Wait, weren't you just at Disney World? An August '14 Pre-Trip Report *updated 8/24*

[poison ivy]

Just read your FP+ experience and I wouldn't mess with the Day 1 at all.

There's a que once you're inside and I believe a 15 min grace period to be late but for the A&E I'd just have your wife go in at 10:27 and wait for you guys inside. Everyone can easily meet up then.

I think you did great considering what you wanted to accomplish. What I hate about FP+ is that it forces you to make 3 selections in order to reserve anything. For our last trip during SWW, we only wanted the new parade and 7DMT, and wound up wasting the 3rd slot for Space Mountain.

Disney really needs to drop the 3 attraction mandate. You probably would have had much better success if you weren't up against others being forced to take passes they have no intention of using.

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[TheMaxRebo]

Sorry you had such a rough time with the FP+ reservations. Glad you ended up in at least a near-acceptable place though, I guess.

I was going to suggest the app too, but Lauren beat me to it. It did seem much less clunky to make changes to FP+. I also think, if you keep checking back between now and your trip, you'll be able to adjust everything to what you want. It may just take some patience. But people will change plans and you'll be able to snap up better times, most likely. I am really surprised that this is what it's like 60 days out, though. For us, with short notice, I would expect that - but not being able to book your family together for things seems ridiculous.

Oh, and if you need any more rides on the Mine Train, maybe you can grab a Rider Swap off of Lauren's ride while you're watching Aria.

yeah, with a decent nights sleep I think that I didn't do too bad in all and most things that are not what I originally planned are only off a little bit. And I will just keep checking - given I really just need to get one person moved back like an hour I hope it will work.

I will try the app as well (my office is sided in coper and thus my mobile gets no reception so need to remember to try this when home)

haha - good thought with the extra ride swap ... especially if Olivia wants to go again!

Just read your FP+ experience and I wouldn't mess with the Day 1 at all.

There's a que once you're inside and I believe a 15 min grace period to be late but for the A&E I'd just have your wife go in at 10:27 and wait for you guys inside. Everyone can easily meet up then.

Thanks - I definitely think the only thing I will check is if I can change Judi's time, but won't mess with things beyond that. And I think what you laid out is worst case scneario we can do that. Also hopeful if we explain to the CM that there is that like 10 min gap they will just let us go together rather than having someone just waiting inside the queue for the rest of the family

I think you did great considering what you wanted to accomplish. What I hate about FP+ is that it forces you to make 3 selections in order to reserve anything. For our last trip during SWW, we only wanted the new parade and 7DMT, and wound up wasting the 3rd slot for Space Mountain.

Disney really needs to drop the 3 attraction mandate. You probably would have had much better success if you weren't up against others being forced to take passes they have no intention of using.

.

Thanks - I do think with a clearer head I am pretty happy overall. I mean, while not everything is perfect we will get to everything we want without having to deal with any "running of the bulls" to get on standby lines or do try to pull FP- before they were gone (like for TSMM in the past) so still definitely seeing positives to the new system ... they just weren't apparent to me at 1:45 in the morning when trying to deal with their system

And fully agree that the having to pick 3 FP+ is annoying and doesn't make sense. Even in our planning for some parks Judi was like "wait, why do we have to pick 3? That's dumb." I think that is part of their plan to even out the crowds - i.e., "force" you to ride other rides - and also part of the tiering, but doesn't make it less annoying

 

[Marsheliz]

I had a hard time with my FP reservations as well... I couldn't get Elsa and Anna, got mine train ( it was great, by the way) Peter Pan and Splash...

I don't know how I feel about it bc in a way I like it and it makes sense but then it sucks bc I don't like being pressed for time and/or rushed on vacation.. We ended up missing our Splash all together ( super sad, it's a fav) and waited for HM for 45 minutes ( should have done a FP)

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I had a hard time with my FP reservations as well... I couldn't get Elsa and Anna, got mine train ( it was great, by the way) Peter Pan and Splash...

