I Am Back from Christmas Tree Hunting at DLR on Saturday!!!!!

[bumbershoot]

Hi Sherry!
Where is this new Mickey meal? We may try that when we arrive in less than a week!!!

Instead of Lilo and Stitch at PPH, now they have a Mickey-hosted breakfast there.

 

[Sherry E]

Yes, and I just knew that the Mickey meal would be jam-packed with people (and we did not have a PS), so rather than walk across the street and deal with that without a PS, I decided to stick with what I love (Goofy's) and I am glad I did. That last Storytellers experience in October paled in comparison.

 

[Kayla's Mom]

I like kids, but I was ready to hurl this one off the boat. ("Ho ho ho, spawn of satan!!! Since you like the water so much, have fun IN it")

Glad you had fun Sherry!

 

[Sherry E]

You know, when I saw how crowded it was yesterday in comparison to the same exact day in 2008 and in 2007, I was thinking that the park had probably reached capacity. In Roxy72's TR (and she was at DLR when I was, I believe), I noticed something was mentioned about DL reaching capacity. I knew it. There was just a sea of people everywhere. Wall to wall people. The Tiana show only adds to and worsens the congestion in New Orleans Square, clogging up walkways where there used to be a little bit of walking room. Even though it was a fun show to watch while standing in the hideously long line for POTC, I noticed how hard it was to walk anywhere because of all the people stopping to see it. But oddly, by the time we made it over to DCA and got on TSMM, that line was not as bad as I have seen it before. We still waited a good 25 minutes or so, but I have been it when it was worse. And the crowds thinned out considerably in DCA as the night went on. It almost looked like it was very un-busy. That's because allllllllllll the people who were in DCA migrated over to DL to stand and stare at the pretty lights of IASW Holiday (my favorite, too - I love it more than the Winter Castle). My friend wanted to see it lit up at night, so we walked back there to show her, but we were not about to get in the line to ride IASW Holiday because the crowds of people standing between us and where the line ended was too thick to push through. Just mobs of people.

The weird thing is, even though we stayed later than I expected we would and by the time I got home, in my exhausted state I figured I was done with DLR for a little while (just because the mobs of people kind of put a damper on things), this morning I woke up and did not feel like a truck had hit me (yay!), and I thought, "Hmmm....I didn't get to do this when we were there yesterday, and I forgot to look for that....I need to go back!!" It's in my blood. So I see now that, even if I get momentarily frustrated with the high crowd levels and it makes me want to avoid DLR for a little while, I quickly get over it and am ready to go back!! Especially during this time of year!

A couple of things I concluded for my getting the most out of my own trips - One is that I see how having a hotel nearby (any hotel, onsite or off, but just close enough to get to easily) is essential. Day trips are fun, but there were times in the day when my friend could have used a mid-day rest break. Not that I didn't need one too, but I can tough it out if I have to. My friend could have greatly benefited from being able to go back and conk out at the hotel for a while in the afternoon, not to mention that it would have been better to just go back there and sleep at the end of the night rather than deal with our friends driving us home. Having a hotel room seems to be critical to stamina, as well as to just extending the stay a bit so more things get done. We got a lot done that we wanted to do, but with all those people there it was just too daunting to get everything done in one day, and if we had an extra day we could have squeezed in more.

The other thing I noticed is that in order for me to really get on a picture taking roll, I have to have 'alone time' at DLR. I seem to get the most pictures of landscapes and sights when I am by myself. When I am with other people, it is too distracting. For example, when I got dropped off at the GCH in the morning and I was by myself, I instantly whipped out the camera and started snapping away. But as the day wore on, I was taking fewer photos - again, because of the enormous crowds of people and also because sometimes it just was not convenient to stop and take a lot of time looking for cute details everywhere to photograph when I had other people to consider who were with me. I didn't get to spend the time in TownTown or A Bug's Land that I wanted, let alone numerous other places.

So my ideal DLR trip would be one (during the holidays) over several days where I could stay onsite at one of the DLR hotels, have a full day or two to myself to snap away, and then have friends with me for the other days.

