A Fistful of Fastpasses: Disneyland with the DIS and ABD! (Final Day post #205-10/4)

[ymxbfalcon]

How far back did he roll his eyes...

Pretty far back...and the eyeroll was accompanied by the words "Oh, please" said as only Pete can say them.

I wouldn't do that....I've heard if you ring the doorbell and your not allowed in, a trap door opens up and drops you into the water in the Pirates of the Carribean ride. Ewwww!

Now that almost sounds like fun. I was nervous enough ringing it with Matt telling me to do so; I'm pretty sure it won't happen when I'm not supposed to be there.

I am really considering doing this as a treat to myself in the future but having a hard time deciding. I love all the pictures.

2 words....DO IT!
We've done it twice now. It is an expensive trip but a Disney lovers dream trip.

I'll second this. It's certainly a big investment, but it's definitely worth it.

That may be the worst part about doing this tour. You brag to your friends "We got to eat in Club 33." and most them go "What's that?" Darn you non-Disney obsessed friends!

I was sending pictures to my family throughout this trip. When I sent the pictures from Club 33, I included instructions to "Google it; it's kind of a big deal."

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

Between this TR and hearing about these trips on the podcast really make me go on one some day except for one thing. The odd thing is I don't mind going on rides with a group but the whole thing with everyone saying the spiel on the haunted mansion just seems wrong to me, and is almost enough for me to say I wouldn't want to do the trip with a Dis group.

 

[disneykiwi]

Between this TR and hearing about these trips on the podcast really make me go on one some day except for one thing. The odd thing is I don't mind going on rides with a group but the whole thing with everyone saying the spiel on the haunted mansion just seems wrong to me, and is almost enough for me to say I wouldn't want to do the trip with a Dis group.

Oh dear - that was one of the best moments of the trip for me - it was so cool and so much fun hearing all these Dis mad people doing the spiel. We laughed for ages after that - it was a great moment.

Please dont let that put you off

 

[Tinker326]

Very, very cool to be inside Club 33! But I can't place the second prop. When are you revealing?

 

[skier_pete]

"Google it; it's kind of a big deal."

I'm gonna start using that phrase in real life!

Between this TR and hearing about these trips on the podcast really make me go on one some day except for one thing. The odd thing is I don't mind going on rides with a group but the whole thing with everyone saying the spiel on the haunted mansion just seems wrong to me, and is almost enough for me to say I wouldn't want to do the trip with a Dis group.

Oh dear - that was one of the best moments of the trip for me - it was so cool and so much fun hearing all these Dis mad people doing the spiel. We laughed for ages after that - it was a great moment.

Please dont let that put you off

Yeah, first off - I would hope that something that takes 30 seconds of the trip doesn't turn you off to the whole trip. I actually didn't join in only because I was laughing too hard. I thought it was a very spontaneous moment, but hearing that a previous group had done it too makes me wonder...I think what it shows though is just how MUCH this group of people are INTO Disney when you do a podcast ABD. Amongst my friends, DW and I are considered a little Disney-crazed. I felt very middle-of-the-road with this group.

Just saying...the HM moment was a very small part, and only occurred during the stretch room. There weren't really any other moments like that on rides, even though we did ride quite a few rides together.

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

Oh dear - that was one of the best moments of the trip for me - it was so cool and so much fun hearing all these Dis mad people doing the spiel. We laughed for ages after that - it was a great moment.

Please dont let that put you off

I wonder if the ABD guides would let someone go into the other stretch room, but then again getting a stretch room without someone saying the spiel in Disneyland would be like finding a tree without leaves in the summer.

 

[skier_pete]

Very, very cool to be inside Club 33! But I can't place the second prop. When are you revealing?

Sorry, I had forgotten I didn't reveal that. The table is from the Banks household in Mary Poppins!

Working on the next update. Hopefully out today or tomorrow.

 

[skier_pete]

Well, only one page update today, but I figured ONE is better than NONE! Besides, its mostly because there weren't a lot of pictures of these parts!

Next up was some backstage stuff – which I hate to brush off, but I promised I wouldn’t give away. It was backstage at a certain ride that I can’t divulge where we got to see the ride mechanism up close.

