Annual December Family DLR Trips (08, 09, 10, 11 IN PROGRESS)-We do it big

[DLR29]

DM and DD had just entered and met us at Nemo. I ran and got Space FPs really quickly (since I had gotten one of the first Indy FPs, I could get another set quickly) at about 8:45. Since DGrandma can't handle the underwater aspect of Nemo, DG&G went and rode Matterhorn while the rest of us (8 of us) rode FNSV. It was only a 20 min wait! Score! Some parts scared DC6, but he liked it overall.

DC4 was dying to go on a fast ride now, so we took him on the Matterhorn. Since DG&G had just ridden and DC6 didn't want to ride, they (along with DD) went to go ride Alice. So DM, DB, DC4, DA&U and I rode Matterhorn. They were running both lines along both sides of the mountain. The TL side had a wait time that was easily twice as long as the FL side, so DUH! we rode the FL side.

You can't see DA but she's with DU (TN hat) in the front, then DM and DB and DC4 is riding with me.

Splashdown

 

[DLR29]

Now we all wanted to ride something together, all 10 of us, so we chose Casey Jr. They were only running 1 train, and they were very slow in the loading process. Even so, we only waited about 20 min.

DM, DC6, DB and DD in the "wild animals" cage.

Some Storybookland shots

Our final ride for Fantasyland in the morning was IASWH. The line was pretty long (they were about to use the overflow), but went by really quickly. I'm a little bummed we didn't get to see the exterior up close at night. Oh well.

DM and DD in the back. DB, DC6 and DGrandma in front of them

A shot of the line. It was longer than pictured.

 

[DLR29]

DG&G were tired and decided that they had had enough. We also had to check out of the rooms before 12. DG&G, DM, DD, and DU went back to Worldmark to move all the stuff into the cars (but we left the cars there for the day), and DG&G left for their house. Meanwhile, DA, DB, DC6, DC4 and I decided to hop to DCA.

Since I knew DC4 would love to ride another roller coaster, I volunteered to go run to Mulholland Madness and get FPs for later. I got 3: for DA, DC4 and DB because I know DC6 wouldn't want to ride. After running to the Pier, I met them at A Bug's Land

We went through Flik's Fun Fair, counter-clockwise, and rode each of the rides. DC6 and DC4 have seen the movie so they recognized the characters. It's been a solid 5 years since I've ridden any of those rides, so it was fun to check out that section of the park.

First stop: Heimlich's Chew Chew Train. We waited 0 min. A literal walk on. DC6 and DC4 were cracking up at Heimlich burping and eating.

Next ride: Tuck and Roll's Drive 'em Buggies. I remember riding these back when I was younger and even back then I thought they were lame. But DC6 and DC4 had never ridden bumper cars, so it was a good starter for them. DC6 loved "getting" (bumping) his mom and brother.

DC6 and me

DB.

3rd ride: Francis' Ladybug Boogie. I had never ridden this before. It was actually kinda fun. DC4 was giggling through the whole thing.

Last stop in FFF: Flik's Flyers. At the local "amusement park" by DA&U, they have a balloon ride, so DC6 and DC4 were excited about this one. Of course, they loved it.

Shot of one of the highly themed lamps

Now one last shot from FFF. It's one of my favorites, so I made it a little bigger.

Phew...lots of pictures.

Next up: A roller coaster for DC6?? Naaaah.....well...

 

[onelilspark]

I love all the pictures in your report

 

[PoohBearFriends]

Great Trip report. You guys got on a lot of rides for having such a large group to coordinate. Especially with all the different age groups. You are inspiring me for our multi-age trip coming soon.

 

[DLR29]

I love all the pictures in your report

Thanks. I really like taking pictures. And I finally figured out how to get nighttime shots on my camera. It's not the best camera, but I do pretty good with what I have.

Great Trip report. You guys got on a lot of rides for having such a large group to coordinate. Especially with all the different age groups. You are inspiring me for our multi-age trip coming soon.

