jvmacross

Yeah....booking in advance is primarily only advantageous if you are also looking to reserve dining as well....if not, then the current situation works for anyone...although if you are not up at 7am EST, are not staying at a Disney affiliate resort, have a slow phone or bad wifi, you are pretty much SOL and can expect to be waiting in long lines all day for the better rides... Agreed, The Minecart ride is very tame, but it is short and honestly too "smooth" there are hardly any thrills....the gimmick is the swaying carts....in contrast, Big Thunder Mt is harsh and thus adds to the thrill factor....it is always one of the first rides of the day for us, as the wait time usually is 5-15 minutes at park opening (actually, it opens about 30 minutes after park opening, so that sort of helps as most other guests are flocking to what is open already)...usually get 2 rides on that one before heading to Splash Mt.... Port Orleans and Riverside are great and personally the best choice for a trip with both kids/adults.....unless you can drop some serious cash on the Deluxe Resorts.... This time we stayed at the Dolphin, but I think we will not be returning...it costs more, but staying within the Disney Bubble for the entire trip is worth the extra money IMO... Agreed about Slinky Dog.....especially when it miraculously gets you through the line and onto the ride within 30 minutes or less at exactly 8pm when the park closes...seemingly no matter how many people are currently in line at the time...LOL That's another tip....didn't get to ride something because the wait times never dropped below 2 hours all day or simply did not want to P2P....just get in line at park close and you will and at a much smaller wait time...go figure!

One crazy thing too that you can do, is pick a ride that breaks down often (ride it first without a reservation, then select it as a lightning lane pass)......there are several with this tendancy, Splash Mt and Pirstes to name a few)....the cool thing about this is that if the ride breaks down during your reserved return window (and this is for ANY ride) the reservation is converted automatically into an "open" pass.....in the case of RotR....this is great because let's say you got some crummy return window (windows are 1 hour) say at noon and the ride breaks down...suddenly your noon frees up to ride something else and then return to the RotR at a time that is convenient for you.........this happened to me at MK with the Pirates ride...it broke down 3 times and since I had reserved it for those three times, I received a pass to either return to the ride later or pick any other ride.....so what I did was use 2 of them to ride something else that I had not been able to secure during that day...in fact, I actually held onto my last "open pass" and went to see guest services and they were able to swap it to be used for a different park altogether, thus I ended up using it to ride Smuggler's Run at Hollywood Studios....so keep that in mind.....the open pass will coincide with the type of reservation you had...so if it was a P2P...you could swap it for another P2P at another park (P2P are non-refundable, so you definitely want to swap it for something else if you find yourself at the end of the day without having had a chance to ride it, because it was either down or you just ran out of time)....if it was a regular ride...it could only be swapped for another regular ride....the My Disney Experience app will let you know what rides can be used with the open pass.....but it does not tell you that you can swap it for a ride at another park...so use that to your advantage if you are heading to another park the next day or have a park hopper.....don't let them go to unused!

best to have them reserve the park ahead of time (assuming they will also buy their tickets at the same time) so you all are guaranteed to be able to meet up....I read stories where people waited too long and were not able to do this or had to cancel trips because they could not get everyone a park reservation on the day they needed it....also, before they commit to buy their tickets, make sure they check to see that the park you all intend to meet up at is actually available to reserve for that day.... The good thing is you are staying on Disney property so you will be able to book any "table/sit-down" restaurant 60 days prior to your visit.....if you plan on dining at any of these restaurants I strongly advise to determine what day marks your 60 days to your visit...on that day you can actually reserve your restaurant selections for the full duration of your trip, not just for the first day...so that helps alot And in case you were wondering...these are the ones that book out quickly....if you are not interested in any of these...you should be able to get a reservation at most any restaurant at any of the parks.... Magic Kingdom: Be Our Guest Cinderella's Royal Table Epcot: Space 220 Le Celier -Canada Teppan Edo - Japan La Hacienda De San Angel - Mexico Hollywood Studios: Sci-Fi Drive In Animal Kingdom: Yak & Yeti Disney Springs: T-Rex The goal is to reserve your "must haves" first and then go from there....if you are lucky and quick...you will get everything you want, if not, you can hopefully get most and then you will need to keep checking for the next week to see if anyone drops a reservation or you can check the days prior to your trip because that is when guests start dropping stuff because if you do not, Disney will charge you for a "no show".... Good Luck! Once you reserve your parks for each day of your visit...you can start to strategize on which rides you will want to reserve at 7am EST for each day you are at WDW.... This is what will "sell out" seconds/minutes" after the reservations become available at 7am: The p2p (pay to play) rides will not count against your ability to select more lightning lane rides after using your first one...once you arrive at the park....so the goal is to pick a lightning lane ride with a very early ride window so you can start selecting more rides using genie+ right away....say you select Peter Pan but only can grab one for 3pm....technically, you would not be able to select another ride reservation until after you rode the ride at 3pm or so.....however, there is a built-in hack, that hopefully, has not been "fixed".....120 minutes after official park opening (depends on which park you are at)...the genie system allows you to select a second ride...so in the above scenario, you can select a second ride reservation at 11am (if the park opens at 9am) and you will still have the 3pm Peter Pan ride reservation....furthermore....after you use the 11am reservation, you will be able to pick your NEXT ride reservation and repeat the process until you arrive to the 3PM reservation...at that point you will be stuck with just 1 ride reservation at a time, unless you take a 120 break (say for pool time or dinner, etc)...then at the 120 mark, you can pick a second ride......confusing right? LOL MK: Snow White Minecarts (p2p) Peter Pan Jungle Cruise Epcot: Ratatouille (p2p) Test Track Frozen Guardians of the Galaxy (open this summer) - will probably become a p2p and will oust either Test Track or Frozen as the ride that will sell out quickly Hollywood Studios: RotR (p2p) Slinky Dog Dash Tower Of Terror Animal Kingdom: Avatar - Flight of Passage (personally, the best ride currently at WDW...GotG is the one I am hoping will take this distinction, but won't find out for a while)

