UPDATE: Cases specifically designed for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7+ are now available at D-Tech.
If you’re like me, you might have “invested” in one of Disney’s customized D-Tech cases for your smartphone. Unlike in the past when Apple has decided to use the same body design for its updated phones, previous D-Tech cases (i.e., those designed for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus (or 6s and 6s Plus) will not really work with the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus models. I say “really work”, because it looks like this:
Disney D-Tech iPhone 6 Case on an iPhone 7
Since the body size of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 7 is the same, the case fits the phone, but the camera on the new phone is positioned differently than it was on the iPhone 6. (I thought the problem might be the size of the lens, but it’s actually the lens’ position that causes the issue.) The interesting thing is the camera doesn’t actually seem to be impacted by the weird case over it. Here are 2 pictures of a white wall, 1 taken horizontally and 1 taken vertically, and you can see the only issue is some minor darkness in the the corner covered by the lens.
HorizontalVertical
That said, having a case cover part of the camera like this looks ridiculous (and I don’t plan on doing it.) (There’s also the issue of the bottom cutout looking funny over the place where the headphone jack used to be. That’s so minor, that I didn’t really even consider it.)
Such a lengthy explanation isn’t necessary for the iPhone 7 Plus models. The dual camera setup on that phone is just too big to fit the existing iPhone 6 Plus case. (I’m sure most people didn’t need me to tell them that.)
So, with that question answer, my next question is: What case, if any, should I get for my new iPhone 7? Let me know on Twitter if you have any suggestions.
If you’re the type of person who rushes out to install the latest version of software for your iPhone or iPad that you have probably already installed iOS 10 and have started playing around with the new stickers in iMessage (technically, iMessage is branded “Messages” by Apple, but whatever…)
If you’re reading this site than the first sticker packs you’ll probably want to buy are Disney related. Since the iMessage store can be a little confusing to use to locate them, I’ve provided my favorite, below. Be careful, though, each one of these sticker packs is $1.99.
At 3am Eastern today, I–like many a technology geek–was loading and reloading the Apple Store on my existing iPhone in hopes of securing a new iPhone on next Friday’s launch day. The store was supposed to go live at 3:01am, but at 3:08am I was still getting the “check back soon” message that Apple puts up when it’s updating its store. People on Twitter were–justifiably–complaining about how frustrating things were. When I finally got into the store, I received a generic “unable to complete transaction at this time” error on 6 different attempts before my order went through on my phone (during which time I–unnecessarily–went to my computer as a backup, in case I was doing something wrong on my phone). A basic online order that should have probably been completed by 3:04am wrapped up at 3:37am.
When the process was completed, I tweeted about how much the whole experience made me long for Disney’s ADR system. I know there are differences in scale–orders of magnitude differences, probably–but, every day of the year Disney enables its ADR system at exactly 6:00am to allow thousands of people to make their 180-day reservations. Every day. I’ve gone through that process at least 25 times, sometimes making tens of reservations, and it usually works pretty well. The same goes for making new Fastpass+ selections, changing ADRs, and otherwise using My Disney Experience (these days, anyway).
Before you start sending me pictures of your Donald Duck error message (or Stitch in the rain), let me be clear: I am not saying Disney is perfect. I’ve had problems–sometimes very annoying and difficult to correct problems–using Disney’s web services, as I am sure many of you have. What I am trying to say, however, is that making web services which have to support the kind of activity that Disney and Apple receive through their websites and apps is hard. I know that from both my experience as a developer of them and as a consumer of them. Programing at this kind of scale isn’t easy–just ask Apple after last night–, but, overall, Disney does a pretty good job with it.
ASIDE (for people who care): I bought a 128GB Gold iPhone 7. I like a white screen, since it’s easier to find when I leave it on the coach or my dark furniture, and I prefer gold to silver or pink. I chose the in-store pickup option so I can get it first thing in the morning next Friday, and I bought it in the Apple Upgrade Program, since it’s kind of stupid not to.
Capture of Disney’s “Server is Busy” Error Message
Elyssa’s and my trip to Disney World happened to fall during Visit Orlando’s Magical Dining Month. This program is similar to many “restaurant week” type programs, where certain restaurants offer prix fixe dinners at $33 per person from August 29 to October 2, 2016. Participating restaurants on Disney property include Il Mulino, Morimoto Asia, Ravello, Todd English’s bluezoo, and–our selection for dinner–STK Orlando. $1 of each meal is donated to The Russell Home for atypical children.
As has been well documented throughout the Disney blogosphere, STK’s gimmick is a high-end steakhouse mixed with a “club like” atmosphere. (Pro-tip: If you want to fit in with the other guys in “the club”, wear a dress shirt, untucked, with a pair of dark jeans.) Originally, we planned to arrive before the DJ got behind “the 1s and 2s”, but a Florida rainstorm delayed the start of our meal. (For reference, the DJ starts at 6:00pm and progressively turns the music up as the night goes on. It was tolerable for us, if not a little bass heavy, but I wouldn’t wanted to have stayed another hour.)
One item of note before we get into the “meat” of the review (ba dum cha!): our hostess didn’t offer us the Magical Dining Month menu. We had to ask for it. Looking around the restaurant, I didn’t see anyone else that had it. Keep that in mind if you’re planning on taking advantage of this promotion.
As with most restaurant week-style prix fixie offering, the meal consisted of three courses and bread service. The bread at STK is “pull apart” style that comes with blue cheese butter on top and chive oil on the side. This was fantastic (even for Elyssa who only–as someone who is not a blue cheese fan only ate the bottom of pieces.) The chive oil had a nice bit of spice, as well.STK Bread
We started our actual meal (I say “we” since Elyssa and I ordered the same meal) with what as listed as the Hearts of Romaine salad but differed from the one offered to guests ordering off the regular menu. Ours (shown below) looked more like a traditional salad, while other tables had large leaves of romaine lettuce with dressed dribbled on top and croutons on the side.Hearts of Romaine
The salad was quite good, with a nice flavor to the parmesan-lemon dressing, that went well with fresh peppercorns. The other appetizer options are tomato soup or roasted beets, if the salad doesn’t thrill you.
