TR: And now for something completely different - a WDW Family did DLR *(new - 4/15: HK Disneyland)*

[TheMaxRebo]

Chapter 40 - Disneyland - Part 21
October 18th
It's Satisfactual!​

Basically after our ride on Pirates was over our FP time was due on Splash Mountain. We also stopped for a snack for the kids - especially the ones that were too small to ride this attraction (a.k.a. Peter and Emma). Peter picked a giant pickle, for some reason, and we got some other fruit and snacks for Emma. First I rode with Olivia - she was a little nervous about this ride being single person wide at Disneyland vs at WDW, but was pretty excited too:

You do get some cool views of the rest of the park - including of the pirate ship:

We got a pretty good ride photo. While I found it all pretty boring, that little girl in the front seems very excited. Also, props to her dad calmly holding onto both her and a water:

Then I watched the younger kids while Judi rode with Olivia - no other pictures but they got a fun ride photo as they were in the front this time (though Judi did get soaked!)

At this point Emma had fallen asleep so Judi took Olivia and Peter onto Winnie the Pooh while I waited with Emma.

Then we headed back towards Toon Town as we were hoping to meet Mickey Mouse without too much of a wait. Along the way though we stopped to ride It's a Small World. While not everyone loves this ride, I love the history of it, what with being at the '64 World's Fair and also was excited to experience this version of it with the out-door loading system, really cool background, and also that they have added the Disney Characters into the ride - so capturing as many of them was my goal!

Once we got going Emma was pretty enthralled with it:

I was able to find Alice and White Rabbit:

Pinocchio:

Simba, Timon, and Pumba:

Donald and the other Caballeros:

Ariel:

Lilo and Stitch:

Woody and Jessie:

Soooooo I know the addition of these characters was a bit of a controversy among the Disneyland loyalists but I have to say it was done in such a tasteful way and they really fit into the scenes they are in and are stylized versions of the characters. I really liked it and am glad we got to experience it.

Coming up next, back to Toon Town and meeting the Big Cheese himself!

TTFN

 

[Disney9.9.10]

Wolfgang Puck free coffee?? That's pretty great!

I love Olivia's face on the Splash photo. She looks like she is having the time of her life on that ride.

I love HM with the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay!! So cool. I love the HM at WDW but I think that it is nice to see something different. And your report has my dying to go on the DL version of IASW. That ride is my favourite and holds a special place in my heart because of my grandmother, but I am so excited to see the DL one. It is so neat how so many rides have track or loading outdoors. So different than what you are used to at WDW.

 

[horse11]

OMGOSh I love Nightmare Before Christmas!! I soooooooo wish they would do that to HM at WDW!!
I absolutely love your ride pictures and the video is the whipped cream on top of the cake!! Very nicely done!!

 

[afwdwfan]

The kids were a little leery going in - but at the end they decided they want to ride again ... and still no wait! Well, the posted wait time was 13 minutes (love it!) but really was still a walk on - so we went again!

Awesome! I'm glad it was a hit and you were able to do it twice!

So I got pretty terrible pictures on this - but the ride is awesome! Soooooo much better than the version at WDW. It has this very long scene at the beginning going through the caves and just everything look great!

Of all the rides that exist in both parks, I think this is the one that stands out most as being so much better at Disneyland vs. Disney World.

We got a pretty good ride photo. While I found it all pretty boring, that little girl in the front seems very excited. Also, props to her dad calmly holding onto both her and a water:

So is the back row 2 wide? It looks like you're sitting next to Olivia in the picture.

Soooooo I know the addition of these characters was a bit of a controversy among the Disneyland loyalists but I have to say it was done in such a tasteful way and they really fit into the scenes they are in and are stylized versions of the characters. I really liked it and am glad we got to experience it.

I agree 100%. I loved the addition of them into the scenes. They all fit well and it became kind of like a Where's Waldo game to find them all.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Wolfgang Puck free coffee?? That's pretty great!

I love Olivia's face on the Splash photo. She looks like she is having the time of her life on that ride.

I love HM with the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay!! So cool. I love the HM at WDW but I think that it is nice to see something different. And your report has my dying to go on the DL version of IASW. That ride is my favourite and holds a special place in my heart because of my grandmother, but I am so excited to see the DL one. It is so neat how so many rides have track or loading outdoors. So different than what you are used to at WDW.

