COMPLETED (200+pics) TR: 10/9-10/11 Me and the fam hit up the land

[Krissy Marissy]

Great start to your TR! Can't wait for the rest!!

 

[travelmel]

Cute kitty! Nice self pics on splash

You're doing a great job narrating! Thanks for the fun pics

 

[Husker Mickey]

What a great trip report - so far!!! Am really getting excited for our trip which is in 8 days. Like all of your photos. You are brave to have your camera out on all of those rides. Am looking forward to the rest of your report!!!

 

[Mark Mason]

We are jealous! Be sure to tell all!

 

[DLR29]

Afternoon of 10/9:
After lunch we rode JC with a very short wait. Our skipper was less than funny because in general he told very few jokes. He was just like “and over here we have some monkeys and over here are some lions and a zebra.” He didn’t even say that the zebra was sleeping! Oh well, it was a lame JC ride.

Crossing the hub, Buzz was next on our list. My brother went alone, while me and my mom rode in a car. So frustrating when she kept turning the car so that I couldn’t get good shots off. Ugh, I still got L-4 and beat her by a lot. The Tomorrowland paving made it so that FP wasn’t being used, which I thought made the line move quicker. Maybe Disney….remove FP here!

Then finally we used our Space FPs from earlier, although the line was only about 30 minutes. The left side of the park was definitely much more crowded than the right side. Maybe because MM guests went there after the hour was done. I love Space and it’s my brother’s favorite ride.

We walked around the Matterhorn because we wanted to ride the Fantasyland side. Little did we know that now they are doing one line that splits into the two lines at the covered part. Oh well, we skipped it for now. We boarded the train at Toontown and took it all the way to Main Street. Good thing we didn’t get it at the Tomorrowland station because it was super crowded and nobody from Toontown got off to free up spaces. We went through the Grand Canyon/Primeval World dioramas which was fun and we got off and left the park for DCA.

Right away, I got a Soarin FP and we all went to TSMM, where we only waited about 30 minutes. I got the beaver…..again (that’s all I got back in August when I rode it for the first time) and both my mom and brother loved it because they had never ridden it, however both were determined to improve their “rabbit” prize.

After TSMM, I rode Screamin through the Single Rider line because my brother didn’t want to ride and my mom stayed with him. It’s still a good ride, but it’s getting a little vibraty (I just created a new word) at parts. One disappointment was that the music was not playing. I thought that this was a cool pic.

Then my brother and I rode Orange Stinger, which is fun but short. I’m glad that the giant orange eyesore is going to be leaving. I never got the whole orange and bees theme.

My brother and I rode Mulholland Madness next. Back in 04, he hated this ride because of the steep drops. This time he thought it was kinda boring. Go figure. After the one drop, the ride just becomes overbraked and slow. Hopefully Goofy’s Sky Skool will bring some decent theming to distract riders from the rather boring ride.

To stall for time before our Soarin FPs were good, we headed over to Monster’s Inc. and waited about 20 minutes. We saved Boo from Randell (sp?) so everything’s all good.

Time for Soarin! With our FPs we only had to wait 15 minutes and we even got the top row on the right side. Even on this ride I notice details every time that I ride, although a new film would be nice. Such a nice, relaxing ride. I especially like the scents and the part where I always think my feet are going to hit the waves.

After Soarin, we left for the hotel to take a short break. I did homework  and the other two relaxed for about an hour.

 

[DLR29]

Evening of 10/9:
We left the hotel and walked through the esplanade and DTD all the way to the end for dinner at the ESPN Zone. It was the night of the Dodger game (we’re Dodger fans), so seating was pretty full, but we decided to sit at the bar (or by the bar) and we got to watch most of the game with a bunch of Dodger fans on a HUGE screen TV. It was definitely the most exciting dinner of the trip. We left when the Dodgers started losing 3-2 (which ended up being the final score). We left ESPN Zone and wanted to take the monorail into the park, but the line was really really long so we opted to walk. We got into the park and were met by a wall of crowds. Everybody and their brother was watching the 7:00 parade. It was the most crowded I have seen Disneyland in such a long time, more crowded than during the summer. They recommended us (who weren’t watching) to weave through the shops, but even there was crowded. It literally was a madhouse. Well once the parade passed, we (and everybody who wasn’t exiting) went up Main Street and we decided to ride the Matterhorn. We waited about 20 minutes and chose the Fantasyland side. It was my brother’s first time and he enjoyed it. I have no night shots of the Matterhorn because of my weird camera and the poor “nighttime” mode which doesn’t help at all, so here are some general shots. The Matterhorn is so photogenic.

We checked out the FL ride lines and they were pretty long so instead we just used our Space FPs from earlier.

For our last ride of the night we braved the Nemo line at around 8:45. We only waited about 30 minutes, which is good for Nemo. My mom and brother liked the ride, being the first time on it and I also enjoyed it. Again I have no nighttime shots of Nemo, sorry. Just imagine it darker.

