|
|
Post by cpnkirk on May 24, 2024 19:34:48 GMT -5
I'll be rising (but not shining) in 7.5 hours to catch the early flight to MCO.
We'll be hosting some friends in a 2BR @ AKV Kidani this week. They are driving down tomorrow night after their daughter's dance recital. Their bedroom will be ready when they arrive so they can take a nap!
This will be the first time we've stayed in one room for the entire trip, with the exception of a short trip in June of 2020 - when some of the resorts were open, but not the parks. Should be fun - we can actually unpack and not live out of the suitcase!
We are also trying a new service that I recently heard mentioned on the Disney Dish podcast...Standby Skipper. This service will book the LL's for you so you don't have to stay on your phone the whole time. Hoping it works as well as the people say in the facebook group! We've had poor luck with G+ on our past attempts. Mostly because I forget to pull out my phone and check ... we end up with just 2 LL, and not even the rides you really need to skip the standby line.
We are going to see Fantasmic for the first time Tuesday night, and then after hours tickets @ HS Wednesday - so, with a little luck we should get to ride everything @ HS once or twice.
Oh, and it's our 20th wedding anniversary - look for us in matching blue tshirts announcing that fact if you are there!
|
|
|
|
Post by helenabear on May 24, 2024 19:37:53 GMT -5
Happy anniversary! I hope you all have a fantastic time and that this service works as well as you hope it does for you.
|
|
|
|
Post by Eli's Nana on May 24, 2024 19:47:55 GMT -5
Happy Anniversary! Have a wonderful time!
|
|
|
|
Post by PirateLinda on May 24, 2024 19:50:02 GMT -5
Happy Anniversary! Hope you have a wonderful trip. Those 2BD at Kidani are great!
|
|
|
|
Post by Brian5581 on May 24, 2024 21:06:16 GMT -5
Happy Anniversary! Enjoy your trip!
|
|
|
|
Post by bakerworld on May 25, 2024 7:01:48 GMT -5
Be interested in a review of Standby Skipper & Happy Anniversary
|
|
|
|
Post by melk on May 25, 2024 7:35:28 GMT -5
Happy Anniversary! Have a great time and I’ll also be interested in your opinion on Standby Skipper.
|
|
|
|
Post by jedimom3 on May 25, 2024 8:05:46 GMT -5
Happy Anniversary! Have a wonderful trip!
|
|
|
|
Post by cpnkirk on May 25, 2024 18:15:27 GMT -5
Last night as we were just getting started with packing...the power went out for a couple of hours.
Then the shoes I ordered 3 weeks ago were delivered....several hours after we arrived in Orlando. I guess those can wait until I get home!
But, after those minor setbacks, everything went smoothly. We arrived at the airport with just enough time to check our bags and get some breakfast before boarding the plane. Nice trip here (a bit of turbulence, but didn't seem bad even though the pilot made a big deal of it). The car was waiting for us...we grabbed our bags and headed out, stopping at Publix for some room drinks & snacks, then checked in at AKV. Of course the room wasn't ready that early, so we walked out to the bus. There was a DVC van sitting there, and I tried to catch the driver's eye to ask if he was going to MK (we have gotten rides that way before!), but he was elusive. So we walked up to the bus stop just as the MK bus arrived, and it was basically empty.
Early this morning before we got on the plane, I bought G+ for the 3 of us, and set standby skipper to search for LL on PoC, BTMRR, and Jungle Cruise. Right at 7, it scored PoC at 9:30. Of course we knew wouldn't be there by then, so I modified that one for a Jungle Cruise @ 1:10. Around 9, I was waiting for another to pop up, but the app said we weren't eligible. I didn't really understand, but apparently you have to at least be on Disney property to book the next one, because PoC was booked while we were on the bus to MK. Later, skipper booked BTMRR. All of those were one after the other, so that worked perfectly. We had enough time after PoC to grab some lunch, then ride Jungle Cruise. Then we hiked over to HM and did standby for that one (about 40 mins wait), and finished up just in time to get back to BTMRR. By this time, skipper had booked Space Mtn for us. So, we headed over to that side of the park and had just enough time to ride people mover before checking in to Space Mtn. Once we rode that, it was time for dinner so we rode the monorail over to Ohana and arrived right as it was time to check in. The table was ready right away. The only waiting we did all afternoon was for HM. That was pretty hot, but we lived through it. Our room was ready before dinner, so we headed back to Kidani and now we're just waiting for the A/C to cool it down enough!
We got room 7953, which is a standard view 2BR, but has a nice view of the savannah anyway. So - a wonderful start to our week!
And, based on today, I recommend the standby skipper app for sure - even though we were only in the park for 5 hours, we had more LL in that afternoon than we have had in the 2 previous days that we have used it manually.
Edit: 18k steps today
|
|
|
|
Post by cpnkirk on May 26, 2024 19:32:14 GMT -5
Standby skipper worked well again today at Epcot. Soarin', spaceship earth, and remy. LL were running out on many rides, so it just sat and looked for some time.
