Episode 63 - Numbers With Ian

[NickD100]

I downloaded this podcast on my old iphone early this morning and took it to listen while I walked on the beach here in Vero. Half way thorough it got stuck on .5 half speed. TOTALLY different listening experience!!! Haha. Everyone was slow. Real slow. Slow!!! Haha. Anyway, these podcasts are always a pleasure to listen to. Very entertaining and informative. I could listen for hours on end. Much better than any morning talk station. As always, great podcast guys!!!

[jennsky]

My two cents:

1. First, I'm so happy Ian loved the FW Cabins. Our family loves Fort Wilderness! We especially love how peaceful it is. Sitting on the deck in the evening is a nice way to wind down the day. And yes, golf carts are a must to a successful stay there.

2. I would LOSE IT if I had paid for my family to go to a character breakfast and the characters weren't there. Seriously. I cannot imagine if I had brought my little kids (or BIG kids!) to see certain characters and they weren't there. The disappointment would ruin the whole day! I like Christine's analogy of showing up at the Castle for a Princess breakfast and Cast Members coming out to say "sorry, no Princesses today". Unbelieveable. And you guys were even talking that you just wanted another ADR as compensation. What if it had been a family that didn't have annual passes and were only there for a few days? What sort of compensation would they get? Totally horrible. I'm so sorry to hear that he experienced that (or experienced nothing as what actually ended up happening).

3. Downtown Disney - hmmm...can I just "take" the Marketplace and "leave" the rest? I like window shopping around the Marketplace (Christmas store is a must) and my kids adore the Lego store, but we really don't buy very much. It's just somewhere we like to go on a quiet day to fill the time. But I absolutely hate the parking situation there. It's ridiculous. I hate taking the bus but it's worth it just to avoid the parking and traffic around there I think!

4. Still not a fan of the Magic Band Fast Pass+ situation. I agree with all of you. Having my room key on my arm is handy. Paying for things with it is handy. But I HATE how bad the app is, the website, the entire thing. I saw someone on Twitter say "So, let me get this straight. I'm standing in line to get a Fast Pass (at a kiosk) so that I can avoid standing in line." And those lines can get pretty long too so really, how am I saving any time in my day??

Anyways, thanks again for another great podcast. You make my commutes to work much more enjoyable. In Canada, there are two driving seasons; winter and construction. We are now fully into construction season so my commutes are ridiculous. Thanks for making it not seem so long!

[Septbride2002]

I have only listened to about half the podcast and I just have to say I agree 100% with Christine! I'm so sick of being pinched for more money for events. The prices are ridiculous on some of these events. I have learned to never say never regarding our Disney trips but as of right now - there is no way I would pay for this Harambe Nights experience. What a crock. Also the good night thing at Epcot - no thanks. Or the dessert parties - nada. I to miss the way things use to be 10 years ago when the magic was available for all the guest.

I think the Christmas Party is totally over rated at the point to. We went and December and skipped it - saving ourselves over $200 for our family of 4. The Halloween party I still find good value in but even that is getting close to my cut list. That will be hard though because as Michael pointed out - CANDY.

Michael it was good to have you on the podcast!

Off to listen to the rest of the podcast.

[disneykidsince1970]

Great podcast Guys!! SHOUT OUT from a Switzerland - based BLACKBERRY user!

YEA CHRISTINE! Missed YOU!
YEA MICHAEL!! – Love the “gay style” input and great sense of humor!
WHERE is CAROL?? – I miss the “yank” speak!

MAGIC BANDS – agree with everyone. Will be great – eventually…?? The complexity of all the permutations of reservation changes/etc…. how could they not be better prepared for this? And… you would definitely think that the app and website would be wired 100% tight to at least minimize the learning curve problems. WHO does their IT anyway?? Need to eval that contract. Disney FAIL.

ReUse/Recycling of the Bands… duh!? Simple hygiene factor in 2014. Disney FAIL.

MineTrain PoV Video – TOO COOL!! Disney WIN.

MineTrain RIDE – Looks so great – cannot wait!! Disney WIN.

POLY CHANGE – grrr… hmmm… My Dad worked there on Opening Day!! I have pix of me/Nikki next to the waterfall thru the years… it IS a bit sad. Having said that… if I am honest, the middle jungle area did LOOK a bit sad, didn’t it? (Love Michael’s gay-style comments). I concur w/ Michael and Johns’ views – if they give the original look/feel a modern update but keep the original vibe, I’m good. Can’t wait to try the infamous Trader Sam’s. DISNEY – TBC.