For our entree, we got the petite filet mignon with “pickled wax beans-almond romesco”. The steak was quite good (I think I prefer a steak from your neighborhood Ruth’s Chris, but it was in the same league as that), and, though the romesco wasn’t particularly flavorful, it complimented the steak nicely.STK Steak
I don’t really understand going to a steakhouse and ordering something other than steak, but the other entree options were smoked salmon and confit of duck leg.
For dessert, we had the warm chocolate cookie, with chocolate sauce, caramel, and vanilla ice cream. As you can see from the picture below, the cookie they served us was smaller than what Josh had went he reviewed the restaurant a couple of months ago.(Not served in a skillet. 1 star.) The cookie was still fantastic though, and might have been my favorite part of the meal (mostly because I love cookie-based sundaes, not because any of the rest of the meal was particularly bad.)STK Warm Cookie Sundae
The other dessert options are an “orange dream” cheesecake and assort sorbet.
As you might notice, we didn’t order order any sides. Josh’s images depicting 8 bites of potatoes for $10 kept us away. Of course, STK would happily allow you to order their sides from the regular menu even if you are enjoying the Magical Dining Month menu for the rest of your meal. Same goes for their various cocktails (which we also didn’t order, because we planned on hitting up Jock Lindsey’s and Homecoming later that night.) I’ll refer you, again, to Josh’s review for information on those.
Overall, Elyssa and I had a really good meal at STK (and Rebecca G was an excellent server, who provided information about the restaurant and the food as we went along.) I’m perfectly happy paying $66 (plus tax) for what we got (and think it was probably a pretty good value.) That said, I’m not sure STK is for me. As the night wore on, I really started to “feel” the bass of the music, which lessened my overall enjoyment with the experience. If I was paying 2x-3x as much for what I had, that enjoyment factor might mean more than it did when I’m getting a high quality salad, steak and dessert for $33. Since I did only pay $33 per person, though, I give dining at STK during Magical Dining Month a (tepid) thumbs up.
The real reason John and I are in Orlando this week is to bring you breaking news coverage of the identification of culprits in a burglary ring at Epcot. Here’s what we know:
Families started reporting missing snacks to cast members weeks ago. The story was always the same; a family would park their stroller to take the kids into a restaurant or on a ride only to return hours, or even just minutes, later to find the stroller ransacked, animal crackers and gummy bears nowhere to be found. We spoke to one woman whose toddler was screaming at the top of his lungs. Unfortunately we aren’t sure what the woman said, because her toddler was screaming at the top of his lungs. He was probably hungry.
Disney instructed cast members to be on the lookout for whoever was swiping snacks. There was speculation that Dora’s frenemy Swiper was on the loose. We also heard discussion that the Aristocats were to blame. The crime ring was cracked open this week though, as Rope Drop dot Net set up cameras near the scene.
What did we uncover? Well, take a look for yourselves. We’re not dealing with mere cat burglars. These crimes are being conducted by some seriously squirrelly figures.
One of the suspects scoping out a stroller basket.
Our first suspect discovers a bag with something worth further investigation.
Our first suspect sends out a message to his accomplice that the coast is clear and it’s stealing time.
The second suspect serves as a lookout and scout for strollers further down the line.
As you can see, there is a long line of strollers here and these animals can simply go to town. For these two, it’s a better breakfast buffet than Tusker House. Those poor unsuspecting families will be forced to pay Disney prices for snacks when they return to discover their off-brand cheerios missing.
Since we here at Rope Drop dot Net only report the news, we were unable to intervene or prevent further pilfering. Disney has been notified of the problem.
In the meantime, we recommend keeping all your snacks in a fanny pack on your person. Fanny packs are coming back in style!
As I mentioned in the last post, one of the goals during this trip was to make smaller updates along the way (instead of waiting to talk about the trip at the very end.) Since we’re going to STK tonight–which means you might never hear from me again–, I figured now would be a good time to post an update.
We both really enjoyed the night time Kilimanjaro Safaris. As I mentioned on Twitter, the experience is almost impossible to photograph, but don’t let my crappy photos deter you from giving it a shot. We were lucky enough to see the best lion interactions we’ve ever seen on a safari at Animal Kingdom, and I would still feel like I’m ahead if I rode the ride 10 more times and didn’t see an animal. If you’re at Animal Kingdom at night, I think it’s worth your time to give it a try (and Elyssa would probably even give a stronger recommendation.) That said, if Disney’s only running 1 side of the queue (which I hear is pretty common), you’re going to want to do what you can to get a Fastpass+ reservation. Otherwise, you’re probably going to wait an hour. (We managed to get a Fastpass+ reservation for about 20 minutes in the future after about 3 minutes of refreshing the app around 7:50pm.)
The Tree of Life Awakenings are fantastic. I saw 3 different versions, and I enjoyed them all. I especially like the one that featured more “movie type” excerpts, which gave the whole thing a Celebrate the Magic-like feel.
Nomad Lounge was pretty much dead from 8:45-10:00 while we were there, but it was a nice, relaxing way to end the day. The Kungaloosh Ale (which almost had Newcastle-like flavors with some added spice) and the Tempting Tigress were both quite good. Elyssa also enjoyed the Hightower Rocks (where the sweetness that covers the alcohol could easily get you sneaky drunk without too much effort.)
