Tri-Circle-D

1 minute ago, Beckers said:

Please bring us  back a trip report when you make it there 😂

Will do. 

Complete with a video showing me as the last guest on the island. 

TCD

18 minutes ago, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

If that's the case, how long before someone starts selling the service (assuming they aren't already on the QT)?  Like back when BOG first opened and a few companies sprung up offering "help" booking dining reservations because someone developed a spiffy little way of working Disney's dining reservations system.  Until Disney shut them all down.

I’m not convinced that something like that isn’t already happening. The market certainly exists, and as far as I know even Disney VIP tour guides can’t skip the line currently. That opens the door for some enterprising entrepreneurs. 

TCD

Yeah, they will need to pay for this somehow. 

I cant wait to see it!

TCD

I’m glad that the TCD gang got to enjoy MNSSPs back when the price was reasonable, attendance was low, and things were simpler. It’s not fun anymore. And it’s a colossal ripoff. 

TCD

10 hours ago, LONE-STAR said:

I hope they fix this.

Me too. 

I have this sneaking suspicion that there are already guests who know hacks for the system separate from this reported glitch. That would explain how the boarding groups have disappeared so quickly lately compared to the first months of operation.

TCD

Cool!  

The guy who posted that was one of the instructors at the animation class they used to have at DHS. 

This will be a much better experience than the drawing classes they’ve hosted at the Festival of the Arts at Epcot.

TCD

1 hour ago, Travisma said:

Also, if you have a GFS Store in your area, they have that sauce and the Ken's Boom Boom Sauce (A taste comprised from a fiery varietal of chili peppers, with savory notes from garlic and a hint of smoky paprika spice. Body is of medium viscosity with bright orange color, having red pepper and shallot pieces throughout) for $16.89 a gallon bottle.  

No shipping fees and no waiting.

And if you want to check out Ken's entire line.

https://www.kensfoodservice.com/products

They have a very large variety of products

The next time I’m there, I’m going to take a peek under the cabinet, and I’ll bet I will see Ken’s entire line!

TCD 

17 minutes ago, LONE-STAR said:

That really seems like a waste of space to me. Swings would have been better, but I know they can't charge for swinging.

Oh no, don’t get cynical on us. 

You know your daughter is going to love having you buy buckets of sand so she can find those gems!

TCD

I hope that Chapek can rise to the occasion. I have not been impressed by what I’ve seen from him so far. 

TCD

8 minutes ago, Seals said:

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? 

Yes it’s counter service, and it was actually pretty good. Of course it’s grossly overpriced, but that’s how it is at Disney.  I’m going to look for Ken’s barbecue sauce the next time I’m at the store. 

TCD

38 minutes ago, ThemeParkCommando said:

So for WDW, what would the best solution have been?  Considering the difficulties in getting this ride online, on both coasts, should they have waited until they could have done the CM previews in order to run high demand stress tests?   Even if the ride at DHS was operating at full capacity, the BP option is still better than opening with all standby lines.  Not having to wait 2, 4, 6 or more hours in line is a good thing, to my way of thinking.  It doesn't matter if the ride is running perfectly.  Because it is new, it will still have a huge demand on it for a number of years.  Look at 7DMT.  That's a kiddie coaster.  In any other park it would never have generated a 20 minute line, much less the 3 hour lines it had the first year of operation. 

I don't believe there is any scenario where the opening of RotR would not have been some sort of s**t show.

I apologize for the error of thinking the CM's, both current and retired, got preview rides. 

The best solution would have been to spend the time and money needed during the four years that guests had to wait for this blockbuster attraction to open to make sure that it was capable of operating for at least 12 continuous hours a day at or near full capacity. 

If that meant they needed to further delay the opening, then that’s what they should have done.

Instead, corners were cut and they opened the attraction knowing full well that it was incapable of reliable operation. The result is daily breakdowns and shortened hours so they can try to rig things and make them work. Even with all of that, guests are being sent through the attraction with nonfunctional special effects and broken animatronics. 

TCD

Well, the Regal Eagle Smokehouse is open!

You probably already know that, because all the usual bloggers and vloggers have already posted their rave reviews.

It seems like a hit.  Everyone particularly seems to like the different and unique special barbecue sauces created for the new restaurant, which are available at the sauce bar.

