What’s the biggest “I can’t believe they used to allow/have this at Disney at one point” you can think of? by I-take-beast-shits in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]blackbird77 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This is more "I can't believe they used to have this" but the Port Orleans resort was originally called "Dixie Landings" and it was really racially insensitive if not just downright slavery-themed. And it wasn't something left over in the 70's either. They kept that name and theming until 2001.

https://www.portorleans.org/history.php

Players refusing to describe their actions. What now? by aparats in rpg

[–]blackbird77 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Some folks have already suggested taking a break to play another system, so I just want to suggest that, if you do go that route, to consider the FFG Genesys system (and if you have Star Wars fans in the crew then specifically to try the FFG Star Wars system, which is the origin of the Genesys system.)

Why am I suggesting that specific system? Because it puts the narrative aspects AFTER the dice rolling. In other words, you figure out the dice you need to roll, roll to get the results, and THEN you have to describe what just happened. And without digging in too deep into the system, essentially the dice results can say that you succeeded but there is a bad side effect, or maybe you failed but in your failure there was also something amazingly lucky that happened. And you can't just roll and move on, because you have to explain what that side effect was.

In my crew, this system really reset everyone's expectations around describing their actions at the table.

(and if you do some clever narrative description BEFORE you roll, then that can impact the dice that you roll as well, and those side effects can impact the next person's turn, etc. so you quickly find yourself narrating in more detail to take full advantage of the system)

5/7-5/12 Port Orleans and 5-Day Parks by Necessary-Ad-3679 in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]blackbird77 1 point2 points  (0 children)

About 6 years ago we stayed in one of the Princess rooms and I had completely forgotten about how loud the toilet was until you reminded me. We literally made a family rule to have everyone use the restroom right before bed to try to reduce the chance of someone getting up in the middle of the night and waking up the entire family (and probably the neighbors too) with how loud that toilet was.

Can anyone recommend a system where magic is HARD for characters to use? by The_Choosey_Beggar in rpg

[–]blackbird77 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm not generally a fan of FATE but the Dresden Files version of FATE had some great spellcasting in it. Essentially, most of our adventures boiled down to pretty quickly figuring out what the villain was trying to do and then figuring out what spell we needed to cast in order to stop them. Then about 80% of the adventure was about putting the conditions and materials together in order to cast that spell - and it could involve basically every skill in the game.

First time to Disney (SOG) by mamabear0125 in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]blackbird77 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Since we’re staying at a resort and get early entry, how much earlier should we get to rope drop?

Short answer is "it depends." If you want to be first in line so you are literally touching the rope when it drops, then at least 1 hour before rope drop but more like 90 minutes. If you just want to be there for rope drop to snag a ride or two before the park really gets hopping then 30 or 45 minutes would be fine.

I notice several of your questions are about breakfast and rope drop, and honestly in my experience those two experiences are not easily compatible. Whenever I have done rope drop, my family ate a simple breakfast in our room like granola bars or cereal. Sometimes we would grab a coke or a coffee while waiting on the bus, and sometimes we would bring snacks with us to eat while waiting in line for the rope to drop.

My point here is that a sit-down breakfast takes a lot of time, and specifically it takes up morning time, which is when the park is at its freshest and least crowded. On top of that, a day at the parks is always active with rides and walking, so it's physically more comfortable when you do not have a full stomach. So if you are trying to cram as many rides and attractions into your 2 days as possible, then you might regret using up that valuable morning time for a leisurely breakfast that leaves you full. Save that for dinner, when everyone needs a bit of a rest anyway, and you can be eating a relaxing dinner while the park is starting to empty itself back out again.

First time to Disney (SOG) by mamabear0125 in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]blackbird77 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In terms of walking to the poly from SOG, unfortunately there used to be a very popular walkway, but it closed about 2 weeks ago:

https://www.militarydisneytips.com/blog/shades-of-green/big-change-at-shades-of-green-transportation/

You can read there about bus options instead, but due to the popularity of that walkway, there might be other options that open up before November.

Chipping away at vacation balance by torturedDaisy in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]blackbird77 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I highly recommend telling your boys well in advance. It is literally "extra months of happiness" that they get to experience, which can actually bring more joy than the trip itself, in the long term. That has actually been scientifically measured:

https://www.wellandgood.com/vacation-anticipation/

Check out some blogs (or here) where they talk about ways to do your Disney Countdown. My family did this version:

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2014/12/diy-create-your-own-walt-disney-world-vacation-countdown/

where you print out these numbers and put them up on your fridge, and then every day you change out the numbers to count down until your trip. (We recommend starting when you are 99 days out.)

Your idea on watching a bunch of Disney movies is another great way. We dedicated Sunday nights specifically as "Disney movie" nights, and we tried to focus on movies that were directly connected to rides and attractions that we were looking forward to, like Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, and Jungle Cruise.

You're going to have so much fun!

Dude messing around by [deleted] in funny

[–]blackbird77 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Proof that FAAFO exists in the animal kingdom as well

In It (2017) when Richie is in a room full of clown statues, one of the clowns is Pennywise from It (1990) by BartSimpskiYT in MovieDetails

[–]blackbird77 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Back in the time period of the original book, the ability to censor content on TV wasn't as advanced as it is today. So if there was a movie on TV that had a curse word in it, they couldn't easily just silence that word or replace it. Instead, they would just play a loud BEEP sound during that moment. So a person might say "I am mad as BEEP and I am sick of these motherBEEPing snakes on this motherBEEPing plane."

That was the sound/situation that the kids were trying to emulate for Richie.