Princess Birthday Breakfast
The actual breakfast at Akershus is not quite as good as places like Crystal Palace, Tusker House, or Whispering Canyon (it consists of a “hot plate” with eggs, bacon, potato casserole, etc…, and a buffet with pastries and cold cuts.) We had decent princess interactions, seeing Belle, Ariel, Cinderella, and Snow White in the span 50 minutes (though the princesses all came out much later than we thought they would.) We still managed to exit in time to get into Frozen Ever After with only about a 15 minute wait (I’ll probably write about this more later, but you probably want to exit at 8:45-8:50am if you really want to guarantee a low wait. We exited at about 8:55am and ended up merging with the flow of people. I think we got pretty lucky.)
I really enjoyed Frozen Ever After. The movement on animatronics–especially Olaf–has to be seen to be believed. It is just so fluid. Elsa’s ice palace scene is also fantastic. For us and our sensibilities, it’s an upgrade over Maelstrom.
We really liked Frozen Ever After
Even though we weren’t on the far edge of the Soarin’ screen, we could see some bending of the structures. For us, it was only really noticeable for the Eiffel Tower. That said, the Soarin’ experience is still great. I’ll refrain from any “spoilers” about what’s in it, but I like the new video. (It’s probably blogger bias, but when I first thought about what to write for Soarin‘, the minimal bending was what came to mind. That’s why that sentence was first, not the part where I explain my overall impression of the ride.)
I think Ample Hills is my second favorite ice cream on property (it is probably Elyssa’s first.) I think I still prefer a No Way Jose, but knowing I can get Ample Hills if there are no Beaches & Cream ADRs available is a great fall back. (I know the ice cream itself is probably better than plain ice cream from Beaches & Cream, but I just have so much connection to the No Way Jose, that I can’t pick something else ahead of it.)
Squad Goals
After having lunch there on Monday afternoon, I think Via Napoli has moved into a clear 3rd place in the “Disney World restaurant most frequented by the Kivii” rankings. (Whispering Canyon is pretty far out in the lead (since we have stayed at Wilderness Lodge a bunch, and it has breakfast, lunch & dinner options), Beaches & Cream is second place (partially because of stops for No Way Joses), and BOATHOUSE is probably 4th (for now).) The “flexibility” pizza provides is probably one of the reasons we like it so much (we decided to make a last second Ample Hills stop about 45 minutes before Via Napoli, which meant we didn’t eat our entire pizza for lunch. That wasn’t an issue, however, since we were able to take it home and pull it out of the fridge to have for dinner a couple of hours later.)
We finished our day by watching the Main Street Electrical Parade. I’m glad I got to see it again before it goes away in a few weeks, but watching it does reinforce that I’m super bummed it’s leaving. Elyssa and I have so many good memories of watching it.
What are you looking at?
That’s it for this update. Dinner at STK tonight. Wish me luck!
We’re going to try something different on this trip and try to post some more updates during the trip (in addition to coverage once it’s completed.) Here are some thoughts about the first night and day of the trip:
Homecoming turned out to be pretty good (even if I was a little miffed at some of the seating mishaps when we arrived.) The “famous fried” chicken was good, and Elyssa enjoyed her “dinner of sides” (mac & cheese, mashed potatoes, and biscuits.) I can think of a couple of local NC places with better fried chicken, but not to the point where I wouldn’t go back to Homecoming. Getting to enjoy the meal with Eric and Kristi certainly helped things, too.(BOATHOUSE is still our top choice, but Homecoming & Morimoto are pretty close to each other in second.)Homecoming Friend Chicken
Kona Cafe breakfast is still fantastic. We had a 7:30AM ADR to load up on Tonga Toast (Elyssa, as always, was a “big kahuna”) before heading over to watch the Welcome Show at the Magic Kingdom (which we sometimes forget to enjoy because we’re too amped to get to our first attraction.)
Rope drop remains a great way to get a bunch of stuff done as your start your day. (We had a number of our favorite attractions–Buzz, Under the Sea, Jungle Cruise, Pirates–done before 10 am with–essentially–no waiting.
When it comes to viewing Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire, Josh from easyWDW is not wrong when he recommends standing right near the top of the slope in back of the partner’s statute. I walked to that spot about 30 seconds before the show started and got an (almost) unobstructed view of the whole thing (thanks, random guy with the giant balloon who moved up front for the finale.) It was a great vantage point for a really fun, enjoyable show.Let it flow
Of course, the highlight of our trip so far was getting to meet up with friend of the site, host of Mighty Men of Mouse and all around great guy, Dutch Lombrowski. Dutch took some time out of his night to come join Elyssa and me, ride of Splash, and catch up all various things (that have happened over the 3+ years we’ve known each other.) As an added bonus, always entertaining Gosh Jonzalez joined us for the last hour or so of the night as well. It was great hanging out with both of them.
That’s all for this early trip update. The idea is that we’ll post more soon (but we’ll see how that goes.)
It’s time for everyone’s favorite serving of Disney World, the Rope Drop [dot] Net News Nuggets! There isn’t a lot of particularly juicy news this time, but a few things that I would classify as “transitional” (like the closing of Sum of All Thrills or–essentially–moving all convention space to the Yacht Club.) That said, let’s get to it!
Rumors of The Sum of All Thrills and Stormstruck Closing and an End of Innovations at Epcot – If Sum of All Thrills is closing too (as rumored), it would seem that Innovations might be added to the list of things that will get an overhaul. That said, with the construction currently going on at The Studios and Animal Kingdom, I would think it would be a few years before they even start things at Epcot.
Rumors of Wreck-It Ralph VR Attraction to Replace Stitch’s Great Escape – I heard Jim Hill talking about this, and I thought it sounded like a decent idea (especially with Wreck-It Ralph 2 coming out in a couple of years.) I’d be fine with it. (Good job by WDW NT for crediting the source of the rumor, too.)
Celebrate Disney PhotoPass Day on August 19 – This strikes me as a weird promotion. Disney does seem to run things during this period in August, though (remember that Studios Villains event they did for a couple of years?)
