DIS Dads DDC XXXI: Nice to have Friends Around the Globe, Even Tim! Happy Holidays!

[theduck619]

ok guys, missed a lot..... again. We had plant shut down from Dec 23 - Jan 1st. Been interesting since coming back. Jan 3rd, My boss was fired (QA Manager) Jan 7th, His boss was fired (VP of Operations) - rumor is this firing was because my boss was fired with no plans to cover his position or projects that were in process (ISO and quality processes at our company in PA) So, I am low enough that the ax went over my head but now i am exposed in a way. (not that i am worried) But with that happening and trying to catch up and assist with issues that my boss would have normally handled, it has been keeping me busy. Sounds like i have the possibility to take over my boss' position when they post it. Still trying to decide if i want to take it. Should be a substantial pay increase but then it is my head in that ax range. I am thinking i will go for it though. Can't hurt to try. No guts no glory and if i get it, it will be a nice boost to my resume. So hope to be able to check in more often but we shall she how this all pans out.

Good luck , we are all counting on you!!

 

[twokids0204]

For those that have done MNSSHP - how are the crowds? And is everything in MK open?

Specifically doing it on Halloween Night... I can only imagine it would be insanely busy.

But DW is interested in trying that this year.

Thoughts?

 

[DisneyFed]

For those that have done MNSSHP - how are the crowds? And is everything in MK open?

Specifically doing it on Halloween Night... I can only imagine it would be insanely busy.

But DW is interested in trying that this year.

Thoughts?

I also replied on FB...

We haven't done it Halloween night, but have heard it's pretty busy. However, MNSSHP is our normal trip, and we love it, that being said, we go in Early October usually.

Everything was open (except some of the eating places) and was pretty much walk on. The parade and fireworks are great!!

 

[afwdwfan]

I'm not a movie goer but I want to see this movie. I like the idea of sitting at home with beer in hand watching it.

I will say this much... some of the code words they used in the op definitely made me thirsty!

 

[Goofy + 3]

I've been reading some of the posts on FP+ and I want to make sure I understand since I can start making my selections tomorrow (60 days, right?).

You can make 3 per day but not any 3. There are certain headliners that you can't group in to the same day. Is that right? And are the paper FP kiosks still functioning or is that over?

 

[that's nice]

I will say this much... some of the code words they used in the op definitely made me thirsty!

Well, I'll need to be stocked up then.

I've been reading some of the posts on FP+ and I want to make sure I understand since I can start making my selections tomorrow (60 days, right?).

Correct

You can make 3 per day but not any 3. There are certain headliners that you can't group in to the same day. Is that right? And are the paper FP kiosks still functioning or is that over?

Yes. There are tiered FP in DHS & EP. I'm not sure if it has started in the other 2. Make sure you set up your FP ASAP before they tier the other 2.

I believe paper FP have been taken out of AK & MK. I haven't heard about the other 2 yet.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Hey guys. Just coming up for air in a busy week.

 

[afwdwfan]

Well, I'll need to be stocked up then.

Just keep in mind that for every good beer they mention, they also mention one that would be right up Barry's alley.

 

[afwdwfan]

Hey guys. Just coming up for air in a busy week.

I know the feeling. Good luck.

Julie still hanging in there? Or is that why it is a busy week?

 

[cj9200]

That's why I always carry a hydraulic bottle jack. I've seen those crank jacks break enough that I don't even trust them. I'm glad someone came by to offer some assistance.

This is the reason I carry a floor jack in the back of my Tundra. I never really had a need for it until trying to change a tire on US 27 outside of Clewiston at 0430 one time....thank GOD I had it then, and I've used it a couple of more times since.

Well that just sucks. We have Road Rangers up here too. Saved my butt a few years ago when I had a blowout on my boat trailer. I was on a curve and it was not a safe situation. Glad you were out of there quickly.

I don't care how much less space there is in the trunk, I am getting one. He pulled up and saw me using the crank, came over and said wait a minute, got his jack out and bam the car was off the ground.

I can see it now. A group of Disdad Bravehearts storming the castle.

By the way, did the pirate princess race in costume?

You Can Take Our Lives, But You Will Never Take Our Dole Whips.

Posting in a minute the 10K day which was her dress up run.

That is what I hate. I saw Steve mention something on Facebook about some dads losing TSMM FP during Marathon weekend and switching to RnRC. That's all well and good until you're the family with small kids that can't ride TSMM after all your planning ahead of time.

True but you can use it for any of the FP rides. With legacy, you still couldn't ride TS and you would be stuck with a useless FP.

Hummm… this puts me in a quandary. I thought both of them were Team Tim members. There has been a mutiny amongst the ranks.