Yeah, definitely weren't complaining about the coffee - other than that we would have liked more of the k-cups (only 2 a day of regular, and sometimes Judi and I would have liked more than 1 cup)

Olivia did have a blast on Splash Mountain - she seems to like thrill rides as long as not too shaky (like she found Expedition Everest)

I like when the parks have some differences. My understanding is that since Disneyland has more "locals" while Walt Disney World has more "once in a life time trip people" that do more of the overlays at Disneyland so that people who are only going to go once to WDW get the "classic" version

OMGOSh I love Nightmare Before Christmas!! I soooooooo wish they would do that to HM at WDW!!
I absolutely love your ride pictures and the video is the whipped cream on top of the cake!! Very nicely done!!

I was very impressed by the TNBC overlay on the HM - it is basically a completely different ride ... not like they just put a couple of items in a few rooms. It would be neat to have it at WDW though see above for my understanding as to why Disneyland has more overlays than Walt Disney World

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the little gif!

Awesome! I'm glad it was a hit and you were able to do it twice!

Of all the rides that exist in both parks, I think this is the one that stands out most as being so much better at Disneyland vs. Disney World.

So is the back row 2 wide? It looks like you're sitting next to Olivia in the picture.

I agree 100%. I loved the addition of them into the scenes. They all fit well and it became kind of like a Where's Waldo game to find them all.

I think Olivia especially gets worried about conflict or the unknown so she is very antsy getting on rides (especially those with potentially a scary story ... I recall the first time we rode Star Tours and when the line goes under the Ewok treehouse she asked "are the Ewok's good guys or bad guys?" - she is always worried about "bad guys") but then afterward she enjoys them and wants to go again once she knows what to expect

yeah, a number of the rides seems smoother/better maintained at Disneyland (Splash, Space Mountain, etc.) but Pirates is definitely the most "different" with the cave part and just floating by Blue Bayou.

The back row is maybe like 1.5 seats wide so an adult and small child could fit but not 2 adults

Yup - my feelings are the same about IASW at Disneyland ... I thought they did a really good job with the additions!

 

[annie170]

Your Haunted Mansion photos turned out great! It's so interesting to see the differences in rides between the two parks.

Is Splash Mountain pretty much the same as WDW? Judi and Olivia look cute in their ride photo.

 

[missangelalexis]

2 back to back rides on HM sounds awesome! And you got some really great pics on the ride, I'm impressed.

Glad you got to do Pirates right after that. Still so sad it was closed for refurb when we were there

Such a cute pic of olivia on Splash. Glad you guys enjoyed it!

I love that IASW has the characters throughout the ride, I think it's a nice touch!

 

[DisneyParkLover]

Yay! So happy to have stumbled across this trip report! I can't believe how much the kids have grown (especially Emma, as I am used to seeing her as a tiny baby!). Can't wait to catch up! I have started a new trip report too (linked in my siggy) to catch everyone up on Luke's adventures!

 

[chillitsanne]

We went right to haunted Mansion as it had the Nightmare Before Christmas Overlay on it so this was a big priority for us to get on - and we were greeted with no line whatsoever! And as you can tell from the clock we got there at 8:10am - not too bad!

You got some great pictures! The Nightmare before Christmas overlay on this ride looks awesome!

So I got pretty terrible pictures on this - but the ride is awesome! Soooooo much better than the version at WDW. It has this very long scene at the beginning going through the caves and just everything look great! I know the version at WDW got put up quickly in response to guest complaints that there wasn't a Pirates there - so this comparison definitely shows the difference that comes form Imagineers having the time and money they need

I am really looking forward to seeing this ride, from you advice I'm going hit it up earlier in the morning!

 

[schmass]

So cool that at DL you are still allowed to sit up front in the monorail! Also, it's interesting how there the monorail is a ride, rather than just a mode of transportation.

Paint the Night looks amazing. Rory would go bonkers over Mack - he is currently his favorite character for some reason. That's pretty great that you got to see so many nighttime shows in one evening!

I hope someday I get to experience the Haunted Mansion like that - definitely makes it seem so much different.

 

[DisneyParkLover]

All caught up and loving it! We went to Disneyland when I was 13, but it was a much different place back then (and only one park!). Would love to go back as an adult! I know I told you this is my trip report, but totally want to steal this trip idea!

 

[khertz]

OMG I was sooooooo behind!! But thanks to the boys heading to New Orleans for the night to see Monster Jam and a sleeping DD, I finally had some time to catch up!!

The meet with Snow White looks SO sweet!! The girls in their Snow costumes are just precious.

I love all of the gifs from Paint the Night. I am still so bummed that we just missed all of these amazing additions to DL by going right before all of the 60th anniversary stuff! It looks like a really amazing show.

Definitely need to plan our next trip to DL during the holidays. We have never been when the overlay is up at Haunted Mansion! I'd love to see the Christmas overlay on Small World too. I love the characters in there, but then again, I never saw it without them. So the loyalists may have a point, but I personally enjoy them!