New FitBit-style MagicBand design change possibly in development – Interesting. It might make sense to allow for people to move their RFID between different “bands”. Part of me wonders how that would impact the “special” MagicBand sales (like the Christmas themed ones, etc…), though.
Extending Western Way to Route 545 past Flamingo Crossings – I always like easier traffic patterns, but I don’t want anything that’s going to result in Flamingo Crossing raising its prices (it’s a nice, quaint little place to stay for a night or two at the beginning or end of a trip.)
We’ll close out with a video that Disney recently posted of what it’s like to be the eagle at the tail end of the Main Street Electrical parade. Thanks for reading, and enjoy!
After a recent trip to Disney World involved a major life event for Serenity, we reached out to see if she would be interested in being interviewed for the site. Thankfully, she graciously accepted.
Rebel Spy? – Picture from Serenity
(EDITOR’S NOTE: As always, the questions are presented in bold, with Serenity’s answers following. I have made minor edits for readability, but have made every effort not to impact the flow of the conversation.)
After what happened on your most recent trip, Disney World is going to have a major place in the story of your life. Is this a change for you or have you always had strong ties to Disney and its theme parks?
I grew up in southern California, so the Disney fandom has long been strong with my family! We never had annual passes because we lived just too far away from Anaheim to make good use out of them, but we’d usually make two or three Disney excursions a year. Some of my favorite early memories as a kid were at that park — trying to pull King Arthur’s sword out of the stone, riding Mr Toad’s Wild Ride late at night, waiting in line for hours during the debut of the Indiana Jones ride and memorizing the old AT&T decoder card to figure out what the runes on the walls said… and, of course, playing hooky from school with my dad to go ride Space Mountain.
Disneyland will forever be my one true park, but I’ve got a slow-growing fondness for Disney World after some particularly fun and memorable trips—this last one included! I’d wanted to visit Disney World for years, but I didn’t actually set foot there until I was 20, with a college boyfriend who had the same fondness for Disney World as I had for its west-coast sibling. I have him to thank for getting me thoroughly ensconced in the lore and love of WDW: He’d been on some of the fancy WDW backstage tours and provided excellent commentary about the parks and their many attractions as we waited in lines and dodged parades. And he introduced me to the glory — and gut-ache! — of the World Showcase dinner (one piece of food or drink from each pavilion).
Proudly displaying the Happily Ever After Button – Picture from Serenity
How many times since that initial Disney World trip have you been back? How has your anticipation and planning for those trips evolved?
Since that initial trip, I’ve been three times, including our last adventure. The second time was much more whirlwind — only a day or two, and spent largely at Epcot and Magic Kingdom. The third was another two-day adventure, but it came after the FastPass+ revolution, which meant I was introduced to the magic of online scheduling. Once I figured out that you could book not only rides, but food, via the Disney app, I became obsessed.
How’s that Grey Stuff taste? – Picture from Serenity
I’ve always used MouseSavers as my baseline guide to all things Disney, but for this last trip, I leaned heavily on Disney’s own resources — the app was where I discovered I could book food experiences at other resort hotels, and we used Disney’s maps and transportation options to heavily plan how we’d jump from park to park. Like my last two WDW trips, this was only a two-day affair, so we had to plan smartly around meals and the like.
People who follow you online know that you had a major life event on your last trip to Disney World. Would you mind sharing what happened and the details around it?
Indeed I did. 🙂 While on our trip to Florida, my boyfriend not-so-subtly set up a lovely proposal, followed by our trip to Disney World!
Funny story: As he tells it, his original plan was to propose to me in the park, incorporating Star Tours — my all-time favorite Disney ride. But when he went to ask my folks for permission and fill his folks in on the plan, both of them rebelled and insisted he do it before we left. (In part, I think, because they wanted to give us a proper congratulatory send-off.) So the official proposal happened on a lovely beach near his dad’s house in Florida the day before Disney; but the “Star Tours proposal that almost was” is how I’ll remember it.
And best of all, we still got to celebrate our engagement at Disney World! We did as many “newly engaged” park activities as possible, including an incredible dinner at the Animal Kingdom Lodge’s Jiko followed by an adorably sweet phone call from Mickey and Minnie wishing us well. (We may have snuck out to the rear patio for some nighttime animal-watching, too, because how can you not when you’re at Animal Kingdom Lodge?)
Best Ride or Bested Ride? – Picture from Serenity
Though it might be a little cliche, I feel like I would be remiss if I didn’t ask such a prominent member of the tech media at least one “tech” question. So, do you have any recommendations for readers of the site for what technology they might be able to use to help with their Disney Vacations?
I’ve been going to Disney parks all my life, but the iPhone era has definitely changed how I pack and plan for trips! After some experimentation, I have a pretty set list of tech to pack and apps to use:
My iPhone 6s + Smart Battery Case (those parks eat battery life!)
My Anker 10,000 battery pack (see point #1)
Disney’s official app (a must for trip planning, fast pass reservations, and dining) (EDITOR’S NOTE: My Disney Experience)
Offline Google Maps caches of the resort property (to save on data and battery)
Heads Up! (Still the best line-waiting iPhone app.)
My Apple Watch for fitness tracking and notifications; it also functions as a great remote Bluetooth shutter for my iPhone’s camera
Your tech needs may vary depending on your own Disney plans, but in general, you want to make sure you have enough battery for navigation, trip planning, and the occasional line-waiting game; a good, easy-to-reach place to grab your phone to capture those magic moments; and any apps you know you’ll want to mess around with while in the park.
I also strongly discourage posting to Instagram, Facebook, and the like while in the park — not only will it drain your battery and your data plan, but you might miss something fantastic while staring at your screen waiting for your photo to upload.
