Massachusetts DVC Owners Group

[lopo]

Had a wonderful time at Universal (even though we got stuck in a deluge walking to our dinner reservation at The Kitchen in the Hard Rock Hotel. Water taxis were not running due to the storm.) Stayed 2 nights at Portofino Resort. Visited Universal Studios one day and Islands of Adventure the second day. Since we had the Universal Express pass (because of our resort stay), the lines weren't too bad. The longest wait was for the new coaster: Jurassic World VelociCoaster. Express pass did not work on this one ride. I couldn't go on (due to health) but my daughter and 2 granddaughters (11, 12) loved it and wanted to ride again (but we planned to return after going on other rides and the girls wimped out because they wanted to return to the resort to go in the pool. It was very hot and humid.) For the first time, I got to go on 2 rides - Transformers and Kong Skull Island - I hadn't tried previously. Kong was very scary but fun! Many of the rides rely on 3-D for the experience. US closed at 5PM both nights because they were having their separate-ticketed Halloween Horror Nights (both sold out.) The parks were very crowded; it seemed that there were lots more folks in the 16-40 age range (many young men especially.) Frankly, I think that Universal caters (well) to that age group. It appeared that everything - rides, restaurants, snack stands - was open. Masks were not required. I think that about 30% of us wore masks.

 

[lopo]

Oh! I forgot to report this: my daughter, husband and I dined at 'Ohana - early dinner on our last night at WDW. While we were there the power went out but it wasn't necessarily noticeable since it was still daylight. However, our server brought cocktails to my DD & DH (they had ordered cocktails previously and had not finished them yet.) He told us that they were complimentary for the "problem". Also, we saw that there were other folks waiting for their payments to be processed; the servers approached them and told them that they weren't able to process any payments because of the outage so their meals were complimentary. We were in a relatively small section of 'Ohana; I suspect that there were many guests that received complimentary meals. My family (jokingly) said that we should tell our server that we wanted to skip dessert and ask for the check so we could get outta there. LOL! We did not do that. Of course, the power was restored before we finished our meal and we paid our bill and left a generous tip since we felt that our server made sure that we had a memorable meal despite the outage. I am thinking that Disney comped 100s, if not 1,000s of meals during the outage. The guy next to us said that he didn't know what to do because he didn't have cash to leave a tip and he didn't want to "stiff" the server. He did have $2 in cash that he left. (I would have returned later with the gratuity it that was me but I have no idea where he was staying so I don't know if that was feasible for him.) Frankly, I was surprised that the staff didn't record the guests' credit card info and ring up the sale once the power was restored. Some folks certainly had a lot of pixie dust that evening. Later, we heard that folks had been stuck on the monorail during the outage and I am sure there were others who were inconvenienced but I didn't hear if they received any pixie dust.

 

[lopo]

I hope that I didn't jinx myself: I put in an offer on a BLT contract and it was accepted today and sent to Disney for review aka ROFR. But, I added the points to my spreadsheet summarizing my DVC points. Fingers crossed that I will not have to delete the latest addition.

 

[Lakegirl]

Good for you!, Congratulations! Just went on Thursday to a Staples near me for my TSA precheck and already had my TSA # last night. Super quick and easy!

 

[lopo]

Good for you!, Congratulations! Just went on Thursday to a Staples near me for my TSA precheck and already had my TSA # last night. Super quick and easy!

We have TSA precheck (expiring later this year) but we applied for Global Entry (hoping to go to London sometime) and out interview is scheduled next month at MCO (Boston area had no appts.) Since we'll be heading home from WDW on the date of our interview, it was a good time for us to schedule. TSA precheck has been awesome; I highly recommend it. (Global Entry includes TSA precheck.)

 

[🍀TwinsMom]

Hi! From W. MA.

 

[lopo]

Welcome, TwinsMom! (BTW, I, too, am a twins' mom but they are adults now.)

 

[cel_disney]

Just checking in to say hello…heading down for a last minute solo trip Nov 3-6 to run in the Wine and Dine 5k…once I saw the Evil Queen was the medal I had to go!

Sadly - I am banking 60 points today because there are still no DVC rooms available (admittedly I did not wait list)…there are also no regular rooms available so I am staying off site - probably at the Cypress Point Resort since the rooms are so cheap on hotelwiz…and they have a low resort / parking fee..

hope everyone is doing well and staying safe! My sister enjoyed a good trip to Disney in August - crowds ended up being super light and she got to do everything and the crowds were low enough to be safe!

 

[aokeefe]

If anyone flies Southwest and is planning a trip next Jan-April, flights are being released Thursday.

 

[princessfionasmom]

Just checking in to say hello…heading down for a last minute solo trip Nov 3-6 to run in the Wine and Dine 5k…once I saw the Evil Queen was the medal I had to go!

