Brandonius
Disneyland is fun.
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2021
- Messages
- 146
Hi!
We visited WDW on Thursday, March 19th. We did all 4 parks that day, hitting almost every major E Ticket we hoped to ride. This is just a report of how the day went + what I'd have done differently.
I hope that if someone else here wants to have a super high-octane day, this info is helpful!
Crowds on our visit day were a 9/10 according to Thrill-data. It was quite busy. This was spring break season.
Pre-Trip Info
I grew up going to DisneyLAND. I've probably gone over 100 times. I'd visited WDW once previously, back in 2023, for 3 days. I was in town for a work trip and had my wife with me, who had never come to WDW! She + a colleague (from Australia!) wanted to come hit Disney after our work stuff was over. But, only for one day. So I decided to make the most of it
We all cared primarily about the rides. My wife and I are 22, and my colleague is 41 - we are all able-bodied and were ready to have a super fast-moving day. We stayed at All-Star sports the night before + night after. We bought the Multi-Pass and 2 Lightning Lane Single passes for the trip.
1 week ahead of our day, I booked our lightning lanes promptly at 7 AM. The pre-bookings were:
- Spaceship Earth - 10:40-11:40
- Soarin - 1:15 - 2:15
- Guardians (Individual Lane) - 1:20 - 2:20
- Remy - 2:20 - 3:20
- TRON - 8:25 - 9:25
I took the earliest time slots possible for the 3 multi-pass rides and Guardians. I intentionally chose the late night TRON time.
My theory during planning was:
- Start at Animal Kingdom and clear the park in under 2 hours. (Just hit Pandora + Everest)
- Hop to EPCOT, start at the front, work our way toward Remy, exit out the back
- Head to Hollywood Studios if we have time and hopefully get a lightning lane for something there. (ideally Tower of Terror)
- End at Magic Kingdom thanks to late closure.
That was it. We'll see how the day goes lol.
The Day Of!
We were at the Bus stop at All Star Sports at 5:54 AM. There were already 12 people ahead of us. The bus showed up at 6:19 AM.
(Excited for the day!)
By the time we got to Animal Kingdom, there was already a solid single line outside security. By the time they let us through, there were 2 long single file lines, stretching all the way back to bus loading.
Security opened at 7:04 AM. We were about 15 people back at the Tapstiles.
Animal Kingdom (7:20 AM - 9:30 AM)
Goal: Pandora Rides + Everest. Maybe Safari?
I'm not quite sure when we went through the tapstiles, headed for Pandora, etc, but we had a very slow group at the front of our tapstile line (of course) so we were in the crowd on the bridge that heads into Pandora for rope drop.
Thankfully though, we were in the first theater for (#1) Flight of Passage for the day! I think we were the last group of guests in that theater - we were in the bottom row of the theater, numbers 12-15. We got out of the ride at 7:56 AM, which was perfect!
We were able to get in line for (#2) Navi River Journey by 7:59 AM, just before all the regular guests got inside! We didn't have to wait much, the line started just past the lightning lane merge point.
We were off the ride by 8:12 AM - I was thrilled with this! I expected to be leaving Pandora by 8:40. This meant that the Safaris weren't even close to opening yet. None of us especially wanted to ride safaris, so we decided to head straight to Everest.
When we arrived at (#3) Expedition Everest, the posted line was only 10 minutes. Our actual wait was 7. It's a fun little coaster, so I lapped it 2 more times in Single Rider while my wife and friend grabbed breakfast/coffee next door at the snack spot. I didn't have to wait either time. Total was 3 rides on Everest!
At this point, I was very satisfied with our rope drop! We sat in the amphitheater thing overlooking the river and ate breakfast. Around 9:10 we were done with our breakfast and coffee, and headed to the front to park hop!
Animal Kingdom complete!
I didn't know that the bus for park hopping doesn't start until 10 AM, so we just called an Uber. It arrived at 9:32 AM, and only cost $8.
