stay at Royal Pacific with four adults.
Compare this to the price of Express Pass on its own. Using Universal’s ticket site I pulled prices for Express Pass and Express Unlimited Pass, one-park and two-park varieties, for the same dates:
Booking a resort saves you over $600 for the exact same tickets, and that’s not including the price of a hotel!
If you are visiting the parks on check-in and check-out day it is cheaper to book a room at a Premier resort rather than purchase Express separately, even if you are not paying for accommodations while in Orlando. There are exceptions to this: if you are taking days off not to go to the parks, not visiting the parks on the check-in and check-out dates, or if you do not want Express.
If you have an Annual Pass or are a Florida resident the savings could be even greater. Annual Passholders and Florida Residents can save up to 30% off rack rates, although inventory is limited.
Do I REALLY Need Express Pass?
No.
Express is a nice luxury and creates a more relaxed, stress-free vacation. Unlike FastPass+, which feels necessary and required for effective touring, Express does not make or break a vacation. Showing up thirty minutes to an hour prior to park opening, with a Touring Plan in hand, will also let you experience the parks at a fraction of the cost.
We suggest investing the extra time to investigate the savings or you could work with our own Touring Plans Travel Agency who will help you!
This week’s SATURDAY SIXtakes a look at recent news via theme park memes! Christmas is less than one week away and we all know what you want under the the tree… more theme park memes! Well, we’ve made our list and we’ve checked it twice. In fact, we even consulted the grand poobah Len Testa for an algorithm on who’s been naughty or nice! Turns out, everyone’s been pretty good this year (except Seth Kubersky) so we’re here to deliver the goods. Let’s kick it all off with…
# 6 – A Mysterious Monolith
What a weird story this was. In late November, it was revealed that a mysterious monolith appeared in the middle of nowhere in Utah. Soon, other monoliths started to appear elsewhere across the globe. Like Disney and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, turns out the people behind monoliths figured it was easier and cheaper to clone a monolith instead of creating something new.
Mysterious Monolith in Utah.
Leave it to DisTwitter to have fun with this bonkers story. First up, a monolith appearing in the Utah-like atmosphere of Big Thunder Mountain.
The wildest monolith in the wilderness. (meme by @SeriousParkNews)
Another had it replacing the Partner’s statue in Disneyland.
“To all who come to this happy monolith, welcome.” (meme by @RopeDropChris)
Then came memes replacing the mysterious monolith, such as this one using a Leave A Legacy slab from EPCOT.
Well, after removing a thousand things from EPCOT over the past few years, this month Disney finally added something new to the park in the form of a massive barge. Pictures do not do justice to the gigantic nature of this eyesore. Thankfully, DisTwitter was around to make things a little easier to swallow…
This month a large scrim was erected at the very front entrance of Disney’s Magic Kingdom, as the Main Street USA railroad station undergoes some refurbishment. This caused one guest to ask,
After 10 long years of waiting, our long national nightmare is finally over as Universal listened to our pleas and built a new bank of lockers for Muggles to use before riding Forbidden Journey. For those who haven’t been before, the old locker system at Forbidden Journey can best be compared to the subways in Japan where people are literally pushed inside the cars. It was a miserable situation, both for the guests and for the Team Members.
For a while, Universal has been working on building a whole new locker setup that is set away from the entrance of Forbidden Journey, much like how guests will find the locker situation at attractions such as The Incredible Hulk Coaster, Rip Ride Rockit, or Men In Black: Alien Attack.
The new lockers make the guest experience much better, and on top of that the entire locker bank is themed with the gorgeous rockwork that surrounds Hogwarts Castle.
The Forbidden Journey lockers sit at the edge of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. In fact, the back side of them is actually part of the Jurassic Park section of Islands of Adventure. The section in Jurassic Park is nowhere near as elaborately themed as what guests see in the Wizarding World.
Arrow points to the back side of the Forbidden Journey locker bank. This back side is considered part of Jurassic Park. (photo by @bioreconstruct)
So, you ask, what does any of this have to do with memes? CALM DOWN! We’re getting to that!! (EDITOR’S NOTE: Please forgive Derek’s anger. For the past few weeks he’s had to get up at 4:00 a.m. on Friday mornings to watch The Mandalorian before it got spoiled on social media) One of the most fun viral meme formats this past month was called the “They Don’t Even Know” format. The actual meme format itself is based around a similar one called “I Wish I Was At Home,” which has been around for over a decade. It is based on a crudely drawn comic strip, with the main character being depicted as uncomfortable and anxious at a party. The main character, alone by himself in the corner, is having issues with his own self-worth. Users would change the dialogue in the comic strip, and it is meant to reflect the main character thinking that he has some sort of knowledge that would impress everyone else at the party if they only knew.
