BradyBzLyn...Mo

Yep, checking in tomorrow. If it cleared out today, I hope that means one of our requested sites is open. We have a light show to set up! 

Looks like it is official going forward as of now. 

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2019/12/virtual-queue-at-star-wars-rise-of-the-resistance-opens-with-advertised-park-hours/?fbclid=IwAR2LiAH6oxOjdhuqFlh5ODga92fKmo21cNeUb5q9Gk1TZ7zL3puCamB-8ZE

 
Here’s what to know:
Virtual queue will be available at the published park opening time. We may welcome guests onto Hollywood Boulevard prior to opening the rest of the park, and limited nearby locations will be open for your convenience. This includes Trolley Car Café where you can pick up a beverage for your own personal “jump to lightspeed,” and if you need to grab a few galactic gifts, Keystone Clothiers will be available. At the park’s published opening time, the virtual queue for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance opens along with offerings throughout the rest of Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Guests must be in Disney’s Hollywood Studios to access virtual queue in the My Disney Experience app.

Due to the incredible popularity of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, we will continue to distribute backup boarding groups after the initial planned groups have been filled. Backup boarding groups will only be called if all of the initial planned boarding groups have been called back and there is capacity for more riders that evening. If we are able to accommodate boarding groups that evening, guests will be notified through the My Disney Experience app by a push notification (if enabled).   

Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Boarding Groups Now Being Distributed Starting at Official Park Opening Time Beginning Today
 
Since Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance opened, the attraction has utilized a boarding group system that required guests to enter the park and then obtain said group in the MyDisneyExperience app in order to ride. On top of this, the park has been unofficially opening anywhere from 30-120 minutes ahead of the scheduled opening time, allowing guests to grab that boarding group way before the park’s official opening time. Today, things have gone a little differently…
While the park did allow guests in before the official 7am opening time (at 6:30am guests were admitted), cast members have informed guests that they will not be able to join a boarding group until 7am. On top of this, the attractions in the park did not open prior to 7am either.
It is unknown if this is a one-day policy change or if it will be the way the process works from now on.

Rode RotR on Tuesday and to date IMHO it is the best ride I have ever been on hands down.  No spoiler alerts here but I will say if you get sick on simulators or are plan tired of boring overused simulator rides this ride is the answer you’ve been looking for. Disney has set the bar high for future rides. Congrats to Disney for giving us a REAL ride!

Whelp, the TCD Gang rode ROTR today. 
Its amazing.
we agree that it's the best ride in a Disney park. And the TCD twins have been to Tokyo and Hong Kong. 
I stand by my statement that they opened it too soon. We had to be evacuated half way through our fiirst attempt to ride and were given paper fastpasses, which we were able to use about an hour later, and the second time was a charm. 
Disney has had to mobilize hundreds of extra CM's, and they're having guest relations CM's from other parks getting paid double time to deal with guest recovery. So stupid and wasteful. 
The kinks will get worked out, and to me this quality of this attraction saves Galaxy's Edge. 
TCD

The playground as it stood yesterday:

Well some folks got to ride yesterday.  I saw some video and it looks pretty darned amazing.

Found out today that AOA, POP CENTURY & CARIBBEAN BEACH are all on a HARD PARKING CLOSE until JANUARY. If you do not have a reservation you cannot get in for any reason. This is apparently to stop people from parking and hoping on the SKYLINER to get to H.S. and Star Wars.  Not sure if it applies to BOARDWALK, but I would think it does since BOARDWALK is usually very restrictive over the holidays already.

We ate there on Black Friday. It was fantastic. We ordered some small plates (mac & cheese bites, chicken skewers, and the grilled romaine). All were excellent. The kids had another round of mac bites too. Our main was the skirt steak with potatoes and asparagus. It was seasoned and cooked perfectly. WBG is what these disney run restaurants should try to emulate. 

Hmm... for our 6 week trip 2 years ago, we had to piece together 11 reservations in 2 different site classifications.  We were fully prepared to have to move if necessary but asked very nicely if there was anything they could do. The check-in CM pulled in a supervisor and she called "out back" to try and finagle it so that we didn't have to move 11 times.  I don't know exactly who she talked to, but after about 20 minutes she told us we were all set, gave us one of the top 3 sites we wanted, and we never had to move. 

