WDW Vets Take on DL and Hollywood!
- Thread starter dougsmom98
- Start date
Subscribing...
Just happened to see your trip report and I am really enjoying reading your posts. We are going to DL in the summer. I am enjoying your comparisons to WDW since I am also from the Northeast and have been to WDW several times. Looks like you went during school vacation but it doesn't sound like crowds were a problem.
Because you are from Maine and have lots of opportunity to visit beaches, would you take a day to go to the beach again (interested in your your opinion)?
Just happened to see your trip report and I am really enjoying reading your posts. We are going to DL in the summer. I am enjoying your comparisons to WDW since I am also from the Northeast and have been to WDW several times. Looks like you went during school vacation but it doesn't sound like crowds were a problem.
Because you are from Maine and have lots of opportunity to visit beaches, would you take a day to go to the beach again (interested in your your opinion)?
dougsmom98
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2002
Thanks! Glad you are following the trip report.
dougsmom98
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2002
Subscribing...
Just happened to see your trip report and I am really enjoying reading your posts. We are going to DL in the summer. I am enjoying your comparisons to WDW since I am also from the Northeast and have been to WDW several times. Looks like you went during school vacation but it doesn't sound like crowds were a problem.
Because you are from Maine and have lots of opportunity to visit beaches, would you take a day to go to the beach again (interested in your your opinion)?
In my opinion, Santa Monica and the pier itself was not as nice as the beaches that we have here in Maine, but it was worth the visit to say we have been there and to say we put our feet in the Pacific Ocean. I would take the day to do the beach again, but I would want to have more time so that I could explore. I would like to go to Venice Beach and walk the canals. I might go to Newport Beach and take the ferry to Balboa Island. If I went back to Santa Monica, I might rent some bikes and take the bike path along the coastline. We might go to long beach to see it and go to the aquarium or to see the Queen Mary.
Overall, going to the beach is kind of a pain when you fly to your destination because don't have your beach stuff with you. We took our hotel towels and I was paranoid that we would get charged for them (we didn't). I didn't have a beach chair or umbrella - which was fine for the amount of time we were there, but it wouldn't be if we spent a whole day. We didn't have beach toys like boogie boards sand toys... You can rent this stuff or buy it once you are there, but I am way too cheap for that.
Hope this helps.
dougsmom98
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2002
I promise I will be back soon. I am teacher and I am swamped with papers and planning this week. Thanks for following along.
dougsmom98
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2002
April 19 - Magic Morning Day
So despite being really tired at this point in our trip, we were bound and determined to use our magic morning entry. The park's regular opening was at 9 am, so we could enter at 8 am for the magic morning. We got up at 6:00 and headed to the parks by 7:15 so that we could get there early enough. Our plan today was do a lot of Fantasy Land and as much of Tomorrowland that we could during the Magic Morning. We focused primarily on rides that WDW doesn't have. There were still several things that we hadn't ridden in this park, and we wanted to make sure we got to all of these rides/attractions today too. Because Peter Pan had been crazy busy every time we tried to ride earlier in the trip, we were going straight to PP this morning. We enjoyed DL's version of PP a lot. I think it is slightly better than WDW. We had to ride Snow White, Pinochhio, and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride again especially since they don't have these in WDW. Then we headed over to the Alice in Wonderland Ride. This is one that we really enjoyed too.
We headed towards Tomorrowland and rode Astro Orbiter. They have this ride in WDW, but we never go on it because the line is always too long. Twice when the kids were younger, we almost made it to the front of the Astro Orbiter line at WDW only to have one of the kids need to use the restroom. So, since the line for this ride was essentially non-existant here, we decided to go on.
Now, this ride looks like a carnival ride and the ride looked tame enough to me. I am not a fan of spinning rides, but I thought I could handle it. I hated every single minute of it. The centrifugal force of the spinning pushes you against the side of the car and it goes much faster than I thought it would. I vow to never ride this ride again. The kids liked it though.
After that ride we rode Star Tours:
Up next was Autotopia. The line was only 5 minutes but it took more like 10-15. Just before we were going to get on, they opened a second lane of cars to load.
There wasn't much room for my 6'5" DH's legs -
Here's Douglas driving:
A couple of times, Douglas' cars would stop moving even though it was still running and the gas pedal was down. The worker had my son Matthew push him from behind in his car.
On our way out of this area, I took this picture:
Our biggest disappointment was that this ride was down.
We headed over to Space and grabbed Fast passes for later and rode it since the line was short. It blew our minds the entire week that the wait for this ride was so short compared to WDW.
It was time to head over towards Adventureland and New Orleans Square. We road Pirates and the Haunted Mansion and then rode Splash Mountain.
John ran and got Thunder Fast Passes for later and then we went to the Pirates Lair Island.
View back at New Orlean's Square from the raft.
John and the kids from the dock/stage of Fantasmic!
We really enjoyed that this island was different from Tom Sawyers Island in WDW. It was fun to explore a different island and we loved the parts that were similar to Pirate's of the Caribbean movies.
The kids found the treasure!
By this point in the day, we were pretty pooped. It was around 12:30. We decided to head back to the hotel for lunch. The kids had McDonalds and John and I got Chinese take out from the restaurant in the plaza next door to our hotel. It was similar to the Chinese food found in the Maine Mall, not great but not horrible. After lunch, we desperately needed a nap. Melissa and the boys watched TV in their room and John and I took a nap. We wanted to be up by 5:00 so that we could get back to the park for the Soundsational Parade.
Up Next - The rest of our day/night at DL.
