WDW Commando Club 2 - Magic Bands & FP+ Oh My

[skippyman111]

Hi Guys - I'm new to this thread and thought i would contribute.. I'm going back to the World in September, 2016 (yes, it's been nearly 3 years since i've been)... The wife wants to just "tour" around the parks - not hitting anything at any particular time. Me, well I like commando. It'll be her way since she only agreed to go back to satisfy my lust for all things Disney and put that caveat on the trip. I tried explaining FP+ to her, but she didn't understand. I barely understand it as it is. At least I'll get to plan the dining for us and the 3 FP+ options each day. Yay for Commando !!!

 

[Disney Commando]

Hi Guys - I'm new to this thread and thought i would contribute.. I'm going back to the World in September, 2016 (yes, it's been nearly 3 years since i've been)... The wife wants to just "tour" around the parks - not hitting anything at any particular time. Me, well I like commando. It'll be her way since she only agreed to go back to satisfy my lust for all things Disney and put that caveat on the trip. I tried explaining FP+ to her, but she didn't understand. I barely understand it as it is. At least I'll get to plan the dining for us and the 3 FP+ options each day. Yay for Commando !!!

You are member #286. After 3 years away this is a much deserved trip, and with the many changes that have been made in the parks, it will be a whole new adventure. When are you going in Sept. Sept also starts The Food & Wine Festival starting on the 15th and MNSSHP starting on the 25th.

 

[skippyman111]

We are going the day after Labor day. I'm excited about going back, but yes - there will be tons of changes since my last visit. I'm a bit bummed about FP+. I liked the old FP system.

 

[kittylady1972]

We head back to WDW in just under three weeks, our first trip during the crazy July 4th time! As "pros" we feel we can handle whatever they throw at us, and since it's the heat of summer our plan is very different from all of our past vacations because we are focusing mostly on the waterparks this time. So our commando time will be hitting both waterparks at least once, but hopefully more than once, and doing all of the stuff there! We have APs with waterparks so why not?

I have minimal ADRs and I even ended up cancelling a few recently. My DH thinks I'm crazy but I don't want to be tied down to a specific breakfast ADR. We are normally early risers, but I don't want to be forced to get up just to get breakfast just in case we decide to really take advantage of the late park hours a few times...and that's my hope.

Almost all of my FP+ reservations are AFTER 5pm. We really don't have any plans to hit rope drop...ever...unless you count the waterparks!

There is still a schedule with our plans all in it but I've left most of our mornings and afternoons wide open for whatever, mostly pool and waterpark time.

SEVEN full park days and I have one breakfast ADR (just had to try BOG for breakfast because it looks good), two dinner ADRs (Cali Grill was requested for my 10 year old who turns 11 while we are there) and Beaches and Cream, and then two late-night ADRs: Beaches and Cream and The Plaza, thinking those are after 8pm and might be snacks and dessert only.

Splitting our stay at two DVC locations: Polynesian Studio and 1BR at Bay Lake Tower so plans will be to mostly eat in our room as much as possible.

Plus the the first time in forever it will only be the five of us (me, DH and our 3 kids) where we almost always travel with at least my in-laws. They don't plan to go this trip.

I'll try to report back on how we do with July 4th madness. We've done Thanksgiving plenty of times so I can't wait to see how it compares.

 

[Disney Commando]

It's been almost a week since we left WDW , and with a group of 11 it turned out much better then expected, After the 1st day the other 2 families already committed for next year, although they arrived to the park late in the morning (at 9:15) . one of them asked so what did we actually miss, I answered with you did not miss anything, but the kids missed sign up for Jedi Training, Patawan mind challenge, and the Stormtrooper opening, not to mention we already got pics with 3 characters, and have shopped in a not so busy Darth Maul OK I might have made him fell just a little guilty of sleeping in a little late and I did tell them it was important it get in line by like 7am so we can get what that stuff done (but what do I know) anyway the Feel The Force Package was well worth the money and it paid for itself During the morning parade the FTF package holder were lined up on both sides of the street the 1st 100 ft from the stage, now they said snacks would be provided, and the were and much better then expected, they were giving out Mickey Bars, Dole bars, 20oz bottles of water and Coke products, and boxes of popcorn (with no limit). we also got to pick a show to see, we choose Saga of Stars, for the desert fireworks party, not only were the serving desert, but also alcohol drinks (complimentary) when in this situation a $1 goes along way, since the majority of people do not tip the bartenders since it's free, The drinks were a little week the kind you need to do like 20 to be feeling good, so down them it was, If myself and the other 2 dads with me didn't knock back 20 - 30 each we didn't do 1, We definitely got our monies worth out of The Feel The Package, and managed to get a another FP after we used our others for Fantasmic right after the fireworks

