ironband74
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2018
Hi all,
Yesterday was our last day in the park. It was definitely more crowded than Tuesday and Wednesday. I noticed that they dropped more reservations during the week, so I figured that would be the case.
Anyway, we decided not to do a hard rope drop, but a subset of our party still arrived at Disneyland gates at 8:05 to do some Fantasyland cleanup. We went and got in line at Snow White and I pulled an LL for Haunted which was down. We then went to Mr. Toad and while I was there it converted. Wanting to ride Storybook Canal we headed that way to see that the line was easily up to 25 minutes. Wondering why that was, we decided to try the MEP at the exit. The cast member there was clearly perturbed about something, but was doing his best to keep his face on. As he told us we'd be on the next boat after the boat that was currently loading left the dock, we saw a cast member in costume for the attraction heading our way from Fantasyland proper. The other cast member working the dock called him by name and motioned to him to hurry. The cast member who had spoken to us shook his head and said "Folks just don't want to work no more" as he gave the side eye to the now running cast member. Now we understood why Storybook was such a long wait - one of their boats had no pilot for the first half hour the park was running.
Anyway, he scanned our MEPs using his device, noting that last week someone had dropped one in the water. We got on board and toured the miniatures, thanked our guide, and then went on to Pinocchio, which was a walk on. I continued fishing but was unsuccessful, though I noted that the MEPs we used at Storybook were still showing on our account. Of course, only 4 of us were in the park, so we only had 4 (out of 7), but still good to have in our pockets.
As we were walking to NOS to catch the train, the Mark Twain pulled up to the dock, and we decided to get on board. I hadn't ridden the Mark Twain in a number of years, and I explained to my 13 year old son that it was a very under-rated attraction really. We had a very nice cruise around the Rivers of America and then headed to the NOS station.
Unfortunately, only one train was running, and clearly one had left recently. With a 10:30 breakfast reservation at CC looming, we abandoned the station in favor of feet and went to check in for breakfast where we would meet the 3 sleepers in our party.
During breakfast we were treated to the Disneyland Band marching up and then back down Main St., so that was a nice surprise. I booked a LL for Splash Mountain which we had missed on our first day and we headed over once breakfast was done.
In line I refreshed my way to a 1:30 pm Space Mountain LL. My 13 yo son took the front spot, and when we got off looked like he had been dunked. He opted to head back to the hotel to change after we offered to buy him some sweat pants to change into.
While he scurried away, Pooh, which had been down, came back up, so we jumped on to enjoy a blustery day in the hundred acre wood. We then did some shopping in NOS before running to meet my son at Space.
We scanned into the LL and then noticed that the queue had stopped moving about 5 minutes in. A few announcements were made that they were experiencing temporary difficulties, and then shortly thereafter they announced that they were clearing the queue. As we walked through, they scanned our tickets and granted us MEPs, but since we had already scanned in for Space we were now locked out from getting new Space LLs. As such, I noted that we would save these for Space later in the day.
I had already pulled an LL for Guardians, at 2:30 so we headed over to DCA to shop a bit and then ride. In the Guardians queue I pulled an LL for Incredicoaster. We rode Guardians then went to Incredicoaster before heading to Flo's for a late lunch.
After lunch it was nearly 5pm. We decided to brave the 65 minute wait for Web Slingers. I would have preferred to ride single rider, but my daughter has some anxiety about that sort of thing, so we just dealt with the wait.
All I will say is that I was underwhelmed. If I had it to do over again, I would have skipped it or insisted on single rider for those who could handle it.
Anyway, during the wait I pulled a 7:30pm MFSR LL. We grabbed dessert at the Cozy Cone via mobile order and then headed for Disneyland. On the way in one of our party asked if we could do Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, and having a little bit of time (and noting that Rise was down), we decided to indulge. It had been a few years since I had seen it, and I found it very worthwhile.
Afterward we made our way to Galaxy's Edge. Rise was still down, so the plan was to ride MFSR, then go hang out around Rise and see if it came back up. We got off of the falcon at about 8:30 and started ambling towards Rise (which was still down). On the way we ran into Chewbacca, who was heading to Rise (we joked that maybe he could fix it) on "patrol."
As we approached, we saw people starting to enter the queue. It had come back up! Excited, we hurried ahead and entered the stand-by line.
Alas, it was not meant to be. after waiting 10 minutes, the lights came up, and after another 10 minutes, they announced that they were not doing any more recruiting today, and to clear the caves.
We were a little sad, but we understood the risks of waiting until later in the day. If I had it to do again and knowing what I know now, we would have skipped Web Slingers and gone straight for Rise after our late lunch.