 

[mariezp]

Sherry, I am so glad you got to make your holiday trip! You sound like you are in pretty good spirits even though the crowds were thick.

We made it back on Wednesday from our WDW trip. I am still so worn out! I am in a weird funk and have not felt the urge to get started on my trip report. Let's just say that I don't feel like I got my full shot of Disney magic..... I wanna go to Disneyland!!!!! Keep your eyes peeled. I will fill you in on the rest sooner or later. In the meantime....

I can't wait to hear more details of your trip!!!! Bring it on!

 

[deejdigsdis]

I can't wait to see your pics! I imagine you captured some shots that weren't run-of-the-mill. Oh yeah...I just have to ask. Did this child just launch a cup of water in your face or what? Details! And did the parent(s) say or do anything?

 

[Sherry E]

Sherry, I am so glad you got to make your holiday trip! You sound like you are in pretty good spirits even though the crowds were thick.

We made it back on Wednesday from our WDW trip. I am still so worn out! I am in a weird funk and have not felt the urge to get started on my trip report. Let's just say that I don't feel like I got my full shot of Disney magic..... I wanna go to Disneyland!!!!! Keep your eyes peeled. I will fill you in on the rest sooner or later. In the meantime....

I can't wait to hear more details of your trip!!!! Bring it on!

Marie, I know - I thought of you on Wednesday and couldn't believe the WDW trip was already over! It had been so long in the making and now it was all finished! You know I have been so excited for you to get to WDW since this trip first came to be, so you KNOW I am eager for your TR...but I can totally understand being worn out. Just seeing how draining a day trip to DLR can be at times, I cannot imagine the exhaustion that sets in after a 14-day trip to Orlando! And the task of starting a mega-TR for that trip is a daunting one, I am sure. I am curious to know if my hunch was correct - that your kids loved WDW on a whole and that you, specifically, loved Epcot, and probably Animal Kingdom as well, the most. I guess I will stay tuned and find out. But it is very interesting to hear that you need to get back to DLR to get a good dose of magic! It is not dissimilar from what I have heard some other people who have been to WDW say, though.

I can't wait to see your pics! I imagine you captured some shots that weren't run-of-the-mill. Oh yeah...I just have to ask. Did this child just launch a cup of water in your face or what? Details! And did the parent(s) say or do anything?

See, that's the thing - if I had a day or two to myself on a less crowded day, mixed in with a day or two with friends, I would have been on a photo-taking roll, capturing all kinds of nooks and crannies in the parks that I hadn't gotten before. But because of the massive crowds and the fact that I didn't want to hold up my friends so I could stop and shoot pictures of lighting fixtures and bathroom signs, I was not able to really do as much as I wanted to. It is hard with one-day trips. I really need at least a few days to get into a groove. So I don't know how many of my photos are all that unusual or interesting, necessarily, but I will post them anyway!!

The spawn of satan child was 2 rows ahead of us in the IASW Holiday boat. He was part of a large family. His mom and dad were in the row right in front of ours. I was going to initially take out my camera and try to snap something in IASW Holiday, but something told me not to, for some reason. Good thing I listened to that instinct or the new camera would have been water-logged. So we were just starting to get rolling and just about to go inside the IASW building. Devil Child grabbed what could best be described as a handful of water over the side of the boat, turned around, threw it, and his mother moved aside so he didn't hit her. So I was the lucky one who got the water in the face. I had water dripping off of my sunglasses, off of my chin, on my t-shirt, in my hair. What fun. I said, "Um....oh dear...." Believe me, if I were any place other than DLR, I would not be so tactful and G-rated! My friend who was next to me, who has a temper and used to be a bouncer, is very capable of launching into a profane tirade to put someone in their place if need be, but I did not want this to happen in the middle of IASW Holiday, at the start of our trip. She was very restrained when she saw the water hit me and said, "Okay...that was a bit much..." to the mom.

Devil Child's mom turned around and said to me, after hearing my gasp, "I'm sorry...I'm very sorry."

To which I replied, "Well, I will dry off, but it is a good thing my camera and cell phone were covered, or...."

