Seals

It's been a couple of years since we've been at Christmas but we found the most challenging was to get to all the Christmas shows if that's your thing and they have them this year.  Had to plan which ones when and include time spent standing in lines to get in. And they used to be all or mostly in the afternoon/evenings. Maybe it won't be as crowded, although a friend went this past Sunday and said it was quite crowded.  We used to go to Old Mill years ago and then Applewood Farmhouse more recently and would also recommend both. 

Three weeks ago yesterday I was eating Mickey beignets at the Port Orleans food court on the resorts visiting  day of our trip. We took the boat from Disney Springs.  Seems like a lot longer ago.  I don’t like to fry in oil but I may have to try this recipe. They were goooood. 

On 3/16/2020 at 9:33 AM, Duane said:

I'm with you on this Carol... We attended a MM short that is now playing now in HS in a small theater beside the Frozen Sing-A-Long, and wasn't impressed at all.  It was the new animation format and to me, just left a lot to be desired...

We saw that too and I didn’t like how violent it was. But then again I was never a fan of Tom and Jerry or the Roadrunner cartoons.

Friday morning we were next to board Big Thunder Mountain. The previous car had just left with a bunch of excited/scared elementary school kids and our car arrived. Then there was an announcement that the ride was closed and immediately a swarm of CMs many wearing backpacks appeared. Some entered the control booth and then they spread out to evacuate the ride. We went gate by gate to cross through the vehicle, scan our Magic band to get a FP and headed out. I wondered what happened that they responded so fast -  but now that I’m typing this I’m thinking - would it have been a drill?  We’d used FP but I felt so bad for those kids because they must have waited a long time in the standby line and some of the group hadn’t boarded yet. The teachers/chaperones were great though and rounded up the kids pretty efficiently. Haunted Mansion was closed that day and when we went through on the People Mover Space Mountain was stopped and the lights were on. We also were stopped briefly on Seven Dwarves which kind of killed the fun of it. Didn’t see any dropped appendages on Carousel through.

We got to HS mid-afternoon Wednesday and it was down and they said it would be a while so go do something else. We went back around 6:30 and it was down again and they said it would be a while so go do something else. Wait time before it went down was 135 minutes. We decided to hover near the entrance in the “not a line” and were near the front to get in line when the line opened maybe 20 minutes later. It was just about two hours from when we were told not to wait until we got off the ride. I liked it. It’s colorful, fast paced and fun. 

Reminds me of the time I was working a concession stand at a college football game so was there during setup time. I took a picture of the young woman at the Fresh Squeezed Lemonade! stand pouring 2 liter bottles of Minute Maid lemonade into the dispensing container. 

Is the new BBQ place counter service? 

On 2/17/2020 at 3:12 PM, Tri-Circle-D said:

If you’re planning to visit DHS, then it’s worth a shot, but do not plan your day around it. One consequence of the current system is that DHS is super busy from the moment it opens- so Slinky Dog and Rockin Rollercoaster begin the day with 60 minute wait times and it gets worse from there. If you don’t have parkhoppers, you probably ought to forget about it.

The new ride is amazing, and it’s definitely worth taking a shot to ride it. But have a solid backup plan.

TCD

Even with fast phones I have terrible luck at lotteries/prize drawings.  We do have parkhoppers and I was planning vaguely to switch early afternoons to a different park each day.  Ideally I like to go to a resort to eat lunch and then go to a different park.   Both AK and HS I was only able to get late afternoon FP.   Our FP for Slinky Dog is late afternoon on March 4 which is the same day Micky and Minnie Railroad opens. That date wasn't announced back when I made my HS FPs and I'm not giving up that one now but I'm assuming it's going to be even more crowded that day so I wasn't going to go until close to FP time.  We'll see.  It's just my husband and I so there's no pressure to make sure the kids get to do everything which will be nice for a change.   

This thread is helping me make the decision to not even try this when we're there in a couple of weeks. Only have 4 park days and it sounds like it would take up a lot of time that could be more fun spent elsewhere especially since it's been a couple of years since we've been.  We're not die hard SW fans and it was more of a doing it to say we've done it.   But our phones are slow and we're slow on our phones.  (I see a great money making scheme of renting a young person with a fast phone). 

After this trip we'll still have one park day on an old non-expiring ticket so I guess we'll save that for 5? years from now when the madness has worn off and they've fixed the ride. 

