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Braksgirl posted:My boss went to an agent training program at Disney a month or so ago and the official Disney word on My Disney Experience is "We're running a bit behind" which I take to mean "This is a giant clusterfuck." I have noticed on the My Disney Experience part of the website that they had a place for getting FastPasses to quick service restaurants, which is pretty crazy, I think. Looks like it's been removed, though. Could be worse... MDE website isn't even opporational in Canada, except for apparently on my iPad... Which it crashes. I used the iPhone app when it first became available to tie family members to my reservation and somehow it hosed up and applied the same family member to both the other adult and child booking. But god forbid you want to change/correct it. Nope. Won't let that happen. So now I've got to call Disney tech support and see if they can correct it. Luckily it doesn't look like FP+ will be up and running by October, so I don't think it'll gently caress up my actual reservation (hopefully). Question: As a travel agent, did you have a bunch of people running off to book their own free dining resort reservations due to the fiasco that was Thursday? Looking at Disboards it's what like half the people were doing while travel agents were trying to revise their existing bookings. I'll be honest, I thought of doing it myself. But then I also did my initial booking myself. It just seemed silly for people to hire a travel agent to do it for them and then just be like "gently caress it, we're going rogue!"
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Aug 4, 2013 17:26
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Braksgirl posted:My boss went to an agent training program at Disney a month or so ago and the official Disney word on My Disney Experience is "We're running a bit behind" which I take to mean "This is a giant clusterfuck." I have noticed on the My Disney Experience part of the website that they had a place for getting FastPasses to quick service restaurants, which is pretty crazy, I think. Looks like it's been removed, though. The new MDE site makes paying vacation payments to Disney quite the clusterfuck. I had to do an online chat with a Disney agent just to get a url to give them money.
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Aug 4, 2013 21:20
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Happitoo posted:Question: As a travel agent, did you have a bunch of people running off to book their own free dining resort reservations due to the fiasco that was Thursday? Looking at Disboards it's what like half the people were doing while travel agents were trying to revise their existing bookings. People get really mental about free dining. I didn't have any clients run off to book themselves, but some of my colleagues did. When you use a TA to make an initial reservation, the client can't come in and change anything, only the TA can. What happened is that people went ahead and made their own reservations and then cancelled the ones with the TA which is a pretty lovely thing to do. One other thing to keep in mind is that Disboarders are a totally different animal. They're not like your everyday person on the street who likes Disney a whole bunch. For some of the Disboarders, it's practically a religion. They can be quite zealous. And again, free dining makes everyone insane.
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Aug 5, 2013 03:17
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Braksgirl posted:People get really mental about free dining. I didn't have any clients run off to book themselves, but some of my colleagues did. When you use a TA to make an initial reservation, the client can't come in and change anything, only the TA can. What happened is that people went ahead and made their own reservations and then cancelled the ones with the TA which is a pretty lovely thing to do. The Disboard is a scary daunting place. I post on a few Disney World forums, and goddamn, I have no idea where to even begin there. I am considering attending an event they are throwing at Hollywood Studios that happens to be when I'm down there, but man, I have no idea what to expect. I do like all the people on the DIS podcast though.
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Aug 5, 2013 07:49
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Booked my vacation for October  so excited to start actually planning the specifics. I did it on Saturday and had no trouble getting through so I guess I got on the backend of the free dining rush. We decided not to do the free dining pkg though even though we're staying at an eligible resort because my girlfriends gets ticket discounts through work so for what we need it made more sense to do the hotel discount they're offering and then tickets through her and handle meals on our own.We'll be there for the Food & wine festival which neither of us have ever done but have wanted to for awhile and I'm really looking forward to it. I don't know a whole lot about it, had to make sure we were booked before I started researching too much and got too excited. Sorry I don't have any actual questions or things to add yet. Just wanted to throw my name in there as someone who is going soon and is really excited about it 
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Aug 5, 2013 14:06
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The new fastpass options for Disney guests that are booking and staying at their resorts thereby creating yet another level or priority fastpass. As if the fastpass wasn't a stupid clusterfuck that screws people who did not arrive first thing to claim them or have the time to run from attraction to attraction and collect them. The grand vision was to speedily move people through attractions and has become reviled because if you and your family have been in line for an hour and you watch people fly by you are naturally going to become even more upset sitting there. For the most part the desirable attractions now have absurd wait times. We were at the park for the 24-hour event and the fast pass was not being used and even though the park was packed the wait times were 30 minutes or less. FP screwed the pooch in my opinion and this new iteration is going to make people even more angry.