Afterwards, they took us on a ride. Wouldn’t you know it, Indiana Jones again! So I’ve been at Disneyland for almost 20 hours and I’ve only ridden 4 rides, and I’m repeating rides? Oh well, at least we didn’t wait in line long, though we had to go in through the FP queue.





DarthVader92 - you should've spent less time thumbs upping the camera and more times with your hands on the wheel! What a terrible driver! He almost made me sick it was so bumpy.



After that, they then took us across the park over to where Small World is. A few shots from Adventureland first:





Then through the hub:



Finally we arrived at Small World:







They opened one of the “Cast Members Only!” doors to let us through:





Matt and Dean goofing around. I have to give these guys a TON of props. It was no doubt hard work but they hardly ever made it seem like it was. You can tell how they must get the best of the best to do these tours.







I told DW to pose as she was going backstage, so we could make people jealous even if we don’t have any pictures.





Again we had to put the cameras away, and again I can’t tell you what we did – but it was very, very, very cool! I will say we took a route that took us around behind It’s a Small World and across behind Toon Town. We eventually made our way over to the Circle D ranch. (I am feeling like I can say this because this particular event is described in the brochure for the trip. If you remember I was making fun of the excitement of getting to “pet the goats”. This is the backstage area where they take care of all the animals for onstage, particularly the horses. It was interesting, but I think we as a group were starting to wear down a bit. By now it had been a few hours since breakfast, and it had turned a little warmer by this point, and folks were ready to sit down for a bit.

So, overall backstage at Disneyland ranked as better than the Disney Studios, but not quite up to the level of Imagineering. (Imagineering was so beyond amazing though.) I made a quick Google Map of the track we took backstage. I labeled the Circle D Ranch, as well as the fireworks launch area that we walked right next to. Note the area we stopped behind the fireworks was a brand new building that took up much of the footprint behind and next to the fireworks. It is so new it doesn't even show up on the google map. Again, I don't dare get any more specific than that, but those that were on the trip will recognize this.



They ended up taking us back on-stage in Frontierland. I wonder what passers-by think when they see a group of 35 tourists pop out from a “Castmembers Only” door! At this point, they gave us a short time for lunch. I had talked a lot about wanting to lunch at the Hungry Bear, so a bunch of people gathered around DW and I, and I led a group of hearty adventurers over to Critter Country. (I held up a park map in an homage to Dean and Matt to try and keep our group together.) We were each given $20 vouchers that we could use for our lunch. In our case, we used one of the vouchers here, and the second we saved for later. Lunch came out to like $21.

I again had the fried green tomato sandwich, which was something I tried last year and loved. I never would have thought I’d like it, but it was well delicious.



DW had the Big Al's Chicken Salad - Smoked chicken on romaine and iceberg lettuce with watermelon, candied pecans, dried cherries, red onions.



We only took pictures of our food, but everyone was snapping pictures. It’s such a gas hanging with a bunch of DIS’ers who the question of “DO you mind if I take a picture of your dinner before you eat?” does not appear to be an odd request.

After that, DW and I decided to go on “Winnie the Pooh” with kgibbler and her mom since we had time and it was right next door. I wanted to try and spot the head’s from when this was the Country Bear Jamboree location, and they weren’t that hard to spot if you looked behind you, but they WERE hard to get a picture of them!



After the ride, I wanted to stop and get a Tigger Tail for dessert. I had read about these on the Disney Food Blog. Marshmallows on a stick covered in caramel, then chocolate, then sugar crystals. Soooo sweet, but so delicious.



We had to meet up at the head of Main Street for yet another awesome VIP experience; a tour of Walt’s apartment. There was already a group up there when we got there, so we had to wait around about 10 minutes. Walt used to stay overnight in the park in this apartment. He would put the light on in the window so Cast Members would know he was there.





It was surprisingly small, not much larger than a good-size dorm room. I think they said 500 square feet. It had a very Victorian feel to it, which was clearly Lillian’s influence. The couches folded down into beds and there was a small kitchen and bathroom as well. Very nicely decorated but also very practical. It definitely reminds you of what a different time it was 57 years ago! There are actually some tours you can take at Disneyland alone that let you see this, but still it felt pretty special, almost like visiting a museum. They wouldn’t let us take pictures except they took one of us in front of the lamp.



