The DisFort's Chit Chat Cafe

[tiggerdad]

Thanks for the heads up, may see them by me. Un

I think I saw them last year. Fortunately, there is a place 15 mins away, that is pretty good for concerts, outside though. They are playing again this year , but are not the headliner. Last concert most left when they came on. Kids these days don't know good music!

No, they do not.

Look em up, this was first week of their US tour. Great show, all 4 bands. If you're into that sort of thing.

This was at Brandon amphitheater. It's outdoors, seats up to 8300. Only on it's third full year but nice venue.

 

[4077]

So, visited the old fort in St. Augustine, FL today. Was good. Saw the lighthouse as we drove by. Wanted to get back to it but storms were rolling in after lunch at Mojo Old City BBQ, so we ran south from the storms to Daytona Beach and drove around there a bunch (will be doing a college visit for my older son to Embry-Riddle, my old college, there Tuesday, so used today to drive around campus and re-live/show the surrounding area to him. Stopped at the Daytona Buc-ee’s on the way. Was busy, but fun. Bought 2 flavors of Beaver nuggets, cookie dough, log rolls, coffees and slushies and used the clean bathrooms.. lol. Fun day…

 

[jbrostek]

Almost forgot, no one is really from up north. So, pathmark was the grocery store and the budget line was no frills , not my pic. But this was a whole isle in the store, just white and packaged like that. Including, powdered milk.

I had to explain to many over the years why I always call store brand No Frills. And your not a LI native unless you know King Kullen. Some might remember Waldbaum's or A&P but those are long gone now.

 

[FtW Mike]

I had to explain to many over the years why I always call store brand No Frills. And your not a LI native unless you know King Kullen. Some might remember Waldbaum's or A&P but those are long gone now.

You forgot Big Apple which was incorporated by and became FOOD TOWN

 

[jbrostek]

You forgot Big Apple which was incorporated by and became FOOD TOWN

I never saw one of those outside the 5 burrows.

 

[FtW Mike]

We had them 4 blocks away and a Dairy Barn 3 blocks away as well

 

[bama_ed]

A few weeks ago I bought theme park tix for an upcoming trip via the online tool.

Today I bothered to print out a hard-copy (yes I'm old school) of the confirmation email but had to limit it to the first 4 pages.

Why?

Because the remaining 13 pages were "Terms and Conditions". There are various legal nuggets that I bet you never knew - such as:

- each ticket only admits one person
- tickets cannot be shipped to all locations
- <everything> about a theme park visit (hours, attractions, menus, etc.) is subject to change
- guests may be required to have a park reservation
- tickets may not be resold

I lol'd at this following one:

- Disney Genie+ attractions and experiences (collectively, "experiences") and arrival windows are limited, and subject to availability and change, downtime, delay or closure without notice or liability, and entrance to an experience is not guaranteed.
- lots more Genie+ junk
- then we get into the pandemic section
- and assumption of pandemic risk
- and the assumption of risk we grant by using the ticket
- and the assumption waiver
- and the acknowledgement of the assumption of risk and waiver by other users
- a California exception (of course)
- idemnity/insurance for the pandemic
- scope of the waiver and indemnity .....
- term of the waiver and indemnity
- released parties (Disney not responsible for nuthin')
- severability/partial invalidity
- long section on binding arbitration (who, where, what fer)
- section on governing law (Florida of course)

Then it gets into the Annual Pass T's & C's (which I didn't buy but they must use the same boiiler plate language. Because they can't pay the IT guys to use one set of boiler plate for tix and one set for passes. Because why make it easy on us? It should be easy on them. I'll just hit the paragraph headers:

- general pass info (6 paragraphs)
- unactivated pass expiration
- parking (everyone's favorite)
- pass type availability (they will sell the cheap types whenever they want to - or not)
- benefits/discounts (3 paragraphs)
- communications
- address change
- replacements

But WAIT! There's more.

Additional T's & C's for Applicable Options
- water park and sports options
- PhotoPass download options (9 paragraphs)

THE END.

TL;DR version - I bought a theme park ticket and am now ready to pass the bar exam.

Bama Ed

PS - this is what they've come to

 

[tiggerdad]

A few weeks ago I bought theme park tix for an upcoming trip via the online tool.

Today I bothered to print out a hard-copy (yes I'm old school) of the confirmation email but had to limit it to the first 4 pages.

Why?