We decided to get a pick me up in the form of mint juleps and beignets. We enjoyed our snack and then hopped on the train for a grand circle tour.
My wife and our friends opted to head out of the park after that, leaving me with a party of four again to close the park. We headed to Alien Pizza Planet where they had dinner (I decided to wait for dinner as I wanted a corn dog but also wanted to ride space mountain, and for me those two things don't mix...). We then hopped on Space Mountain using the passes we were granted earlier. While in line I pulled an unnecessary LL for Buzz, which we used immediately after. I pulled a LL for Star Tours while in the queue. After destroying the youngsters, we rode Star Tours. Two of the four that were with me at that point hadn't ridden Mr. Toad yet (they had slept in), so my three companions headed to Fantasyland to ride Mr. Toad while I went to pick up my mobile ordered corn dog.
I took up a spot on a bench facing the Matterhorn and breathed in the night air as I dipped my corn dog in yellow mustard and took stock of Tomorrowland's Astro Orbiter to my right, the mountain rising before me, and the castle to my left. As I savored my dinner, I reflected on the last three days of hustle and bustle and realized that I really needed to build more moments like *this* into my plans in the future.
As I finished my chips, I saw the youngsters heading towards me and noted that it was ten minutes to midnight. As is our tradition on the last day of a trip, we hustled to the Jungle Cruise to cap off the night.
I mobile ordered some caramel apples from the Candy Palace and we enjoyed a well practiced skipper plying his trade on the dangerous waters surrounding Schweitzer Falls. O2H! O2H! O2H!
Disneyland ended its normal operating day. We picked up our apples, I bought a shirt, made a couple of last minute pin trades, and we departed.
I'll post a trip report later with some pictures and some thoughts about the overall experience. Post pandemic Disneyland is very enjoyable, but is missing something. I can't quite put my finger on it, and I'm sure it is a combination of things...but the whole experience, which had lots of great moments to be sure, felt somehow incomplete. Some modicum of magic was missing - and I don't mean tangibles or experiences or rides or shows or food (though I missed my Red's Apple Freeze) or merchandise (which seemed lackluster). There was just a feeling of something not *right* somehow. I'll post those musings separately. I still think it is worth going, and I still had a wonderful time, but the sense of worn out contentment I usually have when I depart just barely eludes me at the moment.
Yesterday was our last day in the park. It was definitely more crowded than Tuesday and Wednesday. I noticed that they dropped more reservations during the week, so I figured that would be the case.
Anyway, we decided not to do a hard rope drop, but a subset of our party still arrived at Disneyland gates at 8:05 to do some Fantasyland cleanup. We went and got in line at Snow White and I pulled an LL for Haunted which was down. We then went to Mr. Toad and while I was there it converted. Wanting to ride Storybook Canal we headed that way to see that the line was easily up to 25 minutes. Wondering why that was, we decided to try the MEP at the exit. The cast member there was clearly perturbed about something, but was doing his best to keep his face on. As he told us we'd be on the next boat after the boat that was currently loading left the dock, we saw a cast member in costume for the attraction heading our way from Fantasyland proper. The other cast member working the dock called him by name and motioned to him to hurry. The cast member who had spoken to us shook his head and said "Folks just don't want to work no more" as he gave the side eye to the now running cast member. Now we understood why Storybook was such a long wait - one of their boats had no pilot for the first half hour the park was running.
Anyway, he scanned our MEPs using his device, noting that last week someone had dropped one in the water. We got on board and toured the miniatures, thanked our guide, and then went on to Pinocchio, which was a walk on. I continued fishing but was unsuccessful, though I noted that the MEPs we used at Storybook were still showing on our account. Of course, only 4 of us were in the park, so we only had 4 (out of 7), but still good to have in our pockets.
As we were walking to NOS to catch the train, the Mark Twain pulled up to the dock, and we decided to get on board. I hadn't ridden the Mark Twain in a number of years, and I explained to my 13 year old son that it was a very under-rated attraction really. We had a very nice cruise around the Rivers of America and then headed to the NOS station.
Unfortunately, only one train was running, and clearly one had left recently. With a 10:30 breakfast reservation at CC looming, we abandoned the station in favor of feet and went to check in for breakfast where we would meet the 3 sleepers in our party.
During breakfast we were treated to the Disneyland Band marching up and then back down Main St., so that was a nice surprise. I booked a LL for Splash Mountain which we had missed on our first day and we headed over once breakfast was done.
In line I refreshed my way to a 1:30 pm Space Mountain LL. My 13 yo son took the front spot, and when we got off looked like he had been dunked. He opted to head back to the hotel to change after we offered to buy him some sweat pants to change into.
