gatorfreud
DIS Veteran
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- Mar 23, 2008
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No Kids Trip to DLR!! (Shhh… don’t tell them!)
The cast: Me and DH
Oct. 24-26, 2008
1 night Holiday Inn on Walnut
1 night at the Grand Californian (whoo whoo!)
So this is my first official trip report! I tried to pay attention to the times and order of rides, since the planning process is as fun for me as actually being there! I actually am going to post some pictures too, although they are kind of small!
Friday night we flew into SNA, arrived right on time! Took a cab at 8pm straight to the park, and crammed our big backpacks into some lockers and off we went! We headed down Main Street and I staked out a spot for the fireworks right in the hub, making sure I could see both the castle and the Matterhorn. DH went off to get FP for HMH, which he got around 8:30pm with a return time of 10:45pm! Perfect start to the plan!!
We waited around for the fireworks to start, and they were having “technical difficulties”… almost a plan wrecker!! (There were TONS of people… super packed!!!) But finally around 9:40pm they started, and the show was really great! We loved how they went through all the different rides. My favorite of course was the part about the Electrical Light Parade… brings back memories of my childhood trips to Disney!
We high-tailed it through the mass of people straight to Jungle Cruise at about 10pm, and only waited 5 minutes. This ride IS better in the dark. Our skipper was pretty funny… I heard some new jokes I hadn’t heard before. Then we went to Pirates and waited maybe 5-10 minutes? And it was time for the HMH FP! WOW!! The overlay is so amazing… I haven’t seen the movie, but I am going to watch it now. This was really spectacular! DH loves the HM, and loves the overlay even more now. After this it was nearing 11:15 I think, so we thought we should head out… DH got our backpacks while I went to the bakery for a pumpkin muffin (YUM!!) and pumpkin cookie, which we took back to the hotel.
We grabbed a cab and went to the Holiday Inn… it is undergoing some MAJOR renovations. We had a king suite room, which was very nice and would be good if we had the kids, there was lots of space. No pool now, I think, and lots of work going on. We were only there 7 hours, so we didn’t care, but it might be a drag if you were there longer. We got to bed about 12:30am, and set the alarm for 7:15. Ugh.
We got up, got ready quickly, and put on our backpacks and hoofed it down to the GCH to check in! It was about a 10 min. brisk walk to the entrance of DTD, and probably another 5-10 to the park entrance I would think. We got to GCH around 8 I think?, checked in and left our bags.
We then headed to DL to grab a FP… but the security line was HORRID!! I didn’t plan on that. I didn’t time the wait, but dang it was long!!! We finally got into the park, and headed for Indy at about 9am. It was a 10 min. wait, with a FP RT of 9:30am. We grabbed the FP. Then we went over to Big Thunder and rode with a 5 min. wait. (FP RT was 9:35am). I could not believe how dead it was in there an hour after opening (and 2 hours since MM started). DEAD!!! We walked into Fantasyland to try and ride Toad really quick before leaving, but it was a 10 min. wait so we skipped it… Peter was 30 min! So that’s where all the people were, over in Fantasyland.
We then went back out (a little scared to leave when we saw the HUGE security line) but we were going to enter DCA through the GCH entrance, since we were checked in. They opened the GCH entrance right at 9:30am (we ate some pop tarts in line). DH went to get FP for Soarin’ (RT 10:40am) and I got 2nd in line for TSM… they had a special place to wait.
At first I thought there were only hotel guests, but I think anyone could have come over and gotten in this line. About 9:45am they started walking us over, very slowly, to the TSM entrance. We had to wind through the whole queue, and the line behind us was SO LONG!!! We rode TSM right at 10am on the first car! Loved it of course!!
Then we went to Ca. Screamin’ at 10:12am (10 min. wait, FP RT 10:50), that coaster is awesome! Very smooth!!