Because the remaining 13 pages were "Terms and Conditions". There are various legal nuggets that I bet you never knew - such as:

- each ticket only admits one person
- tickets cannot be shipped to all locations
- <everything> about a theme park visit (hours, attractions, menus, etc.) is subject to change
- guests may be required to have a park reservation
- tickets may not be resold

I lol'd at this following one:

- Disney Genie+ attractions and experiences (collectively, "experiences") and arrival windows are limited, and subject to availability and change, downtime, delay or closure without notice or liability, and entrance to an experience is not guaranteed.
- lots more Genie+ junk
- then we get into the pandemic section
- and assumption of pandemic risk
- and the assumption of risk we grant by using the ticket
- and the assumption waiver
- and the acknowledgement of the assumption of risk and waiver by other users
- a California exception (of course)
- idemnity/insurance for the pandemic
- scope of the waiver and indemnity .....
- term of the waiver and indemnity
- released parties (Disney not responsible for nuthin')
- severability/partial invalidity
- long section on binding arbitration (who, where, what fer)
- section on governing law (Florida of course)

Then it gets into the Annual Pass T's & C's (which I didn't buy but they must use the same boiiler plate language. Because they can't pay the IT guys to use one set of boiler plate for tix and one set for passes. Because why make it easy on us? It should be easy on them. I'll just hit the paragraph headers:

- general pass info (6 paragraphs)
- unactivated pass expiration
- parking (everyone's favorite)
- pass type availability (they will sell the cheap types whenever they want to - or not)
- benefits/discounts (3 paragraphs)
- communications
- address change
- replacements

But WAIT! There's more.

Additional T's & C's for Applicable Options
- water park and sports options
- PhotoPass download options (9 paragraphs)

THE END.

TL;DR ver
PS - this is what they've come to

The MANY reasons I'm looking elsewhere these days.

I'm surprised you didn't find a nugget in there about an additional charge if you print the tickets. In California I'm sure it's at least a misdemeanor.

 

[Sjm9911]

Unfortunately, this is why I just sign crap and never read it, or click ok on the ap. Too much for normal people to bother with.

Ed, is not abnormal, but sort of a super human. I wouldn't have had the strength to read it.

 

[jbrostek]

Its the world we live in run by the lawyers. They have to include all of these CYAs over all the lawsuits people have attempted against them. What we have to go through just to purchase things at my company is proof that legal has gotten way too out of hand in this country.

 

[StormyCA]

Doesn't surprise me. However as a former career bureaucrat I discovered early on that any 'rule' that seems silly or redundant is usually there because somewhere, sometime, someone tried to do the thing the rule says 'no' to and raised a holy stink when they were told no (or went to prison).

So someone tried to get two people in on a ticket ("It doesn't say one person"), someone demanded compensation for lack of entry to something ("It says I can ride/do/see such and such, pay me money"), or someone tried to use a (former FP/now G+ LL) 8 hours after their window closed ("It doesn't say I had to be here by 3pm 'or else' so you MUST let me in").

 

[jbrostek]

So this morning we hit 60 days!!! I tried at midnight to make dinner reservations and it was a no go.... We suspected 7am it would open with the call center, however, at 0600 this morning we found we could make them and got to work. We nearly got every timeframe we wanted and location. It is insane how fast things could go!! Beaches and Cream only had a dessert timeframe left and Sci-Fi was booked out. The good thing is we are flexible enough so that when Teppan Edo had to be a late lunch no-one was upset. Pretty proud of Lauren, she got to choose with some guidance and almost ever choice she made was somewhere she has never eaten before. So we rocked out some good reservations in my book.

6/18 - Arrival day at AK Lodge Kidanni - Where we eat will depend on how long the drive down takes.
6/19 - Skipper's Canteen - dinner
6/20 - Teppan Edo - Late lunch
6/21 - Mama Melrose -Dinner
6/22 - Boma - Late Dinner
6/23 - Eat around the world/flower & Garden small plate, Beaches and cream kitchen sink for dessert (5 of us, we got this)
6/24 - California Grill - Dinner before fireworks.
6/25 - Drive home

 

[StormyCA]

I've never been able to get a ressie for Sci Fi Diner for any of our three (so far!) trips even with constant checking and refreshing. But I'll try again next year. Hope springs eternal!

 

[jbrostek]

I did get it several years ago for one of our trips. It is a popular pick, we have one secured so now I will see what I can do as we get closer to try and find it.

 

[FtW Mike]

I too couldn't get Sci Fi Theater our last trip. I hated trying to decide where to eat 180 days out but now with 60 we as on property guests are competing with Day Visitors for prime locations.