That's a ridiculous "I just don't want to deal with it" answer.  First of all, they absolutely can, BY LAW, ask if a dog is a service dog. Under the ADA you can ask  if the dog is a service animal that is required due to a disability, and what type of work or task the dog has been trained to do. The ADA only prohibits them from asking about a person’s disability. 
And in the case of dogs in tents, their own website says this right now...
"Please note: Pets are not allowed in pop-up trailers or tents."
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/faq/rooms-packages/camping-pet-friendly/
So.... either the guests lied (even by omission) at check-in, which is easy enough for Disney to confirm since everyone checking in with a pet has to sign something, or someone at check-in screwed up. Either way, Disney should deal with it and not let one guest impact all the other guests around them.
And I can't lay my hands on it at the moment, but I could swear that piece of paper you sign at check-in addresses dogs misbehaving.
I really hate "those dog people" that ruin it for the rest of us that are responsible, but I hate it even more when Disney doesn't enforce it's own rules and lets it happen. (argh)
 

If you have two reservations you request them be linked with a Travel With number by Calling in to Disney Reservations. You can fax that request in as well. This lets them know though you are traveling together and would like to be near each other. This is how I set it up for clients. 

We checked in today at 10:45 am without sending a request. What I see different from September to now is the CM comes to your window with an iPad to do check in. There's a list of available sites on the iPad that they can refresh by the minute. I scrolled through the list while looking through the book. I was allowed to pick 1010. I thought the 1000 loop was premium meadow, but either way I only had reserved premium.  The fort was packed coming in today. We parked in the field by the hitching post for along with a bunch of others while waiting for our site. 
The CM said the iPad thing was being developed for the Riviera.  Apparently there will not be a front desk area....only wandering CM's with iPads 

Sorry for being slow posting this.
When we arrived in Mid October while backing into our site, our power steering ruptured a hose and we emptied all of hydraulic fluid (5 gallons) on the ground. Disney’s Maintenance folks were excellent cleaning up my mess.
On our Class A the power steering is part of the hydraulic system that also runs the cooling fan (side radiator). That’s why all the oil.
A few calls to people we know and Mobicare of Orlando is who we were recommend to call and who we used. They had a service person at our RV in 2 hours, he needed to get a hose made up and then install it. Hose Runs from front to back, 50’ long. Since we were safe and at Ft Wilderness for the week he returned the next day with a helper and finished the repairs. Good company and I recommend them.

Welcome EmilyT!
Full disclosure, in addition to being am awesome longtime Fort Fiend himself, Jason is a well-recommended travel agent and sponsor here on FF.net.
Around here we just call him "The Man" 
Good luck snagging your extra dates!

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/GMA/Travel/heartwarming-story-disney-worlds-holiday-decorations/story?id=67049102
 
Check out the snowflakes on the buildings on Discovery Island.
 
 

Faxes have gone to a separate location all along and up until recently were frequently lost if not sent in the last 10 days before arrival. With this new system that went live fairly recently they should be going to the same people who will be handling the online requests but I do not know if they will be visible to the cast members you would get when calling in. The called in ones get logged into the reservation notes. I usually call in for clients as soon as they have a request and fax in the last 5-10 days. With the new system I will probably be pushing that out to 30 days and again in the 5-10 day period. 

Maybe, maybe not?
 
https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2019/11/15/monorail-manufacturer-bombardier-has-a-new-mystery-client-big-enough-to-be-disney?utm_source=feature&utm_medium=home&utm_campaign=hpfeatures&utm_content=HomeTopFeature
 
For years now, Disney World fans have been hoping the resort will finally add new monorails to replace the aging fleet that continually makes the news for breaking down and stranding passengers. Despite literal pieces falling off the three-decade-old trains, Disney hasn’t given any indication that it plans to replace them.