We went to Maliboomer and walked on, off about 10:25am. A 5 min. wait on Mullholland Madness and it was 10:35am. We wanted to eat lunch now, but nothing was open yet!! So we walked around, traded some pins, and got FP for ToT at 10:55am (RT 11:30, had a 20 min. wait then too). We then ate lunch at the Farmer’s Market (I think it was called)… decent, standard theme park fare. We shopped for pins, and then went on Monster’s Inc. at 11:35am (10 min. wait). I wrote that Soarin’ had a 35 min. wait at 11:50am… but I can’t remember what I was doing when I saw that! OH! We got FP for GRR then… can’t remember the RT, but it wasn’t far out.
We then went over to DL and headed on the train to get a FP for Splash (passed HMH at 12:10pm, 30 min. wait, FP RT 12:45pm). We got a FP for Splash, with a RT of 1pm. I couldn’t believe it was so close! The wait was 40 min. at that time, almost as long as the FP RT! I could not believe how many people were sweltering in that line, when the FP’s all around the park had such close RT’s. Anyway… we had planned to come back later, but with such a short window, we just got some Pumpkin Mickey Ears for me, had an apple pie apple from Pooh’s store (which they cut for me), and then went over and rode Indy using our FP from the morning at 12:45pm.
We picked up a FP for HMH on the way back (up to a 45 min. wait now, FP RT 1:45pm, again, almost as close as waiting stand by!). We had so many FP by now, and we had already used Indy!!
We rode Splash at 1:15pm with our FP (line was up to 50 min. now), and were off at 1:35pm. I was really sad watching all of these people wait in these horrid lines. We decided to take the monorail back to the hotel for a short break as we were exhausted!! We walked over to Tomorrowland, shopped in Star Traders while we waited for our FP window to open. At 1:45pm we got FP for Buzz (RT 2:20pm)… Buzz had a 15 min wait, Star Tours had 25, Astro Orbitors had 25. We took the monorail out at 2pm, got off in DTD and went to the lego store to get something for the boys… it had to be something generic since they couldn’t know we were at DLR, so legos was the best choice! We collapsed in the room, exhausted (check DH’s “exhausted” face) and holding a mitt of FP!!
We watched football for an hour, then had to head out to use some of these FP before dinner! We used the GCH entrance to DCA (our room was SO CLOSE!... ask to be near the Napa Rose elevator). We got in line for Soarin’ at 3:30pm with our FP (current wait was 40 min. FP RT 5:50pm)… of course the dumb thing broke down as we were waiting to board, so we had to leave! UGH!!! We did get a little pass to come back or to another ride (except TSM)… I went to the CM and kindly asked him to switch the date on the pass to tomorrow, since we had dinner at Napa Rose soon and wouldn’t be able to use it tonight, and he changed it! We never even ended up using it though….
ANYWAY, so after a wasted 1/2 hour (ugh!) we went over and waited 30 min. for TSM. Another great ride! We started reading the tips on the internet while we waited in line and learned some tricks for opening bigger point values! When we got off, we gave our ToT FP to a couple in front of us as we wouldn’t have time to use them. We then rode GRR with FP and were off, SOAKED, at 5:10! YIKES! Napa Rose in 20 min! Luckily, I was in the shower in our room literally 4 minutes after exiting GRR. That GCH is pretty awesome!!
We managed to make it on time to dinner… Chef’s counter, seats 5-6 as suggested on the DIS. Service was awesome! Chef Sutton came over and prepared a special menu for DH… all the details are on my Napa Rose post. But it was cool to see the kitchen at work and talk to the chefs. Those people work their tails off. I liked watching the wait staff… they picked up plates right next to us, and always wiped the edges with a little towel before the went out. It was only the 2nd night of the new menu, so you could see how hard they were working to make sure to say the right thing when they gave the plates out… they would say to themselves like “#1, seared ahi in a peanut sauce, #2 beef medallions with cranberry bean stew, #3 crispy duck confit with wild rice”… or whatever they were serving! They seemed a little nervous and kept checking their cheat sheets that were highlighted! We got the check and scarfed our dessert, so we could get one more ride on TSM! We got in line about 7:50pm, and waited maybe 25 min? We finally got the rainbow balloons to open!!