The TCD gang didn’t make it to opening day, but we did make it last weekend.  I had to wait at the sauce bar while a CM replenished the signature sauce, and this is what I saw:

LOL 

TCD

I wish you had posted this earlier- I walked right by there on Saturday February 22nd. I didn’t see the bicycle, but I wasn’t looking for it. It could have been there, or maybe it’s making the rounds. 

TCD

A quick update on the little construction project near the Bike Barn from Saturday, February 22:

http://

http://

As seen in the photos, they’re getting ready to pour a slab. 

According to a CM in the Bike Barn, this indeed is going to be a new and improved gem washing station.

TCD

21 minutes ago, twiceblessed....nacole said:

I'm confused as to why this new area with the boarding pass doesn't have a FP option, then a standby line.  Wouldn't that be easier?

That’s what they did when they opened Flight of Passage in Pandora, and the wait in the standby line was 4 hours plus for months after it opened. FOP had its own operation problems, but still had more capacity than ROTR does now. If they tried traditional standby plus FP, the standby time would be over 6 hours probably. 

A better question is why didn’t they open it as standby only like they did with the Millennium Falcon ride?  The fact that they didn’t confirms that ROTR operates so inconsistently that they couldn’t risk having a standby line, as people would wait for hours only to be evacuated or told that it will be another hour while they tried to get the ride back on line. That would be a PR nightmare. Using the boarding group system lets them hide the shortcomings of the attraction and the fact that they opened it before it was ready to handle the crowds.  

Lying to guests in this way lets them keep selling tickets. Maximizing short term profits on a quarter by quarter basis is all that matters to current management.

TCD

3 hours ago, Grumpy and Grandma said:

There are more people in the area at the Resorts and surrounding Hotels heading to DHS and in the park when it opens to grab the Boarding Groups, consequently they go much faster and are harder to acquire which is what creates the "MESS".....

Every time we've been back to DL/CA we've never had long lines at anything like we see at WDW.  We're going back to DL in November and I'll let you know if we encounter the "ZOO" that we see at WDW  (all the parks) regularly.

Hmmm. I think I see the problem. I don’t think you understand that only guests who have scanned in and are physically in DHS are able to try for a boarding group. The “people in the area at the resorts and surrounding hotels” cannot try for a boarding group. 

I would hope that my November things will be a lot smoother than they are now, and that you have a great time at Disneyland. 

TCD

25 minutes ago, Grumpy and Grandma said:

Never said DHS, I said WDW.......

Your words not mine.... Also, they don’t run out of boarding passes for an hour after park opening, where boarding passes are gone in 3 minutes at DHS.  So there has to be more people in the Park when it opens and on the app vs DL. 

Or maybe Disneyland’s version isn’t as messed up as WDW’s and has better capacity?

And if you were arguing that it was somehow relevant to the discussion that WDW has more visitors than Disneyland, then you lost me on what that has to do with the mess at DHS, which is the topic of this thread. 

TCD

4 minutes ago, Grumpy and Grandma said:

It's been published in numerous places that WDW sees approximately 60 million people a year and DL sees approximately 20 million a year. Granted there are 4 parks vs 2 but that is still 15 million per park vs 10 million per park and since SW ROR is the hype  everybody is trying to get on an early Boarding Group.  If they get a high number then they can head to the other parks until they get close to their boarding time.   Also DL doesn't have same percentage  of "On Property" hotel rooms with direct transporation that feed the parks. Figuring out why it fills up almost instantly is not Rocket Science.

Maybe it is a disaster at the moment, but I really don't care since I have no plan on every riding it, just like we have never done anything at PANDORA.   Apparently a lot of other people don't think it's a disaster either or they wouldn't be lining up at 6:30/7:00 am, they'd stay away.   

Lou went to UNIVERSAL Wednesday with one of their head engineers, he got them priority passes to get on HAGRID'S and guess what, it went down and never came back up the whole time they were there.  So it's just not WDW.  As is said "S--t Happens"..

That math doesn’t work at all. Disneyland Park gets way more guests than DCA, and the Magic Kingdom way more than the other three at WDW. As I said, no way does DHS have three times as many guests as Disneyland. No way.

Plus, Disneyland’s version is performing only a little better than WDW’s. At least the guest at Disneyland have 40+ attractions to chose from at that park compared to a fraction of that at DHS.  

And, comparing a Disney ride to something equally flawed at Universal doesn’t fly either. 

They hyped Star Wars Land for four years and are providing guests with a very poor experience. 

“Sh*t happens” doesn’t fly either when the Sh*t is happening more than it doesn’t. 

