Unback From DLP

[Bexx]

The second time I paid more attention because I felt the doombuggie shaking back and forth and wondered what was happening. I looked up to see the bridegroom and the image in the mirror showed him with hands on the outside of the doombuiggie shaking it, with his head shown above the doombuggie. Next time you go pay a little more attention at the end. Maybe the effect is new?

I'll definitely look out for that next time I visit

Thank you for such a positive review of DLP

 

[toony]

I did enjoy your report! I liked the comparison parts very much. I've been several times to DLRP and this October will be my first time WDW! So I can compare them both, too, only the other way round.

 

[Ware Bears]

Really enjoying your reports, Trey.

 

[kevankiki]

I rode it twice. The first time I rode it I noticed the phantom bridegroom in the mirror at the end and just said to myself, oh, this is what Haunted Mansion does at DL and MK but with ghost figures in the mirror. The second time I paid more attention because I felt the doombuggie shaking back and forth and wondered what was happening. I looked up to see the bridegroom and the image in the mirror showed him with hands on the outside of the doombuiggie shaking it, with his head shown above the doombuggie. Next time you go pay a little more attention at the end. Maybe the effect is new?

I assumed like you did (having been to DL California), but next time I go I am going to watch much more carefully!

 

[davewasbaloo]

The FL acronym is a confusing one. Do you mean FantasyLand or FrontierLand?

Sorry for being lazy, I meant Frontierland.

 

[davewasbaloo]

Great report so far


Is the Tarzan show like the one at AK

No where near. I have actually been known to cry at the beauty of this show. It is a full portrayal of the story through ballet, gymnastics and arial ballet, set to music sung by Phil Collins in the 5 main langauages of Europe (though mainly English). There's a cute audience participation bit where kids are invited up to help trash the camp. I LOVE this show.

Glad you enjoyed BBWWS Hydro, to me this is the highlight of the whole resort, blowing the Orlando and Buena Park dinner shows out of the water! Y'all Come!

Glad you are at the HI, to me, this is a better hotel than the trashy NBC.

 

[HydroGuy]

Nope, not WDW, making it out to Paris this summer.

I agree with your assessment of the US versions but had forgotten about the inversion at DLP.

The difference is more than just an inversion. Can't remember if MK's Space has music but the new music on the refurbed version at DL in CA just really makes the ride much better. Here at DLP there is no music at all. It is sort of like a rough Rock n Rollercoaster with no music and little theming once you are inside. FWIW, the launch tube is pretty cool and the best part of the ride IMO.

 

[HydroGuy]

No where near. I have actually been known to cry at the beauty of this show. It is a full portrayal of the story through ballet, gymnastics and arial ballet, set to music sung by Phil Collins in the 5 main langauages of Europe (though mainly English). There's a cute audience participation bit where kids are invited up to help trash the camp. I LOVE this show.

Never saw Tarzan at AK before it was closed but other than that Dave has it right.

Glad you enjoyed BBWWS Hydro, to me this is the highlight of the whole resort, blowing the Orlando and Buena Park dinner shows out of the water! Y'all Come!

Only saw Hoop-Dee-Doo at WDW and the BBWWS is better by a factor of 10. So I agree.

Glad you are at the HI, to me, this is a better hotel than the trashy NBC.

I liked the HI and wished I stayed there the whole week over NBC. Tonight I am in the city of Paris and will be back to the HI tomorrow night with my final night at Santa Fe. Nothing against SF, but with what I know now I would have skipped the SF and just stayed the final night at HI.

 

[HydroGuy]

Another excellent installment. Wonder why DLP didn't follow the story line for RnR

Have you been to WDW and ridden RnR? For those who have not the theme is set on a Southern California freeway (near where I grew up) with road signs of actual freeways there. It works perfectly and my only complaint about RnR is that it is about 30 seconds too short. Other than that it is a perfect themed coaster.

I assume at WDS there was concern about the Europeans not being able to connect with the California freeway story.

RnR seems like a perfect fit for DCA out in California and I have no idea why they did not build one there. Instead they have California Screamin which is a cool coaster but not as good as RnR.

 

[HydroGuy]

Being an American from the southwest (AZ and NV) I think frontierland is cute. It's nothing like the real thing, but then, why would it be? That's like thinking that there is nothing in Las Vegas besides gambling, and casino employees.

I like Fantasyland here. No, there is no Matterhorn, but it has it's own unique charm over California. I love the maze. I sincerely enjoy the fact that the park is only 15 years old... The Magic Kingdom has it's great spots too, but I love seeing the variations. DLP- You can go up in the castle, and into the dragon's lair. The Teacups are covered with the pretty blue roofing, and small world is leaps and bounds brighter than in Anaheim- as it is so much newer.

Sometime next year we will be planning a trip to WDW to get the Disney Trifecta. Until then, I am thrilled to be living within a 3 hour drive of DLP, and perfectly enchanted with it.

Ahhh, but there is now Disney in Tokyo and Hong Kong. The one in Tokyo has a reputation as being the best in the world. I plan to go there on my next trip to Asia.

