The WDW Vets Head West! A DL May 2012 TR - Complete!

[khertz]

Everytime I see Main Street pictures of DL, it always makes me feel like something's missing without seeing that big castle towering over everything. I actually kind of like how it just looks somewhat modestly understated at the end of Main Street in DL though.

That's really cool that you kept your tradition of riding HM first, even in DL. I'm not sure I could handle the hour and a half of shopping though. I think I would have had to find a snack and a shady spot to sit down.

I found the smaller Castle made me more interested in actually checking out the different buildings on Main Street and made Main Street an attraction as a whole instead of just the big castle at the end.

I think the only reason we didn't stop moving for so long was because we wanted DS to nap...I would have LOVED a snack and a bench after the long day we'd had!!

 

[jenny105]

The first words out of my mouth on Main Street in DL were 'Where's the castle?' Cinderella's Castle is so massive compared to Sleeping Beauty's! I like Sleeping Beauty's castle though. It's cute.

Have you ever played the DL game on Kinect? It's crazy how they nailed the park.

Why do kids love playing with brooms? LOL. When my nephew was younger, that's all he wanted to do!

 

[debrapagliasotti]

I'm here

So excited to read about the DL trip!

Main street looks so different!! Still looks fun and I definately want to go there sometime soon.

Cant wait to hear more about the trip

 

[MEK]

Here! Welcome back. Going to read now!

 

[MEK]

Wow! great start to your TR! I am really enjoying everything! I have read a few TRs about DL, but its so cool to learn new things when I start a new TR. I would love to visit DL one of these days. It looks so cool and so different.

You may have already said this, but what made you decide to get a PAP? I'm assuming this is a pass where you can go to DL and WDW in the same year. Am I right. I actually have no idea!

 

[khertz]

The first words out of my mouth on Main Street in DL were 'Where's the castle?' Cinderella's Castle is so massive compared to Sleeping Beauty's! I like Sleeping Beauty's castle though. It's cute.

Have you ever played the DL game on Kinect? It's crazy how they nailed the park.

Why do kids love playing with brooms? LOL. When my nephew was younger, that's all he wanted to do!

I said the same thing! I knew it was smaller than Cinderalla Castle but I didn't expect it to be so hard to see from the end of Main Street.

I have never played the DL game, but it does look like fun!

No clue what the deal with the brooms is. His other obsession is the vacuum cleaner!!

I'm here

So excited to read about the DL trip!

Main street looks so different!! Still looks fun and I definately want to go there sometime soon.

Cant wait to hear more about the trip

Nice to see you here!

Wow! great start to your TR! I am really enjoying everything! I have read a few TRs about DL, but its so cool to learn new things when I start a new TR. I would love to visit DL one of these days. It looks so cool and so different.

You may have already said this, but what made you decide to get a PAP? I'm assuming this is a pass where you can go to DL and WDW in the same year. Am I right. I actually have no idea!

Hopefully I won't chase off people who normally read DL TRs with all my comparisons to WDW, but with so many trips there under my belt, it's hard not to.

We decided first to get WDW AP's because we knew we were taking the November trip in 2011 and that we would definitely want to take him back the next year and as long as it was before November 4th, we would save money on the AP's vs. park hoppers for each trip. When DH came up with the idea for doing DL also this year, we added it up, and with parking being free at both parks, plus the dining discounts at DL and the shopping discounts at both parks, it made total financial sense to get the Premier APs (the ones that are for both DL and WDW) instead of buying separate admission to DL. It's a one year only deal though...After this year's trip, it will be back to regular old park hoppers again. I don't know what I'll do without my gold ticket!!

 

[tessieg]

Loving this so far.... We are WDW gets too. Leaving in 2 weeks for a huge CA trip, San Fran to San Diego and many points in between. Especially DL!!!

 

[disneybarbie]

Great update! Disneyland looks so pretty - you both took some great photos; even the weather vanes! They are one of those wonderful Disney details


Emma x

 

[khertz]

Loving this so far.... We are WDW gets too. Leaving in 2 weeks for a huge CA trip, San Fran to San Diego and many points in between. Especially DL!!!

That's exactly what I would love to do one day! There are so many places in California I want to visit. But when an opportunity like this presented itself, I couldn't say no, of course. Thanks for joining in! Hopefully I can give you lots of good info for your trip.

