Soarin' SB+ test...Fail

[notnothin]

Big tings!!!!

 

[ScottieMouse]

I took it a step farther and booked a (throwaway?) night at the Hard Rock because the cost was approximately the same as the passes after I found a deal on the room. Plus it provides the early park admission, which I think is worth it.

If Disney offered similar options, many people would pay with a smile on their face.

Yep I actually ended up saving my self $25 bucks by booking at the Loews Resort there and getting the passes added on instead of paying separately. Not sure if I will be able to take advantage of the early park admission since I will be coming from Disney for the first Day and then doing the Halloween Horror Nights until 2AM...but we shall see.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Ok. Less crazy use...

http://m.wdwmagic.com/dining/be-our...our-guest-restaurant-in-the-magic-kingdom.htm

 

[mom2rtk]

Ok. Less crazy use...

http://m.wdwmagic.com/dining/be-our...our-guest-restaurant-in-the-magic-kingdom.htm

I don't have a problem with that. Anyone turned away from a meal hasn't paid for it already. So I see it as totally different from an attraction.

 

[erin1715]

I'm just going to drop this post in this thread so as to not upset the masses. If someone wants to put it to song I wouldn't be offended. It's an article by Seth Kubersky on Orlando Weekly. You can Google Seth and check his credentials if you wish.




The paint is barely dry on Universal’s heavily hyped Diagon Alley, and guests are still waiting upward of four hours just to “make a deposit” on the area’s signature Gringotts bank ride (no, that isn’t as inappropriate as it sounds). But the only thing theme-park fans love more than a hot new ride is even hotter new rumors, so for this edition of Live Active Cultures I’m rounding up the latest upcoming attraction intelligence that’s been buzzing around the tourism corridor’s back alleys. As always, all of the following information is unofficial, unconfirmed and for entertainment purposes only; if a rumor persists for more than four hours, please see your physician or travel agent.

Let’s start at Universal Studios Florida, where wannabe wizards are propelling the park to its most profitable summer ever. Some armchair observers have looked at the relatively short lines to enter Diagon Alley or ride the Hogwarts Express train since opening day and inferred that Universal’s addition isn’t meeting expectations. The truth is that the surprisingly sane queues reflect not audience disinterest, but exceptional crowd control operations – unlike in 2010, when sprawling standby lines snarled Islands of Adventure’s walkways. Despite the Gringotts ride still operating significantly below its maximum capacity of 2,000-plus riders per hour, Universal’s parks are processing record numbers of guests; on many days more people board the Hogwarts Express than enter Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Naturally, since Potter is seemingly still a license to literally print money (most guests purchasing Gringotts bank notes never spend them), don’t expect Universal to abandon the Boy Wizard any time soon. New merchandise, including love potions and talking “howlers,” should show up in Diagon Alley’s shops shortly, along with a second Tales of Beedle the Bard puppet performance. Art director Alan Gilmore has said he’d like to design a Ministry of Magic attraction, with the neighboring Fear Factor Live stadium available as an ideal expansion spot. Farther ahead, the under-development Fantastic Beasts films could find a home near Hogsmeade, on the remains of IOA’s Lost Continent.

Before any more Harry happens, however, first expect something hairy. Legendary Pictures, producers of Godzilla and the upcoming Jurassic World, surprised Comic-Con 2014 guests with a teaser for Skull Island, their 2016 reboot of King Kong. Of course, careful theme-park construction-watchers weren’t surprised, as work on Universal’s “Project 340” has been underway for many weeks in a previously unused corner of IOA’s Jurassic Park. For now, there’s little visible evidence save earth-moving equipment and the unpublicized removal of an iconic archway outside Toon Lagoon. But water management district permits and leaked preliminary blueprints reveal an ambitious indoor/outdoor ride that will merge animatronic-filled sets with a simulator finale similar to Universal Studios Hollywood’s hit King Kong 360 3-D attraction.