EPCOT (10 AM - 3:35 PM)
Goal: Test Track, Soarin, Spaceship Earth, Guardians, Remy
After a few pics, we were inside EPCOT by 10:00 AM. Since our Spaceship Earth reservation was a little ways away, we decided to do (#4) Test Track next! We used the single rider line, which was backed up all the way to the building's doors. I was pretty sure this line would move fast, and it did! In 36 minutes, we were seated in our ride vehicles. A huge bargain - the standby line was posted at 120 minutes.
After that, we went straight to (#5) Spaceship Earth to scan in, which we managed to do at 10:50 AM. I was hoping for a Tower of Terror Lightning Lane, but it had been showing all gone for the whole morning. As soon as we scanned in, I started refreshing, and within about 60 seconds I managed to get a Tower of Terror Lightning Lane for 7:30 - 8:30 PM! I was happy to have something for Tower - that was the highest priority at DHS for our group, but I still wanted to move it earlier so that we could hop to Magic Kingdom sooner. Refreshed for the whole queue, but no luck.
After Spaceship Earth, we grabbed lunch at Connections Cafe, and had some time to kill before our 1:10 PM LL at Soarin'. My wife and I did (#6) Gran Fiesta Tour + walked through a few pavilions at world showcase for about an hour. Gran Fiesta Tour's line was all the way to the entrance of the Mexico building and using all the switchbacks, posting 25 mins, but it still only took 9.
(#7) Soarin' was having a rough day. They were down a theater, and the line was posting 110+ mins for the whole time we were in the park. The LL line was out the entrance of the ride. We scanned in exactly at 1:10, and I started refreshing to book our next lightning lane. I was hoping for 2 things: Space Mountain ll, and modifying our Tower of Terror LL to a bit earlier. I managed to get both! I snagged an 8:30-9:30 PM Space Mountain LL, and also modified our Tower of Terror reservation back to 6:40-7:40 PM.
That wasn't easy though, the lightning lane line took a full 40 minutes, and I was refreshing the app trying to get a time slot all the way up to boarding! Very worth it tho. I didn't see any Tower/Space Mtn options for the rest of the day.
We got out of Soarin' at 1:56 PM, so it was time to head to my personal fav ride at WDW, (#8) Guardians, Cosmic Rewind!
Like dude this ride is SO INSANELY GOOD ITS CRAZY. I am still smiling thinking about it a week later lol. SO SO GOOD. The preshows and giant blob of people you get stuck in waiting to get on your vehicle are super dumb, really worsens the experience, but the coaster is ELITE.
Anyway lol. We scanned into Guardians to use our lightning lane at 2:13 PM, and were in the gift shop at 2:50 PM. We got Disco Inferno. Made me happy. I ran / rule the world are too slow moving for me. I like the faster songs for a coaster like this!
Blurry pic... but we were excited!!
Now we headed straight for the back of the park for (#9) Remy. I don't know exactly what the times were like for this one, but I do remember that it was posting 95 minutes, and single rider was backed up to the fountain in the entrance area!! It seemed bonkers to me lol. But we were on really fast, barely had to wait.
When we scanned into Remy, I booked a Star Tours lightning lane. It was a near-immediate return time. Not my first choice, deep down I was hoping I could magically pull Slinky Dog or Runaway Railway lol.
We exited out the back of the park and hopped to DHS using the skyliner! We were on the skyliner at 3:40 PM, and I started refreshing the app for the trip to DHS. I think Toy Story Mania had a little dump of extra availability while we were on there, and I managed to get a reservation for that ride for 7 PM-8PM, then with 4-5 mins of refreshing, pulled it back to 6-7 PM! I was quite pleased
I also mobile ordered Docking Bay 7 for 5:35 PM. Turns out, that was a total waste, food lines at WDW are way shorter than they are at Disneyland, but I found that out later lol.