Rumors circulated last year that Bombardier, which built the current Mark VI trains, had been contracted for a new fleet. At the time, the primary source of the rumors was a fan site that Disney has since publicly called "unscrupulous," due to publishing multiple unfounded rumors. However, the speculation about a new fleet was supported that same year when retired Imagineer Bob Gurr, who designed both the original Disneyland monorails and WDW’s first monorail fleet, publicly stated "there are contracts underway" for new monorails.

Also at the time, it was speculated that new trains would likely be a custom-built version of Bombardier's INNOVIA 300 trains, which are strikingly similar in exterior design to WDW’s monorails.
Since then, there has been little to indicate that Disney is actually moving forward with the supposed contracts. In June of this year, Disney began rolling out a refurbished version of the current monorails, with the first updated train being Monorail Silver.

Despite being less than six months old, the refurbished Silver cars are already showing wear, with some guests complaining about poor air conditioning, loose vinyl on the seating, and an unpleasant smell best described as "nursing home meets middle-school locker room."
Rumors of a new monorail fleet are heating back up, thanks to a small note in Bombardier’s latest quarterly earnings report.click to tweet Now, thanks to a small note in Bombardier’s latest quarterly earnings report, rumors of a new fleet are once again heating up. The report notes a North American deal for $104 million in rolling stock and $247 million in services for an undisclosed client. Some fans have begun guessing that the undisclosed client could be Walt Disney World.
 
 

As we mentioned in 2018, the combination of services and fleet is more common, as Bombardier shifts to a service-based profit model, similar to the direction Apple has been moving. This fleet-and-operations double-contract is the type of arrangement Bombardier has with SunRail, where it delivered both the trains and oversees the continued maintenance of them.
The $104 million in rolling stock would be enough to replace at least a few of the aging monorails at WDW. Bombardier’s newest trains use the latest technology for seamless autonomous operations, meaning Disney could choose to save costs by eliminating monorail pilots. Not to imply the company would ever choose profits over people.

Automated trains would also mean a single contract for Disney, instead of negotiating contracts with local labor unions.

While Disney would clearly benefit from new monorails, there are plenty of other options for who the undisclosed North American client could be. Las Vegas is expanding its monorail system, which initially used monorails that Disney sold them, though, unlike Disney, it has since updated to newer trains. The new extension of the Vegas monorail will add two new stations when it opens. That expansion should open in late 2020 or early 2021, which would be a logical time for another update to its fleet.
The new contract could be for multiple other airport expansions and train projects ramping up around the nation.click to tweet Other possible clients include the San Francisco International Airport, where just two days prior to the end of the second financial quarter, Bombardier announced a $220 million service contract, which like the SunRail one, has a ten-year minimum. The similar cost of the new service contract to the SunRail and San Francisco contracts point to the recently announced deal also being for a ten-year minimum.

With multiple other airport expansions and numerous other train projects ramping up around the nation, there is little to indicate that this new contract is for Disney World. As with the previous reporting, for now, there is nothing to suggest that this latest speculation regarding a new monorail fleet is anything more than wishful thinking, but here’s to hoping Disney replaces the fleet before more pieces of the current trains fall off.

So good! Literally sent by God himself.

At least Collene and Aimy have a senss of humor about it.

 

Some more pictures from yesterday.  These are from the area of the playground and beach near Trails End.
 




 

We have been to Morimoto's a couple of times and they seemed consistently good but we haven't been there in a while. One thing I really liked about Morimoto's besides the sushi/sashimi  is the Japanese/American fusions they come up with. It makes for a nice balance if you don't want just fish and rice.
 
When we first moved here in the early 90's I was trying to find a decent deli. An Italian guy I worked with told me to go to a BP station which I thought was crazy. Turns out the owner had moved here from New York and decided the gas station would give him the most business. For a long time it was the only place in the area where you could buy good crusty breads. We eventually found a Kosher deli as well. Again it was some refugees from New York. Sadly neither are around anymore.

Not quite dinosaurs, just had to dodge the horse and buggies and the Penny Farthing bicycles.
It was the late 70's to probably mid to late 80's. That was when the trading posts still had the deli counters where you could order fresh made sandwiches.