Great update! Disneyland looks so pretty - you both took some great photos; even the weather vanes! They are one of those wonderful Disney details


Emma x

DH loves those little hidden details, so when he finds out about them, they have to be explored! It is actually kind of cool, although maybe twenty years from now we might look at our pictures and wonder why we have so many pics of weather vanes.

 

[dougsmom98]

Love your trip report. We too are WDW vets that had our first trip to DL in April. I love the PP pictures that were taken of your family. They are perfect. Your son is looking and smiling in each of them. I also love the weather vanes. We never noticed the weather vanes on our trip and I forgot to look at the popcorn vendors too! The Matterhorn was also down for us when we went. We can't wait to go back and ride it.

 

[DDuck4Life]

DAY 1 Continued: May 14th

To pick up where DW left off, after I left the hotel and parked, I walked to Downtown Disney to check out the shops, mainly D-Street to see what Vinylmations they had. I figured this was my one chance to look around at the Vinylmations without DW and DS getting board lol. I got into DL around 8:30-9 and checked the wait times for some of the adult rides that DS can’t ride. Star Tours was about a 25 minute wait so I went there first. I really love that ride after the refurb. I got Darth Vader in the first scene, next we ended up on Tatooine in the pod races, Admiral Ackbar greeted us, and then we ran into Boba Fett and the Death Star. Since it was dark now I decided I better take some night shots since it gets dark so much later here I didn’t know how many opportunities I would get with DS deciding how late we stayed out and knowing one night was for WoC at DCA.

After a few shots and finding another popcorn turner I made my way over to Indiana Jones.

Only 15 minute wait. I love this ride and Indiana Jones, I wish I would have rode this one a few more times. After this I was getting pretty hungry and other people were tweeting pictures of the delicious special fantasmic menu items they we eating I knew I had to try one. I went with the bacon mac & cheese hot dog, it was just as amazing as it sounds!

After my meal I went over to 1 of the 2 designated shops that had the special 20th anniversary shirts and hoodies to pick up a shirt for myself and DW.

Now to the fantasmic stuff that everyone is interested in. I’m going to back track a little to when I first arrived at the park and saw the viewing area for fantasmic. It was packed already. Apparently people had been getting their spots as soon as they got to the park. At 5-6pm people already had their blankets on the ground reserving their spots. It only got worse as the night went on. I was there to see Disneyland, ride rides, take in the sights not sit around for 4-5 hours just to get a prime viewing spot. I figured I could squeeze in somewhere closer to the start and be able to see everything. I figured I might not be able to get any good pictures but the main thing was to just see the show. I picked my spot about 30minutes before the start. Looking at the stage I was on the left hand side with an obstructed view. I could see part of the stage and good views of the water to the right but not so good sight lines to the left due to a tree and a sign. Good thing the pirate ship and river boat come from the right side. I could see lots of empty space between people and some were still sitting so I was banking on people moving in closer and I could edge my way over so my view would not be as bad. My plan worked perfect as soon as the show started everyone filled in the empty space to get a better view and my spot ended up being pretty good for showing up 30minutes before the start. The only thing different about this version of fantasmic versus the normal one was before the show there was a 4-5minute montage to when fantasmic first debuted. Showing old news footage hyping up the show. It was pretty cool to look back and see how excited everyone was for the show. I’ll let the pictures tell you about the show and you can see for yourself the view that I had.

Continued in next post...

 

[DDuck4Life]

DAY 1 Continued: May 14th

Tried to get a quick shot of the sign on the way out but didn't turn out too well.

Earlier in the day I was thinking I was going to stay until the park closed at 1am but I was pretty beat after waking up super early for the flight and being up all day I decided it was best to just head back to the hotel and not try to ride something.

A few parting shots on the way out...

Overall it was a great experience, something about being my first AP event made it seem better. The biggest thing was not being that familiar with DL, not knowing how crowded and busy it would be definitely hindered the experience and what I was able to do. Knowing how crowded it was going to be I might not have dawdled as much and tried to get more done, though it was nice to take things at a leisurely pace. Everything I was able to do was all lagniappe as we didn't plan on having any of this time there. I would do it again just maybe have a better plan.