I don't know how I feel about it bc in a way I like it and it makes sense but then it sucks bc I don't like being pressed for time and/or rushed on vacation.. We ended up missing our Splash all together ( super sad, it's a fav) and waited for HM for 45 minutes ( should have done a FP)

Sorry you couldn't get A&E - really has become some a huge deal and such a hard thing to get to

I think it is just different - and everyone (Disney and park goers) still need to figure out how to best work with it

I do think a huge negative is them forcing DP+ for rides where the queues weren't designed to use FP ... with Pirates and HM being the most glaring examples as it totally slows things down and makes them less efficient

 

[annie170]

Catching up here.

Hershey Gardens are lovely. Very cute pics of the kids and Judi looks great!

That's cool that you were able to get another day added on to your trip.

I'm sorry you had that much trouble with your FP+. How frustrating! By not being able to get all three of you for the same times for A&E, does that mean they were already filled? Or more likely, some kind of glitch in the system.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Catching up here.

Hershey Gardens are lovely. Very cute pics of the kids and Judi looks great!

That's cool that you were able to get another day added on to your trip.

I'm sorry you had that much trouble with your FP+. How frustrating! By not being able to get all three of you for the same times for A&E, does that mean they were already filled? Or more likely, some kind of glitch in the system.

Hi Annie - thanks for catching up! The gardens were really nice - I was pleasantly surprised ... I agree, Judi does look great!

Yeah, funny how that happens that days keep getting added ... and the different excuses, er, I mean reasons, we have for doing it

Yeah, so that means there were no more openings at A&E at the time looking for. It is almost impossible to get FP+ for A&E for more than 1 or 2 people so you have to do it for 1 and then try to copy to the others - I was basically able to copy to Olivia but when I tried for Judi they didn't have any openings. Hopefully I will be able to move her if something opens up/people cancel

 

[khaleesi]

Oh my. I forget that if you aren't going solo you have to arrange everything to coordinate with the other people in your group! LOL. Looks like it ultimately wound up being pretty good though.

I know people hate the pre-planning aspect, but I would much rather go through the frustration now while you're sitting at home then when you're actually there. Of course, that's dependent on it all working perfectly.

Awww little Emma will be here so soon!!! Are Olivia and Peter excited?

HAPPY DANCE for the Anna and Elsa M&G and for Mine Train!!! Really excited for you guys!!!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Oh my. I forget that if you aren't going solo you have to arrange everything to coordinate with the other people in your group! LOL. Looks like it ultimately wound up being pretty good though.

I know people hate the pre-planning aspect, but I would much rather go through the frustration now while you're sitting at home then when you're actually there. Of course, that's dependent on it all working perfectly.

Awww little Emma will be here so soon!!! Are Olivia and Peter excited?

HAPPY DANCE for the Anna and Elsa M&G and for Mine Train!!! Really excited for you guys!!!

Yeah Sue there are definitely some advantage when travelling solo Overall, it is really just one things that is off a bit, so can't complain too much ... well, at least now - at 1:45am I felt like I could complain a lot

Definitely is nice to get at least some of the planning done now and knowing that we have FP set for some key attractions - certainly beats being in the running of the bulls to TSMM - even just to pick up FP- there

Kids are definitely getting excited for Emma - especially Olivia. Peter goes back and forth between being excited and getting jelous

Definitely glad we got A&E at least to some extent - worse case we have all of us together for Friday evening with them. And 2 FP+ set for Mine Train meaning using Rider Swap we should get on it 4 times

 

[TheMaxRebo]

The rest of the days look great!! As for your EPCOT TT change - have you attempted to use the App? When I try to make a change, I first choose what I want to change, then it lets me choose who to change it for, then pick the new attraction and voila, it is done.

I was going to suggest the app too, but Lauren beat me to it. It did seem much less clunky to make changes to FP+. I also think, if you keep checking back between now and your trip, you'll be able to adjust everything to what you want.