And she said, "I know...I am sorry," and then she went back to looking ahead at the ride. She didn't reprimand the kid right there - but then again, if she had, it would have distracted the rest of us too much and no one would have enjoyed it.

If she had let me finish my thought, I would have said, "....or someone would have been buying me a new camera and cell phone."

I am used to these evil people at DLR. One time, back in 1989 or so, while waiting for a Tiki Room show, some horrible woman backed into me, stepped on my foot and knocked my cup of pineapple juice all over my clothes, then offered to go buy me a new cup of juice...and quickly disappeared with her group of friends so that she wouldn't have to follow through on buying me more juice. I am still waiting to run into her again!!

 

[Sherry E]

I should also mention that Super Shuttle is a great service. They recently either bought or merged with Express Shuttle/Execu-cars and they do "point to point" pick-ups, meaning they will pick a person or group up at any location and drop them off at any location, and it doesn't have to involve an airport or boat dock or anything. In other words, they can pick you up at home and take you to Granny Rose's house in another city, for a pre-determined, flate rate. Many taxi services and even other shuttle services will not give a flat rate over the phone to do a service like drive someone to Anaheim from their home, or they won't give rates for certain one-way trips. They may give a flat rate to get from Anaheim to another location, but not vice versa, which is crazy! I was lucky to find a place that would do that, and even though it was costly and I can not do it every trip, it was a good service to have, and because they used one of the Express shuttle cars to get me rather than a Super Shuttle car, it actually ended up being about $23 cheaper than what I was quoted originally on the phone. Plus, the driver I had was right on time - I mean, exactly on time - and he gave me some of his business cards so I could refer people on the DIS to him. He also got me to the GCH about 5 minutes earlier than I had expected.

 

[pixiewings71]

I'm so glad you had fun Sherry!!! I'm confused tho, what do you mean they put a boat by the first Jack on POTC? I didn't notice a new boat last week........
Hey, by any chance did you see any of the plush Zeros? DD10 wanted one soooo bad but they were sold out everywhere.

 

[Sherry E]

I'm so glad you had fun Sherry!!! I'm confused tho, what do you mean they put a boat by the first Jack on POTC? I didn't notice a new boat last week........
Hey, by any chance did you see any of the plush Zeros? DD10 wanted one soooo bad but they were sold out everywhere.

I had fun aside from the Devil Child hurling water on me and the massive crowds. It was hard to get many photos or look in shops because there were just tons of people everywhere.

When we rode POTC and the first Jack appeared on the right-hand side, my friend pointed out that there was a boat in the water obstructing the view of him just a wee bit (hardly at all), and she asked if that boat was there before. I didn't recall seeing the boat in October, frankly, but it may be one of those things that has been there all along and I looked past it!! So if this boat in the water in front of the first Jack is new, I wonder why it is there. Could it be that maybe part of the set or the props got damaged and they needed to stick a boat there to cover it up?

We walked right past that Nightmare Before Christmas kiosk in NOS, but we did not go into the NBC shop (again, too crowded to even get back there!), so the Zero plush may have been there but I can't say for sure. We saw other cool NBC stuff at the kiosk as we passed, but mainly we were commenting on how congested the area had gotten because of the Tiana show. Of course, now I know that DL reached capacity on Saturday so that would explain all the people. It was really prohibitive for me in terms of getting certain things done in a one-day trip. I really needed to have more days (and a hotel stay), but it was not meant to be this time.

 

[Eeee-va]

Wow, the park sounds ridiculously crowded! I'm glad you had fun anyway--I don't know if I would have handled the crowds with as much grace as you did!

I don't know that there were any crowding issues with Tiana's Showboat Jubilee when we went the weekend before you, but that was likely because the crowds were much lower and familiarity with Tiana was still fairly low (the film opened the Friday we were there; to my knowledge the show didn't even run that Saturday due to rain). What a difference a week can make!

I agree that some alone time to take pictures is great. Maybe you can go sometime and sucker someone else into standing in lines for food while you wander around and take photos. We went when the park WASN'T terribly crowded and still found 20 minute lines to be fairly common.

 

[Sherry E]

Wow, the park sounds ridiculously crowded! I'm glad you had fun anyway--I don't know if I would have handled the crowds with as much grace as you did!

