Jkpark
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2012
- Messages
- 1,055
So I had a quick trip to DLR this past weekend and wanted to share thoughts/experiences. We were only in the parks Friday/Saturday (Nov 30/Dec 1) and our group was me, DH, DD7, DD5, my DHs mom, two sisters, their DHs and kids - 2 boys (16 and 15) and 2 girls (4 and 1). Friends of my younger DSIL joined us on and off with their 2 boys (4 and 2) also.
(1) RSR. Friday was hotel early entry but since we only had 2 days we decided to try RSR both mornings. We got into the park at 7:45. I waited in FP line (I ended up right in front of doors for Carthay Circle) and rest of group waited at rope drop to ride Soarin first thing. Line started moving at 8 and by 8:20 I had 9:35 FP return times. As others have mentioned, the tickets said I could grab another FP so I then went and grabbed ToT (9:00 return time) and was heading to meet the family at TSM. We decided to go back to FP line and 9:35 and see if we got lucky with a 2nd FP and we did! 5:35 pm return time. Happy we had both because we rode in in the morning knowing we could ride it again at night. With the rain over the weekend the ride went down and didnt come back up at all on Friday so we didnt get to ride it at night. DSILs friend asked about the 5:35 FP since the ride was down from early afternoon closing. They said they would accept them the next day. SCORE. So Saturday we went back to use them. FP return line was about 15 minutes. We literally just handed in the tickets at the part of the line where you merge with standby when the announcement came that the ride was down. DSILs friend went and asked for our FPs back as we didnt want to leave half our party for that long. We were told no once you hand them in you cant get them back. She was irate the ride had to have been down when he collected the tickets literally less than 1 minute prior. The people behind us in the FP line were still standing there holding their tickets. CM didnt care she went and got a manager and we got our FPs back to try again later. I would not have been so bold but glad my DSIL has a friend who is. The ride stayed down for several hours. We did finally make it back that night (around 7:15) and the FP return line was 45 minutes. This was my 4th time on the ride (2x on prior trip) and I finally won the race! Plus it was the one night ride for the rest of the family so they were happy to wait.
(2) PhotoPass +. I have done this twice now at DLR (July and this trip) and once at WDW (Sept). No issues at WDW. At DLR, back in July the CM forgot to stamp my card, which nobody noticed until the last day and I had to sit there and argue about it to get my ride photos. This time I sent DH to get the lanyard and told him to make sure they stamped the date. We got some great family photos Friday in front of the pier, but then it rained most of the day and the Photogs werent around. We did get our ride photos though. Saturday was better family pics in front of the castle and more ride photos. At Screamin the CM noticed the date stamped was Nov 12, 2012 so he told me I couldnt get my photos. Seriously annoying. I argued it and the other CM was sympathetic. I tried explaining how easy it was for the CM to stamp Nov instead of Dec since we picked it up on Nov 30 but he was adamant it should have been Dec 14 not 12th and if they made a mistake they would have shredded the card and given me a new one. So I find it annoying that I spend a decent amount of $ on a product and b/c the CMs cant seem to stamp it correctly, Im basically accused of trying to cheat the system and I have to spend 20 minutes to get my photos and then 10 more minutes in the camera shop to get it fixed so I dont run into the same issue. Not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things but just annoying. So if you pick up your card double check the date they stamp it should be 14 days out from the date you pick it up.
(3) Autopia FP is not connected. I was able to pull this each time I pulled Space Mtn.
(4) The Yule Log cake was not as good this year as it was last year.
(5) Ordered a birthday cake to be delivered to Blue Bayou and it was great. It made it there was beautiful and tasty and our waiter put the candles we had brought on before bringing it out. It was a fun birthday surprise for DSIL.
(6) I prefer chicken cone verde to the verde scramble cone. I do like the verde sauce but the chicken is all mixed together where on the breakfast one they pour it on top, so the bottom of your eggs and cone and just dry scrambled eggs and bread.
(7) Ate at Surfs Up with Mickey Sunday at 10:30. We usually do character breakfast early (7 am) so it was more crowded than I am used to. They sat our group of 13 at a table made for 8-10 way too small. Max was there in addition to the usuals (Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, Pluto and Stitch). Food was good character interaction not as great as it has been in past but again we are used to being 1 of 5-6 families there. With the PP+ they gave us an 8x10 of the whole family and they gave us a 4x6 of the whole group and then each smaller family unit which we were taking for our own cameras. Really nice of them to mix up the printed pics for us like that plus the digital images to play with.
