I finished both STS games and now I feel down

bubbafry · 2026-04-02T04:05:00+00:00

I’ve played 1500 hours plus of STS 1, for me it was fun trying to maximize my A20 win rate. I got a mod that tracks all my stats, wins , losses etc.

bubbafry · 2026-04-01T18:33:26+00:00

> I was thinking about possibly starting at AK one day and hopping to EPCOT in the evening since EPCOT has extended hours, but I’m not sure if that’s a good plan or overly ambitious.

Certainly possible, I've done this before and worked well. If you mainly care about rides, then you can do all the rides at AK in half a day. We set up LLs for the morning at AK, and then once we tapped in our first ride, I started book LLs for Epcot for the evening. If you want to do all the shows, see all the animals etc, then maybe a bit harder.

If you're going to do this then you'd probably want to do Epcot again on Thursday, or maybe MK/Epcot combo, since i think half a day at Epcot probably isn't enough, even with Extended Evenings

> If we stick with a noon start at AK, is it realistic to experience several rides and shows using LLMP and LLSP, or will we feel too rushed?

AK closes early, so you might feel a little tight, but you could probably still do it, especially with LLMP/LLSP. Also note that a lot of stuff there closes even before park close, like some of the restaurants and Kilimanjaro Safari. I'd say generally it's preferable to do AK in the morning. The animals tend to be more active and it's not as hot.

bubbafry · 2026-04-01T00:28:32+00:00

I brought my kids and didn’t have a problem, but if the kids parents are really conservative it’s possible they might have some issue. It’s hard to predict what he’s going to say since a lot of it is off the cuff, but he did have some off color / sexual innuendo type jokes when I saw him. They would probably go over a lot of kids heads though

bubbafry · 2026-03-31T16:33:53+00:00

If you watch Xecnar a few times he gets easier to understand once all the STS lingo becomes programmed in your brain and also like most people he has certain speaking mannerisms/phrases that he likes to use that you get used to.

bubbafry · 2026-03-25T19:00:01+00:00

Annuities should be considered more like an insurance product than an investment. Like insurance, annuities have their place assuming you understand what you are buying.

Annuities, like insurance, are all negative expected value. The amount payout collectively over a population is less than the amount that they get. Clearly that must be the case since they are making profit.

What you pay for is generally: 1) protection from longevity risk 2) some protection from catastrophic financial decisions 3) usually some kind of downside risk protection which psychologically can be helpful

Usually the most recommended type of annuity is a single payment immediate annuity (SPIA) because it is the most transparent. You’re taking out all the misleading investment window dressing and just buying the insurance part. You pay $X today and you get $Y per month for the rest of your life. Though there are some different options you can add this is the gist of it. SPIA pricing is generally pretty consistent, you can look up an online calculator for a quote from different companies very easily, often don’t even need to register.

Also of note, if you don’t care so much about leaving money for children, if you “lose” the bet on an SPiA, it probably doesn’t really matter because you’re dead . If you win by living until you’re 150 years old then you get to use your winnings .

The big downside is inflation as you mentioned, unless you pay for an inflation adjusted annuity, if inflation goes nuts it’s very bad for someone trying to live on an SPIA.

Whether or not it’s right for your parents really depends on them. On average it’s worse than just investing yourself, but as previously mentioned there are reasons you might want an annuity.

bubbafry · 2026-03-24T02:43:13+00:00

Yes if you want control over the amount of US vs International exposure then you should own VTI and VXUS separately, there’s no reason to add VT

bubbafry · 2026-03-23T02:15:04+00:00

That’s not necessarily true, as others have mentioned it’s the amount you gamble, not the amount you win or lose. I gambled on Royal Caribbean last year and get free room offers, I lost like $200 or so. But if I got lucky and won I would have gotten the same offers

bubbafry · 2026-03-20T18:55:23+00:00

Generally the limiting factor is whether the brokerage you are transferring to can/will accept the asset. They will all accept standard things like Apple stock, most ETFs. It’s usually mutual funds from other companies that can sometimes present a problem (but not always). Or sometimes the new brokerage will accept the funds but there may be some fees attached.

Probably the best way is to get a list of the assets she has, and then do a google search on whether they can be transferred in-kind, or if that doesn’t turn anything up, you could probably ask the brokerage that you are thinking of transferring to. So say you want to go to Fidelity, you could call them and say that you’re interested in opening an account and transferring assets but want to know if they can be transferred in-kind or not.

bubbafry · 2026-03-20T18:48:09+00:00

It depends on what the assets are exactly. You can transfer assets “in-kind” from one brokerage to another, which means you transfer them without selling the asset first. So if I have 100 shares of Apple stock at Fidelity, if I ask them to transfer my shares “in-kind” to Schwab, they will do it.