After Nemo we were expecting the fireworks to be going, but they weren’t. RDCT wasn’t even originally on the entertainment schedule, but was added because of such high crowds. However they were cancelled due to high altitude winds. This lead to a crazy exit of the park. We left at around 9:30 because we wanted to get up early the next day. We got back to the hotel (right across the street was soooooo nice) and crashed.

 

[travelmel]

Nice update!

Cool shot of CA Screamin

 

[BillyFan]

I'm enjoying your TR and loving all the great photos!

 

[DLR29]

I am sorry about the lack of updates. I will try and have one this weekend, but this little thing called school.... ya (ya obviousy cause I'm on the computer at midnight)

 

[jlparedes]

Great trip report, it sounds like a great trip was had.

 

[DLR29]

I finally have an update ready. I'm just putting in the pics right now.

 

[DLR29]

Ok finally a break from homework to type the next day in my TR.

Morning: Friday the 10th, not a MM day so we decided to do Fantasyland first. We got to the park at 7:50

And we entered at 8 and went straight to FL.

Since we weren’t at the front of the gates at opening, there was already a 15 minute line for Peter Pan at 8:05 in the morning. Safe to say you should get here as early as possible. We ran into two kids who go to my school and their families which was nice. Then after visiting Neverland we hopped onto Toadie. I really like Mr. Toad and I’m glad DLR still has their version. I have no pictures of these two rides, but tons of Alice, which we rode next with a walk on.

Down, down, down down…

This way, That way!

Next on our list was Casey Jr. which I had never done before. I know, I know! Me? Not ride something at DLR? We me and my brother rode in the caboose facing backwards. It was just ok. Some good scenic views, but overall I’ll take a FL dark ride over this any day.

Ok now comes one of the best memories of our trip! Backtrack a little to when we were in line for Casey Jr. We saw the Dream Team walk by and head into FL and we thought, “ok, we missed them…again!” so after Casey Jr. we were pleasantly surprised when we saw people exiting Snow White with Dream FPs! We quickly hop in line for Snow White and pray that they still have some by the time the ride ends. So during the entire ride I was less focused on the scary witch and super anxious about getting Dream FPs. Well, we got off the ride and….

WE GOT DREAM FPs!!!!!!
Here we are showing them off

Super happy, we decided to wait on using the FPs until my dad arrived later that day because they told us that since he wasn’t there, we could go to City Hall and tell them the location and time of our dream and they would give him a Dream FP too!

Still excited, we rode Pinocchio which is a classic

Then I ran and got normal Space FPs and then met my family at BLAB. I got level 4 again. I don’t know how people get much higher.

Next up my brother and I rode Star Tours, while my mom sat this one out. She’s not a big fan of the simulator things (except Soarin). The ride is fun, but I’ve seen it so many times. A new film would be nice.

 

[DLR29]

Waiting to use our Space FPs, we decided to ride Autopia. It had a very short line, which only took about 10 minutes. I got a nasty orange color . Here are some premium shots from the greatest car ride ever. Mr. Toad’s car:

POV

Off-roading

Love this sign

My lil bro

My lovely mother

Then finally we rode Space again with our normal FPs and skipped a sizeable line.

Next up was a spin on the Matterhorn, where we braved the Tomorrowland side and riding in the front I got a ton of on-ride pics.

After encountering Harold the yeti, we took a ride on the new monorails to DTD where we had 11:30 PS’s (really unnecessary) at the Jazz Kitchen for lunch with our grandparents (my mom’s parents).

Still pretty thrilled by the Dream FPs. We had a whole cabin to ourselves.

So we got off and since we had a little bit of time we decided to explore the GCH. My goodness does it have a nice atmosphere. I just cannot justify the $$$$$$$$$ spent on the rooms when there are so many cheaper (albeit not as nice, but still) places across Harbor. Oh well. So we ate a yummy lunch at the Jazz Kitchen where I got the chicken Caesar wrap which was yummilicious.

Some strange alligator by our table

That concludes our morning. I will type the afternoon/evening portion now, but I just really wanted to get this update up so that you don’t think I’ve forgotten. Bye for now.

 

[travelmel]

Great on-ride shots of Autopia and Matterhorn!

I cannot even come close to snapping anything in focus on a ride so I am humbled by your talents.

 

[northshoremama]

hey, DLR29...we were there the same time...and at the same hotel! LOL! what room were you guys in? we checked into the tropicana wed night 10/8...did our MM on 10/9 (picked up our tickets from the guest services window)...and checked out of the tropicana on 10/11. i agree, breakfast wasn't fancy, but it was okay. we were in room 368 (or was it 386?!)...looks like you and your family had a great time!

 

[DLR29]

hey, DLR29...we were there the same time...and at the same hotel! LOL! what room were you guys in? we checked into the tropicana wed night 10/8...did our MM on 10/9 (picked up our tickets from the guest services window)...and checked out of the tropicana on 10/11. i agree, breakfast wasn't fancy, but it was okay. we were in room 368 (or was it 386?!)...looks like you and your family had a great time!

We were in 2 hundred something. When you are looking directly at the hotel, it was on the left of the pool and on the second story. Wish we could have seen each other. We went to the pool twice. Once was on Wednesday night and once on Saturday night.