Then it was back to DLR, we were so tired, but still had FP for Buzz and HMH that couldn’t go to waste. We got in and rode Buzz, got out about 9:15pm and crossed the hub (that place was a MADHOUSE) and went over to HMH. We rode with our FP, got out, and went to catch the train out to avoid the Main St. rush after the fireworks! We got on the train when the fireworks were almost over. We got back to Main St., headed back to GCH and collapsed into the bed about 10:30pm… EXHAUSTED! Oh, but not before we set the alarm for 6:15am…. Magic morning coming!
So Sunday we got up at 6:15am, got ready, packed up our things, checked out and dropped our bags at Bell Services. There was not much security line at 6:45am!! We got in line to get in at 6:50am, where someone offered to buy the Pop Tarts we were eating for $10! J DH noticed that 2 CM’s were doing something to our machine, so anticipating a problem, I hopped to another line – good call, as our original line was shut down!
We walked briskly back to Nemo, where we would have been 2nd, but the CM’s tellus we have to enter the line all the way around the back of the Matterhorn, and we had to go past Alice to get there. ***??? So we hurry over there, only to be told when we got ALL THE WAY back there that they are having problems and not open. No idea how long it would be. No idea what the trouble was. So it was already 7:15am after all that walking, so we decide to bag it – angry about the shut down, but more so that the CM’s in the FRONT couldn’t have told us they were down before we walked ½ the park getting back there. No matter though, onto Peter with a 5 min. wait (if that), then Toad – done by 7:35am. So we took a quick ride on Alice, and then DH got SM FP at 7:50am (RT 8:45, 10 min. wait then). Autopia wasn’t open yet, needed more people to fill the cars, and so we tried Buzz, well THAT was down too???!!! What was going on?? So we rode Star Tours, walked right on. Then waited about 10 min for Autopia, Buzz was still down so we skipped it.
Went over to Indy, had planned to get a FP, but only had a 10 min. wait, so we did that (it was really a walk-on, but was probably 10 min. of walking!!). Walked onto HMH at 8:45am… again, I could not BELIEVE how dead this side of the park was before 9am.
Went to the pin shop and picked up some pins, then decided we had done everything at DLR, so we would go back to DCA and do TSM again! We used the GCH entrance (the security lines were SUPER long again as we passed!!). This time we went to ride Soarin’ at 9:30am…well we stood inside in line until about 9:40am, when they finally put us into the preshow. We were off about 9:58am, so decided to go the hotel entrance way to TSM… but the secret early line had already left, and we had to walk briskly with the masses to get back there… ended up waiting more than 30 min. So the moral is, get in that early line for TSM, or save it until after that crazy rush – the morning line was much longer than in the afternoon. But it never got over like 40 minutes, which I couldn’t understand. We got done with TSM about 10:50am, and hustled to use our Space FP before lunch! At 11am, SM was a 30 min. wait, with FP RT at 12:30pm. We got to lunch at Blue Bayou at 11:25am and checked in. We sat waterside and that Monte Cristo was awesome!! DH enjoyed his gumbo and jambalaya as well. We skipped dessert, and were out of there before 12! It pays to eat early!
Now we were just able to wander around… we went back to DCA, played in the animation building from 12:30-1:30pm. Another ride on TSM in single rider at 1:30pm (10 min. wait, regular line was about 40 min.)… we had to remind the CM to pull us from the single rider line when there was an odd number!! I’m not sure the SR line was going the other times we rode… I didn’t see it, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. Then we looked around the Blue Sky Cellar preview center, that was pretty cool! The new World of Color nighttime show seems awesome. The Cars E-ticket ride will be like Test Track I think. We rested and enjoyed some ice cream at BurrrrBank.
Then back for one more ride on TSM, about 40 min. wait. DH got 195,000+ our highest score ever! We were able to open the rainbow balloons and we finally got the super alien! YEAH! I am thinking about making the kids ride together when we go to WDW… I wonder if they can handle it?