I don't know that there were any crowding issues with Tiana's Showboat Jubilee when we went the weekend before you, but that was likely because the crowds were much lower and familiarity with Tiana was still fairly low (the film opened the Friday we were there; to my knowledge the show didn't even run that Saturday due to rain). What a difference a week can make!

I agree that some alone time to take pictures is great. Maybe you can go sometime and sucker someone else into standing in lines for food while you wander around and take photos. We went when the park WASN'T terribly crowded and still found 20 minute lines to be fairly common.

I think I had 3 things working against me in my photo-taking endeavors: 1. Massive crowds. 2. A limited time in the parks compared to what I usually have (I get much more done with pictures, I think, when I am at DLR for a few days instead of just a day trip). And 3. The fact that I had people with me on this day trip, and I asked them to go, there was just not enough time to really break away and get into a good picture-taking groove. Again, if I had done my usual DLR trip of a few days, I could have devoted one entire day and night to taking pictures by myself, and the other days with friends.

But it's all good! I am still very happy to have gone on Saturday, even having left with not many photos. I would have been very bummed out if I had not been able to go. When I got out of the car in the morning on Saturday (I was dropped off at the GCH), I was so happy to set foot on Disney soil! I just loved being there in that big, dark lobby area! And then later, when we were standing in line for the Pooh ride, I was listening to the sort of western-themed version of "Deck the Halls" or something, and then was pointing out to my friend the sort of jazzy versions of carols that could be heard in New Orleans Square and the calypso-inspired songs in Adventureland, and I was just reveling in the attention to detail in all areas of DL. My friend - who is not as big of a Disney nut as I am but she loves it there nonetheless - was even beginning to appreciate the details in everything.

I think that is something that so many people who 'enjoy' Disneyland miss or overlook. They love the rides, and they love the overall fun they have there, but they don't really notice all the work that has gone into making every part of DLR so immersive. So by the end of IASW Holiday, my friend was pointing out things on the ride and saying, "Wow! It must have taken them a long time to transform this whole thing because they covered every inch!" And then she noticed the buzzing sounds of the bees on the Pooh ride and then noticed all of the different frogs and toads that were everywhere in the waiting area/queue for Mr. Toad (Eventually, they come around!!)

 

[pixiewings71]

I had fun aside from the Devil Child hurling water on me and the massive crowds. It was hard to get many photos or look in shops because there were just tons of people everywhere.

When we rode POTC and the first Jack appeared on the right-hand side, my friend pointed out that there was a boat in the water obstructing the view of him just a wee bit (hardly at all), and she asked if that boat was there before. I didn't recall seeing the boat in October, frankly, but it may be one of those things that has been there all along and I looked past it!! So if this boat in the water in front of the first Jack is new, I wonder why it is there. Could it be that maybe part of the set or the props got damaged and they needed to stick a boat there to cover it up?

We walked right past that Nightmare Before Christmas kiosk in NOS, but we did not go into the NBC shop (again, too crowded to even get back there!), so the Zero plush may have been there but I can't say for sure. We saw other cool NBC stuff at the kiosk as we passed, but mainly we were commenting on how congested the area had gotten because of the Tiana show. Of course, now I know that DL reached capacity on Saturday so that would explain all the people. It was really prohibitive for me in terms of getting certain things done in a one-day trip. I really needed to have more days (and a hotel stay), but it was not meant to be this time.

Was the boat off to the right right before the well and Carlos not being a cheeken? LOL If so that boat has been there as a prop for a while. We checked the NBC shop and didn't see the Zero, I'll call delivears and see if they can help me. The parks have been reaching capacity on the oddest days....it's got to be due to AP holders. When we were there it was slowest on Saturday but Sun-Thurs were busy!! It was crazy.

 

[Sherry E]

Okay, my Trip Report (entitled "Stop! Or My Scarf Will Shoot!") is up:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1979268&page=42

Well, actually it is part of an ongoing, super duper, mega-TR filled with all kinds of stuff from other DLR trips, but this latest TR begins on page 42, and I also added some PhotoPass pictures from October on page 41.