Just an FYI that an update to the app came out (it made me do the update) and now the app seems to function just like the website so doesn't look like I will be able to just switch my Soarin for Test Tract. Oh, well. I'll keep exploring things

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Pre Trip Report: Part 21 - Hershey DISmeet: Part 3​

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Ok, now that we got that trip update out of the way we can finally get back to more important things - part 3 of the Hershey GKTW DISmeet

We had left off having visited the Hershey Gardens using our complementary tickets. After that, we drove the kids back to Judi's parents house as they would be staying there that afternoon as well as sleeping over there. Which means ... Date Night!

Judi and I then went back down to the location for the main portion of the DISmeet which was actually held in the hall of a church in Harrisburg. Oh, first, here is a logo I made up for the meet:

The event was to feature some social time including eating, a presentation about Give Kids the World, the recording of the DISunplugged podcast episode and then the results of the two types of auctions that were going on - a Chinese Auction where you put tickets into cups in front of items you were interested in and then a traditional silent auction.

Here you can see some of the producers getting things set up for the podcast, testing the sounds, etc. - definitely a professional setup:

Then it was time to eat and the food was catered by Isaac's Deli and it was awesome - really good variety and the pasta salad I went back for like 4ths it was so good!

We sat at a table across from a lovely mother and daughter. It was actually really easy to talk to everyone because obviously we all like Disney but also it seemed like everyone either was just back from a trip to Disney World, was planning one, or both - so easy to talk about that.

Also, during dinner someone came up to me and it happened to be one of the people that were so nice to us at the Friday event and shared their table with us. She introduced herself as Leah and then said that she reads this Pre-Trip Report

I was a bit caught off guard but was really glad that she came up to me - it was great to chat and just hang out. Gotta love an unexpected DISmeet ... even when at an official DISmeet. We of course had to commemorate the event with a picture:

Hopefully Leah will become an active part of the conversations here ... I mean, we are only slightly mad


At this point a couple of people talked about their experiences with Give Kids The World and it was really touching to hear how much the experience meant for their kids - kids for whom every day life is a bit of a challenge got to kinda forget about that and just be kids ... oh, and apparently having all you could eat ice cream pretty much 24/7 goes over well too It was pretty hard not to get a bit misty eyed through this part.

After that the actual Podcast recording started:

The topic covered was "Disney Manners" ... or as Pete put it "How not to be a jerk at Disney World". While it did turn into a bit of a complaintfest - we did also spend time talking about the good things people do - passing along Pixie Dust, handing out thank you cards to Cast Members, etc. I think it was a really good topic and lots of fun discussions and joking around, etc. They also asked for crowd participation and, well, I of course couldn't not participate:

The podcast lasted about an hour and if you are interested in watching it, here is the link: http://youtu.be/3oDzi6mKV0Q


One other photo I wanted to get was with Dustin. For those of you that watch/listen to the DISunplugged Podcasts might recall a couple of weeks ago when thy were discussing Disney Rumors in a segment Dustin was hosting. Well, one of the rumors they mentioned (that Anna and Elsa would soon start to meet separately (but in the same room), giving Aurora the boot) was brought up on the boards by Amberg93 who, you may have noticed, posts here and also writes some pretty cool trip reports herself. So, I wanted to mention to Dustin that her user name is actual "Amber G" and not "Am-Berg" like he pronounced it, and also get a picture saying hi to Amber - Dustin was only too happy to oblige:

There were a ton of action items - about a dozen for the silent auction and close to 20 for the Chinese Auction. We put our tickets in a few - a girls activity basket as well as a boy one and then also for a Thirty One bag for Judi. We didn't win one ... actually, Leah's table seemed to be the lucky table. But it was still fun. Oh, and the beer basket I brought seemed to be quite popular with either the most or second most tickets:

So after not winning anything there I was a bit more determined to win something from the silent auction. They had some really cool paintings of Walt but the bids were getting high on those. One thing I did find was an official Disney Elsa dress along with coloring books and a puzzle, etc. Shown here (the pictures to the left and right were separate auction entries):