I guess I am on the side where this had never been a concern until just recently.....I usually went with a "dining plan" and with that you were allowed to pick and choose what you wanted a full 90 days before your trip.....but disney dining plans have been gone since the pandemic started and disney has decided not to bring them back yet....again, I really think ALL of the planning should be done way before you set foot on Disney property.....granted, although there are no dining plans available now, you can still select your table restaurants 60 days prior to your visit, which is very helpful....and yes, you do have to still wake up at 7am EST exactly 60 days prior to your visit, but to me getting that out of the way far in advance is just one less thing to worry about.....although the park reservation process does add a bit to the logistics, as you will need to figure out which table restaurants to select based on where you will be (you could just pick reservations first then select your park reservations, but in doing so, you run the risk of the park you need to be at being "sold out" when you need it), rather than just selecting them first and then figuring out where you need to be on the days of your restaurant reservations.....again, to me, I prefer to do as much planning before you arrive to the parks and then just wing it once you arrive (as in the fast pass days)....with genie+, park reservations, and the pent up demand for access to the park combined with new limits on park attendance....it just all combines into a cluster-F never experienced before (outside of major Holidays, etc.)...

Just start watching some videos and you should be good....also, it helps if you have at least 2 people in your group trying to grab a ride reservation, especially for the 1st tier rides and the "pay-to-play" rides....make sure you are connected to the fastest source right before 7am.....oh and not sure if you are reserving any dining...if so, need to get up by 7am EST on the day you are 60 days out to have the best shot at securing what you really want...... Oh and don't get me started on the hacks to be able to carry 3 ride reservations at a certain point during your visit....usually you can only hold 1...again, you can read up on those hacks on youtube....

It's basically like going through a PO Madness every morning at exactly 7:00:00 AM.....the slightest fumble and you are SOL.... What I found during this process is to just accept whatever time pops up as 9 out 10 times that is not the time you will get anyways....for example....my goal was to get my first ride at 9am for say Rise of the Resistance....that is the first time slot that pops up....if you waste time selecting a "specific" time, like say 11am or any other time...you are just wasting precious seconds and could end up with a return window for much later in the day, or worse....end up with nothing.....like I said....think PO Madness, that is basically the experience for the start of each morning.....

Ebay will not give you an accurate average....unless you knock off 50% or more from whatever you come up with...lol https://www.ebay.com/itm/175228166983?_trkparms=ispr%3D1&hash=item28cc69a347:g:F9kAAOSwsptiS3ae&amdata=enc%3AAQAGAAAA8I6gTVvzroT%2Fpx8ch40tRujULxbdLvh5jyS5rdFpb5IR1xJ1DvUzw4gVesB4amOPMD7HK9a9EfqwnCg2UYabxfAynNiZ4CqOganAAoaUKHleyXF4yAZXBEcDRFJ%2Fxs9l%2BZ433MFQVA%2F3n52JiUaPja02TeGvOHrC1OkZ%2B53OTAa%2BCfhnyXz6goYPvLMtgJsoQf49IcdBBLT5CdIt0BOpxjUYy7LOBmEX%2B6RvI56Qmny%2By%2BLcibGqMMJZ1Ipbq2j9ms6rm%2BdM%2FnkAHIx%2B6lF57J1YqCNr5i%2FGjWW6Zps9dDiRk3BbERHYn1WG9loZ3YWMrw%3D%3D|tkp%3ABFBM_qavlYFg An alternative would be to check Mandarake past sales, but those usually run lower due to the way they buy/sell their items...they are less auction-like and more like a pawn shop