Same here. Carl or Paul? Both were on the losing side two years ago. (Chuckle)

 

[Disney Commando]

For those that have done MNSSHP - how are the crowds? And is everything in MK open?

Specifically doing it on Halloween Night... I can only imagine it would be insanely busy.

But DW is interested in trying that this year.

Thoughts?

We have done Halloween night, it was sold out, It would depend on what you call crowded and what you are doing and when (if you do the 1st parade, or trick or treat 1st it is going to be crowded)

I try to tour like a Sasquatch and try to avoid as many people as possible (We try to get as many meet&greets done while all the chaos is going on for the 1st parade, a lot of people try to stay for it, we hit the 2nd parade by the shooting gallery instead of being anywhere near Main Street and we watch the fireworks at the fence line over by the Crystal Palace

IMO timing is key in the beginning you want to be ahead of the crowd then when the crowd is catching up, pull a reverse and be behind the crowd

 

[cj9200]

Before we get to day two, a note about what we ate the night of day one. After talking to Scopa about diet, she picked Captain’s Grille for dinner. Always like CG. Good food at reasonable price (for Disney) and walk-ins are welcome.

The Cheetah’s Farmers' Market Salad with Walnut Granola, Granny Smith Apples, Dried Cranberries, Marscarpone-Blue Cheese Cream, and Champagne Vinaigrette


SIL’s Wedge of Lettuce


SIL’s Sweet Potato Pasta thing


My Pork Tenderloin


All good. One issue is they tried to give A two salads instead of the gnocchi thing she ordered. Took a little bit until she got her carbs and when they did arrive, I forgot to take a picture.

Time for race two, the 10K. This was the “fun” race of the four. She was going to wear a costume and stop to get pictures with a few characters. The first costume choice was Mulan but that turned out to be impractical. So she chose….



Yep, Merida.

OK, Elsa from Frozen. I thought she did a nice job given limited funds she was allowed to work with.

Prep work


Notice the sun is not yet up again


Two down, two to go


Here is where the first issue with SIL came up. Well, that and she “generously” offered to pay for one dinner while we were there. Great, she bought one dinner, I bought two. Plus no offer of $ for the free room. That was OK, but we wanted to go to DHS alone. She wormed her way in and both of us were PO’ed. So we did the next best thing, we did thrill rides. She doesn’t do thrill rides.

Toy Story was down so we got an Any Ride Fast Pass notification on My Disney Experience. Used our ToT Fastpass, then RnRC with the Any Ride. The two of them did the last FP for Movie Ride while I relaxed. From there, we were done and I chuckled she spent about $100 for one ride and a couple of hours of window shopping.

My take on Fastpass+ and MDE. I am beginning to like it. When we went to the MK the day before I changed FP times multiple times that day and got what I wanted. Today the plan was to hit RnRC at rope drop and ToT, TSMM and GMR with the Fastpasses. Would had worked if TS wasn’t down and everyone hit the other two biggies. Plus when Toy Story went down, the system automatically gave us an Any Ride. Would not have happened with the legacy system. Granted, I only use 2 or 3 FPs during a day in the parks anyway.





Met Dorma Nesmond


From there it was back to the room to relax and nap because the first of the big races was next up. The half and the Dis Dad runner meet up.

 

[afwdwfan]

My Pork Tenderloin

I'm glad to see someone in the group ordered some real food.

I'd say that was a great costume for working with a budget and having something comfortable enough to run a 10K in. How did her character meets during the run turn out?

And nice job on ditching the SIL at DHS.

 

[mm1971]

Okay, time for some travel advice from the assembled wisdom of DisDaddom. We have our plans made for our annual Anniversary trip in May. We will be driving, again. The October trip last year went well but there will be differences. In Oct we left around noon on Friday and got to WDW saturday morning. For May, we will be leaving sometime on Tuesday, arriving Wednesday, so I am concerned with the traffic issues. Last time we went the rts 80, 33, 78, 81, 77, 26, 95, 4 path from NW NJ. My concern is places like Charlotte NC and Columbia SC. I'm thinking this time cutting across VA on 64 and 288, to pick up 95 south of Richmond and avoid nearly all the metro areas except Harrisburg and Jacksonville. Any thoughts?

Yeah! Try flying. JK. We do usually fly. The one time we drove in that direction, the traffic was tough so we decided never again. Good luck, I'm sure a lot of the others have been there recently.