I think the key idea for multi-generation trips is to do a mix of different rides/attractions for each "generation". I wish you luck in your upcoming trip! I'll be looking for a TR!

 

[DLR29]

Afternoon of Wednesday, December 23, 2009:

First of all a little side note. I love being a high school senior. Today in english class we did nothing so I wrote the rest of the report up. All I need to do is add the pictures.

After riding all of the FFF rides, we strolled down construction wall lane. DA, DC4, and DB rode MM with the FP from earlier, while DC6 and I rode Jumpin Jellyfish with a 10 min wait.

While waiting in line for JJ, DC6 turns to me and says, "That roller coaster over there doesn't look too scary" (pointing to MM). I was in shock! I asked him if he wanted to try it and he agreed! (but later) Just before we boarded JJ, the other 3 were done with the ride already, so I threw the tickets to DB and told him to grab some MM FPs for later. We rode JJ (major accomplisment for the kid who didn't like heights a year before) and he loved it. Plus we were facing the side of MM so he got to see that running too. Here's a shot from up there.

DD, DM and DU had gotten back into the park by now and we met them down at the wharf for lunch. I had never eaten down there before, and the new Chinese place sounded good. DB and DA went up to the Bountiful Valley Farm to get chicken for the younger ones, while the rest of us got food from the Lucky Fortune Cookery.

It's a little on the pricey side, but it's a decent amount of food and the quality is not too bad. Much better than the "Chinese food" we got 2 years ago at WDW . After lunch we walked back to MM.

We used our FPs and boarded in exactly 3 min (we had one of those red cards to keep track of wait times). DC6 sat next to his dad, so I sat next to DC4. Up at the top, both DCs were giggling around the sharp turns, having a blast! When we got to the first steep drop, though, I looked back at DC6 who had an expression of shock on his face. DC4 of course was loving every second of it. I was concerned that DC6 was freaked out. As we got to the final brakes and station he said that he liked it and wanted to go again! What a huge step even from the previous day when he refused to ride Gadget. We were all thrilled to hear him say that he enjoyed the ride, and now we were devising ways of getting him on BTMRR later.

But before leaving DCA, we had to ride Monster's. We had passed by the prvious day but we told the younger ones "tomorrow" because the line was much too long and the older cousins weren't as interested. Monster's was fun as usual. The little ones loved recognizing Randall and Mike Wazowski.

Festive Roz

We left DCA and hopped to DL. All of the fab 5, with their Christmas attire, were out by the flagpole. We had to stop and get a picture with Donald Duck. Adorable!

We also stopped in the Emporium to take advantage of the special sale with a receipt from a counter service place, ending at 3PM. Inside the Emporium:

 

[DLR29]

Now for the real test for DC6. We had 8 FP for BTMRR so off we went to Frontierland.

BTMRR

With FP we skipped a 45min line. I've never seen the line for BTMRR so long. We get on the ride and by the 2nd chain lift DC6 was having a ball! The only thing that he didn't like was the couple parts of loud noises (1st and 3rd chains) because he's very very sensitive to loud noises. But at the end of the ride, he got off and the first thing that he said (rather enthusiastically) was, "That was fun! Can we go on it again?" Since BTMRR FPs usually have a short time before they're valid, I grabbed another set immediately after exiting.

We had to go ride Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh for the younger ones, so we strolled over to Critter Country. Only waited about 10 min for the ride. On a side note: While we were over there, we noticed that the Splash line was posted as 60 min, and it looked like an accurate approximation. However, the FP return window was only for 45 min later! There was no reason to stand in that line. Unfortunately, other members in our party thought that it was too cold to ride. Oh well. Anyway, back to Pooh...While in line we were still elated about how DC6 tried, and enjoyed, BTMRR. Now the plan was to get him on Space. How about some pics of Pooh?