Hollywood Studios (4:05 PM - 7:10 PM)
Goal: Toy Story + Tower + Dinner
We had some time to kill before our dinner order + toy story/tower of terror lightning lanes, and we didn't feel like hour long lines for runaway railway or Slinky, so we went and watched the Indiana Jones show. We were in our seats by 4:11 PM, show started at 4:30 PM, and got out of there by 5 PM. It's a fine show, but kind of lame imo. The stunts are very slow and spread out. No boulder is also sad. I wouldn't watch it again.
As we headed toward dinner, my colleague asked if we could get on (#10) Rise of the Resistance. It was posting over 100 minutes, so we decided to ask about the single rider line (we don't have this at Disneyland), and we were seated on the ride within 10 minutes. WHAT?!?!?! I was shocked but pleased. I think we got kind of lucky - a lot of people lined up behind us in Single Rider, but we barely had to wait.
I like this ride, but the DLR version is almost entirely better? There are a few sound fx that are better, the moving canons work, and I've never seen Kylo Ren in B-mode there on 30+ rides. We got B mode on our ride here, which was kinda cool. Still an S-tier ride. I like Runaway Railway better, but I have weird taste.
Hot takes aside, we were out of Rise by 5:34 PM.
We grabbed our dinner at Docking Bay 7 after this (DELICIOUS - different menu from Disneyland in CA), then headed to our Lightning Lane at (#11) Toy Story. I don't remember when we scanned in, but it was a good ride! Decent score for me. This run had 350k+ potential but I made some mistakes in the army room + dino room.
Headed from Toy Story to (#12) Tower of Terror. The line was posting 100 minutes when we walked up - it was in a bunch of switchbacks down on the street! We walked right into the preshow room with our lightning lane. The refreshing earlier in the day was SO WORTH IT.
I love that ride. Theming/package are absolutely S-tier. I prefer Mission Breakout personally, but I prefer rides that have a fun/upbeat feel to the creepy one. I also like that Mission Breakout is doing drops almost the entire ride. I'm glad Tower still exists around the rest of the world. This is def my favorite version of the 3 I've done.
That wrapped our DHS visit! We were walking out of the park at 7:10 PM.
We headed for the bus to Magic Kingdom, which took FOREVER to show up. I think we waited 40 minutes?! A Magic Kingdom bus pulled into the bus area, but parked, then the driver got out and left. Kinda a bummer, but thankfully we had time to spare in the schedule. I didn't call an Uber because I've heard those end up at the TTC instead of at the park proper, so I don't think it would have saved us any time. If anyone is still reading this, would the Minnie Vans drop us all the way at the park? If so, I'll do that next time.
Magic Kingdom (8:20 - 11 PM)
As we walked in, the parade was just starting on Main Street. That was fun to watch as we walked down the street, and over to (#13) TRON. This line was crazy long - it was almost back to the TRON sign at the entrance, all switchbacks full. It was posting 110, but I feel like it would be longer than that. We got in the LL at 8:35 PM, and were off the ride by 9 PM. So fun!
I liked this ride WAY MORE than I remember liking it from a few years ago. My main memories of previous were 1) the launch makes you feel like the coolest person alive, and 2) it's too short. 1 was definitely accurate - the launch music/light sequence is the greatest thing ever, and hitting that launch in the prone position is such a unique sensation. The only other ride I can think of I've done that is similar is FLY at Phantasialand in Germany, but that launch is far weaker.
I think my expectation of the ride being super short helped me enjoy it more? It didn't feel short at all, it felt just right. Also, it was totally dark outside so we got the cool lighting package.
We were glowing with happiness after the TRON ride, and we headed over to its older, much jankier counterpart (#14) Space Mountain. We scanned in by 9:10 PM, not too bad of a wait. This ride is HILARIOUS. It's so jank. I love it though - it's in a class of rides like Matterhorn at Disneyland, or Magnum XL 200 at Cedar Point that are awesome because they are so janky and oddly designed. I think I actually like it more than the Space Mountain at Disneyland in CA. Very very VERY different type of ride, but I had more fun on this one.