When we came out, the other group had disappeared – we later found out they got to ride the main street trolley - so our group headed back up main street and Dean bought us each an ice cream and a cart (cause we hadn’t eaten enough so far). I’m never gonna turn down a Mickey bar, though!

Next up - that OTHER apartment in Disneyland!

 

[PrincessInOz]

WOW! I'm envious. You got to visit both apartments at DLR?

Can't wait for the next update.

 

[Tinker326]

First- the table from Mary Poppins? So cool! Love that! One of my favorite movies- although I've never paid attention to the Banks table. Now I will have to rewatch!!!

And wow on the park stuff. I would have loved to go into Walt's apartment. Very cool ( I find myself saying that a lot about this trip!!!).

And that fried Green Tomato sammy looks YUMMY! I tried a Tigger Tail when we were there in 2011 and liked it. But then, I'm a sugar addict- so that was a given!

Good update!

 

[ymxbfalcon]

Matt and Dean goofing around. I have to give these guys a TON of props. It was no doubt hard work but they hardly ever made it seem like it was. You can tell how they must get the best of the best to do these tours.

Like you, I cannot say enough good things about Matt and Dean. They did an incredible job of taking care of all of us and making it seem effortless.

So, overall backstage at Disneyland ranked as better than the Disney Studios, but not quite up to the level of Imagineering. (Imagineering was so beyond amazing though.)

This is probably a matter of personal preference, but I enjoyed the Disney Studios more than this backstage experience. I think my opinion might have been different if a few of our guest speakers had taken different approaches to their presentations; there was one towards the end who just kept talking and talking and didn't seem to notice that his audience was ready to move on. The experience in Walt's apartment and "that other apartment" more than made up for it, though.

At this point, they gave us a short time for lunch. I had talked a lot about wanting to lunch at the Hungry Bear, so a bunch of people gathered around DW and I, and I led a group of hearty adventurers over to Critter Country. (I held up a park map in an homage to Dean and Matt to try and keep our group together.) We were each given $20 vouchers that we could use for our lunch. In our case, we used one of the vouchers here, and the second we saved for later. Lunch came out to like $21.

I felt like I was playing the Disneyland version of "The Price Is Right" with the lunch vouchers, trying to get as close to $20 as I could without going over. (Matt and Dean had told us that we would not be given change.) I ended up at a little more than $19 by ordering a dessert I did not necessarily need. There was a lot of food on this trip, wasn't there?

When we came out, the other group had disappeared – we later found out they got to ride the main street trolley - so our group headed back up main street and Dean bought us each an ice cream and a cart (cause we hadn’t eaten enough so far). I’m never gonna turn down a Mickey bar, though!

I was in the other group, and we actually got to do a little bit more than riding the trolley, but, as I'm pretty sure that you got to have that experience the next day, in the interest of not spoiling your trip report, I'll hold off on saying anything else...

 

[skier_pete]

WOW! I'm envious. You got to visit both apartments at DLR?

Can't wait for the next update.

Soon...hopefully tomorrow - this pictures are downloaded to Photobucket anyways...

First- the table from Mary Poppins? So cool! Love that! One of my favorite movies- although I've never paid attention to the Banks table. Now I will have to rewatch!!!

And wow on the park stuff. I would have loved to go into Walt's apartment. Very cool ( I find myself saying that a lot about this trip!!!).

And that fried Green Tomato sammy looks YUMMY! I tried a Tigger Tail when we were there in 2011 and liked it. But then, I'm a sugar addict- so that was a given!

Good update!

It is interesting how focused everything in California is on Mary Poppins. She doesn't have nearly as heavy a presence in Florida as in California. I don't know if that was just about the time it was built, but even new stuff seems to feature the character heavily. It's a great movie though, unless you are P.L. Travers, how can you NOT like it!

Like you, I cannot say enough good things about Matt and Dean. They did an incredible job of taking care of all of us and making it seem effortless.

