** OI Meetup December 2021

[dina444444]

The emails already went out? I guess I didn't get a slot.

From the email on 11/10 about 12/3-4 the VQ lottery results are suppose to be emailed today.

 

[lvdis]

I just got an email saying my group was selected to receive tickets to ride Pteranodon Flyers on Saturday, Dec 4th! We are excited to add this to our list of things to do!

 

[dez1978]

The emails already went out? I guess I didn't get a slot.

Me either

 

[georgina]

The emails already went out? I guess I didn't get a slot.

I did mean they would be going out today. We didn't get one either. You are right, the weather looks good at least!

I just got an email saying my group was selected to receive tickets to ride Pteranodon Flyers on Saturday, Dec 4th! We are excited to add this to our list of things to do!

Congrats!

 

[policycobb]

I didn't get a slot when the emails went out. Oh well, I think that ride looks terrifying. I was feeling brave.

 

[MrBellatrixLestrange]

I didn't get a slot when the emails went out. Oh well, I think that ride looks terrifying. I was feeling brave.

I don't like heights so even though I can ride most of the more intense rides I agree that this one looks dicey to me. I skipped out on Rockit on prior trips and was planning to do that this weekend however after watching the YouTube video I'm not sure about that.

 

[policycobb]

At work waiting on an 11:30 meeting to begin so I can leave work afterward. Heading for the airport at 4:30.

 

[georgina]

So our check in park was US. Friday night they held all the meetup people until 5:00, Saturday they started letting folks in at 4:30. Not sure why...

We had a couple of great nights, I think the only real line we had was Hagrid's at about 25 min Friday.

 

[dina444444]

I had a lot of fun on Saturday night. Longest I waited was for Hagrid's and that was maybe 10-15 minutes, and I got the front row. I was so excited. Road Velocicoaster twice in the span of 15 minutes. I am definitely going to try and go again in the future. I may do both nights if I don't have an AP like I currently do.

 

[schumigirl]

I had a lot of fun on Saturday night. Longest I waited was for Hagrid's and that was maybe 10-15 minutes, and I got the front row. I was so excited. Road Velocicoaster twice in the span of 15 minutes. I am definitely going to try and go again in the future. I may do both nights if I don't have an AP like I currently do.

That’s so good to hear, we were similar on Friday night……lost count of how many times we rode the Velocicoaster and Hargrids was a minimal wait of around 10-15 minutes.

It is an excellent event

 

[dez1978]

So our check in park was US. Friday night they held all the meetup people until 5:00, Saturday they started letting folks in at 4:30. Not sure why...

We had a couple of great nights, I think the only real line we had was Hagrid's at about 25 min Friday.

We didn't get let in until 5 either night. I was really hoping for early entry after reading other stories about getting in at 3 lol. It was so much fun tho.

We tried to do way too much in one week tho. We did 2 disney days, full open to close park hopper days, one DS/party day, then the 2 meetups. 62 miles walked in 5 days. I am exhausted

 

[dina444444]

We didn't get let in until 5 either night. I was really hoping for early entry after reading other stories about getting in at 3 lol. It was so much fun tho.

We tried to do way too much in one week tho. We did 2 disney days, full open to close park hopper days, one DS/party day, then the 2 meetups. 62 miles walked in 5 days. I am exhausted

I noticed that the side gate was open on Saturday at 3pm and people were entering but it may have been re-enters with day tickets/APs.

Edit: this was on the Islands side.

 

[dez1978]

I noticed that the side gate was open on Saturday at 3pm and people were entering but it may have been re-enters with day tickets/APs.

Edit: this was on the Islands side.

I'm pretty sure thats what it was. We tried on both sides to enter at 3 ish and were told no lol

 

[MrBellatrixLestrange]

We got to City Walk early on Friday hoping there would be early entry however we immediately noticed they were conspicuously referring to 5 as the entry time so there may have been some consternation that they let folks in early last year.