After Space mountain we headed for (#15) Haunted Mansion. The fireworks started exploding overhead as we walked, and Haunted Mansion was a complete walk on at 9:40 PM. The stretching room was maybe half full.
Phantom Manor at DL Paris is definitely still my king of the mansion rides, but I like this version much more than the DL one in California. The ordering of the scenes makes so much more sense and it flows very nicely.
We grabbed a quick snack right before the food stands closed at 10 PM, then hopped on (#16) Pirates of the Caribbean. It was maybe a 5 minute wait, boarding our boat at 10:10 PM.
Don't hate me, but I thought this ride was really bad lol. It was so much worse than both the DL California and DL Paris versions. Tiny drop, worse scenes, way shorter, poor pacing... not trying to nitpick, but I wouldn't even ride this one again, and Pirates at both of the other Western DL resorts is like a top 5 ride for me.
After this, we headed for (#17) Tiana's Bayou Adventure. We had to walk by the closed Thunder Mountain, which made me sad... I still haven't ridden it! It was also closed the last time I was here. I'll get on eventually... maybe once the Cars ride nobody asked for is open lol
There was absolutely no line for Tiana. We were allowed to pick the back 2 rows, which we happily did. Turns out it didn't really matter, you barely get wet on this ride, just some splashes on your head.
This was another ride that really disappointed me! Tiana at Disneyland is my second fav at the Resort, only behind Runaway Railway. This version of the ride felt way slower. There was a lot of dead space. The DL version feels fast and a bit more like the jolly "zoom thru the bayou" that the ride is going for. This version felt more "sterile". Not a Tiana hater, I still like the ride, but I understand why so many ppl online were mad about the change now. The DL change was an upgrade, but I have a hard time imagining that this was anything but a downgrade.
We were off the ride at 10:39 PM. We decided to call it a night at this point. We were heading to Islands of adventure in the morning for Early Entry (we were in the uber by 6:30 AM...) and wanted to get at least a bit of sleep lol.
Tired, wet, a bit dazed, but a great day!
Grand Totals
18 hrs, 35 minutes from leaving the hotel room to getting back!
Adjustments for next time
- I would have used the last 20 minutes of the night to hop in line for 7 Dwarves Mine Train. I kind of forgot the ride exists, then realized in line for the bus "OH WAIT" but it's fine... the ride is pretty dumb anyway haha. Still, it would have ticked off one more big ride in the day.
- I would have booked DHS for the lightning lanes instead of EPCOT. I could have done with skipping Soarin' - it's the exact same as DLR. Spaceship Earth is doable via standby. and Remy has single rider, and. Even with the whole queue full, I'm guessing it would take about 30 mins. That's how long a full SR queue took when I waited it in Paris at least. Then we could have also ridden Slinky. Runaway Railway is still a toss-up on refreshes, but it feels doable. Then just reverse the order of the parks - AK -> DHS -> EPCOT (hop via skyliner and move from back to front) -> MK
I LOVED doing 1 day. I don't think I'd ever personally want to do more than 2 days at WDW in one trip, at least until we have kids and need more time to soak it all in. I think 2 days would be ideal - 1 day to go super hard, then another day to get a re-ride on TRON + Guardians, then also hit some of the shows (America thing in EPCOT, Hall of Presidents) or rides we missed on the heavy day. I'm a fast vacationer, not a relaxed one.
What did we do wrong? This day felt very productive. I know that there are plenty of ppl who smash every ride in 1 operating day, but this day still felt like a pretty relaxed pace all considered.
Had fun writing this. Hope someone else likes reading it
We visited WDW on Thursday, March 19th. We did all 4 parks that day, hitting almost every major E Ticket we hoped to ride. This is just a report of how the day went + what I'd have done differently.