Agree 100%

This is probably a matter of personal preference, but I enjoyed the Disney Studios more than this backstage experience. I think my opinion might have been different if a few of our guest speakers had taken different approaches to their presentations; there was one towards the end who just kept talking and talking and didn't seem to notice that his audience was ready to move on. The experience in Walt's apartment and "that other apartment" more than made up for it, though.

I'm very much into "how things work", and there was very little of that at the studios, whereas the Disneyland backstage tour more focused on that. The weakness of it was how they did still limit what they showed you, but it was still pretty good.

That one gentleman didn't know his audience very well, did he. The main thing is how little he SHOWED us versus what was said. I wanted to bolt through that big door and look around.

I was in the other group, and we actually got to do a little bit more than riding the trolley, but, as I'm pretty sure that you got to have that experience the next day, in the interest of not spoiling your trip report, I'll hold off on saying anything else...

Oh..interesting...I didn't know you guys got to do THAT! (I will avoid spoiling it as well!)

How did we not find that out? No wonder you guys were gone so long. I would've been extra PO'd knowing that if we hadn't gotten our turn. Didn't matter, we did it the next day so that's all cool.

 

[skier_pete]

Next up we headed over to the Disney Dream Suite. Apparently before Walt died he had been thinking of putting in a bigger guest apartment above “Pirates”, but it didn’t happen. So the area was used as storage until “The Year of a Million Dreams” came along and they built the Dream Suite. I wasn’t sure how impressed I would be, but it was quite beautiful. It was almost 2,200 square feet, and there were two bedroom suites (including bathrooms), an inside courtyard, a living area, and balcony on which you could sit and watch Fantasmic. They supposedly allow as many as six people to sleep overnight here – but we were split into two groups of 15+ and we actually hardly saw the other group. It was BIG!



So, the first room they took us to was the Adventureland room. This room was the more “feminine” room, bathed it greens and blues.







DW really liked this room!



Each room also had a “Kiss Goodnight” button that basically started a light and sound show in the room. This was crazy cool but I won’t really try to describe it because (1) it would be hard to do it justice and (2) this is a piece of spoiler I would like to keep away from anyone doing the trip someday. Suffice it say it was very jungle –themed in this room!
The bathroom likewise was very feminine. The tub had a dark blue tile ceiling with a stain-glass window. The water flow in the stain-glass led to where the water flowed into the tub!



The tub had a light show where you could turn on the stars above it. This is the best shot I could get of this. Much better in ambient light:


Other shots of the bathroom:



Again, this picture below is from in the BATHROOM! There were actually THREE separate rooms in the bathroom.



The inner courtyard area – which is a private “outdoor” sitting area.



The main sitting room. Understand this room was big enough to fit all 30+ of us in it.







There was a clock in the main sitting area that had several hourly chimes that performed several different magical shows. One utilized the mirror below, which turned from a mirror into an image (I won’t say of what) that was astounding.





Another clock show utilized this small bird in a cage, a homage to that first little mechanical bird that Walt discovered in New Orleans that eventually led to the Tiki Room and Audio Animatronics in general.



Cinderella’s glass slipper – yet another “clock show”.



Walking around this all I could picture was corporate coming into Imagineering and saying to the lead designer “You got a Million dollars to do this….go nuts!”

To Be Continued

 

[skier_pete]

The second bedroom, much more masculine, is themed on Frontierland.





This train features heavily in this room kiss goodnight – and if anything it is more impressive than those in the other rooms!



The second bathroom, as opulent as the first.



OK - this is the SHOWER folks!



Again, remember this is the SECOND bathroom. What does your second bathroom look like? Mine...oh wait, we only have 1.5 baths. Our second bathroom looks like a toilet compared to this! (Couldn't resist the joke.)



There was also a button on the lights switches in this room marked “Fantasmic!” I asked our host – and I should point out most everything today had an additional Disney host beyond our two guides – whether that was the button they used to start Fantasmic! She said no, but it DID adjust the lighting in the room and on the balcony for when Fantasmic was starting. And here’s the view from the balcony:





Yeah, not shabby at all!