The other 2 days became icing on the cake since the objective was already meet for Star Wars Weekend, we did mange to get what we wanted to get done in the other 3 parks since the little window I added for HS just incase it had to go into play was not needed

 

[NataliaGO]

Ladybug1112 and I must have been at Hollywood Studios the same day last week. We actually made it into the park first thing, after waiting in line in the rain to enter the park. It was a moderate rain compared to what would happen later though.

There were 5 of us in our family and we picked up 3 friends who were also at WDW the same time as us. We picked them up from AofA resort and headed to HS with one goal: ride RnRC because they hadn't had a chance to ride it yet. We arrived and waiting in line until the gates opened.

After getting through the line to enter the park, we headed directly to RnRC. The line for the ride...was backed up to Sunset Blvd. So you lined up on Sunset Blvd, right at the corner facing the ToT, and then headed down into the ride area. It moved pretty quickly. We were anxious to get to the part of the queue where it was under cover. Little did we know what was coming...

Ride was great and when we emerged...TOTAL DOWNPOUR! We had thoughts of doing a few more things in the park...then we walked out and our feet plunged into tons of water. We quickly ran to the eating areas along Sunset Blvd and tried to huddle under an awning while others of our party hit the bathrooms.

Then all of our phones sounded alerts about a Tornado Warning. Time to break for a real building, we hit the first shop we could find along Sunset Blvd to wait it out.

After a few minutes there, everybody was just determined to head back and dry off. We walked back out of the park...and that's when we came to this:





So if this isn't Commando Style touring, I don't know what would qualify us! We all had ponchos or raincoats, but the main street was just several inches of water. We just sloshed our way through it, our feet totally immersed in water. It was crazy.

We would return to the park later that afternoon to much better street conditions. We heard rumors that TSM had closed due to flooding, but not sure how true those were as it was open later that day as well.

Crazy!

Hi there! I wanted to ask you a question, I have a blog about Disney in Portuguese (I'm Brazilian) and I'm writing a post about the weather, storms, hurricanes... I wanted to know if I can use one of those two pictures on my post! It's really hard to find a similar picture to this and it would be awesome to illustrate what I'm talking about. If you allow me to do it, you just tell me how you want to be credited and I'll put it below the picture. Let me know what you think! Thanks a lot!

 

[Phoenixrising]

I tell a tale of woe, of fighting Microsoft don't you know
My Window's 10 died, taking out my operating system,
and Microsoft denies all responsibility. Furthermore they
won't give me back my Windows 7, which worked just fine.
They are giving it one more try on Thurs, then the fight is on to
see how they are going to fix the mess they put me in.
If they don't I will have to wipe my computer, and attempt to
use my set of back up disc's to reboot my Windows 7. I've
got an external hard drive that's looking like it will help restore
alot of the files that are going to be deleted in the process. If
the back up discs fail, then my last resort is to order a restore disc
from Sony. at a cost of around $50CDN.
Moral of this sad, sad tale is download Windows 10 with caution, as heaven
help you if you've got problems with it.
And next time I'm buying a MAC.

Trish
( I apologize for the rant, but after spending over 6+ hrs battling Microsoft yesterday, getting basically nowhere, going up 3 levels of ineptitude AND talking to Sony which added almost another hour to this, I realistically don't hold out much hope that on Thurs the tekkies from Microsoft are going to be able to fix this, so I'm preparing for the worst).

I'm still planning for our WDW trip in Jan/17. I'm also planning another solo trip either to Waikiki or DL, depending on how my back handles the long flights to WDW.

 

[Phoenixrising]

I tell a tale of woe, of fighting Microsoft don't you know
My Window's 10 died, taking out my operating system,
and Microsoft denies all responsibility. Furthermore they
won't give me back my Windows 7, which worked just fine.
They are giving it one more try on Thurs, then the fight is on to
see how they are going to fix the mess they put me in.
If they don't I will have to wipe my computer, and attempt to
use my set of back up disc's to reboot my Windows 7. I've
got an external hard drive that's looking like it will help restore
alot of the files that are going to be deleted in the process. If
the back up discs fail, then my last resort is to order a restore disc
from Sony. at a cost of around $50CDN.
Moral of this sad, sad tale is download Windows 10 with caution, as heaven
help you if you've got problems with it.
And next time I'm buying a MAC.

