Anybody remember where we left off? I've been busy at work and at home I haven't had much time to post. So much for moving this TR along. I guess I should go back and read my own posts. Don't go no where, I'll be right back.
(Insert Jeopardy Theme Music Here)
Ok, I'm back. I remember now.
Last we left our traveling duo, EMH was over and they were setting out for the Matterhorn.
I did it. I actually managed to climb the Matterhorn.
See for yourself. Im the person in the red hat.
Still cant tell thats me? Heres a closer look.
What thats? Still dont look like me? Well it is kind of hard to tell its me since you can only see my head.
Ok, for good TR reporting sake, lets pretend Im managed to climb the Matterhorn Mountain.
After climbing the Matterhorn, I figured Lady H may be getting a little lonely waiting for me to come back down; so I jumped off the mountain so we can continue on with our DL day. Hey, if
Secret Ponzi Man can stop the purse snatchers, I can climb the Matterhorn.
Anyways, after climbing the Matterhorn (as I stated before) Lady H and I decided we might as well give the ride a try. Another short wait. Wish the wait wouldve been a little longer though. I wasnt prepared for the beating I would take on this ride. After riding a smooth Space Mountain, this ride was rough.
Smidgy, you dont have to worry about the heights too much on this ride. You spend a lot of time going in and out of the mountain, that you hardly ever notice the height factor. Just make sure and wear knee and elbow pads. It wasnt completely horrible. There were a few parts that were pretty smooth, but overall I found it to be a rough ride. Might have been a little smoother if I wasnt trying to take video and actually held on.
After suffering whiplash, (ok that may be exaggerating just a little) we toured the rest of Fantasyland. I had heard about Mr. Toads Wild Ride and how people miss it over at WDW. We had to see for ourselves what the hype was about. The wait again was only 5-minutes. On the ride, Lady H drove and she kept wrecking into all the walls and stuff. See if I ever let her drive again. If really was a cute ride.
This is the only picture we managed to get for this ride.
Well the only picture that didn't come out blurry. We couldnt get our camera settings right while on the ride itself. We would eventually figure them out, but until then we had a bunch of what were we trying to take pictures of here pictures that got deleted just as fast as they go uploaded.
We were able to get on to Peter Pan quick as well & 30 minutes later we were done with Fantasyland. Well for what we wanted to see at the moment. The lines were starting to get a little longer as were the wait times. Plus my stomach was starting to scream for food. Feed me Seymour. The marine layer has burned off and its starting to get hot. I believe a snack is in order. Not just any snack.
Dole Whip! Yummmmmm.
Its a love/hate relationship with Dole Whips. Some people hate that they love them so much, that they cant get enough. Others just simply love to hate them. I love pineapple so I really like Dole Whips.
At WDW I had the pleasure of getting a Dole Whip, 2 in fact. It was an Epcot day and getting close to the end of our vacation. Lady H had a Fast Pass from at least one major attraction from each park for her scrapbook, except MK. The day we went to Epcot, I hopped on over to MK via the monorail; while Lady H played tour guide over at Epcot. I thought it would be a quick trip there and back. The monorail had other plans. One decided it would stall and make the others wait. While I sat suspended 20 feet in the air and about 100 feet from MK, I came up with a plan. Go to Splash Mountain, grab a Fast Pass for Lady Hs scrapbook, and on the way back I can grab 2 Dole Whips (one for me and one for Lady H) and hopefully get them to Epcot before they melted. I didnt get as far as Crystal Palace before they started melting. I never ate 2 Dole Whips so fast in all my life. No wonder people were staring at me funny.
Needless to say, Lady H had never tried a Dole Whip and I learned where in the Land to buy them. Theres a stand close to the Enchanted Tiki Room that sells them. Well at least we thought thats where we could get one. We walk up and its
CLOSED. I hope its not closed all day. Well try again a little later.
Since were in the area, Indiana Jones is close by. Lets go see how long the wait is. Only 10-minutes. Cool, lets go. Boy we are just breezing through DL this morning. My theory of going during this time of year so far has proven to be right. Were practically walking onto each ride.
Heres an empty IJ queue:
Couple of pictures as we were walking through the queue.
Don't know what these tablets were or said. Probably some kind of warning to turn back and run for your life. Since I don't read hieroglyphics, we pursued on.