Here’s an idea of the size of the balcony:



Much like with Club 33, if I ever won this suite, I would totally be inviting people up from the crowd. “Hey, you in the Goofy ears! Yeah you! Bring your kids up, your hanging in the Dream Suite tonight!” I’m sure we’d give them fits.

The Dream Suite was way more impressive than I imagined, and gave me something else to aspire to. Here’s my plan. (A) Make friends with Johnny Depp, (B) casually drop hints about joining him and his kids in the dream suite, (C) fly to California to meet with them. What do you think? Might work, right?

So, it was now about 3:45 PM. (Holy Crap, how could there be that much time left to the day.) We now are given “on your own time”. Oh wait not quite, first we also have.

1) Here is a fistful of fastpasses for your evening – 5 a piece.



2) We’re going to get you on Pirates of the Carribean right now – oops never mind it’s down.
3) We have reserved seating for Mickey and the Magical Map (the new stage show) at 4:30 PM.
4) We have reserved seating for the afternoon Parade at 6:30 PM in the hub. But be there by SIX, because the DIS has arranged for Kevin Kidney and Jody Daly, the guys who DESIGNED the parade, to be there to talk to us.
5) We have reserved seating for “Magical!” the fireworks show at 9:30 PM.

But other than that, the rest of the day is yours! What?

We had a strategy going into this trip. It is the secret to early mornings and late nights – its called the mid-day power nap. We decided if we stuck it out in the parks, we’d never make it past the fireworks. So, DW and I decided that we would skip Mickey and Magical Map (we ended up seeing it 2 days later) and instead would go back to the hotel room for a rest and change of clothes.

So that’s what we did. We layed down and I took a 20 minute nap. DW decided she wanted to sleep a bit longer, but I wanted to check out the pool, so I put on my swim trunks and allowed myself 20 minutes of swim time.

Gotta point out that the day is still not over, we actually have another SEVEN hours before we get to bed. So stay tuned for more about Day 5 of our trip!

 

[PrincessInOz]

WOW!! What an amazing Dream Suite. I can only dream.....it is huge and I had no idea it had its own internal courtyard. That view of Fantasmic must be fantasmic from there!

And YAY for the fistful of Fastpasses.

 

[khertz]

Holy cow, the Dream Suite looks AMAZING!!! I really loved the first room, but then you posted the second, and it's even more gorgeous. More masculine, yes, but I LOVE those colors. Really cool that they also have a way to adjust the lighting for Fantasmic! Man, what I wouldn't give for one night in there!

 

[skier_pete]

At 5:30 PM we wanted to head back to the park. I suggested that since we needed to go to the hub, we could walk to the monorail in DTD and take that into the park, so that’s what we did!











We managed to get there in time for the parade before the DIS group arrived, but not early enough to get in the front row. ABD had arranged to have about 5 benches that were literally on the hub. The area was exclusive for us. It was funny as people would keep coming over trying to sit in the area even though it was roped off. Dean and Matt had to keep chasing people off. One older gentleman got very grumbly: “This is ridiculous. They can’t just allow people to have their own spot! Why do these people deserve anything special?” I felt like saying: “Hey, you can have it too for only $2,500!”

So, this was the part where the DIS had there “special bonus”. They got the two designers of the parade, Kevin Kidney and Jodi Daley, to come as guests of the DIS and talked about the design work that went into the parade.





DW and I actually asked a lot of questions. The most interesting bit that I was curious was how much Disney told them they needed to do and how much they could come up with on there own. According to Kevin, the only thing that Disney required is that being the “Soundsational” Parade the floats should be based around music, and that the very first float had to have Mickey Mouse playing the drums. (I don’t know that I fully believe them – I cannot believe they didn’t require them to have a Princess specific float, though I wonder maybe they just KNEW that so they did it.) So, really they designed everything from the ground up. They were involved with the construction as well in that they were able to come along with it. As far as the actual music and performance, they were NOT involved with that, which comes out of the entertainment division.

They didn’t put in any hidden Mickey’s, but they did put in some characters on the floats that were slightly more unusual. For instance on the Tiana float, they put the dragonfly from “The Rescuers” (I can’t remember his name).