Just returned from WDW last week and wanted to thrown my 2 cents regarding my first experience under the Genie+ system... I can't say I had a bad experience, but it was definitely more stressful, this will be the case for only the person doing all the ride and dining reservations as it will require you to be checking the "My Disney Experience" app "often" to get the most out of it.... I feel that the biggest difference between the old Fastpass and the new "Lightning Lane" ride reservation system comes at the 60 day mark before your visit even begins.... Under the Fastpass System, you were allowed to select the first THREE RIDES for your day at the park 60 days in advance...with Genie...you can only select 1 "free" ride and 2 "paid" rides on the actual day of your park visit beginning at 7am....this is what I feel is the worst part about the new system...I feel this ruins the ability to at least go into your day not worrying about being able to skip the lines for at least the first 3 rides....or worrying about what rides you want to "battle" with the thousands of other guests at 7am to try and snag....this is terrible.....if you have a crappy phone, staying at a hotel with bad wireless, or are not staying at a WDW affiliated hotel...you can forget about being able to snag any of the major rides at any of the parks...in fact, if you are staying at a non-Disney park, you may as well not even bother paying for the Genie+ services as practically all of the major rides (like Snow White minecarts, RotR, Avatar, etc) will sell out within 2-3 minutes at 7am, which is when WDW resort guests get first crack. If staying at a non-WDW resort, you will need to wait in line, which at the time I was there last week, was at minimum 30-50 minutes for the 2nd/3rd tier rides through 4pm or so....1st tier rides stayed at 1.5hr+ through park close (between 9-11pm)....but there are a few tips I can share here....first, you can get into any 1st tier ride and wait 15-30 minutes max during the fireworks shows...if you don't care for fireworks, get in line at your 1st tier ride and you will ride it easily without the 1+ hour wait...in fact, you can probably ride it twice....but minutes before the fireworks shows are about to end...the wait times balloon back up quickly....the other tip is to simply wait until park close...make sure you are in line at closing time and you are guaranteed to ride....unless it breaks down! This happens often with the RotR ride...so keep this in mind.... The other thing I feel has been ruined by "technology" is the ability to order food.....gone are the days of ordering food when you are actually hungry...now you have to "PO" your food and select the time to come back to pick it up.....if you do not, you run the risk of walking up to order at say noon and not getting your food until 1pm or later....so again, the spontaneity is more or less gone from a WDW trip....it has sort of been like that for a while for anyone who can only visit once or twice a year, but it just seems worse now...I lost track of how many people had no clue on how to use the Disney app or who were complaining about how they could never get reservations for dining or the newest rides....Disney has made using their "apps" essential to navigating their parks and being able to get the most bang for for buck during your stay.... As someone who is OK using apps, I was able to get the most out of our family trip to WDW, but I saw how other families struggled.......the other thing that was odd seeing on this trip were all the "guest experience" kiosks all over the park, usually, guest experience was located at the park entrances....there was always a line of at least 4-6 people at these kiosks..... I think it would be simple to "fix" the problems with the new Genie system...Disney just needs to go back to allowing you to do more of the planning BEFORE you arrive at the parks, rather than forcing you to waste time on it while you are at the Parks, or rather 1-2 hours before the park opens on the day of your visit!.......Genie is basically the same other than this change (ok, the pay-to-play is also debatable, but I'm OK with it...at this stage of my life, time is worth more to me than the $7-15 fee per "individual lightning lane" ride, which was basically just 1 ride at each park)....with Fastpass, you would pick your first 3 and then pick all your remaining ride reservations at the park after using up the first 3 you took care of 60 days prior to your visit...Genie forces you to battle for your 1st three (1 free and total of 2 paid rides) at 7am on the day you are set to visit the park....this is a terrible way to start off your day of "fun"....planning should be done prior to arriving, not on the day you are there....to me this is the biggest problem with the new Genie system One last tip....if you do buy the Genie+, do not assume a ride is not available just because it says so on the app....keep refreshing it and something "may" come up....again, this is part of what has made the new experience under Genie+ more stressful......however, it is sort of rewarding finding a ride available when you want it, rather than at 8pm when the apps says is the next available window to ride (again, this is only important if you only want to wait 10-15 minutes to ride any ride, rather than wait for hours).... On this trip, my goal was to ride Splash Mountain multiple times for probably what will be the last time (have no plans on a second trip this year and not sure when Disney plans to shutdown Splash Mt for the makeover)....the new ride taking it's place will probably be mechanically the same, so in the grand scheme of things I guess the reboot really doesn't matter...Tron was still not ready and neither was the Guardians of the Galaxy ride....so as always, reasons to return will always be there....oh and the Epcot food and booze kiosks still delivered as always.....all in all, we all had a great time....it just involved a bit more stress than previous trips, which I think can be easily avoided by relegating the planning back to before you arrive, rather than when you are about to start your day...oh and yes, this game to snag ride reservations must be played each morning before you head into the park at 7am if you are staying at a Disney affiliated resort......if you are not, then I guess you are stuck with what you can get and/or waiting in hours long lines.....

