Party of 10 takes the plunge - Commando Touring still an option

[TraceyDisney2008]

Love the style of your trip report. Looks like a great time was has by all. Can you explain the double magic bands to me.

 

[momof2n2]

We didn't travel with 10 ( we had 7) but your touring style is so much like ours. It is refreshing to not feel like you are the only ones who are securing fast passes the day you are there! we did very well using that method in November and rode everything we wanted with limited waits! I hope it holds true when we go again in October.

I'm not sure you meant using same day fast passes along with pre-booked fast passes, which is what we did.
I feel like WDW has changed the game a lot with FP+, so we had to get creative.
We had a great time. It was worth the effort.

 

[momof2n2]

Love the style of your trip report. Looks like a great time was has by all. Can you explain the double magic bands to me.

Thank you.
It was originally written for our family blog, so it's not a traditional trip report. Some probably find it less pleasant, but I really wanted to share how things went for us.

I learned about the double magic bands from this board, and a former poster.

We had an MDE account associated with this trip and our "campsite". We had our family's 10 magic bands with pre-selected rides at 60 days out.

Then - I borrowed Magic Bands from different sets of friends. Five from a former poster here, and five from a local friend. I did not need any MDE log in info from them or any information at all. I just needed the bands.

I'll explain how we used the bands at AK for example. We all got there at park open and hurried back to Kilimanjaro Safari and rode that. Then, my family all went toward Everest as I went to the FP+ kiosk near Kali River Rapids. I took out the borrowed bands. (I had them separated by donor family in individual Ziplocs because I thought it might matter. Now that I am home, I wonder if it did.) I took out the borrowed bands and individually tapped all the bands from that family on the Mickey head and watched each name associated with that band pop on the screen. Then I went through the selections and picked three new attractions. Of course in some of the parks most of the Tier 1 rides were gone, but most were still there for AK. I picked the three I wanted and then TOOK A PHOTO WITH MY PHONE because, of course, they won't show up on the MDE app. I did that again with other bands until I had 10.

I caught up with my family and we each put on a second band on our left arm. We wore our original bands on our right arms.

I would instruct my family as we neared a ride which are the ride was associated with.

We messed it up occasionally and never had a problem. They just make you retap with your other band.

I had four bands on every day as I also was wearing my three-year-olds. No one ever said a word.

I had to figure out how to organize it then. I didn't have a pen and paper. I did have a sharpie and masking tape. I wrote down each of our original rides on pieces of tape and wrote "R" for "right arm band" and wrote out the three new ones and wrote "L" on them. Then I taped them in order on the top of our stroller and took a new picture and texted it to the rest of the family.
Was that clear? Please let me know if I missed something.


Because our group was so large, I sometimes had to find, say, 5 at one time and five at another time. So say, RnRC at 5:55 - 6:55 and five more at 6:10 - 7:10. Then I wrote out RNRC 6:10 - 6:55 so that I would see the minimum amount of time between our two slots.

Please ask me if I have not been clear.

You can also just BUY second magic bands when you get there, I have read here on the DIS. YOu just ask them to activate, but do not assign to any account.

 

[TraceyDisney2008]

Thank you.
It was originally written for our family blog, so it's not a traditional trip report. Some probably find it less pleasant, but I really wanted to share how things went for us.

I learned about the double magic bands from this board, and a former poster.

We had an MDE account associated with this trip and our "campsite". We had our family's 10 magic bands with pre-selected rides at 60 days out.

Then - I borrowed Magic Bands from different sets of friends. Five from a former poster here, and five from a local friend. I did not need any MDE log in info from them or any information at all. I just needed the bands.

I'll explain how we used the bands at AK for example. We all got there at park open and hurried back to Kilimanjaro Safari and rode that. Then, my family all went toward Everest as I went to the FP+ kiosk near Kali River Rapids. I took out the borrowed bands. (I had them separated by donor family in individual Ziplocs because I thought it might matter. Now that I am home, I wonder if it did.) I took out the borrowed bands and individually tapped all the bands from that family on the Mickey head and watched each name associated with that band pop on the screen. Then I went through the selections and picked three new attractions. Of course in some of the parks most of the Tier 1 rides were gone, but most were still there for AK. I picked the three I wanted and then TOOK A PHOTO WITH MY PHONE because, of course, they won't show up on the MDE app. I did that again with other bands until I had 10.