Elsewhere at Universal, look for USF’s KidZone and San Francisco areas to beam out, with Star Trek and Fast and Furious leading the pack of potential IPs pitched to replace them. And that’s just the tip of Universal’s expansion iceberg: Expect new entertainment in time to celebrate the resort’s 25th anniversary next year, and more hotels and a new water park before the decade is out.

The Potter pandemonium has helped hold down crowds at Walt Disney World this summer, especially at Epcot and Animal Kingdom, with Magic Kingdom attendance fairly flat despite the widely publicized debut of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. But Mickey isn’t one to take competition lying down, and the Mouse’s empire is striking back with the biggest hit it’s had in decades. Frozen Summer Fun, a short-run festival of hastily assembled entertainment including an ice-skating rink and evening fireworks, has proven enormously popular with fans of the frigid film phenomenon. Some park fans may scoff at the cheap giveaways (like paper Olafs on popsicle sticks) but the new sing-along celebration has the snarkiest, most smartly subversive script Disney has staged in years.

This quickie seasonal event is only the tip of the Frozen iceberg, as Norwegian news outlets are up in arms over the whispered renovation of Epcot’s Norway pavilion with an Arendelle theme. Magic Kingdom’s Anna & Elsa meet-and-greet remains so popular that Disney has reintroduced paper FastPasses to corral the queue, but will Frozen still be a hot ticket by the time any E-Ticket opens? Considering WDW’s glacial construction pace – and with Animal Kingdom’s Avatar-land and a rumored Star Wars makeover of Disney Hollywood Studios also in the pipeline – Mickey must be hoping guests don’t “Let It Go” before they manage to break ground.

http://orlandoweekly.com/arts/visual/universal-s-project-340-and-epcot-norway-goes-frozen-1.1731237

The guys over on Orlando United state that the Hogwarts Express will soon surpass a pretty impressive milestone, within a month of officially opening. Think of a number with a whole bunch of zeros behind it. And they say there will be a press release detailing it.

Now back to our regularly scheduled crooning and debating those giant legacy FP cards.

WOW! I'm a Disney park fan through and through, but this is really impressive from Universal. Numbers aside, Uni is HOT on the heels of Disney in my opinion. Seems like Disney is sleeping at the wheel and Uni is taking advantage. They are gaining major momentum over there. It's a perfect time for Uni to take advantage with all the disgruntled WDW fans that Disney suits are creating with this FP+, SB+, etc. mess.

 

[FlipHipster]

Ok. Less crazy use...

http://m.wdwmagic.com/dining/be-our...our-guest-restaurant-in-the-magic-kingdom.htm

"Be Our Guest has implemented a number of systems since opening, so is subject to change at any time."

Anybody know what the return times are like? I thought I remembered the queue for lunch opened 30 mins before BOG opened at 11am. With a little planning we could work this.

 

[Planogirl]

I don't have a problem with that. Anyone turned away from a meal hasn't paid for it already. So I see it as totally different from an attraction.

Plus they can still eat there if they wish. They just have to handle it a bit differently.

 

[ArwenMarie]

I think the BOG thing is a good use of return tickets.

I guess there is a difference between booking meal times and ride times. It seems like most people are ok with the concept of ADRs and meal times. Ride reservations just seem insane, especially for what is usually a 3-4 minutes ride.

 

[tfc3rid]

WOW! I'm a Disney park fan through and through, but this is really impressive from Universal. Numbers aside, Uni is HOT on the heels of Disney in my opinion. Seems like Disney is sleeping at the wheel and Uni is taking advantage. They are gaining major momentum over there. It's a perfect time for Uni to take advantage with all the disgruntled WDW fans that Disney suits are creating with this FP+, SB+, etc. mess.

UOR's plan is not to make people vacation there as opposed to WDW... Their plan is to take one or days away from people's normal WDW stays...

For me, a long time WDW APer, I just bought a UOR AP and am going to spread more of my $$ around... If say, 100,000 more people per week visit UOR for 1 or 2 'Disney Days', it will add up...

 

[tfc3rid]

I think the BOG thing is a good use of return tickets.