Wrap Up
A huge thank you to Serenity for agreeing to talk with us about Disney World, and a huge congratulations to her on her engagement!. If you want to read more from Serenity, you can find her writings on iMore (her review of the Apple Pencil is a fantastic place to start). If you want to her her talking about technology check out iMore Show and Apple Talk, and, or listen to her chat about pop / geek culture (and an assortment of related topics) at The Incomparable. (If you have any interest in mid-20th century-style radio dramas, check out The Incomparable Radio Theater, which Serenity directed.)
One of the many services offered at the Animal Kingdom – Picture from SerenityDisney Selfies are the Best Selfies – Picture from Serenity
Thank you again to Serenity chatting with us. We really hope you like these interviews with people outside the standard Disney community, and we hope to bring more of them to you in the future!.
The Disney Parks Blog is live streaming Princess Elena’s Royal Welcome today. The easiest way to watch this event is probably to just visit Disney Parks Blog and see if they have a new post up that has a link to the live stream (Disney has turned off the various ways to easily access its streams via YouTube.)
For those that actually in Disney World during August, this Royal Welcome event is supposed to take place a few times each day over the next couple of weeks.
The next set of rumors / theories (that I first saw mentioned by friend of the site Howie from Maryland) is that Disneyland’s “Paint the Night” parade (which was recently discontinued) would be making its way to the Magic Kingdom. UPDATE: Paint the Night will actually be running on “select dates” through the Holiday Season. That, obviously, makes it harder for it to be starting at the Magic Kingdom soon.
Personally, I’m really torn on all of this. Watching the Main Street Electrical Parade, especially the second showing on a giving night, is always a highlight of Elyssa’s and my trips (even more so if we can win the Reno Challenge while watching.) That said, Paint the Night has gotten spectacular reviews and I would love to see it in person.
Ultimately, though, I’m really glad that Elyssa and I have a trip planned so we can say goodbye to the Main Street Electrical Parade one last time.
Through some recent discussions on the Mickey Milers Facebook group, it has come to our attention that runDisney no long provides deferrals for any of its races. (Previously, you could pay a nominal fee to defer a race a year into the future.) Even more disheartening, this was not a change that was broadcast by runDisney or even before registration for the races took place, but, instead, was something we found out about when of our fellow Mickey Miles team members was informed of this policy change when requesting a deferral because of upcoming brain surgery. Instead of allowing him to have a deferral to a future year, runDisney decided to make a “1 time exception” to the “no refunds” policy and provide our fellow team member with a Disney Gift Card in the amount of 1/2 of the funds he paid to register for his races (minus the registration fees that Active.com charges.) That’s right, instead of allowing a runner to defer to the future because he was having brain surgery, runDisney said he could have 1/2 of his money back, in the form of Disney credit.
Policy changes like this disappoint me, greatly. When Elyssa had her brain surgery a couple of years ago, runDisney was fantastic about deferring our race registrations at no cost to the following year. Knowing that race was coming up again was a huge part of what motivated Elyssa to learn to walk, and then run, again. Getting that deferral was such a pivotal moment, that I clearly remember the night I got off the phone with runDisney, walked into Elyssa’s hospital room (crying) and said “I just got off the phone with runDisney. We’re running the race next year. You and me. Whatever it takes.” It was about 2 days later that Elyssa took her first post-surgery steps, and about 5 days later that she first jogged around the hall. To hear that runDisney has decided to not offer this same benefit to someone who is a very active participant in the runDisney community is heartbreaking. It really feels like taking some of the magic away
Elyssa and I love participating in runDisney events. We’ll be running the Star Wars: Dark Side Challenge in April of next year, and are really looking forward to it. In fact, while we are participating in it, we’ll probably love it. That said, thinking about it now, it saddens me that runDisney’s policies are standing in the way of people having the same chance to “come back” from major surgery and injuries that Elyssa did. Frankly, I would have been devastated if runDisney told me what they’re telling people now. It’s so disappointing that I hardly even know how to express it.
Under runDisney’s new policy, I wouldn’t have had this moment. My princess finally completing her race.
tl;dr – Though mildly enjoyable to play, it’s your typical, scammy “free-to-play” mobile game that is best avoided.
In a recent article at MacStories Graham Spencer dug into the top grossing apps in the iOS App Store, and found that over 65% of them were what are known as “free-to-play” games. These games use a model that involve a “free” download of the game, and then the ability to use the in-app purchase functionality of your to allow you to “enhance” your experience. Insidiously, the games are then designed in a way that you are almost constantly tempted to purchase these “enhancements”, thereby allowing the developers to rake in money from users. Sadly, Disney’s iOS offering has all the worst elements of that trend.
What is Emoji Blitz
When I first heard of KIMOJI, I couldn’t understand what would make the application so popular. Clearly, I was in the minority, as KIMOJI shot to the top of the iOS App Store sales chart. When it was announced that Disney was going to make its own emoji keyboard–featuring its famed icons like Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy–I figured I would give a try. What I never expected was that Disney Emoji Blitz would set a new low in gamification of a simple concept. You see, instead of purchasing the Disney Emoji keyboard and getting access to the various emojis that Disney has created, the Emoji blitz requires you to “unlock” the various emojis through repeated play of a simple matching game (think of a combination of Tetris and Connect-Four, where when you end up with 3 of the same emoji next to each other, they disappear from the board and new emoji fall into place.)
Emoji Blitz Game
On its face, the game play isn’t terrible. It’s a nice little distraction when you have a minute or two. If that’s all the game was, I might have such a problem with it. Sadly, however, it gets much, much worse.
Gamification Elements
The easiest place to start talking about the gamification of Emoji Blitz is in the “currency” system that’s in place. In the game, you have 3 different types of currency:
Currency at Top
Hearts – These are your “lives”. You can only play the game if you have a heart. These re-generate every 10 minutes, but you can only keep five of those auto-generated hearts at once (you can, of course, buy more.)
Coins – These allow you to buy things like “boosts” to use in your game, or, most importantly, new emojis.