If you are planning a first WDW trip you may find some useful info in this lengthy thread I wrote:

An Introduction To WDW For DLR Vets
www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=16541636

For anyone else interested in a first trip to DLR in California, I wrote a lengthy guide to DLR which many on DIS DLR have taken to calling the starting point for all DLR planning. Here is a link:

A DLR Guide for WDW Vets
www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1162599

 

[Ware Bears]

I hope you are enjoying writing this as much as I am reading it, Trey!

My ambition is to visit all of the Disney parks so I have saved your last link in my favourites, thanks!

 

[NETGURU]

Was really enjoying this thread it made me feel like commenting on a lot of what you're saying. I'm rather biased towards Disneyland Paris over WDW because I've been several times and seen the good times and bad times, whereas in Florida we went at high season and it was so busy we couldn't go anywhere or do anything. My dad ended up ripping up the tickets for the MK and took us to Epcot for the rest of the trip lol.

A lot of what you're saying is very true. I think Fantasyland is beautiful and you can understand why the gardeners keep on striking, it must take a heckuvalotta work to keep the square trees looking perfect and the lawns weed-free. I went for the first time to the park back in 96, when the park was REALLY struggling and i've seen a lot of changes - some good, some bad.

Space Mountain, I love that ride although I really miss the Jules Verne theming. I'm a massive Verne fan and the original soundtrack was just the coolest thing ever. Not sure if anyone's seen the documentary 'Shoot For The Moon' which was on BBC a while back. It basically charted the progress of building the original Space Mountain (Q note: if anyone wants this I can send it to you over the internet or VCD, very very interesting program). The amount of work that went into the original ride was phenomenal so it's a shame to see they've stripped out the old ride. The good thing, however, is I find Space Mountain 2 a much better ride. It gives you one heck of a kick being accelerated from the bottom of the cannon instead of 1/2 way. Just my thoughts. Keep in mind I'm a hardened thrill seeker so it's nice there's something for us there too .

Indiana Jones is the most overrated ride in the park IMHO. It's just not worth queueing for. 2 hour wait for, what is basically 40-60 seconds. A very mild coaster though I do get excited passing the indy tent and cars, always was a big fan

Rock N Rollercoaster I thought was brilliant but I agree with the theming being out the window. Really didn't have a clue what was going on but the ride was good and all the signed guitars were interesting in the queue line.

I love most of the park. Phantom Manor is brilliant and I like the fact there's no narration like in WDW as I found this really spoils the ride. Vincent Price is scary of course, but not when he's talking as you should be fearing the silence . I had nightmares for days after going on this in 96 (I was like 12 lol). Big Thunder Mountain is cool, POTC is better than WDW purely because there's drops. After being on this ride then going to WDW, I was really disappointed when there wasn't any (is it only DLP with the drops out of curiosity??).

Star Tours is another overrated ride I think. I love Star Wars and the queue line is better than the ride, where you get to see C3PO chatting away to R2. I find the ride a very poor simulator experience but I guess it's from the 80s when technology was first starting out so it can be forgiven.

Armageddon in the studios I found rather disappointing and doesn't compare to other rides like Twister in Universal Studios which runs along the same lines. Pretty sure there was some kind of ride in Universal also following the life of Neptune (anyone know this? Would love to remember what it was!) where you walked through water tunnels and other SFX. That was more enthralling than Armageddon. Really didn't get much out of this.

Honey, I shrunk the audience is great although you have to pick your days as it's impossible to watch this when it's not in English as the headsets they give you aren't loud enough to hear anything.

Which brings me onto another point, the studios are cool and I enjoyed a lot of rides there but sadly, couldn't make out a lot of dialogue as the headphones just don't go loud enough to drown out the live french dialogue. This was most obvious in the show where you are shown the origins of animation. Perhaps we could make a suggestion about that to the park?

Sorry if i'm just writing loads of nonsense guys, I'm just on a train of thought haha.....

A couple of interesting things at DLP which I love but think will be removed at some point (you know how it works, a ride was built when there wasn't much and then gets replaced later when they need the space) is the walk-on nautilus. This is just the coolest thing ever. The squid attack is truly terrifying and if anyone on here can explain how on earth that thing works I'd appreciate it. Is the squid actually in the water or is there a frame of water in the window? the nautilus just looks like the film and I love it, hope it stays there for a long time.

The River Keel boats are another attraction that most people miss as Disney shut it off if there isn't enough staff, and hide the station. These little boats trail the riverboats and go past the hillbilly's hut and animal hideouts. Doubt this'll be here much longer either as its popularity has been diminishing for some time.

Wow I'd better stop talking, really just felt like a ramble lol. If anyone has anything to add let me know and I look forward to more of the trip report.

tom

 

[got2travel]

Question for you Trey. I am in total agreement with your off site hotel advice for DL, as long as you stay in walking distance. Now at WDW we prefer to stay onsite because of the transportation factor. How would you rate staying onsite at DLP? I know you said you prefer the HI over NBC. I'm interested in hearing your impression of SF. That's where I was considering purely because of the cost factor.