Again, we figured out why the wait is 10-minutes. This another LLOONNGG queue. Felt like we were never going to reach the ride.
My dear friend Nebo wants a ride comparison here, as Im sure some of you do to. Indiana Jones compared to its WDW counterpart, Dinosaur. Truthfully I really dont know how to compare these 2 rides. If you love Dinosaur, youll love Indy. As far as the ride vehicle goes, its the same. In Dino, they call it a time machine; in Indy its a jeep. Of course the adventure is different, but each have points where you go slow, speed up, make sharp turns and the person riding next to you eventually winds up in your lap. And because each offers its own story, it makes each ride worth riding to experience the differences. I really dont have a favorite here because of the different story lines. This comparison is best experienced in person.
Now that the Indy adventure is over, Lady H and I decide to head on over to Splash Mountain before the line gets too long. Take a glance over to the Dole Whip stand, still closed. On our way to Splash, we see there is only a 5-minute wait for Pirates of the Caribbean. Should we? We look at each other, shrug our shoulders, agree to go without a single word spoken and head towards the entrance.
Next comparison.
Another one? He sure is doing a lot of comparisons considering he commented that he would not commit to comparing. Lets not forget who requested we actually do this TR. Blame Nebo. He asked for ride comparison's. Remember?
Now there are some similarities and major differences between MK and DL PotC. The first major difference is the queue. MKs queue gets pretty dark, pretty quick. Not so much at DL. Most of the queue is outside. Even when you come in, it does get dark, but not like at MK. The Blue Bayou restaurant is also part of DLs queue. It adds a nice touch for the beginning and ending of the ride. Once you enter the ride, it feels like youre in a swamp. As you go through, you enter a little room before taking not one, but 2 drops. After the 2nd drop, you see a bunch of skeletons. I dont remember if theres any at the beginning over at MK, but there were sure a lot more at DL. This is one of the major differences from the MK version. As you go along, you soon see the mist and the projection of Davy Jones. Blackbeard has yet to be added. The next few scenes are pretty similar. Barbossa on the pirate ship, the village call girls, pirates chasing wenches around the village, village on fire and the jail cells. If my memory serves me correct, after the jail cells at MK, you get to the end where Captain Jack is sitting in a chair surrounded by riches. At the end at DL, you have one more scene before getting to Captain Jack. Once you pass Captain Jack, a big conveyor belt takes you up, up and away. You have to jump ship and swim back to shore. So all you WDW fans, turn away again; score one more for DL. At least in my books. The added scenes seemed to make PotC at DL just a little better.
Sorry folks, I thought we had pictures, but I guess not. I guess we actually decided to enjoy an attraction. Bad Thumpers, Bad. Dont you know the readers will need pics. I pulled a semi-Ponzi on this one. For some odd reason, one of the batteries to my camera didnt charge up completely. By the time we got to PotC, my battery was quickly dying. I did have a spare battery with me, but I thought I would save it for later in the day. Besides the battery in Lady Hs camera was still showing a good charge, so I thought I would let her take the pics for a while.
After jumping ship, we are still headed over to Splash Mountain. Hopefully the line hasnt gotten too long by this point. If it has, well just grab a FP and ride it later. On our way to Splash, we come upon this.
I heard from a good source that this attraction would be closing on Aug. 27th for about a week so that they can do a holiday refurb. Today would be our only chance to see it. And what do you know, only a 5-minute wait again. I feel like I could hit the lottery today.
By the way, thanks Kar for this info. If we haven't lost you already and you're still reading.
Now since the last time weve been to MK, I know they have done a refurb on HM. I dont know what they changed, but I hear the queue is different. Other than the outside, I can tell you the ride itself is the same.
I think.
Anyone read Riglees report? Remember what they would do on dark rides? Were on our anniversary. So we only did some snogging on part of the ride. If you know where to look for Hidden Mickeys, some of the same ones are here as well.
Moving on.
Yes, we finally made it.
Dare to take a guess how long the line was? If you said 45-minutes, youre wrong. Anyone for 30-minutes? Youre closer, but still wrong. How about 15-minutes? Well, you would be wrong to, but much closer. 10-minutes was the wait time. Again, 10-minutes would be the time you would have to walk through the queue. Queue here is much different as well. For one, you go up a set of stairs, just to have to go back down again. Its not all one level. Once we finished walking through the queue, we waited all of 2-minutes to get on the ride. Lady H graciously let me have the front and she sat right behind me.