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Aug 5, 2013 16:46
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Me and my girlfriend are going to disney for halloween. We decided to book the knights inn in kissimee because money, but as the OP mentions it has free shuttle service. It's kind of sucky because I live in Florida and she lives in Alabama. We were only planning on doing a two day trek which at regular price is about $390 with tax but a three day Florida discount is $380. There doesn't seem to be any way around it sadly. I am also loathing the eventual fast pass attempts.
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Aug 7, 2013 20:25
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demonR6 posted:The new fastpass options for Disney guests that are booking and staying at their resorts thereby creating yet another level or priority fastpass. As if the fastpass wasn't a stupid clusterfuck that screws people who did not arrive first thing to claim them or have the time to run from attraction to attraction and collect them. The grand vision was to speedily move people through attractions and has become reviled because if you and your family have been in line for an hour and you watch people fly by you are naturally going to become even more upset sitting there. For the most part the desirable attractions now have absurd wait times. We were at the park for the 24-hour event and the fast pass was not being used and even though the park was packed the wait times were 30 minutes or less. FP screwed the pooch in my opinion and this new iteration is going to make people even more angry. Well, it seems as if FP+ once it is fully integrated will be offering a more limited amount of passes than the current system, which will mean a slight decrease in Standby time. It won't be guaranteed short waits or anything, but it should help to ease the backup that FP can cause One thing I do like is FP+ limits how many passes you personally can have out (currently 3, probably will change to 4, at least for Magic Kingdom) and when you make your reservations they will often give you an extra Fastpass to a specific attraction. So, you book Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain and a spot at the Parade, and it may spit out a Haunted Mansion to you for fun. That's kind of cool. It will be weird to see rides that have never needed FP use the system though.
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Aug 8, 2013 05:03
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demonR6 posted:The new fastpass options for Disney guests that are booking and staying at their resorts thereby creating yet another level or priority fastpass. As if the fastpass wasn't a stupid clusterfuck that screws people who did not arrive first thing to claim them or have the time to run from attraction to attraction and collect them. The grand vision was to speedily move people through attractions and has become reviled because if you and your family have been in line for an hour and you watch people fly by you are naturally going to become even more upset sitting there. For the most part the desirable attractions now have absurd wait times. We were at the park for the 24-hour event and the fast pass was not being used and even though the park was packed the wait times were 30 minutes or less. FP screwed the pooch in my opinion and this new iteration is going to make people even more angry. If there were no fast passes, then the lines would be even longer because nobody would be able to 'wait outside of line'. The wait time for those in the normal lines would not improve, but the lines are at least shorter, getting you into the staging areas faster. Also, the FastPass at Disney is at least fair to everyone regardless of income or class. Compare to Six Flags where for $80/per person (less when you add people) you can get the Platinum fast pass which not only lets you skip the lines with zero wait at all (technically it reduces the wait time by 90%, but I've never waited more than 5 minutes), but you get to ride twice in a row. You want dirty looks, be on a roller coaster when it has arrived for unloading, wave your wrist in the air and see what the people in line who waited an hour to ride think of you. On another note, I've been to Disney maybe a dozen times in my life since being a kid, and there is no moment in my life that has made me cry more than taking my own son to Disney for the first time. A lot of the parks and the choices they have made has disillusioned me over the years, but when you bring your kid, that all doesn't matter.