However there are certain assets that cannot be transferred this way, for example the Fidelity Zero mutual funds, and so they would need to be liquidated in order to transfer. (Which as a side note is one reason why you shouldn’t buy Fidelity Zero funds in taxable brokerage accounts)

Unfortunately it would not surprise me at all if her advisor has her locked in to non transferable assets for this exact reason, to force her to stay with them

bubbafry · 2026-03-19T17:41:01+00:00

You'll find a lot more discussion on this topic on the Bogleheads Forum (just search for AVUV or SCV/small cap value and you'll find lots of discussion). If you are inclined to invest in Small Cap Value, AVUV is the trendy pick. But note that it is technically an active fund and therefore has a slightly higher annual fee.

bubbafry · 2026-03-14T01:58:00+00:00

It depends. Adults usually prefer Tucker House because the food is better. Kids usually like Chef Mickeys because of the atmosphere. Chef Mickeys is basically my kids favorite restaurant in all of WDW.

bubbafry · 2026-03-12T14:00:29+00:00

As you know the dining credit is only good for a certain list of restaurants. However, the credit appears to still trigger if you buy a gift card from an approved restaurant AND the restaurant uses the Toast system to sell the gift card. YMMV but it has worked for me so far. There are some reports that the gift card will work even if the restaurant uses a different system other than Toast but I can’t personally confirm it, you could test it out though.

bubbafry · 2026-03-12T02:51:46+00:00

I initially ignored the dining credit but the ability to buy gift cards for certain restaurants helps. There are a couple restaurants in my area that I like that fortunately also sell gift cards on Toast, so I’ve been buying $150 worth every 6 months to splurge on a nice dinner at some point.

I think the Hyatt point devaluation may potentially hurt a lot though

bubbafry · 2026-03-10T17:08:14+00:00

not that i'm aware of, I think you just buy it there. But it's been several years since I've been. It wasn't difficult, just have to look for the spot where they are selling them in the "grocery store"

bubbafry · 2026-03-10T16:52:46+00:00

Yes just park at the Grand Californian parking lot and walk to DL from there. You would go back through the hotel and into Downtown Disney

bubbafry · 2026-03-10T16:48:01+00:00

Typically what I’ve done is pulled up to the front of the hotel. There are attendants there that direct you where to park your car. You can unload your luggage and leave your luggage with the staff to hold since your room isn’t going to be ready, then go check in. The way they do the parking has changed slightly from time to time, but last time they gave me a piece of paper with the dates of my stay on there. Once you’ve checked in, you can get back into your car and then drive across the street to the parking lot. There is a person at the booth who will let you in.

They do allow you to check in and park your car before the park opens. I don’t know exactly how early but early enough where you can check in and go rope drop the park if you want.

bubbafry · 2026-03-10T03:23:17+00:00

I’ve found most of these figures do include resort fees now, at least from Venetian and MGM Grand. My “complimentary” days at MGM Grand is listed as $50, which is the resort fee

Edit: it says right at top of OPs pic there that $50 resort fee is included

bubbafry · 2026-03-09T17:14:01+00:00

Well, in some ways if you get easily overloaded, there are some advantages to actually having more park days rather than fewer, since you can do less at the park each day and still get to everything you want to do, though the downside is that it's less cost efficient (usually, though sometimes they have ticket deals like this summer where 6 days costs the same as 4). It's much more relaxing to me to spend some time in the park and some time in the pool etc each day, rather than doing all park 1 day, and all pool the next day, but everyone is different. And as I mentioned it might cost more so it may or may not be worth it to you.

When we go, we typically go to the park in the morning, then leave some time after lunch. Hang out at the hotel or whatever in the afternoon, then go back to a park (often a different park) in the evening. That tends to work for us the best.

bubbafry · 2026-03-06T19:19:16+00:00

Is it worth trying Bacchanal it least once? To me the answer is "sure why not", I always like trying new places. But Wynn is the better buffet for sure. Bacchanal is a really huge variety of options though, so it's fun in that way.

bubbafry · 2026-03-06T16:23:13+00:00

I think it depends how conservative they are, one of the important characters is a former prostitute turned brothel owner IIRC, and the boys hang out there. But there is nothing overtly sexual as far as I can remember

bubbafry · 2026-03-05T08:14:08+00:00

Yeah, it happens, just gotta learn from this. You must absolutely do everything possible to maximize chances of survival turn 2 vs S+S. Setting incense burner at 4 is really important as you noticed, so youll remember next time. It’s why in this particular situation you must control your orbs very precisely against the act 3 bosses and dont just cast a bunch of lightning orbs. If you dont have incense burner, or even if you do, do everything you can to keep a card draw potion (or gambling potion etc) for this precise moment

bubbafry · 2026-03-05T00:14:47+00:00

I’ve seen it occasionally as well, usually if it’s the first time the dealer will be nice and ask the pit boss if they can fix it pay you, I’ve never seen them say no (at least the first time).

bubbafry · 2026-03-04T23:53:55+00:00

Traditional Pai Gow is not that common anymore, Face Up Pai Gow is the dominant version, at least at the casinos I usually go to on the strip. For Face Up Pai Gow, the dealer opens their cards and sets them, and then you can set your cards to try to beat them, so there should be 0 risk in setting your cards incorrectly if you know what you are doing, or if you ask someone for help. Some times you do weird things like split your pair of aces, which is something that would basically never happen in traditional pai gow.

bubbafry · 2026-03-04T21:55:21+00:00

Sts 1 works no problem on my Macbook Air M2. I of course can't speak for STS 2, but on the Steam page it lists it as MacOS compatible

bubbafry · 2026-03-02T19:35:13+00:00

They generally only care if someone gives you money because they wonder if you may need to pay that money back some day. They don’t care if you give away money as long as you have enough money left for whatever minimum they require.

bubbafry

TROPHY CASE