I guess there is a difference between booking meal times and ride times. It seems like most people are ok with the concept of ADRs and meal times. Ride reservations just seem insane, especially for what is usually a 3-4 minutes ride.

BOG is an excellent use of this system. Waiting in the sun, especially in mid Summer is not pleasant and this is actually a decent means of taking care of this...

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

I don't have a problem with that. Anyone turned away from a meal hasn't paid for it already. So I see it as totally different from an attraction.

Plus they can still eat there if they wish. They just have to handle it a bit differently.

I think the BOG thing is a good use of return tickets.

I guess there is a difference between booking meal times and ride times. It seems like most people are ok with the concept of ADRs and meal times. Ride reservations just seem insane, especially for what is usually a 3-4 minutes ride.

 

[jbcheerchick93]

Wow!!! Took me most of last night and this morning, but I made it through this thread.

I was in MK yesterday.

They were handing out SB+ for BOG, and it was functioning a lot like call-ahead seating. No one was upset by it, and most people knew that they would be lucky to get in BOG regardless. POTC was unavailable on the app most of the day, no idea what was actually going on because we never made it to that half of MK.

I made my FP+ selections the night before (literally last minute trip) and did 7DMT at RD, waited about 40 minutes in line, and hit PP, Journey Under the Sea, it's a small world, Philharmagic, Space mtn, buzz x2, COP, TTA, and BOG for lunch all by 2pm. I made 2 extra FP+ in the park at the kiosks, there is now one kiosk section at the laugh floor and one at stitch. Very easy.

We shopped for about a half hour, watched the new Festival of Fantasy parade, and we were at our car by 4:15, exactly what we wanted.

Overall, the FP+ system worked well for us doing it the night before. We wanted to see POTC but it was listed as temporarily closed on the app for more than half of the day. Easy single day, exactly what we wanted to take my Grammie for.

 

[erin1715]

UOR's plan is not to make people vacation there as opposed to WDW... Their plan is to take one or days away from people's normal WDW stays...

For me, a long time WDW APer, I just bought a UOR AP and am going to spread more of my $$ around... If say, 100,000 more people per week visit UOR for 1 or 2 'Disney Days', it will add up...

Bolded by me - I'm hoping it will make Disney rethink what is important to us park-goers. More attractions, more people entering the gates, it ain't rocket science, Disney.

 

[patrickpiteo]

Bolded by me - I'm hoping it will make Disney rethink what is important to us park-goers. More attractions, more people entering the gates, it ain't rocket science, Disney.

They have had me the last 3 years spending 2 of my WDW vacation days there already.. And now got a AP for UO.

 

[Angel Ariel]

I don't have a problem with that. Anyone turned away from a meal hasn't paid for it already. So I see it as totally different from an attraction.

ITA. This is a great use of that system. Soarin? not so much

 

[RollTide1017]

I know many have expressed a similar point of view already but, I had to throw mine in the hat.

Next April will be the first time my family has ever stayed at a Disney Resort. My wife and I have been to Disney many times, use to have APs many years ago but, we have never stay at a Disney Resort. I also haven't experienced the new FP+ system yet, the last time we went to Disney was in April of 2013, it was still the old system then.

I already don't like the idea of having to select FP+ 2 months in advance, we are not the type of family that wants to plan everything out down to the minute. We basically know which day we are going to each park, that's about it but FP+ is already giving me headaches and we are still 200+ days away. I have no idea what we are going to be in the mood to do when we finally get to a park. What if we wake up that first day and my kids decide they want to go to Animal Kingdom first, ruining my FP selection made 2 months earlier.

So, FP+ is enough of a pain and now Disney is pulling this SB+ junk! Talk about ruining a vacation if this becomes the next big thing. Next April we are only spending 4 days in the parks. I wish we could stay longer but, it is going to take all we can muster to afford this trip.