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Aug 8, 2013 12:58
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One of the big reasons that fast pass was implemented was because the major attractions lines were getting literally too long. Look at Soarin in Florida for a good example; the queue line is a quarter mile long and it still fills up to the brim and spills out into the rotunda and that's WITH Fastpass. I'm not a huge fan of the system (or, more specifically, with people who abuse the FP or Guest Assistance Cars systems) but it does have merit in that sense at least.
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Aug 8, 2013 13:14
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Roar posted:One of the big reasons that fast pass was implemented was because the major attractions lines were getting literally too long. Look at Soarin in Florida for a good example; the queue line is a quarter mile long and it still fills up to the brim and spills out into the rotunda and that's WITH Fastpass. Why is Soarin' so popular? My theory is that it's a ride that the widest range of ages and wussyness levels will go on. Although, I have some family members who won't even go on that out of fear. Fear of sitting in a chair that moves around a bit and sprays you with orange scent.
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Aug 8, 2013 13:24
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DNova posted:Why is Soarin' so popular? My theory is that it's a ride that the widest range of ages and wussyness levels will go on. Although, I have some family members who won't even go on that out of fear. Fear of sitting in a chair that moves around a bit and sprays you with orange scent. My theory used to be that it was so popular at Epcot because, for a lot of people, California was this exotic land at the other end of the country. But then when I went to DCA this year, I discovered people in California go nuts for it too. I don't get it. v  v
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Aug 8, 2013 13:48
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DNova posted:Why is Soarin' so popular? My theory is that it's a ride that the widest range of ages and wussyness levels will go on. Although, I have some family members who won't even go on that out of fear. Fear of sitting in a chair that moves around a bit and sprays you with orange scent. The wide range is a big part of it. It's a technologically amazing attraction, or it was at the time anyways. Mostly it's just as "easy" as you can get with a "thrill ride". People are scared of it because of the heights involved; it goes up 35-65 feet depending on the row you're in.
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Aug 8, 2013 14:42
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It's also a nice break from the elements. It's an easy ride with a lot of pretty scenery that's super relaxed if you can get over the fact that your legs are dangling. The chairs lifting freaked me out a little, but after the first swooping pass I didn't care anymore because it was so drat pretty.
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Aug 8, 2013 15:05
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Bob Loblaw posted:
We take our son every year, that's how we do our family vacations. We always do the MK park opening once per trip. I cry every year because my son gets so excited. It's unavoidable, and it's why I love going every year.
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Aug 8, 2013 15:05
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I know this is a Disney thread but is a little talk about Universal cool too? Like I said the other day my girlfriend and I just booked our Disney trip for a week in October, so we'll be there for Halloween/Food & Wine Fest/etc. But we also want to do one day at Universal. We're really just focused on Islands of Adventure so I'm thinking a one-day pass for us there, and we also want to do the Universal Halloween nights thing which I hear is pretty awesome, so another ticket price on top of our park ticket for that. So I'm wondering if there are any good tips or rules to follow for Universal tickets? I'm guessing for one day it's pretty much just buy the ticket and pay the price the park charges online. Especially if I'm staying at Disney. Also what about transportation to Universal from a Disney resort? Obviously Disney itself isn't running any shuttles but are taxis the way to go? We won't be renting a car and I'd certainly like keep it that way if at all possible, especially for just one day of outside-Disney travel.
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Aug 8, 2013 16:05
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warheadr posted:I know this is a Disney thread but is a little talk about Universal cool too? Like I said the other day my girlfriend and I just booked our Disney trip for a week in October, so we'll be there for Halloween/Food & Wine Fest/etc. But we also want to do one day at Universal. Any possibility to spend a night at one of the Universal hotels? I don't know how crowded the parks will be since I have not been for Horror Nights, but staying onsite gets you front of the line passes for just about every ride (Pteradon Flyers and the new Harry Potter one are the exceptions). You use your room key to skip the lines and you can do so both the day you check in as well as the day you check out. You could then get the two-park pass and hit all of the roller coasters, well, ALL of the rides in one day, and the hotels at Universal are REALLY nice. Beyond that, they sell fast passes that let you skip the line for each ride one time, the price varies depending on the crowd. I would think barring that you would end up needing a cab, can't tell you how much it is, as you mentioned the shuttles won't take you there.