 

[garneska]

Run Disney registration was a cluster. A complete failure. First registration was supposed to start at 10 am EST. The site crashed they had epic issues. At 12:15 the message went out that registration would begin at 12:30. I got in quickly and got registered for the marathon. Bert had a wait, a long wait. Yes we both entered about the same time but Disney sucks. When he went and hit final payment for the half the credit card was charged but said it was full. We are waiting to see if the charge gets reversed tomorrow. We are not the only ones this happened to. The entire weekend sold out in less than 90 minutes. I know pent up demand but I don’t buy it. I have not seen the marathon sell out in less than 90 minutes ever!!

i have not lost hope on Bert’s half. I will keep checking but it was an epic fail on Disney. To the point that I am considering not participating in 2024. Will see.

 

[bama_ed]

Run Disney registration was a cluster. A complete failure. First registration was supposed to start at 10 am EST. The site crashed they had epic issues. At 12:15 the message went out that registration would begin at 12:30. I got in quickly and got registered for the marathon. Bert had a wait, a long wait. Yes we both entered about the same time but Disney sucks. When he went and hit final payment for the half the credit card was charged but said it was full. We are waiting to see if the charge gets reversed tomorrow. We are not the only ones this happened to. The entire weekend sold out in less than 90 minutes. I know pent up demand but I don’t buy it. I have not seen the marathon sell out in less than 90 minutes ever!!

i have not lost hope on Bert’s half. I will keep checking but it was an epic fail on Disney. To the point that I am considering not participating in 2024. Will see.

The 5k sold out in 28 minutes and the 10k in 34 minutes. Ridiculous.

For those that don't know, the process is one of first getting into digital queue (a holding room). Then at 1230, as Kris said, they released the pent up multitudes RANDOMLY into a timed countdown hold (ranging from a few minutes to over an hour's timed wait). I had to wait 30 minutes before I could start the actual registration process for the 5k or 10k that I wanted.

But as I said, the 5k sold out in 28 min so when my 30 minute countdown finally let me in to enter my data, the 5k option was no longer available "sold out". So I started the 10k and entered data including credit card payment data and went to hit "submit" and it came back saying "the 10k is full and you did not get registered". (You are not ACTUALLY registered until you hit submit and get a confirmation email AND the credit card charged).

So I did what I could but the odds were against me. It was a monumental Disney IT cluster and one that should have, could have been avoided - making people wait 2.5 hours extra because Disney didn't have surge capacity for when they opened registration.

I'm kinda over with runDisney, to tell you the truth. I guess I'll be cancelling my Preferred site at the Fort and the pre-nights at Lake Louisa SP.

Bama Ed

PS - instead I might use the money planned for the Marathon weekend to do that spring training trip we've wanted to do.

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

PS - instead I might use the money planned for the Marathon weekend to do that spring training trip we've wanted to do.

stinks you didn't get what you want, but hit me up. I've thought of some more ideas since my last blast of info

 

[jbrostek]

We know that Disney IT sucks, they never seem to project the amount of compute, network or other resources needed. Sometimes I think those in charge are stuck in some old age methodology of capacity planning.

I have noticed that runDisney has grown but is it really that big now that it sells out in an hour? I know some things like the Boston Marathon is now lottery based due to demand. Maybe it's gained the same notoriety over the past few years?

 

[bama_ed]

I have noticed that runDisney has grown but is it really that big now that it sells out in an hour? I know some things like the Boston Marathon is now lottery based due to demand. Maybe it's gained the same notoriety over the past few years?

During the 2.5 hour hold for registration, @jbrostek, there was a live thread over on the DIS runDisney board about lotteries. How other races use them, etc. It's probably time for rD to try that.

rD has tiered sign-ups and race capacity is "shared". For example, I wanted to sign up for the 5k race. It only has space for so many runners (example: 100). rD has evolved over the years so that the 100 capacity is allocated as such: 20 slots to go with the Dopey registration (folks will will run the 5k, 10, half marathon, whole marathon in consecutive days); 10 slots for AP holders (early registration, although limited, is a "benefit" of the expensive AP); 10 slots for DVC owners (ditto AP); 10 slots for the runDisney club that you PAY to join that gives you early registration access (limited number of memberships in the club to keep it "exclusive"). That's 50 slots allocated to other registration paths.

So half the capacity of the race is unavailable to the general public. That means the rest of the general public (me) waits for the hour when registration opens, open (for example) 3 browsers with about 5 windows open on each about 30 minutes beforehand, and they all ping the runDisney dot com website which causes it to crash from the surge in demand. When rD got the emergency capacity online, the system randomly spreads out the wait time among those 15 open window I have, then I try to register through the one that lets me in after the shortest wait time. I only had 4 windows open total. Should have done more.

But already researching RV/campsites in the western Phoenix, AZ area for 2023 Spring Training in the Cactus League.

Ed

PS - I think the 2023 races we were trying to register for was the 30th Anniversary of the WDW Marathon which causes more people to try to sign up. So that contributed to the problem.