My rough plan for now is day 1 is MK, day 2 HS, day 3 split between AK in am/EP in pm, day 4 MK and anything else we may want to try and hit again. Day 3 is the headache day, I'm already having to decide which park to use our FPs on since you can't split them between parks. My idea was to get to AK early and hit the big rides right away and use FP for EP but, SB+ would mess that up. It would force us to go to EP in the am otherwise Soarin could be completely closed for us in the pm, even if we were willing to wait in a long line. That just sucks, this take choices away from guest and makes no since to me.

All this planning and FP+ and now SB+ also makes hopping less appealing, does Disney not care about selling hopper tickets? If SB lines are going to close then why bothering going to a second park in the afternoon when you have no chance to ride so, why bother buying hopper at all?

Sorry for rambling, I'm not even sure I made any sense but, I just don't like this planning down to the hour stuff. Our lives are on a schedule every single day, our vacation is suppose to be. I already miss the days of just showing up at the park and doing whatever you want, grabbing some FP tickets here and there and just taking your time. I haven't even experienced FP+ yet but I don't see myself liking it much. I'm gonna hate having rides scheduled at certain times and having to makes sure we don't get caught up doing something else and miss are times, this is more like work then a vacation. SB+ would basically ruin Disney for me, I'm just not going to go on a vacation where every hour must be planned out, I'd rather go sit on a cabin porch and stare at the mountains in Gatlinburg.

I'll be honest, I really miss the days when there was no FP at all and everyone just stood in the same line, it was so much easier and enjoyable IMO. Yes, there were long lines but, you were at a theme park, it was just part of the territory. I doubt many agree with me though.

 

[going/again]

Its great for some and terrible for others. For me, it's somewhere in the middle. It mostly benefits the lazy folks who want to sleep in till 1 and then be able to walk on whatever they want. So now those folks can make their reservations for that time. So if I were them, yea I'd be ecstatic.

So you know that people who stay in till one are lazy, and there's perhaps no other reason for this? wow physic or what.

 

[wn01aa]

Wow!!! Took me most of last night and this morning, but I made it through this thread.

I was in MK yesterday.

They were handing out SB+ for BOG, and it was functioning a lot like call-ahead seating. No one was upset by it, and most people knew that they would be lucky to get in BOG regardless. POTC was unavailable on the app most of the day, no idea what was actually going on because we never made it to that half of MK.

I made my FP+ selections the night before (literally last minute trip) and did 7DMT at RD, waited about 40 minutes in line, and hit PP, Journey Under the Sea, it's a small world, Philharmagic, Space mtn, buzz x2, COP, TTA, and BOG for lunch all by 2pm. I made 2 extra FP+ in the park at the kiosks, there is now one kiosk section at the laugh floor and one at stitch. Very easy.

We shopped for about a half hour, watched the new Festival of Fantasy parade, and we were at our car by 4:15, exactly what we wanted.

Overall, the FP+ system worked well for us doing it the night before. We wanted to see POTC but it was listed as temporarily closed on the app for more than half of the day. Easy single day, exactly what we wanted to take my Grammie for.

Did you happen to check if you could get the 4th FP on your phone using the app. Someone said that worked but I was wondering if others have been able to.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Sorry for rambling, I'm not even sure I made any sense but, I just don't like this planning down to the hour stuff. Our lives are on a schedule every single day, our vacation is suppose to be. I already miss the days of just showing up at the park and doing whatever you want, grabbing some FP tickets here and there and just taking your time. I haven't even experienced FP+ yet but I don't see myself liking it much. I'm gonna hate having rides scheduled at certain times and having to makes sure we don't get caught up doing something else and miss are times, this is more like work then a vacation. SB+ would basically ruin Disney for me, I'm just not going to go on a vacation where every hour must be planned out, I'd rather go sit on a cabin porch and stare at the mountains in Gatlinburg.

This is why we like Universal so much now, staying onsite. Our next trip in August will be a split between Disney and UOR. I love the Disney Parks but this level of pre-planning is just bonkers.

 

[jbcheerchick93]

Did you happen to check if you could get the 4th FP on your phone using the app. Someone said that worked but I was wondering if others have been able to.

I was unable to. I tried, the select FP+ option was greyed out the whole time.