 

[DLR29]

Afternoon/Evening of Friday:
Alright, so after a lovely lunch at the Jazz Kitchen, the three of us went to DCA to ride TSMM again. It is definitely one of our family favorites. We waited about 35-40 minutes and it was worth every minute. Again I got the beaver. Ugh…I need to start working on my shooting skills. Mr. Potato Head is very entertaining:

Then the little plastic thing on my lanyard was ripping, so we went and bought another one ($5 cha-ching!) at the merchandise shop by Ariel’s Grotto. The lady was very nice and seemed like she enjoyed her job very much. Then we left for our hotel for an afternoon break while my mom picked up my dad at the airport. Originally, my brother and I were going to stay in the park, but I had homework and my brother was tired, so we went back. Fast Forward 2 hours…..

Since my dad had to work Friday morning, he flew down in the afternoon for 1 ½ days at the parks. The first thing we did was go to City Hall and get him a Dream FP because he was not with us this morning. They were very nice about it and my dad loved the prize.

So then we hopped over to DCA to show him the wonders of this little new ride called Toy Story Midway Mania. He, of course, loved it as well and he just HAD to beat us all on his first ride. Goodness gracious. But I did improve my score 10K from the previous one. Still the beaver though…. These are just a tad important for the ride.

Then we finally got to use our Dream FPs! YAY! My dad and I rode Screamin with the tabs, and it felt so awesome just to tear off the little tab and use it as a FP. We were seated in the third row in less than 10 minutes.

DCA was closing at 6 cause of the MToT Party, which we were not going to and it was nearing 6. So we ran over to Soarin to see if we could make it before they closed off the line, but we were not successful. So we hopped over to DL and got some grub at the Stage Door Café.

After some yummy chicken and some average mozzarella sticks we chose to ride HMH because with the Dream FPs we received individual FPs for HMH because it is not included on the lanyard and they clearly had a date marked on them. So better safe than sorry, we used them then. Good thing that we did because the line was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo long. 45+ minutes because it filled the entire queue plus it weaved outside. Yikes! HMH is a good ride, but that is just crazy. Here are quite a few shots of it:

These next two I thought turned out great

It’s amazing how much detail they add in just a few weeks of downtime

The ride stopped when we were in the attic and then the graveyard scene, so I snapped a few shots (without flash thank you!)

 

[DLR29]

Next on the list was a ride on Pirates, which had a sizeable line (25 minutes), but it moves so quickly that it doesn’t seem like that long.

After finding Captain Jack Sparrow, we headed over to Frontierland to hop on board the “Wildest Ride in the Wilderness”! Surprisingly, this ride’s line was out the entrance and extending down the path to Big Thunder Ranch and FL. Fortunately for us we had Dream FPs and were able to pass most of it by. We got seated in the back row, which was great for the goat trick. This ride is so much better at night.

A little before 8 we joined the Indy line (again after using our FPs, skipping a huge outdoor line) and it didn’t take that long; however, the ride broke down when we reached the point where it splits into two lines. It didn’t take that long and my dad (the one who knows every single person on this earth ) met a former high school classmate of his in line. It’s a Small World after all! Oh wait, it’s closed. Well the line only took about 20 minutes even with the minor breakdown. Yay for Indy.

Then we got prime seats for the fireworks and Main Street was packed! It was more crowded than when I’ve gone the past two Augusts. Well we got good seats, my brother and mom got churros. My dad and I went to go get Dole Whips, but it took us a good 15 minutes to get them because of the strange traffic control methods that they use around the hub. No worries, we were early enough. However we were a little bit worried because the previous night they had cancelled the fireworks (the ones that were put in at the last moment due to crowds) due to high altitude winds. Fortunately the show went on and my family got to see RDCT for the first time (my third). Everybody enjoyed it.

After the fireworks, instead of making our way through the dense Main Street crowds, we chose to ride Space with our Dream FPs. Another great voyage into space and we had a hilarious picture. Could you tell that we liked our Dream FPs? Too bad my dad wasn't in on the memo to hold them up.

One last ride on Buzz (beat my dad, which was like the first time ever that that had happened)

And then we had to depart for the night. Tired, we went back to the Tropicana and crashed.

 

[northshoremama]

We were in 2 hundred something. When you are looking directly at the hotel, it was on the left of the pool and on the second story. Wish we could have seen each other. We went to the pool twice. Once was on Wednesday night and once on Saturday night.

ah...my sister and her family were in room 143...same side as you, but on the 1st floor. we were across the way on the right hand side of the hotel (the 3-story side). we didn't make it to the pool at all...not with our 2 year old and our 8 month old! LOL! you may have seen my niece at the pool wednesday night though...she just got done swimming when we arrived at the hotel around 10pm that wednesday night.

 

[northshoremama]

what time were you guys in line for TSMM friday afternoon? we were there too! LOL! maybe earlier than you though...we were in line around 12:15pm...or was it 12:30pm-ish...waited for about 30 minutes...