HARD TICKETED Events – I am afraid that my business-mind takes over. Disney is a business. There is clearly a market for hard-ticketed events. They have to pay for that $1B MagicBand investment somehow! I do agree that day-tickets should NOT be penalized. If I was kicked out of Cava early just b/c they were prepping for the next group, that would tick me off. If I was warming a park bench for 3 hours with plans to get the best view of Illuminations and then someone kicked me off 45 min before-hand, I would be seriously peeved. Not cool.

But, in my mind, the Epcot wind-down is not about the tequila experience (or whatever venue you choose) … it is about the last few hours of the night. When you leave, it is quiet and the slow walk out with very few other people…? PRICELESS! The $29 gives you a few extra hours combined with a bit of Disney experience.

We’ve done the dessert party simply b/c it offered me and our party of 12 a little extra SPACE! We weren’t squished into Main Street with thousands of other people. We could sit at a table and the kids could run and squiggle around a little and watch WISHES w/o me stressing and gripping their little hands as if there were a hurricane approaching. When it was over, we could linger until we felt like leaving. The desserts were merely “eh.” I wouldn’t do it every year but it was nice with little ones and older ones. I realize that I am fortunate that we can swing the cost once in awhile. DISNEY – WIN.

FT WILDERNESS – BIG FAN!! It is a bit squishy but with little ones, manageable. My kids look forward to the golf cart almost more than Big Thunder! HoopDeeDoReview – LOVE IT!! But… it is pricey for the kids. Adult food/beverage are a pretty good deal to me (I love sangria!) Our son was chosen to go onstage 2 years ago (when he was 5) and it was brilliant! DISNEY: WIN

STAR WARS Character Bfst Fiasco– what could be said that wasn’t already? I would have also opened a can of something not-nice, (seen only once before while I was travelling on a 16 hour journey thru Charles D’Gaulle with my 2 small, sick children and the gate agent denied us boarding b/c we missed the last call by 30 seconds – but I digress…). The Disney response was that of a ROOKIE!! DISNEY: FAIL

SERVICE – I have lived in Europe and travelled here and thruout Asia for the last 10 years. In general, American service cannot compare with a decent Euro or Asian option (but I’ve not done a Four Seasons!!). HOWEVER… Americans make up for it in FRIENDLINESS!! Without a doubt.

I hadn’t considered Ian’s point that there is NOT a service differentiation btwn Grand Fla/Contemp/Poly and Fort Wilderness. My experience confirms his opinion. Hmmm. How do I feel about that… ? not sure. I concur with Michael’s point that you SHOULD get what you pay for. And… what separates a stay at Grand Fla vs Caribbean Beach? Décor. Monorail access. That’s about it. Something to ponder…

THANKS AGAIN GUYS!!

Carolyn

[GMRO]

Hey group, Episode 63 – terrific! Strong content and interesting points of view. Great to have you back Michael. MEL you were missed!

Service levels? We see it declining at the parks on land in the WORLD. Since we cruise first then hit property afterwards…we always see the decline immediately. Funny – I run every morning. And on the ship no matter who I pass on deck 4, running track, ANYONE from DCL greets you and waves to you. NO matter if they are pressure washing a part of the ship or sanding a sitting bench OR even an officer. You get a greeting. There’ve been times we sat in the Quiet Cove area on the ship at night for a drink and were the only ones there and if anyone from DCL walks by you get a greeting. And when I run on land at our favorite resort, CBR, you can stop and wave at anyone who has a nametag and you’ll be lucky to even get an “HI” or else. IF we don’t engage them you’ll get nothing – like they want you to just leave them alone.

So WHY are the DCL folks so so so much more polite and accommodating? Are these folks put thru a different training program? Makes me want to spend more time on the water vs. land with each yearly visit. We do like the parks don’t get me wrong. And usually DW and I have NEVER had any POOR experiences as some of you have mentioned in EP63. It just makes you wonder where the difference comes from far as service levels. CW – wow, I also feel bad for JW and the Starwars Breakfast fiasco. That is unreal and as you all put it totally UN-ACCEPTABLE! What a vacation ruin'er if it had happened to anyone who was not a resident. Not that it’s ok because you folks are but GEEZE! And Ian’s “john candy” CM with the monorail? REALLY? Again unreal! I’ve been to the world when it pours. Few years back it rained sold for days, all day, during one of our May trips. Thank you Crocs!!! No wet socks or shoes for us! We have pics of folks running from the castle to the exits as we stood on the train station platform. Funny we thought – where are you running to? There is no immediate escape from the park and it’s not like it’s NOT raining outside the MK entrance. YES, we’ve purchased many $8.00 plastic MK ponchos in the past. Disney had to break records that May selling those. Did it ruin our vacation? NO, but we were a bit soggy for a few days.