I caught up with my family and we each put on a second band on our left arm. We wore our original bands on our right arms.

I would instruct my family as we neared a ride which are the ride was associated with.

We messed it up occasionally and never had a problem. They just make you retap with your other band.

I had four bands on every day as I also was wearing my three-year-olds. No one ever said a word.

I had to figure out how to organize it then. I didn't have a pen and paper. I did have a sharpie and masking tape. I wrote down each of our original rides on pieces of tape and wrote "R" for "right arm band" and wrote out the three new ones and wrote "L" on them. Then I taped them in order on the top of our stroller and took a new picture and texted it to the rest of the family.
Was that clear? Please let me know if I missed something.


Because our group was so large, I sometimes had to find, say, 5 at one time and five at another time. So say, RnRC at 5:55 - 6:55 and five more at 6:10 - 7:10. Then I wrote out RNRC 6:10 - 6:55 so that I would see the minimum amount of time between our two slots.

Please ask me if I have not been clear.

You can also just BUY second magic bands when you get there, I have read here on the DIS. YOu just ask them to activate, but do not assign to any account.

Thanks for the responce, so how i am understanding it is that i can take two of our older magic bands that have been deactivated to a fast pass kiosk and use them to get extra fast passes, even though they dont have a ticket associated with them...

 

[momof2n2]

Thanks for the responce, so how i am understanding it is that i can take two of our older magic bands that have been deactivated to a fast pass kiosk and use them to get extra fast passes, even though they dont have a ticket associated with them...

I'm unclear if they can be associated with the same MDE account.

There is a great thread about this:
http://disboards.com/threads/sdfp-here-now-works-read-post-48-and-post-671.3493064/

 

[momof2n2]

Magic Kingdom ~ day two

Another early morning. I think we got 5½ hours of sleep. Surprisingly, everyone got up easily and remained cheerful the entire day. PTL.

We had another breakfast at Crystal Palace scheduled for 8 A.M. We were anticipating a back up again at security, so we made sure we left a few minutes earlier than Thursday.

We were at MK parking before the attendants again today. This marked five out of five days that we did not need to show proof of any on-property reservation for free parking. We parked in essentially the same spot as yesterday, and interestingly, the same spot as when we visited 5 years ago. Either they have preferred parking somewhere else altogether, or we were so early we ended up in what would later be preferred parking???

I packed a princess dress for each of the four girls and en route to MK we shared with the kids our plans for dining in the castle for dinner. Eating at Cinderella’s Royal Table was something I never dreamt we would ever do. But when I looked into it last November, we decided we were going to go all or nothing this trip. With all of our dining paid for from credit card incentives, this would be the only meal we had to buy out of pocket. All six kids were excited about the news. Seeing what was inside the castle was of interest to us all.


We were delighted to see security was already fully operational and there was no line outside the bag check. We moved right through quickly and waited just before the tapstiles with about 100 or so other people. We were walking down Main Street by 7:45 A.M. Splendid.


TIgger showed Nigel how to do his hair…


At RDRD we headed right over to 7 Dwarves Mine Train. I really do like that ride. I know it isn’t cool to admit it. But I’ve never been cool. We saw a cat in the exit route.


They all headed to Adventureland as I went to get a second batch of FP+ with our extra Magic Bands. We already had rides on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, and Peter Pan I got an extra Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and an extra Splash Mountain. I also got a Pooh ride. We’ve always liked to re-ride our favorites.

I was only a few boats behind them for Pirates of the Caribbean. I confess I was texting a friend as I rode in a boat with two strangers. The boats before and after us were empty.

She asked how I felt about WDW. She was a frequent visitor in the past, as we were. Their last trip this past September had been their first in five years as well. Their take home was that changes had ruined WDW. While I agree with her on how miserable the changes are I was able to say that, in fact, we were having an amazing time. The best I could liken it to was an athlete or performer training for a role. I feel like I have been prepping for this trip, at least marginally, since 2013, and full-force since March 2015. I’d read a ton and engaged the strategies I thought I needed to improve yield. And it felt like it was paying off. Would I like every vacation to require this much effort? No way. But for this particular trip, we were having a blast.

