kittylady1972
Disneyholic
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2003
- Messages
- 4,509
We are back and I promised a post about our experience so I'll do my best to recall it. I second what @kat_lh posted...we had a GREAT time, it was all we hoped, and I think the weather may have had something to do with it. We surprised my daughter and her boyfriend with this even as this was set to be a Universal parks trip.
It started raining sometime in the afternoon and was off and on for several hours (not your typical quick rain and done storm...though we had that earlier in the day while at Hollywood Studios). So we spent time relaxing and napping in our room at Riviera Resort after having a great morning at Islands of Adventure and getting rained out at the pool during lunch.
Around 6pm we caught the skyliner over to HS...which was really too early since we had noplace to hang out. They were doing wristbands outside the park, so we got those and then just waited. We were probably 3rd or 4th in line at the tapstyles which opened at 6:45pm (even thought the cast members all said 7pm).
We went directly to Mama Melrose as we had a 7:20pm dinner reservation. It was pretty packed, and there was a light off and on rain so that probably had something to do with it. We hoped to get seated earlier but that wasn't happening so we wandered over to Baseline Taphouse for a pre-dinner drink. Seated for dinner maybe around 7:30pm (they said they were running 15 minutes behind). Finished around 8:20pm.
8:28pm: Star Tours, first ride...walked on (no band checking, still regular crowds in park)
~8:45pm:Next we walked over to RotR, I think the app said 30 minute wait. No band checking as we still had regular crowds able to ride. I would say that may have been accurate if not less as we just walked in the queue almost pretty close to the end...so I feel like it could have been less before we reached the first pre-show area. I can say at 9:05pm we were loading into the first transport vehicle before we were captured.
~9:30pm: Next was Smuggler's Run after a restroom stop on the way. Bands were checked. This was pretty much a walk on to the pre-show and after pre-show the 4 of us were loaded into our vehicle with hardly any stopping. We decided to go right back on again, much to my 20 year old daughter's disappointment. Walked on again. Also walking the area we passed Chewy and some other characters were out.
~10pm: Slinky Dog (about 20 minute wait, longest line of the night).
After Slinky, a stop (short moving line) for drinks and ice cream bars, earlier this same spot had popcorn but that had moved to across from TSM so we grabbed popcorn and hit the TSM line.
10:35pm: Toy Story Mania (walk on)
10:50pm: MMRR...maybe 10 minute wait, we had a short line and they skipped the pre-show and just loaded us up. My daughter has never done this, she has resisted every trip so I told her she had to do it this time. We were on the car at 11pm.
~11:05pm: Tower of Tower...posted 13 minute wait, we walked right up the library and waited MABYE 5 minutes. Off Tower, we decided to ride one more time so walked around and got on, again right into the library. All elevator bays were open, so we stayed straight this time and ended up being the only 4 on the elevator. As they lined us up we asked if we could sit wherever we wanted and they said sure, then 2 other people walked to to the queue area. The cast members said they would give us our own elevator anyway...and they did and recommended we sit in each corner of the elevator...so the 4 of us did that and it was SO epic. BEST ride of the whole night, getting off at the bottom was a little confusing for the CMs letting us out. However I will say those cast members that loaded us were really AWESOME.
This time we stopped for more ice cream, then watched a little bit of the evening projection show, then I bought one of the new MMRR Picnic Basket Popcorn Buckets for my Disney loving neighbors who asked us to pick one up if we could. We caught a bus out of the park just around midnight, while we were at the Riviera Bus Stop the Caribbean Beach bus (at the next stop) was there waiting with nobody so she said she would take us and a few other Riviera guests.
Amazing evening overall, highly recommended it, we did all we wanted and that was with the dinner. We could have done more but we felt like we accomplished everything we wanted.
DH and I return in September for a DVC Moonlight Magic after hours even at HS and I only hope it is just as fun!
It started raining sometime in the afternoon and was off and on for several hours (not your typical quick rain and done storm...though we had that earlier in the day while at Hollywood Studios). So we spent time relaxing and napping in our room at Riviera Resort after having a great morning at Islands of Adventure and getting rained out at the pool during lunch.
Around 6pm we caught the skyliner over to HS...which was really too early since we had noplace to hang out. They were doing wristbands outside the park, so we got those and then just waited. We were probably 3rd or 4th in line at the tapstyles which opened at 6:45pm (even thought the cast members all said 7pm).
We went directly to Mama Melrose as we had a 7:20pm dinner reservation. It was pretty packed, and there was a light off and on rain so that probably had something to do with it. We hoped to get seated earlier but that wasn't happening so we wandered over to Baseline Taphouse for a pre-dinner drink. Seated for dinner maybe around 7:30pm (they said they were running 15 minutes behind). Finished around 8:20pm.
8:28pm: Star Tours, first ride...walked on (no band checking, still regular crowds in park)
~8:45pm:Next we walked over to RotR, I think the app said 30 minute wait. No band checking as we still had regular crowds able to ride. I would say that may have been accurate if not less as we just walked in the queue almost pretty close to the end...so I feel like it could have been less before we reached the first pre-show area. I can say at 9:05pm we were loading into the first transport vehicle before we were captured.
~9:30pm: Next was Smuggler's Run after a restroom stop on the way. Bands were checked. This was pretty much a walk on to the pre-show and after pre-show the 4 of us were loaded into our vehicle with hardly any stopping. We decided to go right back on again, much to my 20 year old daughter's disappointment. Walked on again. Also walking the area we passed Chewy and some other characters were out.
~10pm: Slinky Dog (about 20 minute wait, longest line of the night).
After Slinky, a stop (short moving line) for drinks and ice cream bars, earlier this same spot had popcorn but that had moved to across from TSM so we grabbed popcorn and hit the TSM line.
10:35pm: Toy Story Mania (walk on)
10:50pm: MMRR...maybe 10 minute wait, we had a short line and they skipped the pre-show and just loaded us up. My daughter has never done this, she has resisted every trip so I told her she had to do it this time. We were on the car at 11pm.
~11:05pm: Tower of Tower...posted 13 minute wait, we walked right up the library and waited MABYE 5 minutes. Off Tower, we decided to ride one more time so walked around and got on, again right into the library. All elevator bays were open, so we stayed straight this time and ended up being the only 4 on the elevator. As they lined us up we asked if we could sit wherever we wanted and they said sure, then 2 other people walked to to the queue area. The cast members said they would give us our own elevator anyway...and they did and recommended we sit in each corner of the elevator...so the 4 of us did that and it was SO epic. BEST ride of the whole night, getting off at the bottom was a little confusing for the CMs letting us out. However I will say those cast members that loaded us were really AWESOME.
This time we stopped for more ice cream, then watched a little bit of the evening projection show, then I bought one of the new MMRR Picnic Basket Popcorn Buckets for my Disney loving neighbors who asked us to pick one up if we could. We caught a bus out of the park just around midnight, while we were at the Riviera Bus Stop the Caribbean Beach bus (at the next stop) was there waiting with nobody so she said she would take us and a few other Riviera guests.
Amazing evening overall, highly recommended it, we did all we wanted and that was with the dinner. We could have done more but we felt like we accomplished everything we wanted.
DH and I return in September for a DVC Moonlight Magic after hours even at HS and I only hope it is just as fun!