Kevin told a story of how the first time the parade ran. It was his birthday, so they told him that for his birthday they had arranged for him to be on the final float – which was Mary Poppins themed – and he danced and sang with the others , but didn’t realize that he should just be miming the songs, and by the end he was hoarse and exhausted!

It was pretty interesting, and made watching the parade more fun. I have to say I am not a huge parade guy, the only daytime parade at Disney World I’ve ever liked is Jingle, Jangle, Jungle at AK, but this was really a wonderful parade. Kevin also told a story about when the parade first started they put him in it! It was amusing.

Here’s Mickey banging on his drums!





They had tried to incorporate the parade such that each float represented a different musical style. That’s perfect because it is Disney and you have to have ARIEL be part of EVERYTHING! So Calypso music was part of the style.





Another example of Kevin and Jody’s “hidden characters”, on the top of the three caballeros float is the Aracuan Bird from that movie.



After the parade I asked Kevin and Jody about the fact that the main Princess float had Rapunzel in it. Since the parade started in the Spring of 2011 and the movie came out in November 2010, I asked if they had been allowed to view the movie prior to the general public in order to design the float, and they said that indeed they had!





The Lion King to represent African rhythms, and Tiana to include Dixieland Jazz:





The Mary Poppins float, which Kevin said was his favorite!



I loved the detail of the huntsman on the bike, that the wheel of the bike actually spun, and the beads on the bike spokes actually slid as the wheel turned.





I admit going in that I was a little disappointed in our special trip, considering in 2011 the treat was dinner with Marty Sklar and 2012 it was with Disney Archivist Dave Smith. Not that Jody and Kevin weren't a big deal, but next to Marty and Dave it seemed like a slight downgrade. But, this actually ended up being a great experience. We even were given a souvenir of one of Jody and Kevin’s items, which they generously autographed for everyone. (I really need to get a picture of it!)



In fact, I went to the Wikipedia web-site for Mickey’s Soundsational Parade, and noticed that it had no mention of Kevin and Jody. Since it’s user-edited I fixed that! You can thank me later guys.

To be continued in next post...

 

[skier_pete]

After this, we had our first legitimate free time of the day, an entire TWO HOURS! A bunch of people wanted to go to dinner at The Plaza, but we didn’t want to eat that big a meal. So, we first went to the Jolly Holiday bakery. More Mary Poppins theme!!





Our sandwiches:



After that, we decided to try some of our Fastpasses – we still had the whole Fistful! We headed over to Space Mountain – still an awesome ride and very different from Disney World’s. However, it is fast and twitchy, and one ride was enough for our now-full stomachs.

Redneck Ride Photo!!


We used a second FP for Star Tours.



Even with the FP the waits weren’t super short, so we figured we had just enough time to ride Buzz Lightyear standby – which actually took about 20 minutes to get through. (There’s no FP for Buzz in DL.)



We then met the group to watch the fireworks, which started at 9:30 PM. They again had an area condoned off for us, which was actually much too big an area for the group. It was sort of off to the side between Tomorrowland and the Plaza. There were no seats, but it was nice because you could sit on the ground. I think a lot of the group was pooped out by this point. I set up my videocamera and tripod for videotaping the show. I don’t think it came out all that great, because we were sort of off angle. A couple of the pictures came out OK, but fact is that the fireworks show here is negatively affected by the tiny castle in the front.





While much of the group headed home after that, some of us went on the Jungle Cruise. They detoured us half-way around the park because of the traffic from Fantasmic, so we had to walk through Frontierland, NO Square, and backwards into Adventureland, which was REAALLL annoying. (Disneyland in general is built with really narrow pathways.) We rode JC with a group of other DISers, but the skipper mike was muffled and we couldn’t understand her real well. I had also forgotten that there is no Shur-Lee temple on the DL version, and the coolest thing about doing the ride at night is how much clearer you can see inside the temple.

