keith_h

For any Fiend who'll be at the FORT.
 

Couldn't agree more.  We were there in January and it was so disappointing.   It was our first stay at the Fort in almost 5 years and I don't see us coming back again any time soon.  The whole Disney Genie, Genie + and Individual Lighting Lane arrangement is a disaster.  It is expensive beyond belief for a family of 4, and the Disney IT structure keeps stalling or failing completely.  Not to mention that it burns through your phone's battery like lightning.  
We resorted to taking turns getting in standby for the rides we really wanted to do while the others did bathroom breaks and the lesser rides they wanted to.   Took a sandwich and a water bottle and bumped along. 
Like you we are also DVC members and even the so-called "perks" we're supposed to have were non-existent.   
For a supposed 50th Anniversary celebration all Disney wants is the money for high priced, low quality merchandise.   
They have lost the "magic" they had.   

In my head it is as fresh as ever.  At least that's what the voices in there tell me. 

You know, that particular cinnamon roll that Dave has been peddling for the last several years has got to be sort of stale by now....

My sources inside the Walt Disney Company tell me that Bob Iger, toward the end of his retirement address to fellow Cast Members, made an announcement that will have massive implication to CM's and Guests of WDW for years to come!
Just before closing his address, he announced the construction of a 5TH GATE at WDW! 
He then let slip the name of this upcoming 5th theme park....Cinnamon Roll Kingdom!! 
 

Happy New Year everyone! 

My guess is your flip phone will do just as good a job as a smart phone in keeping the paper menu from flying off your table.

My guess is your flip phone will do just as good a job as a smart phone in keeping the paper menu from flying off your table.

Final thoughts:

I probably should have put this at the beginning of the report, because it has the most useful information about traveling to WDW right now. Well, call this the reward for traveling there with me, as I reminisced.

Mousekeeping is limited. Something I must have missed in all my reading, but mousekeeping is still not doing sheets or bedding changes. Neither will they make the bed on their days in the room. Mousekeeping comes every other day for light cleanup and to replace towels and sundries. If you want to come back to a freshly made up room, you will need to make your beds before you leave. If you want new sheets, just call down to the concierge, and they will have new bedding delivered. Mousekeeping will pick up dirty sheets on their cleaning days.

Genie+: For us, just 2 people wandering the parks, Genie+ was worth it. We used it daily and probably averaged about 5 rides using it, at each park. The only 2 rides we never managed to grab were Test Track and Slinky Dog. We didn't try real hard with TT, because we just weren't that into it. So that's $75 to save about 1 to 2 hours a day in line. Worth it to my feet.

Mobile Ordering: I LOVE this feature and took advantage of it wherever I could. I can understand how it would be hard to work with if you have any kind of severe allergy or food intolerance. Not a whole lot of options on most items. But when you can use it, nothing like just ordering while in line, and having your food ready when you are ready to eat.

QR codes for full restaurant menu's: This is the hardest thing to get used to. If I am eating in a full service restaurant, I don't want to stare at the tiny screen of my phone for the menu, I want a full, page turning menu. Can't put my finger on exactly why, maybe because the explanations of each dish are easier to compare that way? After our first dinner at Nine Dragons, we decided to study the menu's before we got to our restaurant, so we would know what we wanted, and didn't even have to use the menu in house. It just felt better that way. At Skipper Canteen and at Morimoto's, both our servers there brought us paper menu's when we tried to explain we'd already chosen our options before arriving. I think they are used to the older crowd griping at them about it.

Crowds and attitudes: We did not see a lot of crowding, except on that Saturday. Probably a lot of locals coming to enjoy the Christmas season. The only time I saw upset guests was in front of Columbia Harbor House. The mobile order 'required' seemed to really rub people the wrong way, there. Outside of Sat'uli Canteen, there was a general air of "yes, mobile order is how it's done!". Also, Docking Bay 9 at HS had happy people using mobile order.
I never once saw a cranky CM while at the parks. Everyone we waved at or spoke to seemed to be in a great mood. It was what I expect of WDW, I felt the CM's were happy to be back. Or they were great at faking it.

Thank you all for taking the time to read my trip report. Not sure when I'll be back to WDW. We have Disneyland and a Disney cruise on tap for our next adventures.

We stopped by the Indiana Jones stadium to pull the rope on the mine shaft / well / whatever that is. It was fun, and we startled a few passerby. I’m glad that little easter egg is still there. We got in line for our Mickey and Minnie Railway journey, and I was very happy to have purchased the ILL. The line was at 70 minutes. We only had to wait about 10 minutes overall. The ride was a fun little jaunt, but it is not going to become a favorite of ours. We don’t like the new animation of the Disney characters. Goofy is just too scruffy for our liking, we much prefer the older animation. Also, it just wasn’t as much fun as the old ‘Ride the Movies’ ride. Stepping out, I made a LL for Alien Swirling Saucers for about 20 minutes into the future, and we walked into Toy Story land to look around. Toy Story Mania had no available LL options, and we didn’t want to wait in the 50 minute line, so we just took pictures, and enjoyed some people watching. We bought some water to help stay hydrated, as the temperatures were heading into the upper 80’s. Toy Story land suffers from the same issue as the carnival area of Animal Kingdom. Too much heat reflecting asphalt and no shade.
 