Trish
( I apologize for the rant, but after spending over 6+ hrs battling Microsoft yesterday, getting basically nowhere, going up 3 levels of ineptitude AND talking to Sony which added almost another hour to this, I realistically don't hold out much hope that on Thurs the tekkies from Microsoft are going to be able to fix this, so I'm preparing for the worst).

I'm still planning for our WDW trip in Jan/17. I'm also planning another solo trip either to Waikiki or DL, depending on how my back handles the long flights to WDW.

AN UPDATE:

I'm sad to report that I'm mourning the death of my much beloved Sony Vaio laptop at the hands of Microsoft. The marathon remote access that I felt forced into doing as they were determined not to restore my Windows 7, despite having a large tower fan blowing cold air into my computers fan port was too much for it. I suspect the fan in my computer eventually overheated after being on for in excess of 3 1/2 hrs and took out my hard drive. I'm currently typing this on our back up computer (a computer DH thumped once too many times and killed the hard drive, but had it fixed to be used in cases such as this). I'm waiting on a call from a tech from Microsoft this morning, but don't hold out any hope that I will be compensated for the loss of my computer. I'm thinking about starting a GO FUND ME page in the next couple of days to see if I can get any money towards a new MAC laptop, as we are too tight financially to replace my computer at this time. I may have to abort my SOLO trip in Nov/17 to pay for a new Mac laptop.

Please get the word out that Windows 10 is a bad operating system, and that when you have problems, they are determined to give you the run around, won't restore your computer to it's previous operating system, and when problems arrise such as this they wash their hands of you and tell you it's not their problem, even though they are the direct cause of my computers death.

Trish

A further update:

After fighting Microsoft for close to 2 1/2 hrs, I had to beg, plead and grovel over the phone to the manager at the Microsoft store in Metrotown. He took pity on me and I now have an apt for Oct 19th to look at both computers. He said he would look at it free of charge and try to repair the damage Windows 10 has caused to both computers.

As for Microsoft I refuse to purchase any of their products again, and my next laptop will be a MAC.

Take my tale of woe to heart and download Windows 10 at your own peril.

Trish

 

[Phoenixrising]

This is another update to my Window's 10 woes. Windows 10 is in the process of melting down the hard drive of the other Sony Vaio laptop we installed it in 5 days ago. Microsoft's stance is we know our software killed your computers and we are doing NOTHING to repair the damages done to both of our Sony Vaio Laptops. I spent another 2 1/2 hrs on the phone with them and was told the only thing I could do is prove that Windows 10 killed the hard drive on both computers. And basically grovel, beg and plead for them to fix my computers for free to the closest Microsoft store. So I called the store, pleaded my case and they are willing to see what they can do to repair the damage for free on Oct 19th. So in the meantime My DH and I are sharing a computer (yeah that's going to be alot of fun). While Microsoft refuses to deal with my woes caused by their software, the Techs at Sony ARE taking it seriously. After yakking at them yesterday for an hour, they are planning on notifying all Sony Vaio users NOT to download Windows 10 into their computers.

So my best advice is for anyone who has a SONY laptop DO NOT LOAD WINDOWS 10 INTO YOUR COMPUTER. It will kill your computer. I tell my tale of woe so that others will not have to deal with what I have. Take this tale to heart and notify all your friends who have Sony vaio laptops not to install Windows 10.

 

[jmm476]

Yikes! So sorry Phoenixrising for your problems. I've been waiting to download Windows 10 to my HP laptop. As much as I hate Windows 8, I'm wary of upgrading to 10...

 

[Phoenixrising]

I had a rather long chat with the tech support at Sony on Thurs, after spending hours on the phone with the Evil Empire AKA Microsoft. While the techs at Sony couldn't do anything about my problems, we did a bit of brainstorming. We think that Windows 10 was released prematurely, without them taking the time to get all the bugs out of the system. Furthermore we wouldn't be surprised that after 1 year after the initial release of Windows 10 that Microsoft will stop supporting Windows 7 & 8. I know that Sony is stuck with the Microsoft Windows operating system, but they can't change it because of the fact it works best with their computers. We have 2 more computers that we have yet to update to Windows 10, and won't be doing so in light of what happened with the 2 Sony Vaio computers. I have looked at the APPLE products, and have fallen in love with the MAC desktop computers. I am hoping that Microsoft will be able to fix my computer as well as the other Sony Vaio computer Microsofts death ray (Windows 10) destroyed. If they don't, our plan is to go to either NCIX (a computer repair place) or Geek Squad, and have my computer repaired at our expense, then save for a MAC desktop.