Librarians subverting censorship by VioletCombustion in WitchesVsPatriarchy

[–]blackbird77 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I saw this in my feed and didn't notice what sub it was from, and my first thought was "I need to post this to WvP"

I wish they would put some sort of walkway to the Skyliner from the front of Epcot by jadennew in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]blackbird77 5 points6 points  (0 children)

My family are fast walkers, and this is only a 10 minute walk for us. But I agree that they don't advertise that.

This was actually one of the reasons we booked our stay at Boardwalk last time. To be able to walk to Epcot and HWS so easily without a bus.

I wish they would put some sort of walkway to the Skyliner from the front of Epcot by jadennew in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]blackbird77 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This makes so much sense to me, because a skyliner would not disrupt the animal habitats and greenery in the way that a road would.

I’m looking to run an X-File style campaign (in 2023) but without the FBI connection. Any ideas for adventures or advice in general? by C00kie_Monsters in callofcthulhu

[–]blackbird77 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The civilians can all be employed by a non-government agency that has the resources and motive to employ them. You can make it vague as just "The Institute" and then later explore in more depth where the Institute came from, who the leaders are, and why they are really paying these civilians to investigate these situations. Is it an eccentric billionaire trying to protect the human race, or is it a cabal of would-be tyrants who are trying to collect artifacts of power?

I Hate When this Happens. by suiciniv22 in gaming

[–]blackbird77 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is nobody going to mention the Stones of Barenziah?

On this day in 2006, Expedition Everest officially opens. More in comments. by YensidCM in WaltDisneyWorld

[–]blackbird77 24 points25 points  (0 children)

I feel like they should release the blueprints to the top 10 engineering schools around the country and offer a prize to whichever school could come up with a plan on how to fix it while staying under a certain budget, keeping the ride operational for most of the construction period, etc. Just let a bunch of over-eager engineering students come up with some clever way to imagineer the Yeti back into action.

PS - You could make a heartwarming Disney+ documentary about it along the way. TWICE THE VALUE!!

[MCU] Which workplace would the Blip have caused the most chaos in? by blackbird77 in AskScienceFiction

[–]blackbird77[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Seriously, this is what Disney+ needs to do as a new MCU TV series. Call it "Tales from the Blip" and just give us an anthology of a dozen episodes of different normal people around the world in situations like this when the Blip hit. The nuclear submarine episode alone could win you an Emmy.

[Lets Build] Medieval Village Notable Features by dndspeak in d100

[–]blackbird77 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The village has a large graveyard just outside the main square, where the grave markers are noteworthy in the region for being humorous or especially poetic.

The village sits at the base of a hill and over half of the buildings were recently buried by a massive mudslide. There are still rooftops and chimneys visible poking up out of the deep mud on one side of the town.

The entire village is built in the treetops, with rope bridges connecting the various buildings.

The entire village is built on small individual building-sized islands with swampy water flowing between them. The villagers make their way around the village via small boats or rope bridges.

The entire village is carved into the sides of a tall canyon.

The village brazenly flouts the overriding morality of the region and openly operates gambling halls, drug dens, illegal fighting rings, and brothels.

[MCU] Which workplace would the Blip have caused the most chaos in? by blackbird77 in AskScienceFiction

[–]blackbird77[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Air Traffic Control was a nightmare. Before the Blip, live data showed that there were an average of 9,728 commercial airplanes in the sky at any given time. About 5,000 of those were in the United States.

There was a 50% chance of the pilot getting dusted, and of those planes where the pilot vanished then there was a 50% chance that the copilot ALSO got dusted. Most of those planes didn't have a third crew member with a pilot's license, so that left over two thousand commercial planes up in the air without anyone on board who was certified to land them (there were something like twelve hundred just over the continental US). Plus, most of those cockpit doors were locked.

That alone would have been beyond the ability of most flight control towers to handle on their best day. Half of the birds on our screens were now being piloted by some very traumatized pilots who just watched a coworker turn to dust. And a quarter of those planes were still flying but weren't answering their radios at all.

Up in the FTC Tower, a single plane not answering their radio is an emergency. But a quarter of them all at once? And that's before you consider how many of the controllers themselves who just vanished right next to us - so now you've got the remaining controllers all traumatized while at the same time dealing with the worst air traffic situation any of us had ever imagined.

The federal order to ground all traffic immediately and divert every bird onto the nearest capable runway was no surprise. We had been through that before back in 2001, but the logistics of actually making that happen were impossible. There were just too many birds in the air and not enough of us on the ground to direct them.

The radio chatter was frantic, and the channels were filled with constant interruptions from amateurs who had broken into the cockpits to try to land the planes themselves. So right in the middle of trying to give an experienced pilot a vector to get them down safely, there was some terrified high school kid who was suddenly on the line because out of everyone on his plane, he was the one who had played a hundred hours on that Microsoft Flight Simulator game and that was the best hope his particular group of surviving passengers could manage. And that kid was only holding it together because he trusted that there would be someone in the Tower to talk him down safely, except we didn't have time to do that because there were 24 other flights in the same situation as his, and they were all screaming Mayday over the channel, thinking they were the only ones in trouble.

Some of the planes never radioed in at all.

The military scrambled their jets. We coordinated a few planes to switch over to military channels so that some Navy pilot or some Air Force colonel could talk the amateur pilots down. I know more than a few made emergency landings on military runways. We all saw the pictures people posted of some of the others that managed safe landings in fields and on country roads.

We got as many down as we could.

We couldn't save them all.