First difference you notice, you sit single instead of side-by-side.
Heres a few more pics I took on the ride, before my first battery officially died for the day.
Climbing our way to the big drop.
The Big Drop
Getting off SM totally soaked, Lady H and I take a few moments to dry off before taking a quick ride on Winnie the Pooh.
Pooh is very similar to Mr. Toad as far as the ride aspect goes. Seeing him eat that honey has me craving that Dole Whip even more now.
After Pooh, we hop on the
Disneyland Railroad.
All Aboard! Next Stop.
Only attraction we rode was Roger Rabbits (no relation) Car Toon Spin. His wife is one hot............................
Hi Lady H. Dont worry, shes not real. I only got love for you.
The ride, very similar to Mr. Toad and WtP. Only difference here is the car spins and you control how it spins. After the ride, we looked around Toontown for a while.
We had lots of fun pulling on door handles, ringing door bells, checking the mail.
Ah. The mail. Forgot we need to send out the first batch of postcards.
We didnt really mail them from here, but playing with this mailbox was fun. It talks back to you as do many other things in Toontown. This also reminded us we needed to go buy postage and mail out the first requests for postcards. Plus were really starting to get hungry. Head over to Dole Whip stand and give it one last try.
SCORE! 2 Dole Whip Floats all for me.
Ok, I shared. It would be un-gentleman like of me not to do so. That and I wouldve probably landed up with a black eye. Or worse.
Ive read many comments about the float being better than just the whip by itself. Naturally I had to see for myself. Although good, I still like the whip by itself. Save the pineapple juice for Mai Tais. Oh right, no alcohol served here either.
The Dole Whip was a nice little snack but didnt quite hit the spot. Lady H and I decide to hop on the monorail to Downtown Disney and eat. Not so much cause we wanted to eat someplace downtown; more 'cause we wanted to ride the monorail to see if it really does take you downtown. Weve seen it at downtown, we just need to experience this for ourselves.
To catch the monorail, you have to super lightning speed and be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Or you can just walk to Tomorrowland and wait for it to stop there. Youve seen my picture; does it look like I can run super fast? Much less leap tall buildings. We opted for choice 2. Wait for to stop at Tomorrowland.
Before we go on the monorail, we stop inside Innoventions. This reminds me of the Carousel of Progress in the manner that the building rotates. CoP does rotate right? I cant quite remember if I saw it rotating; or if I was suffering from heat exhaustion and just imagined it was rotating. Could be the beers I had at Planet Hollywood. Anyways, Innoventions does rotate and we went in to check it out. Not before I took these.
Remember the first picture we showed you of Space Mountain's wait time? Here is the current wait time 3 hours and 45 minutes later. We took the picture before climbing up the ramp to Innoventions.
And remember how empty the queue was?
Not so much anymore.
Well, we werent that impressed with Innoventions. Probably because all the adults were hogging the good games. One of the funnest (funnest? more fun? most fun?) things we did inside was design our dream home. It did one heck of a job and I wish I had the money to build it. I would need to hit the lottery and then some.
After we snapped back into reality and realized that the dream home was just that, a dream, we decided to go and wait for the monorail. We went round and round in circles trying to figure out how to get out. Kept looking at all the exit signs and they all kept pointing to the left. We walked around in circles before we finally figured it out.
After our heads stop spinning from making ourselves dizzy from walking in circles, we head over to ride Manny.
Whos Manny?
This is Manny.
Manny would be our chauffeur to Downtown Disney today. Looks like families still get to ride in the front on this monorail.
Ever since the opening of Carsland over at DCA, I guess all the monorails got a make over by Ramone. Each have been given a name as well. Manny is the red monorail. There's also Mandy and the other one. I don't know which color Mandy is and I don't remember the name of the 3rd one. Just know there's also a blue and orange one. Without realizing it until now, I managed to get a picture of all 3.
12 noon and we finished DL in half a day. Well most of DL. EMH and low crowds really helped us get through the lines quick throughout the morning. As you can tell, they were really starting to pick up so we decided now was good time to take a break.
And with this break, well break so I can write the next chapter.