(8) California Screamin I finally rode it. I came really close to chickening out as my stomach was turning really bad waiting in line. But being the FP line moving quickly not enough time to talk myself out of it. I really liked it. I closed my eyes and screamed like crazy for the take-off and the loop but otherwise I looked and enjoyed it. The part I liked least were those little dips wasnt expecting that. I dont like losing my stomach so that was the worst part for me. That is probably why the photo thing was more annoying. My first time on the ride and my adrenalin is still pumping. Im wanting to catch up with the kids to tell them all about it and instead Im stuck at the photo booth for 20 minutes. I didnt ride it again this trip but I look forward to riding it again on the next trip. DD7 was maybe an inch too short so I cant wait for her to ride it soon she is much more daring than me.
(9) Dancing with Disney was closed Saturday for a private event and with the rain the characters werent around a lot so a lot less character M&Gs than usual. We did see some fun characters though Jack Skellington and then Jake (Neverland Pirates). DD5 loves both of them so that was very fun for her.
(10) Candlelight Processional. We were in the parks at 7:10 Saturday morning and there were people sitting on the benches to have a spot for the 5:30 show. We avoided Main St during the 5:30 show and stayed in the back of the park. We went to park hop around 7 pm and were nervous about the crowds for the second show. We pretty easily moved down Main St and there was still standing room only space in the back for those wanting to watch. Not sure if this was because it was the second show, or because there are more shows this year but it wasnt as nuts as I was expecting.
(11) BW Plus Park Place Inn first time staying here due to reviews on the DIS and a decent company discount. Location could not be beat. Room was clean, staff was friendly. Had the free breakfast Friday morning. I just had coffee (not good) and a croissant (yum). Kids enjoyed the cereal and pastries. DSIL made sausage and egg on a croissant and really liked it. I wasnt that daring. Comfortable bed, good water pressure in shower. We just had a typical kind room and the kids slept on the pull out couch. We would definitely stay there again.
(12) Checking ID. We have Annual Passes, but the rest of our group used 2 day hoppers. They had to provide ID each time but it didnt seem to be slowing the lines down. Once we were behind a group having issues but the next line was open so we jumped over.
That is everything that stands out to me feel free to ask any questions.
(1) RSR. Friday was hotel early entry but since we only had 2 days we decided to try RSR both mornings. We got into the park at 7:45. I waited in FP line (I ended up right in front of doors for Carthay Circle) and rest of group waited at rope drop to ride Soarin first thing. Line started moving at 8 and by 8:20 I had 9:35 FP return times. As others have mentioned, the tickets said I could grab another FP so I then went and grabbed ToT (9:00 return time) and was heading to meet the family at TSM. We decided to go back to FP line and 9:35 and see if we got lucky with a 2nd FP and we did! 5:35 pm return time. Happy we had both because we rode in in the morning knowing we could ride it again at night. With the rain over the weekend the ride went down and didnt come back up at all on Friday so we didnt get to ride it at night. DSILs friend asked about the 5:35 FP since the ride was down from early afternoon closing. They said they would accept them the next day. SCORE. So Saturday we went back to use them. FP return line was about 15 minutes. We literally just handed in the tickets at the part of the line where you merge with standby when the announcement came that the ride was down. DSILs friend went and asked for our FPs back as we didnt want to leave half our party for that long. We were told no once you hand them in you cant get them back. She was irate the ride had to have been down when he collected the tickets literally less than 1 minute prior. The people behind us in the FP line were still standing there holding their tickets. CM didnt care she went and got a manager and we got our FPs back to try again later. I would not have been so bold but glad my DSIL has a friend who is. The ride stayed down for several hours. We did finally make it back that night (around 7:15) and the FP return line was 45 minutes. This was my 4th time on the ride (2x on prior trip) and I finally won the race! Plus it was the one night ride for the rest of the family so they were happy to wait.
