Royal Caribbean Cruisers -- How Are Things Where You Are? (was "Routine" ​ 😁 ​day in lockdown... how was yours?)

[lenquixote66]

6 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

I did not know either. Sad. Love that solo in "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida."

Very eerie because I played the DVD for my grand kids Friday night.I told them they will never see anything like that again.

[George C]

37 minutes ago, DaniDanielle said:

Charlie worked at 2 Broadway, his first job.

That makes three people that worked at 2 broadway, what company did he work at?

[lenquixote66]

10 minutes ago, DaniDanielle said:

My last job was in 65 Broadway.  Started at Bank of America on Broad Street

I worked all over Manhattan from Maiden Lane to W. 90 St.and many places in between .

[harryfat1]

2 hours ago, jagsfan said:

Our Buca Di Beppo not only closed, but the building torn down and replaced with an Ale House. Don’t know if that’s just a Florida chain, but it has a big menu and, to me, so-so food. We all miss Buca!

We saw Disneyland years ago from the road and were shocked at how everything else was so close. Being Floridians, we were used to DW being its  own isolated magical land. 
Walt Disney learned from experience and flew in small planes over orange groves snd swamps, mapped out what he wanted, and used various names to buy up the property. 
Nothing was going to be butted up against his new theme park. 
Where does CA fit in next to Disneyland? Can you walk from one to the other?

Is there room for expansion?

Is it sold as a separate theme park, or are there two park tickets?

Call me curious!

 

 

Bucca is great for feeding family on a budget.  All the food here was a Thursday special that was only $50 and we ended up eating it for 2 days as the amount of pasta they give you is insane. I can't even feed a family of 4 for $50 at McDonalds for 2 meals...Two thumbs up from Cheapo Dad 👍👍

 

 

 

 

Yeah, back in the old days, Walt Disney was hiding the purchase of various swamp lands in Florida. Here’s a quick documentary of the WDW inception for those unfamiliar with the background

 

 

 

Walt never step foot onto WDW as he died before it was completed with the California Disneyland the only Disney park he ever stepped foot on.

 

If you research the history of EPCOT, you will see Walt was more of a Utopian on what he thought the future world would be.  The current version of EPCOT is not close to what he had in mind where he actually had people living EPCOT and working instead of rides featuring Frozen.  For non Disney fans, EPCOT stands for Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow or Every Person Comes Out Tired.

 

WDW is super-sized in being over 40 square miles of land space. If you stay on property during your stay and be immersed in the Disney bubble, you can disconnect from the real world.  Last time we were there was Christmas week in 2018 staying onsite and it’s a different type of vacation experience with magic bands and prepaid meal plan makes it almost like a land cruise with meals prepaid.

 

All the pics are from food/drinks that was inclusive in the package. I ate/drank better at WDW than on a typical cruise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whereas Disneyland is more about rides than vacation experience with many of the attractions so closely together. The entrance between Disneyland and CA Adventure (separate theme park charge similar to Hollywood Studios/EPOCT/Animal Kingdom) is a mere 200 yards apart so park hopping is super easy.  Whereas in WDW’s Magic Kingdom, walking out 200 yards only gets you in line for a bus transfer to Hollywood Studios.

 

Here is the plaza separating the 2 theme parks – to the right by the yellow topped building is Disneyland’s railroad building. If zooming in, you should be able to see the line to enter the park.

 

 

Swing immediately to the left, you see the entrance to CA Adventure.  That’s how far apart they are.  Super easy for Park Hopping.

 

 

If you are short on vacation time, Disneyland and CA Adventure will do the trick with a 2 or 3 day park hopper pass as you can slam out more rides within that period of time than you can at WDW where you spend so much time commuting back and forth between parks.  But if you have multiple days on your vacation, then WDW is a much better "vacation experience”.

 

The combination of Disneyland and CA Adventure is similar to WDW’s Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios as both combinations have Star Wars Land and all the classic Disney theme park rides (Splash/Space/Thunder Mountains) and Toy Story Mania and Tower of Terror (Rethemed in CA to be Guardian of Galaxy).  CA Adventure now has the new Avengers Campus as well as rides at other parts of WDW not within the MK/HS combo like Soarin (at EPCOT), Cars Land (like Test Track at EPCOT).