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Aug 8, 2013 16:19
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Bob Loblaw posted:Any possibility to spend a night at one of the Universal hotels? I don't know how crowded the parks will be since I have not been for Horror Nights, but staying onsite gets you front of the line passes for just about every ride (Pteradon Flyers and the new Harry Potter one are the exceptions). You use your room key to skip the lines and you can do so both the day you check in as well as the day you check out. You could then get the two-park pass and hit all of the roller coasters, well, ALL of the rides in one day, and the hotels at Universal are REALLY nice. Beyond that, they sell fast passes that let you skip the line for each ride one time, the price varies depending on the crowd. It would probably be least expensive route to go through their concierge and book a shuttle to the parks versus taking a cab. If they balk at that then take a shuttle to the area outlet mall which is up the road then take a taxi from there. Taking a cab from Disney to Universal would be an expensive trip to say the least.
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Aug 8, 2013 16:30
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Just added a "Paying For It" section to the OP, listing a number of sample vacations and their costs. And I clarified/updated some other bits of info sprinkled throughout the OP.
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Aug 10, 2013 04:19
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TheGreyGhost posted:Also, don't be intimidated by some of the lines on rides here. This is not true of Splash Mountain though. Two days go by very quickly here. I know this post is from like 3 months ago, but my tip if you want to ride Splash Mountain is to go at night. Once the sun sets, the wait times go from about 2 hours to 5 minutes. As someone who goes to a Disney park every 2 years or so, I can't remember the last time I rode it during the day. That part of the park way off in the corner of Frontierland gets very quiet after about 8 pm, since there aren't any shows or restaurants there and everyone's gathering for the fireworks. You can ride Splash and Thunder mountains as many times in a row as you want and personally I find that there's something really peaceful about Splash Mountain in the dark with little ambient sound from the streets below. I've even managed to catch the fireworks while riding Splash Mountain. It's tough to time right, but getting to the very top of the big drop and having fireworks exploding over the expanse of the park you can see for that split second is very cool. Plus Splash Mountain is around 12 minutes in length at Disneyworld and is far superior to the one at Disneyland, having more scenes and more drops, so it's a good ride to just chill on at the end of the day. In fact, now that I think about it, almost every doubled attraction at WDW is better and/or longer like Haunted Mansion, Tower of Terror, Jungle Cruise, Space Mountain. The only one I can think of where Disneyland's is better is Pirates.
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Aug 10, 2013 09:42
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Fish Of Doom posted:I know this post is from like 3 months ago, but my tip if you want to ride Splash Mountain is to go at night. Once the sun sets, the wait times go from about 2 hours to 5 minutes. As someone who goes to a Disney park every 2 years or so, I can't remember the last time I rode it during the day. That part of the park way off in the corner of Frontierland gets very quiet after about 8 pm, since there aren't any shows or restaurants there and everyone's gathering for the fireworks. You can ride Splash and Thunder mountains as many times in a row as you want and personally I find that there's something really peaceful about Splash Mountain in the dark with little ambient sound from the streets below. I've even managed to catch the fireworks while riding Splash Mountain. It's tough to time right, but getting to the very top of the big drop and having fireworks exploding over the expanse of the park you can see for that split second is very cool. On the flipside, as of a few years ago they were having issues with the smoke alarms going off during the fireworks which would mean an evacuation from the ride. I dunno if they ever ended up fixing it.
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Aug 10, 2013 16:48
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Fish Of Doom posted:Plus Splash Mountain is around 12 minutes in length at Disneyworld and is far superior to the one at Disneyland, having more scenes and more drops, so it's a good ride to just chill on at the end of the day. In fact, now that I think about it, almost every doubled attraction at WDW is better and/or longer like Haunted Mansion, Tower of Terror, Jungle Cruise, Space Mountain. The only one I can think of where Disneyland's is better is Pirates. DL's Space Mountain seems like less of a death trap from what I hear, but having never been there, I don't know. I do like that WDWs Tower of Terror is the best of the bunch by virtue of being built differently, and Disney realizing it was far too complicated and expensive to duplicate, so they just redid the experience for each park that has gotten it since.