Then we did Jungle Cruise. Normally, I am not a big fan of JC, but we had a great pilot and laughed a lot. Katriel was excited to see hippos and elephants.


Next, we made all Johanna’s dreams come true. We finally went on “the spitting camel ride.” Since we had been talking about WDW, Hanny had remembered the ride from photos of her on it in 2011. She was aghast yesterday when we left without riding it. I kept explaining we’d go on it Friday.

Now all was right in the world.
We rode it twice.


A bunch went up in Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. Nan, Katriel and I did not. We sought shade. I was going to get a Dole whip, but I couldn’t figure out which one I wanted and then just passed.

John and Katriel walked back through the park to Storybook Circus, while the rest of went on the train from Frontierland to Storybook Circus.


Marie and Johanna went with Kelly to ride Under the Sea, which Kelly had missed Thursday. The rest of us met Donald and Goofy. Tab was able to get Donald’s autograph and Stewart got a selfie.


John and the kids did Stitch’s Great Escape with Kelly and then we headed back to Frontierland. The park was definitely busier than it had been all week and seemed to be as busy as I’d ever personally had to deal with. I don’t know how folks deal with 4th of July and Christmas crowds.

We used the first of our BTMRR FP+.


Johanna loved it. She is a coaster fan, big time.
Then we hurried back to the Hub for the Move It, Shake It Celebration. We really only wanted to see Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde.

Then we headed back to see ride Splash Mountain. Katriel wasn’t big enough so we grabbed a Rider Swap pass. Then I didn’t want to take the time to do it as our Peter Pan FP+ window was open.

 

[momof2n2]

We did Peter Pan and then checked out the Rapunzel bathrooms, and took in the Hall of Presidents.

And decided on another junk lunch of ice cream.

We went over to Tom Sawyer island and spent a good deal of time there. They had a Memory Maker photographer over there who took a lot of nice images for us. I took some, too.



It was getting close to dinner time, so we headed to the bathrooms so I could get the girls Princessed-Up for dinner.

 

[momof2n2]

We’d happened upon a photo area yesterday when Marie was in her Merida gown near the BBBoutique where they took photos of her. So we stopped back in and asked them to take photos of all the girls.

We checked in for our dinner and waited to be announced.

 

[momof2n2]

The service was meh, the portions were small, and the princesses were rushed. But it was so fabulous. I wish it weren’t so crazy-expensive. I just kept thinking: “We are IN the castle!”

Dessert was the prettiest part.

Beer cheese soup and cheese sampler


Grapes and cheese for little ones Castle salad


Nigel had the pork belly confit and Katriel played with her appetizer


Pan-seared chicken




Beef and Shrimp



Chicken nuggets with mashed potatoes and corn


Gus and Jaq’s favorites



Childen’s smore


The Clock Strikes Twelve. Now THIS was super yummy.



It was getting to be MSEP time, so we stayed outside the parade route. We went back to BTMRR and Splash Mountain. We took a ride on the Carrousel and drifted back to Gaston’s Tavern just to look around.



We stopped at the Tea Cups for a ride there and then moved to leave the park via Main Street shops while Celebrate the Magic was running.


We shopped just until the fireworks started and then decided to get out of MK before the masses exited. We saw snatches of the fireworks on the way out of the parks. We weren’t even dragging out.
And to be completely transparent, I started to cry as we walked up the monorail ramp. Not sad because we were leaving – THRILLED that I felt so totally satisfied with what we had accomplished. There were only tiny little bits that we had not been able to do through the week: Beauty and the Beast, Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, Liberty Belle Steamboat. But we had overwhelmingly covered what we had hoped to do and see, and had re-rides on our favorites.

All in all.
Most excellent trip.

 

[heaven2dc]

Joining in on your TR You have a beautiful family - sounds like the kids had a great time! I was curious as to what was your favorite restaurant so far on your trip. We haven't dined at Be Our Guest yet and are anxious to see this beautiful restaurant. I've read some reports where guests love the decor but that the food is so-so and if I remember right you stated you didn't like the decor but enjoyed the food? It looks absolutely beautiful from pics I've seen so will see how we love it next year.