The rest of the group was pretty beat, but we had had a nap and were ready to keep going. We headed over to ride It’s a Small World, with the exterior all lit up at night. We then went into fantasyland to see how the lines were. Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride was only about a 15 minute wait, so we jumped on the chance to go to Hell and back. We then headed over to ride Snow White’s Adventures before calling it a night. I’m gonna miss this one at WDW, but since DD hated it we probably wouldn’t be riding it too often anyways:



It was now approaching 11:30 PM, and we had to be down for breakfast again by 7:15 AM, so we figured we probably should call it a night, though after opening the park we probably should’ve closed it too! On our way out we got a quick shot of the Snow White fountain.


So the total number of rides today – ten – including the monorail – seven of them coming after 7 PM, and four after 10 PM! Total rides after two days – 13!

The Good
Can I even list it all?
Club 33
Backstage Tour
Walt’s Apartment
Dream Suite
Reserved seating for parade and fireworks

The Bad
We were supposed to get to ride the Lilly Belle today (Lillian Disney’s car on the DLRR) but because of the timing of everything, we never got the chance. Will we even get one?
Being given FIVE Fastpasses and only having enough time to use TWO! In fact we even had more, because some folks gave us there's when we stayed after JC. Hate loosing out on "good for any ride" FPs.

The Ugly
People trying to get into our reserved seating areas for both parade and fireworks! Get away from us.
Getting from fireworks to Jungle Cruise – what’s with blocking off all these areas Disney!
The Jungle Cruise Skipper’s unintelligible mumbling.

Next up….what’s the WORST thing to find yourself without in your hotel room when you wake up? The answer may surprise you…

 

[ymxbfalcon]

At 5:30 PM we wanted to head back to the park. I suggested that since we needed to go to the hub, we could walk to the monorail in DTD and take that into the park, so that’s what we did!

Sounds like fun! Reading this makes me realize how many things I didn't get to try out in Disneyland while we were there. I may need to go back to do some of the things I just didn't have time for some day.

We managed to get there in time for the parade before the DIS group arrived, but not early enough to get in the front row. ABD had arranged to have about 5 benches that were literally on the hub. The area was exclusive for us. It was funny as people would keep coming over trying to sit in the area even though it was roped off. Dean and Matt had to keep chasing people off. One older gentleman got very grumbly: “This is ridiculous. They can’t just allow people to have their own spot! Why do these people deserve anything special?” I felt like saying: “Hey, you can have it too for only $2,500!”

Those seats really were in the perfect spot, weren't they? The fact that we were sitting on benches and not on a curb helped too.

After that, we decided to try some of our Fastpasses – we still had the whole Fistful! We headed over to Space Mountain – still an awesome ride and very different from Disney World’s. However, it is fast and twitchy, and one ride was enough for our now-full stomachs.

You may not realize this, but you really lucked out here. A group of us who had dinner at The Plaza tried riding Space Mountain that evening, only to find that the line was not moving because of technical problems. We eventually gave up because we didn't want to miss fireworks; the ride, of course, reopened right as we were leaving. Excellent timing on your part though!

I did get to ride Space Mountain later on in the trip, and it is so much more fun than its Disney World counterpart. Why they didn't make more changes in Florida a few years ago when they closed it down for refurbishment is beyond me.

While much of the group headed home after that, some of us went on the Jungle Cruise. They detoured us half-way around the park because of the traffic from Fantasmic, so we had to walk through Frontierland, NO Square, and backwards into Adventureland, which was REAALLL annoying. (Disneyland in general is built with really narrow pathways.) We rode JC with a group of other DISers, but the skipper mike was muffled and we couldn’t understand her real well. I had also forgotten that there is no Shur-Lee temple on the DL version, and the coolest thing about doing the ride at night is how much clearer you can see inside the temple.

The rest of the group was pretty beat, but we had had a nap and were ready to keep going. We headed over to ride It’s a Small World, with the exterior all lit up at night. We then went into fantasyland to see how the lines were. Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride was only about a 15 minute wait, so we jumped on the chance to go to Hell and back. We then headed over to ride Snow White’s Adventures before calling it a night. I’m gonna miss this one at WDW, but since DD hated it we probably wouldn’t be riding it too often anyways.

I was so impressed that the two of you lasted for as long as you did! This was a very fun day, but also a very long one.

 

[wiigirl]

Just caught up.