Park Thoughts

One of my favorite things about the Walt Disney World resort is the wide selection of resorts you can stay at during your visit. Every hotel on the property is outstanding, and no matter what your price range is, you’ll find a resort. Here’s a few of my favorite resorts. There’s also a surprise at the end of the list!

Port Orleans – Riverside

The Port Orleans - Riverside is set to grand southern mansions, giving it true class.

Have you ever wanted to stay in a mansion? Well, it’s not quite it, but it’s pretty close at the Port Orleans – Riverside. You’ll stay in a building crafted to be like a southern mansion. You get all the elegance and charm of a mansion at a moderate resort hotel price! You can also stay in the “backwoods” away from the fancy mansions.

Animal Kingdom Lodge

Wake up to the savannah at the Animal Kingdom Lodge

The Animal Kingdom Lodge has a perk no other resort has: you can wake up with the animals. They won’t be in your room, but they’ll be close. Some rooms at the Animal Kingdom Lodge look over a private savannah just for the resort. If you’re adventurous, and have got the cash, you can wake up and take a safari into the savannah in the morning. Of course, this resort is deemed “deluxe,” so it will cost a bit more than lower resorts.

Wilderness Lodge

Feel like you're at Yellowstone at the Wilderness Lodge

So, your trip to Disney World doesn’t mean you can go to Yellowstone, right? Wrong! Get the experience of staying in a National Park Lodge at the Wilderness Lodge. It’s a grand hotel with amazing wood work and architecture. This is also the place for the outdoor adventurer to stay. Hike the many trails or take a boat out on the water. Fort Wilderness campground is also nearby, which also provides lots of fun activities. The Wilderness Lodge is a Deluxe resort.

Caribbean Beach

One of the Caribbean Beach Resort's 'Villages'

The Caribbean Beach Resort is a moderate resort, but it is beautiful. Despite being one of the largest resorts at Disney World, it still feels very quaint. There are different “villages” around the 45 acre lake. Each village has its own pool, and there is a large pool with a slide and such next to the resort’s food court. The park is also right by Epcot and the Hollywood Studios, so the trip over to them is less than 10 minutes. If you don’t plan to spend much time at your hotel, but still want a nice resort to come back to in the night, I recommend the Caribbean Beach. It is still my favorite Disney World Resort.

Reward yourself!

Enough with the talk, here’s your reward! You can save at least 25% at select Disney World hotels most nights October 3, 2010 - February 16, 2011! Book by November 21, 2010! Visit here to start booking your trip today.

What are your favorite Disney World Resorts? Leave your thoughts below!

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Wow. What I thought was dead has seemingly been revived. Six Flags has released some artist’s renderings of what Six Flags Dubailand will look like. If you have read and seen the pictures already – don’t close the page yet. You haven’t read my opinions.

An overall view of the park.

From this drawing, the park looks absolutely incredible. Now, we don’t know if Six Flags will follow through with all of what is pictured here (we’ve seen theming and rides being cut back before), but it would really be a great step for Six Flags if they did follow through. So, that’s the “good” side of me. My bad, jealous, evil side is thinking “What? How come Great Adventure can’t be like this?”. Some of the flat rides I can detect from looking at the overview are a Huss Frisbee or Zamperla Discovery, a Parachute ride, a Waveswinger, and even what looks like a themed dark ride. In the “obvious” category, I see a B&M hyper coaster and a woodie (more about that coming).

Roller Coaster Road? Seriously?

One of the first “attractions” of the park is going to be Roller Coaster Road. This road will go up and down, simulating a roller coaster. The clever sign up there has a funny joke about roller coasters and cars. Haha. Now, this is one part of the plan that I can easily see being cut out if there was any sort of money problem when it came to building the park. It seems like there are always budget cuts, and this would be the least important thing on my list. It costs money to make those hills. It seems fun – but it also seems like it could cause some serious traffic accidents… thrill seekers looking for airtime on those hills could, well… let’s think positively instead, shall we? But I’ve been to Dubai – they don’t have the best drivers. Enough said.

What?

Here’s another rendering that makes my bad, jealous, evil side scream. What the… how come they… why don’t we… That’s how all my complaints start. This looks absolutely incredible, and it’s a great idea. I love the LED lights on the coaster, but I just wish some of the exsisting Six Flags parks could get this kind of attention. They don’t specify what kind of woodie this is – but it’s a good bet it’ll be GCI.

Good lord.

Geez. This looks incredible as well. This reminds me of those Shanghai Disney renderings! Yet, this is Six Flags! Wow, I wish that… I hope that…. you know how my wishes and complaints go. I hope Six Flags decides to copy some of these ideas onto their existing parks. This is what Six Flags Dubailand’s entrance will look like. A step up from Magic Mountain’s entrance, huh?

A spinning, six-tower sculpture.

The park will have a six-tower spinning sculpture dedicated to the six flags that stood over Dubai – oh wait, I think they stopped doing that. Were there even six flags over that area?

The ticketing office. Nope, not a 5-star resort.

Six Flags has decided to replace the ticket booths with this – an indoor area which is “elegant, yet playful” where you can buy your tickets, but better interact with your exciting surroundings. From the looks of the building, one might think Marriot built a resort next to the hotel. Nope, that’s just where your buy your tickets. The roller coaster going by is called “Revolution”. From the looks of it, it looks like an Intamin looper, sort of like Collosus at Thorpe Park. I can’t be sure, though.

Now, if you’re anything like me, you’re probably wondering – how come THIS Six Flags park gets so much freaking detail when MY Six Flags park is so general? Here’s the answer. Once Dubailand is completed, this park will be competing with the likes of Universal, Warner Brothers, Marvel, and others. If the park was like your friendly neighborhood Six Flags park, it would never compete. It’s my personal opinion that Six Flags has no business even being there, but think what you may, it’s going to be there no matter what. I was lucky enough to visit Dubai this summer, and I even drove through the future Dubailand site. All I saw was the Universal arch, with nothing but desert sand surrounding it. There was a billboard advertising it. And that was it.

What do I think? I think Six Flags should be using this money to expand and improve their existing parks. Parks like Six Flags America and Six Flags Mexico are really hurting. This money could be used so much better, especially on the 55th or 60th anniversary of the chain. What do you think? Leave us your park thoughts.

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