Never had a walk off experience. Would still like to see Space Mountain all lit-up when it stops.

Merchandise? Our recent trip a few weeks back…really saw nothing that was appealing. Sure a shirt or two but we came under budget far as Disney purchases this year. More Harley stuff for us this year instead.

Take it or leave it? We do love Down Town Disney for sure! The marketplace is one of our favorite places. West end? Mehhhh…can do without it. World of Disney and that area is our fav. Earl, Wolkgang’s and the other shops – we love’em. We usually start our land portion there with a trip there and visit a few times per our trip as well. Did score those KEWL Epcot wine glasses that Mel tweeted about a while back.

Magic Bands and FP+? Our bands worked flawlessly. And so did the RFID mugs that came with our QS dining plan. We are not big soda/pop folks but the lemonade and stuff like that for meals is nice. Our trip was over on 5/24 yet our mugs said they would work till 6/01. Guess they pre-code them for a certain time frame? Park entry was nice with the bands as was room entry. Only issue was when entering the resort, CBR, at the gate. The scanner was recessed in and I always had to remove my band from my arm as it was not possible to reach out of the car window and conform my wrist/arm to locate the band to the sensor. The guard at the gate yelled over the first time, “you will have to remove your band and place it on the sensor”. So that was our joke in our best monorail voice as we returned to the resort each time – “please be sure to remove your band for correct placement on the resort sensor to enter the resort parking lot.” LOL Did it ruin our time? NO. I’m sure they’ll fix it with a protruding sensor at the gate stop. This was the same at the cash registers too. When getting meals the OLDER card scanners/tapper devices are at table level laying flat. For KTTWC tapping this is good. But not for magic bands. Some CM’s would pick up the device to your arm level and tilt it for you so you could more easily place your band on the Mickey Circle area like when you enter the park. Some would not. Those gold “BALLS” on the stands for park entry are perfect for the magic band interface for sure!

FP+/MDE, I’m not sold on it. I really don’t like advance planning for my FP’s. This May we chased the clock/FP times on our Disney app the whole time. I feel we rode less all around at each park we visited. We had no app issues and we may have used 2 of the 3 we had scheduled when scheduled. And we were able to cancel them when we decided to leave a park too. We left none hanging but it felt like WORK. Personally I like the ability to make the HUMAN decision on the fly. I walk up to RRC and TOT in studios. I see RRC has a 75 min wait and TOT has 20 mins. So I walk over to RRC and try to get a FP to return later by a magic band bump on a kiosk…and I then go stand in the TOT stand by line. Spontaneous and with human interaction! Let me tap my magic band on the kiosk and let it ping/flash my app with the return time for RRC. Vio-la tree huggers no PAPER legacy passes!!! I do not want to schedule this “plan” weeks and months in advance.