An update in case anyone is wondering in a similar situation:  I procrastinated on this way too long mainly because I didn't think it would work. Finally called yesterday and a capable and cheerful CM was able to upgrade the expired tickets over the phone pretty quickly. There was a cost difference so I went with a 4 day instead of the same 5 day because it was less additional $. She also was able to prioritize the newer ticket over the non-expiring one in my account but told me to check with a person with an Ipad at the turnstile before going through the first time to make sure it would read the new one. 

 I wish I'd done it sooner because my FP choices are now very limited.  Lesson learned and I plan to enjoy whatever we can manage to do.  Husband who doesn't keep up with Disney details like I do asked if we could do the new Star Wars ride. I tried to explain the arrive early / get a boarding group procedure. He just shook his head.  

On 1/8/2020 at 1:18 PM, Katman1356...Jason said:

- Do I get the value of a 5 day parkhopper even though it was a buy a 4-day and get another day free?                                   They are 5 day tickets so you should get that value. 

- Do I need to bring any kind of receipt for them ? They are etickets but I have them printed out showing the barcode. I've also linked them in MDE.              You should not. Disney will be able to see the tickets and the value stored in them.

- Can I use the value toward a fewer day ticket in order to avoid paying any more?    The 2020 price  for a 5 day parkhopper  on the days we plan to go is $145 more than the 2018 value of the now expired ticket based on the pricing I looked at.  Can I drop down to using it toward a 4-day parkhopper and not have to pay that extra $145?   I really only wanted 4 days to begin with since I want to spend some time visiting resorts.    I believe so. At this point they are considered an amount vs. an actual tickets so I think you can apply that value to any ticket you want. But as far as I know you will not receive any kind of refund so keep that in mind if the cost of the new ticket is less than the value of the old. (If I end up wrong on this please let me know but this is how I understand it should work)

-  I haven't been able to make FastPass reservations because the tickets have expired *. Is there any way to upgrade the now expired tickets to the current date tickets without having to be on property so that I can make FP reservations?         You should be able to call Disney and apply the value to new tickets over the phone. (should)


With regards to the older ticket you should be able to have Disney prioritize the tickets for use and may want to speak to someone when scanning into a park to verify it is still using the correct ticket. 

Thank you for your answers! 

When I called Disney when I couldn't make FP,  I asked about updating to a new ticket over the phone. She said she was in tech and didn't know much about tickets but she texted someone else while we made small talk about the Fort. The other person said because I bought them through Undercover Tourist I had to ask them to upgrade. I haven't yet, but am pretty certain they won't do that. I guess I can call Disney again but with the 20 minute wait time the last time I need to find time to do that.

In October 2018 right before the date-based tickets system went into effect I bought 2 tickets from Undercover Tourist -- 4 day Parkhopper with extra day added for "free" to make a 5-day Parkhopper.  I knew and understood that if I didn't use them by 12/31/2019 they would expire, but that I could then use the value toward another ticket based on the new pricing and would have to pay any difference.  I intended to go in 2019, but that didn't happen.  We are planning to go this Spring.

I've done a bit of research but still have a couple of  questions if anyone here has experienced. I can call Disney again but last time on hold time was over 20 minutes:

- Do I get the value of a 5 day parkhopper even though it was a buy a 4-day and get another day free? 

- Do I need to bring any kind of receipt for them ? They are etickets but I have them printed out showing the barcode. I've also linked them in MDE.

- Can I use the value toward a fewer day ticket in order to avoid paying any more?    The 2020 price  for a 5 day parkhopper  on the days we plan to go is $145 more than the 2018 value of the now expired ticket based on the pricing I looked at.  Can I drop down to using it toward a 4-day parkhopper and not have to pay that extra $145?   I really only wanted 4 days to begin with since I want to spend some time visiting resorts.

-  I haven't been able to make FastPass reservations because the tickets have expired *. Is there any way to upgrade the now expired tickets to the current date tickets without having to be on property so that I can make FP reservations? 

(* strangely, we also have older non-expiring parkhopper Plus tickets that we used on two visits.  At the end of the last visit I had someone there check and she said we'd used all the park days but still have a couple of Plus visits left.  I'd thought we had a park day left but she read me a list of dates we'd used it and it did account for all 10 park days.  But this time when I was trying to make FP reservations it let me make one day worth.  When I called Disney last week to find out why it took one but not the others I was trying to make, she said I must have one park day left on those old non-expiring tickets if I was able to make FP.    If so, I want to keep that day for another time and only use the newer expiring tickets on this visit. I will need to check that before entering the parks so the old ticket isn't  used first.)

