Trip Report THE ONE...(February 2020)*COMPLETE*

Ladies, gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages and fellow Magicians, as you can see, I am having a little trouble with the title of this trip report. It could be “THE ONE FOR MY BEST FRIEND’S BIRTHDAY”, or “THE ONE WHERE I LEFT MY BRAIN AT HOME.” Or there is, “THE ONE WHERE I GOT A GLIMPSE OF A DISNEY LEGEND”. There is also, “THE ONE WHERE WE JOINED THE RESISTANCE”.
I think I will begin title less and let all you good people have a say when it is over.

We always begin with the why.
A small bit of background first:
M and I have been friend’s since college (a looong time😎). M’s family has a small family business. When my kids were little my job got to be too much (70-100 hours a week) so I left. When my youngest started Kindergarten M’s family asked me if I would come work for them part time. It is not what I went to school for but it offered me flexibility for the kids, and besides, how do you say no to family?
So some of you may have figured it out, M is not only my friend, but my boss as well.

M is a great friend! No really! Die hard Met fan who will go with me to see the Dodgers when they are in town and actually root (🎶root root🎶) for the Dodgers.
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M had a birthday coming up. M’s sister and two grown nieces are big Disney fans and we are always talking about what is new with the parks, food and the shopping😍. Poor M, always left out. So I asked if he wanted to go for his Birthday. “YES”, was his answer BTW. (Plus, my oldest son, X had a lacrosse game in Jacksonville so we got to see that as well.)
M hadn't been to WDW in 20 years! So we got the time off from HR (M’s sister🤣) and I started planning.
I will say, taking a newbie (after a 20 year absence you revert to newbie status-this is the way) to WDW is fun! I got to see everything through his eyes, like it was the first time. Plus, if I made a miscalculation or left something out—he had no way of knowing!!!🤣🤣 M’s only request: “can we ride the teacups?” (and he asked X to score 5 goals for him as a birthday gift-stay tuned for that)
“Of course we can!” My family will never ride the teacups with me so I haven't been on them in at least 10 years. This was off to a promising start!!!
 

Darstarr

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
Sunday February 9 cont

Along with studying BG procedures I had been noting wait times. HWS wait times are longest at rope drop. I know, crazy right! People line up for the big 4; SDD, MF:SR, RnR and ToT, more or less in that order from my research. I decided we would go to Toy Story then A.S.S. skipping SDD to do at extra magic hours. I forgot to mention, it was pm extra magic hours. Yay us!
We got in the line we were told was for Toy Story land and began all the way near the launch bay. After a few switchbacks and 7 minutes or so we were informed that ,no, this line was actually for SDD. Why????
We got out of line and headed to Toy Story midway mania which now was 45 minutes. Uggg.
A.S.S. Was 20 so that is where we went.
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Then
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Next we headed to Star Tours because the wait was low. We had a FP for it later that I hung onto in case we wanted a second go of it.
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As we exited we got called to join the resistance.
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We had a two hour window so we continued with our/my game plan.
 

Darstarr

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
I need details on these Rise teams/methods! I have been on it twice but I still can't find a good method and I am just as obsessed with figuring it out as you seem to be :hilarious:
This has been discussed multiple times in multiple posts by @disneygeek90, myself and others but I feel obligated to reiterate what what works best (so far) to get a good/early boarding pass.

I’ve done the BG process 13x, but 6x under the current lottery system (with great results 4 out of the 5 times). I’ve had parties ranging from 1-5 people & obtained 25, 21, 131, 13, 28, 22.

1. Get into the park BEFORE 7am. That doesn’t mean 6:58 or 6:55, that means as close to 6:30 as possible. Why? We know MDE is a bit wonky and with so many people having to synch and recognize that their band has been scanned, I have no proof, but mildly strong suspicion, that the more lead time you give it, the better. (The day I had issues I got in at 6:52am)

2. As long as you have a good cellular signal, turn off blue tooth, WIFI, close out all programs/apps, & restart your phone. Don’t tweet, Instagram or play any games. Chat with another human being and have the entire power of your phone dedicated to loading MDE when the time calls for it.

3. Prior to getting in the park (and again once I get in), I make sure that the MY STATUS button is RED in MDE. Join Boarding Group should be grayed out but the 1 and only time I had an issue (and got 131), both buttons were grayed out as I entered the park and never turned red until I opened and closed the app 4-5x. Cost me 2 minutes before I could grab one.

4. Ignore the people around you being in MDE before 7am. Ignore the constant Disney announcements about the BG’s. Especially ignore the announcement that Disney loves to do at 6:59am, which I’m sure causes legions of people to start pounding the app.

5. HOLD OFF AND WAIT UNTIL YOUR PHONE CHANGES TO 7am. Unless someone needs CPR, ignore them. 2 minutes prior to 7am, I let my kids know to cease with the questions and requests as they will be ignored.

Then click to open app (from SCRATCH/FRESH).

If Disney’s servers are not delayed the JOIN BOARDING GROUP icon red, click, add party and then CONTINUE.

I have never done the My Status and bounced back and forth in the app. If JOING BOARDING GROUP is not red, I fully close the app and reload it.

Good luck 🤩🤩🤩
Yep, basically I turn my phone off for about ten minutes or so and turn it back on at 6:55:00 and give it time to boot up and make sure I’ve got wifi and Bluetooth off; then 6:57:30 open the app so it has a minute to load but don’t touch anything; at 7:00:00 exactly hit “Find Out More;” the past two days the Join Group button has been available at the next screen, prior tries I just hit check status and the join group button was available on that screen.