Top that off, we have an unsolicited offer on our place in process, and should have an offer on our place by the end of next week. If it's going to be a serious offer or a low one is anyone's guess. But our area is up for development, with monster homes going up on a consistent basis. To make things more interesting our city is going to start limiting the sizes of monster homes on lots come Jan 1st/16. Factor in with land being at a premium since we live on a island, if this offer doesn't meet our standards, I can guarantee you we'll have the real estate agents knocking on our door in the coming months, wanting us to sell. We do want to sell, just not for a couple of years, so we have started to look at places. Problem is what we want is less than 1% of what's on the market, so heaven help us when we do sell our home.

This all happened last week, so how was your week???

 

[Phoenixrising]

To give everyone an update to my tale of woe, it turns out the real estate agent was serious. She's got a client who's prepared to throw buckets of money at us, until they give us enough money to make us go away. So we are now in negotiations to sell our home. Problem is that what we are looking for as a replacement is 1/10 of 1 % of the houses for sale here, safe to say we are having difficulty finding another home to buy with our specific criteria. So CHAOS is reigning supremefor the coming months, but the WDW trip for Jan/17 is still on, and have talked DH to putting up enough money from the sale of the house to pay for us to stay at POR instead of POP. Which is where the kids really want to stay, but normally couldn't afford to. After this move from h**ll, I deserve a vacation, so am still planning a trip to somewhere in Nov/17.

 

[Phoenixrising]

Happy news! Microsoft is repairing both computers for free and restoring them to Windows 7. Apparently this problem is only with Sony Vaio computers, and SOny computers in general.. Was advised by Microsoft that if you are running the AVAST! free anti-virus software it's not compatible with Windows 10.

have a great day everyone!

 

[jmm476]

Phoenixrising - glad to hear that things worked out with the computers! And good luck with finding a new house. I think you definitely deserve several vacations.

 

[Phoenixrising]

We had a overseas investor that was determined to buy our property, and was willing to throw buckets of money at us to make us go away. DH challenged me to negotiate for more money than the initial offer, as I've got killer negotiating skills, but rarely get to use them. Bribed me with a pinball machine if I got us more money, so I took him up on his offer, and now he owes me a pinball machine. Hey I work for pinball machines, cheaper than hiring a real estate agent. So a moving we will go. We won't be moving till the new year, as we negotiated a long closing/possession date. Challenge is going to be keeping the kids in the school in their catchment area till the end of the school year end of June/16. After the move will be driving them to and from school from the new place, which will be up to an hrs drive each way. So fun and games all around. The trip is still on for Jan/17 to WDW for 8 days, and since the move is going to be such a pain, will probably head to DL for 5 days Nov/17 to have a solo trip. The prices for land here are insane, and getting worse every year. It's like WHOO HOO we're RICH!! Now @#*^%)@#$ we have to find another place to move to. Such is the price of land where we live. We are working with a friend of ours that is a real estate agent to find our next home. Even they were shocked at how much we got for this place. Have a great day everyone!!

Trish

 

[Phoenixrising]

I got my computer back from Microsoft yesterday. While they installed Windows 7, they failed to fix my hard drive problems that Windows 10 caused. I suspect the hard drive on my laptop is toast, as it refuses to restore files from my external hard drive. We will be taking it to a computer repair store when we've got time to attempt to get it fixed. While I was picking up my computer yesterday, there was another person in with computers, not Sony, having the same problems as myself with Windows 10. I've lost close to 4 years of data, pics,files and dearly miss it. We were able to install Windows 7 on the other computer that rejected Windows 10, and we were able to fix it before it killed the hard drive. Going house haunting on Saturday (what else would you call house hunting on Halloween??). HMMM....pinball machine or a MAC desktop computer as commission for the extra money we got for the house. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

 

[AirGoofy]