I hope that if someone else here wants to have a super high-octane day, this info is helpful!
Crowds on our visit day were a 9/10 according to Thrill-data. It was quite busy. This was spring break season.
Pre-Trip Info
I grew up going to DisneyLAND. I've probably gone over 100 times. I'd visited WDW once previously, back in 2023, for 3 days. I was in town for a work trip and had my wife with me, who had never come to WDW! She + a colleague (from Australia!) wanted to come hit Disney after our work stuff was over. But, only for one day. So I decided to make the most of it
We all cared primarily about the rides. My wife and I are 22, and my colleague is 41 - we are all able-bodied and were ready to have a super fast-moving day. We stayed at All-Star sports the night before + night after. We bought the Multi-Pass and 2 Lightning Lane Single passes for the trip.
1 week ahead of our day, I booked our lightning lanes promptly at 7 AM. The pre-bookings were:
- Spaceship Earth - 10:40-11:40
- Soarin - 1:15 - 2:15
- Guardians (Individual Lane) - 1:20 - 2:20
- Remy - 2:20 - 3:20
- TRON - 8:25 - 9:25
I took the earliest time slots possible for the 3 multi-pass rides and Guardians. I intentionally chose the late night TRON time.
My theory during planning was:
- Start at Animal Kingdom and clear the park in under 2 hours. (Just hit Pandora + Everest)
- Hop to EPCOT, start at the front, work our way toward Remy, exit out the back
- Head to Hollywood Studios if we have time and hopefully get a lightning lane for something there. (ideally Tower of Terror)
- End at Magic Kingdom thanks to late closure.
That was it. We'll see how the day goes lol.
The Day Of!
We were at the Bus stop at All Star Sports at 5:54 AM. There were already 12 people ahead of us. The bus showed up at 6:19 AM.
(Excited for the day!)
By the time we got to Animal Kingdom, there was already a solid single line outside security. By the time they let us through, there were 2 long single file lines, stretching all the way back to bus loading.
Security opened at 7:04 AM. We were about 15 people back at the Tapstiles.
Animal Kingdom (7:20 AM - 9:30 AM)
Goal: Pandora Rides + Everest. Maybe Safari?
I'm not quite sure when we went through the tapstiles, headed for Pandora, etc, but we had a very slow group at the front of our tapstile line (of course) so we were in the crowd on the bridge that heads into Pandora for rope drop.
Thankfully though, we were in the first theater for (#1) Flight of Passage for the day! I think we were the last group of guests in that theater - we were in the bottom row of the theater, numbers 12-15. We got out of the ride at 7:56 AM, which was perfect!
We were able to get in line for (#2) Navi River Journey by 7:59 AM, just before all the regular guests got inside! We didn't have to wait much, the line started just past the lightning lane merge point.
We were off the ride by 8:12 AM - I was thrilled with this! I expected to be leaving Pandora by 8:40. This meant that the Safaris weren't even close to opening yet. None of us especially wanted to ride safaris, so we decided to head straight to Everest.
When we arrived at (#3) Expedition Everest, the posted line was only 10 minutes. Our actual wait was 7. It's a fun little coaster, so I lapped it 2 more times in Single Rider while my wife and friend grabbed breakfast/coffee next door at the snack spot. I didn't have to wait either time. Total was 3 rides on Everest!
At this point, I was very satisfied with our rope drop! We sat in the amphitheater thing overlooking the river and ate breakfast. Around 9:10 we were done with our breakfast and coffee, and headed to the front to park hop!
Animal Kingdom complete!
I didn't know that the bus for park hopping doesn't start until 10 AM, so we just called an Uber. It arrived at 9:32 AM, and only cost $8.