Sadly - I am banking 60 points today because there are still no DVC rooms available (admittedly I did not wait list)…there are also no regular rooms available so I am staying off site - probably at the Cypress Point Resort since the rooms are so cheap on hotelwiz…and they have a low resort / parking fee..

hope everyone is doing well and staying safe! My sister enjoyed a good trip to Disney in August - crowds ended up being super light and she got to do everything and the crowds were low enough to be safe!

Have you checked for accessibility room availability? I got an accessibility room for the 11/6-7 at beach club last week. I’m doing the 10K Saturday morning to get the Oogie Boogie Medal. My husband is a big Oogie fan and can’t run due to medical conditions so I’m doing this for him. We are staying at BLT 10/27-11/3 then over to Royal Pacific at Universal for a few nights and back to Beach Club.

 

[lopo]

My heart leaps every time I see "Disney" in the sender's line of an email because I think that my wish list came through but, it turns out that, when I read the msg, my heart does a nose dive.

 

[cel_disney]

Have you checked for accessibility room availability? I got an accessibility room for the 11/6-7 at beach club last week. I’m doing the 10K Saturday morning to get the Oogie Boogie Medal. My husband is a big Oogie fan and can’t run due to medical conditions so I’m doing this for him. We are staying at BLT 10/27-11/3 then over to Royal Pacific at Universal for a few nights and back to Beach Club.

this was a good tip - it did not work for me but there were way more accessible rooms in November than not!

That extra searching turned up a unicorn! right now I have snagged an AK Value studio for the 3rd and have waitlisted a few other options for the 4th and 5th and I’m checking over and over again - one day at a time to see if I can get something! We will see what happens before the end of the month!

 

[twinklebug]

Not DVC related - need tips on getting though 128 traffic. Best times of day going N and S.

Has anyone else found the traffic around 128 to be horrible lately. It was bad pre-pandemic, then we were spoiled with virtually no traffic for awhile there, but it's as though all those months of lower cars out there are fulfilling an invisible quota by turning 128 into a parking lot.

I need to get to the north shore to visit my mom, but the commute from the bridgewater area is just so bad. Everything from the pike up is like a glue trap. I need tips. (I will not drive through Boston.) The last time I tried to get there, it was a Friday afternoon and took just under 3 hours and we missed my mom's appointment. In "normal" traffic it usually takes me 1 1/4 hours.

If anyone flies Southwest and is planning a trip next Jan-April, flights are being released Thursday.

Thanks for this.

 

[cel_disney]

My advice for 128 driving:

Use the Waze app to “go later” and you can scan other times for peaks / valleys

I also avoid “rush hour” (6am -9am, 4pm- 6:30/7pm) and peak “holiday” times which would include Fridays - be at your destination by noon! I realize this all sucks but it’s the best I can offer on 128!!

 

[lopo]

Anyone here at WDW now for the 50th anniversary kick-off on Friday?

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

Anyone here at WDW now for the 50th anniversary kick-off on Friday?

Two weeks to go

 

[lopo]

At EPCOT today. Crowds aren't too bad but the virtual queue for Ratatouille filled quickly. I did get into the 1pm call; estimated wait was 340 minutes! I think that was exaggerated but it might be wishful thinking.

 

[lopo]

Just thought I'd report that I did not need to enter a virtual queue to enter the Character Warehouse at the Vineland Outlets. A staff person was at a podium outside the store and there were some rows set up but he said that there was no wait and, as long as we were wearing a mask, we could go inside. This was about 3:30 today. BTW, I found it to be a big waste of time: there wasn't a lot of selections and the majority of adult apparel was size small or medium. The prices were a joke; a MM credit card holder retailed for $14.99 at the regular Disney stores (in DS, etc.) (I know because I had looked at it there.) was selling for $12.99 in the outlet. Heck! using the discounts I have at my disposal, it would've been the same price. I left empty-handed and I didn't notice many folks buying. In fact, most of the cashiers were waiting for customers! I can't recall seeing that in years.

 

[princessfionasmom]

Just thought I'd report that I did not need to enter a virtual queue to enter the Character Warehouse at the Vineland Outlets. A staff person was at a podium outside the store and there were some rows set up but he said that there was no wait and, as long as we were wearing a mask, we could go inside. This was about 3:30 today. BTW, I found it to be a big waste of time: there wasn't a lot of selections and the majority of adult apparel was size small or medium. The prices were a joke; a MM credit card holder retailed for $14.99 at the regular Disney stores (in DS, etc.) (I know because I had looked at it there.) was selling for $12.99 in the outlet. Heck! using the discounts I have at my disposal, it would've been the same price. I left empty-handed and I didn't notice many folks buying. In fact, most of the cashiers were waiting for customers! I can't recall seeing that in years.

Thank you so much for reporting back on this. I have heard some people saying the prices were not great. I’ll definitely be skipping it when I go at the end of the month.

 

[babyruth]

Since we are new members we have never tried to travel using our points yet. I hope it’s temporary that there is so little availability especially around school vacations.