 

[Dugette]

I posted up above a picture from google maps showing exactly where Figaro is but he is up on a windowsill that you can see if you come out of the gift shop that is in between Royal Hall and Royal Theater (I think it is called Fairytale treasures) and look to your left and up you will see him. About the best way I can describe it

Thank you - I sent Dug and Izzy off to find him while we were rider swapping or something - and they spotted him. Of course, Izzy thought it was going to be a meet and greet, but still cool.

Then the train pulled up and I was glad to see what was on the end of the train. We got to sit in the last regular car of the train, which put us pretty close to the Lilly Belle:

Very cool that you got to see the Lilly Belle. Wish we could have ridden the train, but unfortunately it was closed for our visit.

Now was time to deploy one secret idea I had to the kids ... when we got to the front of the line we asked the CM if it was possible to ride in the front car and they said we could! (we had to wait one more train, but no biggy). Only negative was there was a 4 person limit, and Emma counted as a person so Judi to her in the 2nd car and I went with Peter and Olivia up to the front - felt neat to move up and have them open the door for us:

Love that you got to ride up there, but sorry that Judi couldn't. Looks like fun.

No pictures from the actual ride - but it was really cool - very impressive the technology and just everything that is going on - very immersive!

I loved Indy!

That said, the food was really good! We got a few of the beef and of the chicken skewers as well as the veggie one which were really great!

Wish we'd been able to try that stuff. We briefly got in line for Bengal BBQ, but it was so long and slow-moving we cut our losses and moved on.

Too bad she's not wearing a Sleeping Beauty dress.

And some other classics such as Peter Pan:

Cool to see these. We saw projections on Main Street, so a little different.

Along with fireworks - what we could see were the back fireworks, we didn't have a great view of the ones that were over Sleeping Beauty Castle:

At least you got to see some fireworks - they were cancelled for wind our whole trip.

We went right to haunted Mansion as it had the Nightmare Before Christmas Overlay on it so this was a big priority for us to get on - and we were greeted with no line whatsoever!

Really cool to see the pictures of it with the overlay!

and once we boarded we passed by where we had eaten lunch the previous day at Blue Bayou:

That is a funny feeling - I commented on the same thing when we rode after having eaten there. I was like, "There's our table!"

Soooooo I know the addition of these characters was a bit of a controversy among the Disneyland loyalists but I have to say it was done in such a tasteful way and they really fit into the scenes they are in and are stylized versions of the characters. I really liked it and am glad we got to experience it.

We really liked the character additions - had a lot of fun spotting them.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Chapter 41 - Disneyland - Part 22​

October 18th
Who's the leader of the band?​

After a ride on the friendliest cruise we pushed on into Toon Town - first order of business was to meet Mickey Mouse which we hadn't done yet this trip! Both he and Minnie tended to have rather long waits, but at this time Mickey's was around 20 mins (Minnies was at least 45 and was always longer than Mickey's whenever we checked).

The set up here was you walked through Mickey's house and then meet him in the barn behind the house which is also their production area or something. But that meant there were a lot of min-sized furniture items that Emma got a kick out of climbing in. Not quite sure why Peter looks terrified in the first pic:

Right before you go into meet Mickey they have a holding area where they play old classic Mickey and friends cartoons - at one point Donald get caught in the film strip (do kids even know what a film strip is anymore?) and get flattened by the projector ... good clean fun!

Mickey can be in one of 3 outfits when you meet him here: Sorcerer Mickey, Bandleader Mickey, and Steamboat Willie Mickey. The cartoons play off this featuring the three different Mickeys. I was really hoping for Steamboat Willie Mickey but also would be cool with Bandleader Mickey as never met that "version" before either. So what did we get?

Bandleader Mickey!

First picture and gif I took:

Then a couple of photopass pictures:

This was a fun meet and I like how they have the different Mickey options and glad we got to see one we hadn't seen before.

We then explored Toon Town a bit more - the bigger kids wanted to ride Gadget's Go Coaster and I took Emma into Goofy's house and around a bit to entertain her:

After this Judi ran back to our room ... you see, we had forgotten the Photopass card that we needed to get our ride photos and we needed to do that soon to get our ones from Splash Mountain added. That is certainly one thing nice about how close the hotel was - she could literally run back and was only gone for about 40 mins total. I think she also wanted to get her step count up a bit on her Fitbit

While she was doing this I had the kids and Emma had fallen asleep in the stroller. I had made plans to meet up with Alicia and her family again so we went to do that know over by the Matterhorn. While waiting for them we saw this Frozen background photo-op place. There weren't any instructions or anyone around so I wasn't sure if you just stood in front of it or actually climbed into it - so we compromised and I let the kids sit on the front part (later we saw people fully climbing in it so I guess I could have let them do that)

We then met up with Alicia and her family and I guess we figured we had enough pictures so no photographic evidence of this meet. But it was good to see them again and say goodbye - we also wanted to say Happy Birthday to her son and give them a little something for the son-to-arrive new member of their family.