One of the best examples of this meme format was TouringPlans’ resident millennial Joe Matt, who used the Forbidden Journey lockers in his self-depreciating comic strip.
Another person used an attraction that is beloved to many of our hearts…
Some used the meme format to make ultra-niche jokes, such as DisTwitter member Mateo, who has probably ridden Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway and Rise of the Resistance more times than any other human on Earth.
Of course, as the M Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable movie taught us, if there is a superhero there must also be a villain. While Mateo gets boarding group after boarding group every day he goes to DHS, poor Weenie hasn’t yet to obtain a boarding group for Rise of the Resistance during any of his recent trips.
I guess some people would consider a glitter farting Troll to be obscure, but let’s not forget that Guy Diamond was a winner at the 22nd annual Burgys honoring theme park excellence.
Anyone who is a member of an official Disney or Universal page on Facebook knows how crazy things can get and how almost every person in each group considers themselves The Holder of All Knowledge. The meme below is referencing the “secret” entrance to Universal Studios Florida located next to the Blue Man Group.
Yours Truly even got into the game, using a bit of trivia for the cinematic masterpiece known as SHARKNADO 3.
The ending of Sharknado 3 takes place on this beach. It is located right outside the Royal Pacific Resort’s pool area.While most viewers were drawn to the burnt decay of a fried shark, Your Humble Author was instead focused on the Universal Orlando Resort water taxis in the background.
# 2 – Thank You For Changing my Life
One meme format that burned like a red hot sun for a brief period of time was titled “Thank You For Changing My Life.” The meme involved a girl saying thank you for changing my life, with users following that up with an item being absolutely ridiculous. For example, one thing that ran wild in theme park circles was when it was discovered that Disney put a new sweater on some Figment characters in Journey Into Imagination. This was a real life version of Malibu Stacey’s Hat moment from The Simpsons, as people did not care about the horrible current state of the attraction and were instead obsessed over these minor sweaters.
It’s just about Christmas, one of our favorite days of the year, and one of our yearly annual traditions on DisTwitter is to bring back the Elf on the Shelf meme. This one is pretty self-explanatory, as the meme will start off with “You’ve heard of Elf on the Shelf…” and it is followed by a picture. The reader that figures out what the rhyming combo is, such as Tiger on the Iger.
One of the best designers in the entire theme park community is Howard Bowers. You have to check out his store for shirts, posters, and decals that blow away what we can buy in the parks. This past week he came out with some more incredible artwork that uses the minimalist design of EPCOT Pavilions and mashes them up with what we are currently experiencing in the world. Just genius-level work.
DOUBLE SECRET HONORABLE MENTION – The Chapek Challenge…
We’re going to close with an example of a meme which never ceases to make me smile. Generally speaking, the format has a person asking readers to like their tweet. For every 20 likes, they will do something goofy to the picture. In our case, @HackermanJoe asked people to like a picture of Bob Chapek. For every 20 likes, he promised to increase the size of Bob’s forehead. That’s INSANE, right? Well, that’s our type of insanity here at the SATURDAY SIX…
The whole challenge started simply enough, with Bob Chapek’s forehead growing and growing…
Growing and growing…
It wasn’t long before the forehead starting getting out of hand, because the original tweet went viral. Instead of giving up, our artist went outside the box, and started showing the forehead as if you could see it from outside the park. Here we have the forehead growing up in the distance in the back of a newly finished entrance way to Walt Disney World.
Eventually, even with the new background, after many updates @HackermanJoe would hit the top of the picture. Does he give up?
Nay Nay, he finds a new way to have fun.
(NNote Chapek’s growing forehead to the right of the Universal globe.)
What makes this threads so extra special bonkers is that you are getting a condensed version. @HackermanJoe put in the work, and each one of these pictures was slowly increased in forehead size until it hit the top of the frame. After Universal, Chapek’s forehead was seen against the skyline of Orlando itself. But we’re still not done…
We had to zoom even farther back to the show the world itself. Yes, the original tweet was getting that many likes as people were LOVING IT.