Then we FINALLY got around to using those Indy FPs from earlier that morning. We had 8 to use, but DC4 was too short and they would have been scared out of their minds. They went to go sit down for a little bit and eat Mickey Mouse ice cream bars. So it was me, DB, DM and DD who rode Indy first, skipping a VERY long line outside (90+, using the upstairs JC overflow queue ). Unfortunately, right before we got to the projector room in line, all of the lights went on (instead of flickering), so I knew instantly that the ride had broken down. We also couldn't call DA&U because we were underground (not so good cell phone coverage down in the temple ). Fortunately, it was only a small mechanical error that was fixed in about 15-20 min. Unfortunately, that meant one side of the loading station was closed. But we still only waited about 35 min in total with FP, including the ride breakdown; longest wait of the trip. We had a really great ride through the temple. It is my favorite ride after all.

Upon exiting, we could see that the line inside had REALLY backed up because of the breakdown. So we knew that using the other 4 Indy FPs immediately would not be the best move. We finally met up with DA&U in the chaos of Adventureland. They understood that we were trapped in line because of the breakdown. Already our 2nd set of BTMRR FPs were good so we breezed by the line yet again to have another fun ride without waiting a lot.

OH NO! We're going into a tunnel!

Thinking that DA&U would want to ride HMH, I grabbed FPs for that too, making the total # of FP sets for the day, 7. I ran to rejoin everybody as they were walking towards Space. DC6 said he was going to ride!


However... as we approached the ride, it was closed.

We'll leave it there for now. I'm not even heeding the advice of my tag. Yup, I'm leaving everybody on a cliffhanger.

Next up: The final evening at DLR and a new favorite ride is ridden for someone.

 

[deejdigsdis]

Yay for DC6! That gives me hope for my little guy that just turned 7. He did ride Indy (with his head down...said he was tired and needed to rest - ) and BTMRR, but he wouldn't go on the Matterhorn and I didn't even suggest Space Mountain to him.

So weird about the Splash Standby/FP Return line. I don't get standing in line in that situation. When we went in Nov. the Standby was 20 min. and the FP Return was 25 min. And I thought that was weird. We got our FPs, rode Pooh, ate Tigger Tails, and then rode Splash. Strange.

 

[hurleysweety]

Great report so far! Seems like you really have your FP collecting down! I'm impressed! Love the Indy dark shots too, very real.

Side note...I haven't been with a big group for awhile, but my favorite part was always the response to the infamous question by the CM, "How many in your party?" One trip in 2004, my shocking answer was "17" for a ride on splash, space, indy, and BTMRR. Yes, I wish I had my camera. It was priceless.

 

[DLR29]

Yay for DC6! That gives me hope for my little guy that just turned 7. He did ride Indy (with his head down...said he was tired and needed to rest - ) and BTMRR, but he wouldn't go on the Matterhorn and I didn't even suggest Space Mountain to him.

So weird about the Splash Standby/FP Return line. I don't get standing in line in that situation. When we went in Nov. the Standby was 20 min. and the FP Return was 25 min. And I thought that was weird. We got our FPs, rode Pooh, ate Tigger Tails, and then rode Splash. Strange.

I think if he liked BTMRR he would really enjoy Space, unless the dark thing scares him. And as for the FP thing, I've seen it on HMH and BTMRR before too! It's like "hello people?" Oh well, more FP for me!

Great report so far! Seems like you really have your FP collecting down! I'm impressed! Love the Indy dark shots too, very real.

Side note...I haven't been with a big group for awhile, but my favorite part was always the response to the infamous question by the CM, "How many in your party?" One trip in 2004, my shocking answer was "17" for a ride on splash, space, indy, and BTMRR. Yes, I wish I had my camera. It was priceless.

Going in a large group is lots of fun and it really is fun when they ask how many to seat! I'm glad you like the report (although I've been slow with updates)

 

[DLR29]

Late Afternoon/Evening of Wednesday, December 23, 2009:

Ok for the last leg of our trip

So I left off where DC6 was all excited about going on Space, but when we got there it was broken down. Well after finding out that news, the CM at the ride said that they were just about to open up again! It opened up and we used FPs from the morning. Even though the ride had been closed, the standby line was still 60+ min. The most exciting thing was that DC6 was riding! We (especially his younger brother) kept telling him that you "travel to space". He kept asking "Well, how do they get you back?"