 


We actually enjoyed the ride on ASS ( sorry, I just HAD to use that acronym once, lol), it was a cute little ride and I love the voices of the Toy Story green aliens. I also like being flung around in circles, so that helps. Afterward, we walked back into Galaxy’s edge and explored the area. We stopped for a photo pass opportunity, and then wandered over to the milk stand and got our blue milk and green milk to try. We opted not to get an alcoholic variety. Both of us prefer the blue milk, which surprised me. Considering what is in them, I thought I’d like green milk better, since I love all thing citrus. But the green milk just tasted too bitter. Maybe they put more grapefruit juice in it than the other flavors? Dunno, but blue milk was the winner, although neither was good enough for us to get a refill.
 


Then we went into the droid store, so we could considered our ‘extra’ options to purchase for our upcoming droid. That shop was very busy and very noisy, so hearing the sounds of the extra sound chips you can buy for your droid was pretty challenging. They have a BUNCH of extra’s for the droids, more so than for the lightsabers. We checked in for our droid build with the CM holding a clipboard, and waited outside in the shade for our turn.

The droid build was much more chaotic and ‘self serve’ than the lightsaber build. You get in line, pay for your droid and wait your turn. A droid wrangler will come to you with a basket, and guide you to the conveyer belt with all the droid parts. You are shown the instruction graphic so you know which parts to pick, and left on your own. After you choose your parts, you turn around and face away from the conveyer, and another droid shop employee will direct you to your build space. Each build space has a diagram on how to assemble the droid. They are very tight together with others, there is no space to video your builder actually assembling the droid. Also, it is really noisy in there, cannot stress that enough. Not sure if they could put in sound dampeners but wow, I was a little overwhelmed.
 
 


When you have your droid assembled, the engineer will come over and get the electronics working, and make sure your droid’s chip and wheel gears are all working. You get a little tutorial on how to run the droid and they pack it up in a nice cardboard case for you. Leave your droid on when you are done, because there are some cute effects to play with. We exited the building, and started walking back to First Order Cargo to ship our droid home. As you pass other droids in the outpost, they talk to each other. Your box may start shaking as your droid discusses whatever news droids find important, with the droids waiting outside their respective buildings. It’s adorable. They will also talk to other boxed up droids if you happen to pass close to someone else carrying their new droid.
 


Back at First Order Cargo, we were met by a much more stern First Order cadet, who agreed to ship our droid off planet, but first needed to inspect the droid for contraband. (Basically, opening the box to turn the droid off, lol... a fun way to do it). Outside of the shop, we were near the Tie Fighter stage area, and more Stormtroopers were out, being gruff and trying to maintain order. There were a lot of lightsabers out, as it was dusk and they glowed beautifully, making for great photo opportunities with the lighted ship and Stormtroopers in the background. We watched the people for a while.

There’s an acronym I can get on board with.  

Daughter number two would have loved the Nightmare Before Christmas tree. In fact it is her favorite Christmas movie which she introduced our granddaughter to last night. I think it will end up being GD's favorite too as the rest of the evening it was a 15 month old going around the house saying "Jack".
Duck can be fatty but drying it for 24 hours in the fridge and pricking the skin before cooking will help a lot of fat to render out. I like to smoke ducks, no Dave not that way, and the longer cooking time tends to render more fat than what I can achieve in the oven. We aren't big on turkey so it is not uncommon for us to serve smoked duck along with another poultry such as pheasant and ham for Thanksgiving.

Me too Dave, thanks for asking.  Also thank you for answers.

Your last update makes me realize how long it’s been since I’ve been to WDW, and how much has changed.  I need some help…LL? VQ?  BatB?   I know what Rat is because I’ve read about it but otherwise you could be talking about a theme park in Bangladesh and I’d be no more lost.  😂

You have to remember that the locals also book weekends as soon as they can. All the years we were there many sites were available during the week but on weekends the FORT filled up with the same people and the majority were FL plates. Once the 499/500 day hits they are booking for their weekends, so if you want 10 days somebody probably already has the weekends on both ends of that reservation.  We never had issues either, but we always had a TA take care of it.  
The lack of open sites is happening across all campgrounds not just the FORT, just go on any RV blog/forum and many are complaining about the lack of availability in State parks and Private parks. RV sales have sky-rocketed the last 3 years.  
Let Jason work on it, save yourself the hassle.

Chapek has stated that he doesn’t like APs because they don’t spend enough $$$.  They want fewer people willing to spend a boatload of $$$ during their stay.
I fully understand they are a money making business, but they are going to make it too costly for Joe and Jane Average to afford to go to the parks.

So being the first to check in, I’m guessing you got a free stay and lifetime APs?

Hopefully the answer is not very long.

On the Wonder for the East bound Panama Canal.  Only 850 guests on board, 27 kids and outnumbered by the crew, 920.

They have the technology to measure wait times. MB, Disney phone apps and facial recognition can easily measure when someone enters the ride gate and loads onto the ride. In fact since they can in theory read very person entering the ride the numbers would be more accurate than the old manual method. The question is are they using any of these methods? Assuming they are using one of these methods and the wait times are truly way off I'd say this is just another IT screw-up in Disney's long history of IT screw-ups.

I guess they don't want those of us that don't like to micromanage their day or to be micromanaged when visiting the parks. 

Updated your post to modern business theory. While shareholders might get to ride along I think most modern corporations are designed to do nothing more than to enrich the executive corps. If you need proof look at the number of companies where shareholders lose value but executive pay increases. 

I guess they don't want those of us that don't like to micromanage their day or to be micromanaged when visiting the parks. 

Word "floating around" was they oversold 200 sites due to a computer glitch...   
Of course I would never believe that DIS would have computer issues...

That's why we let Jason work on reservations, he gets the job done and it doesn't cost you anything extra.

What would be super funny is if they have all of those old beds in storage and used them in the DVC rooms. 
TCD