TCD

1 hour ago, Grumpy and Grandma said:

But the crowd level at WDW is almost 3 times that of DL and that would affect how fast Boarding Passes run out. Same for CM opportunities since the paying customer would get preference.

I can’t believe that the crowd level at DHS is anywhere close to the crowd level at Disneyland, let alone three times more. Since Disney closely guards its attendance figures, I don’t know how you or anyone can make that statement. 

Why is it so hard to accept the fact that the Rise of the Resistance attraction is a disaster at the moment?

TCD

59 minutes ago, ThemeParkCommando said:

It sucks for the CMs who are blocked out, I agree.  However, since those same employees were given special days to ride the ride before it opened, I don't see the restrictions as unreasonable. 

Incorrect.  There were no CM previews or AP previews at WDW. They just crossed their fingers and opened the attraction, and it’s been a sh*t show since opening day. 

48 minutes ago, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

Retired cast never got a 'pass' to ride this before or after it opened.

Active cast didn’t either. 

But, somehow at Disneyland, they were able to have CM previews, and no CM blockouts since opening day. Also, they don’t run out of boarding passes for an hour after park opening, where boarding passes are gone in 3 minutes at DHS. 

Like is said- absolutely ridiculous.

TCD

44 minutes ago, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

Retired cast are blocked out of HS through April and I won't be surprised if the blocking goes all summer.  I want to give a big THANK YOU to the WWz who got together and bought me a ticket to HS so I could join them last Saturday.  I had a really good time and was thankful for the ones with experience and fast phones so we were able to ride.  I look forward to the days when WDW gets the ride working consistently and has something newer to draw people away from HS.

I am glad that y’all got to ride, but your experience confirms the point I’ve been trying to make in this thread- the roll out of this attraction is a fail and Disney should be ashamed of itself.

How is it fun to have to be at a park an hour before it opens and hope that you’re one of the lucky few to be assigned a boarding group before they’re all gone in less than 3 minutes?  And even with a boarding group, the ride is broken down when you’re called, causing a 90 minute wait in the queue when it finally reopens?  And this is the best they can do with 50,000+ castmembers and retirees blocked out of the park?

Absolutely ridiculous.

TCD 

2 hours ago, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

DH had one of those when we first started dating.  Gotta admit on our first date I thought he was pretty cool - right up until the point where he hit the brakes too fast at a stop sign and I almost shot through the windshield because he wanted the Lincoln he was driving to be all clean and snazzy and had Armor All'ed the leather seats (obviously this was before mandatory seat belts).

What a legend!  You’re a lucky lady. 

TCD

3 hours ago, Travisma said:

I was working for the City of Tampa back in the early 80's and GTE was just starting to put up cell towers and bring service to the area. 

They gave our department some phones to test in different areas. 

It was "portable" in as far as it wasn't wired into a car, it would fill up a jacket pocket and make you walk crooked from the weight pulling you down on one side!

That phone definitely will not get you a boarding group. 

That model came out a couple of years after I got my first cell phone. Like I said, mine was bolted in the car, but there was a optional mobile unit about half the size of a car battery that you could sling over your shoulder to make the phone truly mobile. 

I was one if Cellular One’s first customers in 1986. I’ve had the same cell number since then. 

TCD

7 minutes ago, Travisma said:

Isn't that a little low priced? 

I thought that was the cost of a can of Coke!

I was shocked last time we went to EPCOT. 

Outside of the bathrooms going out to the bus lanes there was a landline phone, and it said you could make internal and outside local calls for no charge!

 

 

LOL. I need to show that phone to my kids. They’ll be amazed. 

About the cost of a new phone.  Even the most expensive smart phones these days are way cheaper than what I paid for my first cell phone in 1986. I was a big shot back then and paid $2800 for a phone that was bolted into my car and did nothing other than make and receive phone calls. 

But boy was I cool. 

TCD

2 hours ago, keith_h said:

I don't consider myself cheap. I consider it the Yankee sensibility I learned living in New England as a kid. If it isn't broken don't fix it, if it is broken but does the job repair it and if neither of those apply  throw in the barn someone will buy it someday as an antique.  

Okay, you’re prudent and practical. Disney doesn’t want that. They want guests who are frivolous and undisciplined with their spending. Not someone who turns down an $9 beer because they have a cooler full back at the campsite. 

1 hour ago, Travisma said:

A phone that costs as much as what a new car used to cost, better last a long damn time!

Okay boomer.

No boarding group for you either. 

TCD