GOTG Premiere party

[Steven G]

so I am in Disneyland hotel right now getting ready for the premiere party. Park looks pretty slow according to the Disneyland app. I'm hoping to ride it as many times as I can tonight.

Exciting!!!!
Anyone else going?

 

[StormyCA]

Have a great time! Hope you get lots of rides. Give us a review and some pics if you can.

 

[Steven G]

First... no real spoilers below...


It went well, at first the line was very long, however it pretty quickly went down to a short wait.


I was one of the first few groups to get on ride, other than the club 33 people. There's so much to take in, in the lobby and in the collectors room to see. I won't spoil any more.

I went on 6 times, and experienced 4 of the songs/variations. The movement is a lot better than TOT.

If I was focused 100% on going on the ride, I could have easily gone on 10 times.

The monsters inc ride was open, it was a literal walk on when I went on, I might have been the only person on the ride.. The animation studio had a animation class on various marvel characters, and the Hyperion theater had two separate talks with the people who created the new ridemwhich was very informative. There were lots of other stuff to do too and many food choices. I got a very cute Groot sipper cup, and they also gave us a goodie bag when we left which had some rather decent stuff, including a baseball style cap, and a comic book, and more. I also bought a couple things too.

There was a $15 voucher for food, but it was limited, it didn't include alcohol or things like the groot sipper cup.

I left an hour early at a little after midnight.


Bottom line, I enjoyed the new ride tremendously and recommend it highly. The music during the ride makes it so much fun. The ride itself I think is better than tot because of variations and music, but I still like the ambiance of the tot building better.

 

[cruisehopeful]

I was there, too. It was a really good party and to me well worth the $150/ticket. I only stayed until 11:00pm. I rode it 5 times and had 4 of the variations. I stopped riding it because the screaming of other people on the ride made my ears burn so bad. I remembered that I didn't ride TOT for many years because I had a couple rides with screamers that left me ringing afterward. I was pretty bummed that I couldn't go on it again last night, but I really felt like my ears were bleeding after my last ride. On my last ride, I think I was the only person on the ride who wasn't screaming.

The swag bag we got as we were leaving had a tote bag, baseball cap, magnet, pin, comic book, and a couple pictures. Those items if purchased at Disney would probably cost over $50. I wouldn't necessarily buy those items, but it was really cool to get the bag on the way out.

There were lots of photo opportunities which I think people will enjoy. I liked the DJ. I've always enjoyed the music at the after hours parties and I hope they continue to have the music at least in the dance party area throughout the summer. I didn't try any of the new food, but bought a groot bread for someone at the office back home. The $15 food voucher did work for the groot bread. We used our vouchers at Fairfax Market for the groot bread, pineapple, water, coconut water, hummus and pretzels, freeze dried apples and dried cranberries (that was with 2 vouchers). I considered trying the tacos or the nachos at the food truck, but didn't want to wait in line for it.

The first time I was going through the queue for the ride, I kept thinking I was going to cry because I missed TOT so much. I actually found the new ride to be much more entertaining and the storyline was hugely better if you've seen the movies. I love Twilight Zone and I had seen the Hollywood Tower movie a couple times and enjoyed the walk through in the queue better, but comparing the storyline of the 2 rides there was no comparison to me - GOTG has the level of excellence in themeing that I expect from Disney. The music and slight change up on the scenes keep the ride fresh. I could have ridden the ride all night if people weren't screaming so much. The variations I had were: Free Ride (twice), Burning Love, Hit me with your Best Shot and Born to be Wild. I liked Born to be Wild the best and Burning Love the least. However, Burning love was my last ride with so much screaming that the ride was pretty much ruined for me. If I get again, maybe I'll like it more.

 

[scorpio69]

Thanks for the review
Were the rest of the rides open e.g. Toy story mania or radiator springs?

First... no real spoilers below...


It went well, at first the line was very long, however it pretty quickly went down to a short wait.


I was one of the first few groups to get on ride, other than the club 33 people. There's so much to take in, in the lobby and in the collectors room to see. I won't spoil any more.

I went on 6 times, and experienced 4 of the songs/variations. The movement is a lot better than TOT.

If I was focused 100% on going on the ride, I could have easily gone on 10 times.

The monsters inc ride was open, it was a literal walk on when I went on, I might have been the only person on the ride.. The animation studio had a animation class on various marvel characters, and the Hyperion theater had two separate talks with the people who created the new ridemwhich was very informative. There were lots of other stuff to do too and many food choices. I got a very cute Groot sipper cup, and they also gave us a goodie bag when we left which had some rather decent stuff, including a baseball style cap, and a comic book, and more. I also bought a couple things too.

There was a $15 voucher for food, but it was limited, it didn't include alcohol or things like the groot sipper cup.

I left an hour early at a little after midnight.