In lieu of going mad, @HackermanJoe finished this exercise by showing Chapek’s forehead going up through the Milky Way itself. It was a bravura performance by an hugely talented artist.
So there you have it: A Look at Theme Park News via MEMES!See you next weekend for the latest installment of the SATURDAY SIX, where we’ll look at something fun from the world of Disney and Universal. If you enjoyed yourself, be sure to check out The Magic, The Memories, and Merch! articles covering the latest from the Disney Outlet Stores. You can also follow Your Humble Author on Twitter (@derekburgan).
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Crowded theme parks during the Christmas holiday are as certain as death and taxes. Every year we see crowd levels hit their peak as we head into the final week of the year. As we all know, this year is different. Will we see the same extreme crowd levels?
This year’s Thanksgiving Day crowds were significant but not extreme. The average posted wait time on Thanksgiving Day was 35 minutes. Compare that to 41 in 2019 and 45 in 2018. It seems likely that we will see a similar dip in the average wait time over the Christmas holiday too. We have seen some signs that capacity is increasing however. At Magic Kingdom, Haunted Mansion and Under The Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid are now loading every vehicle. This is a sign that attendance is increasing, but with the new ride capacity per hour the posted time will stay about the same.
If you are planning a visit to the parks sometime between December 23 and January 2 we strongly suggest that you prepare for extreme crowds. Maybe not as extreme as we usually see but significant nonetheless. A touring plan is essential during this time. We have been testing our plans a lot lately with great success so our confidence is high. Use the plans–they work!
Universal Orlando Updates
We are modifying some crowd level predictions for Universal Orlando Resort for dates in December and January. The Florida Resident Buy One and Get Unlimited Returns is about to expire on December 24, so we think a lot of guests are going to head to the parks to get the last bit of value out of those tickets. We are already seeing surprising surges in crowds during the week, but only at Universal Studios. The crowds at Islands of Adventure have been in line with our predictions.
Reviewing the Calendars
In the last 30 days our predictions for the crowd levels have been good. Our predictions at Animal Kingdom have performed the best with an average error of 0.8 points. So, on average we missed by less than one index point. At Hollywood Studios the average was 1.2. Magic Kingdom was a little higher, coming in at 1.5 points, while EPCOT was the worst. There, we missed by 2 points on average. EPCOT was very uncrowded for most days between the reopening in June and Thanksgiving Day. Since then, however, it has seen much higher wait times. Our last update addressed some of this but it takes a while for our post-COVID models to gather enough data so that new trends are reflected. We are also very suspicious that the posted wait times we are seeing at EPCOT are not a good indicator for actual wait. Universal Orlando crowds have been pretty close to normal. Other than some unusually large crowds during the week at Universal Studios park, our predictions have done well. In the last 30 days our predictions for Universal Studios missed by less than 2 index points on average while at Islands of Adventure the average error was 1.3.
We’re here with a series of quick posts, “Disney in a Minute,” bite-sized nuggets of information that can better help you understand a Disney term or planning topic. Enjoy!
What is the purple wall?
If you know, then you know. What a silly question! If you don’t know then, this one is a real head scratcher.
The purple wall is, well, a purple wall. This particular purple wall happens to be located in Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, along a passageway between the rarely open Tomorrowland Terrace restaurant and Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. The exact tipping point of fame is under question, but likely sometime in 2015 Instagram users discovered that the lilac paint on this passage wall was a flattering backdrop for posing. And then it took on a life of its own. More Instagrammers came and took photos. A dedicated account fan popped up, and then copycat fan accounts followed.
Disney itself got in on the action big time when, in early 2018 they, gasp, repainted the wall. Instead of just solid purple, the wall became a multi-hued mural, with geometric shapes of different shades in the purple spectrum. More folks took pics. They began stationing a PhotoPass photographer at the wall. There was purple wall merchandise! Other random walls around Walt Disney World got their 15 minutes of fame (bubblegum wall on the backside of EPCOT’s Spaceship Earth, we’re talking to you).
Some of the hubbub has died down, but the purple wall lives on. Nearly every time I walk by, someone really is taking photos there. Now when someone says, “Meet me at the purple wall,” you know where they want you to be.
The original wall.Purple wall merchandise.The refreshed paint job.
Have a question about a Disney term that is unfamiliar to you? Suggest it here for an upcoming Disney in a Minute segment.