Then, taxi and uneventful trip home and we’re exhausted!!! But had a super good time! The crowds were pretty heavy in the afternoons… but show up early and you’ll have to whole park to yourself. Go ahead and ask if you have any questions and I’ll try to help! J
Kim
The cast: Me and DH
Oct. 24-26, 2008
1 night Holiday Inn on Walnut
1 night at the Grand Californian (whoo whoo!)
So this is my first official trip report! I tried to pay attention to the times and order of rides, since the planning process is as fun for me as actually being there! I actually am going to post some pictures too, although they are kind of small!
Friday night we flew into SNA, arrived right on time! Took a cab at 8pm straight to the park, and crammed our big backpacks into some lockers and off we went! We headed down Main Street and I staked out a spot for the fireworks right in the hub, making sure I could see both the castle and the Matterhorn. DH went off to get FP for HMH, which he got around 8:30pm with a return time of 10:45pm! Perfect start to the plan!!
We waited around for the fireworks to start, and they were having “technical difficulties”… almost a plan wrecker!! (There were TONS of people… super packed!!!) But finally around 9:40pm they started, and the show was really great! We loved how they went through all the different rides. My favorite of course was the part about the Electrical Light Parade… brings back memories of my childhood trips to Disney!
We high-tailed it through the mass of people straight to Jungle Cruise at about 10pm, and only waited 5 minutes. This ride IS better in the dark. Our skipper was pretty funny… I heard some new jokes I hadn’t heard before. Then we went to Pirates and waited maybe 5-10 minutes? And it was time for the HMH FP! WOW!! The overlay is so amazing… I haven’t seen the movie, but I am going to watch it now. This was really spectacular! DH loves the HM, and loves the overlay even more now. After this it was nearing 11:15 I think, so we thought we should head out… DH got our backpacks while I went to the bakery for a pumpkin muffin (YUM!!) and pumpkin cookie, which we took back to the hotel.
We grabbed a cab and went to the Holiday Inn… it is undergoing some MAJOR renovations. We had a king suite room, which was very nice and would be good if we had the kids, there was lots of space. No pool now, I think, and lots of work going on. We were only there 7 hours, so we didn’t care, but it might be a drag if you were there longer. We got to bed about 12:30am, and set the alarm for 7:15. Ugh.
We got up, got ready quickly, and put on our backpacks and hoofed it down to the GCH to check in! It was about a 10 min. brisk walk to the entrance of DTD, and probably another 5-10 to the park entrance I would think. We got to GCH around 8 I think?, checked in and left our bags.
We then headed to DL to grab a FP… but the security line was HORRID!! I didn’t plan on that. I didn’t time the wait, but dang it was long!!! We finally got into the park, and headed for Indy at about 9am. It was a 10 min. wait, with a FP RT of 9:30am. We grabbed the FP. Then we went over to Big Thunder and rode with a 5 min. wait. (FP RT was 9:35am). I could not believe how dead it was in there an hour after opening (and 2 hours since MM started). DEAD!!! We walked into Fantasyland to try and ride Toad really quick before leaving, but it was a 10 min. wait so we skipped it… Peter was 30 min! So that’s where all the people were, over in Fantasyland.
We then went back out (a little scared to leave when we saw the HUGE security line) but we were going to enter DCA through the GCH entrance, since we were checked in. They opened the GCH entrance right at 9:30am (we ate some pop tarts in line). DH went to get FP for Soarin’ (RT 10:40am) and I got 2nd in line for TSM… they had a special place to wait.
At first I thought there were only hotel guests, but I think anyone could have come over and gotten in this line. About 9:45am they started walking us over, very slowly, to the TSM entrance. We had to wind through the whole queue, and the line behind us was SO LONG!!! We rode TSM right at 10am on the first car! Loved it of course!!
Then we went to Ca. Screamin’ at 10:12am (10 min. wait, FP RT 10:50), that coaster is awesome! Very smooth!!