Not sure if this matters, but the past two days I have been posting up right in the middle of the open area in front of the display screens and Chinese theater. The theory being that there are less people there to compete with for cell signal and less buildings/metal/tree coverage that could possibly slow a cell signal (I’m no tech guy, but it’s correlated to not having to take the added step of the check status page to get to the join group selection).

The only time I haven’t had join group button available was due to an app glitch and I had to hard restart the app (there were two things different about that day, I think that was the one day I tried waiting a second or two past 7:00 to see if that worked better and was the only day I didn’t get finger scanned at check in, but I’m probably reading too much into either of those having any real impact in causing my app not to load past the “find out more” button that morning). The other five times I’ve gotten in the first three groups of the day.

These are the two most popular methods. Take into account park opening is at 8 not 7 so adjust your times. If it changes to 9:00 opening, which it is showing mid march, I have no advice.
 

DisneyGigi

Well-Known Member
As usual lately, I am late! (Imagine that?) but I brought drinks-
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And a fun fact, whilst binge watching Friends the other day, I noticed a certain Mr. Bing pouring a straight Grand Marnier shot (think it was the One with Rachel’s other Sister) anyway, it made me laugh!
Love your haircut. :)
 

Darstarr

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
Here. No clue how to gif so imagine I inserted some incredibly witty gif here. Love your hair.
Like this?
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And thanks for the compliment!!!

So what was the issue with your AP? Activating a renewal?

BTW your hair is adorbs.
I know you have an amazing memory. So I know you remember me asking you about the whole renewal thing before making fast passes.
In my hyper focused only on RotR state, I FORGOT to activate my AP.
Maybe my brain left with the hair???
As usual lately, I am late! (Imagine that?) but I brought drinks-
View attachment 449343
And a fun fact, whilst binge watching Friends the other day, I noticed a certain Mr. Bing pouring a straight Grand Marnier shot (think it was the One with Rachel’s other Sister) anyway, it made me laugh!
Love your haircut. :)
That is funny!!
And I love drinks!!!
giphy.gif
 

Rista1313

Well-Known Member
The flight paperwork HAS to be completed and correct before the flight leaves in case the flight crashes. They need to know who all is on board. There may be some other paperwork that I'm not privvy to but every time I've had a paperwork delay it was the roster of passengers. Usually because someone changed their name at the front desk at the last minute or bought a last minute ticket or something like that.

I know this was 2 pages ago, but they also need to make sure the weight and balance paperwork is filled out correctly. They count and recount, and make sure everyone on the manifest is on board. Sometimes it can get a little crazy... (especially when two people have the same name ... Looking at you @riverside )
 

riverside

Premium Member
I know this was 2 pages ago, but they also need to make sure the weight and balance paperwork is filled out correctly. They count and recount, and make sure everyone on the manifest is on board. Sometimes it can get a little crazy... (especially when two people have the same name ... Looking at you @riverside )
I still don't get why the same name causes so much chaos. Two people, two seats paid for, two different birthdays, two different frequent flyer numbers.......🤷‍♀️
 

Rista1313

Well-Known Member
I still don't get why the same name causes so much chaos. Two people, two seats paid for, two different birthdays, two different frequent flyer numbers.......🤷‍♀️

Ticket agents don't have access to birthdays (well at least back when I worked we didn't) and when you are in a hurry to reconcile the flight, you might not think to check to see if they have different FF#'s.

So they end up thinking that the person is just double booked and double seated. Like names actually doesn't happen as often as you think. Unless it's a name like John Smith.
 

Darstarr

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
So glad you got the boarding pass!!
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Boarding Group! GROUP!!!😂😂😂
And yes I was stupid stressed. Or stressed into stupidity. Or both!

I know this was 2 pages ago, but they also need to make sure the weight and balance paperwork is filled out correctly. They count and recount, and make sure everyone on the manifest is on board. Sometimes it can get a little crazy... (especially when two people have the same name ... Looking at you @riverside )
Ok. I get that but people fly everyday. Waiting, in the plane, over an hour, after an hour weather delay, for paperwork is not OK. It is bad. Very very bad!
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Also,
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Errr...you’re late. But forgiven. Glad you are here😍
I still don't get why the same name causes so much chaos. Two people, two seats paid for, two different birthdays, two different frequent flyer numbers.......🤷‍♀️
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I have mentioned it before, when the extended family flys we have 3 Alexanders, 2 Anthonys and 2 Johns
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That can get rough.
 

Darstarr

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
My gosh, you had me on the edge of my seat!!! I'm not even going to read about those methods cause I'm sure it'll all change before I go to ride it in October :hilarious:
I will keep you updated. I still read the boarding group thread religiously. I have two trips coming up so I am still very interested in what is going on. Some interesting data was posted today about wifi vs. cellular data. And the fact that I find it interesting is mildly disturbing...🤣
(DM me as we get closer to your trip.)
 

MickeyCB

Well-Known Member
I will keep you updated. I still read the boarding group thread religiously. I have two trips coming up so I am still very interested in what is going on. Some interesting data was posted today about wifi vs. cellular data. And the fact that I find it interesting is mildly disturbing...🤣
(DM me as we get closer to your trip.)
Read that too. Didn't understand a single word of the technical jargon. Something about MB's and milliseconds and such.
 

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