AND what is the expected/advertised wait time to be for FP? I thought it was exponential to the standby wait time line? Or is the FP wait advertised to be fewer than 10 mins? I’ll say 30 mins is bad for FP wait as Ian mentioned in his experience for sure. Unless the stand by line was say 120 mins or longer. BUT it’s still a manual action by a CM at the top of the gate/line where they stop the standby line and allow the FP line to move forward and advance in the ride que – RIGHT? This brings me to the thought also per our recent May visit that FP’s are a waste of time all together. We got lucky and got on the 7DMT on the 24 Rock Your Disney Side MK Day. YEA unadvertised SOFT OPEN!!! No FP’s were out. So everyone had to wait in the stand by line to ride. Posted time was 70mins per the CM standing by the Circus Big Top Area in Fantasy Land with his hand held posted signage. We got in line. Truth was it was under 60 mins and the line moved fast the whole time. No double feed line by a CM mixing FP line with standard line folks. Everyone had the same CHANCE and wait as everyone else. So thoughts??? CW – you say the “favoritism/elete” events bother you when it comes to these money grab paid events these days? We've done the Christmas Party and one desert firework viewing. Won't do the dessert again - not worth it. Christmas party? Maybe...depends. These other HIGH priced events? There is plenty I'm already paying for that I am likely not getting my return on so I'll pass. To each their own. Keep selling out and Disney will keep offering these and inventing more new ones for sure. None the less, FP+ bothers me. Why should a FP person get on the ride any faster than a person who’s been standing in line longer? Because they chose to FP it? To me the FP system should give you a window of return that gets you on the ride or character meet in a SHORTER time vs. than IF you stood in the stand by line posted time ONLY. BUT it should not put you directly in a VIP immediate front of the line situation. Since the FP’s should be metered for return times via a super computer it is common sense that the FP line should be shorter in length as it is per your posted return time. So the wait should be shorter vs. the standby time posted when you return to the ride. And eventually all FP’s run out for the day too. So there are limits on the FP’s per day per attraction. My point is, hope not confusing it, that the FP line should not put that line’s feed to the ride in front of standby at all. What I saw in May is that it does. It should be a parallel feed to the attraction/ride/character meet. Can someone clarify this???

7DMT – we felt it was very very good. Pretty much what you reviewed and said on EP63 is how we feel about it. I see it as very repeatable and compared to BTM and Barnstormer edging to BTM more. LOTS of stuff and technology to see on this ride. AND we did get on it at night so the end cottage scene was very well illuminated! Good job Disney! We watched it all week as CM’s were on it via invite/lanyards. Figured IF it would be open the 24hr event would be our best chance. Only thing that bothered me was we happened to be in the que while “WISHES” was going on. VERY LOUD! We have never been to that side of the park when wishes is happening. AND let me say – I will not again. The fireworks are right over head and the explosions are SUPER LOUD.

24hr event…mehhhh- our first. At 7PM the park was typical. We left at 11:30PM and the entrance was jammed and it was getting more and more crowded! Our attempt to get down Main Street to leave was a real challenge. Unfortunately folks are very ignorant with strollers and standing in places where they are not permitted. We were using the walkway near Tony’s Time Square near the Confectionary building and CM’s had NO control of trying to keep folks from stopping and waiting got see the parade at night. And as Ian’s experience mentioned it was un-nervy and almost out of control and uncomfortable as folks JUST pushed in from both directions as they did not FILE behind one another to pass each other as people tried to leave and entry the street.

Well all said, we still had a great time and terrific vacation this past May. And we’ll be back! Yea- we crank because we care – RIGHT?!?!?

Thanks again for another great podcast episode.

[tinkwest]

Star Wars Breakfast with John W = WHAT?!
I can forgive them the fact that things ran overtime. The fact that there was no plan on how to handle things if this was to happen (and surely the fact that it may happen crossed someone's mind) was the unforgivable part. Uncool! Have a plan, people. Have a plan.

A great podcast. Thanks all!

[princessgirls]

Great podcast! I haven't listened to one in a while, and I enjoyed this one.

A few thoughts...

Magic Band recycling... Oh boy...billion dollars in technology and no one has an idea of what to do with them...,mmm....maybe on our Intercot signature page, we can state how many Magic Bands we currently have, as a Disney "Badge of Honor" so to speak...

Fast Pass+...If I ever do make it back (last trip was Nov. 2012) I hope my husband remains patient. We were avid fastpass users probably trying to do the maximum we could. I have a bad feeling that the new system will not be liked a whole lot by my family, and may result in a few "death glares" aimed at me from my family.

John's Press trip...Other than the rain, Disney did it up, and the 7 Dwarfs Mine Coaster sounds amazing.

Ian's trip...Sounds like a great time, minus a few "are you kidding me" cast members. Whoa...2 hours to get to the Poly from the Magic Kingdom with 4 kids in tow.... Oh, that did not sound fun. Two thumbs up for the cabins!! Even if they weren't overly roomy, they are good for a young family, and you did have room outside.

Downtown Disney...Leave it. I'd rather be in the parks, and no one drains my wallet faster than my kids, so attractions it is!

OVER special ticket events. Haven't done one since our first trip in 2005. Can't justify the additional cost, for a special parade and fireworks, when I'm the only one in my family that enjoys that stuff.

Thanks for putting the time in for the podcast! As always it was fun to listen too!
Julie