Friday seemed to be a lot quieter, we basically walked on Velocicoaster and Hagrid had a minimal line as well. On Saturday the Velocicoaster was probably 20 minutes and Hagrid was probably about 30 though I didn't check my watch in either case. We focused a bit more on some of the rides/experiences we've passed over in the past (Spiderman, Jimmy Fallon, Fast & Furious, Ollivanders, Raptor Encounter, Rockit, etc) as well as going into the Harry Potter restaurants that we've avoided due to long lines but we were still able to hit our old favorites such as Hulk, Mummy, MiB, Simpsons, and the Harry Potter rides (though we skipped FotH). Overall, we had a very fruitful trip, pretty much if we wanted to do it we were able to.

 

[MrBellatrixLestrange]

I noticed that the side gate was open on Saturday at 3pm and people were entering but it may have been re-enters with day tickets/APs.

Edit: this was on the Islands side.

We came in on the side at the Studios park but they still didn't open it up until 5.

 

[georgina]

Saturday on the Studios side they had us all lined up on the right side turnstiles, just like Friday, but they started scanning tickets and letting people in at 4:30. We were planning to watch the 5:30 Bourne show because it wasn't running Friday evening (technical difficulties I think), and we had a lot of time to kill before the show.

 

[MrBellatrixLestrange]

Saturday on the Studios side they had us all lined up on the right side turnstiles, just like Friday, but they started scanning tickets and letting people in at 4:30. We were planning to watch the 5:30 Bourne show because it wasn't running Friday evening (technical difficulties I think), and we had a lot of time to kill before the show.

We were at that show, the one they paused for a couple minutes mid-show?

 

[lvdis]

We were at that show, the one they paused for a couple minutes mid-show?

We were there too! My daughter thought it was neat that we got to hear about the technology while they rebooted.

 

[dez1978]

After years of Disney planning, I was determined to not over plan this. While we had fun, we missed out on so much because I didn't plan to make to to certain places. Also I was with a firend who brought another friend who was a ridiculously over the top Harry Potter person, (like wanted to run kids over and was mad she didn't get chosen at ollivanders) and she insisted on heading right to HP world the second we got in even though I said it would be super crowded and we should wait, so we wasted a lot of time there that we could have spent doing other things. I def will do it again tho. Most of the things that kept me from having as much fun as I'd hoped were entirely my own doing. Like doing 2 days open to close at Disney and the Disney party in the 3 days before hand so we were already exhausted by Friday night. Next time it will be just universal and we'll only do the meet up. Lessons learned. But My SIL and I got to take a fun girls trip with no kids or husbands so it was very hard to NOT do all the things we can't normally due with kids.

 

[georgina]

After years of Disney planning, I was determined to not over plan this. While we had fun, we missed out on so much because I didn't plan to make to to certain places. Also I was with a firend who brought another friend who was a ridiculously over the top Harry Potter person, (like wanted to run kids over and was mad she didn't get chosen at ollivanders) and she insisted on heading right to HP world the second we got in even though I said it would be super crowded and we should wait, so we wasted a lot of time there that we could have spent doing other things. I def will do it again tho. Most of the things that kept me from having as much fun as I'd hoped were entirely my own doing. Like doing 2 days open to close at Disney and the Disney party in the 3 days before hand so we were already exhausted by Friday night. Next time it will be just universal and we'll only do the meet up. Lessons learned. But My SIL and I got to take a fun girls trip with no kids or husbands so it was very hard to NOT do all the things we can't normally due with kids.

Sorry about the issues! DH decided to come with me, which caused some changes from how I do my solo trips. I took my AP to EE on Friday and do some rides and things like the Grinchmas show by myself. He did hold my stuff while I rode Hulk and Velocicoaster an extra time. I may do it again next Dec, I am planning to let my AP expire and just do the meetup, and maybe one night Disney holiday party.