Gems – You trade in gems to get more hearts or coins (yep, it’s that convoluted) or to change the “challenges” the game is presenting you. Gems are what you can purchase more of with actual money via the game’s in-app purchase system.
So, why have this kind of confusing system of currency? Because, it provides a way to obfuscate what you are purchasing and how much you’re actually spending. For example, you can purchase 81 gems for $1.99. You could then use 30 of those gems to get 5 extra hearts, and 50 of those gems to 6000 coins. Of course, you need 15,000 coins to buy a new emoji, so maybe you should buy 486 gems for $9.99 and then trade 300 of those gems into 40000 coins to pick a “gold box” emoji. You then have a 1 in 20 chance of getting that Tinker Bell emoji you really want (And it’s always 1 in 20, since, SURPRISE, you might get a awarded an emoji you already have.) It’s crazy. You could easily spend hundreds of dollars trying to get the ability to insert a cute WALL-E emoji into your text messages.
Maybe I’ll get Tink this time?
If you think that’s bad, the actual game play might be worse. To incentive you to keep playing the game, there are “Missions”, which are things that you need to complete to get to the next “level”:
Missions
“Items” which are things you can collect during the course of the game play:
Items
And daily” Challenges”, which are things you need to compete in a given day in order to get some kind of bonus:
Challenges
All of these are designed to get you to want to play the game more (“Oh, I’ll just try to complete the next mission.” “Oh, I’ll just play until I can collect pirate ship.”), but the challenges are especially terrible, since, not only do you have to complete the challenges in a given day, but your playable characters can only be used once after 2 FREAKIN’ HOURS (Unless, of course, you pay to buy gems, which you can then use to “wake up” the character to play agin.) It’s such a scam.
Can’t Play. Characters are Sleeping
For another perfect example of how manipulative Emoji Blitz is, take a look at that this screen shot:
Spend money at your time of weakness?
In this example there’s a “rare” item on the board, but my time is expired. So what does the game offer me? A chance to use 20 gems RIGHT THEN, in order to get 10 more second to try and collect that “rare” item. If you remember from above, those 20 Gems might cost me a $2 in-app purchase. In other words, the game is trying to capitalize on the fact that I might be willing to do something extra to get this rare item and is hoping I’m caught up in the moment enough to think that paying $2 for 10 seconds of gameplay is somehow a good idea. It is such a scam.
Conclusion
I like emojis. I think they’re cute. I was looking forward to putting Disney emojis in my tweets and text messages. Instead of giving me that chance, however, Disney has created a “game” that has been systematically engineered to try and get you to pay as much money as possible why you pay. It’s so shameful that I would recommend that you don’t even bother downloading Disney Emoji Blitz. I’m sure you can find much better ways to spend tens (or hundreds) of dollars than trying to unlock a cute drawing of Tink’s face.
It might be the weekend, but here at Rope Drop [dot]Net HQ we are still committed to providing you with your News Nuggets. Before we get started on the “links” part of the Nuggets, a quick update to Tables in Wonderland. Disney has finally decided to add Skipper Canteen & Jock Lindsey’s to the list of places that get discounts (along with the much newer Nomad Lounge and Tiffins at Animal Kingdom.) I wonder if this will have any impact on attendance at Skipper Canteen.
As another special perk, Disney is giving 20% of merchandise purchase at Word of Disney in Disney Springs to Tables in Wonderland members through Labor Day. As always, I would recommend that you point out this discount to the cast members (i.e., I doubt they’ll ask you about it.)
Now, with that out of the way, let’s move on to the rest of the Nuggets!
Sunshine Seasons at Epcot Discontinuing Breakfast Service This Weekend – With more people heading over to Norway for FrozenStrom, it makes sense that fewer people were headed to The Land for breakfast. I wouldn’t be surprised if they offered breakfast service at The Land during the holidays, though.
A change to Epcot Fastpass+ Tier system – One of everyone’s favorite boat rides, Living the Land, is now a Tier 2 attraction. Not really a surprise, with Soarin’ back open and FrozenStrom drawing people to the other side of the park.
Experience Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at Disney Springs with Limited Time Offer – A whole bunch of discounts for various pass holders, DVC members, people staying on site, etc… If you were thinking about going to Bibbidi Bobbidi at Disney Springs before Septmber 5, it might be worth it to check out these discounts.
That’s it for this edition of the News Nuggets! Of course, if you’re like me, the biggest news of the weekend is probably the announcement that the new Rogue One trailer will drop during NBC’s Olympics coverage on Thursday! (I’m a little excited for that movie.)
The Shop Disney Parks App currently has 25% off and free ground shipping on “most orders”. This is great if one of your favorite website contributors has a birthday coming up and you haven’t gotten her anything yet.
Seriously, though, I use the Shop Disney Parks App even when I’m at Disney World. It is sometimes cheaper (and almost always easier) to have items just shipped directly to my home than have to worry about transporting them myself back from Disney World. Since the app even gives you a lot of your various discounts (AP, DVC, etc…), it’s usually worth checking out.
All that said, however, one thing that you should be doing at Disney World, regardless of what battery pack you use (or don’t), is using Low Power Mode on your iPhone while in the parks. (Android apparently has its own Battery Saver Mode, which might have a similar impact, but, I’ve never used Android, so I can’t confirm.)
Basically, when you’re walking around Disney World, your phone is constantly trying to deal with things that suck battery (low or non-existent network connection, you checking the time or trying to refresh FastPass+ availability, etc…). Low Power Mode helps address some of this drain by doing things like reducing background app refreshes and some of the visual effects on your phone. Though I haven’t done extensive comparisons of when my phone dies while in a given Disney Park, I can report that my phone lasts significantly longer when on Low Power Mode. In fact, I’ve even managed a near full Disney day (rope drop at the Magic Kingdom, lunch at Beaches & Cream, visit to Disney Springs, then back to Magic Kingdom for Celebrate the Magic and Wishes) without running out of battery. (Obviously, your results may vary—and I wouldn’t recommend this being your standard operating procedure—but, it’s possible.)