So despite being really tired at this point in our trip, we were bound and determined to use our magic morning entry. The park's regular opening was at 9 am, so we could enter at 8 am for the magic morning. We got up at 6:00 and headed to the parks by 7:15 so that we could get there early enough. Our plan today was do a lot of Fantasy Land and as much of Tomorrowland that we could during the Magic Morning. We focused primarily on rides that WDW doesn't have. There were still several things that we hadn't ridden in this park, and we wanted to make sure we got to all of these rides/attractions today too. Because Peter Pan had been crazy busy every time we tried to ride earlier in the trip, we were going straight to PP this morning. We enjoyed DL's version of PP a lot. I think it is slightly better than WDW. We had to ride Snow White, Pinochhio, and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride again especially since they don't have these in WDW. Then we headed over to the Alice in Wonderland Ride. This is one that we really enjoyed too.
We headed towards Tomorrowland and rode Astro Orbiter. They have this ride in WDW, but we never go on it because the line is always too long. Twice when the kids were younger, we almost made it to the front of the Astro Orbiter line at WDW only to have one of the kids need to use the restroom. So, since the line for this ride was essentially non-existant here, we decided to go on.
Now, this ride looks like a carnival ride and the ride looked tame enough to me. I am not a fan of spinning rides, but I thought I could handle it. I hated every single minute of it. The centrifugal force of the spinning pushes you against the side of the car and it goes much faster than I thought it would. I vow to never ride this ride again. The kids liked it though.
After that ride we rode Star Tours:
Up next was Autotopia. The line was only 5 minutes but it took more like 10-15. Just before we were going to get on, they opened a second lane of cars to load.
There wasn't much room for my 6'5" DH's legs -
Here's Douglas driving:
A couple of times, Douglas' cars would stop moving even though it was still running and the gas pedal was down. The worker had my son Matthew push him from behind in his car.
On our way out of this area, I took this picture:
Our biggest disappointment was that this ride was down.
We headed over to Space and grabbed Fast passes for later and rode it since the line was short. It blew our minds the entire week that the wait for this ride was so short compared to WDW.
It was time to head over towards Adventureland and New Orleans Square. We road Pirates and the Haunted Mansion and then rode Splash Mountain.
John ran and got Thunder Fast Passes for later and then we went to the Pirates Lair Island.
View back at New Orlean's Square from the raft.
John and the kids from the dock/stage of Fantasmic!
We really enjoyed that this island was different from Tom Sawyers Island in WDW. It was fun to explore a different island and we loved the parts that were similar to Pirate's of the Caribbean movies.
The kids found the treasure!
By this point in the day, we were pretty pooped. It was around 12:30. We decided to head back to the hotel for lunch. The kids had McDonalds and John and I got Chinese take out from the restaurant in the plaza next door to our hotel. It was similar to the Chinese food found in the Maine Mall, not great but not horrible. After lunch, we desperately needed a nap. Melissa and the boys watched TV in their room and John and I took a nap. We wanted to be up by 5:00 so that we could get back to the park for the Soundsational Parade.
Up Next - The rest of our day/night at DL.
dougsmom98
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2002
Our nap didn't seem nearly long enough. It was only a couple of hours, but we really wanted to get to the parade today. In WDW, if you want to see a parade, you really need to get a space on the ground an hour in advance. We didn't leave the hotel until 5:30 and the parade was at 6:30. We didn't see any good spots on Main Street so we headed towards the end of the parade route. We ended up finding a front row seat near a food vendor near It's a Small World. We couldn't believe how lucky we were.
We relaxed for 25 minutes and then we got to see the parade. We enjoyed the parade and we liked the assortment of characters.
After the parade, we decided we would hit the rides/attractions we hadn't done yet. So, we went to the tiki birds. I liked this version better than the one at WDW and I liked how people were encouraged to get a dole whip and eat it while inside.
We also did Tarzan's Tree House.
We had some fast passes from earlier in the day and we rode space mountain, star tours and Indiana Jones.
By that point, we were tired. John and Melissa headed back to the hotel with out us and we ran into some characters on the way out.
We have never seen Pinocchio in WDW:
Brer Fox was so funny. I said something and he shushed me. The kids thought that was so funny.
Pluto was being silly and spent a lot of time with people. He was dancing with a grown up in front of us.
We were amazed at how often characters were just around in DL compared to WDW. In WDW characters always have handlers and here it is not uncommon for a character to take your hand and walk with you to his/her pictures spot. It was great!
We had another great day in DL and we had one day left to enjoy the parks. Up next, our last park day.
We relaxed for 25 minutes and then we got to see the parade. We enjoyed the parade and we liked the assortment of characters.
After the parade, we decided we would hit the rides/attractions we hadn't done yet. So, we went to the tiki birds. I liked this version better than the one at WDW and I liked how people were encouraged to get a dole whip and eat it while inside.
We also did Tarzan's Tree House.
We had some fast passes from earlier in the day and we rode space mountain, star tours and Indiana Jones.
By that point, we were tired. John and Melissa headed back to the hotel with out us and we ran into some characters on the way out.
We have never seen Pinocchio in WDW:
Brer Fox was so funny. I said something and he shushed me. The kids thought that was so funny.
Pluto was being silly and spent a lot of time with people. He was dancing with a grown up in front of us.
We were amazed at how often characters were just around in DL compared to WDW. In WDW characters always have handlers and here it is not uncommon for a character to take your hand and walk with you to his/her pictures spot. It was great!
We had another great day in DL and we had one day left to enjoy the parks. Up next, our last park day.
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