EPCOT (10 AM - 3:35 PM)
Goal: Test Track, Soarin, Spaceship Earth, Guardians, Remy
After a few pics, we were inside EPCOT by 10:00 AM. Since our Spaceship Earth reservation was a little ways away, we decided to do (#4) Test Track next! We used the single rider line, which was backed up all the way to the building's doors. I was pretty sure this line would move fast, and it did! In 36 minutes, we were seated in our ride vehicles. A huge bargain - the standby line was posted at 120 minutes.
After that, we went straight to (#5) Spaceship Earth to scan in, which we managed to do at 10:50 AM. I was hoping for a Tower of Terror Lightning Lane, but it had been showing all gone for the whole morning. As soon as we scanned in, I started refreshing, and within about 60 seconds I managed to get a Tower of Terror Lightning Lane for 7:30 - 8:30 PM! I was happy to have something for Tower - that was the highest priority at DHS for our group, but I still wanted to move it earlier so that we could hop to Magic Kingdom sooner. Refreshed for the whole queue, but no luck.
After Spaceship Earth, we grabbed lunch at Connections Cafe, and had some time to kill before our 1:10 PM LL at Soarin'. My wife and I did (#6) Gran Fiesta Tour + walked through a few pavilions at world showcase for about an hour. Gran Fiesta Tour's line was all the way to the entrance of the Mexico building and using all the switchbacks, posting 25 mins, but it still only took 9.
(#7) Soarin' was having a rough day. They were down a theater, and the line was posting 110+ mins for the whole time we were in the park. The LL line was out the entrance of the ride. We scanned in exactly at 1:10, and I started refreshing to book our next lightning lane. I was hoping for 2 things: Space Mountain ll, and modifying our Tower of Terror LL to a bit earlier. I managed to get both! I snagged an 8:30-9:30 PM Space Mountain LL, and also modified our Tower of Terror reservation back to 6:40-7:40 PM.
That wasn't easy though, the lightning lane line took a full 40 minutes, and I was refreshing the app trying to get a time slot all the way up to boarding! Very worth it tho. I didn't see any Tower/Space Mtn options for the rest of the day.
We got out of Soarin' at 1:56 PM, so it was time to head to my personal fav ride at WDW, (#8) Guardians, Cosmic Rewind!
Like dude this ride is SO INSANELY GOOD ITS CRAZY. I am still smiling thinking about it a week later lol. SO SO GOOD. The preshows and giant blob of people you get stuck in waiting to get on your vehicle are super dumb, really worsens the experience, but the coaster is ELITE.
Anyway lol. We scanned into Guardians to use our lightning lane at 2:13 PM, and were in the gift shop at 2:50 PM. We got Disco Inferno. Made me happy. I ran / rule the world are too slow moving for me. I like the faster songs for a coaster like this!
Blurry pic... but we were excited!!
Now we headed straight for the back of the park for (#9) Remy. I don't know exactly what the times were like for this one, but I do remember that it was posting 95 minutes, and single rider was backed up to the fountain in the entrance area!! It seemed bonkers to me lol. But we were on really fast, barely had to wait.
When we scanned into Remy, I booked a Star Tours lightning lane. It was a near-immediate return time. Not my first choice, deep down I was hoping I could magically pull Slinky Dog or Runaway Railway lol.
We exited out the back of the park and hopped to DHS using the skyliner! We were on the skyliner at 3:40 PM, and I started refreshing the app for the trip to DHS. I think Toy Story Mania had a little dump of extra availability while we were on there, and I managed to get a reservation for that ride for 7 PM-8PM, then with 4-5 mins of refreshing, pulled it back to 6-7 PM! I was quite pleased
I also mobile ordered Docking Bay 7 for 5:35 PM. Turns out, that was a total waste, food lines at WDW are way shorter than they are at Disneyland, but I found that out later lol.