We had a overseas investor that was determined to buy our property, and was willing to throw buckets of money at us to make us go away. DH challenged me to negotiate for more money than the initial offer, as I've got killer negotiating skills, but rarely get to use them. Bribed me with a pinball machine if I got us more money, so I took him up on his offer, and now he owes me a pinball machine. Hey I work for pinball machines, cheaper than hiring a real estate agent. So a moving we will go. We won't be moving till the new year, as we negotiated a long closing/possession date. Challenge is going to be keeping the kids in the school in their catchment area till the end of the school year end of June/16. After the move will be driving them to and from school from the new place, which will be up to an hrs drive each way. So fun and games all around. The trip is still on for Jan/17 to WDW for 8 days, and since the move is going to be such a pain, will probably head to DL for 5 days Nov/17 to have a solo trip. The prices for land here are insane, and getting worse every year. It's like WHOO HOO we're RICH!! Now @#*^%)@#$ we have to find another place to move to. Such is the price of land where we live. We are working with a friend of ours that is a real estate agent to find our next home. Even they were shocked at how much we got for this place. Have a great day everyone!!

Trish

So sorry to hear about your computer problems, but congratulations on your home negotiation skills. Unfortunately, you can negotiate with Microsoft or other big corporations as they have all the money and leverage.

 

[Phoenixrising]

So sorry to hear about your computer problems, but congratulations on your home negotiation skills. Unfortunately, you can negotiate with Microsoft or other big corporations as they have all the money and leverage.

 

[Phoenixrising]

Yes you can't fight the Evil Empire, as I now call Microsoft. My DH and I deserve coal in our stockings. We went house haunting on Halloween and found a place that we all loved. Problem is that the owners of the place we are buying wanted to move 10 days before Christmas. So we had an Addendum added to the sale of our home and we are now moving 10 days before Christmas. Are we insane or what???? Furthermore we haven't told the kids about the new place, as we told them the deal fell through, (it didn't), and that it was sold (they never asked to who, otherwise we would have told them). It's 3/4 of a acre, lg home, backing onto a salmon bearing creek. No problems with erosion, although it does need a new septic system, which we are aware of, and it's not a big deal for us. We were lucky to get this place, as the real estate market is insane here in general as we discovered. Anything over 1/3rd of an acre is being sold as fast as it can be listed. We plan on telling them on Dec15th, the day we gain possession of our new home. It was obviously meant to be as my family's long standing traditions have resurrected themselves. Viewed the house on Halloween, removed subjects on our current home on Friday the 13th, and will be both giving the keys (in theory, as we don't have to move out of here till the end of Jan), and gaining possession of our new place the same day (on my Birthday!!). I'm currently attempting to get my Christmas baking/shopping done as well as pack. It's bad enough when one of plots against the kids, when both us do it, they don't stand a chance. Safe to say they are getting a new home for Christmas. How we are going to top this next year I've got no clue..WDW perhaps??

 

[AirGoofy]

Yes you can't fight the Evil Empire, as I now call Microsoft. My DH and I deserve coal in our stockings. We went house haunting on Halloween and found a place that we all loved. Problem is that the owners of the place we are buying wanted to move 10 days before Christmas. So we had an Addendum added to the sale of our home and we are now moving 10 days before Christmas. Are we insane or what???? Furthermore we haven't told the kids about the new place, as we told them the deal fell through, (it didn't), and that it was sold (they never asked to who, otherwise we would have told them). It's 3/4 of a acre, lg home, backing onto a salmon bearing creek. No problems with erosion, although it does need a new septic system, which we are aware of, and it's not a big deal for us. We were lucky to get this place, as the real estate market is insane here in general as we discovered. Anything over 1/3rd of an acre is being sold as fast as it can be listed. We plan on telling them on Dec15th, the day we gain possession of our new home. It was obviously meant to be as my family's long standing traditions have resurrected themselves. Viewed the house on Halloween, removed subjects on our current home on Friday the 13th, and will be both giving the keys (in theory, as we don't have to move out of here till the end of Jan), and gaining possession of our new place the same day (on my Birthday!!). I'm currently attempting to get my Christmas baking/shopping done as well as pack. It's bad enough when one of plots against the kids, when both us do it, they don't stand a chance. Safe to say they are getting a new home for Christmas. How we are going to top this next year I've got no clue..WDW perhaps??

A new home for Christmas does sound exciting, and it would be difficult to top next year.

Having access to that salmon creek sounds great. We only have 1/5 acre here and I wanted more. However, it is very convenient to all activities and better yet, will be paid off in less than 5 more years. I'm going to put the difference to my snowbird home in Florida, close as I can get to WDW.