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Aug 10, 2013 19:54
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TheBigBudgetSequel posted:DL's Space Mountain seems like less of a death trap from what I hear, but having never been there, I don't know. What do you mean by WDW's Space Mountain being a death trap? Like all other rides there, it was designed and is operated with safety in mind above everything else. I only know of one death in the history of the ride. Oh, whoops. I just checked that and there have been two more since I worked there, both due to natural causes and not any kind of ride issue. Cancer and a heart attack, in case you're curious The one I knew about happened decades ago and involved a dude standing up during the ride. I can't find this documented anywhere at the moment but I'm pretty sure it actually happened, vs. just being one of the dozens of cast member rumors. That said, DL Space Mountain is definitely more technologically advanced than the one in WDW and probably a better experience.
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Aug 10, 2013 22:10
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I had a chance to ride DL Space Mountain with the lights on a few years back and while I'm sure its very safe, the track appears so close to the cars I would never put my hands up while riding after seeing it.
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Aug 10, 2013 22:25
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Roar posted:On the flipside, as of a few years ago they were having issues with the smoke alarms going off during the fireworks which would mean an evacuation from the ride. I dunno if they ever ended up fixing it. I was there in December and rode it during the fireworks, so if there ever was a problem, it certainly wasn't apparent. Apparently the Space Mountain in California was shut down for a couple months early this year for unsafe backstage areas. http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Disneyland-Employee-Safety-Rides-Closed-Space-Mountain-202948851.html
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Aug 10, 2013 22:33
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Malt posted:I had a chance to ride DL Space Mountain with the lights on a few years back and while I'm sure its very safe, the track appears so close to the cars I would never put my hands up while riding after seeing it. You can see that in some spots even with the house lights off. It's definitely tight, but I've never seen it lit up. I would love to. edit: I mean Disneyworld's
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Aug 10, 2013 22:45
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Malt posted:I had a chance to ride DL Space Mountain with the lights on a few years back and while I'm sure its very safe, the track appears so close to the cars I would never put my hands up while riding after seeing it. Haha, the WDW one is the same. It's easily possible to reach out and touch struts during the ride, although I don't recommend it. They do have pool noodles on all the spots where that is possible, so you shouldn't be able to hurt yourself too badly by doing so. But still, pretty bad idea to attempt it.
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Aug 11, 2013 00:14
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I was genuinely surprised when I learned that the Reflections show at EPCOT was driven by a Windows 95 machine, but I guess there's really no reason to update these legacy systems, especially if they're not hooked up to the network. Working on R&D for Disney developing new attractions must be fun. Lots of toys to play around with, lots of stories to tell.
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Aug 11, 2013 00:20
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Suspicious Dish posted:I was genuinely surprised when I learned that the Reflections show at EPCOT was driven by a Windows 95 machine, but I guess there's really no reason to update these legacy systems, especially if they're not hooked up to the network. You have no idea. Some of the rides are still run by 1950s style mainframes running ancient COBOL instructions. Space Mountain WDW is one of them. If it ain't broke, I suppose.
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Aug 11, 2013 01:01
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So for two days of Disney what do you folks think are the best options? I was thinking Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. I might spend an extra half day depending on funds.
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Aug 11, 2013 02:42
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Optimist with doubt posted:So for two days of Disney what do you folks think are the best options? I was thinking Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. I might spend an extra half day depending on funds. Are you taking kids? Then definitely MK and whichever of AK or Hollywood strikes your fancy more. Without kids, EPCOT, EPCOT EEEEPCOOOT. it's hands down the best park for adults. But the best answer is clearly that two days is not nearly enough and that you need to book 3-5 more.