Well, but kinda lingering around and putting in a new bid after I saw someone put in one and ... we won it! hey $55 for an Elsa dress where money is going to charity I figure is a good deal. It's too small for Olivia and too big for Emma right now, but it did fit someone else pretty good:

In total, the event raised $8,420.00 and they have already indicated there will be an event there again next year! It was a ton of fun and really glad we went.

oh, did want to mention that everyone I spoke to from the DISUnplugged podcast crew was really nice and you can tell they enjoy hanging out with each other and it isn't like after the tape stops rolling they ignore each other. Oh, and they are constantly ribbing on Theresa - that's not just an "on-air" thing either.

After the meet was over we went back to our room to get ready for the evening activities to celebrate our Anniversary - but I will cover those next update

TTFN

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

Oh my gosh! That part of the Dismeet sounds awesome! I can't wait to listen to the podcast-it sounds very interesting and it looks like everyone had a lot of fun participating!

 

[MidnightParade]

Eesh, your Fastpass+ night does not sound fun, especially at 1-2am!! I'm surprised they open it at that time and not at 6am like the ADR's. Not looking forward to mine now. Although happy that its just two of us and no Anna&Elsa needed.

Yay Dismeet! Thats probably very neat and a little surreal at the same time! Sounds like it was fun time at the podcast. I have it bookmarked now to listen/watch!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Oh my gosh! That part of the Dismeet sounds awesome! I can't wait to listen to the podcast-it sounds very interesting and it looks like everyone had a lot of fun participating!

It really was fun - and I was also glad to hear the DISUnplugged people multiple times say how impressed they were with the meet, especially for a first time. It was just fun and kinda puts you in that Disney Bubble a bit without the expense of an actual trip to Disney, so it was cool!

Eesh, your Fastpass+ night does not sound fun, especially at 1-2am!! I'm surprised they open it at that time and not at 6am like the ADR's. Not looking forward to mine now. Although happy that its just two of us and no Anna&Elsa needed.

Yay Dismeet! Thats probably very neat and a little surreal at the same time! Sounds like it was fun time at the podcast. I have it bookmarked now to listen/watch!

It was definitely not fun at 1-2am. Especially since I had to do the challenging day first - I think if I had the experience to start with that I did for the other days it wouldn't seem so bad - but after it not opening until 1 and then the issues with A&E - just got off on the wrong foot.

I can understand why they don't do it the exact same time as the ADRs but do wish it was a consistent time. If it is supposed to be midnight then don't wait until 1am

I think you should be ok - guess it depends on crowds levels some though. Also, as long as you can be a little flexible with time you should definitely be fine. Mornings are definitely harder to get now that they added the extra FP+ after you use up your first 3

It was a fun time at the Podcast! Hope you enjoy it ... there were quite some laugh-out-loud moments

 

[ThereAndBackAgain]

The dismeet sounds awesome! Your girls are very lucky to have such a cool dad!

I was just reading further into the beginning of this particular PTR... Disney really does have a weird way of indicating a child before they're a before born. TBD... To Be Determined???? They've named your child for you.

 

[amberg93]

Your FP+ experience is making me really nervous. We've had great luck our past two times, but the first time we were in the testing time and last time we had the heads up to when Anna & Elsa FPs came out because someone in our Facebook group shared. Going at it with the masses now makes me nervous. Then again, we're not really aiming for time specifics so that might help.

Is your Soarin thing still being weird? Cause it should let you just change that without issue? We've done it before.

Ooh date night is the best type of night.

So famous on the podcast. You were awesome.

Ahhh, I just geeked over that picture again. I still can't thank you enough for like thinking of me to say something. I'm dying a little all over again

And hey, Peter looks rockin' in that Elsa dress. You're right too, for a charity it's a great way to give. And GKTW is great. I usually give to my old rides supervisor because he does Coasting for Kids each year at Cedar Point. But maybe next year I'll go to a Dismeet instead and give the money there.