For the July/Aug trip I booked the AutoTrain since this is our trip we hit Busch Gardens,SeaWorld, LegoLand, Gatorland a car is a must for this trip plus we can bring and take home as much as we want

For our April trip we are using Spirit Airlines out of AC

Now after booking both the train will actually be cheaper since the airline nickel and dimes you to death and then add on parking at the airport
The way you have to look at it is if you have limited time a flight would be a lot quicker, but if you have a extra day or 2 there is nothing like the train

We have friends that take the auto train every year and swear by it. For us it's 12 -14 hours just to get to the train and 24 hours to drive it if we don't stop to rest. Wouldn't mind actually driving, but it's almost impossible for me to get more than a week off. That means 4 days driving and 4 days there. Not really my preference. That is why we fly.

Yeah, I remember reading that Spirit has some of the highest fees in the industry. It would be nice to have 2 trips in a year. Did it once with DS in May for a baseball tournament and then a dad/DD trip in October. Those were the days.

 

[Swissdog2010]

Well done Sir!

What gave it away?

She said it was one of the Maritime provinces, so i just worked my way through them.

 

[Swissdog2010]

I hate my phone. That should be a winter storm. My driveway is mostly clear even though we supposedly got 3".

That's what I thought, but it's more fun to be a wise*ss about it. Being from New Jersey, it's pretty much required.

 

[Swissdog2010]

Thanks guys at least it's not just me. Called them today to ask why I had 6 FPs and wanted to make sure that the 3 time slots we want are the valid ones and was told that even though 6 show I can only have 3 and to wait a day or so to see if "it fixes itself" - huh? Oh well having an issue with FP+ means we are only 60 days away from the mouse.

Makes you wonder if FP+ was set up by the same folks that gave us Healthcare.gov website and it's state subsidiaries.

 

[mm1971]

Cause they dont sell beer in the MK

Now that is a good answer!

Made it back finally. Not much excitement except a FLAT TIRE. Got the nuts loose and was starting to crank it off the ground when a Road Ranger came by. He pulled out his Nascar lift and the car was off the ground in two seconds. I replaced it with the spare and was out of there less than 15 minutes from the time I first pulled over. I would still be there using the hand crank if he did not happen by. Now I need to buy two new tires. Welcome back to reality.

It wasn't me…..really…….I wasn't even in Florida……..no, really.

Glad you got back safely.

ok guys, missed a lot..... again.
We had plant shut down from Dec 23 - Jan 1st.
Been interesting since coming back.
Jan 3rd, My boss was fired (QA Manager)
Jan 7th, His boss was fired (VP of Operations) - rumor is this firing was because my boss was fired with no plans to cover his position or projects that were in process (ISO and quality processes at our company in PA)

So, I am low enough that the ax went over my head but now i am exposed in a way. (not that i am worried) But with that happening and trying to catch up and assist with issues that my boss would have normally handled, it has been keeping me busy. Sounds like i have the possibility to take over my boss' position when they post it. Still trying to decide if i want to take it. Should be a substantial pay increase but then it is my head in that ax range. I am thinking i will go for it though. Can't hurt to try. No guts no glory and if i get it, it will be a nice boost to my resume.

So hope to be able to check in more often but we shall she how this all pans out.

Good luck getting the promotion. Sounds like the ax chopping will have to stop for a while. Pretty soon no one will be left to do anything.

Just make sure to leave enough work undone that they realize they need to promote you and hire someone else. If you do all the work, they might just go with status quo.

 

[Cinderella's Fella]

Hey guys. Just coming up for air in a busy week.

Boy, I hope your week gets better!

We have done Halloween night, it was sold out, It would depend on what you call crowded and what you are doing and when (if you do the 1st parade, or trick or treat 1st it is going to be crowded)

I try to tour like a Sasquatch and try to avoid as many people as possible (We try to get as many meet&greets done while all the chaos is going on for the 1st parade, a lot of people try to stay for it, we hit the 2nd parade by the shooting gallery instead of being anywhere near Main Street and we watch the fireworks at the fence line over by the Crystal Palace

IMO timing is key in the beginning you want to be ahead of the crowd then when the crowd is catching up, pull a reverse and be behind the crowd

Ron, you should do a Commando show for DISDad Radio.

Here is where the first issue with SIL came up. Well, that and she “generously” offered to pay for one dinner while we were there. Great, she bought one dinner, I bought two. Plus no offer of $ for the free room. That was OK, but we wanted to go to DHS alone. She wormed her way in and both of us were PO’ed. So we did the next best thing, we did thrill rides. She doesn’t do thrill rides.

This made Jodi laugh out loud when I read it to her!

Alex, praying for a good future for you.

Jason, go for it, even if you don't get it at least you tried!

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

I know the feeling. Good luck.

Julie still hanging in there? Or is that why it is a busy week?

No, just lots of meetings. I was hoping baby would arrive so I could skip them.

No baby news yet...although it's looking like we may not make it into February...