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Aug 11, 2013 02:53
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Nathilus posted:What do you mean by WDW's Space Mountain being a death trap? Like all other rides there, it was designed and is operated with safety in mind above everything else. I only know of one death in the history of the ride. Oh, whoops. I just checked that and there have been two more since I worked there, both due to natural causes and not any kind of ride issue. Cancer and a heart attack, in case you're curious The one I knew about happened decades ago and involved a dude standing up during the ride. I can't find this documented anywhere at the moment but I'm pretty sure it actually happened, vs. just being one of the dozens of cast member rumors. It was kind of a joke. I find the ride in WDW to be rickety and I know for a fact how close the beams are over head and it always feels a little treacherous. That said, I know it's the safest coaster of it's kind because it's on Disney World property.
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Aug 11, 2013 03:06
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Ah, word. It is... well, rickety isn't exactly the word I'd use. Haphazard maybe. Still, close enough. Sorry if I came across as defensive or anything. It's just after working on that particular ride and having SAFETY drilled into my head over and over, hearing it called a death trap was a bit baffling.
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Aug 11, 2013 03:16
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There's enough light in the WDW Space Mountain that I spent the whole ride in fear of decapitation. I assumed that was by design, but I wanted the whole ride to be just like the 2001 part in the first 30 seconds, not a generic roller coaster in a dark warehouse.
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Aug 11, 2013 04:14
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quote:I was there in December and rode it during the fireworks, so if there ever was a problem, it certainly wasn't apparent. Fish Of Doom posted:Apparently the Space Mountain in California was shut down for a couple months early this year for unsafe backstage areas. Eh. The older attractions have older catwalks and stuff, a lot of the maintenance crews have been working there for decades and can crawl along the catwalks like Catwoman. poo poo like this only comes out when someone screws up and gets hurt. Sometimes not their fault, sometimes totally their fault but if they can blame it on faulty and non-up-to-date equipment they will. The newer (>1997ish) attractions though are super safe backstage which makes them kind of boring and uninteresting.
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Aug 11, 2013 05:15
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Roar posted:
Unless your name is Primeval Whirl, which means you are a lovely off the shelf carnival coaster co-opted to be a Disney ride. and people fall off you frequently.
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Aug 11, 2013 07:47
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TheBigBudgetSequel posted:It was kind of a joke. I find the ride in WDW to be rickety and I know for a fact how close the beams are over head and it always feels a little treacherous. I'm 6ft 2 now, but I first went when I was about ten, and was petrified of my head being whipped off my shoulders by overhead tracks. Haven't been back in about a decade, but lots of visits inbetween, and that never, ever left me. I think that enforced caution makes it a good ride, and anyone sticking their hands up or standing up deserves everything they get.
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Aug 11, 2013 14:25
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I can't imagine you'd even come close to being able to touch the structure just by raising/waving your arms in the air, even if you tried to. Standing up is a completely different deal, and is actively circumventing the ride's safety systems (regardless of what coaster we're talking about). Coasters are designed to simulate danger without actually putting the passengers at risk. So you think you might smash you head into an i-beam, but you clear it by several feet. I think the guy that died a few years ago on BTMRR was standing up, wasn't he? I don't remember if it was the passenger's fault or a ride failure. (Maybe I'm thinking about the Splash Mountain guy.) I'd think if it was Disney's fault I would have heard more about it. And welcome to the happy Walt Disney World For First-Timer's thread, everybody! Honestly, the only thing I don't like about Space Mountain is that it's a pretty rough ride in an uncomfortably small car. I always feel like I'm coming out of there with bruised ribs. edit: Thanks, Wikipedia! The BTMRR incident was at Disneyland, and was Disney's fault. The Splash Mountain incident was at WDW and was the guest's fault. Lincoln fucked around with this message at 14:53 on Aug 11, 2013 |
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Aug 11, 2013 14:47
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Lincoln posted:Honestly, the only thing I don't like about Space Mountain is that it's a pretty rough ride in an uncomfortably small car. I always feel like I'm coming out of there with bruised ribs. It's got nothing on the Matterhorn in terms of being crammed into a tiny car on a rickety track.
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Aug 12, 2013 01:12
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Expedition Everest appears the only ride to take singles, awesome way not to wait forever to get a ride. I wish they set it up on other rides.
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Aug 13, 2013 01:08
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