February 2015 – WDWTools Blog

Lunchtime ADRs at Be Our Guest: February 26, 2015

Thanks to the WDWTools ADR Sniper, we were able to be among the first to enjoy lunch at Be Our Guest as the new lunchtime ADR system rolled out. Lunch at Be Our Guest is the first quick service meal that offers ADRs.

There was a large crowd (above) attempting to enter the standby queue as lunch began to be served at 10:30 am, but for the first time, they were being turned away as staff informed that standby was full and only guests with reservations were being admitted. Prior to the lunch ADR system rollout, all of these people would’ve entered a line that usually took up the entire bridge and expanded outward along the wall, often reaching half-way to Gaston’s on the other side of 7DMT. Those who were turned away were asked to check again later in the day to see if more standby availability had opened.

My reservation was at 10:35. I walked up around this time and after waiting a short while for a cast member with an iPad (the reservation check-in desk was not being used), I was checked in, handed a menu, and brought to a register just past the front entrance. This register is where guests with ADRs place their orders; if the guest has ordered in advance through Disney’s website, as I did, all he must do here is pay. The Beast’s study continues to host the registers for lunchtime standby guests.

While standby guests continue to receive a “magic rose” buzzer to mark their place, guests with reservations do not; I was simply handed a receipt and told to leave it out so the CM delivering food could confirm the order. I went and found a cozy spot in the Ballroom and enjoyed the view of the gentle snowfall out the window while I waited for my meal to be delivered.

After a few minutes, a cast member brought this delicious meal to me: a fried turkey sandwich and a cupcake topped with the ever-elusive “Grey Stuff”.

It was pretty good.

Although it can get pretty busy at lunch time, as you can see in the image of the ballroom below, the new system redirects standby guests to other areas of the park and makes it possible to enjoy the beautiful landscapes visible from the Be Our Guest bridge. Before the lunchtime ADR system, this bridge would be packed with standby guests waiting hours for their chance to get in and check out BOG for themselves. It’s even packed at dinner time, as dinner guests with reservations usually wait here too.

Lunch at Be Our Guest is a truly magical experience. The crowds are low, affording more opportunity to peruse the Beast’s castle, the pressure is off, and it’s very enjoyable. Strongly recommended for your next trip, and thanks to the new lunchtime ADRs and the WDWTools ADR Sniper, you can enjoy it without having to wait in a long line OR spending months refreshing Disney’s site looking for a reservation.

ADR Challenge: Be Our Guest Lunch

OUTCOME: 2 Reservations Booked in Under an Hour!

Disney opened Be Our Guest up for lunch ADRs just this morning. There’s been a frantic rush to book these dates and a lot of issues for people using Disney’s system. Let’s see how we do with WDWTools’s ADR Sniper.

We created a watch between tomorrow, Feb 26, and March 4, the next 7 days. I would’ve gone further but I have prior obligations on March 5-7.

We added this watch at 12:54pm and received our first notification at 12:56pm. Two of our March dates had opened up: March 2 and March 4. I immediately booked March 2!

In less than five minutes, I already had a reservation within the week. I didn’t have to refresh Disney’s site incessantly and deal with the error messages many others have been getting as Disney strains under the barrage of searches. I didn’t get half-way through my reservation and have the reservation fail because WDWTools’s ADR Sniper has advanced false positive detection.

Only about 20 minutes later, I got an even better notification: the ADR Sniper had found an opening for tomorrow!

I also booked this immediately.

Thanks to the WDWTools ADR Sniper, I will be one of the first lucky diners at Be Our Guest for its revamped lunch!

Starbucks at Hollywood Studios â€“ Now This is How You Coffee

Starbucks has been making inroads at Walt Disney World for the past year: First at Magic Kingdom and then at EPCOT. Well, downtown Hollywood Studios just got a new addition, and (Iâ€™ll understand ifyouâ€™re not surprised): Itâ€™s a Starbucks!

But, wait, stay â€“ where are you going? This Starbucks is a different sort of animal. Both the Magic Kingdom and the EPCOT locations are regular Starbucks-dÃ©cor: Your typical Seattle coffee house with brown and green color schemes. Outside of the hustle and bustle of always being busy, there is nothing to separate them from the Starbucks you can find on the street corner in your own downtown, or the one on your block, or the one opening next month in your guest bedroom.

The Starbucks at Hollywood Studios is decorated to represent a Trolley Station in old Los Angeles:

Isnâ€™t that lovely? Above the serving area is a balcony of machinery that looks to be either actual decommissioned and refurbished machinery from the time, or ingenious replicas. Strategic lighting at the balcony level makes it appear as if itâ€™s a working station, with desk lamps and indicator lights flickering occasionally. All of the doors in and out of the serving area are large double doors, where one might have expected a few well-placed rails to deliver a derelict trolley car in for repairs.

If you decide to grab yourself a warm cup on a chilly night, or a frosty Frappuccino to keep you cool on a hot day, make sure to pick the right-hand side cash registers as you walk through the front door. The reason here is that the waiting area for your drinks includes a wall-mounted switch board for the Los Angeles area:

You only get the switch board. In order to get my wife included with the switch board, you need to be as cute as I am.

Once again, either the attention to detail here is flawless, or someone has wiped the cobwebs off of an actual switchboard used at a trolley station from the time. Unfortunately, Disney Magic doesnâ€™t seem to have extended toward the operation of the switch board, as pushing the buttons and flipping the switches doesnâ€™t light anything up, or make the trains run in any particular direction. Who knows, however, as I may have inadvertently caused the infamous trolley crash of 1923, while I sipped quietly on my Chai and flipped a bunch of switches at random.

Festival Of Fantasy Night Run – a Pictorial Post

On just four days of 2014, the Magic Kingdom’s Festival of Fantasy parade kicked off at 5:00 p.m., when the Winter sunlight was starting to dim and the Christmas lights came on. It created a really gorgeous environment for an already awesome parade, so we thought we’d give you a look at Festival of Fantasy, evening edition.

Continue reading Festival Of Fantasy Night Run – a Pictorial Post