We rode Soarin' first thing - arrived at the park and headed straight onto the ride with LL. After the movie ended, the seats just hung there in the air. We were in the front row, so quite high up - I've never taken the time to lean forward or even look up to see how close we are to the ceiling. You sure wouldn't want to fall! We hung there for around 15 minutes, with several anouncements that we would land as soon as the fog cleared from the runway. We saw some people behind the screen walking around with flashlights, and eventually they got us moving - but I think they may have been cranking it down by hand or something, because we moved much slower than normal. As we were "landing" they said see a CM on the way out for a free anytime LL. As we were leaving, we could hear announcements to the people still in line that the wait would be longer than expected. Many were turning around from the back of the line and leaving.
As we came out of the land, I checked the app and we had a new LL booked for spaceship earth. So, we rode that and then started looking for some food. We walked part way around world showcase starting on the mexican side, and all the sit down restaurants were packed of course - it was prime lunchtime. We finally got a spicy mala chicken skewer from the kiosk outside China - it was good, and really was just about all we wanted. Then we headed back to TT, stopping in front for the fried cinnamon bites. Those were great!
We used our anytime LL for TT, then went to the lounge for a bit of cooldown and phone charging. No wait! Sometime in there the LL for remy was booked, but we still had lots of time to wait, so we popped into the disney - pixar shorts and enjoyed that show with a very short wait - maybe 5 mins. I just love the 3d animation at disney. I know some can't see it, or get disoriented but for me it's just amazing 3d effect.
We had just enough time to walk around to Remy and check in at the 5 minutes before our time mark. When we walked out, I glanced at my watch - 15 minutes from tapping in to leaving the ride. The listed standby time was 110 minutes. Now we're headed back to the hotel, with a quick stop at the kiosk in France for a beignet for my son, and a frozen lemonaide for me...but it was too dang hot for the slushy machine to make the slush, so I just had a cup of hard pink lemonaide. At least it was a little cold.
We got back to the room, only to find one of our guests had a UTI - she called the doc who came to the room and gave her some antibiotics. I hope that clears it up for her quickly. She was feeling good enough to ride over to DS for some polite pig dinner and a little shopping. The original plan was to watch the drone show, but we were worn out so headed back to the room. They are still shopping...but then they didn't walk around in the heat all day!
On the way back to the room, my watch popped up an "award" badge for 20k steps. Final tally: 21,675.
EDIT: Found out later that they cancelled the drone show, so I'm glad we didn't stay!
|
|
|
|
Post by annamaria on May 27, 2024 6:09:51 GMT -5
I hope your guest feels much better!
Enjoy and Happy Anniversary!
|
|
|
|
Post by cpnkirk on May 27, 2024 21:12:14 GMT -5
Another great day with the skipper. Booked Everest @ 8, bought ILL for FOP @8:40. We showed up for early entry and hit Everest standby with no wait, then used the LL. The line was quite long for FOP already, so glad for the ILL. Then LL for Safari, walked in to It's tough to be a bug on the way to LL @ Dinosaur. We had LL booked for Navi, but it was for mid afternoon, and we were done! Pizzafari for lunch and bus back to the resort for naps and/or pool.
Rode a mini van to Ale & Compass for dinner, after which we walked over to see Casting Crowns - not my kind of music, but our guests loved it. On the way to the bus, we rode Living with the Land and Soarin'. Our guests decided to head out to the skyliner and ride to HS to take the bus home so they could enjoy the skyliner. We just walked out the front gate and rode home.
24k steps today. That may be a personal record.
|
|
|
|
Post by MinnieMom on May 28, 2024 6:56:39 GMT -5
Happy anniversary! Best wishes your friend recovers quickly.
Thanks for doing live TR. Sounds like vacation is going great! Love the two bedrooms at AKL.
|
|
|
|
Post by tomandrobin on May 28, 2024 8:32:22 GMT -5
Happy Anniversary!
|
|
|
|
Post by cpnkirk on May 29, 2024 9:07:07 GMT -5
Thanks for all the well wishes! We've been wearing the buttons they gave us at check in all week and have had countless "congratulations" from CMs. One even stopped us as we approached the bus stop and sang us a show tune (he was ok - certainly better than I could have done). Every night at dinner we've gotten a little chocolate dessert that said congratulations, and last night we each got a glass of champagne. Today is the actual anniversary, so we have some special matching shirts to wear. I'll try to remember to get a picture to post. We haven't done many pictures this week, but here is one with our buttons:  Yesterday (and today!) we slept late, then headed over to HS. We had a fantasmic dining package @ Mama Melrose. Yesterday was a first for us to see that show - it was great! The crowd leaving was insane, though. Skipper had booked all the rides for us - we were able to do some before dinner, and one between dinner and the show, but because we started late, 3 LL were booked between 9 & 10 (park closing). We only got one of them done because it took so long to leave the show. We had front row seats, which of course put us at the back of the crowd leaving. We just didn't think of that! Oh well, tonight is after hours @ HS so we should be able to get everything done and then some. But, of course that means another late night! We'll see if I can convince everyone to sleep late again tomorrow. |
|