Should you decide to give Low Power Mode a try, turning it on is pretty simple. First, go to the settings app on your iPhone. From there, select the “Battery” option from the third grouping of choices.
Setting Screen
On the Battery menu, you then simply turn on Low Power Mode. That’s it.
Low Power Mode
iOS is kind of aggressive about turing “off” Low Power Mode, so if you happen to plug your phone in (to a charger or battery pack), you might want to check to make sure Low Power mode remained on. (I like to turn Low Power Mode on before I unplug my phone from a charger. That seems to help the automatic shut-offs a bit.)
Hopefully, this tip helps your battery survive a little longer while visiting Disney World. Good luck!
Earlier today, Disney released training playlists themed to some of their upcoming races. For some unknown reason, however, they did not give direct links to actually find the playlists on Spotify. Here are those links:
2016 Candlelight Processional at Epcot Dining Packages On Sale – It’s tough to book a package when the announcers aren’t known for so many dates. Also, with them offering packages for Captain’s Grill and Trattoria Al Forno, there’s going to be a lot of spots filled up package buyers.
Celebrate Halloween at ‘Club Villain’ at Disney’s Hollywood Studios – They’re bringing back this event on Friday and Saturday nights from September 2-October 29 (and also on October 31). With this timing, it’s an alternative option to Mickey’s Not So Scary (but on different nights.) I know this event has gotten good reviews, but $129 a person seems just so steep for something like this.
Inside look at 2016 DVC Beach Bash – Got to love lines like: “When the ice cream cart was wheeled out, it was like ‘The Hunger Games’ with people grabbing Mickey Bars by the handful!”
PizzeRizzo Opening This Fall at Disney’s Hollywood Studios – This post originally said “September”, but I guess Disney wanted to give themselves some leeway. I’m hoping they have the new flatbreads that from Pizzafari Josh over at easyWDW speaks so highly off.
As you might imagine, there have been a bunch of ride-through / experience videos of the new attractions. I don’t think I’m going to watch any of them, but if you’re interested, here are a few:
This might seem like a very specific topic to cover, but friend of the site Dutch Lombrowskiis driving from New England down to Florida the next couple of weeks and I planned on typing up this information for him anyway. (I have no idea if he actually wants it, but I figured I’d share anyway.)
Coming from Raleigh / Durham, we get on I-95 at Exit 81. Since that’s about 40 minutes from our house we don’t normally need to stop quite yet, but Exit 79 (Benson) does have a top flight, North Carolina BBQ stop—White Swan BBQ—if you’re interested
Here are our other key notes for the drive:
North Carolina
NC Exit 22 – The only Chick-Fil-A between when we get on I-95 and the end of the state. If we’re getting an “after work” start, then we usually stop here.
South Carolina
Driving through South Carolina always feels like the longest part of the drive. It’s not the prettiest part of highway, there’s not a lot of good places to stop, and it’s only 2 frakin’ lanes!!!. (And, yes, I know South of the Border exists, but, realistically, I’m not stopping there.) Thankfully, gas prices are usually pretty low. We usually find, however, that once you get into the last 30 miles of the state, it’s better to wait to Georgia.
SC Exit 160A – The only Chick-Fil-A off I-95 in SC (I know, right?). It’s this weird “drive-through only”-type establishment that we usually skip because the whole experience is a pain in the rear.
SC Exit 157 – This has a Bojangles, but it’s 5 miles off the highway in the wrong direction (when you’re driving South).
SC Exit 119 – Another “off the highway” Bojangles. This one is 1.3 miles if you take a left off the exit. There’s a Cook Out only .5 miles from the exit, though.
SC Exit 98 – There’s a Hampton Inn and a Bojangles here. The next place with decent hotels is Savannah, GA (which is 100 miles away.) Make sure you’re not too tired to go that distant.
SC Exit 57 – Bojangles about a mile, left, off the exit.
SC Exit 53 – That said, there’s a Holiday Inn Express here in Walterboro that we’ve thought about trying. (It has good reviews, but we’ve also heard horror stories.) We’ve always ended up making it to Savannah, though. (Technically, there’s also a Hampton Inn, but it’s a converted, old motel with all exterior entry rooms.)
Georgia
Getting across the bridge into Georgia (and it’s 3 lane highway!!) always feels like such a relief. There’s a ton of different exits in Savannah that have hotels, so I won’t go over all of them here. Just know that, if you make it to Savannah, you’re almost always going to be fine finding a place to stay.
GA Exit 104 – If you made it through South Carolina and want to reward yourself with a Frozen Lemonade, here’s your first Chik-Fil-A.
GA Exit 38 – This is kind of “stretch” goal if we leave in the evening after work (For example, if we know Carolina is playing Duke in basketball at a 9pm tip-off and we’re going to be up late anyway.) There’s a Hampton Inn here that’s right off the highway.
GA Exit 3 – Here’s another Chick-Fil-A. (Though we normally wait until we get to Florida to stop.)
Florida
Florida! You’ve made it! (Well, almost.) I’m not going to talk about hotel options in Florida, since (if you’re like me) you’ll probably want to just get to Orlando now. If you really can’t go any farther, than St. Augustine has a variety of options.
FL Exit 363: One of our primary Chick-Fil-A stops. It’s a little off the highway, but your GPS should explain the funky traffic pattern to you. This exit also has a Blaze Pizza if you want to try that before it opens at Disney Springs.
FL Exit 344: As I said, 363 is our primary Chick-Fil-A stop. At exit 344 we’re getting a little too close to Jacksonville, and we’d rather not risk some kind of traffic occurring when we are really ready for a stop. (Sitting in traffic when you really have to go to the bathroom is the worst.)
