Cont . . .
to a poorly lit podium past Riverside Depot. Finding the spot was not simple at all; it could be and should be marked more clearly. We waited about ten minutes in a loosely formed line, in which the CM in charge only spoke to one group and the rest of us had to ask each other if we were all gathered for the same reason, but at least we received our bands with no trouble.
By 7:05, we headed to Flametree to grab a small meal, since we wanted to take advantage of popcorn and ice cream during the event and not pay for additional food. We then headed to Dinoland, to use a FP at PW before it closed. We were off by 7:50 or so, and the crowds were already thinning. We confirmed that the cart between PW and Triceratop would be open for the event.
A quick aside: the whole half hour between close and the beginning of the event is ridiculous. I get the need to clear out day guests, but Disney doesn't have a clear line as to how that half hour will be for event guests. For instance, we could ride Triceratop Spin, but they wouldn't let us ride Dinosaur. The stores closed (except the ones that remained open all night), and there was no food available.
After the Whirl, we rode Triceratop twice, then walked over to Dinosuar but were turned away and told to come back at 8:30. We returned to and rode Triceratop once more. We kept trying to catch a DJ party, but no one was dancing, and the whole thing was kind of sad and awkward with no characters and no guests. We grabbed an ice cream sandwich, popcorn (in a small cup), and two bottles of water from the Dinoland cart.
Next, we walked to Expedition Everest. We walked right to the queuing area, but were then stopped. As a PP mentioned, they were cleaning and pulling trains out. I don't know about the whole pee thing; a CM told us someone got sick (which I took to mean threw up). I agree that the trains were only wiped a bit, but they were being pulled out of rotation for a more complete clean, which explained the issue to me. I don't know which happened, but the messes did mean we waited while four trains left the station, only two with people on them. We walked right back on and had almost zero wait the second time.
We left Asia and returned to Dinosaur. We walked straight through the queue, but had to watch the preshow. We rode, and then stayed on for a second ride. We returned to Everest and rode again, then grabbed two more popcorns (in a really small cup) and two more ice cream treats. We decided to give RoL a try. We've seen it once and really didn't care for it, so we thought this was an easy, no risk way to see if that was a fluke. We watched for a few minutes and left--just not our thing.
At this point, we decided it was time to head to Pandora and spend the rest of our night on FoP. We walked straight through the FP line: DH times, and we reached the ramps in two minutes. We were sent to three, and this is where the story turns a bit dark.
We were stopped near the top of the ramp, maybe twelve or so people back. We could see the CMs as they sorted people. I'm sorry don't know exactly how long this next bit was, but it was at the point we knew something was wrong that a group hadn't been led to the preshow. Then, CMs led two sets of riders back out of the ride, lined them up in two open lines, telling them to stay in their same order. They cleared two bays, started two more, and then those groups rode first--fair, but since the preshow takes so long, it really created a delay for everyone else. We waited, and in total, it took forty-seven minutes to ride FoP. Clearly, this was out of the ordinary, but it was a huge bummer. We'd hoped to ride at least two or three times, plus once on River, but after that whole experience, we were out of sorts and left.
Overall, we really enjoyed it, and I know the delay at FoP wouldn't happen every time. We plan to do it again if the chance presents itself.
Which is a bummer, it sounded like fun initially but I just can’t justify the price.