When Judi got back she took the photopass card over to Splash Mountain to get our ride photos added and I headed in that direction as well and got some pictures by the piece of petrified tree. This was a gift Walt had given Lillian and then she gave it to Disneyland after he passed - I thought it was neat to look at. This was roughly the spot we had caught the end of Fantasmic! from as well. The area across the water on the left is the main stage are for Fantasmic!

We then met up near the Haunted Mansion and there was a photo-op there I really wanted to do. For some reason Olivia was not willing to cooperate so that was a bit of a bummer but Peter was game and did a great job listening to the photographer when he instructed us to make different poses.

After that we needed to head out of the park and over to California Adventure for our lunch. We decided to head through Adventureland and pick up a few Dole Whip Floats to tide us over. There was a very long line but they had a good system where someone with a ordering iPad type thing would come down the line and take your order then you just had to pick it up once you got to the front. Love that they add the little tiki umbrellas in Disneyland:

On our way out I wanted to make sure I stopped and got a photo near Walt's apartment with the light on:

and then we exited the park for the last time - our time at Disneyland proper had come to an end. While the crowds were a bit much at times we really did love the charm of the park and udnerstand why people love it so much.

But our trip wasn't over yet as we had an afternoon and evening planned at California Adventure - and with it some trip drama since clearly things were going just too smoothly up to that point!

TTFN

 

[khertz]

I really never realized that about meeting Mickey there. Both times we have done it, we have gone right as Toontown was opening and met him in his regular magician outfit.

That gif of Emma poking the camera is the CUTEST EVER.

Love the HM magic photos. Peter looks like he was totally into it!

So sad leaving DL for the last time. I think for me it's because when I leave there, I never know if and when I'll be back to visit again!

 

[Volunteer]

Bandleader Mickey

I read this as Bartender Mickey and was like

 

[hokieinpa]

I feel quite behind!

That's great that you got to ride HM and Pirates with short waits. The boys flat out refuse to ride HM but I'm hoping they change their minds before May!

I love the DL version of Small World - very cool how they have worked characters into the theme!

Toontown looks like a kids paradise! Lots of fun play spaces and great character meets!

 

[Dugette]

After a ride on the friendliest cruise we pushed on into Toon Town - first order of business was to meet Mickey Mouse which we hadn't done yet this trip! Both he and Minnie tended to have rather long waits, but at this time Mickey's was around 20 mins (Minnies was at least 45 and was always longer than Mickey's whenever we checked).

Oh, wow! We didn't have to wait long at all for Mickey, but Minnie was longer than we liked (but much shorter than that 45!)

Mickey can be in one of 3 outfits when you meet him here: Sorcerer Mickey, Bandleader Mickey, and Steamboat Willie Mickey.

Hmmmm, he was in his tux for us. Didn't realize it varied.

After this Judi ran back to our room ... you see, we had forgotten the Photopass card that we needed to get our ride photos and we needed to do that soon to get our ones from Splash Mountain added. That is certainly one thing nice about how close the hotel was - she could literally run back and was only gone for about 40 mins total. I think she also wanted to get her step count up a bit on her Fitbit

Yep, I made a couple runs back to the room too. SO glad to stay so close!

We then met up near the Haunted Mansion and there was a photo-op there I really wanted to do. For some reason Olivia was not willing to cooperate so that was a bit of a bummer but Peter was game and did a great job listening to the photographer when he instructed us to make different poses.

Love that! Wish I'd known it was there.

But our trip wasn't over yet as we had an afternoon and evening planned at California Adventure - and with it some trip drama since clearly things were going just too smoothly up to that point!

Sounds ominous!

 

[ElenaJane]

Wait! I'm not ready for your TR to be coming to an end! If I haven't said it before, I love the Gif aspect of your TRs. They add like a magical-Harry-Potter touch to your reports!

 

[schmass]

That looks like a really fun meet with Bandleader Mickey! That's cool that there are 3 different options that he could be dressed as.

That video of Emma is way too cute.

I love the Haunted Mansion pictures - so fun! I'm glad that Peter was really into it, even if Olivia didn't want to participate.