Thanks! 

1 hour ago, Travisma said:

You know these will sell out, anything with the word Princess in it and the Mommy Bloggers freak out!

So true

I don't know - paying only $89 on top of admission to not have to wait as long in line for It's A Small World sounds like a bargain to me.  😂

As someone who has had a little bit of a panic about being on a cruise ship, I hope the fantastic time you are going to have will override any of those anxiety feelings. One thought about the kennel is there any way you can test leave your dog there on a prior trip so he's familiar with it a little bit when you have to leave him for real?  May be good for both of you. I'm thankful my shelter dog feels that going to the kennel is like going to home so he's pretty good with it.  But even he needed some getting used to the people there and the smell of that particular place.  

11 hours ago, wendinator said:

Three guesses and the first two don't count! 

LOL I will admit that when I saw a trip report from you I also remembered "she's the one who does  tea."   I love the comments on the hippo observation chart.  "Doing lots of mouth clapping throughout the day."  Could be a human observation chart.   I think I would love to do this tour, except maybe the heights and vultures. But they're Disney heights and vultures so can't be too scary I guess.  Looking forward to more. 

I see it says if you use a credit card it's charged $4 and you get all 4. So if each of your 2 children want the same penny and you only have a credit card -- that's $8 for Disney!

I stayed at the Fort in  1975 and 1977 when I was 13 and 15.  As an adult I occasionally had a dream where I was on a train and there was a water tower.  It was always a pleasant dream.  A few years ago I watched a video of the train, I think posted here, and realized that was the train/water tower from my dream. So definitely had an impact on me!

My dog has been practicing that spaghetti scene solo for several years now. Too bad they didn't discover him for this. We could be rich. 

35 minutes ago, Travisma said:

Fire stick doesn't have You tube TV at the moment.

Amazon and Google were in a pissing contest a while back and neither would carry the others content. Chrome Sticks wouldn't carry Amazon channels.

They kissed and made up, and Fire devices are going to carry You Tube TV again this fall.  They already started carrying the official You Tube App (there were hacks to get it) a few weeks ago.

You Tube TV carries most broadcast channels, and if you are in the right zone, you can even pick up your local broadcast stations instead of the network ones.

 

This may be a dumb question, but I admit I don't understand how all this "magic" works,  when they start carrying You Tube TV can I just add it to the Fire Stick I already have? 

Our last 2 kids are heading out to college so paying for cable + 4 cable boxes (plus Netflix and Amazon Prime), which really made no sense before, makes even less sense now.  Our kids watched cable the most.   Besides local news (which I mostly have on in the background when I'm cooking dinner) I usually watch Netflix or Amazon Prime or my few network shows a day or two later on their apps.  My husband watches Netflix and random other things but mostly will watch whatever is on when he feels like watching.  We are fairly rural but my husband bought a digital antenna and we can get  NBC clearly with that for local news and weather. It's the local channel we watched the most anyway. I got an Amazon Fire Stick on Prime Day and it's a lot easier to use than I thought it was going to be.  If we go with streaming I've read the best reviews about YouTube tv.  But we may wait and see if we miss anything and possibly go with this in November. 

Interesting. We finally cut the cable cord two days and I've been researching alternatives. 

19 hours ago, Katman1356...Jason said:

Yes to make fastpasses each person must have a valid ticket linked to their profile. 

Thank you!

It's been a long time. Can someone remind me. I have an onsite reservation. Do I also need to have my tickets linked to my MDE account, in each person's name, before I can make FP+ reservations?  I bought e-tickets through Undercover Tourist last year and haven't linked them to anywhere yet because I wasn't sure who was going to use them.  Thanks!

I make something similar where you mix a can of frozen lemonade and a tub of cool whip and put it in a graham cracker pie crust and freeze. Cold, tart and very sweet.  

On 7/12/2019 at 4:32 PM, Beckers said:

Honestly the next movie in our radar isn’t Disney. We want to see Dora the explorer.

My boys watched Dora a lot when they were young.  When we saw the preview before Toy Story 4 I told them we were going to see that together.