Do you think you will visit WDW again in the future? I hope for the most part you and your family enjoyed your trip. Loved that you start each day with Bible readings We always feel blessed when we are able to take our family to WDW (or any vacation for that matter) for quality time together and cherish the memories and enjoy each moment and overlook the small things

 

[momof2n2]

Joining in on your TR You have a beautiful family - sounds like the kids had a great time! I was curious as to what was your favorite restaurant so far on your trip. We haven't dined at Be Our Guest yet and are anxious to see this beautiful restaurant. I've read some reports where guests love the decor but that the food is so-so and if I remember right you stated you didn't like the decor but enjoyed the food? It looks absolutely beautiful from pics I've seen so will see how we love it next year.

Do you think you will visit WDW again in the future? I hope for the most part you and your family enjoyed your trip. Loved that you start each day with Bible readings We always feel blessed when we are able to take our family to WDW (or any vacation for that matter) for quality time together and cherish the memories and enjoy each moment and overlook the small things

Sorry for the delay in responding. I wanted to wait until I could be at the computer (not phone) so I could type a smarter answer.

The funny thing with BOG is that I wouldn't go again, but I am very glad we got to try it out.
My "shock" I think was that the seating looked more institutional than I was thinking it would. And when I first walked in it was just a giant room with rows and rows of tables. The walk way into the castle was splendid with attention to detail. It was breathtaking. But then I was not impressed with the interior. Now - I will acknowledge that we did a DCL Magic cruise in 2014 and one of their main dining rooms is called Lumiere's, and I think it was far more beautiful in there. I likely had preconceived notions about what BOG was going to look like.

There were more details in the Beast's study, but it was SO DARK. The library did not impress me, either. Both the Beast's study and the library seemed very small in comparison to the ballroom.

The food: I had the pork dish with potatoes and green beans. I thought it was delicious. My DH is in Germany, but I will ask him what he thought of his sandwich when he gets back. My 5 (almost 6) year old loved her potato soup. I remember having my doubts when she pre-ordered that from home a month prior. But I figured I could just eat it if she turned her nose up. I could grab her something else at a food kiosk after if needed. But she loved it.

We only bought two cupcakes for the group. My DS couldn't eat anyway with his allergies, and we mostly just wanted to each say we'd tried the grey stuff.


Now - as far as other dining - I need to explain that the only meal we paid out of pocket for was Cinderella's Royal Table. We stacked credit card rewards (we open cards, meet the requirements, get the cash rewards, and save the money for vacations) so that we had $1100 in money for our meals. We also had $1200 in Disney Visa Rewards. So we had $2300 for our trip. We used almost all of it for our family of 8 over those five park days. We had about $200 left.

That said, we ate places I probably wouldn't have "splurged" for without the bonus money. We did the Fantasmic Dinner Package at DHS and ate at Mama Melrose's. That was my favorite meal. I read mixed reviews, but we were all very VERY pleased. It was more food than we could really eat, to be honest. And our server was the best we encountered. (Some of our least pleasant service was at Cinderella's!) I would go back to Mama Melrose with our without a package in the future, it was so good.

Our worst meal, hands down, was Sunshine Seasons. We have a long history of great meals there, but this last trip it was just disgusting AND it was the only time we ever had issues with non-helpful chefs at WDW regarding DS's allergies. I *might* try them again in the future, but I really don't know. My dinner was so gross. I truly could not eat it. And I'm no foodie.

I don't think we will go again for probably 5 years. I want to take the kids to D.C. next summer and I want a vacation with Discovery Cove in 2018, LORD willing. Perhaps we will be back before the five-year mark. But I don't have it as a goal. We had so much fun, but it is really costly and the level of planning that is now required is a little much. Okay. A lot much.

All that said: Enjoy your planning. ♥

 

[heaven2dc]

Thank you for all of the detailed information on Be Our Guest I did notice that the Beast's dining room looks very dark in the pictures. We will keep this inconsideration when thinking of dining there. I've never taken a Disney cruise but did look at pics of Lumiere's Restaurant and it looks gorgeous! Much more light and roomy (it seems)!

I have to agree about Sunshine Seasons from our experience. It's sort of hit and miss but of course we haven't visited WDW since 2010. I think we are at a point where we waited long enough between trips to truly enjoy the experience especially with all of the new additions to the parks since 2010.