By staying at the HI, I would lose out on the GMF breakfast. Is the quality of the HI so much better that I could afford to lose the GMF. Of course we'd still be at the parks right at opening. We tour much like you do, with getting there early, maxmizing fastpass, etc.

 

[Bexx]

It was a very interesting ramble Netguru - many thanks!

A couple of interesting things at DLP which I love but think will be removed at some point (you know how it works, a ride was built when there wasn't much and then gets replaced later when they need the space) is the walk-on nautilus. This is just the coolest thing ever. The squid attack is truly terrifying and if anyone on here can explain how on earth that thing works I'd appreciate it. Is the squid actually in the water or is there a frame of water in the window? the nautilus just looks like the film and I love it, hope it stays there for a long time.

I really like this attraction too I don't know why people think it's boring?!

 

[davewasbaloo]

The difference is more than just an inversion. Can't remember if MK's Space has music but the new music on the refurbed version at DL in CA just really makes the ride much better. Here at DLP there is no music at all. It is sort of like a rough Rock n Rollercoaster with no music and little theming once you are inside. FWIW, the launch tube is pretty cool and the best part of the ride IMO.

Sounds like you got a broken train. The first Roller Coaster with Audio for Disney was Casey Jr at DLP. The second was DLP's Space Mountain with the wonderful orchestral score by Steve Bramson. RNRC was the 3rd. When Mission 2 launched, they broucht in a new Michael Gra? (Incredibles/Lost composer) to do the music and it is very similar to DL's/HKDL's. Try it again if you can.

 

[davewasbaloo]

POTC is better than WDW purely because there's drops. After being on this ride then going to WDW, I was really disappointed when there wasn't any (is it only DLP with the drops out of curiosity??).

A couple of interesting things at DLP which I love but think will be removed at some point (you know how it works, a ride was built when there wasn't much and then gets replaced later when they need the space) is the walk-on nautilus. This is just the coolest thing ever. The squid attack is truly terrifying and if anyone on here can explain how on earth that thing works I'd appreciate it. Is the squid actually in the water or is there a frame of water in the window? the nautilus just looks like the film and I love it, hope it stays there for a long time.

Hi Tom,

Loads of things I'd love to answer, but I should be working now. WDW has 1 short drop. Disneyland has the original 2 drops, but both near the front and not spread out like at DLP. Personally I prefer the orginal DL version ever so slightly than the DLP version as I like the slightly slower pace. But they are both good. The WDW version is just a pale immitation with the exception of the queue.

As for the Nautilus, I love this and hope it is not removed. It also pays homage to the sets that were at DL's tommorowland between 1955 and 1965. Re the squid - If you want me to ruin the magic:

SPOILER




The Squid is dry with a sheet of water in the glass between it and the AA. This was the prototype for the wet for dry show scenes at Tokyo Disney Sea's 20,000 Leagues under the Sea.

 

[davewasbaloo]

Question for you Trey. I am in total agreement with your off site hotel advice for DL, as long as you stay in walking distance. Now at WDW we prefer to stay onsite because of the transportation factor. How would you rate staying onsite at DLP? I know you said you prefer the HI over NBC. I'm interested in hearing your impression of SF. That's where I was considering purely because of the cost factor.

By staying at the HI, I would lose out on the GMF breakfast. Is the quality of the HI so much better that I could afford to lose the GMF. Of course we'd still be at the parks right at opening. We tour much like you do, with getting there early, maxmizing fastpass, etc.

HI is across the street from Santa Fe and has better offerings. If you are planning on 3 days or more, buy a Dream annual pass and you will access to EMH as well as a 10% discount on food and merchandise, much better than a continental breakfast with 1 or 2 attractions running.

 

[meeko cat]

Pretty sure there was some kind of ride in Universal also following the life of Neptune (anyone know this? Would love to remember what it was!) where you walked through water tunnels and other SFX. That was more enthralling than Armageddon. Really didn't get much out of this.

Do you mean Poseidon's Fury ??


http://www.universalorlando.com/ioa_attr_poseidon.html

 

[mickeymousepal]

hiya really enjoying your unback trip report ..........i have never considered the tarzan show before but i am really considering it now sounds really good especially as you say it is better than lion king .......do you think it would be suitable for my 5 and 3 year old kids they are not too keen in overly loud music etc and they were slightly scared in parts of the lion king bit they are slightly older than last time we were there any opinions graetly welcomed thanks

 

[davewasbaloo]

hiya really enjoying your unback trip report ..........i have never considered the tarzan show before but i am really considering it now sounds really good especially as you say it is better than lion king .......do you think it would be suitable for my 5 and 3 year old kids they are not too keen in overly loud music etc and they were slightly scared in parts of the lion king bit they are slightly older than last time we were there any opinions graetly welcomed thanks

Difficult to say because my little ones (2 and 4) love it. But they also love The Lion King and music in general (as long as it is not too loud). I think it would be ok, but you could always bring earplugs. I don't think it's as dark or scary as parts of the LK.