Bottom line, I enjoyed the new ride tremendously and recommend it highly. The music during the ride makes it so much fun. The ride itself I think is better than tot because of variations and music, but I still like the ambiance of the tot building better.

e

 

[Lesley Wake]

I went too and had a lot of fun! I ended up riding it 10 times, including one that ended after 1am. Kept trying for the last song variation but never got it!

I think GotG is better than ToT; the ride mechanism is just awesome, always unpredictable and causing you to fly in the air with every lift. I love the videos and how much is going on in the background. Every time I went into the Collectors office I tried to focus on more things-definitely a lot going on! And I took a lot of photos of text which I'm looking forward to translate.

The party itself was pretty cool and I would do it again. At first I was worried about the lines but those cleared out so quickly! There were times I walked straight into the lobby, avoiding the garden altogether. Most of the time it just did one switchback in the garden. I definitely spent more time waiting in entry to the Office and to get on the gantry than I did in the actual line.

The panel was interesting, I guess. Provided some good insight. But I ended up leaving a bit early because I was getting bored-I know, I'm horrible! I just realized I didn't want to "waste" so much of my limited party time listening to 4 people talk-I wish they had more videos or special things in it.

I didn't end up doing character meets. The one for Groot was so long and had to keep getting cut off so I never did it. By the end of the night it was virtually walk-up to meet Spider-Man, Hawkeye, or Black Widow. Never went to see the training iniative so didn't see what the lines were for Captain America. The Collector DJ was pretty funny and really into it, even before people were dancing. I loved his energy! The music was pretty great!

Food lines were pretty insane. Probably waited longer for that than the ride! Ended up getting the Chicken street tacos and they were really good! I actually came back for a second helping after midnight. Also got a Groot sipper. The voucher didn't help much for a single person; I guess it could have covered food and a drink but wouldn't cover the drink as part of the sipper. So they gave me a water bottle and then did a second transaction for my soda and sipper. Also got one of the last Groot breads which are so cool!

Merchandise lines were so long for most of the party, so I ended up not getting anything. Looking back, what I should have done is rather than going on ride first with the really long initial line, instead grab food and look at merch. Once the line died down I could have ridden it multiple times in the wait for food. But, you live and you learn!

Altogether a pretty cool night!

 

[Steven G]

Thanks for the review
Were the rest of the rides open e.g. Toy story mania or radiator springs?


e

I don't know, i didn't leave Hollywood land or even try to.
The monster inc ride was open for the party. I imagine the rest of the park closed at its normal time.

Turtle time with crush was closed apparently, although I only went in the animation building near the end.

 

[cruisehopeful]

Did anyone else use Photopass at the party? I had lots of pics taken with my AP, but none of them are showing up on the Disneyland website. It's only showing the one GOTG ride that I entered the # for. Is there something else I need to do to see my pics?

NEVERMIND - I just figured out I needed to add the photo# because I have a new AP.

 

[Gillbob316]

My one complaint about the party was that I wasted about 55 minutes in a food line to use my $15 voucher which i felt compelled to use, because... you know... free money/value and it was use it or lose it. The taco truck line was moving god-awful slow, and they weren't being efficient about it at all. The cashiers were chatting up anyone who checked out to get their thoughts on the party, which is friendly don't get me wrong, but I do NOT want to see that when there's an hour wait for flippin' tacos!

I've seen similar sized lines for similar fare at Epcot's Food & Wine Fest get handled in a fraction of the time. When they have a limited menu, they should have those damned tacos ready to go go go and hand to people fast fast fast.

If I had it all to do over again, I'd go back in time and tell myself not to get in that line, and just ride the ride 2 or 3 more times. Even if it meant using my voucher on bananas at the fruit stand. But hindsight is 20/20.

I also watched both panels and kinda wish they could have kept those shorter... and/or overlapped the party less? Possibly done one of them AT 1am, so it didn't overlap the ride time at all? I dunno. I didn't dislike either panel, I enjoyed both. Nice seeing Joe Rhode. But again... it was just the 2 hours away from riding the ride that irked me. Especially since they covered some of the same topics in both (not entirely, but some). The panels however, at least felt like a more worthwhile waste of time than tacos (it did however, irritate me a great deal that there was only 1/2 hour between the two panels, which was barely enough time to get on once and do nothing else).

Only ended up seeing 3 out of 6 versions during the party. Got a 4th one over the weekend. Never did see the last 2 (and now I'm back home in Chicago, so likely won't for quite some time, if ever, haha)... random is random, so that's not a complaint, just my experience for the benefit of others.

So yeah, my only overall complaint about it I guess could be summed up as: Too much to do and less time to do it in.

Ride itself was awesome. Great energy from the crowd all night too.

 

[figment_jii]

I'm glad to hear that the folks that went seemed to have a good time for the most part!