Hollywood Studios (4:05 PM - 7:10 PM)
Goal: Toy Story + Tower + Dinner
We had some time to kill before our dinner order + toy story/tower of terror lightning lanes, and we didn't feel like hour long lines for runaway railway or Slinky, so we went and watched the Indiana Jones show. We were in our seats by 4:11 PM, show started at 4:30 PM, and got out of there by 5 PM. It's a fine show, but kind of lame imo. The stunts are very slow and spread out. No boulder is also sad. I wouldn't watch it again.
As we headed toward dinner, my colleague asked if we could get on (#10) Rise of the Resistance. It was posting over 100 minutes, so we decided to ask about the single rider line (we don't have this at Disneyland), and we were seated on the ride within 10 minutes. WHAT?!?!?! I was shocked but pleased
. I think we got kind of lucky - a lot of people lined up behind us in Single Rider, but we barely had to wait.I like this ride, but the DLR version is almost entirely better? There are a few sound fx that are better, the moving canons work, and I've never seen Kylo Ren in B-mode there on 30+ rides. We got B mode on our ride here, which was kinda cool
. Still an S-tier ride. I like Runaway Railway better, but I have weird taste.Hot takes aside, we were out of Rise by 5:34 PM.
We grabbed our dinner at Docking Bay 7 after this (DELICIOUS - different menu from Disneyland in CA), then headed to our Lightning Lane at (#11) Toy Story. I don't remember when we scanned in, but it was a good ride! Decent score for me. This run had 350k+ potential but I made some mistakes in the army room + dino room.
Headed from Toy Story to (#12) Tower of Terror. The line was posting 100 minutes when we walked up - it was in a bunch of switchbacks down on the street! We walked right into the preshow room with our lightning lane. The refreshing earlier in the day was SO WORTH IT.
I love that ride. Theming/package are absolutely S-tier. I prefer Mission Breakout personally, but I prefer rides that have a fun/upbeat feel to the creepy one. I also like that Mission Breakout is doing drops almost the entire ride. I'm glad Tower still exists around the rest of the world. This is def my favorite version of the 3 I've done.
That wrapped our DHS visit! We were walking out of the park at 7:10 PM.
We headed for the bus to Magic Kingdom, which took FOREVER to show up. I think we waited 40 minutes?! A Magic Kingdom bus pulled into the bus area, but parked, then the driver got out and left. Kinda a bummer, but thankfully we had time to spare in the schedule. I didn't call an Uber because I've heard those end up at the TTC instead of at the park proper, so I don't think it would have saved us any time. If anyone is still reading this, would the Minnie Vans drop us all the way at the park? If so, I'll do that next time.
Magic Kingdom (8:20 - 11 PM)
As we walked in, the parade was just starting on Main Street. That was fun to watch as we walked down the street, and over to (#13) TRON. This line was crazy long - it was almost back to the TRON sign at the entrance, all switchbacks full. It was posting 110, but I feel like it would be longer than that. We got in the LL at 8:35 PM, and were off the ride by 9 PM. So fun!
I liked this ride WAY MORE than I remember liking it from a few years ago. My main memories of previous were 1) the launch makes you feel like the coolest person alive, and 2) it's too short. 1 was definitely accurate - the launch music/light sequence is the greatest thing ever, and hitting that launch in the prone position is such a unique sensation. The only other ride I can think of I've done that is similar is FLY at Phantasialand in Germany, but that launch is far weaker.
I think my expectation of the ride being super short helped me enjoy it more? It didn't feel short at all, it felt just right. Also, it was totally dark outside so we got the cool lighting package.
We were glowing with happiness after the TRON ride, and we headed over to its older, much jankier counterpart (#14) Space Mountain. We scanned in by 9:10 PM, not too bad of a wait. This ride is HILARIOUS. It's so jank. I love it though - it's in a class of rides like Matterhorn at Disneyland, or Magnum XL 200 at Cedar Point that are awesome because they are so janky and oddly designed. I think I actually like it more than the Space Mountain at Disneyland in CA. Very very VERY different type of ride, but I had more fun on this one.