FL Exit 339: Another Chick-Fil-A here, but we never stop.
FL Exit 268: The Chick-Fil-A opened in Fall 2016, and we’ve actually stopped on the way home from Disney.
FL Exit 260B: I-4! You’re really almost there! (Probably about an hour, depending on traffic.)
As you can imagine, when we’re that close to Disney World, we don’t usually stop (so, I can’t really make any I-4 recommendations.)
Those are Elyssa’s and my tips for driving from North Carolina to Disney World. If our Chick-Fil-a focused plan doesn’t work for you, check our the I-95 exit guide to try and plan a drive that works for you!
This is a big month for people who like Disney live streams, as the Disney Parks Blog is doing one every Monday. Today’s stream, which goes live at 4:00PM Eastern Time, is Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire.
The other upcoming streams are:
July 18 – Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular; and
July 25 – Paint the Night Parade
Enjoy getting your Disney fix, even when you can’t be at the parks yourself!
tl;dr – Plan ahead and buy a battery rod or packfrom Amazon instead of spending more time and money on Fuel Rods. Also, this article has a lot of numbers.
As has been reported on a number of different sites, Disney World has started rolling out Fuel Rod portable chargers for people to use in the parks. The basics of the system are that you pay $30 to get a Fuel Rod that comes fully charged to use with your phone. When you have used the entire battery, you can either recharge the Fuel Rod yourself, or exchange it at a kiosk to get a different, fully charged one at no cost.
Unfortunately, Fuel Rod doesn’t really advertise the size of their…ummm…rod? (Sorry.) The only Fuel Rod review I was able to find said that he got about 65% of an iPhone charge with one of the rods. (This is consistent with what I heard on an episode of DIS Unplugged, but it seems that they used the same review I did to come up with their number.) For those mathematically inclined, 65% of the current’s iPhone’s battery would mean a Fuel Rod would have just over 1,100 mAh of capacity (the current iPhone has a 1,1715 mAh).
To satisfy my intellectual curiosity, I also tried to calculate the size of a Fuel Rod by using the “around 8 hours of phone charge” claim reported by WDW Magic. Though Apple lists a variety of battery times for its iPhone, an estimate of 15-17 hours per day for a normal user isn’t terrible. (A normal user not at Disney World, where the combination of poor network connectivity and “need” to refresh My Disney Experience repeatedly for Fastpass+ availability means that you’re probably looking more realistically at 8-10 hours of battery life, if you’re lucky.) This would mean that a Fuel Rod would charge just over 50% of the current iPhone, and most likely have a capacity of around 850 mAh.
In order to give Fuel Rod the benefit of the doubt (which they don’t deserve for keeping their specs a secret, but, whatever), let’s assume their rods have 1,200 mAh of capacity. How does that compare to various other battery options on the market? SPOILER ALERT: Terribly.
For example, for $10, you can get this Anker battery rod that has just under 3x the capacity of a Fuel Rod and is still slightly slimmer in size. This would let you charge your phone twice without having to think about “recharging your rod”. If you want to invest the same $30 you’d spend on a FuelRod, you can purchase this Amazon Basics Battery Pack that will charge your iPhone over 9 times before it needs to be recharged. In other words, you’d need to either recharge or swap out your Fuel Rod 12 times to get the same capacity as the the Amazon Basics pack. That’s ridiculous. I’d much rather “worry” about remembering to plug in my battery pack every 2-3 days than have to find Fuel Rod kiosks 10+ times over that period.
Look, I understand that some people might not want to carry a battery pack with them when they first enter the park. But, once you buy that first Fuel Rod, you’re going to be carrying it with you anyway for the rest of the day (your Disney World visit?) so you can swap it out. You might as well just pay $10 in advance and get the Anker rod that weighs 2.7 oz to bring with you. At least then you’ll be able to charge your phone almost twice before you need to worry about your battery pack, instead of the .65 times you’d get from the $30 Fuel Rod.
Disney World has made smart phones necessary items to enjoy your park going experience, and, if you want to actually use your phone, you’re probably going to need some additional power. Though the Fuel Rod seems like an interesting idea on the service, its high cost and apparent low capacity seem like a poor option to fit almost all use cases. Think of it this way: you’re already planning things like ADRs and Fastpass+ reservations in advance of your Disney vacation, why not also plan to buy a battery rod or packin advance and save yourself a bunch of hassle?
As people who follow me on Twitter (or are observant enough to notice the lack of updates on the site) are aware, the last few weeks have been some of my most disconnected from Disney World in the past few years. That said, it’s about time to throw on some of my best bright colors and come high stepping back to the Disney World community that Elyssa and I love so much.
On our recent 9 hour (but not to or from Disney World) drive, Elyssa and I talked like we would if we had been heading back from a Disney World trip. As we almost always do, we started our discussion with some talk about our favorite breakfast locations (Kona—which we hadn’t been to at the time of our original post—and Tusker House, obviously). We talked about our preference for going to Narcoossee’s over Be Our Guest (we’d rather spend a little extra money, have a a better meal, and not be rushed through it), and our general strategy for how we’d tour if we go to Disney World over Christmas this year (rope drop to take advantage of—what will almost assuredly be—early opening hours, and then have breakfast closer to 11:00 as people really start to arrive.) We also discussed our preferences for New Year’s plans if we’re still down there (Magic Kingdom on the 30th, Studios (??) on NYE?). It was a good couple of hours Disney discussion that got me ready to (hopefully) jump back into a few things that I have been working on for the site.
The biggest take away from the conversation, though, was me once again realizing that how lucky I am to have someone like Elyssa to help me run this site, and—more importantly—my life. I do feel like I (probably?) missed a good bit over the past couple of weeks, but at least I got to keep up with one thing (she’s probably prefer if I say “person”) that’s most important.
Now, with all that said, who’s partying with us in October?