(2) PhotoPass +. I have done this twice now at DLR (July and this trip) and once at WDW (Sept). No issues at WDW. At DLR, back in July the CM forgot to stamp my card, which nobody noticed until the last day and I had to sit there and argue about it to get my ride photos. This time I sent DH to get the lanyard and told him to make sure they stamped the date. We got some great family photos Friday in front of the pier, but then it rained most of the day and the Photogs werent around. We did get our ride photos though. Saturday was better family pics in front of the castle and more ride photos. At Screamin the CM noticed the date stamped was Nov 12, 2012 so he told me I couldnt get my photos. Seriously annoying. I argued it and the other CM was sympathetic. I tried explaining how easy it was for the CM to stamp Nov instead of Dec since we picked it up on Nov 30 but he was adamant it should have been Dec 14 not 12th and if they made a mistake they would have shredded the card and given me a new one. So I find it annoying that I spend a decent amount of $ on a product and b/c the CMs cant seem to stamp it correctly, Im basically accused of trying to cheat the system and I have to spend 20 minutes to get my photos and then 10 more minutes in the camera shop to get it fixed so I dont run into the same issue. Not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things but just annoying. So if you pick up your card double check the date they stamp it should be 14 days out from the date you pick it up.
(3) Autopia FP is not connected. I was able to pull this each time I pulled Space Mtn.
(4) The Yule Log cake was not as good this year as it was last year.
(5) Ordered a birthday cake to be delivered to Blue Bayou and it was great. It made it there was beautiful and tasty and our waiter put the candles we had brought on before bringing it out. It was a fun birthday surprise for DSIL.
(6) I prefer chicken cone verde to the verde scramble cone. I do like the verde sauce but the chicken is all mixed together where on the breakfast one they pour it on top, so the bottom of your eggs and cone and just dry scrambled eggs and bread.
(7) Ate at Surfs Up with Mickey Sunday at 10:30. We usually do character breakfast early (7 am) so it was more crowded than I am used to. They sat our group of 13 at a table made for 8-10 way too small. Max was there in addition to the usuals (Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, Pluto and Stitch). Food was good character interaction not as great as it has been in past but again we are used to being 1 of 5-6 families there. With the PP+ they gave us an 8x10 of the whole family and they gave us a 4x6 of the whole group and then each smaller family unit which we were taking for our own cameras. Really nice of them to mix up the printed pics for us like that plus the digital images to play with.
(8) California Screamin I finally rode it. I came really close to chickening out as my stomach was turning really bad waiting in line. But being the FP line moving quickly not enough time to talk myself out of it. I really liked it. I closed my eyes and screamed like crazy for the take-off and the loop but otherwise I looked and enjoyed it. The part I liked least were those little dips wasnt expecting that. I dont like losing my stomach so that was the worst part for me. That is probably why the photo thing was more annoying. My first time on the ride and my adrenalin is still pumping. Im wanting to catch up with the kids to tell them all about it and instead Im stuck at the photo booth for 20 minutes. I didnt ride it again this trip but I look forward to riding it again on the next trip. DD7 was maybe an inch too short so I cant wait for her to ride it soon she is much more daring than me.
(9) Dancing with Disney was closed Saturday for a private event and with the rain the characters werent around a lot so a lot less character M&Gs than usual. We did see some fun characters though Jack Skellington and then Jake (Neverland Pirates). DD5 loves both of them so that was very fun for her.
(10) Candlelight Processional. We were in the parks at 7:10 Saturday morning and there were people sitting on the benches to have a spot for the 5:30 show. We avoided Main St during the 5:30 show and stayed in the back of the park. We went to park hop around 7 pm and were nervous about the crowds for the second show. We pretty easily moved down Main St and there was still standing room only space in the back for those wanting to watch. Not sure if this was because it was the second show, or because there are more shows this year but it wasnt as nuts as I was expecting.
(11) BW Plus Park Place Inn first time staying here due to reviews on the DIS and a decent company discount. Location could not be beat. Room was clean, staff was friendly. Had the free breakfast Friday morning. I just had coffee (not good) and a croissant (yum). Kids enjoyed the cereal and pastries. DSIL made sausage and egg on a croissant and really liked it. I wasnt that daring. Comfortable bed, good water pressure in shower. We just had a typical kind room and the kids slept on the pull out couch. We would definitely stay there again.
(12) Checking ID. We have Annual Passes, but the rest of our group used 2 day hoppers. They had to provide ID each time but it didnt seem to be slowing the lines down. Once we were behind a group having issues but the next line was open so we jumped over.
That is everything that stands out to me feel free to ask any questions.