 

With Anaheim being smacked in middle of the very densely populated Orange County/Southern CA, there will not be a third park nearby.  They will just likely tear down old areas and re-theme it (like current Avengers Campus used to be Bugs Land from the old movie of the same name). Someday they will likely replace the cheap carnival type rides on the west side of the park.

 

If it wasn’t for Covid, we would be looking at another visit to WDW in December 2022 for the upcoming 50^th year celebration. Looking forward to ride TRON as they transport that concept from Shanghai Disneyland.  Also, EPCOT was looking old and tired back in 2018 with not much happening at the future world section so that needs some sprucing up.

 

Bet you are sorry you asked…

 

[Luckynana]

4 hours ago, akcruz said:

 

We were on the Nov 14th sailing, yes it was brutal hot but a very good cruise.  The last we were on unfortunately ☹, longest since we've been on a ship.  Maybe best year 🤞.

I just looked up the date that we cruised...November 14th also!  It was so much fun watching all of the motorcyclists getting off of the ship and lining up, before taking off to go around the Islands.  We had front row seats, since our balcony was facing the Island.  After talking to some of the cyclists onboard, I found out that many of them go on these cruises together.

[harryfat1]

3 hours ago, jagsfan said:

Our Buca Di Beppo not only closed, but the building torn down and replaced with an Ale House. Don’t know if that’s just a Florida chain, but it has a big menu and, to me, so-so food. We all miss Buca!

We saw Disneyland years ago from the road and were shocked at how everything else was so close. Being Floridians, we were used to DW being its  own isolated magical land. 
Walt Disney learned from experience and flew in small planes over orange groves snd swamps, mapped out what he wanted, and used various names to buy up the property. 
Nothing was going to be butted up against his new theme park. 
Where does CA fit in next to Disneyland? Can you walk from one to the other?

Is there room for expansion?

Is it sold as a separate theme park, or are there two park tickets?

Call me curious!

 

 

Another thing worth mentioning is that at Disneyland’s Downtown Disney area (now called Disney Springs at WDW but Disneyland kept the original name) is also within walking distance of 200 yards from either parks entrance (we went there on day 2 of the trip).

 

So you can do your Disney shopping immediately after visiting the parks whereas at WDW, you have to allocate part of a day to just get to Disney Springs but once you get there, WDW version is much bigger and more things to do. So it’s another trade off between travel time/convenience and more of “wow experience”.

 

In 2018, we left EPOCT in midafternoon to go to Sassagoula Floatworks Factory at Disney’s Port Orleans to grab a whole bunch of beignets utilizing the snack credits on the Disney Dining Plan,

 

 

 

From there, you take the free boat ride up the river to Disney Springs.

 

 

 

 

 

Once there, they had the Christmas Tree Trail where they decorate each Christmas tree themed after each Disney Movie or ride. Here are few sample ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afterwards, we ate dinner at one of the restaurants at Disney Springs that is on the Dining Plan so no extra charge for stuff you see below

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So one can see WDW is more of a vacation experience if you have the time for it

 

[Ozark_Kid]

Almost there, have to get the peaches first!

[DaniDanielle]

2 hours ago, George C said:

That makes three people that worked at 2 broadway, what company did he work at?

American Electric Power

[Sunshine3601]

3 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

I did not know either. Sad. Love that solo in "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida."

I just heard that song on the radio the other day.  Havent heard it ages.  Love it!

Sorry to hear of his passing.

 

[akcruz]

3 hours ago, Luckynana said:

I just looked up the date that we cruised...November 14th also!  It was so much fun watching all of the motorcyclists getting off of the ship and lining up, before taking off to go around the Islands.  We had front row seats, since our balcony was facing the Island.  After talking to some of the cyclists onboard, I found out that many of them go on these cruises together.

 

I had forgotten about the motorcycles, yes was very neat.  We did the behind the scenes tour and saw all of them down below, talked to many of them as well.

[lenquixote66]

38 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

I just heard that song on the radio the other day.  Havent heard it ages.  Love it!