We went to Maliboomer and walked on, off about 10:25am. A 5 min. wait on Mullholland Madness and it was 10:35am. We wanted to eat lunch now, but nothing was open yet!! So we walked around, traded some pins, and got FP for ToT at 10:55am (RT 11:30, had a 20 min. wait then too). We then ate lunch at the Farmer’s Market (I think it was called)… decent, standard theme park fare. We shopped for pins, and then went on Monster’s Inc. at 11:35am (10 min. wait). I wrote that Soarin’ had a 35 min. wait at 11:50am… but I can’t remember what I was doing when I saw that! OH! We got FP for GRR then… can’t remember the RT, but it wasn’t far out.
We then went over to DL and headed on the train to get a FP for Splash (passed HMH at 12:10pm, 30 min. wait, FP RT 12:45pm). We got a FP for Splash, with a RT of 1pm. I couldn’t believe it was so close! The wait was 40 min. at that time, almost as long as the FP RT! I could not believe how many people were sweltering in that line, when the FP’s all around the park had such close RT’s. Anyway… we had planned to come back later, but with such a short window, we just got some Pumpkin Mickey Ears for me, had an apple pie apple from Pooh’s store (which they cut for me), and then went over and rode Indy using our FP from the morning at 12:45pm.
We picked up a FP for HMH on the way back (up to a 45 min. wait now, FP RT 1:45pm, again, almost as close as waiting stand by!). We had so many FP by now, and we had already used Indy!!
We rode Splash at 1:15pm with our FP (line was up to 50 min. now), and were off at 1:35pm. I was really sad watching all of these people wait in these horrid lines. We decided to take the monorail back to the hotel for a short break as we were exhausted!! We walked over to Tomorrowland, shopped in Star Traders while we waited for our FP window to open. At 1:45pm we got FP for Buzz (RT 2:20pm)… Buzz had a 15 min wait, Star Tours had 25, Astro Orbitors had 25. We took the monorail out at 2pm, got off in DTD and went to the lego store to get something for the boys… it had to be something generic since they couldn’t know we were at DLR, so legos was the best choice! We collapsed in the room, exhausted (check DH’s “exhausted” face) and holding a mitt of FP!!
We watched football for an hour, then had to head out to use some of these FP before dinner! We used the GCH entrance to DCA (our room was SO CLOSE!... ask to be near the Napa Rose elevator). We got in line for Soarin’ at 3:30pm with our FP (current wait was 40 min. FP RT 5:50pm)… of course the dumb thing broke down as we were waiting to board, so we had to leave! UGH!!! We did get a little pass to come back or to another ride (except TSM)… I went to the CM and kindly asked him to switch the date on the pass to tomorrow, since we had dinner at Napa Rose soon and wouldn’t be able to use it tonight, and he changed it! We never even ended up using it though….
ANYWAY, so after a wasted 1/2 hour (ugh!) we went over and waited 30 min. for TSM. Another great ride! We started reading the tips on the internet while we waited in line and learned some tricks for opening bigger point values! When we got off, we gave our ToT FP to a couple in front of us as we wouldn’t have time to use them. We then rode GRR with FP and were off, SOAKED, at 5:10! YIKES! Napa Rose in 20 min! Luckily, I was in the shower in our room literally 4 minutes after exiting GRR. That GCH is pretty awesome!!
We managed to make it on time to dinner… Chef’s counter, seats 5-6 as suggested on the DIS. Service was awesome! Chef Sutton came over and prepared a special menu for DH… all the details are on my Napa Rose post. But it was cool to see the kitchen at work and talk to the chefs. Those people work their tails off. I liked watching the wait staff… they picked up plates right next to us, and always wiped the edges with a little towel before the went out. It was only the 2nd night of the new menu, so you could see how hard they were working to make sure to say the right thing when they gave the plates out… they would say to themselves like “#1, seared ahi in a peanut sauce, #2 beef medallions with cranberry bean stew, #3 crispy duck confit with wild rice”… or whatever they were serving! They seemed a little nervous and kept checking their cheat sheets that were highlighted! We got the check and scarfed our dessert, so we could get one more ride on TSM! We got in line about 7:50pm, and waited maybe 25 min? We finally got the rainbow balloons to open!!