After Space mountain we headed for (#15) Haunted Mansion. The fireworks started exploding overhead as we walked, and Haunted Mansion was a complete walk on at 9:40 PM. The stretching room was maybe half full.
Phantom Manor at DL Paris is definitely still my king of the mansion rides, but I like this version much more than the DL one in California. The ordering of the scenes makes so much more sense and it flows very nicely.
We grabbed a quick snack right before the food stands closed at 10 PM, then hopped on (#16) Pirates of the Caribbean. It was maybe a 5 minute wait, boarding our boat at 10:10 PM.
Don't hate me, but I thought this ride was really bad lol. It was so much worse than both the DL California and DL Paris versions. Tiny drop, worse scenes, way shorter, poor pacing... not trying to nitpick, but I wouldn't even ride this one again, and Pirates at both of the other Western DL resorts is like a top 5 ride for me.
After this, we headed for (#17) Tiana's Bayou Adventure. We had to walk by the closed Thunder Mountain, which made me sad... I still haven't ridden it! It was also closed the last time I was here. I'll get on eventually... maybe once the Cars ride nobody asked for is open lol
There was absolutely no line for Tiana. We were allowed to pick the back 2 rows, which we happily did. Turns out it didn't really matter, you barely get wet on this ride, just some splashes on your head.
This was another ride that really disappointed me! Tiana at Disneyland is my second fav at the Resort, only behind Runaway Railway. This version of the ride felt way slower. There was a lot of dead space. The DL version feels fast and a bit more like the jolly "zoom thru the bayou" that the ride is going for. This version felt more "sterile". Not a Tiana hater, I still like the ride, but I understand why so many ppl online were mad about the change now. The DL change was an upgrade, but I have a hard time imagining that this was anything but a downgrade.
We were off the ride at 10:39 PM. We decided to call it a night at this point. We were heading to Islands of adventure in the morning for Early Entry (we were in the uber by 6:30 AM...) and wanted to get at least a bit of sleep lol.
Tired, wet, a bit dazed, but a great day!
Grand Totals
- FOP
- Navi River
- Everest x3
- Test Track
- Spaceship Earth
- Soarin
- Gran Fiesta Tour
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Remy
- Rise of the resistance
- Toy Story Midway Mania
- Tower of Terror
- TRON
- Space Mountain
- Haunted Mansion
- Pirates
- Tiana
18 hrs, 35 minutes from leaving the hotel room to getting back!
Adjustments for next time
- I would have used the last 20 minutes of the night to hop in line for 7 Dwarves Mine Train. I kind of forgot the ride exists, then realized in line for the bus "OH WAIT" but it's fine... the ride is pretty dumb anyway haha. Still, it would have ticked off one more big ride in the day.
- I would have booked DHS for the lightning lanes instead of EPCOT. I could have done with skipping Soarin' - it's the exact same as DLR. Spaceship Earth is doable via standby. and Remy has single rider, and. Even with the whole queue full, I'm guessing it would take about 30 mins. That's how long a full SR queue took when I waited it in Paris at least. Then we could have also ridden Slinky. Runaway Railway is still a toss-up on refreshes, but it feels doable. Then just reverse the order of the parks - AK -> DHS -> EPCOT (hop via skyliner and move from back to front) -> MK
I LOVED doing 1 day. I don't think I'd ever personally want to do more than 2 days at WDW in one trip, at least until we have kids and need more time to soak it all in. I think 2 days would be ideal - 1 day to go super hard, then another day to get a re-ride on TRON + Guardians, then also hit some of the shows (America thing in EPCOT, Hall of Presidents) or rides we missed on the heavy day. I'm a fast vacationer, not a relaxed one.
What did we do wrong? This day felt very productive. I know that there are plenty of ppl who smash every ride in 1 operating day, but this day still felt like a pretty relaxed pace all considered.
Had fun writing this. Hope someone else likes reading it
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