 

[Leshaface]

Love the logo that you made

And good job on your basket being one of the most popular! I definitely see why.

Even better that the event raised a good amount of money Hopefully it grows and grows with each passing year!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

The dismeet sounds awesome! Your girls are very lucky to have such a cool dad!

I was just reading further into the beginning of this particular PTR... Disney really does have a weird way of indicating a child before they're a before born. TBD... To Be Determined???? They've named your child for you.

It was a fun meet - and the kids loved having time with their grandparents too so it worked out for everyone

Yeah, I guess you have to have a name and we originally booked before we knew if we were having a boy or a girl - fortunately we were able to update it

Your FP+ experience is making me really nervous. We've had great luck our past two times, but the first time we were in the testing time and last time we had the heads up to when Anna & Elsa FPs came out because someone in our Facebook group shared. Going at it with the masses now makes me nervous. Then again, we're not really aiming for time specifics so that might help.

Is your Soarin thing still being weird? Cause it should let you just change that without issue? We've done it before.

I think you will be ok - being open as far as time helps a lot - especially you aren't set on wanting the morning. That is one thing that has come out of the change to FP with the extra 4th, 5th, etc. is that everyone want to book their first 3 in the morning.

Yeah, still same issue with Soarin' in that it is set for the group not an individual so will only let me change for everyone not just me. Still looking into it though.

Ooh date night is the best type of night.

So famous on the podcast. You were awesome.

Ahhh, I just geeked over that picture again. I still can't thank you enough for like thinking of me to say something. I'm dying a little all over again

Date night was really fun ... actually we spent the first part of date night alone - but will cover that next update.

The podcast was fun - glad that I got up there and contributed.

I'm just glad the timing worked out and was able to get the picture for you - it's great to do that for things for good people!

And hey, Peter looks rockin' in that Elsa dress. You're right too, for a charity it's a great way to give. And GKTW is great. I usually give to my old rides supervisor because he does Coasting for Kids each year at Cedar Point. But maybe next year I'll go to a Dismeet instead and give the money there.

They are both good charities so always tough to pick where to give your charitable funds - but if there is a DISmeet you can get to there is a lot of fun that goes with the donation

Love the logo that you made

And good job on your basket being one of the most popular! I definitely see why.

Even better that the event raised a good amount of money Hopefully it grows and grows with each passing year!

Thanks - making the logo was fun. Yeah, beer is always a good way to go - definitely had people talking about it which was fun

yeah, I was glad to see it was a success since I know the planners put a lot of effort into it. Hopefully next year will be even better!

 

[MarbleBob]

Loved the DISmeet update. Sounds like an amazing time!!! Too bad Pennsylvania isn't really any closer than WDW for us, otherwise I'd be convinced to join you guys next year. And what a cool story about the allusive Elsa dress. Love that you got a fair deal AND contributed to the cause at the same time

 

[Li Li]

I'm here! Thought I'd wait for my picture to make my official debut! Here I am, out of Lurkdom.
It was so nice to meet you and your family. The DisMeet was so much fun. As you said, it's nice to talk to people who have Disney in common with you! After talking with our table mates, my husband said he felt better about our two trips in one year since one couple we talked to was going at least three times! I am so happy the meet went well and raised so much! Very exciting to be able to contribute to GKTW. You are right, our table was strangely lucky. I won, Brian next to us won and Holly across from us won 2 baskets! One of my prizes is sitting next to me as I type!

I'm following along with your FP adventures hoping to glean tips for our September trip. Luckily, I have the day off the night/morning of my FP day, so hopefully it goes smoothly!

I'm glad you enjoyed the Hershey Gardens. We are definitely lucky to live in a town with lots of great stuff to do. Although we still prefer Disney most of the time! Lol
-Leah

 

[Dugette]

Sounds like a really cool DISmeet event! I have to admit that I've never checked out the DISUnplugged podcast, but still very cool! Looking forward to hearing about your date night!