Sorry to hear of his passing.

 

Do you know that Iron Butterfly released 2 albums with their signature song as well as other songs ,the same on both albums but different covers ?

I have both

[HBE4]

Ed Asner passed away at 91. Best known as Lou Grant on 2 different TV shows - "Mary Tyler Moore"  and the drama "Lou Grant"  - and to the younger generation as Santa Claus in "Elf",  I always thought his best role was as a very bitter father in  the miniseries "Rich Man, Poor Man" starring a very young Nick Nolte & Peter Strauss 

Edited August 29, 2021 by HBE4

[Luckynana]

46 minutes ago, akcruz said:

 

I had forgotten about the motorcycles, yes was very neat.  We did the behind the scenes tour and saw all of them down below, talked to many of them as well.

I wish we had known about the behind the scenes tour!  Jim used to have a BSA motorcycle back in the '60's and 70's.

[davekathy]

23 minutes ago, Luckynana said:

I wish we had known about the behind the scenes tour!  Jim used to have a BSA motorcycle back in the '60's and 70's.

I won't hold that against him. 😁

Edited August 30, 2021 by davekathy

[Sunshine3601]

1 hour ago, lenquixote66 said:

Do you know that Iron Butterfly released 2 albums with their signature song as well as other songs ,the same on both albums but different covers ?

I have both

No I did not know this.  Were they released at the same time?

[John&LaLa]

3 hours ago, DaniDanielle said:

American Electric Power

 

Laura's dad retired from AEP

[Sunshine3601]

53 minutes ago, HBE4 said:

Ed Asner passed away at 91. Best known as Lou Grant on 2 different TV shows - "Mary Tyler Moore"  and the drama "Lou Grant"  - and to the younger generation as Santa Claus in "Elf",  I always thought his best role was as a very bitter father in  the miniseries "Rich Man, Poor Man" starring a very young Nick Nolte & Peter Strauss 

That's very sad.  That makes Betty White the only surviving cast member of Mary Tyler Moore show.

[davekathy]

1 hour ago, lenquixote66 said:

Do you know that Iron Butterfly released 2 albums with their signature song as well as other songs ,the same on both albums but different covers ?

I have both

Knowing the name of the first album, what s the name of the second album? I googled it but hit a flat note. 

 

[voyager70]

2 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

That's very sad.  That makes Betty White the only surviving cast member of Mary Tyler Moore show.

 

She's the only left from Golden Girls too. I still watch the reruns!

 

[Ocean Boy]

1 minute ago, Sunshine3601 said:

That's very sad.  That makes Betty White the only surviving cast member of Mary Tyler Moore show.

Betty White is awesome.🙂 A few nights ago I saw the movie "The Proposal" again for I don't know how many times. She was so funny.

[John&LaLa]

Just checked MLB standings. Not good for the Mets. And the Rays are smoking the AL east. Must be something in the water.😉

[lenquixote66]

33 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

No I did not know this.  Were they released at the same time?

Yes

[lenquixote66]

24 minutes ago, davekathy said:

Knowing the name of the first album, what s the name of the second album? I googled it but hit a flat note. 

 

Iron Butterfly 

Iron Butterfly Live

[Lionesss]

Today started out with good intentions. Drove to Akron area to go boating with our cruise friends on their pontoon boat. The weather had  different plans. By the time we got to the dock on Portage lakes. Thunder lightning. Nope. Not going to happen. So we ended up going to a lake front bar. PICKS. Adult beverages and burgers. Throw in a power failure.  Had a good time. 
 

Then watched football. 
 

 

[A&L_Ont]

Today was a busy day. Left home at 7:15 and drove 2 hours to a racetrack. I was one of a group who brought cars to an event called Drive 4 Smiles.
 

Car owners paid a fundraising fees to take kids with health issues and their family members for paced laps on the track. We started at 10 and wrapped up at 3. A long day but so worth while. I will do it again. 

 

I brought my 2020 Shelby GT500. I might have approached 90+mph upon occasion through the day. I know some others were a bit😉 faster. 

 

 

All lined up before our track lap.