A few auction sales from YJA.... https://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/closedsearch/closedsearch?va=DXマクロスF+VF-25S+メサイアバルキリー+オズマ・リー機+リニューアルVer.&b=1&n=100&auccat=&tab_ex=commerce&ei=utf-8&aq=-1&oq=&sc_i=&exflg=&p=DXマクロスF+VF-25S+GE-55+メサイアバルキリー+オズマ・リー機+リニューアルVer.&x=0&y=0 Go to the first post to help you figure out how to come up with a price...generally things like condition, whether it is new or used, completeness, demand at any given time, etc....will affect what you will ultimately be able to get for your items....good luck!

Last 2 auctions on YJA... https://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/closedsearch/closedsearch?va=vf-1S+やまと&b=1&n=100&auccat=&tab_ex=commerce&ei=utf-8&aq=-1&oq=&sc_i=&exflg=&p=1%2F60+マクロス+VF-1S+ロービジビリティー&x=0&y=0

Kind of an odd choice for a re-release....I'll bite for a PF version Maybe they got wind of the timing for the HMR version?

Fixed....

I like that small missile Regult...wonder how good these Regult kits look without painting?

Amazon was late in posting this for Int'l shipping....I had already secured one, but always prefer AJ....link in case anyone was still looking to get one.... Hobby Japan Vintage Vol.7 https://www.amazon.co.jp/ホビージャパン-ヴィンテージ-Vol-7-ホビージャパンMOOK-1173/dp/4798627879

Looks like some Macross content in the May 2022 Model Graphix.... https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/モデルグラフィックス編集部/dp/B09V2GH29V/ref=pd_sbs_4/355-9773311-5734960?pd_rd_w=hzHzA&pf_rd_p=ca6ccf00-9cde-4773-ae9e-625b2d7cc586&pf_rd_r=ZHV5CJ5G4N3YNP3WH7NB&pd_rd_r=badfefb0-3644-48ae-b7ae-e71025f5b983&pd_rd_wg=SLgCl&pd_rd_i=B09V2GH29V&psc=1

well, I guess ultimately I don't care who'd buy my items if consigned for auction....that would be the auctioneer's problem

Never played the games....at this point...can't justify paying for another streaming service for just one show which just slightly interests me....technically only Amazon Prime gets that privilege from me due to getting it "free" by buying stuff through them anyways....if it gets positive feedback I'll find a way to watch it I guess

Unfortunately, this was a one and done release.....only 2 chase figures and just the Minmay and Hikaru characters were part of a complete set

So the criminals are buying these high priced items and then selling it to themselves? Otherwise, why would anyone buy "privately" when they could just bid on the items for themselves....the ones who actually want these items and have the cash to spend on them...unless they are re-buying them at much lower prices, as sort of a "fee" for helping with the money laundering schemes....

LOL

Not me....easily off by about 3 grand from the only item that was of any interest to me.... For about a grand more than what that Masami painting sold for, I'll be taking the kids to WDW in a few weeks....so I guess I can look at it as having a few vacations pre-paid if I ever wanted to liquidate some Macross assets....lol

Well.....it just means our "art" has proven to have a greater return than we had previously imagined....let's hope WWIII doesn't ruin everything...

Anyone follow the Macross related art results from the latest Heritage Auction? Stratospheric final auction prices...as usual VF-19A Ravens Lineart for the VF-X2 game....sold for $2750 with "buyer's premium"..... https://comics.ha.com/itm/animation-art/production-drawing/macross-vf-x2-vf-19a-excalibur-model-drawing-group-of-2-bandai-visual-sony-playstation-1998-total-2/a/7265-51098.s?ic2=mybidspage-lotlinks-12202013&tab=MyBids-101116 Masami VF-1S Original Illustration........$4250 with buyer's premium.... https://comics.ha.com/itm/animation-art/production-drawing/super-dimension-fortress-macross-northrom-vf-1s-valkyrie-and-regults-painting-original-art-artmic-co-ltd-/a/7265-51127.s?ic2=mybidspage-lotlinks-12202013&tab=MyBids-101116

Yes, the Seika Note Macross Pencil Sharpener Collection was a nice little set released several years ago....here are a few pics ....not in the pics is one of the 2 chase figures...the Strike VF-1S Focker Gerwalk.......did not have it at the time I took the pics when I first bought them years ago....I think someone here was able to sell me one at some point, but I remember not being able to assemble the entire set initially after purchasing two brand new cases....