We boarded and set off through Space. Seeing as it's dark in there, we couldn't tell DC6's reaction until afterwards.....


HE LOVED IT! It is now his favorite ride! Very exciting. Everybody, including himself, was so proud of him. DC4 even said "[DC6] like roller coasters now!"---adorable. Oh, how about some Space pics:

Next we took a round trip on the DLRR starting from the TL station which had no line.

DCs especially loved the dinosaur parts as they are huge fans of dinos (especially DC6). As we passed IASWH on our trip, I got a couple shots of the exterior from the train.

It was also the quarter hour so the little parade was going on.

We got off back at TL and chose to grab some brub at Redd Rockett's. The line wasn't actually that long and finding a big table wasn't that difficult either.

After dinner DA&U, DB and I returned to Indy, hoping that the line inside had diminished since we last left the ride. DM and DD took the little ones to "The Buzz Lightyear ride". Fortunately with the othe 4 Indy FPs, we only ended up waiting 15 min (didn't break down this time). Everybody loved it. I don't think DA&U rode this last year when we went.

 

[DLR29]

DC6 and DC4 were dying to go on the monorail when we met up with them. It was so crazy in Tomorrowland because the 6:30 parade had just ended and there were people everywhere. We finally got to the monorail and boarded within a couple min.

DC6, DC4 and DA

Here are some shots of FNSV from the monorail's station

This one's cool with the water

The little ones got a kick out of riding fast and through the dark. Returning to TL, it was time to use those HMH FPs. Since DC6 and DC4 would be scared, DM ("Auntie") offered to take them to ride KAC and Casey Jr. Fine with them. They were also going to go through the castle walkthrough but it had already closed for the fireworks. Anyway, DA&U, DD, DB and I rode HMH with FP. Unfortunately at the bottom of the elevator there was a huge line. We couldn't even get out of the stretching room for about 5 min. Eventually we boarded our doom buggies and rode.

We all reconvened and decided on 1 last ride. One last time on TSMM or "The Toy Story ride". We walked all the way back there to wait only 20 min for the ride. It must have been about 8:45 or so because the DEP was about to start. It was afun last ride because we are all big fans of Toy Story!!

We finished up with a really great view of hte fireworks from just under the Golden Gate Bridge. It was the perfect end to a wonderful trip. We took the ART back to our cars at Worldmark and drove back to DG&G's house where we all crashed.

That's the end of the report report. But I still have about 50 or so "general" pictures from both DL and DCA that I'll be posting later, along with a general trip summary (how many rides, FPs used, etc.). Thanks for reading and I hope you follow along for our upcoming WDW trip which will include my family as well as DC13, DC10 and DC9 (some familiar characters).

 

[deejdigsdis]

Thanks for the report! Still looking forward to more pics and hearing your summary.

 

[DLR29]

Wow, it's already been a week. Sorry for the late update. Here are some pictures of DL.

 

[DLR29]

And finally one of my favorite shots

 

[DLR29]

DCA picture update:

Some WoC Testing

Some new Paradise Pier construction shots

 

[onelilspark]

I know this is a silly question...but what kind of ride is Monsters Inc??

I love your DCs and their roller coaster quest. I remember when I was little at Hershey Park my Dad dragged me on the "Super Duper Looper!" Everytime I'm back I remember that coaster being my "first!"

 

[DLR29]

I know this is a silly question...but what kind of ride is Monsters Inc??

I love your DCs and their roller coaster quest. I remember when I was little at Hershey Park my Dad dragged me on the "Super Duper Looper!" Everytime I'm back I remember that coaster being my "first!"

It's a slow moving dark ride like the Fantasyland rides, but it has some really cool special effects.

Wow! No way would we ever get DC6 to go on a looping roller coaster as his first. Wait a couple of years and then they'll be on California Screamin all day!

 

[DLR29]

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