While he scurried away, Pooh, which had been down, came back up, so we jumped on to enjoy a blustery day in the hundred acre wood. We then did some shopping in NOS before running to meet my son at Space.
We scanned into the LL and then noticed that the queue had stopped moving about 5 minutes in. A few announcements were made that they were experiencing temporary difficulties, and then shortly thereafter they announced that they were clearing the queue. As we walked through, they scanned our tickets and granted us MEPs, but since we had already scanned in for Space we were now locked out from getting new Space LLs. As such, I noted that we would save these for Space later in the day.
I had already pulled an LL for Guardians, at 2:30 so we headed over to DCA to shop a bit and then ride. In the Guardians queue I pulled an LL for Incredicoaster. We rode Guardians then went to Incredicoaster before heading to Flo's for a late lunch.
After lunch it was nearly 5pm. We decided to brave the 65 minute wait for Web Slingers. I would have preferred to ride single rider, but my daughter has some anxiety about that sort of thing, so we just dealt with the wait.
All I will say is that I was underwhelmed. If I had it to do over again, I would have skipped it or insisted on single rider for those who could handle it.
Anyway, during the wait I pulled a 7:30pm MFSR LL. We grabbed dessert at the Cozy Cone via mobile order and then headed for Disneyland. On the way in one of our party asked if we could do Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, and having a little bit of time (and noting that Rise was down), we decided to indulge. It had been a few years since I had seen it, and I found it very worthwhile.
Afterward we made our way to Galaxy's Edge. Rise was still down, so the plan was to ride MFSR, then go hang out around Rise and see if it came back up. We got off of the falcon at about 8:30 and started ambling towards Rise (which was still down). On the way we ran into Chewbacca, who was heading to Rise (we joked that maybe he could fix it) on "patrol."
As we approached, we saw people starting to enter the queue. It had come back up! Excited, we hurried ahead and entered the stand-by line.
Alas, it was not meant to be. after waiting 10 minutes, the lights came up, and after another 10 minutes, they announced that they were not doing any more recruiting today, and to clear the caves.
We were a little sad, but we understood the risks of waiting until later in the day. If I had it to do again and knowing what I know now, we would have skipped Web Slingers and gone straight for Rise after our late lunch.
We decided to get a pick me up in the form of mint juleps and beignets. We enjoyed our snack and then hopped on the train for a grand circle tour.
My wife and our friends opted to head out of the park after that, leaving me with a party of four again to close the park. We headed to Alien Pizza Planet where they had dinner (I decided to wait for dinner as I wanted a corn dog but also wanted to ride space mountain, and for me those two things don't mix...). We then hopped on Space Mountain using the passes we were granted earlier. While in line I pulled an unnecessary LL for Buzz, which we used immediately after. I pulled a LL for Star Tours while in the queue. After destroying the youngsters, we rode Star Tours. Two of the four that were with me at that point hadn't ridden Mr. Toad yet (they had slept in), so my three companions headed to Fantasyland to ride Mr. Toad while I went to pick up my mobile ordered corn dog.
I took up a spot on a bench facing the Matterhorn and breathed in the night air as I dipped my corn dog in yellow mustard and took stock of Tomorrowland's Astro Orbiter to my right, the mountain rising before me, and the castle to my left. As I savored my dinner, I reflected on the last three days of hustle and bustle and realized that I really needed to build more moments like *this* into my plans in the future.
As I finished my chips, I saw the youngsters heading towards me and noted that it was ten minutes to midnight. As is our tradition on the last day of a trip, we hustled to the Jungle Cruise to cap off the night.
I mobile ordered some caramel apples from the Candy Palace and we enjoyed a well practiced skipper plying his trade on the dangerous waters surrounding Schweitzer Falls. O2H! O2H! O2H!
Disneyland ended its normal operating day. We picked up our apples, I bought a shirt, made a couple of last minute pin trades, and we departed.
I'll post a trip report later with some pictures and some thoughts about the overall experience. Post pandemic Disneyland is very enjoyable, but is missing something. I can't quite put my finger on it, and I'm sure it is a combination of things...but the whole experience, which had lots of great moments to be sure, felt somehow incomplete. Some modicum of magic was missing - and I don't mean tangibles or experiences or rides or shows or food (though I missed my Red's Apple Freeze) or merchandise (which seemed lackluster). There was just a feeling of something not *right* somehow. I'll post those musings separately. I still think it is worth going, and I still had a wonderful time, but the sense of worn out contentment I usually have when I depart just barely eludes me at the moment.