Then it was back to DLR, we were so tired, but still had FP for Buzz and HMH that couldn’t go to waste. We got in and rode Buzz, got out about 9:15pm and crossed the hub (that place was a MADHOUSE) and went over to HMH. We rode with our FP, got out, and went to catch the train out to avoid the Main St. rush after the fireworks! We got on the train when the fireworks were almost over. We got back to Main St., headed back to GCH and collapsed into the bed about 10:30pm… EXHAUSTED! Oh, but not before we set the alarm for 6:15am…. Magic morning coming!
So Sunday we got up at 6:15am, got ready, packed up our things, checked out and dropped our bags at Bell Services. There was not much security line at 6:45am!! We got in line to get in at 6:50am, where someone offered to buy the Pop Tarts we were eating for $10! J DH noticed that 2 CM’s were doing something to our machine, so anticipating a problem, I hopped to another line – good call, as our original line was shut down!
We walked briskly back to Nemo, where we would have been 2nd, but the CM’s tellus we have to enter the line all the way around the back of the Matterhorn, and we had to go past Alice to get there. ***??? So we hurry over there, only to be told when we got ALL THE WAY back there that they are having problems and not open. No idea how long it would be. No idea what the trouble was. So it was already 7:15am after all that walking, so we decide to bag it – angry about the shut down, but more so that the CM’s in the FRONT couldn’t have told us they were down before we walked ½ the park getting back there. No matter though, onto Peter with a 5 min. wait (if that), then Toad – done by 7:35am. So we took a quick ride on Alice, and then DH got SM FP at 7:50am (RT 8:45, 10 min. wait then). Autopia wasn’t open yet, needed more people to fill the cars, and so we tried Buzz, well THAT was down too???!!! What was going on?? So we rode Star Tours, walked right on. Then waited about 10 min for Autopia, Buzz was still down so we skipped it.
Went over to Indy, had planned to get a FP, but only had a 10 min. wait, so we did that (it was really a walk-on, but was probably 10 min. of walking!!). Walked onto HMH at 8:45am… again, I could not BELIEVE how dead this side of the park was before 9am.
Went to the pin shop and picked up some pins, then decided we had done everything at DLR, so we would go back to DCA and do TSM again! We used the GCH entrance (the security lines were SUPER long again as we passed!!). This time we went to ride Soarin’ at 9:30am…well we stood inside in line until about 9:40am, when they finally put us into the preshow. We were off about 9:58am, so decided to go the hotel entrance way to TSM… but the secret early line had already left, and we had to walk briskly with the masses to get back there… ended up waiting more than 30 min. So the moral is, get in that early line for TSM, or save it until after that crazy rush – the morning line was much longer than in the afternoon. But it never got over like 40 minutes, which I couldn’t understand. We got done with TSM about 10:50am, and hustled to use our Space FP before lunch! At 11am, SM was a 30 min. wait, with FP RT at 12:30pm. We got to lunch at Blue Bayou at 11:25am and checked in. We sat waterside and that Monte Cristo was awesome!! DH enjoyed his gumbo and jambalaya as well. We skipped dessert, and were out of there before 12! It pays to eat early!
Now we were just able to wander around… we went back to DCA, played in the animation building from 12:30-1:30pm. Another ride on TSM in single rider at 1:30pm (10 min. wait, regular line was about 40 min.)… we had to remind the CM to pull us from the single rider line when there was an odd number!! I’m not sure the SR line was going the other times we rode… I didn’t see it, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. Then we looked around the Blue Sky Cellar preview center, that was pretty cool! The new World of Color nighttime show seems awesome. The Cars E-ticket ride will be like Test Track I think. We rested and enjoyed some ice cream at BurrrrBank.
Then back for one more ride on TSM, about 40 min. wait. DH got 195,000+ our highest score ever! We were able to open the rainbow balloons and we finally got the super alien! YEAH! I am thinking about making the kids ride together when we go to WDW… I wonder if they can handle it?
Then, taxi and uneventful trip home and we’re exhausted!!! But had a super good time! The crowds were pretty heavy in the afternoons… but show up early and you’ll have to whole park to yourself. Go ahead and ask if you have any questions and I’ll try to help! J
Kim