 

[khertz]

Love your trip report. We too are WDW vets that had our first trip to DL in April. I love the PP pictures that were taken of your family. They are perfect. Your son is looking and smiling in each of them. I also love the weather vanes. We never noticed the weather vanes on our trip and I forgot to look at the popcorn vendors too! The Matterhorn was also down for us when we went. We can't wait to go back and ride it.

Thanks so much! DS is usually a pretty good picture taker, and now it seems even better since he has learned to say "Cheese!" when a camera is pointed at him. He is a major ham and loves having his picture taken most of the time!

DH said I was not missing much by missing out on Matterhorn, but it's still an iconic DL attraction I'd love to ride someday. Maybe now that they have done this major refurb it will be even better!

 

[tessieg]

Gorgeous DL night photos! Love the ones looking down Main St!!!

 

[DDuck4Life]

DAY 1 Continued: Monday May 14th

I have to add here, DH read somewhere that there are a couple interesting things at DL that he wanted to get pictures of throughout our stay. Each popcorn cart in each land has a different character turning the popcorn, and a lot of the attractions have themed weather vanes on top. Because of his hard work and dedication, I'll post them in the TR as well. lol We walked through Sleeping Beauty Castle to Fantasyland and found our first popcorn cart.

Great update! Disneyland looks so pretty - you both took some great photos; even the weather vanes! They are one of those wonderful Disney details


Emma x

I actually heard about the little details on the DIS Unplugged podcast Disneyland show from April 26th. Wayne does a great job of pointing out all the amazing Disney touches that you might miss. I was glad I started listening to the podcast before we left. With this being our first visit we would have missed all those little details since we were over whelmed by all the new sights and sounds.
He did a blog post over some of the stuff just on main street that's pretty cool on the details.
http://www.disunplugged.com/2012/05/05/have-you-noticed-disneyland-main-street-usa/

 

[khertz]

Gorgeous DL night photos! Love the ones looking down Main St!!!

DH was so excited about the new lens he bought right before the trip, and I have to say I was pretty skeptical. But seeing the shots he got with it both during the daytime and the night shots, it was definitely worth the money! He got some really great shots throughout the week, and he does not mind seeing most of Disney through the lens.

I actually heard about the little details on the DIS Unplugged podcast Disneyland show from April 26th. Wayne does a great job of pointing out all the amazing Disney touches that you might miss. I was glad I started listening to the podcast before we left. With this being our first visit we would have missed all those little details since we were over whelmed by all the new sights and sounds.
He did a blog post over some of the stuff just on main street that's pretty cool on the details.
http://www.disunplugged.com/2012/05/05/have-you-noticed-disneyland-main-street-usa/

Thank you, I could not remember where you told me you had heard it from!

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

Those pics of you guys in front of the Castle are fantastic! Peyton has such a great smile!!! Glad DH was able to make it through the night for Fantasmic! Great pics of everything! Can't wait to read more...

 

[leshunlenese]

I don't know how i missed this but i am here. AHH i want to see fantasmic!!!

 

[afwdwfan]

The night pictures of Main Street and Fantasmic are great. That would have been awesome to attend an AP event for a special showing like that.

I finally got my first taste of solo park touring one evening during or last wdw trip, and I love the freedom of just taking things in and going at a leisurely pace. You might have missed out on riding a few more rides, but that looks like a really enjoyable evening.

 

[khertz]

Those pics of you guys in front of the Castle are fantastic! Peyton has such a great smile!!! Glad DH was able to make it through the night for Fantasmic! Great pics of everything! Can't wait to read more...

Thanks! I found DS was not quite as cooperative for pictures for the most part as he was in WDW last year, but I think it was mostly because he was so busy looking around to find something he could get into that he didn't want to stop & smile for a picture! I was pretty impressed with DH. He managed to stay until almost the end of the AP event with only a nap on the plane after getting up at what would amount to 2:30 am California time!

I don't know how i missed this but i am here. AHH i want to see fantasmic!!!

Happy to see you here!

The night pictures of Main Street and Fantasmic are great. That would have been awesome to attend an AP event for a special showing like that.

I finally got my first taste of solo park touring one evening during or last wdw trip, and I love the freedom of just taking things in and going at a leisurely pace. You might have missed out on riding a few more rides, but that looks like a really enjoyable evening.

My first taste of solo touring was a couple of years ago when I stayed behind in MK while everyone else went back to the resort. Really gives you a whole new perspective walking around alone!